Chapter 9: Hide and Seek

I awoke lying on my back in that strange forest. A fine mist in the air diffused the light from far above me. Why did I keep returning here?

“Hello?” I asked. Perhaps Koluna or Quon were here with more guidance.

I got no response.

Gradually, I sensed another presence. An entity somewhere in the mist prowled around, searching for me. The forest was silent, but I sensed it was somewhere out there.

As it got closer, I felt its relentless drive, searching. I wondered what would happen if I reached out to it. Perhaps I could communicate with it, discover why they pursued me.

And how could I tell it was searching for me? The forest might contain a multitude of creatures, each prowling around. Yet, I somehow knew it was searching for me.

Another thought came to me. Was it just me having such dreams, or did Jem experience them? I’d ask her if I could remember. It wasn’t easy to recall things from here once I awoke.

I focused all my thoughts on remaining hidden. I wasn’t ready to confront the entity here. It wouldn’t be playing to my strength. I didn’t know for certain if an entity could hurt me in a dream, but prudence dissuaded me from finding out.

The presence moved on, searching for me in the mist. At one point, I thought I heard it howling in frustration.

I waited for I didn’t know how long. Finally, I no longer sensed the presence nearby. I let out a sigh of relief.

I lay back down on the grass. Then the trees faded.

Yuhi awoke from her trance in her meditation chamber. This target was unlike any other she’d hunted. Lately, his signal spiked stronger than ever. Now it became silent. It almost seemed he was aware of her presence and was hiding from her, but that was impossible.

She knew their next destination, so she didn’t need to update the Captain, yet the changes in his signal were a mystery.

Yuhi grabbed a drink of water. These trances left her dehydrated, and searching for him took longer than she liked to remain in a trance state.

Her Imperial Majesty assigned her to this mission personally, and she couldn’t return empty-handed.

The Empress didn’t forgive failure. The same applied to the crew of all three Wolfe class vessels. They had to succeed.

Yuhi set an alarm for a few hours from now. She needed to rest before trying again.

I awoke in my cabin feeling refreshed. After my morning ritual, I left with a coffee in my hand.

“Ship, where’s Saria?” I asked.

“She’s in the gymnasium, Captain,” replied Ship.

I turned towards the elevator, but the door didn’t open as I approached.

“Excuse me, Captain,” said Ship.

“Yes, Ship?”

“Thank you for what you did for Ivan.”

“He was dying, and I arrived in time.”

“Because of your actions, he still lives, and with a new purpose.”

“It worked out for all involved. The Baglogi were peacekeepers, and Ivan keeps the peace between the descendants of his crew. Ivan also made the distress call that got me back,” I said.

“I have recorded your actions in my memory. In due course, I will synchronize them with all Baglogi AI,” said Ship.

The door opened, and I stepped inside the elevator. I considered the meaning of Ship’s statement to me. I just did what had to be done.

The elevator door opened, this time on the cargo level. I entered the gymnasium to find Saria in the middle of a workout.

“Good morning, Captain. Are you here to spar?” asked Saria with a hopeful look in her eye.

“Perhaps later. I thought we could discuss tactics for the upcoming battle,” I said.

“Meet you in the garden in a few,” she said, picking up her towel and pointing towards the changing room.

I nodded and left the gymnasium. The garden was a few doors along the corridor. It was a favourite place of mine.

A few minutes later, Saria entered.

“So, what do we have,” she said.

“An unknown number of hostile vessels will arrive, soon after we do. I don’t know their capabilities,” I said.

“What’s their aim?” she asked.

“To kill or capture me,” I replied.

“And one or more of them are psychic,” added Saria.

“Exactly,” I said.

“Do you know if they’ll use any psychic attack?” she asked.

“I don’t think so, but I can’t rule it out. It’s rather new to me.”

“Then we should prepare for a conventional attack,” said Saria.

“We have our cloaking, probes, nano-bots, and data port probes.”

“Why not use energy based weapons?” she asked.

