Rift Guardians – a short story by Popi
Chapter 1: The Rift
The Aetherion drifted above the shattered moon of Kael-9, its hull scarred by micro-meteors and the faint glow of its failing shields. Captain Elara Voss stood on the bridge, her gloved hands clasped behind her back, staring at the holographic display. A jagged tear in space-time pulsed before them—a rift, spitting violet lightning and fragments of alien debris. The crew called it the Maw. Elara called it a grave.
“Shields at thirty percent,” Lieutenant Rhen, her second-in-command, reported. His voice was steady, but his amber eyes betrayed unease. “Whatever is on the other side, it’s not waiting for an invitation.”
Elara’s jaw tightened. The Aetherion was a Guardian vessel, one of the last enforcers of the Concord, a fragile alliance of human colonies. Their mission: contain anomalies like the Maw before they swallowed worlds. But this rift was different. Sensors screamed of energies older than the stars, and the crew’s psychic, Mira, had collapsed yesterday, muttering about “eyes in the void.”
“Prep the probe,” Elara ordered. “If we don’t map this thing, the Concord will send a fleet. And fleets don’t ask questions.”
The probe launched, a sleek dart of alloy and light, vanishing into the rift’s maw. For a moment, silence. Then the display erupted in static, and the probe’s feed showed… nothing. A void so absolute it hurt to perceive. Mira, pale and trembling in her harness, whispered, “It’s watching us.”
Before Elara could respond, the rift pulsed. A shockwave rocked the Aetherion, throwing crew to the deck. Alarms blared. The rift was expanding, and something was clawing its way out.
The creature that emerged was no natural thing. It was a colossus of obsidian and starlight, its form shifting—tentacles, claws, wings—never settling. The crew froze as it turned a thousand eyes toward the Aetherion. Mira screamed, blood trickling from her nose. “It’s a Guardian,” she gasped. “But not ours.”
Elara’s mind raced. The Guardians were myths, ancient beings who’d seeded humanity’s colonies and vanished. If this was one, it was corrupted, twisted by the rift’s energies. She slammed the comms. “All hands, battle stations! Rhen, charge the lance!”
The Aetherion’s primary weapon, a plasma lance, hummed to life. But the creature moved faster, slamming into the shields with a force that cracked the bridge’s viewport. Sparks flew. Elara grabbed Mira, dragging her to safety as the creature’s voice boomed in their minds: “You trespass. Return what was stolen.”
Stolen? Elara had no time to ponder. “Fire!” she roared. The lance erupted, a spear of white-hot energy piercing the creature’s core. It shrieked, a sound that shattered consoles, and retreated into the rift. But the damage was done. The Aetherion’s engines sputtered, and the rift was destabilizing, pulling the ship toward it.
“Emergency jump!” Elara shouted. The crew scrambled, but Mira grabbed her arm. “We can’t leave. The rift… it’s a door. Something’s coming through. Something worse.”
Elara met her gaze. “Then we close it.”
With the ship limping, Elara ordered a desperate plan: detonate the Aetherion’s core inside the rift. It would collapse the anomaly but doom the crew. Rhen protested, but Elara was firm. “We’re Guardians. This is what we do.”
As they rigged the core, Mira revealed a secret. She’d been dreaming of the rift for months, guided by visions of a crystalline artifact—a key—hidden on Kael-9’s surface. “The creature wants it,” she said. “If we find it, we can seal the rift without sacrificing the ship.”
Elara hesitated. The moon below was a death trap, its surface littered with the wrecks of ships that had tried to land. But the rift was widening, and the creature would return. She made her choice. “Rhen, take a team to the surface. Find the key. I’ll hold the fort.”
Rhen saluted, his face grim. “Don’t die up here, Captain.”
As the shuttle descended, Elara watched the rift pulse, its violet light casting shadows across her face. Whatever waited on Kael-9, it would decide the fate of the Aetherion—and the Concord.
Coming Soon – Rift Guardians chapter #2 – The Moon’s Secret
Start at the beginning – Rift Guardians chapter #1 – The Rift
Table of Contents
From Popi’s Tales & The Book of wonders
More from Popi’s Collection of Facts & Fiction:
- Burtt the Blade – fiction
- Doh – Rey – Me – fiction – book – written here
- Mystery of Willow Woods – fiction – short Story – written here
- The Last Signal – part one – fiction – book – written here
- Shorty’s Path – non-fiction auto biography book
Other Short Stories for the young at heart: