Hellfire 'Darkness Falls' First chapter

This is the first chapter and into to my book. please enjoy.

Intro

Darkness

Nothing but stars as far as the eye could see out of the only window in the room and peaceful silence throughout. I stirred slightly from my sleep catching a glimpse of my watch, 06.25. I turned over and thought, ‘three more hours in bed.’ Then smiled to myself and closed my eyes.

Just as I was drifting back into a deep sleep I heard the call,

‘Captain to the bridge’

I rudely awoke and sat up slightly. Again the tannoy went.

‘I repeat Captain to the bridge’

I leant over rubbing my hand across the wall trying to find the tannoy reply button. ‘Captain to the br…’

As I pressed the button it cut off the announcement and I replied.

‘What’s the problem?’

The deep voice of my First Officer replied,

‘Sorry to wake you captain, but we have picked up an S.O.S signal’

There was a pause. I sat up and put my feet on the cold steel floor, sighed to myself and replied,

‘I’m on my way’

I stood up saying, ‘Computer lights.’ Suddenly the room lit up. I rubbed my eyes while they tried to adjust to the bright lighting. Still thinking to myself this was my first morning off in ten days.

I pulled open the top draw in the cupboard next to my bed and got dressed. I then moved over to the food dispenser while my eyes were still trying to adjust to the harsh lighting.

I pressed the voice activation switch and said, ‘One large coffee, Hot, strong and with milk.’ Tying my hair back into a pony tail while I was waiting, and after a few moments my coffee appeared. I picked up the coffee took a sip and I made my way up to the bridge.

Chapter 1

The doors slid open to the bridge. My boots rattled the metal grilled floor as I stepped into the room. I look across the room at the large windows at the front of the bridge where I could see a sea of endless stars and space on just the other side of the reinforced glass.

My Navigations Officer was at his station and next to the weapons’ control. The captain’s chair was situated in the middle of the room and as I looked around I could see many other work stations scattered around the bridge in typical military style. I could feel the tension in the air from my crew and I could also see Andrew Cygnarowski, my First Officer. He was a tall man of stocky build with short blonde hair. His eyes were fixed on one of the control consoles to the far side of the bridge.

‘Report’ I announced loudly.

Andrew jumped up from the console not realising I had entered the room.

He turned quickly to face me before replying,

‘Sir it’s a faint S.O.S signal that’s been repeating every three minutes and its coming from this sector.’

I looked straight at him as I asked,

‘What do you have on it?’

There was a moment’s silence. My First Officer looked a little uneasy as he replied,

‘Not much. There is defiantly something out there but we are too far away to tell what it is. What I do know is the signal started at about 06.30 this morning and has continued since then.’

He was right this wasn’t much, so I asked,

‘Suggestions?’

Andrew turned back to the console again and then back at me as he answered,

‘It doesn’t look like anything we have on file but it’s very big. It could military a new type of ship or weapon. If we get there first there could be a huge pay off in it for us, on the other hand it might also be a trap.’

There was an air of excitement in his voice as he spoke.

I looked around the bridge and found all eyes were fixed on me so I turned back to face Andrew. I could see from his face he was expecting my next question but I asked it anyway.

‘What’s the chance of it being alien?’

My First Officer quickly replied as if to reassure me that this would be a safe rescue mission.

‘Slim, we are well within our boarders and the signal looks like a standard Earth S.O.S call; besides there’s been no war with anyone for at least two years now.’

As much as I would love to believe all distress signals were genuine. I knew this wasn’t the case so asked,

‘Raiders?’

Andrew smiled back at me as he answered,

‘It’s too big to be Raiders and although were not military this old battle cruiser is far too big for Raiders to take on.’

Still trying to keep my options open, even though I could see Andrew would have an answer for this, I asked,

‘Are there any other ships closer than us?’

Andrew turned back to look at the monitor and then replied,

‘No, we’re the only ship within three sectors of the distress signal.’

I approached the console to take a closer look for myself. This possible S.O.S signal would take us four days off course at maximum thrust and we had a shipment to drop off at Shacklton 2 colony in three days otherwise no-one would be getting paid this week.

I looked back at my First Officer and from his expression I could tell he knew exactly what I was going to say. Before I could say another word he interrupted saying,

‘Sir we can use the Jump engines. It would only take us two and haft hours across the Warp to check the signal out and we would still have time to make our drop off at Shacklton.’

