543 A Glitch

Commander Ford waited impatiently for the escort ships to catch up with the Vengeance that was sailing at a quarter of its speed. The storm had finally broken and communications restored, allowing Ford and the rest of the command staff to find out that a new Protectorate force had appeared over the coast of Hensink.

With the storm receding away as sunlight peeked out from the gaps of the dispersing clouds, Ford had commanded Captain Nimo to raise anchors and have the escorts sheltering in the nearby cover to form up on the Vengeance. Their new urgent task now was to get to Hensink and assist Fort Hensink against the Protectorate that appeared under the cover of the storm.

The crew which majority had been cooped up inside their cabins due to the storm, were very glad to be let out and they manned their stations with a vengeful purpose upon hearing the Protectorate has come. They all had heard and seen atrocities committed by the Protectorate and many were appalled by the cruelty. The only race that did not bat much of an eye was the goblins as they only thought it was a waste of good meat.

The decks of the Vengeance was once again filled with the presence of its crew as they went about their ship duties. Inside the central hull, an apparition ducked into the countless piping and wiring and peered out curiously at the appearance of the crew. It hid amongst the pipes as it watched the crew and listened to their strange speech.

"Hey, that number two is leaking again!"

"Protectorate beetle heads needed to be taught not to mess with us!"

"Fark! The damn sewage pipes are clogged up again!"

The strange apparition floated around from one part of the ship to another, observing and listening, not daring to make its presence known to these strange looking beings. The most common looking beings It noticed appeared similar to the beings that had worshiped it many eons again, except they had long and pointy ears, or did those beings before was the same? It could not remember well. The other lifeforms it spotted was the tinier and hairless grey green beings that ran around doing an odd variety of chores.

It only once spotted a rare fearsome looking being that was taller and bigger sized compared to the common long ear beings. That creature had teeth or tusks protruding out from its lower jaws and was such a strange creature that It could only stare at that creature in confusion.

In It's jumbled up memories, that creature vaguely appeared to look like some kind of four legged creature that used to be offered to it, but except these creatures walked on two legs like those who worshiped it. It felt very confused and did not know where It was as the place It re woken at was very strange and devoided of the Sun God's power.

A strange wail suddenly broke out and that sound frightened It as It retreated deeper into the darkness. It slowly recovered Its curiosity when It noticed none of the beings seemed to be afraid, some even stopping in their chores to stare up at the narrow passageways.

It flinched back into Its hiding place when a strange voice thundered loudly in Its head. Unable to understand the language, It panicked as It sought safety among the darkness.

-----

The Vengeance's rudders suddenly jerked sharply and locked up to the side and its main propellers panicky spun with irregular speed, putting the entire battle carrier into a dead turn. The goblin class corvettes escorting the battle carrier frantically steer their ships out of the way of the out of control battle carrier.

-----

UNS Vengeance, Bridge

"HELM!" Captain Nimo of the Vengeance yelled out as the ship made a sharp swerve. "What are you doing!?"

"Captain!" The helmsman's face was pale as he reported back. "I lost all ship's control! The rudder has locked up!"

The XO of the Vengeance rushed forward to help with the helmsman. He spun the wheel to counter the turn but there was no response from the rudder. Captain Nimo seeing the situation going bad, quickly ordered, "Cease all power to engines! Bring the ship under control!"

"Aye!" The XO called out as he pulled the lever of the engine power down. But seeing there was no response, he started at the lever in his hand for a confused moment before his face turned anxious. "Captain! Engines have no response either!"

"What is going on?" Commander Ford stepped into the Bridge in a hurry as he looked around the crew. "Report!"

"Sir!" The captain quickly gave a report of their current situation. "We lost rudder and engine control!"

"Tell Engineering to pull the plug on the engines!" Ford's earlier unease came back. "Get damage crews down and see what is going on!"

"Tell the rest of the fleet to back off to one kilometer radius!" Ford continued his orders before he assured the bridge crew after seeing their nervousness. "The rudder and engines might have been damaged by the storm! We can fix this once the ship stops!"

-----

UNS Vengeance

The group of elves and goblins inside the Engine room was in a state of confusion as they started to shut the engines down. Already several colorful cables as thick as an arm was laying on the deck like dead giant snakes, yet the power of the engines was still not going down!

