Boarding Party

**"Boarding Party"** is the fifth episode of *Part I: Darkened Heaven*, the first instalment of *Hyperspace: The Cosmic Gospel*. It was written on August 24th 2021.

## Plot

*A detour on their quest lands the crew of the* Unreliable *in immense danger as they are forced to ward off desperate survivors.*

## Synopsis

One week after escaping Forlorn Hope Station, the *Unreliable* continues its seemingly endless trek through Ambrosia to Sithniatt. Hardened by their encounter with Ockrahm and his slavers, the crew have significantly bonded over their ordeal. Gerren and Verandar are friendlier; Amphear has settled in nicely in the engine room; Alyx has began writing new lyrics inspired by his adventure; HIEdi and Hendrix rekindle their romance; and Elijah and Alia have been training in the cargo deck. However, despite how far they have come and indications from Captain Young's maps that they are heading towards Sithniatt, there is still no sign of the Green Star.

As the *Unreliable* reaches the edge of the interstellar void that supposedly contains the Green Star, Elijah goes through the readings that the *Unreliable*'s sensors have picked up on their journey. He begins analysing the radiation of the tears that both the *Darkened Heaven* and the deathworm used to traverse the galaxy. He is interrupted by Alia, who asks for any updates in his research. Elijah reveals that the radiation of the tears closely resembles foldspace, but only in the fact that it is four-dimensional; he has also discovered that other dimensions, including some as high as seven dimensions, are an integral part of the tears, suggesting that not only are multiple dimensions colliding to produce these spacetime distortions, but that there are undiscovered dimensions of the same make-up as those already discovered. Alia asks how Elijah knows all of this, to which he reminds her that he studied exotic physics at New London University, but has since been dealing with intrusive thoughts that his intelligence may just be down to him being a GIL rather him being naturally intelligent. Alia reassures him that being a GIL means nothing, as they can only be modified to a certain extent. They once again have a moment as they hold hands while looking over the readings.

Meanwhile, in his own cabin, Alyx practices with a guitar left by the ship's previous owner. As he plays an acoustic redition of "Explosion", he is interrupted by Kera, who has never seen a guitar before. She compliments his playing, to which Alyx says he is better with a turntable than a guitar and offers Kera a go. She accepts, but quickly stops due to the pain of pressing on the strings. Alyx offers to teach her when their adventure is over.

In the cockpit, Gerren picks up a nearby lightfolding alert. He summons the crew to the command deck, where Alia activates the scanner. She discovers that another vessel is head straight for them at FTL speeds, but is unsure of what direction. Suddenly, at the starboard side, a larger coaster, the *Apex*, appears from foldspace and inserts itself into the *Unreliable*'s foldspace tunnel. The ship pilots in front of the *Unreliable* in an attempt to slow it down and fires two grapples that pierce its hull, capturing them. With no weapons and little shields to defend themselves, the crew arms themselves with what little weapons they have and split up to hide. Gerren forces the *Unreliable* out of foldspace before he hides himself in the forward cannon. Elijah, Alia and Verandar hide in a storage cupboard on the port side of the command deck, and Kera is forced to hide in a ventilation shaft when she fails to reach her mother in time.

The heavily-armed and armoured enemy crew cuts into the *Unreliable*'s hull and enters the ship before firing several warning shots. Their leader, Egor Black, calls out to Mercer, the ship's previous owner, but receives no answer. Black orders his crew to search the ship for "what Mercer promised us" and they split up throughout the ship. Amphear is quickly found while in the middle of trying to reactivate the *Unreliable*'s weapons, and his nitrogen tank is damaged when he is captured and bound. Black and two of his men work their way through the cabins, finding all of them empty, before breaking into the command deck, again seemingly empty. While Black comments that a captain should take better care of his ship, one of Black's men, a biogenic, detects Kera hiding in the ventilation shaft below him and pulls her out with telekinesis, enraging Gerren, who reveals himself and threatens the pirates with his blaster. The biogenic pirate tightens his telekinetic hold on Kera, constricting her, causing Gerren to stand down.

Elijah, Alia and Verandar are forced to watch from the storage room; as Kera and Gerren are marched down to join Amphear in the engine room, Elijah and Alia convince Verandar to follow them into another ventilation shaft, where they can plan to ambush the pirates. Meanwhile, in the engine room, Kera, Gerren and Amphear are joined by a captured HIEdi and Hendrix; the pirates, unaware that the two are sentient AIs, do not realize as HIEdi begins sending scans and information about the pirates, their weapons and positions to Elijah's arm-mounted console. Gerren demands to know why the pirates are attacking them, and Black reveals that he and his crew made a deal with Mercer, the ship's previous owner, concerning the ship's stealth system. Black orders his engineers to tear the system out of the ship and demands to know where Mercer is; Kera says that Mercer died on Haven, to which Black responds that the ship's new captain is responsible for fulfilling his agreement with Mercer. When asked how the pirates found them, Black reveals that one of his men flagged their ship on Amaranthine's moon.