We both knew the dangers of travelling though Warp space. Ships have been disappearing in it for centuries, never to be heard from again. Still I was never the one to turn a helping hand away even if it meant opening the gates to what looked like hell and probably was. I could see my First Officer had an air of excitement about him and even my own curiosity was starting to get the better of me as I thought to myself this was probably why I was always finding myself in trouble. There was a short moment’s silence before I replied,

‘Just two and haft hours ha?’

A spark light lit up in my First Officer’s eyes as he answered,

‘Yes sir.’

I turned to face the communication console where I could see my Communications Officer, Steven Richards. He was a short slim man of about five foot two with dark brown striate hair that looked like it was painted to his head. He had eyes that always made him look shifty. Still looks could be deceiving as I had known him to be trustworthy for many years and I also knew he was the best at his job outside of the fleet. I spoke up,

‘Richards, Inform the ship were going to Yellow alert.’

He turned around to confirm my order,

‘Yes sir!’

Whilst he was turning back I added,

‘And tell my tactical officer I want her on the bridge before we jump’

Turning back to face my First Officer I continued by saying,

‘I need as much information on that signal as possible.’

Andrew moved quickly back to one of the work consoles as I asked,

‘Richards do we have a response yet from our reply signal.’

‘No sir, just the same S.O.S repeating. Maybe they can not respond’

I sat at the command post and muttered to myself,

‘Maybe.’

While as much as my curiosity wanted to be satisfied. I just couldn’t shake off the feeling that this was a bad idea and that something just wasn’t quite right. It just didn’t make sense, a ship coming from nowhere so badly damaged that it couldn’t respond to our reply and with no other vessels within three sectors of the ship. I could only think it must have had a major accident or technical failure.

As I took a sip from my coffee just as my thoughts were interrupted by the bridge doors sliding open followed by a young woman who came storming into the room.

Miss Parkinson my Tactical Officer, better known to the crew as Julie. You never would have thought such a beautiful, petit, young woman with long, black curly hair and eyes you could fall into, was once ever in the military. She joined the crew at the end of the last Great War, although there wasn’t much great about it, she said she couldn’t stand the thought of being stuck in an office on some colony in a dead end desk job, but then I could relate to that.

She marched on to the bridge while announcing at the top of her voice,

‘This had better be good, it’s my day off.’

She stopped right in front of my first officer and stared directly into his eyes with a look that could kill. I butted in quickly,

‘It’s good alright.’

Julie jumped, not realizing I was there before turning around and saying,

‘Captain, I didn’t mean….’

I interrupted her sentence before she could finish.

‘It doesn’t matter, were going to make a jump to Warp space for a short two and a haft hour holiday and I’m not taking any chance’s’

Julie had that look in her eyes like I knew what was coming so I continued,

‘That means I want all weapon systems ready at my command and the shields working at 100% efficiency.’

Julie replied with the protest I had come to expect from her.

‘Captain, with all due respect, even the military have all but given up on jump gate technology and are looking for ways to improve speed. Why could we possible need to risk making a jump of that length?’

I calmly lent back in my chair as I replied,

‘An S.O.S signal from this sector, that’s most likely to be our own people.’

Again my tactical officer spoke up.

‘Isn’t their safer way?’

I could tell she knew my mined was already made up as I replied,

‘It’s the fastest way to get there and, besides we’re the only ship in this whole system.’

For a moment we just stared into each others eyes before I said,

‘How long do you need?’

Julie moved over to the tactical station and pushed a few buttons before answering,

‘at least an hour.’

I knew this ship inside out and I could tell she was trying to bye time. After all it only takes ten minutes to up-load all the ship’s weapon systems and have them armed and ready to go.

‘You have twenty minutes, tops’ I said as she hit the top of the work console before turning around and marching back off the bridge. I could tell she didn’t bye my reasoning for making a jump to Warp space but I knew that days were going to be far too long to leave any distress call waiting.

I moved my arm over to the control panel on the arm of my chair and pushed the tannoy call button as I said.

‘Engineering’

I got an immediate response that almost made me jump.

‘Hudson here, what do you need?’

