Celestial Incursion

Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 1

Foreword

Hello awesome reader. As with the previous Splintered Galaxy releases, this book is a spin-off that can be read without having to touch the previously released books. However, there will be spoilers if you do plan on going back and reading those earlier books.

If you want the complete experience, then I suggest reading Celestial Ascension of the Splintered Galaxy series first, followed by The Siege of Sirius. Otherwise, just jump right in, everything you’ll need to know will be explained in this book regardless.

Dramatis personæ

A note on Radiance names

Members of the Radiance Union have to adhere to Aryile naming conventions. Names that end with ‘ea’ are female names, while names that end with ‘ei’ are male. The three-letter word prefix is a label that matches the race they are. The label also translates to numbers in the Aryile language.

Ary = one = Aryile

Mil = two = Javnis

Za = three = Rabuabin

Gab = four = Vorcambreum

Ure = five = Linl

ESRS Carl Sagan Crew

Rebecca Foster – IESA explorer, Captain

Species: Human

Dominic Williams – IESA explorer, Commander and first officer

Species: Human

Travis Pierce – IESA explorer, Science officer

Species: Human

Jasmine Rivera – IESA explorer, Chief engineer

Species: Human

Irena Kostelecky – IESA explorer, Chief medical

Species: Human

Mathilda Chevallier – UNE navy, Chief of security

Species: Human

Dennis Chang – UNE Navy, Flight Lieutenant and helmsman

Species: Human

Mil Tolukei – Radiance Psionic, Lead shipboard psionic

Species: Javnis

Nereid – Shipboard psionic

Species: Undine (humanoid mutant)

EVE – Electronic Versatile Entity, ship AI

Species: AI

Demarion Bailey – Chef

Species: Human

United Nations of Earth

Lance Anderson – President of Earth

Species: Human

Agatha Chevallier – Admiral and CO of the ESV Julius Caesar

Species: Human

James Barker – IESA director

Species: Human

Derek Irons – EDF General

Species: Human

Francis - Captain of the ESV Edward Codrington

Species: Human

Karen Park – EDF-17 team leader

Species: Human

Albert Moriston – EISS Special Agent

Species: Human

Chris Boyd – EDF-1 team leader

Species: Human

Krystal LeBoeuf – Warlock class psionic, EDF-1 team member

Species: Human Psionic

Otis Maxwell – Ravager class psionic, EDF-1 team member

Species: Human Psionic

Liana Foster – Foster’s mother

Species: Human

McMillan – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Paul – Bartender

Species: Human

Hashmedai Empire

Eensino – Emperor of the Empire

Species: Hashmedai

Kroshka – Empress of the Empire

Species: Hashmedai

Peiun Starblazer – Rezeki’s Rage officer

Species: Hashmedai

Alesyna Interloper – Rezeki’s Rage shipboard psionic

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Louik Lakedweller – Rezeki’s Rage bridge officer

Species: Hashmedai

Manzo Snowwalker – Rezeki’s Rage bridge officer

Species: Hashmedai

Careiah Blossom - Rezeki’s Rage servant

Species: Hashmedai

Radiance Union

Ary Ienthei – Radiance Union council, Aryile representative

Species: Aryile

Za Iey’liwea – Radiance Union council, Rabuabin representative and Souyila cofounder

Species: Rabuabin

Marchei – Radiance Union council, Vorcambreum representative

Species: Vorcambreum

Mil Zealoei – Radiance Union council, Javnis representative

Species: Javnis

Ure Hanei – Radiance Union council, Linl representative

Species: Linl

Ure Crimei – Radiance Union council viceroy

Species: Linl Psionic

Ary Odelea – Scholar and Souyila researcher

Species: Aryile

Ary Queenea – Souyila cofounder, Ienthei’s twin sister

Species: Aryile

Gab Eicelea – Radiance archaeologist

Species: Vorcambreum

Za Vynei – Eicelea’s bodyguard

Species: Rabuabin

Za Saressea – Radiance liaison officer of the XSV Johannes Kepler

Species: Rabuabin

The invaders

Dragon Knight – Invader commander

Species: Unknown

Dragon Maiden – Invader commander

Species: Unknown

Fighter Number 3,482 – Invader soldier

Species: Unknown

Timeline

1944 … Radiance Union discovers Earth and the human race.

1945 … Radiance witness the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Radiance council votes to not make contact with humans. Scientific study is allowed to continue however.

2003 … Noylarlie starts psionic training.

2008 … Noylarlie becomes Archmage.

2009 … Noylarlie given command of the Crimson Arrow, travels to Morutrin Prime.

2010 … Onatiasha and her team travels with Kroshka and Akeia to Earth via a Hashmedai command ship, they materialize eight years later.

2010/2011 … Noylarlie arrives at Proxima Centauri, and then embarks on journey to Epsilon Eridani.

2018 … Hashmedai Empire invasion of Earth.

2027 … Human refugees arrive at Alpha Centauri; Radiance fleet arrives at Earth to remove surviving Hashmedai forces. Radiance uplifts the human race, providing humans with advanced technology and medical advancements.

2027 … Extrasolar Defense Force (EDF) is formed to protect humans living in Alpha Centauri and future deep space worlds. Abyssal Explorer embarks on a thirteen-year journey to Barnard’s Star.

2028 … The United Nations of Earth (UNE) is formed; humanity enters new golden age of space travel and exploration.

2030 … Hashmedai Liberation front (HLF) slowly starts to come together worldwide after reports of mistreatment of Hashmedai left behind on Earth.

2032 … Chloe and EDF-1 are recalled back to Earth to assist in cross training.

2032 … EDF-2 and the Abyssal Sword goes missing after battling Celestial Order forces at Proxima Centauri.

2033 … The Carl Sagan along with a UNE fleet of science and exploration ships leave Earth to explore the galaxy.

2039 … Jazz, Kroshka, Phylarlie, Onatiasha, and Zhinbryo awake from cryostasis upon arriving at Epsilon Eridani. They take the space bridge back to the Empire.

2040 … Chloe along with the EDF-1 arrive at Earth and awake from cryostasis. Noylarlie and Parcisei awake from cryostasis and make plans to travel to Earth upon learning what took place.

2040/2041 … The Celestial Order wars.

2041 … Radiance abandons Barnard’s Star in the aftermath of the wraith outbreak and the battle of Barnard’s Star. UNE occupies the system via the newly discovered Lyonria Kuiper belt wormhole. Peace is formed between the UNE and the Empire.

2041 … Destiny, Tetsuya, and Vaish escape from UNE custody. Their whereabouts remain a mystery for years to come.

2041 … UNE discovers Radiance and Celestial Order research data regarding the ancient Lyonria in Barnard’s Star. Human scientists set up shop in the system to study the new findings.

2042 … The Radiance mega corporation, Souyila, begins research on ethereal energy. A new and renewable power source is made available to the Union netting the company massive profits. XE crystals are sold to the UNE as they are no longer needed.

2042 … UNE uncovers new Lyonria ruins in Barnard’s Star and begins to reverse engineer the Kuiper belt wormhole.

2045 … Mass production of human-built wormholes begin and the plans for an interstellar wormhole network is drawn out.

2046 … Odelea joins the Souyila corporation and uses their funding to advance her findings on gene therapy.

2048 … Anti-aging gene therapy tests are a success. Souyila sells the technology to the UNE, who in turn trades their version of it to the Empire. The act upsets the Radiance council. A new law within the union is passed forbidding any corporation from selling technology to outside galactic nations. UNE counters by withholding all knowledge they discover regarding Lyonria artifacts and ruins.

2049 … UNE wormhole network goes online, reducing travel times between star systems and speeding up colonization for their swelling population.

2050 … Captain Foster and Carl Sagan arrives in Sirius, discovers Lyonria ruins, life in the system, establishing the first human colony, and conflicts with the Architect.

2050 … The Carl Sagan receives a signal from a ship entering the system. They set a course to investigate as Radiance and EISS intelligence believes it’s related to the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword and EDF-2. Contact with the Carl Sagan is lost hours later.

2050 … Promising data received from the first generation of UNE extrasolar colonies fuel the need for the UNE to aggressively expand as death from old age is now a thing of the past. Population numbers within the UNE, Union, and Empire are projected to explode in the coming years. The colonization race begins.

2051 … UNE sends additional ships to support the Sirius colonists in the wake of the disappearance of the Carl Sagan. During which, technology from the Lyonria ruins, Tiamat’s tomb, and the Architect are collected and studied by the colonists already present in the system.

2052 … UNE sets out to expand their claim on worlds within uncharted regions of space, placing heavy emphasis on planets that may have Lyonria ruins.

2065 … The Hashmedai attempt to build their own MRF but are unsuccessful due to EISS sabotage.

2068 … UNE ships arrive at Sirius to retake control of the system and search for the Carl Sagan. No signs of the ship and crew are found. A wormhole is constructed linking Sirius to the rest of UNE-controlled space.

2068 … Formal contact is made with the Qirak trade fleet. Lucrative deals from the other side of the galaxy are made between them and the UNE, Union, and Empire.

2069 … UNE Lyonria experts assist Sirius scientists in reverse engineering FTL technology left over from the Architect and Tiamat drones. Radiance teams are brought in to help speed up the development.

2069 … The first Alcubierre drive ship is tested in Sirius. UNE and Radiance begins to upgrade all ships with FTL.

