By the end of day one Enid was bored out of her mind on the Synthlin transport. By this time she’d be compulsively drinking blood to calm her nerves, but all her blood was in her pack which was sitting in Apollo’s cockpit. All she had was her lucky travel mug and her Atlantean armor. By day six she was counting Synthlin ration packs. Which were oddly small. Their weapons were a bit big for her but she found several assault rifles and pistols. No armor though. By day ten she had translated a third of the displays and had used the Synthlin version of sticky notes and a pen to label them. Only she was so bored she had relabeled them in Latin, then Sanskrit, then in Babylonian. So each control had four notes on it in various languages. When she arrived in system, she was bouncing one of their swarm grenades against a wall and catching it. She’d determined that they were fairly stable as she’d been doing it for several hours. She grabbed one of the Synthlin duffle style bags and loaded it up with all the weapons and ration packs she found.

“Apollo?”

“I am here. How was your trip?”

“Oh fine, fine, did you happen to notice my pack was sitting on the seat?”

“I did. I wish I could have opened it and read one of your books to pass the time.”

Enid frowned.

“You don’t say. Anyway, anything come into the system?”

“No, no signs of any recent visitors either.”

“I told you no scanning!”

“I only performed passive observation. And my passive observation has detected an anomaly on the fourth planet from the star.”

“I guess that’s our target. Meet you there. While I was on board, I figured out the FTL drive.”

Enid tapped the instructions in and made the short jump to the fourth planet. She checked the scanners, which she’d also figured out in her utter and complete boredom.

“Looks like there’s a structure protected by an energy shield.”

“Yes, frequency is different. Comms are only a single I’m alive ping. At galactic distances it would be hard to pinpoint unless you were looking for it. Probably why the Silwrath haven’t noticed it.”

“We’ll they seemed to react pretty fast to our FTL travel so I suspect they are not far behind. Kind of don’t one hundred percent understand the sensor readings but they look better than yours. Do me a favor and link up with the scanners on the transport if you can.”

“Attempting link.”

Enid saw two buttons flashing on her touch screen one was purple, one was hot pink. She knew well by now for these guys purple was good, hot pink was bad. She hit the purple. Text scrolled down her screen.

“Link established, yes I can confirm the scanners are far better then mine. I am seeing FTL traffic out to three parsecs, nine light years. You are correct there are three FTL signatures coming from the galactic rim. They are almost a quarter of a light year away. We have a few hours at their current relative velocity.”

“We better get to work then. Stay in orbit, establish a comm link to Amee. I’ll get access to the outpost. Damn I wish we could get this transport to Earth, would be damn helpful to have nine light years of warning someone’s heading our way.”

Enid started atmospheric entry; It was densely packed with foliage. No oceans to speak of but it was covered in swamps and peat bogs. The clouds were thick. Atmosphere was breathable.

“Aunt Enid, I have established a link with your fiancée.”

“Amee?”

“Hey, glad to hear your voice. Got to the target safely?”

“Yes, but the silwrath aren’t far behind. Can you request landing clearance?”

“On it. Mmm link established. Using clearance codes I ripped from the base. Accepted. You’re good to go. The landing pad should be lit up.”

Enid glanced out of her cockpit window.

“Got it and I guess that is telemetry showing me where to land. Following the flight path.”

Enid slowly set the transport down on the landing pad which seemed to be on the roof of the building.

“Hey…if I can find a way to get the Silwrath off of our tails you think we can establish a wormhole link here?”

“I’m leery of it.”

“Hon, if it takes them twelve days to travel three light years, it will take them…like seventeen thousand years to reach us.”

“How exactly are you planning on taking on three battleships of a super advanced species.”

“Antimatter torpedoes.”

“You only have two of those and I really don’t want to show our hand.”

“The scanner tech on this transport and the…uh hovertank I put on board when I thought we might need to use it…is worth showing our hand.”

“Still there are three battle ships and all you have are one unarmed AWACs transport, two antimatter torpedoes, and a starfighter.”

“I’m still working on a plan for the last one.”

“You’re crazy you know that.”

“Well, you said it yourself they aren’t equipped to fight a vampire. What is stopping me from boarding it and tearing to shreds on the inside?”

“Uh, well…you… are my fiancée so no, no bad Enid!”

“I think its worth the risk, besides we have no idea what their physical capabilities are. What their defenses are like.”

“You said it yourself it will take them seventeen thousand years to reach us.”

