The Evergreen Files: Banshee; Book One

Solomon paced his quarters impatiently, waiting for a bright idea to surge through his well-oiled brain. His hair greasy and messy, his eyes baggy and bloodshot. It had been a long two days since they had released Decius from the brig with the uncharacteristic help from Lucius Deeph. The Captain of the Second usually growled, flexed his muscles a little and thumped off somewhere to break something. Once Kyril entered the room and urged the story be told, Decius told them an unlikely story, but a story backed by the beast-like no nonsense style Captain of the Second.

“Captain Deeph caught me, in the mess hall, when I threw the bread his way. He cornered me in the docking bay, and it got a little heated.” “Well, that can explain where you were during the incident, if base security confirm it”

(Which it did, The Eve’s security sensors only covered the Evergreen)

“Yes sir,”said Decius.

Solomon clasped his hand over his forehead, rubbing his hair line, “But what happened to your foot then? The saboteur hurt his leg by hitting something hard.”

“Well... look at him!” said Decius in surprise pointing at the monstrous Captain. “He’s massive! There’s no way in hell I could defend myself with my fists with him! so... I tried to high kick him in the head... not my best move, I’ll admit...” sniffed Decius.

Captain Deeph let out a barking laugh. “Not your best aim either!” Teased the Captain of the Second, “He missed me, and kicked a full ammo container!” he began laughing deeply. “He’s got balls this one has! Hey, Sol, if you don’t want him anymore, Can I have him pretty please?” asked Lucius placing his hands on Decius’s shoulders.

Solomon stopped pacing his quarters finally, sitting down inside the bed frame than sank into the walls. The inner wall of the bed frame covered in pictures of scenes from his home, his long-passed parents and cut outs of poster girls. “Lieutenant Gordon, we have completed all inspections and searches.” said Eve, breaking his train of thought. “And? What’s the problem?” asked Solomon in a monotone of boredom, expecting further delays. “We have found absolutely nothing, sir. You are required on the bridge to complete your pre-launch checks, once more.” said Eve smoothly. Solomon raised himself eagerly to the bridge with a newfound energy, but with a question of doubt planting itself within his brain.

‘Nothing wrong was found?’

Once Solomon had finished his checks from his command chair, he sat back, the fed-up feeling that had been infesting his senses suddenly parted. A new feeling began to turn inside his stomach. ‘What was this feeling?’ Solomon thought to himself. Excitement. Solomon had just come to realise that now his checks are complete, the Evergreen will soon be on its way. Solomon would be finally at home. Amidst the stars, finding new things, travelling into a new adventure. That is what he loved about The Evergreen, the constant unknown of space.

Kyril was sat in his chair, with a large transparent monitor floating in front of his eyes. His face showing boredom of the tedious checks he still had to make, making a sniff, he swiped the monitor aside commenting “It’ll be fine” and pressed his communications button on his command chair. “All hands, this is Captain Sinderman, we are preparing to make way, so strap yourselves in, Engineering, please make sure everything runs smoothly... Miss Ken, please report to the Bridge as soon as we have reached No-grav.” The two banked tiers of consoles in the command Bridge were fully manned, all twenty consoles had their human counterpart working quickly amongst the buttons. The Helmsman swirled on their chairs idly, waiting for their Captain to give the order to begin launch. The lights of the Bridge suddenly turned off, the darkness was subdued by the green and blue glow of the command consoles. The central and flanking paths marked with glowing golden lights on their sides to allow them to be seen. Solomon sank into his leather chair, grinning. ‘This is it’ he thought to himself. ‘Home.’ he had nothing to do with the launching, just sit back, and relax.

The crew busied themselves as the engines began to shudder and everything took on a slight vibration, Solomon, with nothing to currently do found himself thinking about the incident. ‘Why would someone strike Sandra, someone who hadn’t even seen them, if they did nothing to be locked up for? It doesn’t make sense. How can nothing be wrong with all this effort to escape and hide?’

