Arun realised he was awake. Awake and alive.
He did a quick inventory of his body. Everything seemed to be there and mostly intact. Most parts hurt however.
He looked around the bridge. It was a mess, fires where burning, seemingly every inspection hatch had been blown open, conduits and pipes hung from the ceiling. But on there was an atmosphere and all the crew where there.
Alex was the only one still conscious. “Are you hurt” He asked
Slowly Arun got up. He felt dizzy, sick and had a headache to end all headaches. “No I’m okay”.
Arun looked at Alex, a falling conduit had hit his left side and damaged his arm, the same conduit had pushed his console down on to one of his legs.
“Your worried about me! Your hurt”.
“I am damaged, yes, but if I can get free I am still functional”.
Arun pushed the conduit off the console. The damage to Alex’s arm was severe, there was not much of his arm left. There was just a mess of white lubricant and and tubes hanging where his arm once was.
“How bad is it?” Arun knew that artificial’s didn’t have the bliss of ignorance when it came to there bodies, he would know in detail the status of every system.
“I’ve suffered major damage to me left arm, that’s not going to be salvageable. A large loss of lubricant and coolant. My…”
“Stop”. Arun shook his head, he shouldn’t have asked. He tried to move the console from Alex’s right leg. “How bad is it? Are you going to be okay?”
“Sadly without a major service the loss of fluids is going to be terminal within 10 to 15 hours”.
Arun heard this, but he didn’t want to let it sink in. As a military man, he had lost friends before, it wasn’t something you ever got used to, but it wasn’t a new feeling to him. But to hear Alex to estimate so calmly the time to his own death, it was wrong. Arun tried to pull the damaged console away.
“Here let me help”. Luca’s deep, quiet voice came from behind him.
Arun pushed him away. “I’ve got it”. Arun continued to struggle with the console. Luca stood back and watched for a moment.
“Come on…”. Arun said through clenched teeth. “…Move”.
“Friend, let me” Luca put his hand on Aruns shoulder. “I can do this, there are others that need you help”. Arun turned to face Luca and was about to tell to go away, but his anger faded. Arun knew this mountain of a man was the one that could free Alex.
“Yes sorry…I”.
Luca nodded. “Yes. I heard”.
Arun checked on Annalaver. He released the chairs grip on her. Behind him, the console finally gave way to Luca’s strength.
Annalaver was alive, but her skin was cool and clammy. Arun was concerned. He was worried about all of this crew, but without Annalaver they had no jump space pilot and so would be stuck if they had come out of jump far from a system.
Where are we? Arun wondered, but that was a question that would have to wait for an answer.
Alex stood and walked slowly to where Kerrson sat, slumped over his console.
“How are we for power and the like?” Arun asked Luca.
He quickly checked his console. “We are on main power. But we have taken some damage to the power plant. We only have 75% of maximum at the moment. Life support is good throughout most of the ship, but there are a few minor breaches”.
“Could have been worse” Luca nodded. “Much. We are alive”.
“Bearly” Kerrson was conscious. Alex was checking him over. He pulled away from Alex. “I’ll live”
Arun looked at the way Alex shambled around. “Are you going to be okay?” He asked.
Alex nodded. “I can still help”.
“I will check on Savanna” Luca said as he left the bridge.
Alex headed for Annalavers chair. “She’s alive, but I’m not sure whats wrong”. Arun told him.
Alex checked her, while Arun looked around the ruined bridge, it looked like this was the last flight on the Annic Nova. It could have been our last flight, he thought. It still might might be he added silently.
Alex stood up. “She is alive and well, but just suffering from extreme exhaustion. Looks like she might be dehydrated to. Nothing serious but I’d like to get her to the sick bay.
“Right” Arun, lifted her. He was surprised how light she was. She wasn’t a large person by any means, but it barely felt like there was a person in his arms.
By the time Arun returned to bridge, Kerrson was working at an undamaged console behind Luca’s station.
“So how are we doing?” Arun asked.
“Considering the stunt you just pulled, we are alive, which is quite an achievement. But we aren’t going to be jumping aware soon or probably ever again. We had better be near a star system”.
“And are we?”
“Don’t you care!” Kerrson shouted. “We could be stuck here where ever here is for the rest of our short lives. Don’t you even care that this is all your fault!”.
Arun didn’t say anything for a moment. “Would it matter who’s fault it was? If you had been in charge, what would you have done? Would we still be alive?” Arun’s voice was quiet, but angry.
“We don’t know, we can’t know. So does any of this matter? No. We are alive now, so there is a chance. Now where are we alive at the moment”.
“I have no idea. We lost most of the sensors in the jump. I’ve only got coverage of about 60 degrees around the ship and those are confused, blinded or something like that. I’m getting nothing from them”.
