Song of the Swans Part 1

One

Charles was better known by his Nexus Force given name, Gallant Strong Cyclone, so that was the name his friends and teammates, Rover, Kate, and Blade, called him.  Eventually, meaning a few weeks, it became the name he knew himself by.

Two years trapped in another universe changed that.  Again, a long period of time.  Cyclone was not a name to the people of Earth, so he reverted to Charles Bradfordson, his birth name.  Kate Dekairie, who was with him the entire time, naturally hadn’t the issue.  She had a Nexus Force name but didn’t use it.

Maybe that was why she reverted to their old life so quickly.  It was easier for her.  She was always called Kate.

"Cyclooone!" her voice rang through Cyclone’s earpiece.  "You should be up here with us!"

“Kate.” Cyclone acknowledged, and both he and Rover craned their necks to the top of Nexus Tower.  Where the metal tower ended began another spire ten times as high, formed entirely of light.  The Imagination Nexus.  A double-cockpit Pod Rocket, so far up and shiny enough that it resembled a star, followed a mostly elliptic path around the Nexus, and… Cyclone squinted and he did a double take.  It was not alone.

“Are those… those are dragons.” Cyclone stated.  He must not have looked that high up before to see them, black and red dots that also circled the Imagination Nexus.  Despite having a slower speed than the rocket piloted by his friends, a dragon and the rocket kept getting close together.  It wasn’t any intention of the dragons, Cyclone realized.

Kate’s laugh confirmed it.

His friends were buzzing the dragons.

The rocket did an aileron roll in front of a particularly purple dragon and attracted it to pursue.  Its pilot then poured on the throttle to all three of its engines and it blasted towards another dragon, then it twisting up into a corkscrew.  The pursuing dragon collided with the other one and both fell a couple hundred feet downwards in the sky before regaining control, still high above the ground.  If dragons had expressions, these ones had to look annoyed.

Cyclone heard Rover laughing next to him, but he turned down his own smirk and Rover stopped.  Their antics were amusing, but Cyclone was not keen to forgetting caution.  "What are you doing up there?" he asked.

A boy’s voice, the rocket pilot’s, responded most nonchalantly.  "We're getting a closer look at the Imagination Nexus."

“But…” Cyclone reconsidered his question.  “There are dragons.  Why are there dragons around the Nexus?”

“We own Crux Prime now, where else can they go?” the pilot answered.

While Rover decided to laugh again, Cyclone took a moment to identify the name behind the voice of the rocket’s pilot.  Intrepid, he remembered with a nod.  Intrepid Fusion Eclipse for long.  He was a loyal teammate, Cyclone supposed.  Loyal described Intrepid well.

After all, he had rescued Cyclone and Kate.

“It’s not safe.” Cyclone radioed up after three dragons suffered a midair collision.

“Fine.” Kate acceded.  “Take us down, Intrepid.”

“Yup.” the pilot responded, and the rocket dove to the ground.  It levelled out to settle on a plateau where three other rockets were parked that belonged to Cyclone, Rover, and Kate.  These were conventional single-seats unlike Intrepid’s Pod.

“It’s a shame Blade couldn’t make it.” Rover commented as he and Cyclone hiked over to where Intrepid and Kate landed.  Blade, or Master Blade Nine, was the fourth teammate and dependable joker in their quartet three years prior.  He had responded long-distance to the news that Cyclone and Kate had returned, but they hadn’t managed to set any reunion plans with him into motion yet.

They arrived on the plateau after the two rocketeers had climbed out.  Like Cyclone and Rover, Kate was dressed in faction-neutral attire, a sleeved leather jacket and a denim skirt over leggings, and an astronaut helmet from their flying exploit she was in the process of pulling off.  Intrepid obviously was wearing Bat Lord gear, his dark pants gave that away, but over his top was a dark gray sweatshirt zippered all the way up.  October was a cold month and Crux Prime was a cold world, so they were all dressed to be warm and fuzzy.

Cyclone and Rover waved.  [u1] “Are you hungry, flyboys?” the Buccaneer called.

“We can stop at Nexus Tower.” Intrepid suggested.

“We could, but I brought sandwiches.” Kate said and she paused pulling on her helmet to drop her backpack to the ground.  “Care for a picnic?”

Cyclone shrugged.  “Fine by me.  Can’t say I ever… I never thought we’d have a picnic on Crux Prime of all places.”

“Yeah, if I can get this helmet off.”

“Want help?” Rover asked.

“Just like the launch area.” Intrepid said suddenly.

“What launch area?” Rover asked.

“The Avant Gardens one,” Intrepid explained, “we have rockets and we’re the picnickers.  Including your monkey.”

“Oh, right.  George isn’t my monkey, he’s my friend.”

Kate’s helmet came off with a final yank that added a smidgen of color to the gray world.  She had red hair.

After remembering their sandwiches were cold, the quartet went back to their rockets and headed to Nimbus Station, and from there by train to Nimbus City.

Nimbus City was a young project and along with its suburban developments, perhaps premature with the war still going on, but with more battles taking place in space and more Nexus Forcers looking for places to live, the motion to build the City ultimately won.  They lived now in a high-rise in one of the completed sections of the city where Intrepid had rented a flat with his own money, since Cyclone and Kate had to wait on the Nexus Force to unfreeze their vault assets.

Their flat was twenty floors up and while not particularly big, they were as comfortable as they could be with six people.  Two colleagues of Intrepid, the cousins Luke and Mara Mercury, got the twin beds in the bedroom.  The rest of them had been crashing in the living room at night, either on the floor or on the couches.  Also living with them was a peculiar character called Calm Thoughtful Tornado.

Tornado unlocked the door when Intrepid, Cyclone, and Kate returned from their day trip to Crux Prime.  He had orange hair in a buzz-cut and a perpetual scowl on his face.

"What's for dinner?" Intrepid asked immediately.

"We're hungry." Kate added.