The Captains aboard the other vessels awaited in the void above the planet. They had patiently waited so far for the two days that The Evergreen had delayed. The Judgement’s captain; Errol, had not enjoyed the last two days, he found that he was taking a V.I.P. on of his own. High Advisor T. Winslow. Errol felt like spitting every time he heard that foul mans name. He waltzed about the ship as if he owned it. Now, granted, on the surface he did hold a substantial rank over every one on the ship except Errol, the had roughly the same authority, but on his ship, Errol was in control, not Winslow. But Winslow, the Emperor’s golden boy had a shiny piece of paper from the Emperor himself stating that Winslow was acting commander of The Judgement. Errol had no choice, and he was ordered by Winslow; not to inform any of the other captains.

The Evergreen began to vibrate as the engines drew more, and more power. The vibrations soon became body jolting shakes, Solomon still sat in his chair, smiling blissfully, feeling as if massaged by the motions. The command crew shouting out readings of temperatures, pressures, and speeds across the glowing bridge. Kyril raised his left hand high in the air with a smirk. “Okay ladies and gents, lets punch it.” said the Captain as he brought down his hand with a fist, and The Evergreen began to accelerate upwards. Solomon could feel gravity intensify as The Evergreen brought itself up from the docking bay slowly and accurately. it took mere seconds for The Evergreen to separate itself from Base Superior and start to speed up its journey into the heavens. After five minutes The Evergreen was merely a darker blue dot from the ground, hanging beautifully in the skies. The warm blues of the sky and whites of the soft clouds soon began to disappear, and blackness started to consume the views of all the windows of the vessel. The gravity had lost much of its strength and the ship began to fire up its gravity generators, while they warmed up, Solomon could feel himself floating in his seat. Solomon heard the man in front of his seat swear, the junior helmsman was stretching out his arms, reaching for thin air, Solomon then let out a little chuckle as he noticed the Helmsman’s glasses floating near him. “Grav coming online in Three-Two-One-Mark.” said the Internal Operations Engineer. With the sudden loss of weightless to feeling the full force of gravity once more, The Junior Helmsman unbuckled himself blindly and searched frantically for his thick rimmed glasses. The lights flickered back to life, the light shined from the Junior Helmsman’s bald head, almost blinding Solomon. “Woah Geof, you should wear a hat, or grow some hair or something...” joked Solomon and laugh at Geof’s reply of “Oh, I’m sorry, your fancy pants ladyship”

Seconds from the lights turning back on, the entire bridge broke into life, as all the officers began quickly walking between each other, sharing readings and diagnostics. Twenty minutes later the Bridge Door hissed open and Eve welcomed Sandra onto the Bridge. Wearing her Olive uniform smartly and neatly, she walked fast paced to the side of Kyril’s Chair, clicking her heels enthusiastically and saluting, “Sir, you wanted me to report, sir.” said Sandra, failing to keep her excitement to a minimum, her eyes glinting, and her face beaming. Kyril eyed her disapprovingly, pulling back his sleeve, revealing a wristwatch with a rising timer. “It has taken you twenty three minutes to report to me... next time, I want it less than fifteen” he said playfully giving her a wink. “Lieutenant Commander. She’s all yours, I have the Bridge.” Solomon span on his chair turning to Sandra who was gazing around the bridge in awe at its full working potential.

Solomon and Sandra made their way to the library, two decks below them. Solomon automatically navigating his way through the steal corridors and hallways without a thought, Sandra still clutching her map, they walked past the medical room where Sandra had been kept whilst she recovered, and the auburn-haired nurse could be seen sat on the end of a bed reading a thick book, her eyes glancing up at the movement through the glass as Solomon and Sandra passed. She quickly jumped to her feet, making the doctor jolt, who had begun to doze, almost falling from his chair. “No, too many pies!” he squeaked. Lyra marched her way to Solomon and Sandra; she opened the exit door and stuck her pale freckled face through the threshold. “Sands, we still okay for tonight?” asked the Nurse, Sandra jumped from her map not expecting to be spoken to so suddenly. “Yes! Definitely Lyra. I want to take all their money!” she exclaimed enthusiastically. The Nurse gave a cunning smile and disappeared back into the medical bay to return to her book. Solomon was amazed, “Making friends already, are we? She’s new... I think. I don’t spend much time in the medbay myself, I haven’t really been in since Luna. Who’s that?” he asked. Sandra who blushed slightly as she began to explain, “She’s the new Junior Nurse, this is her first trip on a spaceship, we got talking about things when I was in.” Solomon suddenly realised how it must be difficult for someone who’s new on the ship to create friends, as everybody already knows everybody and has tight knit groups. The new people certainly had his pity, they had to try and join an already solid family.