2072 … To counter UNE and Union FTL ships, the Empire aggressively pushes to create a working MRF. They have a 60 percent failure rate in production, however, only command ships and lead capital ships are equipped with the technology as a result.

2074 … To prevent Radiance from forcing the Undine and Poniga to join the union, the UNE labels several planets within Sirius as protected worlds, forbidding anyone from interfering with their culture or colonizing them unless specifically requested by the local population. Terra Nova and several other inhabited worlds in Sirius are excluded as they have been claimed by the UNE.

2086 … The colonization race becomes heated, and territorial disputes between UNE, Radiance, and the Empire begin.

2090 … With the growth of the UNE, Radiance requests all humans living in Alpha Centauri and Proxima to leave. UNE agrees and forces those colonists to inhabit Barnard’s Star to help the population growth and claim new Lyonria ruins discovered almost monthly.

2095 … Fearing another war due to colonial expansion, Amicitia station 14 is constructed as a means for the UNE to negotiate disputes between all alien races. A ceasefire between the Union and Empire is agreed upon months later.

2099 … Kroshka bonds with Eensino. The Empire for the first time in years is ruled by an emperor and empress.

2118 … Present day.

Prologue

ESV Julius Caesar, Bridge

Neptune Orbit, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 10:14 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A magnificent sight in the darkened skies of Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, appeared overhead.

It forced many of the colonists to stand before the windows of their homes, within the domed heated cities, and stare up into the cosmos to view it. That magnificent object was not the gigantic blue orb of Neptune as that was the second most beautiful thing. What had the colonists’ attention was the ESV Julius Caesar, a behemoth-sized Earth-built dreadnaught and the flagship of the United Nations of Earth’s (UNE) navy as it made its flyby orbiting the gas giant.

The Julius Caesar was the largest ship constructed by mankind. And as far as some people were concerned, such as its CO, Admiral Agatha Chevallier, the Julius Caesar was more than capable of obliterating the Imperial dreadnaught, Leviathan, despite the many upgrades the Leviathan received over the last half century.

Not that she had the opportunity to take the Julius Caesar into real hardcore combat. Galactic peace treaties and ceasefires tended to make war a thing of the past.

That was all about to change.

“Admiral on the bridge.”

Admiral Agatha Chevallier gave a slight nod to the lieutenant-commander as he acknowledged her presence. She casually moved past workstation after workstation on the bridge, noting the diligent work the crew was putting in, though there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that people had been in a more laid-back position prior to her stepping out of the elevator.

The Commander nodded while he offered her seat back at the central command chair. His middle-age-like appearance was comparable to hers as it masked the fact he recently celebrated his one-hundred and second birthday. Gene therapy, it changed the rules of life as a human. Gone were the days when one would grow old, wither, and die. In were the days of immortality and age rollbacks.

Agatha made it a requirement of her senior staff to appear older. Agatha, being born in the twentieth century, was a firm believer that admirals, captains, and first officers should look older than the rest of the crew.

“Admiral,” a young lieutenant called out to her, well, young in appearance. The downside of gene therapy, you could no longer tell how old someone truly was by appearance alone.

“Yes, Lieutenant?” Agatha replied with her French accent.

The lieutenant angled his holographic screen and double-checked the flashing notification pulsing in its far-left corner. “I’m receiving a distress signal from the Edward Codrington.”

“Distress signal?” Agatha stood behind him with her arms crossed, the lights from the ceiling shining down upon the flag of France on her UNE navy uniform. “Are they not here in Sol with us?”

“Yes, Admiral, they are.”

“Put them through.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

The lieutenant’s fingers tapped a command on his holo screen. It sent a signal to her Holographic Neural Implant (HNI), in which she forced the computer implant in her brain to create a small projection in front of her. On the projection was the captain of the Edward Codrington, sitting on his captain’s chair on a bridge full of choking smoke, raging fires, and despair.

Her mouth twisted at the spectacle.

“This is Captain Francis of the ESV Edward Codrington, to all UNE ships in the area,” the projection played. “We are under heavy attack. I say again, we are under attack by an unidentified—”

Static drowned out the sound of his voice and blurred the holographic projection.

“Can you clean that up?” Agatha asked the lieutenant.

“I’m trying, ma’am.”

Taking a seat at her post, she asked, “What is the Codrington’s location?”

“The Codrington should be with the eighth fleet near the Kuiper belt station.”

“That’s what I thought,” Agatha said, stroking her chin. “Why haven’t the other ships sent a distress signal?”

The Commander used his HNI to create a hologram showing the edge of the solar system. Pulsing blue dots were scattered across the projection representing the approximate location of all UNE ships. There were no red dots present. “I’d like to know why none of us have detected ships entering the system,” he said.

Agatha grimaced and directed her attention to the navigator. “What do we got on long-range scans?”

The navigational officer looked down at her holo screen. “Well …”

“Well what?” Agatha snapped back.

“I’m getting a lot of interference, Admiral.”

Agatha pivoted her chair to the aft of the bridge, where two personnel with heavy cybernetic modification on their bodies worked at their station. “Psionic team, what do you got?”

One of the psionic officers shut their eyes, forcing their brain to touch the hulls of ships and stellar objects in real time, unlike scanners, which after all the years and technological advancements, still travelled at the speed of light.

The psionic ended their ESP trance and gave their report. “I sense the same, something isn’t right.”

Agatha sighed as her patience with the matter was growing thin. “Can we be a little less vague, people?”

“I sense ships entering the system, yes, but,” said the psionic. “They are not entering Sol via FTL, or sub light, for that matter. It’s like they’re just appearing where the eighth fleet is.”

“Ships appearing out of nowhere …” Agatha grunted to herself as she turned to face the main view screen. There was only one group in the galaxy that could force a fleet of ships to materialize out of nowhere. “So, the Empire has broken their truce.”

The Hashmedai Empire with their space bridge technology can teleport ships from one location to another anywhere in the galaxy, bypassing the need for direct FTL flight, thus avoiding detection until it was too late. The UNE was capable of bringing ships into a system without space travel, but such a task would require the use of the wormhole network which was heavily guarded by UNE ships, especially the gates that linked to Sol.

It was highly doubtful the Empire sent a fleet through the UNE wormhole network to Sol. The Empire would have taken massive losses before they arrived at the necessary gate, and word would have gotten out to the UNE fleets as well.

“Contact the fourth and fifth fleets,” Agatha ordered her crew. “Tell them to rendezvous with us at these coordinates.” Using the implant in her head, she obtained a set of coordinates and transmitted them to her helmsman and communication officer.

“Aye, Admiral,” the helmsman replied as his HNI confirmed to hers he’d received the data.

“Inform all ships in the system to be on alert and inform command what has transpired,” Agatha said.

“Aye, Admiral.”

“How soon can we be ready for an FTL jump?”

“Full power now.”

“Let’s move!”

The ESV Julius Caesar, Earth’s largest warship, broke away from the orbit of Neptune entering FTL speeds capable of traveling at one light-year per month. Not that it was necessary for them to travel that far out, the Kuiper existed just beyond the orbit of Neptune. The location in question was a solid two AU away from Pluto’s orbital path.

The Julius Caesar seemingly appeared out of nowhere once they exited their FTL jump, followed by a number of ships from the fourth and fifth UNE fleets that appeared in the blink of an eye, one after another.

Ahead of the two fleets was a growing cell of red-and magenta-colored storm clouds. It was a storm in space. It didn’t make sense to Agatha, or her crew, who looked at it via the primary view screen. White-hot bolts of lightning flashed from the storm as burning UNE battleships were adrift in front of the storm. The remains of the Edward Codrington drifted past the Julius Caesar as they ventured closer to the strange anomaly.

Ships of an unknown design emerged from the center of the storm cloud in space. Bursts of energy beams soared away from the strange ships, cutting a swathe through retreating Earth ships, vaporizing escape pods and fighters with one hit. Nothing was spared, not even civilian transports that happened to be in the area.

Agatha’s hands held onto the arms of her command chair, squeezing hard until they flushed. “What the hell …”

“That doesn’t look like a space bridge jump,” said the commander.

Agatha shook her head. “It must be something new; the Empire has been experimenting with MRF technology.”

“These don’t feel like Imperial ships, Admiral.”

“Then who the hell is it?!” Agatha snapped with rage. “It can’t be Radiance, it wouldn’t make sense for them to attack us.” She continued to watch the strange ships in the viewer as they enlarged in size. If she didn’t know any better, she would say the hulls of their ships were made of flesh. “Pirates are too stupid to pull off something like this. It’s a secret weapon from the Empire, it has to be.”

“Why would the Empire break their truce after all these years?”

“We’re about to find out.” Agatha grinned, and checked the readiness of the crew with her HNI. All stations were manned and on alert. “All hands, battle stations!”

“Aye, Admiral.”

The ceiling lights of the bridge switched from a soothing white to a deathly, dark red, while blaring alarms sounded. The communication officer called for all hands to enter action stations. Less than a minute later, the Julius Caesar, along with the two fleets, charged into the fray, carriers launched all fighters and buzzed around the imposing ships like angry bees. Battleships ejected bursts of white-blue particle cannon blasts, destroyers released a barrage of plasma missiles guided by the telekinetic powers of their shipboard psionics.

“Admiral!”

