Grey Shadows

 

Oily jazz staggered out of the club like a cutoff drunk, angry and directionless. The shadows around here had names. Lex was the dark space nearest to the Lonely Lounge. It was a place muggers got mugged.

Derek Grey sneered at the streetlight as he went by, willing it to shine a bit brighter as he shuffled along the alley. Tendrils of music slithered towards his ears and bit down hard. Sour notes oozed through his blood like an unnamed poison, slowing his progress. He limped coldly from obstacle to obstacle looking for cover from prying eyes. The light flickered as it thoughtlessly rebelled against Grey’s request.

“Hey you!” said a deep voice in the depths of the darkness.

Chain of Command

 

The bridge of a Lordek starship in combat wasn’t the best time for a lengthy discussion. Communication pheromones were hard to release under stress. The chime for 17 blork had already passed to indicate a refresh was needed. The captain failed to do so. Distracted by the lack of authority, most of the crew was busy looking after internal damage. Only one was looking at the enemy ship directly. Lieutenant Garken tried to put the situation as succinctly as possible. “They’re overclocking their beam weapons, they’re going to burn out!” He managed to exude a small amount of certainty scent.

The captain didn’t believe him. The smell hadn’t registered. They were taking to much damage to last much longer. Flee now, or they might not survive. Unless Garken was right. Except there was no way to tell. All the energy of the ship was being fed into the rather inefficient shields. “Retreat.” ordered the captain.

The lieutenant did the unthinkable, he switched stations and threw a quarter of the current power output into sensors. It dropped the shields down a magnitude in power, but it gave them the reading they were looking for. The beam weapons on the enemy ship were actually melting.