THE END OF BEGINNINGS

TWELVE

    The Infinite Star was an old ship. It was not the oldest in the combined fleet, but its century of service was putting it amongst a select group. Its current commander listened to the bulkheads around her pop and flex as the ship settled out of hyperspace. The subtle noise didn't trouble her that much. She had been on the repair and refit team three and a half years earlier. She was fairly confident about what the cruiser could take. But, she also knew that space was full of surprises.
    It was day 527 of their long expedition through the young galaxy. Mera Gad was still getting used to her role as leader of the 400 crew members aboard the mighty, antique vessel. She'd been promoted to the rank of commander by the ship's previous captain. He was now the High Commander of the entire Second Lantean Fleet. Mera hadn't been sure if she was ready for the responsibility of being the captain of such a large crew and ship. First Officer was one thing, but Commander was totally different. Eight months ago, Mera had hesitantly accepted the role. So far, she wasn't regretting it. But, she also felt like her true testing had yet to begin.
    Thick, pressurized doors opened as Mera Gad steadily approached. The lights and sounds of the busy command deck were much greater than those of the long corridor she'd just traversed. She was barely a step past the threshold when she heard the voice of her first officer call out to her.
    "Commander," he said quickly, making sure his smooth tone rose above the din surrounding him. "We've successfully arrived at the location of the distress beacon. Only, it no longer seems to be transmitting."
    "What," Mera asked as she crossed the crowded bridge to join the lieutenant at the center of the room. "Do we know who was broadcasting the signal?"
    First Officer Pacronus Del looked across the command the deck to one of the nearby workstations. A crewman lifted his gaze away from the display he had been studying. "The signal i.d. indicates it was the Gold Horizon, Commander."
    Mera Gad furrowed her brow. "I'm not familiar with it."
    "It's a mid-size personnel carrier assigned to long-range research and reconnaissance missions," the first officer said.
    "Commander, according to the database, it was sent to this system nearly a week ago," the nearby crewman added.
    "What for," Mera asked.
    "Apparently to investigate the prolonged loss of contact with city Ninev."
    "Commander, contacts," shouted another member of the bridge crew from a station near the forward viewports.
    Mera Gad pivoted slightly to face the brown-haired girl who had called out to her. Pale sunlight from the system's distant star spilled through the large, square windows and over the young woman's figure. "What is it?"
    "Scanners are showing three small craft heading away from us at high speed."
    "Can you identify them," Pacronus asked urgently.
    "No, sir. They don't appear to be in the database."
    "Commander, scans are also showing that we flew through some kind of debris field when we came out of hyperspace," another member of the bridge crew reported. "We're working to identify its origin now."
    "Where are those three ships presently," Mera Gad asked.
    "Dead ahead, Commander," the girl at the forward console reported. "But I don't believe any of them are the Gold Horizon. Its i.d. should have shown up and these vessels appear too small."
    Mera Gad suddenly had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach. An instinct told her what the debris field likely was. It was a thought that filled her with a terrible dread. Then, the red-haired crewman that Pacronus had first looked at spoke up, confirming what Mera already knew.
    "Commander, it looks like the debris field is the remains of the Gold Horizon," he said. "Spotters near the aft observation deck can confirm seeing the wreckage of the ship below our port side. It's been completely destroyed."
    Mera Gad tightened her jaw.
    "The database shows the ship had a crew of four," Pacronus said softly as he scrolled down a screen of information on a small display in front of him. "The commander was a Bayos Cilius."
    Mera Gad barely acknowledged her first officer's words. Her gaze was fixed on the bank of four, wide windows at the very front of the large, elliptical room. An ocean of stars stretched out across the vast view beyond the bow of the old cruiser. Somewhere in that dazzling sea made pale by the haze of light from the distant sun was a planet-the planet those three ships were very likely headed toward.
    "Open a channel, all frequencies," Mera Gad quickly ordered.
    "Channel open, Commander," the red-haired crewman said half a second later.
    Mera Gad swallowed. It felt like a heavy lump was suddenly sitting in her throat. "To the ships heading for the planet known as Gannos B, this is Commander Mera Gad of the Lantean capital cruiser Infinite Star. Please throttle down and retain your current orbital position. We've come looking for the research vessel known as the Gold Horizon. It was transmitting a distress beacon from this area. We need to know why and what happened to it. Please, respond."
    The din of voices that had been bouncing off the thick walls of the bridge had swiftly fallen silent as the commander was speaking. Everyone sat still in the long pause that followed. Gazes shifted quickly and uneasily. Everyone could sense the strange feeling of something dark and ominous in the air. Everyone was waiting with a baited breath for the response they were all hoping would break over the ship's speakers. There had to be a logical and reasonable understanding for what had, seemingly, occurred.
    Mera Gad let her words hang in the heavy silence for only a few more moments. Pacronus had brought up the screen the girl at the forward console was seeing on one of the displays at their command station. The three mysterious dots were still moving away, as if her words had fallen on deaf ears.