“What is it?”

The navigator paused to review the new findings that appeared on their holo screen. “I’m detecting a UNE IFF within the storm cloud.”

Mild tremors were felt throughout the ship as it took three direct hits from the enemy, dropping its shields by 20 percent. “It’s probably one of our disabled ships,” Agatha concluded, refusing to take her focused mind off the battle.

“No,” the navigator said, sharing his findings with her via HNI. “It’s coming out of the cloud along with the ships; it’s an old IFF at that.”

The holographic image of the ship appeared in a superimposed projection over her eyes. It looked Earth-made but had a rotating habitat ring, meaning it was built before the invention of artificial gravity. It was an old ship, way too old to be in service in this day and age without a refit. “Which ship is that?” she asked.

“Admiral, if I’m reading this data correctly,” he paused while his eyes opened wide at the discovery he made. “It’s the Carl Sagan.”

2118 … the year the galaxy changed once again. Everything we thought we knew about quantum mechanics was wrong. Everything we thought we knew about dark matter and energy was wrong. Everything we thought we knew about metaphysical science was wrong. Everything we thought we knew regarding threats to the galaxy … was wrong.

Fear was about to clasp its chilly grip around the galaxy.

Fear from the edge of the …

Splintered Galaxy.

1 Foster

ESRS Carl Sagan, Cryostasis Chamber

Approaching Earth, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 15:18 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Blurry white mist lifted away from Captain Rebecca Foster’s cryostasis pod. Her hands pushed along the sides of her pod, ejecting her out into the weightless environment of the cryostasis chamber. Red lights flashed in sync with emergency alarms, the worst thing one could expect to encounter when you exit cryo as it usually meant the ship had run into unexpected problems during its sub-light-speed journey.

The rest of the crew had entered their first stages of their cryostasis revival. She was alone in the chamber from what she could tell after she took a quick glance at the time, 15:18 SST. The glass casing of one cryopod next to her reflected her face, her brown hair had been cut short. She thought it looked cute but had no memory of ever getting it cut. Come to think of it, she had no memory of entering cryostasis.

“There are two things I can’t stand in the morning,” Foster said, her tired Tennessee accent echoing within the empty chamber. “Alarm clocks and battle station alarms.”

“Greetings, Captain,” said the Carl Sagan’s AI over the speakers. An Electronic Versatile Entity commonly referred to as EVE.

“EVE, what in the hell’s goin’ on?”

“Automatic emergency revival protocols have been activated, Captain.”

“I can see that, EVE … why?” Foster double-checked her appearance in the cryopod’s reflection now her vision had completely cleared. “And what happened to my hair?”

“The Carl Sagan is being boarded, Captain, until the rest of the crew has been revived I recommend you arm yourself,” EVE said. “And, as for your hair, I do not know, but … it is very nice.”

Foster gripped onto various handlebars and pulled using the momentum to force her body to drift over to the exit of the cryo chamber. “Why are we in cryo? I don’t recall giving that order.”

“No data is available, Captain.”

“The hell you mean no data’s available?”

“Alert, the intruders have boarded, you are still currently the only crew member awake. You must reach the armory as soon as possible.”

“Hold ya horses, I’m goin’.”

Foster exited the cryo chamber and continued to pull and drift her way through the corridors of the ship toward its aft section, and the location of the habitat ring elevators. On the elevator ride up, a spectacular view of a blue planet she thought she’d never see again in years appeared before its glass windows.

Earth.

And it was on fire in certain parts.

Above Earth were ships, Earth-based she figured from their designs, though they looked a hell of a lot different. The alleged Earth ships lacked habitat rings, and some fired energy-based weapons at a fleet of alien ships. The alien ships looked strange, almost organic in nature and some had green, glowing, bulging sacks along their sides.

It didn’t take long for Foster to draw the conclusion that the organic ships were the ones responsible for the growing damage spreading out across Earth’s surface. She began to wonder if what she was seeing was similar to what would have been seen during the Hashmedai Empire’s failed invasion of Earth many years ago.

“So … EVE?” Foster said slowly, keeping her eyes on Earth while the elevator continued to rise.

“Yes, Captain,” EVE’s computer voice played on the speakers once again.

“Why are we back at Earth?”

“No data is available, Captain.”

“We did leave Earth at one point, right?”

“That is correct, Captain.”

“And then we arrived in the Sirius system, right?”

“That is also correct.”

The centrifuge gravity generated by the habitat ring gave weight to Foster’s body as the view of Earth was replaced with the interior layers of the ring, and then later hallways of the habitat ring when the doors slid open.

Looking both ways, Foster saw nobody in the halls. She was in the clear for the time being and made her way to the armory. “Okay, good to know I didn’t dream that fiasco.”

“Alert, the intruders are on their way up to the habitat ring. It is highly probable they have detected your presence; you do not have much time left.”

Foster cursed softly upon realizing she had made a wrong turn at a four-way intersection. The armory was by no means a place she frequently visited. After backtracking three times, she asked EVE. “We made it to Sirius, set up the colony, dealt with Marduk, then what happened until now?”

“I do not have any data regarding ship wide events that transpired from June 2050 until now.”

June 2050, it was Foster’s last memory. The Carl Sagan was en route to investigate something … something important within the Sirius system. She tried to reflect back on what happened, and what would have prompted the crew to enter cryo and return to Earth so suddenly. Nothing came to mind and it clouded her head with frustration, it was like trying to remember a fading dream seconds after waking up.

After effects of a bad cryo sleep, perhaps? she mused before entering the armory and its weapons lockup.

Inside, she helped herself to an ePistol and eyed a suit of Hammerhead-issued combat armor. Its hard material and personal shields would keep her alive a lot longer than her IESA uniform. Problem was, Foster was no soldier, or navy personnel for that matter. She was an explorer, one that was not trained to use such equipment.

“Captain, the intruders are closing in on your current location. ETA is two minutes seventeen seconds at their current speed.”

Foster activated the ePistol and it emitted a soft humming noise. “I’m gonna assume they’re runnin’.”

“That would be a correct assumption,” said EVE. “Perhaps you should do the same.”

“Naw, I was thinkin’ of taking a slow stroll, ya know? To admire the view of Earth getting bombed ‘n’ shit.”

“That would be an ill-advised course of action.”

With intruders inbound, Foster left the armor with haste, armed with only an ePistol. Even if she knew how, there wouldn’t have been enough time to get into the armor. Hell, she didn’t have time to find and equip herself with an eRifle, which was next on the to-do list.

Her feet moved quickly, almost as quickly as her heartbeats as she heard the intruders nearby. They were fast. She arrived at a four-way intersection within the halls and hid behind a wall. She peered back down the hall she had traveled from, the hall where the intruders were moving through to follow her.

She caught a glimpse of them, four to be exact. They were covered head to toe with full body armor. They were humanoid in appearance and each one was armed with a weapon she guessed was a rifle. Their helmets were dotted with red lights, four on the left, and four on the right. It was far from a comforting sight.

One of the intruders noticed her and aimed their weapon at her. Shit!

“Captain, they are hostile,” said EVE’s voice. “Please defend yourself at once.”

“Duly noted.” Shoot first, ask questions later. It was the way of the south where she was born and raised.

Her pistol did the talking from that point on. The intruders weren’t listening to it, however, as they stood and watched her magnetically accelerated bullets repel off their blue, glowing energy shields. Foster didn’t bother to stick around and retreated through the halls as she heard their stomps follow behind her. The elevator, it was her only hope now since fighting her way out was officially a bust.

She crisscrossed her way through the halls, hoping the random turns she made at intersections would throw them off. It didn’t. She began to wonder how much longer it would take for the crew to revive and EVE to direct them up, because, as it stood, she was doubtful she would make it back to the elevator without any holes in her head.

She heard what sounded like a struggle, and then the stomps of the four intruders stop in their tracks. Something, someone, got their attention enough for them to end their pursuit, it was a way out. Foster gasped in relief and examined what had stopped the intruders from their chase. She saw one of the intruders hold their hands out in front of the other three as if to say stop where you are. She figured it was their leader forcing them to stand-down, but why? They were so close to getting her. One carefully aimed shot to the back of Foster’s head as she ran down the hall would have done the trick.

The lead intruder faced away from their now docile minions and faced Foster. It held onto the sides of its helmet, lifting it up and away from the suit of combat armor. The face that was beneath the helmet was human, a woman of Asian descent with bobbed black hair.

“Captain Rebecca Foster?” the woman, the leader of the intruders, called out to her.

“Who wants to know?” Foster yelled back.

“I’m Gunnery Sergeant Park, EDF-17,” she said. “Please stand-down we don’t want to fight you.”

Foster continued to hold onto her pistol, while placing her back to the wall from around the corner. “Ain’t ever heard of EDF.” She took a quick peek around the corner to ensure it wasn’t a trick to get her to lower her guard. “Ain’t never seen humans with that crazy get up either.”

“Standard EDF equipment, it stands for Extrasolar Defense Force,” Park said. “Look, I can explain everything, but you need to stand-down, we’re on the same side.”

Foster peeked at them again and saw the rest of Park’s team follow her lead, removing their helmets, unveiling their human faces. Foster took a deep breath, cleared her thoughts of doubt, and slowly approached them, keeping her weapon in her hands pointed at the ground. She waited for signs they weren’t being truthful but couldn’t see any. No bullets were fired, no aggressive stances were taken. They were friendly after all.

