The Dealer's Hand

(So I decided to start every chapter with a little random something, it might be a poem or a prose or just a small quote. Hope you enjoy.)

"Remember there is always good and bad in everything, pros and cons, even in life and death"

-MisterSkids

The small vessel known as The Darwin floated through the empty space. Light could be seen coming from a number of windows in the sides. Strange devices extended from the main hull of the egg shaped ship, making whirring and grinding sounds as they moved. The hulls shining surface had small burns and blemishes covering it, dents and dings from a long time of use. Stars shined where ever the eye could see, filling the contrast of darkness with hope. Except for one spot. The nebula that attracted this expedition blinked and winked purple flashes of energy. Its own color was a deep blue that would bring back fond memories of a perfectly clear sunny day. The vessel itself was no bigger than a farm house, but humans had learned how to compact everything into tight spaces long ago.

Captain Honeycut stared at the screen with the nebula, hoping to see some kind of change, any kind. It had felt like forever ago since he was sent here by command. He had jumped at the opportunity to for this mission. Not because the pay was good, or that the strange anomaly before him had special energy that could possibly be harvested, no. It was because of Jack Spade, and the fame that proceeded him.

They Jack Spade. Said to have the greatest mind in the galaxy, and they weren't to far off. He single handedly engineered and created the Compressing Molecular Converter Core, or the CMCC for short. Honeycut didn't know all the details of it but what it did was it broke down solid materials into a molecular form and fed off the energy that was used to do it. Nothing like it was every heard of before. Just one bar of uranium could keep a medium sized ship going for about a hundred years, take or give a few. His very own ship had a small one that it used to run everything, from life support to the shabby looking lights. It astounded the Counsel of Races, nobody had ever come close to a technological wonder like that before.

His feats had astounded his fellow peers. So when the good captain had heard that the amazing Spade was going to have another technological break threw, who wouldn't want to be part of the crew that discovered something like infinite energy. Jared Honeycut, the man that helped Jack Spade and reached a new era. It sounded real good at the time.

It had been two years since they arrived at this god forsaken spot that was barely on a map. The Counsel had used the oldest, beat-up ship they could find to save a little bit of money. But a lot of the stuff aboard was the best equipment for testing, so they had to find some way to save money, that and the cost for the crew. They where all amazing at what they did. Three scientists, each one at the top of there field. One engineer, who was a bit crazy but good at his job. And there was him, but he had never guessed he was that amazing a pilot, but command must have thought otherwise. Sure he had led a couple of successful raids against the Zephina race but it wasn't that great an accomplishment. But it seemed that even with all this they weren't any closer to figuring out this strange energy pattern. Sure the egg heads had made some pretty good discoveries, but it wasn't going fast enough for him. He still had three whole year left stuck here with these arrogant and stuck up so called “geniuses”.

People can only take cramped spaces for so long thought Jared as he pondered his fate.  He had shared this ship with four other people and everybody was on edge, no doubt for the same reasons as him. And with some body like the great Jack Spade sharing your same space, you can't help but wonder how he can keep that bloated ego inside the Darwin. The man was insufferable, if he was in your general area one could not hear anything but his talking of science or how wonderful he was. He was glad that everybody was asleep so he could get some piece and quiet, even if he had to endure what he liked to call guard duty. Making sure nothing went wrong with the ship and keeping his eyes on the nebula.

Was that something on the scanner? No, probably a bug in the system. He shifted a little in his seat to get more comfortable, sitting for a long time did not suit him much at all.

And the other three weren't that much better. Sandy, the only girl in the group, had this permanent snide look that dominated her features. She was condescending, angry, and just plain evil. She did everything in her power to make life harder for anybody not as intelligent or crafty as her, which meant that poor Jared was singled out ninety five percent of the time. She was the leading expert on physics both quantum and normal. She could turn something as normal as throwing an apple into a two hour discussion on how the property of the fruit changed the dimensions of the toss.

Then there was Bruce, leading expert on how to be a complete freak. He knew every comic book character, every historic figure, and anything else that sparked his interest. He didn't mind shouting if there was no reason for it, or putting ice cream on his mashed potatoes. But he never had a reason to say anything nasty about anybody, so all in all he wasn't too bad, Except when, bold as can be, he would walk around wearing that stupid costume of Starlander, the greatest hero ever by his claim, and make whooshing sounds as he ran up and down the place. The only reason he was here, in Honeycut's opinion was to maintain the equipment on the ship. See he was the engineer, and crazy or not, he knew the inside and out of a ship. Nothing went wrong on his schedule, and if it did, it was a minor hick up that didn't last longer than a minute.

And there was...wait now I know I seen something. There was a small white box on the screen, the Captain could barely make it out.

“Computer, zoom into section 38” he commanded, it whirred in response. Next time I want a voice module, I'm sick of the sounds it makes he thought with irritation. And really, how expensive is a voice?

On his orders, the screen began to get closer and closer to the area that was outlined that had caught is interest. Jared squinted as he searched the area, trying to figure out what was there.

“What?' he said to himself, “But there nothing...wait...whats that?”

He squinted even harder, the Captain was almost standing out of his seat as he stared into the screen. The area seemed to shimmer, like a jewel stuck in the dirt just catching the sun light. It was, slightly different from the rest of the area, no purple flashes or anything the nebula had done before. The more he looked, the more the shimmer became stronger. The blue around the glow seemed to become wavy, like Jared was seeing it at the bottom of a small pond.  The distortion seemed to be getting worse, going from a small ripple to a raging sea in a matter of moments. After a few minutes, Jared had regained use of his voice.

“Computer,” he said in a harsh croak “analyze the area for anomalies”

Hundred's of thing's flew threw his mind all at the same time. He saw fame and fortune, ships with infinite potential. Him finally getting out of this hell hole. His thought's where broken by a beeping sound indication the scans completion. Words and numbers popped up on the screen. He slowly read the analysis, his eyebrows raising with every sentence. In anger, Jared flew out of his chair, pointing his finger at the screen with rage.

“Nothing! How can there be nothing!” He turned away from the screen and started to pace about the small command center. If that's what you call three chairs, a few machines and a screen in one room.  He didn't always understand the read out on the analysis but he knew enough to know when nothing has changed, the other scientists had taught him that much. There has to be something he thought, something like this just does not up and appear.

After a few seconds, he calmed himself down a little and sat back in his chair. He stared and the bright shimmer that waved and wobbled like a sun possessed by some demon.

“Computer,” he said with a calm, commanding voice ”bring the Darwin closer. Maybe that well help a little.” Jared was thinking maybe the the scanners couldn't get a lock on it, yeah that must be it. He kept thinking over and over again on if they made another discovery, they would go back home and get a bigger research team. Then he could get out of this boredom invested rat nest, and never come back.

As the ship drew closer to the strange apparition, the haze seemed to have gotten worse. It would and could make somebody sick with all those lights and motion. Captain Honeycut had to look away several times, this must be what it felt like to be on one of those rickety wooden sea ships from thousands of years ago...ugh. They had cut the distance in half, and the number's indicated that ship was still in safe location. This should be good, the scanners could read the individual molecules at this distance he thought with a smirk growing on his face.

“Computer, run the analysis again,” the bleeped and squawked in response. The number's appeared once more on the screen, giving what knowledge the AI had gathered. After a moment, the Captain only got one thing from the data.

“A small energy flux? That still can't be right, it looks like a freaking super nova is going off here”. Jared glanced at the weird thing again, and say that it had changed again. What the...oh crap...I better get everyone else in on this, its not looking good.