“Well that’s your priority then”. Arun turned back to the pilot console. There was nothing else he could have done. Had he dropped out of jump, the cruiser and one gunship would have been waiting for them. Yes the Association wanted Arun alive, but the captain of at least one of the gunships wasn’t following that order. Who was to say the others would have. And in any case they only wanted Arun for one thing, once they had that the was just an empty container which would disposed of. The rest of the crew would probably be tried and executed for some crimes. No this was the only way to be sure, Arun told him self.
Luca returned the bridge with Savanna leaning on him. Her fur was splattered with her own blue blood, but she was alive and walking.
“Good we all made it”. Arun said, trying to sound upbeat.
“The Star Lords be thanked”. Luca added.
“We don’t know where we are yet though. We need to find out”.
“I might know where we are” Luca said. “I think you need to see this from the view port”. Luca turned and left with Savanna. Arun followed.

#

Much the ship was in darkness. Here and there this was broken by a few small fires, but away from the bridge the damage didn’t look so bad. Maybe she would fly again? But Arun knew he was probably fooling him self there, the ship had done it’s job, protected the crew. But it had done this at the cost of it’s self.
They passed two sections that where closed off by airtight partitions where the hull had buckled and given way.
Arun noticed that Savaana was leaning on Luca all for support. “Are you alright” He asked her. “Alex is in the sick bay”.
“I’m good. Don’t worry about me”. She pulled away from Luca slightly, to show she wasn’t weak. Arun should have expected that, her race where once a proud warrior people, but that was such a long time ago.
“Here”. Luca stopped at the domed view port in the wall of the crew common room. It had survived totally intact, incredible considering what had happened to the rest of the ship.
Arun gazed out through the thick transparent panels that made up the facited surface of the dome. Beyond the ship there was nothing but darkness. For a few moments Arun wondered what he was looking at and why this had told Luca where they might be.
“This just a view port”. He said suddenly grasping what was going on.
“Yes, this is no view of sensor readings, this is what is out there”. Luca said lifting his arm as if to present the empty world beyond the ships hull.
“Nothing. There is nothing out there, which is why Kerrson thought the sensors that where working where blinded. There is nothing to see at all”. Arun shook his head, trying to understand it. “So where do you think we are then?” He asked Luca.
“Legend speaks of a place called the Dark Nebula, a place where one of the last battles in the age silver dreams took place. The sky was burnt and blackened by the ashes of one of the great fleets that where sent to stop a group of great ones called the Lords of Light from acceding”.
“But that is just legend…”
“And the stories of the great creator and it’s servant, the immortal, aren’t just legends?” Luca said indigently. Arun had touched a nerve here. He had never really believed in any religion, but he was notionally a member of the Church of Creation. Luca’s sect was one of the smaller, non-official religions and as such he would be treated as an outsider. On some worlds he would be subject to execution for hearsay.
Arun put his hand on Luca’s shoulder. “Sorry friend, that certainly describes this place. What else do the legends say?”
“Very little. There is a world in the legend, which the Lords of Light ruled over, but that’s it. This story comes from the Age of Silver Dreams, so is probably millions of years in the past, no one really knows how long the Great Nights last. But there are stories from more recent times, rumours really, of starships getting trapped in a place with no stars in the sky. But again they don’t give any real clues as where this place is, some say it can only be entered from jump space, others say it is on the other side of the core. They are just unsubstaianted roumors”.
A your legends aren’t, Arun thought. While it was true that many of the smaller cults and religions had many scolars in there ranks, what Luca said was true, the last age of dreams, if there ever was such a thing, was so far in the past it was impossible to know any real details about it. And this place came from the age of Silver Dreams?
“Well it’s a start. We’d better let Kerrson know the sensors are okay. And can you see what you can get working again, systems wise?”
Luca nodded.

Back on the bridge Kerrson was still working at a console.
“The sensors we have left are working fine”. Arun told him as they returned. “There is nothing out there to see”.
“Nothing! That’s impossible”.
“I’ve seen it my self. Check the view port if you want. There is nothing out there”.
Kerrson looked back and forth between Luca and Arun. “Nothing at all?”
“Well nothing visible to human eyes and the fact that the sensors are showing the same suggests there really is nothing out there”
“And so how does this help you guess where we might be?” Kerrson asked Luca, his voice was loaded with sarcasm.
“I think was have found our way in to the Dark Nebula. It as place…”
Kerrson’s derisive laugh cut Luca off. “You think that we have found a way in to a legend”. He asked.
“Yes, possibly” Luca said sounding hurt.
“You know of this story?” Arun asked.