“Sorry about that,” Foster said, holstering her pistol. “EVE told me ya’ll were the bad guys.”

Park rolled her eyes at Foster. “The AI is there to help, not tell you exactly what to do.”

“I trust her.”

“If your AI told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?”

Foster chuckled. “’Course not, that’ll get me killed.”

“Actually, Captain,” EVE chimed in. “You did leap into a pit approximately six kilometers deep.”

An awkward silence followed. Park and her team all fixed their shocked and disappointed stares on Foster.

With a flushing face Foster said. “But … here I am, right?”

“That is correct, Captain, you narrowly survived the ordeal,” EVE said.

Noticeable vibrations shook below Foster’s feet traveling throughout the ship, a reminder of what was playing out in space. Foster, along with the four EDF personnel, stood next to a nearby window and observed the deadly weapons exchange in orbit of Earth. There were more mangled Earth ships than there were invader ships.

“It’s getting worse,” Park said.

“What is goin’ on?” Foster asked her.

Before Park could reply, a blinding flash of light appeared from over the horizon of Earth. It was a second sun, one that grew larger and larger, forcing the five to shield their eyes with their arms. The glow from the flash dimmed and Foster saw the partially vaporized remains of two maybe three invader ships.

“Shit,” she said. “Was that a nuke?”

“Yeah, it was,” Park mumbled. “It must be getting bad if they’re using nukes this close to Earth. Let’s get to the bridge before it’s too late.”

Foster directed the four to the elevator and remained behind for a few seconds to look out the window. The number of invaders around the Carl Sagan blotted out half of the stars in space and its blackness. It looked as if the Carl Sagan was flying in formation with the invaders.

She joined up with the EDF team and rode the elevator back down to the central fuselage and its lack of gravity. They made their journey to the bridge, drifting through the corridors, past dormant control panels on the walls, various connecting corridors, and neared the cryo chambers from where the newly awoken crew emerged with tired-like faces.

“So, I ask again,” Foster said to Park. “What is going on?”

“Long story short, Sol is under attack by a hostile force.”

“Well, ya don’t say?” Foster snarked at her. “Is it the Empire?”

“Nobody knows for sure,” Park said. “All we know is these ships are nothing like we’ve ever encountered and have more than enough firepower to tear our ships apart. And as you probably know we have the strongest shield tech in the quadrant.”

“Is that why they made it to Earth?”

“Yes …” Park muttered as Foster held onto the wall, slowing her drift as they approached the entrance to the cryo chambers. “They cut our fleets at the edge of the system into pieces five hours ago, and then left a trail of destruction behind them coming here.”

She nodded in acknowledgment to Park and then faced her awakened crew. There were a lot less crew members floating in the corridors than she had thought there would be. True, the Carl Sagan left Earth with a skeleton crew, a skeleton crew that was nowhere to be seen. Only her senior officers were present. She winced and hoped that others were still being awakened.

“Everyone to your posts, we’s got a major situation at hand!” Foster ordered while casting away the concern of the missing crew as there was no time to search for them.

The Carl Sagan’s science officer, Doctor Travis Pierce approached Foster. His confused middle-aged faced grimaced and asked her, “Captain, why were we in stasis?”

Foster shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“And the alerts?”

“No idea exactly what we’s facin’.”

Pierce pointed at the four EDF personnel who were very eager to get to the bridge. “Who the hell are they?” Foster glared at Pierce. “Never mind, you don’t know?”

“This is Park,” Foster said, gesturing to her. “Don’t know the rest of ‘em.”

“Oh, by the way.” Pierce directed Foster’s attention to the tabby cat in his hands, flailing its legs within the low gravity environment. It was Foster’s pet cat Starlet. “Found this guy lost and confused … like the rest of us it seems.”

Foster’s heart warmed realizing her cat made it into cryo along with the crew. She refrained herself from holding it, knowing full well there was a crisis at hand, and four military brutes behind her giving her weird looks.

“A cat … really?” Park said to Foster.

“Hey! Being a captain has its privileges now,” Foster said, and then directed her attention back to Pierce. “Hey, can you?”

Pierce smiled. “Your quarters, Captain?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“Captain, we don’t have time for this!” Park growled, placing her armored hand on Foster’s shoulder.

Foster ignored the EDF leader, patted Pierce on his back, sending him on his way back up to the habitat ring. “Quickly, Pierce.” He did as instructed and vanished along the corridor. “Besides, somethin’ tells me we ain’t gonna need his brains for what’s comin’.”

Master Chief Petty Officer Mathilda Chevallier, leader of the Hammerhead team and head of security, exited the cryo chambers last. Chevallier brushed her floating auburn hair away from her face while Foster drifted closer to the strong yet slender woman. “MC, round up all the Hammerheads in the docking bay and get ready to drop down to the surface.”

With Chevallier leaving the cryo chamber meant that the Hammerheads were soon to follow. They must have entered cryo last as they were a part of the UNE navy, unlike most of the crew who were members of IESA.

“Surface of where?” Chevallier said. Her French accent was strong, much like her mother’s.

Reluctantly, Foster replied. “Earth …”

Chevallier’s lips twisted at Foster’s words. “What the fuck are we doing back at Earth? Hell, why were we in cryo—”

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” Foster said drily. “Any questions you have right now, that’s the answer, ya hear?”

“I hear ya,” Chevallier said, and went to drift away to the lower decks. Then stopped suddenly and asked Foster. “Did you cut your hair?”

Foster sighed. What did I just finish saying? “I don’t remember doing it.”

“Oh, wow,” said the Carl Sagan’s first officer Dominic Williams from behind. “Becca, you did cut it, looks cute.”

She stared at him and his dark face, noting he was resisting the urge to burst out laughing. Park cleared her throat, directing Foster’s attention away from Williams, and the fact he was clean-shaven. Last time Foster had checked he had a beard. Right, the bridge, wasted enough time out here.

Foster led the way and drifted onto the bridge and into her captain’s chair. The rest of the bridge’s crew followed suit, well, the senior crew that was since the rest of the low-ranking crew personnel were still unaccounted for. Mil Tolukei, a Javnis psionic who was also a member of the Radiance Union, arrived last on the bridge.

He used his psionic brain to generate gravity for the crew, ending their drifting, and putting the soles of their feet back onto the floor. Tolukei’s lizard-like leathery hands interacted with the computer terminal at his station as his four eyes searched for his assistant from behind the gloomy hood he wore. He found her, Nereid, the strange and exotic raven-blue-haired girl they picked up at Sirius.

Park, and her EDF team, gave the bridge and its crew mesmerized looks while they walked closer to Foster. One member pointed at Flight Lieutenant Dennis Chang while he took a seat at the helm. “Is that a screen?” he asked him.

Chang spun in his chair facing the EDF member, Foster noticed his black hair and beard had grown long, way too long for UNE navy standards. “What’s wrong, never seen a computer screen?”

“On a starship?” said the EDF member. “Hell, no.”

“Buttons, knobs, and dials …” Park said, observing the vacant science officer station. “Feels like I walked into a museum.”

“Give us a break,” Foster said to Park. “We left in 2033 when this stuff was state of the art. I’m sure whatever ya’ll usin’ in 2050 isn’t that far advanced—” Foster shut her lips suddenly upon realizing her math was way off. A trip between Sirius and Earth was approximately seventeen years. It would have taken them another seventeen years to return back to Earth. “Sorry, must be what? 2067 now?”

Park exchanged grimacing glances with her EDF team. Glances that made Foster’s gut fill with concern. “Um … one last thing, Foster,” Park said.

“Don’t tell me I got the year wrong,” Foster said, “I ain’t that bad at math.” Though she had a feeling it was more than just that.

“The year is 2118,” Park revealed, to the shocked and worried faces of everyone on the bridge. “Welcome to the twenty-second century.”

The Carl Sagan’s crew was in cryo for sixty-eight years, and not one person knew why from what Foster was able to gather. If they had entered cryo and left for Earth and arrived in 2067, and then forgot, that could be somewhat explained. But sixty-eight years? It shouldn’t have taken that long to return.

What the hell were we doing during all those years?

The deadly confrontation outside the Carl Sagan increased with intensity. The crew looked on, through the bridge’s windshields, at the sheer number of invader ships that swarmed around the Carl Sagan as if they were trying to protect it from the UNE fleet. Extremely bright red and orange glowing explosions flashed at random.

“Shit! More nukes incoming!” Park yelled as a holographic window appeared next to her.

Foster too saw the incoming nuclear missiles that were plunging directly toward the invader ships surrounding the Carl Sagan.

“This is Gunnery Sergeant Park to any UNE Navy vessel. Disengage your nuclear warheads; the Carl Sagan is not hostile. I repeat, the Carl Sagan is not hostile, disengage all nuclear strikes close to my signal!”

This begged the question. “Why is the Carl Sagan flying alongside an alien invasion fleet?” Foster said.

“I don’t know,” Park replied.

“That seems to be a common reply these days.”

“My team boarded to find out why,” Park said. “Because, as it stood for the last five hours, it appeared the invaders had taken control of this vessel.”

Foster folded her hands together and watched the barrage of nuclear warheads close in on their intended targets, knowing full well that the Carl Sagan would eat the tail end of the nuclear blast. They could move, but where? They were trapped within a web of invader ships in the heart of their fleet. There wasn’t much space to maneuver without crashing into one of them.