"I dunno, no one's ordered anything." Tornado reported before he looked down at a smartphone.

"What’s ‘no one’ doing?" Intrepid asked about his colleagues.

"Playing Brick Clicker while they pretend to hack the Nexus Force vault, y’know, for Sclone and Kate."

“What did you call me?” Cyclone asked but Tornado paid too much attention to his phone to answer, or he ignored him.

Intrepid's brows furrowed.  "And what have you been doing?"

Tornado shrugged.  "Playing Brick Clicker."

Next to Cyclone, Kate dramatically facepalmed.  When no one said anything about it she asked with a sheepish grin, "That's still a thing, right?"

"Clicking flash games are the thing now." Intrepid said.  He pushed past Tornado, as did the rest of them, then he headed to the dinette to survey the refrigerator.  "We have cereal, but that’s cold, so."  He ended his sentence abruptly.

"I'll order takeout," Cyclone volunteered and went a pile of some twenty prepaid I-bricks plugged into charging hubs on the dinette’s table.  He grabbed the first one off the top to call Sue Shi's Sushi when suddenly all of the phones rang at once.  Cyclone jumped back, surprised.  Kate, Tornado, and Intrepid all looked at him, and Intrepid ran over.

"It wasn't me." Cyclone said while Intrepid inspected the phones.  Then their host turned to one of the bedrooms and screamed.

"Luke!" Intrepid shouted.  "You gotta fix the programming, they're not supposed to be doing this!"

Luke’s blond head popped out of the doorway.  "Yeah, that's wrong.  Just ignore them."

"So...  loud..." Tornado groaned.

Kate got up.  "We should go outside."

Intrepid pressed OFF on one phone and the ringing stopped.  "No need." he said.  He read the caller ID.  "It was my brother.  I'll call him back."

"You have a brother?" Kate asked.  "Why'd he do that to us?"

"His calls are supposed to have a higher priority.  Someone interpreted that to mean they should ring on all the phones."

Cyclone raised an eyebrow.  "I don't think prepaid phones are supposed to work like that."

“Of course not." Intrepid said.  “Did you think these are normal phones?”  He took one I-brick and stepped outside into the apartment hallway.  The door closed behind him so they couldn’t hear what he said.

"I'm still getting some air." Kate said and headed for the apartment's balcony.  "You coming, Cyclone?"

"In a second," Cyclone said.  Intrepid was gone, Luke was quiet from the bedroom, where presumably he and Mara were programming, and Tornado sat around doing nothing.  Cyclone finished ordering a shipment of takeout then went to join Kate outside.

Kate had her hands hanging over the edge and the rest of her leaned on the railing when Cyclone stepped out.  Nimbus City in its partially constructed state, the rest of Nimbus Station, and the sea between them was theirs to overlook.  He took a place next to Kate just as the wind picked up.  Kate’s hair kind of rustled while Cyclone’s slapped him in the face.  He grabbed at his brown bangs and sighed.

"I need a haircut." he decided.

"Me too." Kate agreed.  She still looked out at the city while Cyclone turned to see what she meant.  He wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to say that in the moment, but with her face reflecting the city’s glow from below, Kate looked especially beautiful.

"Assembly sure builds fast.” she pointed out.  “There wasn't a Nimbus City the last time we were here."

"We lived in Brick Annex." Cyclone said.

"That was nice, wasn't it?” she said wistfully.  Though Nimbus City seemed nice enough to Cyclone, maybe her concern had something to do with their flat mates.

“Yeah, a flat like this definitely fits four better than six.” Cyclone agreed.

“Maybe, when I get my stuff back, I should buy a house.” Kate said.

“Same.” Cyclone echoed.  He peered across the cityscape, past the industrial buildings and the grassy hills that separated the urban streets from the suburban developments, where the houses were built farther apart and there were more trees.

“You know, we can buy the same house.” Kate suggested.

The balcony door opened again and a younger teenage girl with dark red hair, neatly thinned and shoulder length and probably highlighted, stood in the doorway.  “Hey lovebirds,” Mara Mercury said.

“Dinner is served.”

Two

Intrepid Fusion Eclipse had a birth name, like most in the Nexus Force.  Born Aiden Talmid, he was the first child of parents Abe and Hafwyn, but only the second in his generation since his cousin Shira was born two months earlier.

Regardless, everyone in the flat and everyone in the Nexus Force called him Intrepid.  That was the name he’d made for himself in the last three years or so he’d served, and he was keen to keep using it.  His brother Alex called him Aiden though.

Intrepid held two phones in his hands, the prepaid one from the dinette and the one that was his.  The prepaid was held to his head and through it he listened to Alex speak.  The other he held in front of him to flip through a series of scanned photos, portraits of generally dark haired, dark eyed people sharing the same wide cheeks, pointed noses and jaws: a boy, a girl with blue eyes, another boy, and another girl.  Brothers and sisters.

His family.

He swiped to a picture of the two boys standing side by side, taken only a week ago.

“Still can’t believe you’re taller than me now.” Intrepid muttered, prompting a curt laugh from the other side, then a sigh.

“I bet Evelyne would have been, too.”

Intrepid scrolled to the blue-eyed girl before he sighed as well.  There was silence on the line for a moment.

“I should ask,” Alex asked in a hopeful tone, “have you heard from Uncle Killian, now that you’re back in Nimbus?”

Intrepid leaned back against the balcony wall he was slouched against.  “No.” he said while he stared into the starry sky.  Where is Killian out there?

“Didn’t think so, me neither.” Alex lamented.  “So how’s Shira?”

Intrepid coughed.  “Wish I knew.”

“That’s troubling.”

“It’s her middle name.”

“Shrill Troubling Brick?”

“Close enough.”

“How about Red?”

Intrepid perked up at the name.  “No.” he said.  “I can’t say I know what to think about that.”  He set the second phone down and closed his eyes, then he felt through the fabric of his right leg pocket the edge of a smooth, black square.

