The Lost Tribe (Sentinel Series Book 2) Read online

  Kale leaned forward in his chair. It was really hard to focus on the blackness of space. There was some ambient light from the nearby twin suns, but whatever was out there was black. Kale focused hard but was having a hard time being able to make it out. It appeared to him as if the black of space was moving. The main heads up display screen overlay on the windshield came to life. Sentinel changed the visual format and the rain became clearly apparent. The black of deep space was replaced by a green hue and small black spheres were flying across the hangar doors.

  “Um, Kale?” Gheno asked, turning around to look back at the Captain just in time to miss a large shuttle fly across the hangar doors firing flashes of heated slugs at something else away from their sight. Gheno quickly spun back around when he caught the flashes of light from the corner of his eyes. Sentinel informed the Captain the Lion was fully powered up, but Kale held back. He watched the hail of black spheres on the enhanced screen. It continued for ten more seconds, then it stopped.

  “NOW!”

  The small gravity sphere formed directly in front of the Lion transport creating forward movement. The internal gravity field of the ship kept most of the effects at bay, but allowed some forward motion as well to give the pilot the sensation of direction. The transport flew out of the station and immediately turned sharply. Sentinel quickly found the large ship and moved the ship around the station to put it in between them and then began to put distance between them.

  “It is a Makada class destroyer Captain,” Sentinel responded. “It is under attack by something. The black spheres are attaching themselves to its hull.”

  “Makada?” Kale shouted out.

  “What’s that mean?” Ayia asked. Somehow, she knew the answer before Kale answered.

  “It’s a commonwealth ship, built specifically for those God is Near lunatics. It’s a Crusader ship.”

  Ayia sat back into her chair. She had been warned. She was about to say something when the sounds of metal pelting against their own ship rang through the cabin.

  “Sentinel?”

  “Captain, we are being hit. The spheres are disrupting electrical patterns throughout the ship. They are trying to establish data links as well.”

  The bubble of gravity that was propelling them forward vanished.

  “Captain, we’re being hacked!”

  Gheno spun around, caught Kale’s confused look, then turned around to start reading the data.

  “Each sphere is an AI, Kale!” Gheno shouted out over the sound. It was like hail pelting on a metal roof.

  “Can we fight them?” Kale shouted back.

  “Sentinel and Cove are doing just fine. Those spheres are very simple AIs,” Gheno said, reading the data. “This is wild. They are trying to take control of the ship.”

  “Well, we’re stuck in the water. That’s bad enough. Sentinel, what’s going on?”

  The AI didn’t respond. “He is using his full core capacity to fight them off. I’d say he’s busy,” Gheno replied after looking at the data.

  After the transport stopped moving forward, it began to turn slowly back towards the station. As it came into view, the large Makada destroyer came into view as well. Behind it was a far larger black sphere with four extensions protruding from its side. One of the extensions was reaching out to attach itself to the destroyer. The ship’s complement of single-man fighters were out flying around the ship, firing at the small black spheres and the large one. The destroyer was not fighting back. Kale could only assume they were being hacked as well and had lost control. The hull of the Makada was covered in the black spheres, just like the station was.

  “Well, that explains one thing,” Kale muttered. “Gheno, what are we looking at?”

  Gheno could only shake his head. Neither of them had ever seen a ship like that large black sphere.

  “As much as I enjoy seeing a Crusader ship being torn to shreds, I’d rather be flying away from here. Otherwise, we’re going to be next. Is Sentinel still fighting?” Kale asked.

  “At 100% capacity,” Gheno replied.

  They watched as one of the large black sphere’s extensions reached out and then slammed into the long Makada ship. It pierced through the hull, but with minimal damage to the rest of the hull. It was almost surgical. Much smaller black spheres continued to pour out of the larger sphere. The big sphere itself was nearly ten times the size of the Makada and maybe twice the size of the station, which was just off to the right of the two entangled ships. The smaller spheres continued to attach themselves to the transport; the sound of pelting grew louder and louder. Kale began to wonder if they would have hull damage. He reached under his chair and pulled out his breather and instructed everyone else to do the same, in case they had a breach.