“Well, as you can see,” Foster said drily. “We ain’t aliens.”

2 Odelea

Iey’liwea’s High-rise Home

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous system

Cycle 6021, 9th dawn of Tym, Hour 4 of 19 (August 2, 2118, 16:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Aervounis was the capital of the Radiance Union and the homeworld of the Aryile race. The planet was blanketed with a warm tropical-like climate that was slowly transitioning into a desert as the star it orbited was in its early stages of expanding into a red giant. War on the surface of the planet was rare, even during the years before the Aryile race was able to travel into space, unlike ancient Hashmedai and humans prior to their uplifting. Violence was limited to crimes. The war without end, which raged on for centuries between the Radiance Union and the Hashmedai Empire, hadn’t made it to the surface of Aervounis.

Today, that changed.

Every major city on Aervounis was built on floating artificial islands that hovered amongst the clouds. Every one of them was placed on high alert when a mysterious storm cloud began to erupt inside the Luminous system, spewing out hordes of organic ships from its center. The mysterious invader ships began to ravage the mighty Radiance navy, the largest known navy in the galaxy. The death toll rose steadily every minute.

The capital city of Veromacon burned while the bright white sunlight from the skies shined down. The sound of towering skyscrapers crashing into others was a common sound, mixed in with the noises of energy weapon strikes launched from orbit. They were reminiscent of lightning strikes. At first, you saw the light and the beam of energy from the skies strike, then the thundering noise of an explosion seconds later.

Not all areas of Veromacon were blazing. But at the speed the invader’s ground assault teams were progressing, it would only be a matter of time before they changed that or got fed up with the resistance of the Radiance rangers and have their orbiting weapons target their garrisons.

And it was that thought that paralyzed Scholar Ary Odelea, as she sat on the balcony of a high-rise home and looked on at the chaos. The scorching heat of the sun made her traditional Aryile morning meal of a bowl of fruit warm and dry. Magnetic rifle bursts from Rangers echoed from the streets below, with the odd psionic explosive blast from their psionic support.

She was able to make out eight different rifles blazing and carefully kept note if those said eight rifles continued to fire. As long as they did, it meant the rangers weren’t taking anymore losses. Minutes earlier she had detected eleven rifles singing in unison. May those three brave souls find peace with the Gods.

Odelea’s skinny frame was yanked back inside the living room of Za Iey’liwea, the Radiance Union Rabuabin council representative. Iey’liwea shook Odelea’s body repeatedly, speaking words she failed to process. The trauma from what she witnessed outside, and the fear that the rangers in the streets might fall and pave way for the invaders to march into the high-rise unit, muted all vocalized sounds around her.

Iey’liwea kept shaking Odelea’s body, making her short, red, wavy hair sway back and forth, smudging the glitter make-up she had applied to the strip of scales on her collar and the side of her neck and arms.

“Odelea!” Iey’liwea’s voice finally had volume and Odelea shifted her reptilelike eyes onto the Rabuabin woman with ram horns on her head.

“Yes,” Odelea muttered back. “I’m, I’m sorry.”

Iey’liwea released Odelea from her grip slowly with a wince on her face gawking at her. “Sorry, still not used to seeing you look so young,” Iey’liwea said as her tail stiffened, and her feline ears twitched at the explosive sound of a military transport ship crashing.

“It’s quite all right; I have been getting the same looks from all my colleagues the past week.”

Ary Ienthei, the Aryile council representative, joined the two women in the living room. He too had been visiting Iey’liwea along with Odelea prior to the arrival of the invaders. It was supposed to be a visit consisting of a quiet and enjoyable time for the three to talk and vent their opinions about politics of the galaxy.

Fists from the outside began to smack against the front door, someone wanted in, and from what Odelea could tell by the sound, that someone was wearing combat armor, or at least had the gloves on.

Iey’liwea sighed while rubbing the left horn on her head as she interacted with the holographic door control panel. Three armor-clad rangers invited themselves in as the doors unlocked and opened.

Crossing her arms, Iey’liwea asked. “What are you doing in my home?”

“I’m sorry, Councilwoman,” one of the rangers said, a Vorcambreum one at that, with its three-foot-tall body. “But we’ve been ordered here for the protection of you two.”

“Two?” Odelea said, shaking her head. “I suppose by two, you mean everyone in this room except me?”

“My apologies, scholar, but we have our orders,” said the Vorcambreum ranger. “Ienthei and Iey’liwea are members of the council, should we lose them during this battle—”

“Ha! Please,” Iey’liwea interrupted. “I highly doubt any of you three will live to see the end of the day, let alone keep us alive.”

The second ranger stepped forward, a fellow Aryile from what Odelea could see via his gold-tinted visor on his helmet. “Councilwoman Ien’thea, please —”

“Stop, that’s not my name,” Iey’liwea said. “I am Iey’liwea, Ienthei is the lanky man in the corner there.”

“Ienthei, Iey’liwea,” the ranger said. “Your names are too similar and you’re both on the council.”

“Iey’liwea is the more exotic name, much like my species,” Iey’liwea said, bringing her ears, horns, and tail to their attention. “Just remember those details.”

“Whatever!”

Ienthei crossed his arms as his mouth twisted at the three rangers. “So, this is our protection?”

“Two weakling third class Aryile rangers,” Iey’liwea said, scoping out the two armored Aryile rangers and shifting her unimpressed expression to the third ranger. “And a Vorcambreum.”

“Second class Vorcambreum ranger!”

Iey’liwea spun away from them rubbing her forehead, cursing a racial slur in her native tongue.

Ienthei’s back rested against the wall and laughed. “This is ridiculous, what was the rest of the council thinking?”

“I don’t think they gave the order for them to come to us,” Iey’liwea said, then turned to face the three rangers. “Isn’t that right?”

“The order comes from General Pavobei,” said the Vorcambreum.

“Heh, they didn’t care to issue the order themselves,” Iey’liwea said.

“I’m not surprised; this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to get rid of us, when a convenient accident was taking place,” Ienthei said. “Where’s the rest of the council?” he asked the Vorcambreum who was clearly the leader of the squad. It made Odelea smile a little, as it was not every day one would see a Vorcambreum ranger, let alone one that was a leader and could care less what people thought about their height.

“They were in the delegation chambers when the invaders arrived,” the Vorcambreum said.

“Meeting without the two of us invited …” Ienthei snorted.

Odelea heard another skyscraper fall and shatter, the vibrations making the building they were in sway slightly. Odelea returned to the window and nervously looked on as the once pristine city continued to fall into the hands of the enemy forces, while the two council members bickered with their escort.

A fireball streaked across the skies, leaving black smoke in its wake. She hoped it was one of the invader ships, but knew it was probably another transport shot down. Meanwhile, strange objects that looked like sacks of flesh fell from the skies into the city streets. She wasn’t able to see what happened next as debris and other buildings obscured her view.

Curiosity made Odelea utilize her neural implants, HNI as the humans call it. A projection appeared over her eyes featuring a news page that was programmed to feed her all the latest news from the Radiance knowledge network, and the human internet. The last news feed that had been posted reported that the Radiance navy was struggling to hold back a fleet of invading ships that had appeared from a storm cloud within the system.

No new reports had been made since then, and her HNI was having a difficult time pulling news articles from human news sources. The quantum entanglement communication (QEC) relay beacon was no doubt damaged, or destroyed, during the attack.

“Tell your superiors I want better protection,” Odelea heard Iey’liwea bark.

“We don’t have anyone left to spare!” The Vorcambreum ranger said. “The remainder of our forces are in the streets fighting. With that said, can you please come with us? It’s not safe to remain here.”

“Fine!” Iey’liwea threw her hands in the air in frustration. “But you are going to add Odelea to your list of people to protect.”

“But—”

“Two members of the council are in front of you, boy,” Ienthei said, placing his body in front of the three. “We are giving you new orders; escort the three of us to safety.”

The Vorcambreum nodded. “Understood, Councilman.”

“Odelea!” Ienthei beckoned for her to leave the window. “We’re leaving.”

Odelea didn’t move as the slow destruction of the city continued to unfold with undesirable results. She wondered how much of the destruction would bleed out to the rest of the world, the homeworld of her and Ienthei’s species. “This is …” she stopped midway. The emotions in her heart prevented her from mustering the words to finish.

“I know,” Ienthei said. “It’s hard to imagine the Empire finally made it to our home and broke the ceasefire agreement.”

“This is what the humans call karma,” Odelea said.

“I’m not familiar with human terms,” Ienthei said.

Odelea faced him. “It was nearly one hundred years ago today when the Empire invaded Earth. It was made possible because of our actions.”

There were other factors at play during that moment in history, such as the cult of the Celestial Order. The order was able to rise to power because of Radiance’s way of running their government. If Radiance had never existed, Earth would have avoided the Imperial invasion and the two billion human lives it took.

Once again, Odelea felt a firm hand yank onto her glittered painted scale shoulders, this time it was Ienthei. It was time to go, time to make their exit from Iey’liwea’s place, hopefully someplace safe. She cringed at the thought of the many families still stuck inside their suites, not getting a military escort. And there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. If those families went outside, they’d become practice targets for the invaders’ infantry forces in the streets. If they stayed, then the high-rise building might tip over like the last few she had seen.