“Your future is yours to make.” Alex said.  “I’d take what you know as just, well, advice I suppose.”

“I know.”

“Aiden, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

He opened his eyes.  “What?”

“Did you know we have another uncle?” Alex revealed.  “Called Tiberius?”

Intrepid sat up a little straighter.  “Have?” he repeated the verb.  Have was present tense.  “Alive?”

“Yeah.” Alex said.  His vocal tempo sped up a notch.  “He visited the house with an old camera.  He had pictures of him, with Mom, Dad and Killian, and he knew all their names.  He has blue eyes, like Evelyne, like Lukema did.  He’s real, Aiden.”

“Then why didn’t we know of him before?” Intrepid asked.

Alex paused.  “I don’t know.  I asked but he didn’t want to say.  I think he’s estranged.”

Intrepid considered.  His heart still fluttered at the prospect that there was more of their family alive, and he didn’t want to dim the mood either for himself or Alex.  Regardless, his brows furrowed, an indication of his concern.

“If anything happens,” Intrepid started, and Alex finished.

“I’ll call Edgar.” Alex said.  “He’s a good guy.”

“I’m coming back too.” Intrepid stated.  “First thing in the morning by rocket.  Luke and Mara can take care of Cyclone and Kate.  They’re alright.”

“Why not use the… thing?” Alex asked.

He meant the Transdimensional Maneuvering Device, the black box in Intrepid’s pocket, that Intrepid felt himself reaching for again.  “It stopped working.” he reported.  “I tried it sometime ago.”

“Oh.  Well, I’m sure there’s more where it came from.”

Doesn’t mean I’ll get to see one again. Intrepid thought.  Or the person who gave me this one.  “Rockets are fast enough.” he said aloud.

“See you tomorrow, then.” Alex said brightly.

“Stay safe.” Intrepid ordered.

“Bye.”

He ended the call and pocketed both phones, then he went back into the hall from the balcony.  As he headed for the T-section with their corridor, he saw a young man with a red cap round the corner and head to the stairs.

Delivery guy, Intrepid figured before he passed him, headed back to the flat.  He found garnet-haired Mara Mercury standing in the doorway and facing down the hall, a seemingly blank expression on her face.

Intrepid glanced behind him.  It was empty, the hall he’d come up through.  It was also the hall the delivery guy went down.  Of course, he realized.  Her expression wasn’t blank, it was dreamy.

Intrepid gave Mara an understanding nod.  “Catch his name?” he asked, but she just smirked.

“You’ve got mail!” Luke hollered as soon as they crossed the threshold.

“For who?” Intrepid called back.  Cyclone, Kate, and Tornado lounged on the living room couches with personal sushi trays and Luke, not present, had to be the bedroom.

“For you.”  A blond boy dressed in a tee and shorts stepped out from the bedroom, barefoot.  Luke Mercury pointed a thumb backwards as he headed for the dinette counter where more sushi was placed, and Mara joined him.  “It’s an email.  You can go read it.”

“Sure.”

The bedroom only had two beds, one for Luke and one for Mara, and on a desk sat a plain gray laptop computer at the password screen.  The laptop was actually a front-end for his, Luke’s, and Mara’s personal server based elsewhere in Nimbus Station.  Intrepid gave the walls, ceiling, floor, and windows a once over before he closed the blinds and took a seat before the computer.  He entered the passcode.

He was greeted with an image of a vegetable, since Luke had left the browser open at some cooking website.  Intrepid signed into the email program they set up to receive and archive official Nexus Force mail as a way of circumventing the Nexus Force system’s limitations.  There were a number of unopened messages, some from Commander Beck Strongheart and others from Nexus Tower on behalf of the Mythrans, who were showing off experimental gear lately.

One message was ten minutes old from an address obviously intended for anonymity.  It was a string of random letters and numbers, so probably temporary.  One value was preserved in plaintext, however, the location of origin: Phoenixtown, Elistra.  Intrepid’s hometown.

He opened the message.

Dear Intrepid Fusion Eclipse,

  I’ve heard that’s your preferred name.

  Have you heard of me by now?  You should have.  Or you may not have.  Regardless I am Tiberius, eldest son of Ben and Lucille, brother of Abe, Marie, and Killian.  That makes you, your brother, your sisters, and your cousin, Marie’s daughter, my nieces and nephews!  Simply put, I’m your uncle!

  You may wonder why you haven’t heard of me before, so I wish to assure you I have always been here, watching over you all.

  I was there the last day you saw Killian, November 26, 3024.

  I was aware when you and Shira joined the Nexus Force on New Year’s Day, 3025.

  I was here when the Maelstrom firebombed the Old Phoenixtown starting February 15, 3026.  Hundreds were smashed, including members of our family, as you know.

  But I bet you didn’t know more of your family could still be alive?

  Not only me, you, Alex, and Shira.

  I have reason to believe the rest of our immediate family still live and I need all your help and your cooperation to find them.

  Come.

  - Tiberius                                                                                  

Intrepid frowned and corrected his posture.  He had leaned forward while he read the message and he sat up straight.

Tiberius’s last claim was troubling.  It was impossible for more of the Talmid family to be alive, because they were dead.  Intrepid did know.  He remembered fighting on Elistra in 3026, only two and a half years before.  He remembered the Maelstrom, the chaos, the fire, the destruction, the death.  He remembered all the things he saw.

Or did he?

Intrepid tried to picture the exact scene when he had dug through the rubble of his old home, and under the smashed bricks… he drew a blank.

His frown increased.

He shook his head.

They are dead, he thought with certainty.  Even if his memories had recessed, Tiberius was still wrong.  Intrepid would still go since he’d promised Alex, so he might meet Tiberius regardless.

He unlocked his phone and went back to the gallery.  The faces of his family, brother, sisters, parents, grandparents, cousin, uncle, and aunt stared back at him from a scan of their last family portrait, taken on Thanksgiving Day four years ago.  He looked close at the faces, so as not to forget, of each and every one.  All of his family.