“You’re trying to ruin my fun. I just engaged in the first human/alien dogfight in the history of humanity, I wanna see if I can torpedo a couple of capital ships, you know, I never got the chance when I was in the Navy, I always wanted too. Pleeease Amee.”

“You and your daughter are alike you know that?”

“Well I raised her, I can’t exactly deny that.”

“Go get me connect to their system so we can get the data and you can blow that place up and head home.”

“Spoil sport.”

Enid walked out of the transport and onto the reinforced metal of the landing pad. She saw a set of stairs leading down. Rain was pelting her as she rushed down the stairs.

“Stupid shield can’t even stop rain.”

“Its probably moving to slow, or it is just there to stop pure energy attacks.”

“Do ours stop rain?”

“Depends on their frequency.”’

Enid ran into a door but she was quite used to their wiring now and she was able to pop the panel and hotwire it in thirty seconds.

“Look at you, a master criminal.”

“Third one I’ve had to do and they were all the same.”

The door slid open and Enid rushed in out of the pelting rain. Unlike the military base this outpost was grimy and filthy.

“It stinks in here.”

“Well its been sealed for several thousand years.”

“Ya some venting would have been smart.”

Enid forced her helmet to cover her face.

“Pretty sure if I was mortal that would have killed me. What am I looking for Amee?”

“Comm uplink.”

“Just tell me if you see one.”

Enid started clearing dust off of the touch screens. There were discard food wrappers all over the place.

“The scientist that made you was…disgusting.”

“His entire family got wiped from existence and he was the last of his race, I’ll forgive him a bit of depression.”

Enid cleaned off another computer screen.

“There, that’s the one.”

Amee send Enid a text message through the link. Enid typed it in symbol for symbol. The computer screens flickered.

“I’m in.”

“Yes this is it, this is his lab.”

“What are you hoping to gain from this?”

“I don’t know, some secret to defeating the Silwrath, the location of their home world, anything… why I was chosen.”

Enid started poking around the lab she found two tubes of what looked like a grey liquid she reached out to touch one.

“Don’t touch that.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s a nanovirus. Programed to tear about organic material.”

“How do you know that?”

“He implanted me with a lot of memories. I remember that one well.”

“Well that sounds like something we might want to use against the Silwrath…”

“He tried but it failed. Its just plain dangerous leave it be.”

“What about the other one?”

“That is another cyborg source. That one you can bring home.”

Enid added it to the duffle bag she’d procured from the transport. Enid continued to pick around the lab and found a door leading further into the structure. She forced it open and nearly tripped over what looked like a strange purple alien but it had metallic hoses running all over it. It was the same style as the fighters and hover tank and transport, but this was about eight feet tall and humanoid.

“Ames I think I found your scientist.”

“Oh no, he’s dead.”

“Well its been thousands of years.”

“I hoped…”

“Your scientist was a robot hon…no wait scanner’s picking up organic material in the chest.”

Enid crouched down.

“You have any idea what they look like?”

“No, his construct prevented me from remembering him. I know I saw him once. Voice sounded like hazelnut hot chocolate.”

“So he sounded sexy?”

“Well…he sure ain’t sexy. Based on scans though this is…an environmental suit?”

“That is correct, Aunt Enid.”

“See any way to open it up.”

“I would not recommend it, the organic entity inside would cease to function.”

“What do you mean cease to function? He’s not dead?”

“Yes, he is a state of suspended animation. It looks like his suit lost power eventually and he had no way to recharge it. I see several power cores that are depleted.”

“Show me a picture.”

A purple device that looked like something akin to a futuristic power box fuse appeared in front of Enid.

“Hey there are a few of those on the transport.”

“Then perhaps we can…introduce Amee to her creator?”

“On it. Hey Amee, going up to the ship to get something. And could you get the air recyclers going so I can take this damn helmet off?”

She saw her fiancée’s head nod absently. Enid shrugged and went up to the transport, it was still pouring rain. She got a feeling that was a constant on this planet. She dug through the survival kits she found and pulled out eight of the portable batteries and walked back to the unconscious scientist. She rolled the alien body armor over and started replacing the plugs.

“Hey Amee, what was that scientists name?”

“Theon.”

Enid quirked an eyebrow. One word answers, Amee only did that when was completely engrossed in something. She rolled the scientist over and looked him over. Nothing she frowned.

“Apollo how far out are those Silwrath battleships?”