The three rangers double-checked the elevator as its door slid open, then gave the all clear for Odelea, Iey’liwea, and Ienthei to enter with them.

“That’s why you rolled your age back, right?” Ienthei asked Odelea once the elevator began to descend.

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been an old crone for decades until last week, Odelea.”

“I was this youthful when I first made contact with the human race,” said Odelea. “I used gene therapy to rollback my age to celebrate that moment in history.”

“What moment in history?” Ienthei said drily. “The first official contact with the human race? Or how they were nearly wiped out by the Empire?”

“Both …” Odelea said with her face tilted to the floor. “I wanted to show the Gods I have not forgotten what happened; I wanted them to forgive the wrongs we did during that age.”

The elevator doors swung open and the rangers took point, leading the three through the lobby and out into the streets, littered with glass, dead bodies, and the toxic smell of electrical fires burning.

Looking at the devastation, Iey’liwea snickered. “Clearly, the Gods have not taken notice of your offering.”

“As I said, this is karma,” Odelea said. “This is our punishment. All-out invasion of Aervounis by the Empire, just like Earth a century ago.”

The rangers pushed on into the streets, guiding the trio on a lengthy trip to a secure nearby bunker, where they were promised better protection, supplies, and reliable communication equipment since none of their HNIs were able to connect to any, unlike their military counterpart. The downside of civilian-grade implants.

The Vorcambreum stopped and lifted his fist up, signaling to everyone behind him to stop and take cover. An overturned train, derailed from the tracks above, gave Odelea and the two council reps the cover they needed, while the three rangers silently moved forward with their rifles, seeking targets.

Something wasn’t right.

Earlier, Odelea had heard eight rifles blazing from this general area. Now, there were none, those rangers had either been killed or were forced to withdraw. She peeked around the overturned train and watched the three rangers stalk two invaders as they stepped past dozens of deceased civilians, victims from the train that crashed.

The armor the invaders wore was … unexpected. It was a deep bronze color, reflecting the sunlight from above. Their helmets had what looked like horns attached to the back while they were armed with rifles that flashed with green and yellow lights.

“I don’t think this is the Empire,” whispered Odelea to her friends.

“Don’t be stupid,” Iey’liwea whispered back. “Humans would never dare bite the hand that fed them for all these years.”

“This isn’t humans either—”

A gun battle began to chant its loud and violent sounds from beyond their cover. Odelea momentarily looked around to see what happened. The three rangers engaged the invaders and used another section of the derailed train as cover.

It didn’t last very long.

The weapons the invaders used vaporized chunks of their cover with each hit. The rangers needed to switch cover soon. One of the Aryile rangers stood up too quickly, his shields flickered rapidly as the two invaders shot him. Seconds later, he had no shields, then no upper body, it was vaporized.

Odelea missed what happened next as she had to twist away from the horrific sight to vomit. Iey’liwea wasn’t pleased to see half-digested fruit spatter across her dress and boots. Weapons discharge ceased, and the two remaining rangers gave the three the all clear to get up. As unfortunate as it was to see yet another dead Aryile in the streets, the invader’s tunnel-visioning on him gave the remaining two rangers the required distraction to gun them down and avenge his death.

The five stood above the bullet-ridden bodies of the dead invaders. Clouds of steam lifted away from their blood, warming the streets that became their resting place for the time being.

“Sir,” the Aryile ranger said to his Vorcambreum leader. “These aren’t Hashmedai, are they?”

Odelea chimed in. “I have come to the same conclusion myself.”

“Odelea, he’s a third-class ranger,” Iey’liwea said to her. “They don’t know any better. They just shoot who their superiors tell them to shoot.”

“I’m a second-class ranger, and I happen to agree with him,” said the Vorcambreum. “The Empire favors melee combat on the ground.” His tiny feet kicked the invader’s rifle away. “Only their weakest and youngest warriors are given rifles, there’s no way we’d be losing to a ground assault team comprising entirely of rifle-wielding Hashmedai.”

“Then, where did their ships come from?” said Iey’liwea. “Nothing travelled into the system; our navy would have detected and intercepted them.”

The Vorcambreum shrugged and led the group deeper into the war-torn downtown streets. “Intel is unreliable right now with all the fighting going on but, last I heard, they just appeared in the system.”

“So, like a space bridge jump,” Iey’liwea said.

“Well …”

“Imperial technology, it’s the Empire,” Iey’liwea said.

An energy beam from space struck the edge of the floating city. The noise and blasts that came afterward were heard seconds later, along with violent tremors that shook and threw all five to the ground.

As Odelea fell, she felt what food hadn’t come up from her belly slap into the topside of her stomach. Gravity was pulling her down, more so than she would have expected from a fall. In fact, she was certain her hands, legs, arms were not in direct contact with anything. It felt almost as if the streets had vanished and she was freefalling.

She, along with the rest, brought themselves up to their feet and noted the derailed train from earlier had shifted backward along with several dead bodies. “My Gods …” Odelea mumbled.

Ienthei brushed away dust and ash from his blond hair. “Did we just lose altitude?”

“Feels like it,” said the Vorcambreum. “Does anyone know what happens when the equipment keeping this city in the skies fails?”

“There are backup systems that should activate … unless,” Odelea said, eyeing the billowing smoke in the distance created in the wake of the last orbital strike.

“Unless?”

“Unless there is major interior damage to the city’s infrastructure,” Odelea said. “In that case the backups might not be reliable, and the city will crash into the ocean.”

“That bunker isn’t going to save anyone if this place falls,” Ienthei said.

“The general is confident we will dispatch the enemy before the damage to the city reaches that point,” said the Vorcambreum.

“Tell him I said he’s an idiot,” Iey’liwea said. “I want off this planet. Now.”

The Vorcambreum grunted while staring up at Iey’liwea’s unimpressed face. “Look around you!”

He pointed to the skies that were holding Odelea’s attention, to strange creatures flying in the skies with massive wings. They looked reptilian and some were armed with cybernetics, cybernetic weapons that was. The creatures appeared to have been harassing Radiance psionics who had taken to the skies with their telekinetic powers and praying to the Gods when their psionic shields failed from the attacks.

“How do you suppose we get a transport through that?” the Vorcambreum said.

“Those psionics can shield us and provide cover fire,” Iey’liwea said, gazing up at the aerial fight neither of them had noticed when they stepped outside.

“Sacrifice the lives of all our air support?” the Vorcambreum said to Iey’liwea.

“To save the lives of two council members and the greatest mind in the Union? Yes, that’s exactly what I want.”

“We’re not just any council members,” Ienthei added. “We are the only two that are worth keeping alive.”

Iey’liwea shot Ienthei a devious grin. “Exactly, the rest can go to Paryo.”

“I’ll make the call and see what I can muster,” the Vorcambreum said unhappily, and probably cursing everyone that voted Iey’liwea and Ienthei into their seats at the Radiance council.

“Good job,” Iey’liwea said. “Maybe you’re not as useless as I thought.”

“One last thing,” Ienthei said, crossing his arms.

“Yes … sir?” the Vorcambreum replied.

“My dear sister,” Ienthei said, shifting his gaze up and over to the Souyila Corporation towers in the distance. “She needs to come with us.”

Ienthei’s twin sister Queenea had helped cofound the Souyila Corporation along with Iey’liwea. They conducted controversial projects that involved siphoning ethereal energy from fissures in space that were believed to have linked to aether space, a theoretical alternate plane of existence where the laws of physics were different.

It was the Souyila Corporation’s advancements that allowed the Radiance Union to abandon Xenetheral (XE) crystals as their primary power source, opting to use refined ethereal energy instead. The profits the company amassed in the years that followed allowed Odelea, hired to work there as their lead researcher, to finance various research projects she conducted, gene therapy being one of those projects.

A dejected sigh left the Vorcambreum’s mouth. “The area the Souyila Corporation towers are in is under heavy attack—”

“Then why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Ienthei retorted. “We’re going down there now, we’re getting my sister and then we’re taking a transport off-world. Understood?”

“Yes … Councilman.”

“Excellent.”

Odelea didn’t mind the detour. Getting off-world did sound like a safer option than staying on it, especially if the Gods had intended to make the Aryile people suffer the fate humans had, in which two billion lives will also be claimed as payment. This was a sign from the Gods, her chance to save herself and her research data still stored on the computers within the Souyila Corporation towers.

The Vorcambreum made a quick HNI transmission to his superiors, informing them of the new orders the two council members forced upon him. “I’ve confirmed that a transport is being prepared, it will be a few minutes before its ready.”

“Fine by me, let’s go,” Ienthei said.

3 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage, Lower decks

Paryo orbit, Uemaesce system

Joint rule of Kroshka and Eensino, Rotation 19, Day 93 (August 2, 2118, 16:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Peiun Starblazer regained consciousness.

He saw fellow Hashmedai brothers and sisters race back and forth in the corridors of their frigate. Blood from his head soaked the floor where he had fallen. He stood and felt the highly unbearable heat from a nearby plasma fire swelter his body.

He wobbled when he made his first steps, but eventually remembered how to walk amidst the artificial gravity generators below each deck on the ship. He wondered how Hashmedai, like himself, had operated on battleships many years ago that only had gravity on the bridge thanks to shipboard psionics. Nowadays, artificial gravity was made standard on all ships, including human-and Radiance-built vessels.