“Yes, it’s one of those stories told by old merchants to scare the young crew members and to make them seem wise and worldly. They are just stories. You can’t believe that surely?” Kerrson asked Arun directly, ignoring Luca all together.
“I don’t know, but dose the story no describe a place that sounds a lot like what we see beyond the view port now. Doesn’t you cold logic at least admit that?”
Kerrson’s sneering smile faded from his face a little. “Yes, but how can such a place exist?”
“I have no idea, but just because I don’t understand a thing, doesn’t mean I can acknowledge it’s existence”. Arun said. Luca was now ignoring Kerrson completely and had set about working with Savanna on one of the damaged consoles.
“Okay, so if we are in this Dark Nebula, does that help us at all? We still don’t know where it is”. Kerrson asked.
“Maybe, maybe not, but it’s a start. A working theory and it also means you don’t have to worry about those ‘blinded’ sensors”.
“So what now then?”
“Well we have some sensors working, but they don’t have us full coverage around the ship?” Kerrson nodded. “Well lets see if we can turn the ship so we can get a full view what if anything is out there”.

Half an hour later the Annic Nova had been rotated along all of it’s Axis and Arun now had an idea what else was out there.
“So we have a single planet, a white dwarf star and nothing else then?” Arun stood in front the console where both Alex and Kerrson worked.
“Nothing else we can detect”. Alex corrected.
“Given we got here, the gunships could have as well. But there is very little for them to hide behind here, so it’s likely we are here alone”. Arun said, he was thinking out aloud. “And the both the star and world are well within our normal detection range gunship classes?”
“Yes”.
“But they probably have much better sensors than we do. Even if we assume that lose some sensor coverage as we did, they could still approach us undetected from anywhere else here. They don’t have to come from either the planet or star”. Kerrson said. Alex continued studying the console.
“True, but they can’t know what our sensor capability is from a distance, nor can we know theres. It’s largely irrelevant anyway. If any them did make it though here and they retain any of their fighting capability, we are dead in the water. We where no match for just one of them before, so now we would stand no chance”.
Kerrson’s eyes narrowed. “We had better hope that none made it through then”.
“It’s unlikely, but if they did it’s likely they have taken even more damage than us. They don’t have the best jump space pilot there is”.
“You can’t know that. Your continual…”.
“There is something orbiting the star”. Alex stated, looking up from the console finally.
“A ship?” Kerrson asked urgently. He immediately started to check the console, pushing the chair that Alex was sitting on away as he did.
“Unlikely”. Alex answered, ignoring Kerrson’s boldness. “It’s large if it is. To large to be any Association ship class that I know of. Kerrson finished working on the console. “There” he pointed to the main screen. On it an a close up image of a small section the stars surface appeared. Moving slowly across the dull white shimmering globe was a thin dark line.
“Star spots?” Arun suggested.
“No to regular and not the right motion anyway. What ever it is, it is in orbit around the star and a close orbit to. If it’s a ship it’s unlikely there is anyone live on board”. Kerrson said.
“I would estimate it is measured 10′s of kilometers in length”. Alex added.
“Way bigger than any ship then. What could it be?” Arun asked.
“Maybe some evidence of the Lords of Light?” Luca suggested.
“Oh don’t run back to your…”
“No, it’s a possibility” Arun interupted Kerron’s angry rebuff. “Building something that big, if indeed it is a construct and it looks way to regular to be natural, is probably beyond anything we could do now, so why can’t it be from some previous generation of people. A generation who’s stories have slipped in to legend by this time?”
“Thank you” Luca said with a nod to Arun.
“So what of the planet?” Arun asked, quickly cutting off any attempt from Arun to reply.
“It’s medium sized world, appears to have breathable atmosphere, but it its probably very cold on the surface, maybe to cold for liquid water to exist which would explain the lack of it in the atmosphere. With so little reflected light visible to us we can’t make out any real surface detail. There could be water on the surface, but we can’t be sure. There is faint light coming from the surface however”. Kerrson changed the screen so show a view of the world.
It was only just possible to make out the shape of the globe against the blackness beyond. On the surface very faint patterns of light could be seen shifting to an fro.
“Something is alive down there”. Arun said.
Alex waited for Kerrson to say something. Kerrson remained quiet. “The pattern can’t be accounted for by any natural process I know of”.
“But it doesn’t look like the light from a city. If it is a city, it covers a lot of the world. Any sign’s of any technology?” Arun turned to face Alex and Kerrson again.
Again Kerrson stayed silent. “There is no sign’s of any high technology, no”.
“Whatever is or isn’t down there, that is where we should be. Luca are we go to move the ship in to orbit”.
The big man nodded. “Yes, but do it gently”.