  There was a flash of light just outside their windshield and several small chunks of the black spheres came flying off. One of the small fighter ships came floating into view. It was firing what amounted to its anti-missiles ammunition at the transport, but apparently aiming at the spheres. They could barely make out the individual inside of the ship. There were no black spheres attached to his small ship and none seemed to be attacking him. He kept floating there, shooting the small rockets at the black spheres on the Lion’s hull.

  “He’s helping,” Karai cheerfully called out.

  “Or they’re trying to keep us alive to convert us with the sword,” Gheno muttered angrily.

  “That’s dark even for me,” Kale said. “Can we talk to this guy? Does he know what’s going on behind him?”

  “Most everything is still down. Our two AIs are still fighting off whatever those black things are,” Gheno answered.

  Behind them, the larger black sphere had extended two more of its protrusions and attached them to the Makada ship as well.

  “Gheno, can we record this?” Karai asked.

  “Yeah. That’s a really good idea,” Kale said. They might be dead soon, but if they survived, the record of this would be truly valuable.

  “The ship’s opticals…” Gheno began to explain. “No wait, I can run them manually. Hold on.”

  Gheno typed furiously at his console for nearly a minute, dragging and dropping files and commands from time to time on the screen. When he was finished, he nodded back to the Captain. No sooner than he had done that and turned around that the small fighter ship stopped firing and dropped down away from their sight. Gheno stood up to look out and down, when he fell back shouting.

  A new ship, far larger than the Lion, came screaming over the top of the transport. It was a strange brown color, uneven and rough in texture. They couldn’t tell at the time, but it was long and later, Gheno would swear he had seen what he thought were tentacles coming out of the front of the ship. Kale, Ayia and Karai all jumped out of their seats and came rushing up to the window to look out. The bottom of the ship was just ten feet off of the top of the Lion and as it flew past, hundreds of small tendrils were wiggling out from the new ship’s hull down towards the Lion transport. As they reached the ship, the now much smaller transport vanished into the sea of tendrils that slithered all over the Lion’s hull. As the giant ship moved off, hundreds of black spheres appeared on entangled on the tendrils. They were being ripped off of Kale’s ship.

  “I…” Kale began, and stopped.

  All four crew members were in stunned silence. They watched as the ship flew past them. The end of the ship was pointed upwards a bit and after it had moved off a bit, they got a better view of it. Ayia said it looked like a giant squid with several large tentacles protruding from the front of it. It had no organized shape and its hull was very uneven.

  “It looks alive,” Karai breathed.

  The ship was smaller in width than the large black sphere but far longer. It appeared to move smoothly through space, as if it was moving through currents in water. It was not the stiff forward movement of a gravity driven ship. As it approached the large black sphere and its smaller prey, it almost curved as it turned. The black sphere began sending i
ts miniature spheres into the new ship, but this time the spheres weren’t trying to attach themselves to the hull. They appeared to be trying to missile their way in. The brown ship’s hull became alive with tendrils similar to the ones that had scrubbed the black spheres off of the Lion, except they now covered the entire ship. They effectively became a shield around the ship and the black spheres disappeared into this haze of movement without any apparent effect on the ship itself.

  The squid-ship continued to approach the large black sphere unhindered. Needing a different way to defend itself, the three mechanical protrusions unattached themselves from the Makada destroyer, leaving behind three gaping holes that immediately began to vent atmosphere. It let the destroyer go and turned to focus its attention on the new enemy. As the brown ship got closer, its front tentacles began to spread out, almost like a flower. They stretched and got longer, beginning to encircle the black sphere. The black sphere swung out slowly with its four protrusions but was nowhere near as quick and nimble as the large brown ship. Its shorter stubby arms appeared to be no match for this new predator.