He limped past glowing fires that had not been attended to by emergency damage control teams. They had been occupied with a larger inferno that was poised to spread throughout the rest of the corridor, diligently putting it out with extinguishers. Half-charred bodies of unlucky crew personnel had been dragged into the infirmary, their Imperial uniforms drenched with their own blood. Peiun leaned his sore body against the wall, releasing a subtle roar and baring his sharp fangs in the process. Resting in the infirmary was a very tempting thought, even if his injuries were minor compared to everyone else.

His Hashmedai-made HNI activated and a superimposed video of the Rezeki’s Rage’s shipboard psionic, Alesyna, appeared over his eyes. Her red eyes glowed in the partially illuminated bridge, and the holographic screens before her shined blue light across her pale skin and long black hair which was reminiscent of his appearance. Only Peiun’s hair was white like the planet Paryo, the snow and frostbitten homeworld the Hashmedai evolved on.

“Lieutenant Peiun, report to the bridge at once,” Alesyna transmitted and ended the communication before he could reply.

There was one thing about the past Peiun missed, communication ear implants. His HNI was military grade and synced with the Rezeki’s Rage network. Anyone could use their HNI to bring up a list of the ship’s manifest and view the status and location of all crew members. Alesyna didn’t need to be a psionic to know he was alive, mildly injured, and was limping about on the lower decks, trying to steal a medical bed for himself.

He embarked on an expedition to find a working elevator not obstructed by fires or fallen debris. His HNI created a map of the deck that guided him to the nearest one, while flashing red markers gave him the heads-up of which paths were inaccessible due to damage. During his slower-than-usual walk, he began to retrace what happened to their ship and why he was knocked out. The blow to his head might have made him forget what caused it, but his implants? It recorded everything until he blacked out.

A hologram replayed his last recorded memories over his eyes, eyes that were too sore for the up-close HNI treatment. He forced the hologram over his eyeballs to enlarge and become a holographic window instead that followed him and replayed his recorded memories.

Everything was fine in the recording, then there was an explosion, one that tossed him across the corridor. His head hit a wall pipe on impact, and the recording was blank thereafter until he awoke. He was surprised his short plasma ceremonial sword all officers holstered to their waist didn’t come loose and impale him.

Peiun stepped onto the bridge and indulged in the frigid cold air that hit his body. He exhaled to see how cold it was, mist left his mouth. This was a perfect room temperature. The fires from the lower decks were too much for his Hashmedai body to endure, they burned brightly and created extra light, dimming the glow of the bioluminescence substance in his eyes. The bridge reeked of smoke, much like the corridors and elevators he had traveled through, suggesting that the bridge, at one point, also burned for a period of time.

Multiple pairs of red glowing eyes were seen in the darkened areas of the bridge, gene therapy at work. The eye color of Hashmedai changed from red, to orange, then yellow the older they got, the last two colors being a rarity, especially in the military. The Hashmedai people embraced holding their age at their prime, when raging hormones made you want to find and copulate with as many partners as you could. These hormones also turned even the timidest Hashmedai into a brave fighter when the time came, the sole reason the Imperial forces required all members to pause or rollback their age to this point.

The bridge crew were frantically trying to restore some form of order to the mess and chaos that had gripped it. The main viewer gave Peiun the remaining answers to his questions. The Imperial fleet defending Paryo had been nearly obliterated by a fleet of warships. Meanwhile, their ship, the Rezeki’s Rage, an anti-capital ship plasma frigate, was aimlessly adrift.

They were ambushed.

“So, Radiance has finally done it,” Peiun said. “They used the ceasefire as a means to trick us into lowering our guard.”

“These aren’t Radiance ships,” Alesyna said from her psionic workstation.

“Then who is it?” Peiun asked.

“Humans perhaps?” The helmsman, Louik, chimed in.

“The last transmission we received was that these ships materialized within the system,” said the communication officer, Manzo. “Radiance and humans do not have such technology, save for the human wormhole network.”

Peiun stepped closer to the viewer allowing medical personnel to remove bodies off the bridge. He watched the invader ships fire their energy-based weapons upon the surface of Paryo. The ships looked organic, made of flesh rather than exotic metallic alloys. “I take it these ships did not travel through it?” he said.

Humans were cunning. They built hundreds of wormholes and used them to establish a network which linked their home star system, and every star system they controlled, together. To facilitate the idea of galactic peace between the UNE, Empire, and Radiance, humans also built a wormhole in the Uemaesce system that connected to an UNE-controlled system, thus giving the Hashmedai a quick means to conduct business and trade with humans, the Qirak, and the Morutrin system, which also was added to the network. The humans also constructed a wormhole in the system that held the Radiance capital world, allowing Radiance access to the same perks.

“No, they did not,” Manzo replied. “Nothing has travelled through the wormhole within the last two days.”

Psionic wormholes like the one the great Archmage Noylarlie once used were out of the question. She lost those abilities in the months following the battle of Barnard’s Star. Besides, with a wormhole, human-built or psionic-created, one could see what was on the other end via a scan or psionic ESP. Light and gravity waves were also capable of bleeding through a wormhole, which a skilled psionic or working ship scanner would be able to detect. What they were facing was something entirely new.

Peiun didn’t recognize any of the glowing eyes on the bridge as the captain’s. This prompted him to ask. “Where is the captain?”

He got his answer as two medical personnel dragged his unmoving body away past him. He used his HNI to locate the status of the captain within the manifest of the ship. The icon next to his name displayed the status of his vitals. It was dark.

“Ugh, well tell the first officer congratulations on the promotion,” said Peiun. The bridge became silent and watched him as he flicked the hologram away. “What?”

“She’s dead too, along with eleven other officers,” said Alesyna.

Peiun crossed his arms. “Then, who’s in command?”

“You are …” muttered Louik. “Sir.”

Peiun realized he had flicked the hologram away too fast. Had he continued to search through the list, he would have seen the names of the first officer and the eleven other officers all with dark vital icons adjacent to their names. He was the captain now, and he was not ready to sit on the ice-cold chair and take command of the situation.

He did it anyways.

“Right, so …” Peiun said, looking closely at the holographic screens the captain was using prior to his sudden end. “What is the status of the fleet and Paryo?”

As if he couldn’t tell by the fires burning from the surface. In truth, he was buying himself time to think of something smart to get the crew to safety, and not incur the rage of the empress and emperor if he failed miserably. He liked having his head attached to his body.

Manzo read data that was fed to him via his HNI. “There’s chaos in the Imperial Capital, at least one thousand warriors have been slain battling the invaders. The empress and emperor were still in the palace when the attack broke out, their status is unknown.”

“And the fleet?” Peiun asked him, again trying to buy more time.

“The fleet is disorganized; most capital ships have been destroyed or are on fire. The rest are trying to regroup and defend the space bridge.”

Peiun brought up a holo window and put in a request for the computers to transfer all command operations to him. The request was granted after it confirmed the vitals of the crew above him were fatal, therefore making him the captain. His HNI UI was updated and data that only senior level officers would be able to easily access projected to him.

One of them being the current trajectory of the ship.

“We’re adrift,” Peiun said.

“We were attacked first,” Alesyna said.

Peiun smiled at their random luck. “Of all the ships that were struck first, we’re the only one that survived.”

“We should be able to come about soon,” said Louik.

“No, let’s use this opportunity,” Peiun said, analyzing the estimated drift path of their ship.

From what he was able to tell, the only Imperial ships under direct fire were the ones that had been directly engaging the invader ships. The Rezeki’s Rage was being ignored while it continued to drift amidst the burning wreckages of lost Imperial ships. Peiun’s stalling for time had paid off.

“Keep us adrift,” Peiun said. “Let them think we’re dead.”

Manzo faced him, frowning. “With all due respect, but should we not take the fight to them?”

“Indeed, avenge the captain, first officer, and those that were slain,” Louik said.

“I’d rather not die fighting a battle we can’t win,” Peiun said.

“This battle is lost!” Louik yelled. “Let’s take as many of them down with us and make the empress and emperor smile at our bravery!”

“My mother was a non-psionic assassin,” Peiun said. “She knew life was about picking your fights carefully, this is one of those fights.” You pick the right fight, you get to keep going. If you pick the wrong one, and there was no picking again. “Continue to drift.”

“But—”

“You said so yourself,” Alesyna’s frustrated voice jumped in. “He’s the captain, do as he says.”

Peiun looked at Alesyna feeling calmer, her stepping in prevented a possible mutiny. He had an ally, one capable of killing anyone that tried to overthrow him just by thinking about it. He nodded to her, a nonvocal thank you, she nodded back.

The Rezeki’s Rage sustained its drift and tumbled and rolled within the debris field. The red dwarf star Paryo orbited began to rise and shone its dim light across the horizon of the glacial planet and across the sparking and somewhat melted hull of the Rezeki’s Rage. A larger invader ship appeared from the opposite end of Paryo under escort with five other enemy capital ships and a swarm of winged serpents. The serpents were reminiscent of mythological beings from human society.

Dragons.

The larger invader ship that caught his attention was organic like the rest but had no visible weapons on it. The central section of the ship held a green bubble-like sack which protruded from the top and bottom of the ship. The sack pulsed slowly as thin veins stretched across it. Peiun double-checked his implants and confirmed, from what little battle data they had received, the ship in question was not present during the first assault. Whatever it was, it was new to the battlefield, or at least had stayed far away from the attack until now.

