Allison could feel the tesseract core pulsing in her hands. The words of the lead xenologist were still echoing in her ear, it had enough energy in it to vaporize a planet. Here she was carrying it with her bare hands. She was pretty sure vaporize meant her nanites would not survive and that meant she wouldn’t either. She hopped into Bit. The starfighter was already launching. Allison was shaking as she spoke to Bit.

  “Bit, open a channel to Eden Prime control.”

  The AI gave verbal confirmation it was done, Allison spoke.

  “Hello, this is Shadow One a dangerous alien artifact was discovered on my salvage ship it needs to get out of the star system immediately, I will be doing an emergency FTL transit in ten seconds.”

  She’d barely finished when she saw the FTL drive charging up for the jump. Bit was ahead of her. There was a flash of purple light as they entered the FTL corridor. The tesseract core stopped pulsing immediately. She had been expecting to be vaporized, what she had not expected was to find Bit and herself plummeting into the atmosphere of what appeared to be a water world. The holo-controls were completely dark. Whatever happened had killed all of Bit’s systems it appeared.

  Allison dropped the tesseract core and reached for the emergency control trigger. The liquid metal console in the fighter’s interior formed into a more conventional flight system with a stick, pedals and a manual throttle with specific buttons for maneuvering thrustors. She pulled up hard on the stick and hit her manual antigrav trigger, but they did not respond. It appeared her conventional jets, scramjets and maneuvering thrustors were still responding those were chemical based and did not rely on power cores which seemed to be completely dead. Her contacts took the place of her normal HUD, and the canopy had already cleared as part of the emergency response to freefall in an atmosphere with no power.

  She thanked the months of high G training in the holo-simulator for her ability to stay conscious under the dynamic G-forces she was experiencing in that moment because the inertial dampeners were definitely not working. She rammed back the throttle cutting all thrust, hit the maneuvering thrustors and slammed the manual pedal down to apply opposite rudder. The only way she could see to stop the flat death spin she was in. She didn’t have time to celebrate when she slowed it enough to hit the thrustors to push the fighter forward. Whatever was going on with the starfighter she would never breach atmosphere without the graviton drive or antigravs. She could also not fly forever on her chemical engines. Her contacts zoomed into an object floating on the water. She screamed out Yes! When she saw it was an aircraft carrier with an American flag.

  Allison quickly took her hand off the stick after leveling off and used her AR HUD to open radio frequencies on her phone. She just sent it out over everything. She hoped they’d pick it up.

  “Mayday, mayday, I am running on backup controls and am low on fuel. I need to land ASAP. Requesting emergency landing on US aircraft carrier. Callsign…”

  She paused and realized she could use her mother’s callsign and name.

  “Reaper, Lieutenant Commander Sarah O’connor.”

  She added her mother’s social security number, as the military used them for service numbers, which she knew because she’d had to id herself as her mother in the simulation. She grabbed the stick again and listened for a response.

  “Reaper, you are cleared for landing.”

  Allison quickly recalled the emergency procedures she had to review for emergency landings on a carrier, she’d done enough of them in the simulation.

  “No hook, landing gear might not work, I’ll need a net.”

  While she banked around and the carrier responded.

  “Roger. Emergency teams standing by.”

  She lined her approach up and hit the manual landing gear release. She felt the starfighter’s aerodynamics shift and whispered a thanks to her Aunt Maria’s foresight under her breath.

  “I see the ball coming in.”

  Allison felt her rear wheels touch down and hit full retro thrustors. They were not enough. She slammed into the net and since she wasn’t wearing her harness her head slammed into the control surface. She groaned as she lifted herself up, she felt blood on her forehead. She reached for the manual release and helpful hands rushed to help her down. Bit’s liquid metal skin was still letting off steam from the violent re-entry. Thankfully they had been low enough that no real damage had been done. Emergency crews were spraying the fighter down thinking it was on fire. Allison coughed a few times in the smog created by the steam and fire extinguishers.

  “You’ll need water.”

  Someone obviously heard her because the fighter was soon being sprayed down with water. This caused more steam but eventually it cleared leaving everyone staring at the starfighter in shock. They had never seen something like it. It had a lot in common with twentieth century stealth fighters, but none were this smooth. The canopy had closed shortly after she’d gotten out and the liquid metal had flowed over it, and the thrustor ports leaving a shimmering black skin in the shape of a fighter.