Solomon discussed Lyra, the Junior Nurse with Sandra for much of the walk to the library, “You’d like her” said Sandra positively, which made Solomon blush. He had never had much luck with the opposite sex. The words never seemed to get out, or he would start sweating heavily as he started walking up to them, or the best ones, the words would come, he would be smooth, suave, get a laugh and a smile, and then seconds later, be shaking hands with the husband or boyfriend.

Once entering the Library, the room - vast but crammed to bursting point with shelves full of books kept in position by a gravity seal, and tables filled with data consoles sat in the centre of the room. The floor, a rich mahogany wood matched the equally rich and detailed lighter walls and shelving. Solomon walked ahead, passed the tables and data consoles and to the middle isle of shelves, running his outstretched finger along the spines of the hard and paper backs that sat there, casting a smile in Sandra’s direction, who had remained standing in the entrance area gazing around, taking in the beauty of the room. “I always did prefer a good proper book to be non-digital.” happily eyeing the novels. “...and... this one will do, I think” said Solomon removing one of the paperbacks with a plain black cover marked with the title ‘False Gods’ “I do like a Scifi book. Keeps the fantasy alive.” he said with a smile, Sandra returned the smile and stated, “Yes, but you live on a spaceship...fantasy no more”

Sandra glided over to the data console on the middle table and dropped her crinkled map onto the light wooden space that held the consoles as she began typing away with her long thin fingers. The blue glow of the screen reflecting in her eyes, making them look like blue orbs hanging in her carved face. Solomon checked out his book with the librarian on duty, an old, thin skeletal woman and left Sandra staring at her data console as he returned to the command bridge to complete his day.

The next morning, Solomon walked on to the bridge yawning with a very large mug of strong morning coffee in his left hand and a check-list in his right. Walking tiredly over to the helmsman taking another great yawn, “Bring up today’s schedule, please.” said Solomon, taking a large gulp from his coffee, the first coffee was always the best, the most important. You can ruin a day with a bad first coffee. A large blue time table became visible on the helm screen, Solomon saw he had only one meeting today with the Captain Commander, the Captains of the Second and Third Company and was expected to be on duty until five that evening. Satisfied the day ahead was a complete bore, Solomon however felt utter bliss flowing through him as he glanced around the beautiful Command Bridge and through the thick view screen into the black void of space, smiling to himself, glad to be home again.

The day passed slowly to Solomon, and after several hours of commanding the Bridge sitting in his luxury chair, responding to the little needs and calls of his crew, Solomon had finally had enough of the room that he was earlier happy to be stuck in. “Eve” said Solomon. “Arrange a meeting with Miss Ken for after my meeting, I want to give her an official briefing on her assignment.”

“Yes Lieutenant Commander, I shall inform Miss Ken, right away.”

The entrance door of the bridge hissed open and Solomon spun in his chair to see whom had entered, to see Captain of the Second Company and the Captain of the Third Company walking in. Captain Allan Tricks walked through the threshold with the monstrous Captain Lucius Deeph towering behind him, his face vague and thuggish as Allan scuttled like in insect in his way. Both marched into the Commanding Captains conference room holding datapads. Solomon looked at his watch and saw the meeting was fifteen minutes away and began to gather his coffee mug and own datapad. As Solomon waited, standing by his chair, casually discussing the aspect of Merriden IV with the Junior Helmsman the entrance door opened again and Jake Syn entered the room. the misleadingly young captain of the seventh company, although at the age of twenty four, his face featured the very theatre of war, deep lines etched into his skin, his eyes old and tired, his skull a mixture of scars and tattoos. An intimidating view of black images and faded colours drew judgement away from the idea that Captain Syn is indeed a nice enough chap. Before he was assigned to The Evergreen Seventh Company and awarded his Captaincy, Jake served in the Luna Marines and was involved in most of the conflicts of the Luna Rebellion two years ago. That is the conflict that aged the young soldier. Jake has never spoken much about the Rebellion – only what unit he was in and that he was, in fact there. “Lieutenant Commander. I am here to relieve you, sir.” said Jake in his usually hoarse tone that made him sound as if he was always on the brink of losing his voice.