Not all, Intrepid mentally corrected.  Tiberius was missing.  He wondered what his estranged uncle looked like.  Alex said he had blue eyes.  Was his hair black, or perhaps graying now, since he wrote he was the oldest?

He would see tomorrow.  Intrepid set his phone down, a grim expression on his face, and rose to join his flat mates.

Three

Cyclone was awoken early the next morning by loud rustling, clanging, and tossing of things into a backpack.  He rubbed his eyes and squinted until he saw what was making all the noise. Indeed, a backpack was on the dinette table, and Intrepid was throwing clothes, weapons, rockets, consumables, and all sorts of stuff into it. Their landlord's eyes fell on the pile of prepaid phones, and he went and grabbed a bunch into his arms. A couple fell on the floor, and the ones he didn't drop were shoved into his backpack.

"Going somewhere?" Cyclone asked.

"Yes." Intrepid huffed.

"Now?"

"Yes."

"Why the rush?"

"I feel like it." Intrepid said, then he looked into his backpack, a cunfuzzled look on his face. Then he reached in and starting throwing stuff out. "Where is it, where is it..." he muttered. A stray object flew through the air and bounced onto the other couch, thumping sleeping beauty on the head.

"Ow!" Tornado cried, glaring at everyone before stuffing his head under his pillow.

"Found it." Intrepid said triumphantly, taking out a strange black rectangular object. He frowned at it, then disappeared into Luke and Mara's room. He came back with a screwdriver, a wiring kit, and electrical tape, set all that on the table, then had to go back into the room to bring his thing back, and bring that back to the table. He began operating on the object, and some sparks flew out.

"Wear a welding mask," Cyclone grumbled, shielding his eyes. On the couch next to him, Kate stirred and awoke as well. She opened her eyes once and regretted it.

"Darn it Intrepid, what are you doing?" she mumbled, keeping her eyes closed now.

"Done!" Intrepid announced, lifting up a wristband made of electrical tape and tied up wires, with the black object, now a square, on one side like a watchpiece. He put it on and let it settle tightly in place.

Cyclone's eyes widened in recognition. "Is that the thing you used...?"

"Yeah." Intrepid said, before tossing his tools in his backpack and putting that on as well. He looked up. "My friends, it's been great to see you all, but now I must I bid you farewell. I am leaving."

Cyclone's eyes maintained their wideness as his thoughts turned to confusion, and he stood up. "Wait, tell me more? What? Why?"

The bedroom door opened, and Luke and Mara ran out. "You can't." she said.

Intrepid turned to her. "Wait, tell me more? What? Why?" he demanded.

"A Nexus Force official is visiting today and wants to see you." Mara said.

"What?" Intrepid repeated. "This is the first I've heard of this. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told them," Mara said, pointing to Cyclone and Kate.

"You didn’t say anything about Intrepid," Kate pointed out.

Mara looked miffed. "Oh, well now you know."

Intrepid sighed. "This isn't something I can wait for. I've got to leave."

Kate got up, and with an aggressive steadfastness no one except Cyclone could expect from her, said, "You're being very vague about this, Intrepid. Can't you just tell us WHY you have to go, and where? Maybe we can help you."

Intrepid threw his backpack on the ground and looked at the ceiling. "Ugh." he grumbled. "Fine. You won't understand."

Kate smiled. "Try me." she challenged.

Intrepid began. "Make of it what you will. My family was smashed in a Maelstrom attack on a planet called Elistra III, five years ago, just after I joined the Nexus Force."

"Oh." Kate said. "Intrepid, that's horrible." She looked troubled.

Intrepid nodded. "But that's just what I thought." He continued. "My brother called last night, and said he'd received a strange call from someone claiming to be a relative? That's all he said he was, my brother said, but he had something to say about missing evacuation ships, as well as the 'fracturing of dimensions' around my home planet?"

"More of this dimensions stuff?" Luke cried out.

"I think we're all lost at that." Kate said.

"I'm as confused as the rest of us," Intrepid said, and by the look on his face he seemed sincerely unsure. "But... there seems to be more I can learn more about their deaths, and, this caller seems to be implying there's a chance..."

Intrepid looked directly at Cyclone and Kate now. Intrepid's eyes were wide, almost as much as Kate's were, and Cyclone's as well if he guessed. He knew what Intrepid was going to say next.

"There's a chance I can save them, like I saved you."

He let that sit.

*****

Intrepid swallowed the lump in his throat and looked down, shaking his head again while he studied the floor, instead of everyone's faces. Last he saw, they were all looking at him, or at each other, taking that in.

Kate's voice broke the silence. "I..." she started, "I'll just say, I still don't exactly get the whole dimensions aspect of things. You told Cylone and I something about it, before, when you rescued us. Barely anything to make sense of, though. Could you tell us more?"

She looked at him expectantly, Cyclone as well. Intrepid still wasn't sure what to tell them about transdimensional maneuvers, what he knew, and how much more it concerned him... and them. He looked up and shared a long glance with both Cyclone and Kate, turning to one then the other. And he said, hoping to sound genuine, "I'd love to explain more, later, but I barely know anything either. There are things I still need to figure out, before I can tell you anything more. I'm as clueless as you." Intrepid doubted they bought it, but he could hope.

He quickly changed the subject. "It's ridiculous to think my family's can be alive - I can't make any sense of it, so I'm not counting on it. I can think about learning the most about the Maelstrom attack as I can. I want to do the right thing and hopefully find the evacuation ships, or their wreckage, and help put to rest those who were lost. It's a personal mission, so none of you have to come." He slung on his backpack, and looked at his 'watch'. He could use it and go... but he was hesitant. He turned to his friends.

"We are coming." Luke said resolutely, and Mara gave him thumbs up, signaling her affirmation. Intrepid smiled. He could count on them.