  As Allison was being led away from the flight deck and towards the medical bay, she could see a tow vehicle loading it onto one of the elevators. For as odd as it looked it still had wheels. Allison was sat down on a bed in front of a doctor. He didn’t say much but was giving her strange looks. He checked her head injury. Allison was still in a daze from hitting her head. Things were clearing up quickly thanks to her dhampir physiology and her nanites doing their nanite thing. He spread her hair apart.

  “I can’t find the cut.”

  Allison blinked a few times.

  “Uh, you know head injuries… they always bleed more than you’d expect right?’

  He wiped away the blood with a piece of cotton dipped in rubbing alcohol. He shook his head.

  “You seem to be in good health. How is your vision? Any dizziness?”

  Allison shook her head.

  “I’m fine now.”

  She looked around the small medical bay and realized it was already overpopulated by sick service members. She looked at the doctor again.

  “I don’t mean to pry but… uh, how did you get here? Do you know where here is?”

  The doctor looked like he might answer but then shook his head.

  “I’ll let someone else brief you. Whoever you are.”

  Allison blinked a few times.

  “I’m… Reaper, Sarah O’connor.”

  He frowned.

  “You are definitely not her. She was older, blonde and she had blue eyes.”

  Allison swallowed hard. That had backfired, at least it had got her somewhere to land on a planet that seemed to have no land.

  “Oh, I guess this is the George Washington then…”

  He stepped back as two armed marines showed up both were women the higher rank of the two spoke to the doctor.

  “Is it safe to move her? Admiral wants her under guard.”

  The doctor nodded.

  “She might have a concussion but isn’t showing any signs. Seems to be in good health considering her almost crash landing without a harness.”

  The marines motioned for Allison to stand up. She was pretty sure twenty-first century assault rifles would do little to harm her in her armor but wasn’t ready to start a fight just yet. Something was extremely wrong, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t time-travelled there was no white lightning. They sat her down in a room shortly after food was delivered to her. It appeared to be some sort of mashed vegetable and meat with gravy. She dug in. She didn’t know when she’d get access to her own rations and her nanites were power-hungry little devils.

  She’d finished eating by the time a new face showed up. A tall gangly woman with dark brown hair and glasses. She was wearing functional shipboard clothing with no rank markings. She showed a badge.

  “I’m the NCIS agent afloat, my name is Rebecca North. Let’s get the obvious out of the way, you are not Sarah O’Connor, she was not a teenage girl. Also, she was my friend before she was reassigned, so, there is that. Who are you really?”

  Allison sighed.

  “Battlelord Allison Wanjala commander of the System’s Alliance and LSR task force against the Sal’nash.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The agent blinked a few times.

  “Oh, interesting. What exactly does a Battlelord do?”

  Allison knew the agent was just trying to get more information out of her by playing along with her apparent delusions.

  “I report directly to the President of the System’s Alliance and the Primarch of the League of Sentient Races, my job is to eradicate the Sal’nash. After that I’ll go back to being a lieutenant and Military Specialist.”

  The agent nodded and took notes.

  “Are all battlelords, teenagers?”

  Allison shrugged.

  “I have no idea, I’m the first one in five hundred years.”

  The agent took more notes.

  “And how did you become battlelord?”

  Allison tapped her fingers and decided to be honest, whatever was going on she was going to need System’s Alliance support to rescue these poor people, if Bit could ever fly again to drop the wormhole beacon.

  “I detonated a makeshift antimatter bomb, which destroyed a planet and killed fourteen billion Sal’nash along with most of their fleet. The LSR thought the fact I was the only one who seemed to be able to fight them hand to hand meant I knew something about killing them.”

  The agent seemed to be getting a bit frustrated but kept taking notes.

  “How old are you, Allison?”

  Allison sighed.

  “My license and id say I’m seventeen.”

  The agent tapped the pen on her chin.

  “How does a seventeen year old girl get their hands on… whatever you were flying?”

  Allison shrugged again.

  “My aunt gave it to me because I blew up my first starfighter when I was destroying that planet. It is a modified version of the Athena class starfighter. It is capable of trans-atmospheric flight and can reach ninety percent of the speed of light with her main drive. Though antimatter core, fusion core and graviton core seem to be offline. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to request an emergency landing, the atmospheric thrustors and scramjets are chemically fueled.”

  The agent leaned forward.

  “And who is your aunt exactly that she can afford to do that?”

  Allison smiled.

  “Maria Aurelius, President of the System’s Alliance, otherwise known as the person, I’m going to have to call to rescue us. Your people are sick and it’s because this is an alien world, and you have not had t-cell enhancement and gene engineering. I’m betting you have no navsats, or GPS, or communication with your government, or any government…”

  The agent looked a bit surprised at Allison’s response and didn’t say anything. Allison reached her finger towards her wrist.