“Two hours.”

“Did you hear that babe?”

Enid waited patiently for a response. She received none.

“Amee!”

“What, what?”

“You only have two hours so whatever you want to do, get done…hmm?”

Enid started tapping the small door where the three-inch tall Synthlin was hiding.

“Hey Theon, wake up.”

The Synthlin power armor started shifting and looking around with its purple face plate. Enid heard a voice in her head, there was fear in it, but damned if it didn’t sound like hazelnut hot chocolate tasted.

“Who are you what do you want?”

“Yo, three Silwrath battleships are on their way here and we don’t have much time. So how about we just get what we need done to get you out of here safely and we’ll talk later hmm?”

“You…you are an alien!”

“No shit. And you’re a telepath, which is cool and all but again, three Silwrath battleships are on their way and we only have a couple of hours before they get here. And my fiancée really wants some data from here, so if you could help me…help her I’d appreciate it.”

The Synthlin was still in a daze. Enid wasn’t sure what the impact of a few thousand years of suspended animation would have on such a creature but she was not exactly in the mood to dawdle. She tapped her lucky travel mug on his face plate.

“Snap out of it Theon, your nanites worked, we’re here to rescue you.”

“You are trapped with me, we can’t leave the temporal shields.”

“Amee, is that true?”

“Is what true?”

“If Theon leaves the temporal shield will he vanish?”

“Not if the temporal event that wiped his race out has finished propagating.”

“See? You’re fine. Besides the transport has temporal shields and so does my fighter and we have them on all of our habitation domes. You’ll be fine. Amee, download now, read later.”

“Sure…sure. Wait why are you asking about Theon?”

“Because he’s alive and I’m talking to him. He was freaking out about leaving the temporal shields.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did…never mind you know have an hour and forty-five minutes.”

“Download’s going slow. Something is slowing it down. I’ll need at least that at this rate.”

“Theon, can you speed it up?”

“I uh, who are you talking too?”

“My fiancée she’s… and I can’t believe I’m saying this: in a galaxy far, far away from here, ball park of fifty thousand light years.”

“How? Communications over such vast distance…. are impossible.”

“My sister thinks impossible is for chumps. Can you clear up the comm uplink or what?”

“Yes… yes. The cloud cover on the planet disperses them. You need to focus the beam.”

He walked over to the comm’s console and started typing at it. Enid resumed poking around. The kitchen, or what she assumed was the kitchen was filthy. Trash was everywhere. She kicked her way through it. She found the main power core shaft.

“Amee, found the power core shaft, you able to overload this one?”

“No, data connection is much better thank-you.”

“Thank Theon, he fixed it.”

“I cannot hear him talking.”

“Telepath. Sorry can’t really share the convo. So umm you said you cannot overload these generators?”

“Yes, they aren’t linked to the computer system. Also they are older. You’re going to need to go down the shaft and manually reconfigure the circuit crystals.”

“Amee?”

“Yes dear?”

“I hate you sometimes. Can’t I just like set explosives down here?”

“No, you really have to try hard to overload fusion reactors.”

Enid glanced down at the timer on her holo-display, an hour and a half.

“Can I do this in an hour and a half?”

“Provided I have the reactors in my database you can probably do it in fifteen minutes.”

“And how long does it take for the overload?”

“Twenty minutes from when we finish.”

“Download status?”

“Be done in an hour.”

Enid tapped her wrist to switch channels.

“Apollo, scan with the transport scanners see if you can find a system suitable for a comm relay and wormhole beacon.”

“But Amee said-”

“I know what Amee said, but we have a survivor, that changes things. Scan. Find somewhere. We’re going to need to deal with these Silwrath though. And hope they don’t have anything with better then nine parsecs of scanner resolution. Preferably something in a nebula, hopefully that will make them hard to find, oh and somewhere that the transport can make it too in a reasonable amount of time.”

“Of Course Aunt Enid. Sounds like a very easy task.”

“Wow, was that a hint of sarcasm I detected?”

“No, not at all.”

“Looks like my nephew is getting a bit of an attitude, good for you. Now get to scanning pretty please. I’ll keep an eye on the clock.”

Enid looked down the shaft with a heavy sigh. She heard Theon’s voice in her head.

“I have corrected the data link as you asked… what was your name?”

“Enid.”

“Enid I sense a vast and ancient mind when I contact. Older then even my exile here.”