“Thank you, Captain.” nodded Solomon. “After this meeting, I have a brief with Miss Ken. Shouldn’t take more than half an hour. Would you be able to hold the Bridge until then?”

Jake hesitated.

“There will be a bottle of Krit in it for you.” said Solomon with a tempting tone.

Jake considered this with delight and nodded. Krit is his favourite alcohol.

Solomon entered the Captains Conference Room and joined the meeting.

Commanding Captain Sinderman stood at the head of the table, flanked on both sides of the oak table by six pale blue but solid looking ghostly figures of the other vessel captains, and one clearly unwanted ghostly spectator. Solomon could make out the gaunt features of Advisor Winslow standing next to the figure of Captain Hyphon, who did not look best pleased with this sudden assignment of such a cockroach on his ship. Solomon could also see the plump features of Captain Gee who seemed oddly pleased with himself. “Captains.” said Kyril in a professional commanding tone. “..and Advisor... We are awaiting final check completion from The Judgement, Captain Hyphon, how long do you expect this will take?”

Errol Hyphon looked up broodingly at Kyril and opened his ghostly mouth to speak but was cut off by the ever foul Advisor.

“My Ship, Captain Sinderman, will be ready within the hour, I am taking every joy of getting to know my new toy. We will make way when I am ready.” said Advisor Winslow pompously. Kyril turned his head slowly to the gaunt features of Winslow, with a fury set upon his once smooth face. “If I asked you a question Terry, I was not aware. I spoke to Captain Hyphon. The Assigned Commanding Captain of The Judgement. I am well aware that you outrank the good Captain on the ground, but here, I am Commander of this expedition. I am the equivalent of every religions God. I will have either, your cooperation and acting in a professional military fashion, or, I will have you in the Airlock.” said Kyril through clenched teeth. “Do you understand me, Advisor.” he added.

Winslow Remained Silent.

“We shall be ready within the hour Captain. We will be ready to make way soon.” said Captain Hyphon hastily and uncertainly. His eyes could be seen darting to their right as he spoke, probably casting a glare at Winslow who shared the Judgement’s Bridge with him.

Solomon had taken his spot in the corner of the room next to Lucius and Allan, he then began taking notes, knowing, in the conference rooms of the other ships, their primary company captains that had the correct clearance would be doing the same. Kyril began again “Captains.” Pausing a little before adding “and Advisor.” he cast a look at each of the ghostly figures in turn and ignoring Winslow “We will report back after one hour, with your officers” all the figures except one agreed and vanished. Winslow remained for a few more moments, leering at Kyril before vanishing himself.

“Right, lads, we will be moving into formation soon, and as soon as The Judgement has sorted itself out, we will be on our way” said Kyril with a tired sigh. Solomon, Allan and Lucius agreed to meet back within the hour to give a full report on the incident and the already made checks before the voyage would be made.

“Is that the toe rag, you’ve warned us about Cap?” asked Tricks and Kyril responded with a sigh and a nod. “Too much effort, is that boy. Needs a good accident to happen to him, that’s what he needs, either that, or a straight up assassination to brighten up everyone’s day.”

Solomon walked past the medical bay window in the corridor of steel, catching a glance of Lyra the junior nurse. Lyra looked up from cleaning at just the right moment to find a handsome lieutenant commander’s grin pass from the window. Solomon made it a few meters down the corridor when he heard the sound of a body banging itself and against the bulkhead and the auburn-haired figure poking its head from the medical door. Solomon gave her a generous and theatrical bow and began walking backwards before turning down the corridor towards the library smiling from ear to ear.