Elijah, Alia and Verandar continue crawling in the ventilation shafts, eventually finding themselves above two pirates. Elijah uses his telekinesis to render both pirates unconsciouss before the three of them exit the shaft into the hall. Arming themselves with the pirates weapons, they return to the command deck and activate the oxygen alarm, distracting the pirates. Alia and Verandar take position on either side of the port door, with the two of them incapacitating a pirate each and Elijah defeating the other two with telekinetic blasts, killing them. Verandar, angered, interrogates her pirate, who reveals the captive crew are in the engine room. When the pirate finishes speaking, Verandar kills him and rushes off to the engine room. Unable to catch her, Elijah and Alia take cover as Verandar is disarmed and taken captive by Black, leading to a standoff in the hall.

In the engine room, Amphear is beginning to suffocate due to the damage to his nitrogen tank. Desperate, Hendrix detaches his hands from his arms, freeing him of his cuffs, and activates the blades hidden in his arms. He quickly dispatches one of the pirates but finds himself up against the biogenic pirate, who easily stops Hendrix's arms mid-fight. Amphear, in desperation, smashes his tank against the wall, revealing that it contains liquid nitrogen, not nitrogen gas. Amphear leans forward, firing a stream of freezing liquid nitrogen at the pirate. The pirate screams in agony as their entire right side is frozen, allowing Hendrix to stab him in the neck, killing him. Hendrix frees the others from their bounds and Gerren sacrifices a nitrogen coolant tank for the lightfold engine to save the dying Amphear.

In the halls, Elijah is notified by HIEdi that the other pirates are dead. Elijah says to Black that he is gravely outnumbered and to let Verandar go. To avenge his crew, Black refuses and shoots Verandar in the side of the head before firing his rifle at Elijah and Alia. However, he suddenly pauses and begins screaming in agony, dropping to his knees. Behind him stands Kera, her arms outstretched as she creates a gravity vortex inside Black's body. Kera screams and cries as she slowly amplifies the vortex, compressing Black's body into itself and reducing him to a pile of guts and gore. Kera finally lets go and fall beside her mother's body, desperately trying to wake her as she weeps.

Enraged, Elijah climbs the cable up into the *Apex* and, with his revolver, kills the two remaining pirates aboard. He tears up and leans against the wall, trying to stop his hands from trembling and questions what he is becoming. He is eventually joined by Alyx, who suggests that they tear the *Apex* bare.

The crew wrap the pirates in the carpet of their cabins and discharge them from the airlock. As Kera mourns, the rest of the crew ransacks the *Apex*, recovering a large arsenal of energy weapons and armour, a space mine, a centaur rover, a new foldspace crystal, food, water, liquid radio, and a small modification for the lightfold engine that will allow them to switch it to a skip drive. Alyx also discovers and takes a small ukulele. Hendrix and HIEdi cut the cables attaching the two ships and leave the *Apex* adrift.

The crew gathers at the airlock, where they perform a short, sweet funeral for Verandar. As Gerren comforts Kera, they release her mother's body into the vacuum of space and cremate her in the fires of the engines. As they continue at FTL speeds towards Sithniatt, they gather on the command deck and debate their next move. Elijah suggests that they turn around and bring Kera to the safety of the Nexus, and goes even further to suggest they all hunker down at Nexus Station. Gerren speaks for the crew and refuses, saying that they all accompanied Elijah on this journey for their own reasons and they intend to see it through. Elijah says he does not want to be responsible for any more deaths, but Kera pipes up and says the Scourge is to blame: were it not for the attack on Haven, Kera and her mother would never have left their home, and her mother would still be alive. Now armed with greater knowledge of her powers, Kera refuses to leave the crew and affirms her commitment to stopping the Calculator and its Scourge army. Elijah accepts and tells the crew to rest.

A few hours later, Alyx enters Kera's cabin to check on her. He says he has a gift for her and reveals the ukulele. He explains that this particular ukulele was made on Earth and has made the journey of millions of light-years to get here. To show her, Alyx plays a redition of "In the Shadow of the Valley" and gifts the ukulele to her, saying that music always helps him work through sadness. Kera accepts the gift and plays a single note.

Somewhere in the depths of space, the *Darkened Heaven* exits another tear. Within, the Forerunner speaks once more in the Calculator's voice: "They are downtrodden. Desperate. Let their spirits break...then erase them". Outside, the *Darkened Heaven* crosses a horizon, revealing a planet below illuminated by the light of a green sun.

## Deaths

* Verandar O'Larso
* Egor Black
* Eight unnamed pirates

## Trivia

* This episode marks the first time that Kera has killed a sapient creature.
* As of this episode, all crew members of the *Unreliable* have either directly or indirectly caused the death of another character.