Greetings,
This goes before Ops. Basically at the very beginning of
everything. IE I started at the beginning for once folks. ;) C+C is
welcomed. Email to them at bentley4@ix.netcom.com or the ffml. This is an
alpha version, work in progress. Finals in two weeks.....going to be
lurking till the 12th or so....after the 12th, PG3 End I'll start back up
on. Then Ops, then the Beginning....you get the drift. :)
Thanx,
Bentley
bentley4@ix.netcom.com
Phantom Riders: Dreams
Written by R. Bentley
(C) 1996 Bentley
I remember what happened.
What I experienced will probably remain with me forever until I
pass from this world onto the next.
I was the first to experimented on by our God. I was the first to
escape his experiments, I ran like a child as my family and friends
walked willingly into his arms, into the light, into the darkness. I
listened to their screams as I coward in the city that I helped build. I
watched them be torn apart like rag dolls and stitched up like a walking
corpse. And I was the one they tried to hunt down.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning of all this.
My name is Cassi and I am a Tendor. You might be thinking why does
my name sound so pronounceable, my name in your language would make no
sense even if I were to try and translate correctly, in my language my
name sounds like Cassi, so that is what you can call me. I was borne into
a family of three daughters and two sons on board a returning star ship
from the deep throws of space. I am told that when I took my first breath
of air I was clinically dead for the first hour. My mother was still
having birthing pains as I withered away, my father hadn�t yet been told
of my birthing he was still working, designing ships to take our race to
the stars. He arrived as I�m told when I stopped breathing. My first and
most certainly not the last time the darkness embraced me.
According to my birth records in the core of our planet I was
borne in a year that been designated as one of silence. A year when no
child would be borne to anyone, no matter what you believed in, no matter
what rank in society your parents held. I as a child did not exist. The
records have an note attached to them it says "This baby was borne into
our world in the third year of silence, she ceased to exist. Through no
fault of her parents or the doctors she was borne a day early. This baby
was a kicker. She survived long enough for the new year to cross the
horizon and she lived."
The first thing I remember was closing my eyes because of the
light, the death around me screamed as a candle was lit and began to grow
whiter as our skin, it was then when I became the first baby to be borne
in the year of enlightenment. I�ve viewed the vids of my birth when I
passed my age of enlightenment, my parents looked so happy when I came
into the world, the camera taking the vids nearly shorted out due to how
much light I was giving off in the room. My sisters and brothers were
informed of my death, they almost didn�t believe that I rose from the
dead a day later. According them I was a terror from day one, I guess
setting the house on fire three times, practicing my magic tricks thus
levitating the building where my parents worked and piloting a cruiser
into the drink would be called a terror eh?
The year of enlightenment was a year where most of our planets
factories began to build new vehicles to travel into the black sky which
one of our famous cruisers dubbed space. Space turned out to be very
boring, I muttered that to my old sister when she took me up in one of
her cruisers. Our planet had light, detail, originality while space was
just black. Nothing, zip, nada, I pouted for about another week until we
hit planet side and went to work as a cruiser�s first mate. I don�t know
why, I don�t know how, maybe it was the fact we could only go so far
before loosing sight of our home world. The one place that fascinated me
the most was the one place I wanted to leave.
My mother had started out as a cruiser Captain and worked her way
up into the High Council, she retired from the HC once I passed my tests
of abilities and progression, a batch of tests that show how much
knowledge one has grasped since they were borne. Rumors circulated that I
had gotten special treatment due to what my parents did, even though most
of my class mates will vouch for me on this one. I distanced myself from
my parents while I study for the test, even though these tests are ones
you can�t study for I did anyway. I trekked up into the ruins of the
first city that was built on our world and stayed there with a group from
my class and studied until it flowed from our ears. Each one of us passed
with high honors. Looking back now at all that happened I�m not as
shocked as I was to see all of us getting dumped on the same cruiser or
for my selection of a crew. But I�m getting a head of my self
After the tests I was given the opportunity to either choose which
cruiser I wanted to be on or let the Acedemy Council randomly choose
which cruiser and which post. I was asked during the celebration party
for all of the students that passed, I was completely drunk on whatever
Firewater my parents had hidden away for such an occasion. I don�t even
remember what I said, let it not be said I cannot hold my �water. One
drink of the stuff and I�m in heaven, I�m not addicted to the stuff by a
long shot, I�ve heard the older the �water the worse the hang over will
be in the morning and the talk from all the religious addicts will say
�water pollutes you�re soul. All in all, I have no memory of any of the
events of the party, I wish I did, least I could actually remember
calling my ex-boyfriend a complete jerk off to his face and dumping right
on the spot.