Sandra sat at the data consoles with a pen held between her teeth and a stern look upon her face. She was concentrating so much she didn’t hear Solomon clear his throat dramatically as he approached. Solomon caught a sight of Sandra’s console; she was reading the data provided by the Gryph on the Banshee. Her eyes darting from left to right and back again. “they’re a good read, them things.” said Solomon over the console, making Sandra jump from her chair. Blinking and taking in Solomon’s sudden appearance. Settling herself back into her seat, Sandra suddenly checked her wristwatch and realising the time, she swore softly and apologised for her losing track of their meeting. “It’s fine” said Solomon softly raising his hand to silence Sandra. “It’s good that you have been researching their creatures, that’s what the meeting is about.” he said warmly. They discussed the creatures the Gryph have provided for them to study. “Then, there’s these, like...giant wolf spiders...‘Albrans’ they’re called. They only attack you in you look at them in their eyes...problem is, they have sixteen of them” said Sandra trying to catch more breath to unravel to Solomon what she was learning. After half an hour of the meeting, Solomon got to his feet and bid Sandra goodbye, making his way back to the command bridge to give his report.

Lucius and Allan stood outside the Conference Room, obviously listening to the conversation on the other side of the closed door. Their ears inclined to the source of conversation. As Solomon approached, the two company captains stood tall, their faces straight, hoping Solomon had not seen them. Solomon smiled at the posture and look did not suit the captain of the second. “Anything good on this channel?” asked Solomon as he pressed his own ear against the door, “I always struggle to get reception through that door.” Allan shook his head in reply, “We can only here the Captains Voice, Sir.”

“But My Lord, He is slowing down this entire expedition! … Yes, I believe he is deliberately doing this, sir. … No sir, I would not go as far as to call him a traitor, sir. … I implore you, please, have a word with him … No, sir, I would not dare to presume and give you an order or tell you how to manage your own people … He has been sealing areas of my ship off to me and my crew, for no good reason … and he is segregating people from each other, again with no good reason. And then we have the missing people, two of my staff have gone missing in two days… Yes, sir. I understand. As you wish, My Emperor.”

All three of the listening captains stomachs dropped at the mention of the last two words of the conversation. They should not have been listening to Kyril and the Emperor’s private talk.

The door slid open as they men shot a look at one and other, Kyrils ageing tired face welcomed the three men into his well-lit metal room, his eyes half shut and heavy. A lingering smell of stale sweat was hinted in the air. “I want Winslow, off this expedition. He is going to destroy any relations with the Gryph with his incompetence and thirst for having the last word. This will end with a war.” warned Kyril wearily. “He’s not allowed on this ship or allowed to send any orders to my ship or my crew, by order of Emperor Syphodias. The Order will be coming through to him soon, maybe two or three hours.” Continued Kyril. “I can’t wait to see his face in five minutes when I give him the direct order and he won’t know if it’s true or not for a few hours!” laughed the commander captain. “Right.” Said Kyril glancing at his wristwatch “Show time.” sure enough, as soon as Kyril straightened up, the blue ghosts appeared again before them.

There was a pause as they all waiting to see if their signal has been correctly intercepted. Anticipation was clear upon all of the captains faces. The only face not showing anticipation was Winslow’s. In fact, it was showing a delightful smugness of satisfaction as he had not only annoyed Kyril with his tedious delays, but shown, he has more power than him.

“My fellow Captains, and Advisor” the last word seemed to cause Kyril pain to keep the news quiet.

“Are we ready to make sail?” asked Kyril immediately.

The room was silent for a lifetime of a moment for Solomon.

“We are sir.” spoke Captain Hyphon standing taller than their last meeting.

“Excellent, let’s do it then, Make ready for my order in ten minutes.”

Winslow’s face wreaking with smugness remained silent through the conversation as the other captains began looking relieved.

“Oh, and Advisor...” began Kyril with a growing Smile, catching Winslow’s arrogant stare.

“By order of the Great Emperor Syphodias, if you set a single hair on my ship, without an invitation, or order any of my people around, you will be shot.” said Kyril with an abruptness joy in his tone as he pressed a button and removed his ghostly figure from the table. The remaining Ghosts remained shocked for a few seconds before breaking into a nervous chuckle, except Captain Hyphon who simply smiled, but soon began looking around as Advisor Winslow’s furious shouts could be heard through his communications channel. “Good day, Captain Sinderman” said Hyphon as he closed his own channel quickly. Sinderman bid the other captains goodbye and closed all the channels.

Returning to the Command Bridge, the ten minutes lasted hours in Solomon’s mind, when they eventually ended Solomon remained in his chair ready for the embrace of warp travel when Kyril spoke “Warp Jump co-ordinates to Jump Route one. Initialise. Warp on Three … Two … One... Jump!"