[IC] A Hero Tale: Mischa

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~ Chapter 1 ~

_{Unknown Contact}

Asteroids streamed by behind the Numinous as it drifted through space, suffering little in terms of wear in its long journey from the edge of the core worlds. Mischa Pomonov was well on her way into the darkest reaches of uncharted space, the Beta sector, perhaps headed towards immeasurable technology, or so she might've hoped. After her most recent jump, her scanners were still unable to pick up anything of interest. The cockpit window gazed into blackness, lit only by a scarce collection of stars that could not even be seen from her home worlds. She was farther out this time than ever before, and perhaps, to no avail.

Very few were willing to explore the vast expanse between the Alpha and Gamma sectors. The Beta sector was aptly dubbed dead space, though that was more of a buzz phrase to dissuade inexperienced pilots from heading towards their certain doom. Although the Beta sector was certainly vast, and mostly empty, there were no real dangers that accompanied exploration of the darkness within. Well, aside from the occasional plasmatic event, or running out of supplies without any chance of finding help. But like the saying always went, if nobody's been there, how can you really say that it's empty? That's what good ole' Gregory used to say, anyways. The man was a nut-job, but his age held more than phantasmal tales of wonder. It helped that he was one of the only mentors that actually treated Mischa with care. He had a fatherly air about him, but it was often overcome by his quirky nature, and idiotic practices.

Hours into the void, and the Numinous' on-board computers began to blip frantically. It was a distress signal, coming from what appeared to be empty space. Whatever the source, this was coming from something that the ship's sensors couldn't pick up, or something that didn't want to be seen. Where was it coming from? There wasn't anything for miles showing up on the scanners, and Mischa sure as hell couldn't see anything through her cockpit window.

[Quinntessential]

Mischa saw the alert in her room. She unclipped herself from the sleeping bag and quickly eased herself across the room to her cabinet. She dressed quickly, pulling on the layers of her jumpsuit piece by piece until she was dressed. The sleek fabric clung to her, leaving nothing to dangle as she maneuvered through cabins in the microgravity. She moved to her door, opened it, and grabbed the small handle that ran along a thin wire. It traversed the spine of the ship, nearly fifty meters from one end to the other.

With a button press, the wire pulled her swiftly into the hall and towards the cockpit. She released the handle and used the momentum to slip through two sets of blast doors that opened at her approach. These were the emergency bulkheads that separated the bridge from the rest of the ship. She rolled over, putting her feet in 'front' of her, and gave a quick kick off the floor panel to vault up the two meter tall ladder that entered the small cockpit. In front of her was the three command seats and consoles. Only one was active, with it's nearly 270 console blinking various lights and noises. She slowed her movement on the headrest of the pilot's seat - her seat - and peered over the hard plastic frame to the readings.

Numerous holographic and pictographic displays showed statuses from everything that could matter. Reactor power and heat, Hyperdrive functionality, propulsion systems, sensors. Sensors, that's what she wanted. The incessant buzzing of the alarm finally forced her to reach up and switch off the blinking light. She had to focus. No one was supposed to be out here. Her body slid over the top of the frame, folding at the hips and the knees, twisting to avoid kicking the instrument panel above her. She slid down into it and a few solid magnetic clicks grabbed at her suit and locked her into the chair. The suit would tear before they released unless she hit the proper command.

She grabbed a radio earpiece with a wire mic and patched it into her Comms systems.

"Romeo Echo Victor two-one-one-seven Numinous broadcasting on all subspace bands. Receiving a distress signal from Point Zero Two Two by Three Four Niner off my vector. Adjusting Course Heading Zero Two Two points Starboard, Zero One One points Positive Attitude. Log Mark: Receipt of Signal. Mark." The technical side was done. Interstellar law required all distress signals be documented upon detection with relevant attitude indicators so that if no one made it back and they found her computer, they could at least tell where she was. She powered up the engines off of slow cruise and prepared them for flight patterns. A quick check of all of the maneuvering thrusters confirmed the ship's readiness to go. She tapped a few more commands before reaching down on the seat and pulling out her small, clear, environmentally hardened helmet from the flight seat. It sealed around her neck, making her suit perfectly airtight. She leaned her head back into the seat. Another magnet grabbed the helmet and connected the life support systems to it. She felt fresh air fill around her face and just a bit of fog appear on the inside of the visor before it cleared.