  When all of the squid-ship’s tentacles had spread out, it came to a complete stop. Bright purple light filled the Lion’s cabin and everyone covered their eyes. They quickly opened them to see the squid erupting a stream of what appeared to be purple plasma. The attack continued for nearly five seconds, the pure energy hitting the black sphere as drops of plasma splashed off into space. As the stream of purple energy hit the sphere, it ate into it, digging deeper and deeper into the sphere. As it dug deeper, it splashed less and less. The black sphere appeared to stop fighting and was still.

  The stream of plasma stopped and the tentacles went to work. They disappeared into the hole the plasma had created, pulling the brown ship right up to the sphere. The tentacles had all but vanished when the sphere suddenly erupted into thousands of pieces. They had dug into the sphere and ripped it apart from the inside.

  “Wow,” Gheno shouted. Kale was equally impressed. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

  The giant space squid moved through the debris of the sphere towards the Makada. It hovered above it for a brief moment and the crew awaited to see what it would do when the purple energy erupted again from the ship. The Makada was showered in the plasma for nearly ten seconds. When the attack subsided, there was only a melted hull left over. It was barely recognizable.

  “Oh, boy,” Kale said, moving back to his seat and sitting down.

  In their view, the giant ship turned to face them, then started flying towards them. From below the Lion, the small fighter ship that had tried to help them earlier floated up into their view. It was facing its rear to them. The small ship had no hook capability and had nowhere to go.

  “Sentinel?” Kale almost whispered.

  There was no answer. Gheno looked back down at his console.

  “He’s not fighting anymore, but,” Gheno began, “I think the core overheated. He’s quite literally tired.”

  Ayia’s shoulders slumped and she turned and walked up to Kale. She mouthed ‘sorry’ to him and he nodded. She turned and they watched as the large being flew towards them, growing larger in their windshield. Karai was right up against the windshield. They all watched as the ship flew over the top and for a moment they thought it would pass them. Then, several tendrils reached down and snatched the small fighter craft and it vanished into the tangled mess.

  The transport was grabbed too, and while their gravity field held them in place, they could see themselves being pulled into the mass of tendrils as well and then they could see no more.

  “It’s eating us,” Gheno laughed. It was a nervous laugh.

  Gheno and Karai sat back down quietly once there was nothing more to see. There was no sound, even if their minds expected them to make slithering sounds. They felt their ship come to a stop a few minutes later and the darkness went away. They could see they were inside something, presumably, “the belly of the beast” Gheno joked. They could see something move in the cave they were in, but it was very difficult to see through whatever was coating the windshield.

  They heard a screech, and then what appeared to be a very human voice talking, but it was unlike any language any of them had ever heard. Kale reached into his chair and pulled out his gun and motioned to Gheno to do the same. He ran over to the hatch just outside the pilot’s cabin and got their plasma rifles. He grabbed four out, handing one to each of them. The voice kept repeating the same phrase over and over, but they didn't recognize it. They heard something working at the main entrance hatch. It sounded like something scratching away at the hull.

  “Make every shot count,” Kale instructed as he set everyone up in the hallway that led to the main hatch. Gheno and he were set across from each other in the small inset in front of their quarters, while Ayia and Karai were behind them, in the main hallway to the mess hall and the door to the pilot’s cabin. Ayia was actually a better shot than he was, but there was no way he was putting her in front of him.

  The scratching continued for a few brief moments, then it stopped. The dimly lit hallway allowed them see a strange greenish slime seep in through the frame of the hatch and the sides began to smolder and smoke. In a puff of smoke, the hatch vanished. Gheno and Kale raised their weapons and aimed them down the hallway. They could hear the voices clearly now and the same voice that had been repeating the foreign phrase was heard just in the hatchway entrance. It continued the same phrase.

  Kale held his finger over the trigger and looked down the rifle. There was nothing to fire at and nothing was coming through. He could feel the sweat coming down his face. He looked over at Gheno and was about to speak when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Captain, I know what they are saying,” Sentinel piped in over the ship’s speakers.