  “May I?”

  The agent narrowed her eyes but nodded eventually. Allison tapped her wrist and then swept her fingers out projecting the hologram that replaced her AR HUD when she didn’t have contacts in. The agent stood up suddenly when she saw the hologram appear. Allison tapped a few times to bring up an image of Earth.

  “This is Earth now. Somehow you have traveled to the future and to an alien planet. I can’t tell you where we are until my starfighter is working because she has all the star charts. I can tell you it is the thirtieth century, you’re a thousand years in the future.”

  The agent sat back down her eyes glued to the hologram.

  “How do you not know where you are?”

  Allison sighed.

  “It is a very long, and very classified story I cannot go into, short answer, bad interaction with an alien artifact. I know there was no temporal event because that causes white lightning and I didn’t see any of that, just a flash of purple…”

  The agent blinked a few times.

  “We saw a flash of purple before we ended up here three weeks ago.”

  She frowned.

  “I can’t be having this discussion. Stay here, let the marines know if you need anything, Allison.”

  Allison sighed and swept her hologram away. She pulled up one of her saved videos because there was no way she was getting Alliance-net without the wormhole comm unit from Bit. She leaned back and continued to watch it. She was pretty sure she’d said enough to get the crew interested. A couple of hours later an older gentleman with a brush cut and severe looking face came in. He was an admiral if her memories of US ranks served her. He was flanked by the agent and a four bar captain. Allison mused that the rank symbology hadn’t changed very much in a thousand years. The admiral spoke first. He was quite intimidating.

  “Before we do anything else, how did you know Reaper?”

  Allison bit her lower lip.

  “She was my biological mother. She was a vampire and was still alive until I was conceived, sir.”

  He blinked a few times. Allison was hoping he wouldn’t get mad, for some reason his demeanor was pressing all her, keep him calm buttons. He stood up and crossed his arms.

  “So, is that just a human skin, or are you actually human?”

  Allison swallowed hard.

  “I’m only half human, I’m half vampire, a dhampir… I’d show you my fangs but… I have issues getting them out when I want.”

  The admiral glanced at the agent.

  “You said there was a hologram.”

  Allison quickly activated her holo-phone’s holoprojector and she pulled up her identification along with her military service record. He squinted as he read it over. He glanced between his CO and the agent then looked at Allison.

  “So that fighter you landed on my deck is a spaceship?”

  Allison nodded.

  “Technically, a starfighter, sir, spaceships are uh, well ships, like this one.”

  He leaned on the table.

  “Just how much firepower does it have?”

  Allison bit her lower lip.

  “It has uh, twin plasma gatlings, twin particle beams, forty self-targeting guided missiles and two antimatter torpedoes. I could take out all of your planes and your ship and your weapons wouldn’t be able to get through my shields. If… the power cores weren’t offline. I mean, as I recall you couldn’t even catch me, it can do Mach 26 in atmosphere, that I could do now with the scramjets but I’d burn through fuel way too fast.”

  The admiral blinked a few times.

  “Just how good of a pilot can a seventeen year old be?”

  Allison shrugged slightly.

  “One of the best the System’s Alliance has, more fighter and hive kills than anyone else. Guess it runs in my blood. I am also one of the only qualified blind wormhole navigator in with military starfighter clearance.”

  The captain motioned with his chin towards the door, and the admiral held up one finger to him.

  “One last question, you sound like you have an African accent, are you from Earth?”

  Allison shook her head.

  “Umm, I’m from Eden Prime, a colony in the Andromeda Galaxy, about two and a half million light years from Earth. My mom was born in Africa, my dad was born in the Africa dome. My home star’s radiation is bad for anyone with pale skin, except dhampirs, so the colony is made up of mostly people descended from India, Africa and the Middle East. I do have an apartment on Earth, it’s in New Amazon… it would been in South America before the Gray. My sister lives in NAFTA dome though, uh, where Seattle would have been. She was born in… England.”

  The group left and returned half an hour later. The captain was looking a bit pale. Allison’s medical scanner was flagging him for a possible viral infection of unknown origin. Not like she had any clue what to do about it. The admiral addressed her again.

  “You said you can get us out of here? That you know what is happening to the crew.”

  Allison nodded, she brought up her hologram again and showed the unknown viral infection her holo-phone’s built in medical scanner was picking up.