Fully strapped and ready, she tapped a few runes on the dash and the arms of her flight chair rotated around to deploy the flight stick and throttle. Her practiced hands found their places on each and in a heartbeat, she kicked the ship's engines to life.

The immediate press of inertia tightened around her. The ship's powerful engines were perfectly capable of killing her if applied too quickly. She was well trained, however, and parts of her body as well as the suit she wore tightened to keep blood from flowing too far from her core. She gave a grunt when things normalized again, heading straight for whatever signal was being broadcast.

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As her engines whirred into motion and propelled her through uncharted space, the distress beacon suddenly stopped. Her ship continued forward unladen, towards where she'd last detected the mysterious signal, but within minutes of travel, the once empty section of space in front of her filled with a series of grey blurs, obscuring her sight and blocking out the distant constellation of stars beyond the Beta sector. The Numinous was now face-to-face was what could only be described as a giant wall of steel. Or perhaps it was something else? Whatever it was, it stood in Mischa's way and if she'd bumped into this astronomical vessel, there wasn't going to be a chance to exchange information.

Before she had a chance to react though, a loud thud echoed from the depths of her ship, originating from her room. Did something get onto her ship?! There was no way! Teleportation was tech that superseded the core world's technology. Even then, how could it have been so accurate to target her ship with so little effort? A clatter sounded as something began to bounce across the length of her room. It didn't sound metallic, but whatever the hell is was, it had to wait. The imminent crash demanded Mischa's full attention, and fast.

[Quinntessential]

Mischa gave a strong reverse thrust and burned off all of her momentum. She made sure to equalize her speed relative to the object in front of her, but once that was done, she didn't give another moment to let whatever it was roam around her ship. She quickly sealed the bridge, closing the two heavy blast doors then closing the ladder access port a few meters behind her seat. She kept part of her attention on the floating thing a few hundred meters in front of her, but directed most of it into opening up her internal sensors and running a series of scans. Her other hand danced on the opposite console, sealing off all the Life Support systems, and opening all of the external airlock doors. Whatever it was better be vacuum sealed, because if it didn't come back completely normal, she was going to freeze dry it and throw it into space.

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The quick reaction was just enough to save Numinous, and by extension, anyone on board. But Mischa's reaction to the intruding entity didn't seem very effective, not once her sensors picked up the very inhuman heartbeat. The creature was detectable, and moved just as a human would, but as the airlocks shot open and attempted to vent the creature out, it clung to the closest surface within her room and dug its hands deep into the Numinous' inner hull.

Something blared across Mischa's comm as she glared at the giant monolith-like wall before her. A message was made clearer, and repeated several times. Fortunately, it was in English, but what the hell could be out here with such advanced tech, and the ability to communicate with such ease?

"Attention, attention! This is the Yaridon containment cruise, requesting that you disable your ship's engine, along with any defense systems, and allow our officers to board! Our distress signal was a ruse concocted by one of our prisoners! I repeat, please disable your ship's engine, along with any defense systems, and allow our officers to board! Our distress signal was a ruse concocted by one of our prisoners!"

The message blared over and over, awaiting compliance, or some sort of response from the Numinous' pilot. The dark figure before her was a super-massive containment vessel, allegedly responsible for transporting prisoners. But why the hell would it be in the Beta sector? Where the hell was Yaridon? It was completely alien to anything spoken of back at the Core worlds, and its size was astronomical. Something about the entire situation didn't add up. Perhaps the criminal has some answers. Or, perhaps the criminal wanted so desperately to tear into Mischa's flesh. Whatever it wanted, it didn't seem to need oxygen, could apparently survive in the vacuum of space, and had enough physical strength to resist the natural pull from the Numinous' airlocks.

[Quinntessential]

Mischa looked around at her controls. There had to be something she could do. This could be a ruse from pirates...but a vessel that big would be impossible. The thing also made some kind of jump INTO her ship...unless her sensors were being jammed. Nothing made sense - but what she could tell was that the THING in her room wasn't going to stay there forever.

"Romeo Echo Victor Two-One-One-Seven, coming to relative velocity." The panic in her voice was impossible to miss. "Acknowledge. Get this fucking thing off my ship. I'm sealing it in it's current location."