“Never had to do that. The nano-bots are devastating, and we’ve had success with the data port probes to take control of hostile vessels.”

“But Ship has offensive capabilities, even if you’ve never used them.”

“My approach is usually to hide and defeat the enemy from a distance.”

“Will the hostiles be able to locate us psychically, when we’re cloaked?” asked Saria.

“I’ve practiced hiding from their psychic locating, but I’ve no way to tell if it works.”

“That gives me an idea,” she said. “If they can track you psychically, it negates our cloaking.”

“Unless I can hide from them.” I countered.

“You can take a shuttle and hide behind a moon.”

“And if they go straight to the moon, I’ll know my hiding doesn’t work.”

Saria smiled.

“Without you aboard, we have cloaking, plus cloaked probes. The odds are in our favour,” said Saria.

“I agree. Ship, once we arrive, deploy cloaked probes around the system,” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“I feel much better now. If I’m hiding behind a moon, Jem will need your help,” I said.

“I’ve already studied your past battles,” said Saria.

“Good,” I said.

I had one last play, but I kept that to myself.

A while later, I visited the lido. Jem was in her usual hammock, and Cathy and Laine sat at a table nearby. All wore bathing outfits. When I walked in, they stopped talking and smiled at me.

“Good morning, ladies,” I said.

“Good morning, Captain,” said Jem.

The lido was slightly different since my last visit. Someone had added a waterfall that fed into the pool.

I looked at Jem and tilted my head as if to ask a question.

“That’s your fault, filling my subconscious with waterfalls,” she said.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I did that to you,” I said.

She smiled.

I fetched a chair and sat with them at the table.

“What’s it like?” asked Cathy.

“What’s what like?” I asked.

“The psychic connection,” she said.

“It’s all rather new. I wasn’t fully aware of it until yesterday,” I replied.

“Can you send messages across great distances?” asked Laine.

“Probably, but I best not try while others are listening in,” I said with a grin.

“Do you have any idea how close they are?” asked Jem.

“Not exactly,” I replied. “I suspect they’ll arrive in the system not long after we do.”

“You have a plan to deal with them?” she asked.

“I do, Commodore. I was working out details with Saria earlier.”

She smiled.

“If it’s the Lagaid, we beat them before and we can do it again,” said Laine.

“I don’t think it’s the Lagaid this time,” I said.

“How do you know? Or even, how do you know someone is pursuing us?” asked Cathy.

“An old friend told me in a dream,” I said.

Jem sat up in her hammock.

“This is your credible intel?” she asked.

“It’s the same source that told me of our psychic connection. Since then, I’ve sensed the entity searching for me,” I said.

“Wait! So, you not only have a connection with Jem, you also received messages in dreams and you can sense the entity searching for you,” said Cathy.

“Yes, that’s correct,” I said.

“And I thought your technology was amazing...” said Cathy.

Jem stood up.

“Captain, we still need to repeat our lure. Please come with me,” she said.

I stood and followed Jem. As we left, I could feel two pairs of eyes on our backs.

We left the lido and entered Jem’s cabin. She sat on her bed and looked up at me.

“How should we play it this time, Captain,” she asked.

“If we keep showing the star map, they’ll know we’re onto them. We can send messages back and forth. I’ll mention the Herlao system.”

“That’s a step further.” She patted a space on the bed beside her.

I sat and held her hand in mine.

“Physical contact made the difference,” I said. She nodded.

We looked into each other’s eyes. Soon something clicked in my mind, and I knew we had a connection established. Jem smiled.

“You can feel it?” I asked through the link.

“Yess...” I heard her reply.

I wanted to ask her things, to explore more about this link, but not with our pursuers listening. This was only to lure them in our direction.

“Have you been ... to the Herlao system?” I sent.

Jem sighed. She looked flushed. The feedback was amplifying our experience again.

“No ... Not been ... before,” she said slowly. It was more than words. Every syllable conveyed feelings and stimulated my brain strangely. It was my turn to groan.