The Final Flight of the Phaseship Lelantos: Part 2
“16 systems down. 6,734 within subluminal to go.”
“And counting with each passing day.” Lelantos added.
“You knew what you signed up for. Besides, you've got in the field combat experience in five different enviroments now. I bet you wouldn't even die immediately if I weren't around.”
“Damn right, Vel. I haven't broken a single bone in any of the last 11 systems.”
“In addition, I have begun an algorithm to find any unusual patterns in the systems the mark has left traces upon.”
“Utter disregard for life, in any form, seems to stand out,” Vel replied. “Speaking of which, how long until we have feedback from the terrabots we left with the displaced inhabitants of target one?”
“Sustainability of the new eviroment should be received within the week. Would you like me to recall the bots once the packet is received?”
“Let's hold off on that decision. I'd like to do a long scan as well if the initial feedback is positive.”
“Rosie, What happens if it isn't?”
“Either they die slow, agonizing deaths or we make our way back in a big damn hurry. After that? We try again in a different system.”
“Has anyone ever gone back to a failed terraform to see what it looked like?”
“I've been to a few. No matter how many worlds I traverse, nature always ends up surprising me. More than a few had begun to form completely new rudimentary lifeforms in the ruins.”
“What ruins?”
“The ruins of whatever was left to die,” Vel said. “No. No, it's not as morbid as it sounds. Those corpses and habitats can become seeds for an entirely new and beautiful world.”
“We've cleared the system and are ready to procede to our next target, on your mark.”
“Strap in, kid.” Vel said, a faint smile played across his face as he recalled seeing the primordial life that had defied odds on a nameless rock in some unrecorded prim.
“What's that?” Ariel asked, caught off guard by Vel's lightened spirit. “Are we under attack? You never smile unless we are...”
“Holster that sidearm,” Vel laughed. “Lelantos, Mark.”
With that command reality bent and flexed around them as the fastest ship in all the Civs tore through this undeveloped universe at a speed that its inhabitants couldn't hope to achieve in ten thousand years.
“Ariel, do you know what yugen is?” Vel asked as the ship roared through star system after system.
“I don't know what that is Vel. Is it something on the command console?”
“Nah kid, it's almost like a type of serenity.”
“Yugen, an ancient japanese expression for the emotional response a homosapien might feel when confronting an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and meaningful for words.”
“Well thank you, Mr Definitionary. Does the database also have a wordasuarus?” Ariel giggled.
Three more hours in the black. Lelantos passed through indescribably huge gas pockets and into systems containing exotic, but unusable worlds. The core had to be right in order for the mark to build his rudimentary phase device. A core that wouldn't survive this disgusting and dangerous method. The death of the system containing Target One would be nothing compared to the destruction this would cause. A hole in space. Nothing there and uninhabitable for all time, ever expanding until it destroyed another system or collided with a black hole.