She throttled the ship to come to a stop relative to the massive ship. She quickly closed all the doors on the ship, sealing the alien within her room and at worst the spine corridor. The blast doors to the cockpit were nearly nine inches of hardened, armored steel. If it were going to get to her, it would have to work hard. With the doors sealed and pressure coming back, she deactivated the thrusters and unlocked herself from the pilot's seat. With a squirm, she slipped up into the cockpit towards an emergency cabinet. Opening it, she found the thing she never once thought she'd ever use.

She braced herself against her chair, holding the heavy pistol in her hands. She charged the cells contained within. It could fire a high intensity laser blast six times before burning out. When she held the pistol out towards the door, she realized how much she was shaking. Sweat soaked her underclothes, inside the thermal controlled spacesuit. Her breathing was faster than she would want to admit. Her heart hammered in her chest. She just stared, trembling and shaking.

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The creature on board Mischa's ship didn't seem to struggle very much once the airlocks were sealed. The creature stood up on two legs, took a less apprehensive form, and glared across Mischa's room curiously. "Get away from the Yaridon Cruiser!" it shouted, unsure if anyone could even hear it. For all it knew, this little ship was auto-piloted. Of course, auto-piloted ships had a much higher rate of disappearance in the Beta sector for some reason or another. Perhaps it was because of creatures like this one with the apparent ability to warp through space.

The Yaridon cruiser began to pull Mischa's ship closer to it, opening a relatively large set of doors that could easily accommodate a much larger ship. Within, it was plainly visible that this was a docking bay. But there were hundreds of small ships scattered across the dark runway that ran deep into the mystery ship, some of which looked eerily similar to the Numinous. The pull on Mischa ship began to increase, originating from a strange beam-like contraption that lit the edge of the loading bay's runway with a smooth neon blue array of rounded lights.

"If anyone is there, turn around! You'll be trapped!" The alien prisoner shrieked, frantically clawing at the reinforced blast doors to no avail.

[Quinntessential]

She heard the calling and felt her gut twist. Whatever was out there was trying to be human. She climbed over the chair, sat in it, and prepared to open a communications channel to this ship.

"...oh my God..." she whispered, when she saw the scattered remnants of the ships it had 'aided' before. She locked herself in the chair, opened up an internal radio, and spoke quickly.

"This is gonna be rough. Hang onto something!"

With a flick, she kicked all of the ship's power into it's massive engines. The ship lurched, twisting in the grip of the tractor beam. Mischa was braced for full acceleration, and when the ship barely moved, she started sweating a cold sweat. She wrenched the controls around, trying to twist free. No avail.

"Fuck...fuck....FUCK." she cursed, releasing the flight stick to adjust some of the power outputs from the reactor. The ship went dark, it's lights flickering and blinking as the engine's output pushed into the red lines. Still, with all of her ship's considerable thrust, she wasn't moving.

Over the internal comms, she spoke to...whatever the thing was...that could teleport...and speak English. "What the fuck am I supposed to do to get away from this thing?!"

Her answer caught her eye for a moment, but she realized that it was going to be a suicide option. She froze, still pushing the throttle to it's bolts. They weren't going to get away by simple thrust. It would take something...much more risky. Hyperspace drives didn't use thrust. They dug a tunnel in real space and sent the ship into Subspace. In subspace, time and distance didn't matter at all. The drive would then follow its guidance systems until it reached a predetermined point, then open another hole and plop - you're back in Normal Space, or N-Space. Of course, it was suicidal to use near another ship. There was no telling what kinds of distortions in reality you'd cause. It's so dangerous that the first two weeks of flight school are spent going over the First Hyperspace Jump, one of the worst tragedies in the history of interplanetary flight. Out here, there was no planet to cause any real problems...but...still...she couldn't just jump.

Could she?

She killed the main engines, and felt the tractor beams working. Quick fingers rerouted all power to the Hyperspace Cores. Again the ship lights flickered and a static buzz filled the air. She closed her eyes in silent prayer, hoping the short jump she just plotted would get them far and away from this thing. It was obvious the alien couldn't get through the blast doors, so she wasn't as worried as she was becoming part of that boneyard on the deck of the alien vessel.

With a click, the Hyperspace Core energized.

Within a blink of an eye, Mischa looked up and out of the canopy. There was nothing visible. No stars, no ship, no asteroids. Just Hyperspace. She did a quick system check and saw that, while a few capacitors had blown, no major systems seemed to have failed as a result of her jump.

Within a minute, they reached their destination. The world popped into reality around them...