Tornado groaned and stayed under his pillow. "I'll scare away the Nexus Force." he mumbled.

"Best stay out of sight so you're not sent back to jail." Intrepid advised. Tornado seemed content with holding the fort. Then Intrepid turned to the other two people in the room.

Cyclone was looking at Kate, who looked back at him. "Sounds more interesting than talking to the Nexus Force." she joked. She and Cyclone turned to Intrepid.

"It's the least we can do for you, Intrepid." Cyclone stated. "We'll come with you. We'll help.”

For Intrepid, he wasn't sure if this complicated things more than it helped. But he could appreciate extra eyes. And he needed to work on his people skills, so the experience would help, right? "I want to say thanks, you all, for sticking with me. It's settled then." He grabbed the first spare backpack and tossed it to Cyclone, who caught it with both hands.

"Pack up and let's go." 

The Nimbus sun shone brightly in the rearview mirror of Intrepid's Pod Rocket as it streaked out of the system, headed for the fourth star in a far off star cluster.

"Engaging hyperdrive," he said into his comm for his travelmates to hear, and flipped a switch on the controlboard. The cockpit glass artificially dimmed as the stars lit up exponentially, and stretched to form streaks. Without the auto-dimming feature, he'd have to wear sunglasses to protect from the unnatural expansion of light and heat that came with hyperspace travel. Either way, it was a long trip ahead and helped bored occupants fall asleep.

It was technically daytime in local Nimbus Station time, which Intrepid had spent the last week acclimating too again, so he wasn't tired enough to try sleeping. He also didn't want to sleep.

He began to think. He thought about where they were going. Elistra III was a beautiful world with beautiful cities. A lot had been done in the years since the attack to fix it up and restore its beauty. He hadn't been there to see the rebuilding but he'd seen the results. He thought about the efforts of his brother, Alex. Alex had made a name for himself as a handyman and a problem solver. He ran a business, and he was only fifteen. It helped that he was the brother of Intrepid Fusion Eclipse, who was infamous among the Elistrans for coming to save them... nevermind it'd taken awhile.

Intrepid realized he was quite the hero to many people. It bugged him, and he found himself thinking about the rest of his family... he hadn't come back in time to save them. He’d helped bury those who were smashed. Most of them were unidentified – he’d recognized just one family member. He hadn’t been a hero to them.

But what if they were alive, and he found them?

Intrepid shook his head to clear the thought, as he did every other time his brainwaves broached the subject - but this time it stuck. He didn't like it. He never allowed himself to think about his family, who he lost. He was a hero to Alex and the others because he came back and did save them, but he'd saved only them because he'd wasted time on Avant Gardens, when he could have come back earlier. Then he could have saved everyone. Their deaths were his fault, and he couldn't allow himself to think about that. The shaking of his head turned spastic, enough to prompt a reponse from the travelmate who sat in his own rocket with him. She'd been so quiet for once that if he'd forgotten she was there he might have screamed. But her voice pulled him back into reality.

"Commotionem capitis in populis."

Intrepid turned around and for a second he thought he was staring at a particular red haired girl... no. He blinked. It was just Kate. And she was in his rocket. He frowned.

"What'd you just say?" he asked.

Kate pointed at him. "That thing you did there, shaking of your head, it's called 'commotionem capitis' in Latin."

Intrepid frowned harder. "What's Latin?"

"It's a language I picked up in another dimension." She smiled and leaned forwards. "I thought you'd know something about that."

Intrepid frowned as hard as he could, and his forehead muscles started hurting. "Here's something I don't know: why are you in my rocket?"

"First," Kate began, counting her fingers to enumerate, "it conserves energy to share a ride. That's another thing you get taught a lot in the other dimension. Second, this is a two seater rocket, so why not? See first. Third, I want to talk to you."

"Oh."

Intrepid turned back to the front of the rocket and eased his eyebrows. Aaah. Much better. He wasn't sure what else to say about that, except, "Oh." He contemplated ignoring her and just watching the stars go by. The Pod Rocket's twin engines were mesmerizing when he tried angling his eyes outwards to stare at them both at the same time, but that hurt his eyes. And it was rude.

"I don't really want to talk..." Intrepid started.

"Fine!" Kate said. Intrepid almost turned around again, surprised. She gave up that easily? Well, good for him. Now, with his eyebrows aching from all his frowny faces, he actually did feel like lying back and sleeping.

Out of courtesy, he asked, "Do you have enough room back there?"

"That's talking! But yeah, I do. Why?"

"Will you have room if I recline?"

"There's plenty of room for me to recline too."

"Good to know." Intrepid said, and he began to lean his seat back, but not before sliding it forwards. "I've never really sat in the back..."

Kate was silent, as if she was waiting. She WAS waiting, for him. Intrepid realized what he did. He was talking! No way. If she had some reverse-psycological plan to get him talking, it was working. Not anymore! He shut his mouth, and stayed shut up. He shut his eyes, too.

This was going to be a long ride.

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Intrepid actually fell into a dreamless sleep, and when he awoke it was to an unholy buzzing in his pocket. His I-brick? He reached down and indeed, he had an incoming call from an unknown number.

"You have reception in space?" Kate asked, perplexed.

Intrepid raised his eyebrows, and leaned his seat forwards. "I didn't think so..." he said, puzzled.

He felt Kate's smirk behind his back. "More dimensional technology?"

"I haven't figured it out that much yet," Intrepid assured her, and brought the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

The voice that answered was that of a man. "Glad to hear your voice, Aiden."

"What?" Intrepid responded. The voice almost sounded familiar, but it was not a voice he recognized. He didn't think he'd heard it before... "Who is this?"

He saw Kate gesturing in the rearview mirror. "Speaker phone." she hissed. Intrepid complied, and set it as such.

"Aiden." the voice continued. "All you need to know is our family is safe. And I can help you find them."

Intrepid met the reflection of Kate's eyes. They burned with an intense inquisitiveness. This call wasn't doing anything to ease his mind either. "And, you are?" Intrepid repeated.