    "I say again to the three ships moving away. We have you on our sensors. I insist, on authority from the Lantean Fleet Command, that your cease your course immediately. We know the Gold Horizon has been destroyed. Was it fired upon?" Mera swallowed again. "Did you destroy it?"
    Suddenly, the three dots on the screen blinked and then vanished. Mera straightened her back, her shoulders feeling tight. "What happened," she asked, directing her voice toward the crew surrounding her. "Where did they go? Have we lost the scanners?"
    "Negative, Commander," the red-haired crewman said nearby. "All systems are functioning normally."
    "They're jamming us," Pacronus said, his voice still soft. He wasn't sure if he believed it. How could they be, he thought to himself. Why would they be?
    "Commander," another member of the crew suddenly shouted from a station behind her. "We've picked something up. It's some kind of signal...a transmission. But, it's not complete."
    Mera turned to look at the crewman behind her. "Where is it coming from?"
    "It looks like...it came from the Gold Horizon," he said, listening to a voice speaking into the small earpiece of his communicator. "...Possibly in the last moment before the ship was destroyed."
    Mera Gad wanted to hear that message. She was about to ask the crewman to put it on the speakers. The words were on her tongue. The breath was in her lungs and moving up her throat. But a sharp crackle that suddenly burst over the communication system, startling herself and most of the crew around her, made Mera stop.
    Static hissed loudly out of the hidden speakers around the bridge. An ear-rattling, metallic whine whistled less-than-subtly through the white-noise flooding the room. It was like listening to someone try to find the right channel on a radio. It felt like it went on forever, yet barely a half dozen seconds had passed before the static died down and was replaced by a slow, baritone voice that rumbled over the workstations.
    "To the ship calling itself the Infinite Star, I am High Councilor Aronos Tal Do of the city Ninev. We have received your transmission."
    Mera Gad blinked with nervous surprise. There was something strangely intimidating about the man's deep and methodical voice. She hesitated, glancing at her first officer. He seemed as surprised and uneasy as she was.
    "Ye-Yes, High Councilor. We hear you. Thank...Thank you for responding," the commander said, trying to keep the tremor in her voice invisible. "It has been some time since anyone in Lantean space has heard from you. We are honored-"
    "Why have you come all this way, Commander?"
    Mera shifted her gaze to the front of the bridge, her eyes seeking out the dusty, green dot hidden in the blanket of stars. It was where the signal would be coming from, it was the place no one had been to, or come from, for months.
    "Other than yourself, High Councilor," Mera said, still staring out toward the star field, " a ship and its crew have gone missing. We were traveling near this system when we received its distress signal. But, I believe if you received my earlier message, you already know we are here looking for that ship."
    "...Yes."
    Mera Gad walked a single step forward past the central command post on the bridge of her ship. Every instinct and intuition in her body was ticking and telling her that something was very wrong in this place and with this man. "High Councilor, do you know what happened to the Gold Horizon?"
    A static-filled pause preceded his haunting answer. "Yes," the man's deep and tired voice replied.
    "What was that, High Councilor? What happened?"
    "I'm afraid, Commander, you have arrived at the end of a terrible...misunderstanding."
    The weight and emphasis he had put on that singular phrase sent chills through Mera's body. She blinked uneasily, her eyes still staring out the wide viewport in front of her. She thought she could see it now, the little green dot that was the massive planet the city-ship Ninev had settled upon so many centuries before. The commander stopped walking. She was standing right at the center-most window.
    "High Councilor," she said uneasily, her reflection in the dense viewport barely visible against the the pale sunlight beyond it, "did you destroy the Gold Horizon?"
    Her question was followed by another static-filled pause. Then, the ominous man answered slowly, "Yes."
    A collective gasp of surprise and despair circled the bridge behind the commander. Mera Gad closed her eyes and shook her head. A part of her wondered if the testing she had been expecting had finally begun. She took a deep breath, then opened her eyes. "High Councilor Aronos Tal Do of Ninev and the Gannos System, under my obligations as a duly appointed representative of the Lantean Fleet Command and United Council, I have no choice but to report this incident, your actions, and statements to my superiors and the United Council itself."
    "Of course, Commander. You must follow your assigned prerogatives. I...I will report, when called, to the Council to testify on the events that have, unfortunately, transpired. This was not the way I intended for us to come out of the shadows in which we have voluntarily resided. I am sorry for the deaths of those on board that little ship. But, their passage from this life is now in the past. We must look to the future, a future I am but a humble harbinger of. A future that must be shared with the Council and all of our Lantean brothers and sisters as quickly as possible.
    "It is a new day for the glory of our civilization, Commander. Fear not, however, for I am not afraid and I have witnessed much. Years of tiresome work and sacrifice are now yielding the fruits of a new era."