Chapter 65: The Morning Star
"You can turn off the vector now ARC. We are on the right trajectory and I have no plans to shift it."
'The vector isn't active anymore.'
"Bullshit. I clearly see it on my-" he rotated the ship sharply and accelerated a bit to prove ARC wrong, "-screen? ARC, are the visible spectrum receivers functioning properly?"
That purple 'vector' did not respond to a trajectory change. It didn't follow on the center of the screen when he rotated to the left. It was still very clearly in the direction of the sun.
The direction of the sun.
"ARC, are you receiving 'purple' as a color for the sun at the moment?"
'I am. None of the receiver data seems to match the known characteristics of the sun either.'
"Zoom be in on it and keep an eye on it. I want to know what is going on in real time. Repairs to the life support systems can wait."
ARC responded with a green check.
Don looked on at the now purple sun taking up almost the entirety of the center of his screen. Just as ARC had said, none of the reading matched. Heat, of all things, wasn't even a hundredth of what it should have been giving off. Conversely, ultraviolet was almost 100 times as strong as before.
What the hell was going on?
He forced himself to eat a chunk of the Meth Chocolate, it wouldn't do to fall asleep in the middle of a clear emergency. He took this time to feed Mercedes as well, who was now quietly and fearfully curled up in the corner between the bed and the wall.
Chugging some water to wash down the stimulant, he resumed his previous posture in his seat to two realizations, both equally disturbing.
The first was that he could see the sun, albeit in a different color, but he could not see any planets or stars. Besides the glowing ball of purple there were no other celestial objects.
The second realization was that that 'ball' of purple was no longer spherical. In the two minutes he had been up from his seat, distinct lumps had formed. The outline was blurry, but as he continued to watch it took a more solid form.
The outline looked very similar to the five pointed star that a child might draw to represent stars in the night sky, so similar in fact that the points were not the same length. Some went further out an others had shallower angles that made them stop short.
"ARC, stop repairs of functions that are not of immediate importance. Reserve as much energy as possible for movement and start scanning for threats."
Alarm bells were blaring nonstop in his head. A fear gripped him, primal in nature, and would not let go. His instincts were telling him to prepare for a fight, but they wouldn't tell him what that fight was going to be against.
His life was at stake but he couldn't tell why. He suspected that the sun was going to tell him soon.
- - - - - - - - - -
"Ten seconds to drop!"
"All hands, this is it!"
"Five!"
"All weapons ready!"
"Three! Two! One! DROP!" The Oberlux shook violently as it came to a complete stop.
Those standing on the deck looked out in awe of the beauty of the sight they were beholding. A star in the most beautiful shade of purple they had ever seen. Those who were seeing such a phenomenon for the first time, and some who had never seen one like this, were star-struck.
"I had held hope that we would get here before it completed forming itself, but it would seem I was naïve. All hands, open fire before it strikes!"
- - - - - - - - - -
Don and ARC's observation of the sun's new geometry was interrupted by a truly colossal burst of light to their left.
"What the fuck was that!" Don was partially blinded by the flash, not helped in the slightest by his likely concussion, so he couldn't properly see what it was that had appeared.
However ARC did not get to respond before flashes, sparks, beams, and orbs of light ranging in color from red to green began to appear from that region and head straight towards this unrecognizable star.
"What the hell is going on ARC! Answer me!"
ARC did not respond.
As Donovan's vision returned, he bore witness to the same light show that ARC was stunned by. Much the same as ARC, Don was unable to make sense of it.
A massive 'thing', with measurements registering its volume on par with the moon was launching brightly colored pulses of energy at a spiky purple star.
This 'thing' looked more akin to a tree stripped of leaves or a collection of frayed suspension cables than anything resembling a ship.
What felt like an hour of watching this spectacle passed, with both observers gaining nothing in the way of context, when the sun moved.
Indeed, that star which since its conception had remained relatively stationary as it provided the energy requisite for life to flourish, made a visible, drastic, and unprompted movement.
And then it fired back. Purple, blue, and green patches of light, similar in speed and shape to those spawned by the tree, were launched by the Sun. The difference of the volume of fire between the two was one that was, simply put, incomparable.
The difference between the two was that the Sun seemed to be incapable of aiming.
Where the tree's attacks formed a solid line, the Sun's went literally everywhere. Don could see streaks of light going in directions not even remotely close to it, some even appeared to be going the opposite direction.
Some were headed HIS direction.
"We gotta get out of here. Give me some trajectory overlays for those incoming beams."
"Donovan, please calm down. We have about a minute before we need to take evasive measures. I have an extremely important question to ask you."
"Not now ARC! We need to move!"
"It is vital to determine what our next course of action is, Donovan. I beg you, a simple yes or no will suffice."
"Then spit it out already! We are running out of time."
"Very well then Donovan.
Do you trust me?"
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