The mysterious caller laughed, and some recessed part of Intrepid's brain expected the caller to hang up then. But instead, after a pause, the voice replied, "Oh, as if I haven't made it obvious enough! I'm closely related to you."

"Prove it." Intrepid pressed.

"I know who you're close with." the caller began, and warning bells began to flash in Intrepid's head. How much did he want the others to know? How much did he want to know? He hovered a finger over the OFF button.

"You have a brother, Alex, who you miss very much. But even more, you miss your father, your mother, and your two sisters." the caller said. "Who else are you close with? If we extend from the familial to the physical, then you'd be sitting close to a certain Ka-"

"Enough!" Intrepid shouted. "Give me a name or I'm hanging up now."

The caller laughed again. "Talmid. Tiberius Talmid."

Intrepid raised his eyebrows again. Did the name Tiberius ring a bell? No. He'd never heard it paired with his family name. And anyone could find his family's name by looking in the yellowpages. He took a moment to say nothing.

"Remember me, yet?" the voice who called himself Tiberius asked.

Intrepid sighed. "Never heard of you." he stated, and hung up.

He turned around to meet Kate's gaze. Her eyebrows were raised, too. "Odd." she said. "Can't say I've heard of him either. So I certainly don't remember him."

Regarding that last part... Intrepid realized sullenly, perhaps the caller wasn't so unknown after all. He hadn't known his name at the time, and he still didn't know his motives, but if Intrepid looked back enough, he realized he actually did remember a certain mysterious caller. The vocal mannerisms and accent were familiar. It had to be Tiberius. And this unnerved Intrepid.

This meant that he didn't only have an estranged relative, but an estranged relative who had been stalking him for the last six years of his life. Maybe more.

Of course this unnerved him. What else did Tiberius know?

*****

"I want everyone to maintain constant radio contact from now on." Intrepid's voice instructed.

"Gotcha fam." Luke radioed in from his rocket.

"Sure." Mara said from hers.

Cyclone did as he said and turned his transmitter on. "What's going on, Intrepid?" he asked. He looked around, outside the cockpit glass, in front of him, to the sides, and behind. There was nothing peculiar out in space that he could see, that could hint to Intrepid's order.

Kate's voice cut in. "We're being spied on."

Concerned, Cyclone asked, "Shouldn't we not be talking to each other, then?"

"Apparently that doesn't matter." Intrepid interrupted.

"What do you mean?" Cyclone asked.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Kate pressed.

Intrepid groaned very audibly. "It doesn't matter what we say, when, how, and to who, because there's this creepazoid out there who knows everything!"

"What Intrepid means," Kate translated, "is we got a strange call from someone who told us things about us, what we're doing, now."

Cyclone shivered. "That's disconcerting."

"You bet."

Cyclone continued looking around. Space looked normal as far as he could see, as far as hyperspace-stretched stars appeared normal. The other three rockets, Luke's and Mara's and Intrepid and Kate's, cruised along ahead of his. He looked at his sensors, extended the range, and did a double take.

"Anyone else picking up something large directly in front of us?" he inquired.

"Yes." Luke reported. "But I don't see anything."

As he continued watching, Cyclone noticed that the radar blip wasn't changing position on the screen... relative to his rocket, it wasn't moving. It was staying at the same distance ahead of them. Following them.

"I think we should-" he started.

"I'll drop into normalspace and troubleshoot this." Intrepid said. "Could be a sensor glitch?" Cyclone detected something present in Intrepid's voice. Was he sounding hopeful?

"You're a sensor glitch." Mara said. Luke laughed.

"What even-" Intrepid began.

"I've been fixing these rockets for years. Any claims of 'sensor glitches', I take as personal insults to my ability, and I am only responding in kind." Mara said.

Intrepid responded by returning his and Kate's Pod Rocket to normalspace. Immediately on Cyclone's screen, the radar blip began to close in.

"Not a sensor glitch!" Intrepid verified. "It's the Maelstrom."

Cyclone pressed a switch, and his rocket returned to normal speeds as well. Luke and Mara followed suit. In front of them, to their horror, was a variety of Nexus Force spacecraft flying in an intercept formation. There were personal rockets like theirs, larger cargo rockets, and even a Venture class cruiser.

And they were all infected with Maelstrom.

Cyclone set his jaw. The pilots of the other rockets knew what to do. He could see their shield generators charging up, auxiliary fins swinging into position for extra maneuverability, and their weapons systems, whatever they had, deploying and getting ready to fight. Missile racks folded out from under their fuselages and previously concealed laser turrets popped out of blast doors.

Cyclone's pressed a button with the icon of a pea shooter, and his own rocket began to transform into the same fighting machine as the others.

"We're not just running away from this?" he asked.

He imagined Luke Mercury's chest puffing up as the blond haired boy said most valorously, "We serve the goodness of minifigurekind. We will always fight until this Maelstrom threat is vanquished, never to hurt any good minifigure again! Or until we smash trying."

"Try not to get smashed," Intrepid chided. The Maelstrom fleet was getting closer now. "These guys are in the way between here and Elistra, so we have no choice but to fight here and lose them now, or they'll follow us all the way there."

According to his computer, the Maelstrom were now ten seconds away. Cyclone gripped his flightstick. "I haven't fought the Maelstrom in more than a year," he said, "and even then, I don't think it was ever in a rocket."

Five seconds.

"There's a first time for everything." Kate said. "Look at me-_~, *static* -br- I get to fire a turret." Her voice was becoming garbled as the Maelstrom fleet began to jam their transmissions. Cyclone thought he heard her finish with, "See you guys on the other side."

Three seconds.

Cyclone responded, though he doubted she could hear him anymore, "You too, Kate."