At first I thought enrolling and passing the tests would be easy,
they were. I think the hardest part was remember what job was went to go
with what cruiser. To say I that I put a cruiser through it�s paces would
be an understatement, I nearly cost my father his job giving his own
designs a shake down cruise. I was suspended a put on planet side for at
least a cycle, I stayed on planet and basically annoyed the hell out my
parents until my youngest sister came home with her new baby. Babies
started to pop up everywhere, it wasn�t that I had the same idea as
everyone else, I hadn�t found anyone yet. My ex-boyfriend was one of the
few to enlist in a military program to terraform one of the twenty
satellites in orbit of our planet, friends from my little test group were
cross off the list. They felt more like family then anything else. The
coupling years seemed to drag by until a rumor that I had been hearing
about from some of the cruiser Captain�s came true. A chance to enlist on
a deep space cruiser, it�s goal to explore much farther out then any of
us had even dreamt off. My parents presented the cruiser to me as a
birthday present, I was to be her Captain. I was able to recall most of
my test groupies and assign them spots on the manifest, my oldest brother
was given a spot as science officer and we dubbed her the Searcher. A
crew compliment of ten thousand we set sail on the eve of a new year.
The Searcher was a sleek ship, it looked big on the outside but
on the inside it was even larger. You may think that a crew compliment of
ten thousand is rather large waste of space and people. Ten thousand was
a our scientists best guess of how many people would be on board when we
returned from our journey. The male to female ratio on the ship was a
little biased in my view, the Captain only got to choose her command
staff, anyone else was chosen by the council. We had people from all
walks of life on board, scientists, warriors, civilians. If you hadn�t
guessed there were more women on board then men. I would bitch some more
about this but what kind of story teller would I be?
We kept in contact with our home world through a long range
communication set up in the middle of the ship, something that had been
kept top secret to the public. At first I didn�t know why they kept it a
secret, so it projected an image of you to a viewer a long distance away.
My view of this changed when long range sensors reported another ship in
our path. I ordered the ship out of hyperspace, the ship�s tac drives
were brought down to stand-by and the Searcher reappeared in normal
black, boring space. My brother was the first to react, he scanned the
ship in front of us and reported. It was one of our cruisers, it just sat
out there, her hull had been torn apart and crew of what looked to be
thirty just drifted in front of us. I ordered all communication lines to
be cut immediately and towed the remains on board for an through
investigation. That was when the shit hit the fan.
"I detest this, Captain!"
"Move out of the way, Ciro, we need to get through." Cassi
replied and held back the security guards. She glared down the religious
figure, the one she had been butting heads with ever since they left dry
dock. He was one of the older Mages on board and was so stubborn. He and
two other of his kind blocked the door way to the main hangar bay. All
the debris from the derelict had been tractored on board, all of it had
gone through deep detox and was ready to be looked over. Why is he here,
Cassi thought. "Get away from the door."
The Mage was know as Ciro and his two lower disciples took an
aggressive step forward, their bows flickered for a moment as their
mystic energy surged from their bodies to their only weapons. "We cannot
allow to go any further Captain, we have orders." The younger female
disciple retorted and looked away from Cassi�s death glare, something she
had shown off in training only. "Only followers can enter and see what
remains."
"Orders from who?!" Decca responded from behind the two groups of
armored security guards. She was the senior helmsman for the Searcher and
probably the second most heavily trained person in hand to hand combat on
the boat. She also had very short fuse when it came to the religious
sect, pairing her up with her brother had been the first thing Cassi had
done when they set sail. He calmed her down considerably. She stood on
her tip toes to see and nudged her navigator to move over more so she
could see. This corridor was getting cramped, it wasn�t ment for a close
quarters confrontation and if the Mages started up with their magic the
door to the hangar bay would be the first thing to go then outer hull and
then them.
"Our orders are to search space and record what we see," Cassi�s
brother Alex semi-quoted the rules engraved on the wall on the bridge. He
was right behind Cassi, behind him were the guards, then Decca, then Dina
their navigator. He could have sworn he heard one of the guards say
"pleaze start a fight, pleeze start a fight." He ducked his head under
the outer airlock frame to try and get a better look, this was as far as
they had gotten before one of the younger Mages had dropped water on
Cassi by accident. She was the only one inside the inner air lock, the
others were still clustered in behind the guards. "I take it you have
orders from the Black Arts Council, right Ciro?"
Ciro�s fluffy white eye brows shot to the top of his head. His
hands nearly dropped his bow on the deck. He recovered quickly and sucked
in his chest. "I do yes." He replied. "And they told me not to allow
anyone besides our followers through this door."