  “He’s sick. You’re on an alien planet and your immune systems will not stop the diseases here. We have T-cell enhancement that gives a broad spectrum immunity to strange bacteria and viruses. I can tell you they’re sick but I can’t tell you with what, my scanner has no records of this world’s microbiology. I’m also no doctor, I’m just a reserve soldier and high school student. As for getting us rescued I need to get my starfighter’s power restored so I can get into space, open comms and drop a target buoy so they can get here. Wherever here is.”

  The admiral leaned down and scrutinized Allison.

  “And you know how to do that?”

  Allison shrugged.

  “I have no idea what happened to it, but it has some power somewhere or I’d be dead.”

  “Why would you be dead?”

  Allison motioned in the direction of the flight deck.

  “Because my antimatter containment would have breached, and I’d have been atomized. Matter and antimatter really do not get along.”

  Klaxons started going off Allison looked around. The admiral swore under his breath.

  “Again? Captain report to sick bay.”

  He pointed at Allison.

  “You’re with me.”

  Allison stood up and followed the admiral as he rushed out of the holding room. He waved off the marines. The pair rushed to the bridge. None of the bridge crew looked what you’d call well. They arrived in time to see two Japanese Zeros buzzing the deck. No one fired at them, which shocked Allison. The weapons on this twenty-first century carrier would obliterate World War Two prop planes easily. The radio operator shook his head.

  “Still not a word of English sir. All Japanese.”

  Allison perked up.

  “Let me hear it.”

  The comms operator looked at the admiral who gave a nod. Allison put the headphones on and listened intently to the message. Her translator did its job, and Earth language was easy for her holo-phone’s quantum processor to chew through. She took the headphones off and told the ops crew what she’d heard.

  “They’re from a ship called the Akagi, Admiral Yamamoto in command on the Nagato offers a surrender conditional on a cure for whatever biological weapon you have used on his ship’s crews. He recognizes that an American battleship, a carrier and two allied advanced aircraft carriers are superior to his force, and he says there is no honor in this slow death.”

  The admiral rubbed his forehead.

  “Are you sure that is what it said?”

  Allison nodded.

  “I have no idea what ships they are, or who Yamamoto is but uh, it sounded sincere. I am duty bound to assist anyone trapped here. You’re all from Earth it seems like and… well I’m sworn to defend System’s Alliance, Earth and her people. I wonder why they had to fly here to get you a radio message, those prop planes can’t have much range.”

  The admiral gave her a look.

  “They don’t teach you history at your school?”

  Allison shrugged.

  “I can tell those planes were from World War Two from some old movies we recovered, and holo-sims, but ship names? People’s names? It’s like I’m from the twentieth century and you’re all from Egypt… I’m sorry… Sir. Earth’s population was nearly wiped out and we lost most of our history. We’re just piecing it together again now, there are gaps. I only know about you and your ship because my mom left me a holo-sim program to practice flying ancient jets, prop planes and helicopters in. I was flying off the George Washington in the sim.”

  He frowned.

  “Admiral Yamamoto was in charge of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Akagi sank during the Battle of Midway. And the radio communications only have about a thirty nautical mile range something is making it impossible beyond that. Since we have no idea where we are we have been conserving fuel.”

  Allison nodded.

  “May I, um, hook into your communications system? I mean, sir.”

  The admiral frowned. He was obviously skeptical of the teenage girl but she had technology they had never seen before. He finally nodded. Allison looked for a port and found one she pulled a liquid metal wire from her wrist and it mimicked the connector. She pulled up her holo-phone’s holographic display so the crew could see what she was doing. She used the ship’s antenna to scan radio frequencies. She picked up a few blips, but they were completely unintelligible. There was some kind of interference. She frowned but tapped her holo-phones audio processing app and let it chew through what she was picking up. It was still hard to understand the actual messages, but she could pick up words. She picked up Mandarin, English and Japanese. The interference was so bad she couldn’t make out more than a word here or there. She identified twelve distinct sources four Japanese, five English, three Mandarin.

  “Looks like we have at least six ships and six fighters in the air, sir. Can’t get much but there is at least one Chinese ship, two Japanese and three American, including this carrier.”

  The admiral nodded slowly and rubbed his beard in a way that reminded Allison of her babu. She felt a pang of sorrow and guilt. She swept her hand over the holo and pushed it back into her watch and pulled her liquid metal wire which formed back into part of her holo-phone’s band. She shook off the flash of her babu’s face and spoke up.

  “Sir, can I borrow a helicopter? I think maybe we should get everyone together and find out how they got here, maybe they’ve found a way to deal with the infections.”