One second left and the Maelstrom were here. Cyclone's hands closed around the triggers on his control sticks, and taking a deep breath he squeezed them.   Chapter 3

It may come as a surprise to most minifigures that the Maelstrom's reach can be felt even outside the Nimbus System.  It was these extraplanetary forces that attacked the infamous Venture Explorer.  They were known to patrol between the worlds of the Nimbus System, especially around the Darnau, but some Maelstrom infected ships were seen farther out, preying on other Nexus Force troop ships.  A lot of Stromlings and Mechs can be sourced from ships full of recruits.

*****

One moment space was calm, peaceful, quiet.  The next moment it was a chaotic deathtrap to anything without shields.  Silent missiles, launched from Luke and Mara's rockets, exploded prematurely, confusing the first squadron of Stromling rockets and scattering their formation.  Cyclone and Intrepid swooped in, picking off the most of them as another squad circled around from behind.

Kate swung their rocket's turrets to face the approaching light crafts, and dual bolts of energy blasted from its double barrel.  Moving at half the speed of light, with an arming time of half a second, they flared brightly and changed color, from blazing yellow to a burning bright blue, and by themselves arced towards the Maelstrom targets.  On impact with the charged bolts of energy, four Maelstrom rockets lost their clutch power and were turned to spacebricks.

"Whoa." Kate gasped.  "I like this gun."

"It's a powerful one," Intrepid said, "the rounds are self-aiming.  Make sure to only aim it at things you want to blow up, the energy won't distinguish between friendly or foe.  You can press that button there to load basic ammunition."

"Got it, Mr.  Encylopedia." Kate continued firing the turret and blasting rockets apart, while Intrepid lined up a surviving rocket from the first squadron with the forward lasers.  He fired, taking it out, and repeated the process with the last two.

He saw that Cyclone, Luke, and Mara were heading to engage a third squadron of Stromling rockets that was trying to flank.  Saw, but couldn't hear.  There was only static in his earpiece thanks for the Maelstrom jamming them.  But there was one person he could talk to.

"Aim your guns at that cargo rocket," Intrepid said, pointing to one nondescript looking Botany Bay class transport next to the Venture class cruiser.  It lacked any guns, so he suspected it was the jamming ship.  Kate's turret aimed ahead, and Intrepid aimed the missile launchers.  They fired at the same time, basic fast moving rounds from the turret that peppered the transport's shields.  Intrepid banked and rolled to avoid return fire from the cruiser - now that there were no Stromling rockets around them, the cruiser could safely fire its main batteries without worry of smashing its own forces.  Intrepid's evasive maneuvers brought their forward lasers to aim at the transport for a second, and Intrepid adding a small amount of additional firepower to the assault.  Kate's turret was always firing, and the transport's shields failed just in time for the missiles to impact it.

Explosions rippled across the transport and it split in half, and its smaller sections disappeared with little blasts of light.  Kate cheered but Intrepid didn't smile.  He still heard static from the radio, which meant they hadn't destroyed the jammer.  The transport had probably been just a transport.

They were now very close to the Infected Venture class cruiser, skimming just over its shrink-wrap shielded surface to avoid its gun arcs.  Through its side windows, they saw Stromling crews running around the interior, crewing the bigger ship and trying to get guns to face on the smaller, faster, more agile rocket.  Kate fired at the windows, but the shields were stronger on the Venture, and the energy blasts dissipated harmlessly.  They were too close to the self-aiming rounds, they wouldn't charge up fast enough.

"I think we should run from this one." Kate said.

"I'd like to!" Intrepid answered.

He watched as another Botany Bay class transport sidled around the Venture's rear.  Unlike the other transport, this one had guns, which it brought to face the little rocket, but it didn't fire yet.  It was waiting for a clear shot.  Pushing the engines, Intrepid quickly banked up, away fom the Venture, giving the transport time to shoot.  Its powerful quadguns all fired at once, creating a lightshow of lethality that streaked towards their rocket very quickly.

Intrepid and Kate watched as the lasers neared, then Intrepid made a quick evasive swerve back around the Venture's rear.  The transport's guns followed the rocket's path, and kept firing into the Venture's engines.  They stopped firing then, but it was too late.  Enough weapons fire hit the Venture to breach its shields and disable its engines.

"Nice!" Kate congratulated.

"We're not out of this yet," Intrepid warned, as they cleared the Venture's profile and the transport prepared to fire again.

"There's another squad of rockets, 8 o'clock! They're coming in hot." Kate announced. Intrepid turned and saw them.  They began firing.  He also saw the next volley firing from the transport, aimed just ahead, above, and belows of them, effectively creating a wall of doom, trapping them.  He swung their rocket, missing most of the Stromling rockets' weapons fire that came in from behind, but a few bounced off at their rear shields.

"Remember space is three dimensional," Kate said.

"Right." Intrepid said, and pulled the rocket into a dive.  They swung under the disabled Venture cruiser, and the Stromling rockets followed.  Kate returned fire, forcing the Stromling rockets to evade and keeping their forward weapons off ot them.

"What's their objective here?" Kate asked.  "Destroy us or infect us?"

"Either." Intrepid said, dodging antennas and other outcropping's from the Venture while watching out for any flares from its shields.  A collision with a shield barrier would atomize them, and that wouldn't be nice.  They reached the front of the Venture and Intrepid banked up and over its large forward windows.  "Any sign of our friends?" he asked.

"I don't see them." Kate said.  "They must have escaped already."

There was a clear window of space ahead of them, aligned with the path to their destination planet - directly between two more Botany Bays and another, fifth squadron of Stromling Destroyer-type rockets that began loading torpedoes.  Intrepid grabbed the hyperdrive lever.  "Hold on!" he said, and, pulled it into 'engage'.

Light, laser bolts, and shapes all stretched as the hyperdrive engaged.  At the same time, a series of laser blasts happened to come at their rocket from behind.  The hyperdrive was still speeding up and Intrepid rolled the rocket to dodge most of the lasers, but one happened to strike a forward engine right in its center.

