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Till Death Us Do Part 2002 short story by Louis Turfrey Thirty-eight
years after Episode IV – A New Hope “No! Lock down the power outage and shunt the feed into reactor one.” Ryath Centaur looked on as Nias Derril once more ran through the emergency reactor start with the engineering crew. Whatever he privately thought of the man, he had to give him the credit he deserved. However he did it, Nias always seemed to know when one of his ships components was about to fail. Having observed him closely over the last few days, Ryath was beginning to think the man was supernatural. Once more the reactor came online and once more Centaur stopped the clock. “Three point five minutes. Impressive.” It was a statement, not praise. Nias shook his head at Centaurs words. “Not good enough. We need it down to a minute. Any longer and the ablative armour will be Bantha curd.” He turned around to his engineering crew and seemed to look them over. “Jonas, take shunt four, Karen take shunt three, Gun, take shunt one. The rest of you, cycle positions and we’ll try it again.” Ryath shook his head in disbelief and waited once more as the reactors were shut down, ready for another trial. “He talks to the ship like it’s alive. Me and the Sunrise are close, but...” Jan Lomona sipped from his drink as Ryath gave him the run-down on what had happened that day. “He drives the bridge crew hard, but they follow. He has an…unorthodox style. How they can stand to be under his command I don’t know.” Jan laughed lightly and looked across at his friend. “He’s had that bridge crew since his wife died, what do you expect? Besides, I hear he hit the minute mark today.” Centaur snorted. “Forty three seconds to cold start two out of three reactors? If I believed in them I’d say that was a miracle.” He turned to face Jan, his face becoming serious once more. “I really need to know if I can trust him in combat. I need to know how good a commander he really is. None of us know what he’s had to put up with on the Constance. I’ve got to learn as much as I can about Derril.” Jan nodded, understanding completely. “As I understand it he watched his wife die, named a ship for her and volunteered for a suicide mission on the off chance he might do some good. He’s either insanely obsessed or truly dedicated. I’d say a bit of both. He knows his stuff when it comes to ships. My brother was a captain and it took him years to train to that level.” He frowned for a minute, remembering his deceased elder brother and looked back at Ryath. “In fact, he really does talk to the ship.” Ryath nodded in agreement. ”Unnerving, isn’t it.” Jan smiled a sad smile, on the verge of breaking a confidence, unsure to continue with the sad tale. “If you only knew.” Ryath checked around the room, confident that they weren’t being monitored or scanned. “We have time. Tell me.” Jan took a deep breath and began to unravel the tale. Nias sat silently in his cabin, located to the rear of the command bridge. Not as sparse as his office or as friendly, dark paintings hung on the wall, only appreciated by someone who could see as Nias saw, think as Nias thought. He crossed his legs and rested his arms on his knees. Opening up his mind to the world around him, he calmed his thoughts and drifted. A small light flicked on in his brain. Reactor Two had a minor shielding problem he could fix tomorrow. The telemetry on the scanners showed a point six five lag, which could also be repaired tomorrow. Gravity plating on deck five was showing a three-point degradation, which would be replaced. On and on he went through the repair checklist, the crew manifest and the computer systems. When he was sure that everything had been checked he tuned his mind to the main computer core and went into the deep memory. She was awake; he could feel her humming with energy, primed and ready to enter battle. He knew this ship would protect him till she had nothing else to give. He knew the secret that bound them together. Slowly she became aware of his presence; slowly she tuned her thought patterns to his. “You have returned to me again my sweet.” He smiled and returned the greeting. “And you have returned to me. It has been painful being away from you for so long. I fear that the coming battle will be one from which neither of us will return. Are you prepared? Did they treat you kindly in my absence?” He felt a mental nod as her thoughts once again communicated with his. “You say the one called Lord Raven knows?” Nias nodded solemnly at the mention of his friend Lord Raven, or as Nias knew him better, Daemon Garr. “It was necessary. Explanations had to be made, funds had to be appropriated. Some highly illegal equipment had to be transported secretly. Does that worry you?” She shrugged mentally. “What is there to worry about? What’s done is done. I chose this existence to cheat death and soon I will become the bringer of death. But I do it only for you my beloved, only for you.” Nias nodded, understanding what she had to do to justify what she had become. He had deliberately turned the Star Destroyer into a repair yard, the polar opposite of its original design. Now he had returned it to its former role, one of defence and destruction. He only hoped she would be able to do the job. “I will do it for you. I will destroy, I will wreak vengeance and when all is lost – I will die for you. Again.” He nodded. Yes you will. Of this he could be sure. “You mean he had his wife’s memories imprinted on the memory core of the computer?” Ryath seemed aghast at the news and sat down heavily, picking up his drink. Jan shook his head. “That’s what Raven told me. He took what was left of her body and used everything he had to keep her alive for as long as possible. Then he grafted her brain to a cybernetic link and connected it to the ships computer. Constance isn’t just the name of the ship – she is the ship, get it? That’s why Nias is the only one who can captain her. That’s why he’s one step ahead of anyone that comes within range of the Constance’s scanners. They’re connected mentally and physically.” Ryath sat still, his face expressionless. “That’s inhuman, totally inhuman. What right had he to do that to her.” “She gave her permission. She was alive when they removed her brain. She didn’t want to leave him so they did what she asked. She loved him.” Nias disconnected the neural link and moved back to his bunk. A thin tear slipped down one cheek as he prepared himself for sleep. Tomorrow would be a heavy day and he needed rest. Soon he was asleep, aided by a pill and a glass of water. The small security camera moved slightly on its mounting, the lens focused on the sleeping man. Secretly buried medical sensors came online and scanned the sleeping form, stopping at the face, examining the contents of the moisture resting on his cheek. Deep within the bowels of the ship, shielded by high-energy plating and multiple redundant force fields, Constance’s mind sighed and started planning for the future. Till Death Us Do Part 2002 short story by Louis Turfrey Thirty-eight
years after Episode IV – A New Hope Histories – What special ability gives Nias
Derril such control over the ISD Constance? Now we know, it’s the soul and mind of his
dead wife Constance, grafted into the memory core of the destroyer. Setting itself up for future stories, this
Louis Turfrey tale is a continuation of many stories past, and
a bridge into more to follow. Cast of
Characters Nias Derril Ryath
Centaur Jan Lomona Constance Jonas Karen Gun |