Bharat Kakkar's Story

The crew fared better on the bridge where the external damages hadn't reached, but even there they hadn't been without their wounded.

Men and women where in various states of recovery from the impact, and while many had already picked themselves up groaning and in some cases injured, others lay motionless where they had been thrown haphazardly into command consoles and walls.

Sparks crackled and popped from damaged wiring and one crew member was putting a small fire out with a hand-held fire-extinguisher.

When Commander Nayar came to, he was leaned up against the navigation table, where one of his crew had been trying to rouse him. His head felt like it was about ready to split in two.

His XO had taken point in directing the fire-crews to combat the spread of the fires across the ship.

"I'm fine," Nayar managed to slur as he was helped to his feet. "How long was I out?"

"Eight minutes," Kakkar answered. "We have fires spreading through here, here, and here," he indicated on a large schematics map they had laid out. "We had fuel lines erupt here, and it took out all the compartments through here." His voice sounded grim as his finger ran down the length of compartments that had been lost. "The fire-crews are over-whelmed."

The Ambassador it would seem had been momentarily forgotten in the chaos, save for her attendant who was looking around the dimly lit bridge, squinting through the flickering lights and occasional sparking wire.

"Lady Jaya?" he called out as he stepped past a motionless crew member. "Lady Jaya? Ambassador?"

"Sir?" Lieutenant Darzi spoke up. "Major Batra is requesting use of one of the auxiliary cargo areas for the wounded."

"Find out what she needs to make it happen, and get her the personnel," Nayar answered. "Anyone we can spare."

"The rescue parties are saying we don't have enough shuttles for the search-and-rescue efforts," Lieutenant Agarwal interjected. "The collision with the Taiyou ship took out a lot of our reserve vessels, and half of our launching tubes," he explained.

"Well what do we have? Tell them to start converting our bombers and recon ships, and anything else that can hold passengers, and get the damn things in the air," Nayar barked.

"Yes, Sir."

More than a few of the crew had been vented out into space through the efforts to extinguish the spread of the fires. Those who had their gear on, would be floating out there waiting to be recovered.

Parem'Zel A bright orb of light illuminates the darkness as Parem steps through his soul fueled portal to find himself shrouded by darkness in the void of space. Stars surrounding him, shining in all their glory. He quickly surrounds himself in a sphere of pure soul energy. Hovering silently in the blackness his heart is full of sorrow. How in all the cosmos is he going to find the ones responsible for his families death. The Mortal God had been hopping from realm to realm seeking answers with no luck. As frustration overcame him he called upon the energies of his own soul to get a sense of the region around him. Feeling the presence of a small rocky body nearby.

Parem'Zel In a flash he once again called upon the energy of his soul to create another glowing orb of light. Manipulating the sphere of energy surrounding him to bring him into the portal.

Lord Xulganak watched with mild interest as the galaxy spun, and he observed the quantum dance between a nucleus and its electron consorts with a studious curiosity. His eyes and ears were spread across the cosmos, silently monitoring the happenings of the galaxy and the civilizations within from the darkness between the stars and the hidden places of the worlds.

A moon-sized space station cannibalized a barren planet in the uncharted galactic wilderness. What little life found there was collected, studied, cataloged, and then sanitized before the world itself was ripped apart and stripped of any valuable resource. The matter would fuel a new generation of droids and ships, which would further extend the Archiver’s reach across the universe. They would harvest, learn, adapt, and build. Xulganak was satisfied.

He turned his gaze outwards, beyond the galaxy. What other matters required his attention?