The Vengeance continued to turn in a wide aimless circle, thankfully they were far enough from the coast or they would risk running it aground to a reef or something. More and more damage control parties came into the Engine room to help figure out the situation.

Suddenly, the engines died abruptly and the rudder controls unlocked, leaving the damage control parties relieved as the ship came to a gentle stop after running out of speed. Anchors were dropped to prevent the ship from drifting and damage control parties donning diving suits dropped off from the side to inspect the damage to the rudders while others attempted to figure what went wrong.

Inside one of the maintenance ducts, a small figure laid curled up in one corner as It quickly fell asleep as Its energy had been used up unknowingly. As It fell asleep, fragments of Its memories appeared and faded away and It dreamed of an angry sea of liquid fire that made It felt warm and at home.

Unknown for how long It had slept, It woke up again by a strange loud voice in Its head. This time, It did not panic as before, and instead, It tried to make sense of the language but failed to do so as none of the sounds were familiar. It was confused as to why who and what could be spoken into Its head but at the same time, the same sounds echoed out from Its surroundings.

With no clue of what of going on, It started to wander around the long narrow tunnels and soon came upon some voices. Curiosity took over and It followed the sounds echoing through the tunnel and for some reason, It felt something of power coming from the sounds, making It feel refreshed.

It quickly flew through the tight tunnels and came upon several slit openings that allowed It to see who or what was speaking. It saw one of the short skinny beings wearing some oversized coverings and standing on a box. The short skinny being was hopping around while waving some kind of object in its hand, making It recalled some old memories of his worshipers doing a similar ritual.

There were many other beings packed together in some of hard rock room and they all seemed to be listening to the sounds made by the short tiny creature who appeared to be doing some ritual dance. Could these beings be having a ritual worship to some Divine Being? Though It as It continued to watch and listen.

For some strange reason, It felt tiny whispers of divine power following into Its body, making Its body more corporeal and whole. It felt surprised as It observed Its body, seeing Its once shapeless form appearing to look similar to the beings below It. But soon It's astonishment disappeared as It remembered It once took on the forms of the beings that worshiped It many eons back.

It was only surprising that to which Divine Being were these creatures worshiping and why was It able to absorb their faith to that Divine Being. In the end, It did not wander off to explore other places and instead remained huddled up in the vents as It slowly absorbed the power of the faith given off by the worshipers.

Finally, the creatures below appeared to have ended the ritual ceremony and started leaving one by one. It watched them leaving and raised It's 'hands' that had formed from absorbing their faith and saw the long slender digits in each of It's 'hands'. It curiously tested Its hands, opening and closing Its fingers and touching the cool hard rock walls of the tunnel around It, feeling the sensation of touch.

It raised Its fingers and touched Its body and ending at Its face, feeling Its nose, eyes, and the soft lips and the insides of Its mouth. It opened and closed Its mouth as It tried to mimic the sounds that seemed to provide It with the most strands of divine power.

"Haal... Fira- pa- wa?"

-----

UNS Vengeance, Bridge

Commander Ford paced around the map table as he waited for the damage reports to come in. The unease in his heart grew stronger with each passing minute. He kept glancing at the clock in the bridge before resuming his pacing until Captain Nimo presented himself before Ford. "Sir, damage control reports that nothing is damaged or wrong with the rudder and engines..."

Ford paused in his halt and frowned as he replied, "Yet, we lost control..."

"Yes, Sir..." The Captain had a frown on his face too. "That is what's baffling... The damage control parties and repair crews had gone through everything, several times, but they can't find out what went wrong..."

"They even checked all the wiring and controls in the Bridge all the way down to the rudders and engine, but everything checks out!" Captain Nimo said helplessly. "Whatever went wrong, it might be a yard job to find out more."

Ford's unease grew deeper as he listened to the Captain's report before he made up his mind. "We wasted more than a day of time here. Resume course to Hensink and order the escorts to keep a safe distance from us, in case, we lose control again."

"There is a yard at Fort Hensink that could look into the problem," Ford said. "We will go there for repairs. But before any repairs, we need to clear out the Protectorate!"

"Have the damage parties to stay on alert for any abnormalities with the ship's systems! We will be going into combat when we reach Hensink and losing control of the ship is the last thing we need!" Ford ordered with a worried heart. "Continue to monitor the situation... I hope this was just a one time glitch..."