“That’s because I’m very old. Three thousand full orbits of my planet, which is roughly….four thousand of this world’s. Math’s rough, I’m sorry I’m just pondering how I’m going to time this…”

“Time what?”

“Oh, we’re going to overload your fusion generators.”

“What?!? They power the shield.”

“Ya, but the Silwrath are coming and if they find out the frequency your temporal shields run at, they’ll be able to defeat our shields as well, since Amee based all of our tech on yours. So this place needs to go bye, bye, and I’m not allowed to use the antimatter torpedoes… Actually, I just thought of something.”

Enid tapped her wrist to open comms to both Amee and Apollo. She could sense Theon trying to talk to her and he was being insistent, but she found she could block him easily.

“Hey guys, if we strap a detonator to an antimatter containment buoy and put it in with the fusion generators what kind of damage could we do with Apollo has left in the tank after the jump here?”

“It is micrograms, but it should be enough to obliterate the base.”

“What about the transport, it as in FTL for ten days.”

“That would be sufficient yield to…possibly take something in orbit over the lab out. But it would do substantial damage to the echo system of the planet, my reserves would just be sufficient to leave a few mile wide crater and do no permanent damage to the atmosphere or ecosphere.”

“Okay lets stick with the micrograms idea. Apollo shunt your antimatter to containment and put some in one of the buoys. We’ll use that. Is that alright Amee?”

Amee sighed audibly.

“You’re bound and determined to blow something up with Antimatter aren’t you?”

“No… really I’m not, its just we can time that. We can’t time the reactor overload, hell I can hook it up to a detonator and press a button to blow it once the Silwrath drop a landing party. I still think our best option is to take out those battleships, I don’t see any other way to get Theon home safely.”

“Enid you’re impossible and you’re right. I authorize the use of the antimatter torpedoes.”

Enid did a happy dance. She finally relented and let Theon speak to her.

“Antimatter weapons! Careless! Madness!”

“My fighter has an antimatter generator.”

“No people in their right mind would use antimatter as a power source!”

“No one ever said humans were in their right mind.”

Enid gave a mental shrug.

“Theon, grab whatever you’re going to need.”

Enid glanced at her display.

“In forty-five minutes, we’ll be dead, or this place will be a crater.”

Enid tapped her wrist.

“How’s the data transfer Amee?”

“Almost done. Theon really came through.”

“He thanks we’re insane by the way, no race in their right mind would use antimatter as a power source or weapons. It’s like he doesn’t see that it means the Silwrath will never see it coming.”

“Fifteen minutes on the download tops.”

“As soon as its done please let Apollo know too drop the comm link and land.”

“Aunt Enid, I’ve just detected a craft breaking off from the battleships. Its speed is…much faster It will be entering realspace in…five minutes.”

“Interesting trick. I’m sending Theon up in the transport now.”

She started looking around for him. He was gathering mementos and the like Enid grabbed his arm.

“You need to get on the transport and go now.”

“You have given me an impossible task this…is all that is left of my people. I cannot leave yet.”

“Theon, you are the last of your race. Your memories are what is left of your people and you can tell us about them. This is just stuff, go.”

“Why the rush?”

“The Silwrath are sending a forward scouting party. I can protect myself but I cannot protect you. Can you fly a transport?”

“Yes.”

“Then go, my starfighter will send you coordinates for an FTL jump once he has them and I can get you to safety from here the Silwrath, at last for a few thousand years. Go quickly. And take this”

Enid offered up the duffle bag of weapons.

“Hurry, you have three minutes to launch. She’s already warmed up.”

Enid looked around for weapons her size but found none. This was going to be fun she glanced down at her hip. A single Glock adorned it. She spun two of the Synthlin swarmer grenades in her left hand.

“It’ll have to do.”

“Transport is safely away Aunt Enid. The forward scouting party has transitioned into the system and are heading to you.”

“Thanks for the heads up. Oh, and Apollo, don’t let me forget my pack in your cockpit again please.”

“Of course, Aunt Enid. I trust you have sufficient armaments to mount a defense?”

“No, all of my good weapons are in my pack, in your cockpit.”

“Then I should engage the troop transport immediately!”

“Negative. Maintain cloak and comm-link until Amee tells you otherwise. Talk to you when I talk to you.”

Enid heard the troop transport hit the roof. Enid pulled out her Glock, armed one of the swarmer grenades and got ready to re-enact the Battle of Alamo… she just hoped it would end better for her then it did for the Texans.