Alex leaned forward through the door frame, reached out with his
right hand and pulled Cassi back just enough so he could whisper in her
ear. Her eyebrows raised this time and she smiled. "Then you won�t mind
Alex taking a look then?" She said and crossed her arms.
Both of the younger Mages looked at each other then at Ciro.
"What is she talking about, sir?"
"He�s a Mage�s apprentice," Ciro muttered through his white
beard.
Alex nodded gleefully, pulled out his final test scores and his
certification of passing. Decca was the only one who gave a pat on the
back to Alex while the other people in the corridor let out a slight
groan, he had been showing it off to people since the left dry dock. They
had almost forgotten about how much of a show off he was until he pulled
that one piece of paper out. He didn�t hear one of the guards say "if he
does that one more time do I have your permission to slap him around,
just a little sir?" "Cassi would be too but she filed her papers before
we pulled anchor. She should qualified by now. So are you going to let us
both pass or are you going to stand there and let us wait until you pass
out or your power runs out."
Ciro�s teeth started to grind together as he motioned for both of
his apprentices to stand down. "You will tell none of your crew this
Captain."
Cassi took a step forward, little droplets of water entrailed
behind her. "What am I supposed to tell them Ciro, the debris you all saw
was reflection of our own ship? There�s nothing out here but space. No
one would believe me and sooner or later I would probably be asked to
step down due to incompetence or something." She said in one deep breath.
"Besides how bad can it be?" She commented.
Ciro�s eyes met hers as the outer air lock door hissed open.
On that deck we saw why the secrecy of the communication system
had been so tight. The debris on the deck of the hangar bay was the
remains of one of the religious sect�s cruisers. Her crew compliment had
been only one or two but the passenger on that cruiser had been one of
the sect�s rulers. I had read about him in books they had supplied at the
Acedemy for us, the few people who wanted to become Mages or people not
borne into the Mages Sect, those known as Pryors. The ruler had been
known as Knol, he had tried to unify church and state into one big
bundle, this was back during the age of silence, a few years before I was
borne. He was also one of founders of the religious sect and the one that
had introduced Black Arts into the Sect. Black Arts usage had been
foundation for the long range comm system, the military along with my
father must have tried to duplicate the idea with out using the Arts as a
crutch. It worked, so why the hell did we find Knol�s remains on the deck
of my ship and why did we find a brand new, never been touch by Tendor
hands Black Arts book clasped in his hands. A book that had never been
released to the public.
Over dinner one night in my cabin Alex had explained that Knol�s
ship had been lost in a solar storm of some kind, he was coming back from
a dig on one of the moons when his cruiser vanished off the radar
screens. The storm according to the trans scripts had appeared one moment
engulfed the cruiser and vanished. Knol�s vision had snow balled over the
next few years. I was Mage on my father�s side, Alex and I were the only
ones who expressed interest in the Arts at a very early age. Over the
next few months the comm system still bother me a little bit, so what if
it was long range, it wasn�t like anyone was out this far anyway.
Me and my big mouth.
Alex moved from one console to another and eyed the readings as
they came in from the long and short range scanners. His smile was
illuminated by the scanner�s monitors as he sat back in his seat.
"Computer AI has confirmed Captain," he reported. He looked over his
shoulder and winked at Decca. "We�ve got a planet coming up on us."
Cassi turned in her seat to see Alex to make sure he wasn�t
joking. "Visual!" She ordered.
The view screen that made up three fourths of the bridge�s main
window fuzzed over with snow for a moment and then became crystal clear.
A jewel of a planet appeared to the left of the screen while various
numbers appeared to the other side of the screen. The entire bridge crew
turned in their seats as Decca slowed the ship back into normal space and
blue white planet filled the main window. "Dina, lock that planet
coordinates into the computer and plot a reverse course back to home,"
Decca murmured in awe.
"Aye."
"She�s smaller then our home world, energy output from the core
is off the scale," Alex replied to Cassi�s thought before it reached her
lips. "Looks like it�s a new borne."
"Reverse course appearing on screen two." Dina commented and fed
the information from the nav computer into the screen�s projectors.
Everyone not in complete awe of this spectacle turned to see the second
largest screen on the window surge to life. Their homeworld appeared in
the middle of the screen, a wavy dotted line started to appear, it went
from their home world to green dot. "Green dot is the debris of Knol�s
ship," Dina voiced over as the dotted line continued on it�s course until
it came to a blue dot. "Blue dot is this planet."
"Almost a straight line," Cassi muttered.
"And if we�re the center of the universe," Alex thought it
through. "We�ve come to a cross roads in our travels. We either explore
the planet below or return home." He turned to his sister. "You�re orders
ma�am?"
To be continued�..