Then the hyperdrive engaged and sent them into a spinning escape.

It took Intrepid a few seconds to realize what was going on.  The inertia made it hard for him to hold his head steady, and focus on the view outside.  They'd escaped the Maelstrom fleet, and were thousands of miles away from them by now, but the rocket was spinning out of control.  The stars spun.  In hyperspace, this was incredibly dangerous, since an off-course rocket could quickly fly itself into an asteroid, a planet, or a star.  Intrepid tried to turn the hyperdrive off, but the rocket continued to spin around.

Wait.  The stars looked like stars, dots and not streaks.  Intrepid realized what happened.  Since one of the engines was knocked out, the hyperdrive was only partially engaged, and it was spinning them around.  Actually, that didn't make sense at all.

Intrepid didn't want to open his mouth, since he felt sick too.  He felt he had to reassure his travelmate that they were going to survive this.  They were going to survive this, right? He'd made it out of some strange flights before.  This one wouldn't be different.

"We can get out of this with manual controls," Intrepid said, pushing the unresponsive control set aside and reaching for the hydraulic levers under the dashboard.  "There's a set under yours as well." "Found it." Kate said.

"Okay, pull the left one until I say stop," Intrepid instructed, and he pulled his right stick until the rocket's counterclockwise spin began to slow.  "Good." he said.  "Keep going." After several intense moments, the rocket finally stopped spinning.  "Great! Oh."

"Oh, what?" Kate asked, straining to look up from her efforts.

"There's a planet directly in front of us."

Kate turned around, and over Intrepid's shoulder saw a large blue and green sphere that was quickly filling up the cockpit glass.  "Oh.  Uh oh."

"Push both levers away from you," Intrepid said, "I'll pull mine, to pull up."

Kate pushed, but they wouldn't move in that direction.  "They're stuck."

"Okay, we'll go the other way.  Pull them and I'll push."

The rocket began to angle downwards painfully slowly.  Trails of flame began to appear over the cockpit glass as they entered the planet's atmosphere.

"We're making it, keep going!" Intrepid said.  They breached the atmospheric barrier, and a sea of clouds appeared in front of them, over their heads at the angle they were approaching, upside down.

They were still moving incredibly fast.  Their rocket passed through the clouds, and the ground appeared.  It looked like hills and plains.  They were a few degrees from level now, but the ground was fast approaching.

At that moment the engines died, and the rocket began to slow.  Looking up, Intrepid saw the ground looming.  A dark shape was paralleling their path - the rocket's shadow.  It was getting larger.  They were under the influence of the planet's gravity now, and their hair flew up to the cockpit roof.

Were they slowed down enough to survive the impact?

Intrepid felt another hand grabbing his.  He closed his eyes as the rocket crashed.

*****

Luke's rocket has escaped first.  A flash of light signified its entering hyperspace.  The Stromling rockets that had pursued the escaped escapee now banked around and levelled off, picking their next target: Cyclone.

The brown haired boy felt his tufts pressing sweatily against his forehead as he angled the rocket to attack.  The strategist in his mind told him he could take them out before they fired at him.  But he preferred grounded combat to this.  Here in the vastness of space, his rocket cockpit felt stiflingly small.  He found it uncomfortable to breathe.  Cyclone didn't think he was claustrophobic, but the thought crossed his mind now.  And of course it didn't help ease his mind that there were Maelstrom rockets trying to smash him.

The engine behind him whined as he turned the controls and entered a barrel roll above and over the attacking rockets, but they went right past him.  He realized with a start that they were now heading straight for Mara Mercury's rocket, which was dodging fire from the infected Venture, a Botany Bay class transport gunship, and now every rocket squad in sight.  He couldn't see where Intrepid and Kate's rocket was.  Perhaps they'd already escaped.

Mara's rocket was taking hits, and Cyclone didn't think a rocket was designed to take that much of a beating.  He swung his rocket upwards and around, arming the missile launcher, and pressed the engines.  How much more could Mara take? He diverted power away from the shields to go as fast as he reasonably could, even though he was well in the firing arcs of the Venture's broadside.  But it wasn't firing on him yet.

He was right on top of the nearest group of rocket's chasing down Mara, and quickly let loose a hail of missiles.  Each shot was true and impacted in the rockets' aft thrusters, disabling some and completely destroying the others.  Next in line was the Venture class itself.  Cyclone felt a sudden urge to eradicate the threat, it was getting closer, or he was getting closer to it, and the moment would soon pass.  There was half a volley of light rockets left, and he aimed the forward blasters at the Venture's shield distribution node.  He didn't really know what component he was shooting at, but it looked important.  A second of sustained blaster fire was enough for the ship's shields to visually fire, and Cyclone fired the rockets.

He kept firing even as he pulled up to avoid the impending explosions.  He'd gotten closer than he'd thought, and his rocket bucked and shook as something caught up with him.  A shockwave! Looking in his rearview mirror, he realized that the Venture was falling to a series of growing explosions.  The missiles had done critical damage.  There was a final burst of heat and light from the ship's center, and then the Infected Venture was no more.

A small white flash in the distance caught Cyclone's eye, and he saw that Mara Mercury had escaped.  The Maelstrom rockets were flying about in a frenzy, no longer coordinated with their leader ship lost.  There wasn't a better time to be gone, Cyclone thought, and engaged his rocket's hyperdrive with a flourish.  The Maelstrom disappeared behind him, and Cyclone sighed with relief.  He leaned back and let his hair fall in his face.  His locks were black.

Cyclone sat up with a start.  His hair wasn't supposed to be black.  He reached up to grab at it, when he noticed the color of his hands was wrong as well.  Instead of fair, they were purple.  And instead of a thumb and fingers, one of his hands was a sword.

His heart pounded in his chest.  Lightheadedly, Cyclone realized it was no wonder why the Maelstrom hadn't attacked him.  Because something had changed, and now he was Maelstrom again, too.

Next: Part Two: Eclipse