Arjun.
The crew member in charge of the vessel during this shift stood and moved to an empty station, allowing Arjun to take the Central Command chair. Too keyed up to sit, Arjun stayed in front of his chair, while Kylan took the second chair to the right, which set slightly behind the central chair. He immediately swung a console over his lap, brought up the screen and started typing in commands.
“Commander, we ’ve reached the next Gate. When we started the sequence to open it and make the jump to the KowLer star system, we discovered the sequence had been interrupted. The Gatekeeper does not answer our hails. The science officer has noted some strange energy signatures in the area. Also, when we tried to hail the Gatekeeper, a high speed transmission was sent out—although not to us,” reported the Watch Commander.
“Wake up Commander Rale and ask for him and his brothers’ presence on the Bridge. Contact the Venger; have them take up a protective position between us and the Gate. Launch fighters to take up stations around our ship,” said Arjun.
“The Venger has already been contacted. They are moving into position now,” said Watch Commander Hakor, before he put through the order to scramble the fighter squadron. At the same time, he motioned for another crewman to contact Commander Rale.
Commander Rale and his two brothers, Recca and Rufan, commanded the Venger. They were Purgatian and the uncles of the current regent, Malpha. When the warriors on the Venger, representing each of the Houses on HeVan, found out their Aunt Durga was responsible for the death of the last two High Queens, they knew their future was in jeopardy. However, their new mate was Glynnis MacTavish, grandmother to Addie, the current High Queen. Glynnis was in a position to take Malpha’s place as Regent until Addie took the throne. This saved them because a HeVanthian and descendant of Tamiel would now be head of the House of Purgat. As she refused to be parted from her granddaughter until after the babies were born, they were all still on the Far Star Explorer.
They were about to hail the Gate once again when Rale and his brother Recca entered the Bridge.
“Rufan is with Glynnis. We didn’t want her to worry, should she waken. We heard the alarm for battle stations. We would have come earlier…,” Rale came to a stop. He and his brothers were older than many of the warriors on board but they were still feeling their way, trying to find their place in this new changed and extended family.
Arjun filled them in on the problems with the Gate and then asked the obvious question.
“When you came after us, what was the situation on this Gate? Did you give them any special instructions?” asked Arjun.
“No special instructions were given. We asked when you had passed through and in what direction you were traveling. We wanted to know the next Gate you would be taking,” said Rale, pausing for a moment before speaking again.
“It’s possible Malpha sent instructions after we left. You had been gone for so long and we weren’t able to find out from the probe how far it had traveled. We didn’t know exactly how long it would take to bring you back to HeVan but we estimated two to six months. So if Malpha wanted to put another plan of hers in place, she had time,” he finished.
Arjun thought about the delays they were experiencing and what Rale had said.
“Communications officer, open a channel to the Venger,” said Rune.
As he waited, he turned to Kylan on his right and looked at him as he flipped open the console under his hand. Kylan gave him a nod of agreement.
“Explorer, this is Venger,” said Commander Thors, a seven and a half foot warrior of the House of Celes.
“Commander Thors, when we went on our quest to find the High Queen, we spent time at each of the Gate stations. Each time, we filled our stores to replace any supplies we had consumed, since