before shattering into the cupboards within the kitchen. Where the fragile glass had struck, the wood was splintered from the explosive impact. Yen stared in surprise at the unleashed power, cursing himself for still lacking the control he desired. Absently, he used the back of his hand to wipe away the blood that seeped from his nostril as he felt the pain in his head swelling once more.
Knowing he was already late, Yen shuffled into the hall outside his quarters, squinting against the harsh light. As he moved to the elevator that would take him to the bridge, he passed Crewmen in the halls, catching snippets of thoughts as his power reached involuntarily into their minds. Shaking his head, he slammed his fist into the call button for the elevator, urging it to hurry to his floor. As the doors opened, he slipped into the relative coolness and darkness of the waiting lift. Glancing over, he noticed a Crewman First Class standing rigidly with his arms behind his back, having not been told to relax in front of a superior officer.
“At ease,” Yen mumbled to him. Though he visibly relaxed, he still kept his eyes directly ahead. He said nothing, but his thoughts were an open book to Yen, who continued to scan the minds of those around him.
Yen growled to himself, shaking the thoughts free from him mind. He glared at the Crewman, who glanced over and nodded respectfully to the Squadron Commander. As the door opened onto the bridge, Yen quickly exited the elevator and covered his eyes against the harsh light. He quickly noticed that other officers on the bridge sat around in obvious disdain and impatience. Nearly an hour late, Yen could understand their frustrations.
“So glad you could finally join us,” Merric said sarcastically from his seat at the Tactical Station. Yen felt his words slice into his mind, Merric’s voice continuing to grate on his nerves.
“Enough, Eminent,” the Captain chided from the helm. “Regardless of the delays, we still have a very important business to discuss. In less than a month, we’ll be engaging the rear vanguard of the Terran Fleet. They are already moving to intercept, which means that they will be firmly into position…” She looked inquisitively toward Merric, who looked down to examine his data.
“Less than a week, ma’am,” Merric finally answered.
“…less than a week before we arrive,” she finished. “Still, that means that they will be firmly entrenched, using the cover of the orbiting planets to their advantage while we, having pulled hard gravities the entire two months, will enter the system defenseless and exhausted from the travel. We will be at the disadvantage, which will lead to even further delays in our attempt to protect the Alliance capital on Arcendor.”
Captain Hodge leaned forward, her pale wings pulled in tightly against her back. “What I need is ideas and lots of them. I need a way to turn their advantage into ours. I need a way to decimate their significant vanguard while taking few if any losses to our own Fleet. You all are my premier officers on board, my tacticians. Give me ideas.”
As the group was prone to do, a silence ensued as they wordlessly jockeyed for position. No one wanted to voice their opinion first for fear of being overshadowed by another shortly thereafter. Instead, they all sat in silence and reanalyzed their own strategies, ensuring no loophole existed that could be exploited by a rival officer. To Yen, the world suddenly turned into an explosion of sound as voices and ideas overlapped into a hazy grey of background noise. Occasional voices rose to the forefront and Yen grasped at the fractured ideas like life rafts in the rising flood of thoughts.
A single voice rang out louder than the others, its smugness and overconfidence apparent even in his thoughts. As the voice explained the strategy in great detail, Yen focused his attention solely on the sound of its arrogant tone, drowning out everything else in the room.
“The Terrans are operating in a very narrow window of opportunity,” the voice explained in the small bridge. “If they can’t get into position ahead of the Alliance Fleet, then all advantage will be lost and their ships will be annihilated, regardless of their numbers. We use their reliance on the projections of our Fleet’s arrival against them. Since we’re already burning our engines at maximum speed while traveling through open space, we’ll have to use a different technique to accelerate our timetable.
“My recommendation is to use the gravities of planet’s we’re passing by already on our route to our advantage. There are three gas giants that we will have to cross near during our two-month trip. All three of them suffer from intense gravities, between fifty to one hundred times that of a normal gravity on board our ships. If we slingshot around these three planets, skimming across their atmospheres, we can shave over a week off our journey, putting us in the sector of space just ahead of the Terran vanguard.
“The passage through the increased gravities will be hellacious on the crew as even the gravity inhibitors on board won’t be able to suppress the combined might of the planets’ gravities and those of higher accelerations. However, the couple hours of discomfort will be worth it for the positive gain we will receive as we establish our own ambush for the Terran Destroyers.”
As the voice stopped, Yen felt the pressure build again behind his eyes and nearly cried out in pain. Blinking strongly, he focused once again on the room and looked around, surprised to see everyone staring at him. He looked from face to face and realized, in horror, that the arrogant voice he had been hearing was his own. As he finished his scan of the room, he saw the shocked and infuriated expression plastered across Merric’s face and knew that while it had been his voice telling the plan, it had not been his own idea. Before Merric could say anything, however, Captain Hodge stood from her chair.
“I will assume that the reason you were late to this meeting,” she began, “was because you were finalizing the details on your plan.” A smile broke across her thin lips, one that Yen mirrored to the best of his ability. “I think the idea of using the gas giants to slingshot ahead of the Terrans is brilliant. Does anyone else have another idea or anything to add to Squadron Commander Xiao’s?”
She looked from officer to officer, but they all shook their heads, knowing their own plans jeopardized the ships in the Fleet significantly more than did Yen’s. When she finally reached Merric, her eyes rested on him longer as she watched the blood drain from his red face.
“Eminent Merric,” she asked, “do you have anything to add?”
“No, ma’am,” he said through tightly clenched teeth and jaw muscles that clenched and unclenched in his fury. “I have nothing to add to the
“Then this meeting is going to be prematurely concluded,” Captain Hodge said. “Navigation, begin plotting a course that will take us into the atmospheres of the gas giants. Commander Xiao, good work.”
Yen had no urge to stay on the bridge. Between his growing migraine and open hostile feelings rolling off of Merric like sheets, Yen was quickly feeling nauseous once more and had no desire to vomit blood in front of his commanding officer. Instead, he slipped quickly into the lift and closed the doors behind him, leaving the rest of the bridge crew trapped until the elevator returned for them. He hurried through the doors as the elevator stopped on his floor and, entering his code, he slipped into the enveloping darkness within. Taking a seat at the table, Yen placed his head in the crook of his arms and breathed deeply of the cool air in his room, glad to be out of the stifling discomfort of the bridge. Moments after sitting down, however, he heard a code being entered into his door. He turned as the door slid open and light flooded into the dark room. Standing in the doorframe, silhouetted against the bright light, Merric glowered at the seated Yen.
Merric stormed into the room as Yen slid out of his chair and moved around to the backside of the table, keeping the furniture in between himself and the infuriated tactical officer. His head ached as he sought the words that would placate the understandably upset officer.
“You stole my idea,” Merric snarled. “That was my plan and you know it!”
Merric lunged around the right side of the table, but Yen quickly moved as well, keeping the table between the two. The jarring movement caused another spike of pain to run through his skull and the air around him wavered slightly. Yen noticed a faint blue glow emanating from his hands. He was barely maintaining control of his powers, but Merric barely slowed to notice.
“I spent two days on that plan and you plucked it from my mind, you cowardly thief!”
“Merric, I’m sorry,” Yen tried to explain. “I didn’t even realize I did that to you until it was already too late.”