I was taken aback for a moment before I replied,

‘The jump engines on line and the shields ready at 100% as soon as possible.’

Again, with no pause, the reply came back over the tannoy system.

‘Shields are good to go whenever you need them and it will have the jump engines ready in five, Captain.’

I smiled as I replied,

‘Good work Hudson. Bridge out.’

I turned back to the communication station where I could see the back of my Communication Officer.

‘Richards call me in 15 minutes. I will be in my quarters. Andrew, you have the bridge.’

I got up to exit the bridge. Breakfast was the first thing on my mind. I could tell that this was going to be a very long day. As I moved across the bridge to leave I couldn’t help but think. I wasn’t looking forwards to travelling through Warp space again. It always feels as though someone is watching you and really doesn’t want you there. I could still remember the time when short journeys were considered to be safe as long as they did not exceed six hours. But now even a three hour journey was classed as highly dangerous and I knew we would be cutting it very fine to any kind of safe time limitations for travel. I wanted to be on the bridge when we made the jump to Warp space but there were a few things I needed to take care of first.

As I walked through the corridors of my ship I passed several members of my crew scurrying around preparing for the jump and the journey into the unknown. I had a good crew who worked well together, some new and some who had served with me for the past seven years. We had been through a lot together especially with the last war and they had come to trust my judgement.

I pressed the release panel to the door of my quarters as I stood outside. The door slid open and, as the lights rose and I walked into the room. I could start to feel a low level hum building up thought-out the ship as the jump engines started to warm up. After ordering my breakfast I walked over to one of the cupboard units next to my bed. Pulling the second draw from the top open, I picked out a charger unravelling the cable before placing it on top of the unit in front of me. I then reached up above my bed and took down a twin bladed sword off of the hooks it was hanging on also placing it on the unit in front of me. Leaving the sword in its scabbard I turned it over so the under side of the handle was showing. There was a small power connector located at the base of the hilt between the two blades which I plugged the charger cable into. I then picked up the plug to the charger and plugged it into one of the wall sockets before switching it on.

I took another bit from my sandwich, moved around the other side of the bed. I Kneeled down to the metal floor while I pulled open another draw from under my bed. In there was a whole selection of items but I first picked up a metallic gauntlet and another charger placing them on the bed. I then proceeded to pick out several clips of ammo and my trusty hand cannon.

Although I knew this should be a routine reply to an S.O.S signal something just didn’t feel quite right. If there was going to be any chance of this thing being a trap I was going to be, sure as hell, ready for it even if it meant walking into a fire fight with the boarding party. I wasn’t going to be let down by a lack of preparation. So while I finished my breakfast I continued to check over my boarding equipment laying the gear on my bed. Finally I picked up the shield gauntlet and its charger with one hand just as the tannoy sounded with Richards’s voice,

‘Captain, this is your 15 minute request call’

I moved back over to the other side of my bed and pressed the tannoy reply button with my free hand.

‘I’m on my way’

I moved over to where, I had earlier plugged my sword into charge. I fitted the charger to the gauntlet before plugging it in next to my sword. I left the equipment on charge as I exited the room, locking my door behind me.

I made my way up to the bridge. The doors to the bridge slid open and I made my way over to the command post before I taking up my position in my chair. Looking around the bridge I could see that everyone but my Tactical Officer were at their posts and judging by the fact that most of my crews’ eyes were fixed on me I could tell everything was ready and the crew were now awaiting my orders. My First Officer turned from the tactical console to face me before asking,

‘Orders captain?’

I looked strait at him and lent back slightly in my chair. Calmly I started to issue orders to the crew.

‘Raise shields. Arm all primary weapon systems.’

Andrew replied,

‘Shields up and weapon systems on line sir’

I continued as I turned to face the communications station,

‘Richards cut the S.O.S reply and go to communications silence.’

‘Sir.’ he replied.

I continued to give orders as the bridge doors slid open. Miss Parkinson walked back onto the bridge moving strait over to the tactical station. I looked out of the bridge’s huge forward windows at the never ending blackness of space and stars’, knowing it was all about to change when I gave the next order. I waited until Miss Parkinson had taken up her post and while my first officer moved back over to the science work console. Then I took a deep breath while the crew waited on my next words.

‘Activate the jump engines’ I ordered.