Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Dawn Ross

Even though I’m an artist, I have a difficult time drawing machinery. Hense, the very bad drawing of a crashed ship in my previous post. Here is some artwork by someone else of a crashed space ship I found on Bing. Imagine J.T. here as he investigates the wreckage.

The Kavakian Empire

A Space Opera by Dawn Ross

Part One – First Encounter

Chapter 2

As Jori beamed off the planet, the scene shifted. He saw the planet and the Alliance ship platform at the same time. Crew members from the Alliance ship began as mere shapes before coming into full view. As he fully coalesced, the medic crew rushed forward with scanners in hand while security crew members stayed back with weapons at the ready. Medical terms were thrown about as the doctors attended the unconscious body of Jori’s brother.

As his brother was placed on a gurney, a female doctor turned her attention to Jori. “Goodness gracious, young man. Let’s get you to sick bay.”

She called for someone to bring the other gurney but Jori ignored it. He stepped off the platform to follow the medics with his brother towards sick bay. They tried to get him to stop with words, trying to convince him to get on the gurney. But no one touched him as he walked on, not even security. Jori suspected it would be otherwise should he decide to head in a direction other than sick bay. Since his brother was his main concern, he ignored them.

When they reached sick bay, his brother was pulled off to a separate room as more doctors swarmed around. There was a lot of yelling and Jori sensed their urgency. They are serious about helping him, Jori thought with wonder. We are their enemies, yet they are helping us. Perhaps the things he had heard about the Core Alliance were true. Jori’s father would have called their compassion a weakness. At the moment, Jori didn’t care. He was simply grateful for their help.

A doctor finally braved touching him. Jori felt the hand on his shoulder and sensed the kindness of the man’s words as he spoke. “We’re going to do everything we can to help him,” the man said. “I promise.” Jori sensed the doctor was sincere and felt comfort at the words. But he didn’t show the doctor any emotion. Emotion was weakness.

The doctor finally convinced Jori to lie down, not on a gurney but a healing bed. They asked him his name and tried to get him to talk, but Jori said nothing. They don’t know who I am, he thought. If they knew, things would be different. They must know I am a Tredon but nothing beyond that, thank goodness.

The doctor told Jori he had to set his broken arm. When the man moved to give Jori an injection, Jori jerked away. “No,” he said forcefully.

“This will help with the pain. It’s going to hurt when we set your arm.”

“No drugs,” Jori insisted. It was bad enough that he was injured and at their mercy. But to be unconscious or drug-addled would make him completely helpless.

The doctor was reluctant to force the issue so he motioned for a medic to help. As the medic held Jori down, the doctor pressed his bone into place. Jori gritted his teeth and grunted, but he neither squirmed nor cried out. The medic and the doctor shared a bemused look but Jori ignored them. He didn’t care about impressing them. His only concern was for his brother.

When they were done, the doctor closed the lid of the healing bed. As the vibrations of the bed began to hum, Jori closed his eyes and concentrated on what was going on in the other room with his brother. He felt the tension as the doctors worked. He could tell they were really trying to help. However, it wasn’t them he was trying to sense. It was his brother.

Jori focused intently, but his brother’s life force was weak. He was barely alive. Jori swallowed down a sense of dread. What was he going to do if his brother didn’t survive? And what if the doctors found out who his brother was? Would they still help to save his life?

*****

Commander J.T. Hapker was still on the planet surface trying to make sense of the wreckage. The captain said the Grapnes told him the Tredons stole their cargo. Yet the Grapnes wouldn’t or couldn’t say what the cargo was supposed to be. There certainly was cargo on this ship, though no longer any good because of the crash and the blaze that followed. But the cargo J.T. had found seemed ordinary. Sure it had value, but not exceedingly so. And the cargo appeared to have all the proper transport marks. Unless the Tredons took time to remark all the cargo, none of them showed marks indicating they belonged to the Grapnes. J.T. found it doubtful the Tredons would go through such trouble of relabeling the cargo. They were blatant about their crimes and weren’t sneaky as were the Grapnes.

“We found a total of 12 bodies,” one of the security officers reported. “All dead. All killed in the crash.” J.T. entered the information on his electronic ledger and transmitted it to the captain.

He made his way to the cockpit and asked the officer working there if he had been able to access any information from the ship. “Not yet, Sir. Things here are pretty damaged. I might be able to get some data from the cad deck but I have to take this apart to reach it.”

“Do it,” J.T. ordered. Something more was going on here and J.T. wanted to know what it was. There is nothing of obvious value on this ship, so what were the Grapnes really after? he wondered.

Thank you for reading the Kavakian Empire. This is only the second chapter in a number of chapters to come. Tell me what you think so far. Does the story grab your attention? Do you see any errors or discrepancies? Let me know in comments. Then come back next week where the captain and officers of the Odyssey crew discuss what to do with this dangerous the Tredon child.

(This story is protected by copyright) Copyright August 8th, 2014 by Dawn Ross