From the orbit of Pluto, the SOL system was deathly quiet.
Captain John Tangent sat back in his command chair - and despite the two weeks of cruising through the third tier of the Space Opera Field that made it possible for humanity and her allies to break the bonds of light speed travel - still felt as if this command position was surreal. He had been in a similar chair many times during his time in the academy, beside his friends...but it had always been simulated by the battlecomputer. The fact that the very same battlecomputer from Zeta Colony now sat in the bowels of his ship, ready to assist his crew with lightning precision, didn't exactly comfort him. Not considering how many times that collection of electrodes and quantum toggles had blasted him and his friends into virtualized space dust.
He kept whatever nerves he felt locked deep in his mind. His crew had to see he was confident. Hell, the universe had to see he was confident. He turned in his seat to face the science console where Lt. Sheyshan sat, her headset perched onto her head. Her elfin ears were concealed by the bulky set, and her fingers played along the controls, while beside her, Dr. Darling stood, her arms shelving her impressive chrome bust as she peered down at the systems.
"Anything?" John asked.
"Nothing, sir," Shey said, her voice quiet. "Not even beacons."
"We might be missing tight-beam traffic. Or, hell, it's been twenty years. For all we know, Earth's upgraded to something better than SOFR," Albert said.
"Maybe," John said. "Keep our scopes warm and our turrets online. Bring the
Excalibur
in at tier two."
The ship cruised forward - and John wondered what it'd look like to any veteran of the Zemturga War. His ship was the hull of a Luciferian battleship (or at least, that was what the archaeology team thought it might have been, considering its size and strength) meaning that the hull armor and superstructure of his ship was ten thousand years more advanced than anyone else in the galaxy. But the internal components and the systems that they had filled the ship with were only what Zeta Colony's scientists had on hand: The old, gutted remains of the UNN
Cataphract
. This meant most of the
Excalibur
was actually empty space: Hull wrapped around slots for future components. What few components it had were the sensors, crew compartment, weapon systems, thrust modules and fighter bays of a Khan class escort carrier, with a few extra rooms added in by the science staff holding research bays and medical wards.
John hoped that didn't make the
Excalibur
a paper tiger.
Tier two of the Space Opera field kept physics relatively intact - enough that the basic fundamentals of reality didn't start to break down. But it did make things more
convenient.
That included intrasystem travel time. It took significantly less reaction mass and significantly less time for the ship to reach cruising speed, and meant that they would arrive at Earth in only a few days. The crew shifted through several duty cycles, while John made sure to show himself on the bridge relatively often. Off the bridge, he kept up his physical exercise, read through the manuals, and kept abreast of every iota of information gleaned from the sensors as they got closer and closer to the homeworld of humanity.
Every hour made the mood aboard the
Excalibur
more grim.
"We've tabulated everything and it's clear that Earth has almost no orbital infrastructure left," Shey said as, several hours before they'd break to tier one, the bridge crew met in the conference room adjoining to the bridge. "We've detected only one starbase and it appears to be primarily a manufacturing center rather than anything administrative or defensive. The planetary surface, meanwhile, is even stranger."
"It's not a burned out atomic hellscape, right?" Trianna asked.
"No, worse," Shey said. "It's utterly untouched...and completely lacking in any EM broadcasting. It's like the entire human species reverted to a pre-atomic technology level. Pre-industrial, even."
"Well, that will make the Gaian Collapse alarmists happy," Eugene said, dryly.
"How about population figures?" John asked.
Shey glanced at Dr. Darling, who reached up to adjust the corrective lenses she wore. Her breathy voice was grim. "While hard to determine at this range while in tier two, I can guess that the Earth's population has fallen by roughly ninety five percent. Maybe more."
Albert hissed. Trianna rubbed her palms against her face. Eugene nodded.
John frowned. "All right. It looks like whatever happened, it wasn't good. When we emerge from tier two, I want the entire ship's weapon grid online and shield emitters warmed up. Trianna, if you see anything that even looks like a Zemturga ship, you blast it."
"Aye, sir," Trianna said.
"Chief Kyleen," John said, turning to his chief engineer. Katria Kyleen was a member of the Yip-Paw-Lob - specifically, she was a Paw, despite being born to Yip parents. That was apparently a bit of a social stigma in the tripartite species, but if she resented being chucked off to the edge of the galaxy by her concerned extended family, Kyleen expressed it all by being fascinated with technology and utterly unconcerned with tact and politicking. Which was either the least or most rational response to that kind of institutionalized bigotry, John wasn't sure which. She was currently fiddling with a piece of one of the connective regulators for the ship's power system. Her bright, slitted green eyes flicked up and her ears twitched in curious eagerness.
"Yes?" she asked. "Oh, is the meeting done?"
"Almost," John said. "How's the Luciferian systems playing with our UNN stuff?"
"Oh, better than fine," Kyleen said, stretching, her cat-tail twitching behind her. "The underlying structure of the power grid...er..." Seeing his expression, she considered, then said: "It's like a frungie player after three lops on the emgat, you know?"
John chuckled, glad she could explain the complexities of her engineering vocation with such an easy, down to earth metaphor. "Got it," he said. "Then keep her flying."
"Technically, we mostly spend our time falling," Kyleen said, then sprang up and off her chair in that particularly Pawish way of her by curling up then springing backwards over the chair, flipping three times, and landing on her bare feet. She walked off, tail swishing, as the rest of the crew got up and John stood.
Dr. Darling stepped close to him, her voice growing grave. "Be ready for the worst, Captain Tangent."
John gave her a gentle smile. Before he could say anything, though, a shrieking alarm rang out. He gave her a curt nod, then sprinted towards the bridge. There, his bridge crew were taking their positions, even as the backup science officer, Ensign Cartwheel, shouted: "Sir! Detecting a Totality ship! It's firing on the station!"
John took his seat as the rest of the crew strapped in. "Warm up the shields, bring us to realspace and put it on the screen."
The
