Chapter one

Published: Mar 17, 2026 by

“Honestly, you’re never going to hit that target from there. It’s too far away, even for you!” Dargrex said.

“How much you want to put on it?” Hegrex asked back.

Dagrex was quiet for a moment, starting to sweat. He knew that Hegrex was a great shot, if not the best shot in the quadrant. Hegrex never missed, well, apart from that one time where she sneezed just before pressing the trigger, the laser blaster missing the asteroid by a few mere miles. That was in the warm season when the pop trees were flowering, affecting her usual cool and calm breathing. It was the cold season now so no pop trees were about to pop their seeds into the air surrounding the ship that had landed discretely away from the space dock so as not to catch any attention of the light speed guards due to their current cargo.

“So are you in or out?” Hegrex prompted again.

Dagrex said still didn’t answer. He hated being put on the spot, and he hated losing even more. Last time he lost he had to do maintenance tasks for a half a season, including cleaning the outside of the ship with a tiny brush, one panel at a time. That took days to finish, before all his hard work was undone in moments after flying through a debris field of an old tanker.

He finally answered. “No. I already know you’re going to hit it. Even if it’s that far away. You do something tricky with the sensors or shields to make it hit.” He paused, looking at the control panel in front of him. The settings were showing everything was nominal and no custom settings had been applied, but he didn’t believe it. No one could be that good all the time.

“Alright, suit yourself.” Hegrex replied. She lined up the laser blaster by hand, directing it at the rogue asteroid in orbit around the small planet. The target was pointing directly at the centre of the object, but before pressing the trigger she double checked a reading in the corner of her heads up display. It indicated the state of their nearby sun, experiencing a solar storm, emitting more electromagnetic radiation than normal. She saw what she was waiting for as the numbers on the reading increased exponentially. A large sunspot appeared on the rotating star, approaching the direction of the asteroid. She knew from experience that it would probably emit a solar flare.

Switching the display mode of her heads up display to show the star, the sunspot came clearly into view and the white hot surface suddenly erupted, ejecting millions of tonnes of plasma into the solar system. Hegrex reacted, moving the target to the left of the asteroid and pressing the trigger hard.

Dagrex couldn’t believe what she was doing. The computer predicted trajectory of the blaster would miss the asteroid by a very long way, not mere miles, but thousands of miles. The laser blast left the ship’s blaster at the speed of light, initially following the predicted trajectory, until it passed the edge of the atmosphere of the planet they were currently visiting and out into space.

Once free from the planet’s magnetic field, the laser started curving ever so slightly, moving closer and closer to the asteroid, until it hit the target in its centre, obliterating the asteroid into space dust.

“How on Spartex did you do that?” Dagrex asked in amazement.

“Well, light travels in a straight line, right, but space isn’t always straight.” Hegrex explained. “The star has been particularly active recently and it just blasted out a solar flare with enough plasma, and therefore mass, to change the gravity field, which in turn affects space time, which in turn affects the laser’s path.”

Hagrex sat back in her chair relaxing, before removing her helmet with the heads up display.

Dagrex stood there, mouth wide open ready to ask more questions, but he couldn’t think of another question to ask, still trying to wrap his head around how someone could outsmart a targeting computer.

Hegrex looked up at Dagrex, taking in the confusion in his face, then rolled all three eyes before explaining. “It’s just maths.”

“But the computer didn’t work that out?” Dagrex countered.

“That’s because the computer only thinks about current conditions, it can only go off what its sensors are telling it at that point in time. It has no experience, it can’t predict what might happen. It only knows what is and not what might be. It takes a real mind to do that kind of thing.” Hegrex tried to explain, but the look of confusion on Dagrex’s face seemed even worse than it was before.

She removed the visor from her head, stood up and walked off the bridge, leaving Dagrex to process what she had just said. He sat down into the chair of the weapons console and placed the visor over his head, looking at all of the settings and numbers that Hegrex had customised. He couldn’t understand it all. He took the visor off and placed it back on the hook next to the chair.

Placing his hand on the controls, he used his arms to help raise himself up from the low seat. His left hand slipped slightly and ever so slightly pressed one of the buttons as he rose. Unbeknownst to him, a blast of laser beam erupted from the cannon and headed out of the planet’s atmosphere and out into space, out of the solar system and into interstellar space.