...and Mischa saw that her course was headed directly for a large star.

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Clutter in the form of scrap metals and decrepit scout ships began to whip and whirl like insignificant debris. As Mischa's ship began to break the boundaries of time space, the Yaridon's docking bay was torn asunder. Such a massive influx of energy was more than enough to overload, and promptly destroy the tractor beam that threatened to capture Miacha moments earlier. Large chunks of metal were torn from every orifice within the enemy ship. But Mischa wouldn't be there to witness the devastation that followed. Although not enough to destroy the titanic cruiser, its entire docking back exploded into chaos. Mischa left those pirates with no less than oblivion.

The Luminous' New inhabitant clutched to the iron floor as soon as Micha's voice blared across the ship's comm, keeping itself as braced as it could possible get. What happened next though? Well, it was safe to say that very few could have expected such a massive turn of events, let alone the danger that proceeded. The boarded passenger recognized the familiar cascade of sounds that accompanied Hyperspace Jumps, but had no idea that he, and the pilot upstairs, were headed for untimely doom.

"Are you nuts!?" The alien shouted. He rose to his feet, but he was unable to grab a hold of his bearings. It didn't take long for the creature to fall into panic. "Where did you bring us?" He shouted frantically, banging on the blast doors several times with little restraint, leaving shallow dents along the breadth of the steel. "Let me up there!"

Despite the Alien's repeated pleas, it was certain that there was no way for him to get anywhere near Mischa anytime soon. Although his strength clearly outclassed human biology, the Luminous' blast doors proved to be more than a match for alien strength. The material that compromised Mischa's ship was clearly nothing to bat an eye at. That didn't stop her new passenger from trying his very best, though.

For now, the priority was guiding the ship to safety. The loudmouthed prisoner could wait. Mischa had yet to reach the point of no return, but with such intense gravity pulling luminous closer and closer to a fiery grave, there was still little time to act. This star's size practically guaranteed there to be some kind of celestial body nearby, but what help would that be? "Let me in!!" The prisoner cried, desperate for answers. Too desperate to even consider searching the rest of the ship.

*-*-*

Within the depths of the Yaridon Cruiser, an buzzer sounded, echoing through a massive command bay. Several hundred monitors were sprawled across the 45 degree walls that spread upwards, on either side of a massive reinforced window that displayed the ever-foreboding depths of Beta space. "Disturbance in Docking Bay 12, Captain," A shrewd voice called out from the leftmost collection of monitors, where several alien figured sat to keep tabs on the ship's different locations, "Sir.. A massive disturbance in-" He paused and spun around in his seat to face the risen platform near the bay's center, where a man sat silently, overlooking a small panel in the arm of his chair. "Docking bay 12 is... Gone?!" A few gazes met the alien's words, immediately insinuating a blunder. There was no way.

"Gone?" The captain asked calmly. His voice was drawn out by a subtle rasp, but commanded great respect. With one word, every last man and woman in the command bay turned to face him. The captain tapped away at the screen in his chair for a few seconds, and his eyes widened.

"Captain! I had just begun extracting prisoner Y-12 from the craft he'd beamed aboard from teleporter dock 2 a minute earlier, at that exact docking bay!" Another voice called out from the opposite end of the room. The Captain turned towards the woman who spoke, but said nothing. "That little ship was capable of Hyperspace jump!"

"From within our ship!?" Somebody cried, out of turn. The captain tapped at his personal screen again, bringing up details of the Luminous' escape. "Who the hell was in charge of security at the teleporter dock? Hell, who let that creature escape its cell in the first place?!" The captain cringed angrily. Such incompetence was nothing short of buffoonery. The Yaridon Cruiser was nothing short of a pirate ship, but for his crew to be so idiotic...

"Jilon, Can you track that craft?" The captain inquired, looking to three seats that were positioned just several yards in front of his own. Each was occupied by a well-dressed human, each standing out from the darkened alien figures that surrounded them, including he captain himself. A giant screen was placed before all three, but only the center was struck by a gently flick of its operator's index finger. She turned to her captain with a dead-pan stare, and nodded curtly before returning to the glare of her personal monitor.

"The craft is still in Beta space, light years away. estimated time of arrival unclear." The captain sighed and tapped at his screen impatiently.

"Should I prep the Cruiser for long distance travel, captain?" The human on his left asked promptly afterwards. He nodded and tapped once more.

"Do not delay, Maria."