  “Really?” Kale asked rhetorically.

  “It is an ancient Earth language,” Sentinel continued. “They are saying ‘we are here to help. Please come out.’”

  “Are you sure?” Kale asked.

  “Yes,” the AI said with confidence.

  Kale stepped out into the hallway and began walking towards the blown out hatch. Gheno followed behind him. They stepped through the smoke onto edge of the hatch. The inside of the ship was lit by a strange blue glow that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves. He looked down and saw dozens of humanoid figures. They appeared to be wooden, almost like the hull of the ship had been, and they had long dark green hair- some braided, some loose. Their faces were all unique; mouthless and nose-less with large eyes, but each appeared to be decorated in war paint. Some were painted yellow, some blue, but most were red. They didn’t appear to have any weapons that looked like guns, but in this foreign ship, anything was possible.

  “Are these aliens?” Gheno asked in a whisper.

  Kale nodded his head. He lowered his rifle and set it down on the small ramp that was up next to the ship. Even if he could fire a shot or two, he felt he wouldn’t stand a chance here. He stepped over the rifle and down the small ramp onto the floor. He felt it against his boots and it certainly felt wooden. He looked up and saw the ranks of wooden men separate and from them a solitary figure walked towards him. It seemed different somehow, but he couldn’t quite place it. He waited in place.

  The lone wood creature walked up to him and extended its right arm towards Kale and said something in their foreign language.

  “Let me see your hand,” Sentinel translated.

  Kale looked down at the creature’s hand. It had five digits and was covered in a deep brown slime. He hesitantly reached out his right hand out and the creature took it. He grimaced for a moment as he felt the warm slime squish against his palm. He looked at the wooden creature and was about to say something when his nerves caught on fire. Pain shot through his body. He tried to scream but found that he couldn’t. He dropped to the ground and looked up. Everything became hazy.

  He started having flashes in his eyes. He saw a small child in front of him
, looking back pleadingly. The image changed to a large group of men on fire and then to a memory of him lying on the cold floor of the Midnight Oil, gasping for air. He opened his eyes and found he was staring at the wooden creature. It was still holding his hand. The being helped him up off the floor, then reached up towards its face. It removed what was a mask and under the mask was the face of a remarkably unique woman with a pale green skin. Her facial features were familiar to Kale somehow, but he couldn’t place it.

  “Welcome to my Vahe. We have been trying to find our brothers for a very long time,” the woman said.

  As she spoke, Kale could see her lips moving but the movements didn’t represent the words he was hearing. Despite this, his brain clearly understood what she was saying.

  “Brothers?” he managed to say.

  “Yes. And I hope you live,” she said.

  Kale heard a cough and turned to see Gheno and Ayia collapse to the ground coughing. Karai was standing against the ship with her hands around her throat.

  “Oh, hell” Kale said, feeling something rise within his chest. He tried to jump towards Gheno but found that he couldn’t move.

  3127 – Gemini 43

  “We’re not picking up anything, Admiral,” the ensign reported back.

  It took Marcus and TOM just ten seconds to realize they were being jammed. Years of experience in fighting the Dominion had left them keen to even the tiniest variance in change to the natural sensor readings. They had come through threaded space into the Gemini system just two hours ago, and Marcus and his two captains could readily tell something was wrong. Sensor readings for this system had been off from the beginning, but that had been expected. These twin sun systems threw off all sorts of different readings, cosmically speaking. But what had really thrown everything off were the extraordinary gravitational readings.

  The Galaxy was equipped with the most modern hook hole sensor equipment the Alliance had. When they had arrived and started to search for other holes, their equipment had been nearly overwhelmed. The system was covered in what appeared to be natural hook holes. Permanent openings into threaded space that changed wildly in size. They had been able to track nearly seventeen of these openings just within their limited range. Everything else beyond that was distorted.