Ghost Ships and Cold Winds

It was quiet in the first dimension.

The silence was only slightly deafening, the blaring quiet that remains once the bomb has gone off, once the radioactive fallout settles across the land. The slight ringing in the ears of those who witnessed it, even for weeks after.

Everyone, everything, was holding its breath. Waiting for something to happen, for the trigger to be pulled again, but it never was. It was the Dreadlord's move again, that was what everyone anticipated. He had captured Crenel, and the Alteriians were battle-weary. This was the opportune time to strike, so everyone was waiting for that exact move.

But it never came.

Weeks passed, and the strangely loud silence remained. How long could they continue to hold their breaths?

It was about three weeks after Robless' capture and the fall of Crenel and the Somnis Empire that the silence was replaced with a different kind of quiet. A low hum replaced the ringing, and though no preparations were made, everyone knew something was coming. Something big, something threatening, something they hadn't seen before.

Mere hours after the crews of the Voyager and Cataclysm began to feel the odd vibration in the back of their minds, the signal that gave then a strange but clear sense of impending... something, a ship appeared.

It was a medium-sized ship, not any ship class that was whatever recognizable, and Verax's sensors picked it up as soon as it arrived in the 1st dimension. It did not move for several hours, and those several hours were made of tension. Verax couldn't tell whose ship it was, or what its intention was.

The baffling thing about this ship... was that the scans revealed no lifeforms on board. Not a single one. No hints of life existed on this ship, and it simply sat there, floating in empty space, distantly visible to the Myrionith ships, but completely inexplicable.

And it was terrifying.

Fear began to stir among the crews, during the few hours that the ship was still. Fear was beginning to seep in at the edges of their minds, fear that they would not acknowledge and yet couldn't deny was present.

No move was made against this strange ship, this ship which contained no life, this ship which seemed to stare at them, into their hearts and minds and souls. And they knew such a thing was not possible. And still, it seemed...


That's when the ship turned. It's engines buzzed to life and it slowly, surely turned towards the Myrionith army. And it started forward. Very slowly, at first. It creeped towards them, silent and menacing, and the confusion it brought was tangible. No one knew what to do. No one knew if this strange ghost ship was going to attack, or if Verax was going to launch a counter-attack. Was Verax going to stop it? Was Verax even paying attention?

No one knew, and the nervousness doubled.

The ship increased speed, but was still at quite a distance... and it was headed straight for the Cataclysm.