Peiun interacted with the projection his HNI created and molded it into a three-dimensional hologram that clearly illustrated the estimated trajectory of the Rezeki’s Rage and the trajectory of this newcomer to the battle.

They were due to cross paths with the Rezeki’s Rage drifting directly under it, provided neither changed course. Peiun pushed the hologram away and said to the bridge crew. “You all want to fight? Well, here’s our chance.”

Peiun gave the crew his plan of attack, drift and play dead until the ship was above them. Then power the maneuvering thrusters to face and shoot a quick salvo of plasma at the ship. It would have to be their forward cannons, however, as his implants reported those were the only weapons they had that were operational. It was a risky move given the fact that their shields were still down, and Alesyna’s psionic mind was still recovering. They’d have to pull the Rezeki’s Rage to face it, fire, then pull away to escape. Precious seconds would be lost during the maneuver to turn and flee.

Peiun and the bridge crew watched with anticipation as the main viewer showed them make their last roll through space, which put the enemy above them. Louik input the complex command to fire multiple maneuvering thrusters to push the sizeable frigate in the desired direction. Had this ship been equipped with MRF technology, shamelessly stolen from the humans, the task would have been quicker as the ship would have had its mass altered. Sadly, only command, flag, and large-scale colonization ships were equipped with the technology as the Empire had a 60 percent failure rate when it came to manufacturing.

“Fire on my mark,” Peiun said as the underside of the invader ship dominated the sights on the main viewer, shining a slight greenish hue upon the bridge from the light emitting from the green sack.

The tactical feed on his HNI gave him the estimated time for their plasma cannons to hit as well as the accuracy rate percentage. Given how close they were, they had a 100 percent chance to hit, though he didn’t need the HNI to inform him of that.

Peiun gave the command to fire.

Emerald spheres of plasma fire erupted from the two forward plasma cannons of the Rezeki’s Rage, adding to the green hue of light that blanketed the bridge crew and their light sensitive eyes that momentarily lost their red glow. Peiun hoped the green sack on the ship wasn’t full of plasma, for the resulting explosion could consume both ships. He was, however, confident that Alesyna and her ESP would have detected that, despite her weakened mind.

The plasma hit the sack in wave after wave, destroying it and triggering a chain reaction of smaller detonations from within the invader ship.

Peiun grinned at the results. “Helm, get us out of here.”

Louik carried out Peiun’s order and, once again, utilized the maneuvering thrusters to point the Rezeki’s Rage to a clearing in space and a trajectory that would be safe for them to enter sub light speeds. As Peiun feared, the action would take at least six seconds to complete, leaving the ship in its current position.

The explosions from above intensified as the final thruster finished its job. Globs of the green substance that was inside the sack rained down upon the Rezeki’s Rage thanks to the last and major explosion. The substance coated the hulls of the Rezeki’s Rage, upstaging its paint job and the flag of the Empire on its sides.

The Rezeki’s Rage jumped into sub light speeds, the green substance, however, clung onto the ship, unmoving, despite it traveling at half the speed of light. Adding to their woes, the escort of invader ships noticed their deception and began pursuit.

Evidently, the invader ships, much like human and Radiance ones, were FTL capable. The Empire was lagging behind in the ship speed department. Peiun hissed and bared his fangs, venting his frustration.

His HNI received new data, the ship they attacked exploded for the last time, sending its fiery remains into the atmosphere of Paryo to burn up. Five seconds later, Alesyna’s glowing eyes shut briefly then opened along with a comforting smile across her face.

“Captain,” she called to him. “You’ll want to see this.”

Alesyna waved her hands, summoning a holographic projection to appear in her hands. She threw it to Peiun, and it stopped in front of his face. The projection showed a tactical map of the system in real time. It was information her ESP captured, then her HNI converted into data for him to see.

And what Peiun saw was a great change in the battlefield. The invader ships had broken off their attack the moment the larger invader ship was destroyed. Hundreds of tiny red dots representing enemy ships slithered away from Paryo toward … something, something Alesyna’s ESP hadn’t touched yet.

“Whatever we did, it worked,” said Alesyna.

“Contact the fleet,” Peiun said to Manzo. “Let them know we are ready to assist.”

Manzo winced while juggling multiple holographic windows at his post. “I’m unable to do so, communications are down.”

Peiun checked the damage report logs with his implants and confirmed. In fact, there were a lot of areas of the ship damaged that he’d been unaware of. He made a note with his HNI to remind him to check the extent of the damage and repair status.

“Alesyna, can you reach the minds of any psionics?” Peiun asked.

“I can, but they are …” Alesyna shut her eyes, and her cybernetically enhanced body glistened with blue light momentarily. The trance and light show her body produced ended as she revealed. “Their minds are busy with the battle at hand.”

It was no surprise to him. The enemy was fleeing, putting forth little effort to defend themselves. There had to have been hundreds of angry Imperial ships looking to eradicate as many of the invader ships as they could before they were out of range.

“Let’s not distract them,” Peiun said. “Too many Hashmedai lives have been lost already.”

“Your orders, Captain?” Louik asked him.

Peiun analyzed Alesyna’s ESP report, though the hologram was slowly fading away, meaning she’d have to perform another ESP scan to update it. The dots of invader ships that had been harassing the fleet and Paryo were vanishing one after another and entering a region of the system Alesyna’s mind was out of range to touch. The invader ships in pursuit of them had also changed course, like the rest, once the green sack ship had been destroyed.

There was a good chance that group had altered course to reunite with their forces, and a good chance they’d slip away into Alesyna’s blind spot with the speeds they were traveling at.

“Whatever these invaders are up to, it isn’t good,” Peiun said. “Follow them but keep our distance. Alesyna keep trying to communicate with the fleet psionics, the fleet will want to know if we learn anything of value.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The Rezeki’s Rage altered course, to follow the invader ships that, minutes earlier, were ready to shoot them down. A course that made Peiun feel uneasy. They were, after all, fleeing the battle and acting of their own accord rather than following the direction of the fleet admirals. Said admirals were more than likely to give him a hard time for his decision.

He remembered reading about the deserters from the invasion of the human homeworld a century ago, and how the empress at the time beheaded them after apprehending them. Those that evaded capture had assassins dispatched to track them down and perform the beheading on behalf of Imperial executioners. His mother was one of those assassins.

But what other choice do we have? He thought. The ship is damaged, vital crew members are dead, only forward weapons working and no shields. We’re an easy kill for the invaders.

The Rezeki’s Rage’s pursuit of the invader ships was a losing race of sub light speeds versus FTL. They were not gaining on them. Alesyna refreshed the ESP projection for Peiun to keep track. The fleeing ships were due to slip out of her ESP range within minutes, vanishing entirely from the hologram unless they slowed after reaching their destination, much like the rest of the invader fleet in the system.

Which they did.

The Rezeki’s Rage exited their sub light jump, coming to a full stop, several thousand kilometers away from a gathering of the invader ships that had recently fled from Paryo. One by one they all appeared, ending their FTL journey and rallied around another weaponless ship with a large green sack slinking out from its top and bottom.

The green sacks began to flounder, as if blustering winds were passing by. Bolts of lightning danced around them as swirls of colorful gases expanded and consumed the ship, growing larger and larger. The mysterious ship turned the region into what looked like a colossal-sized storm cloud in space, complete with lightning strikes.

Once the expansion of the storm ceased, the remaining invader ships adjusted their course and flew into the vortex of the storm.

Peiun couldn’t believe what he saw. “A storm … in space? This can’t be right.”

“I’m not sure what to make of this,” Louik said after receiving the first sensor scan two minutes later.

Peiun spun in his chair and faced Alesyna. “What do you sense?’

Alesyna finished a brief ESP scan of the anomaly before them. “My thoughts are being pulled into it …” she reported. “It’s like a maelstrom in the ocean, only in space.”

“Helm, take us in closer.” Most of the invader ships had slipped into the maelstrom during their study of it. It presented a chance for them to make more detailed scans and allow Alesyna to perhaps bypass whatever it was causing her thoughts to be pulled in.

The Rezeki’s Rage propelled closer to the maelstrom and its swirling vortex of clouds swallowing the organic invader ships whole as they entered. “What’s happening to those ships?” Peiun asked her.

“I don’t know,” said Alesyna. “It’s as if they cease to exist once they enter.”

“If we get closer would you be able to get a better idea?”

Alesyna winced. “Maybe.”

“Helm, a little closer,” said Peiun, returning his gaze to the viewer. “Not too close, of course.”

The red and magenta clouds of the maelstrom covered every inch of the viewer once the Rezeki’s Rage was brought to its closest approach yet. Faint visages of the invader ships could be seen vanishing deeper into the strange cloudy phenomenon. Peiun used his HNI to enhance the zoom of the viewer to its maximum setting.

“I can see the ships still,” he said.

“As can I, but I still can’t sense their existence,” Alesyna said.

Peiun felt his chair shake and hoped it was only his that did so. Looking around the bridge revealed otherwise, everyone’s chairs were shaking. The entire ship began to rumble and rock chaotically.

“Gravity well!” Louik frantically shouted.

I guess that’s enough data for now, Peiun thought. “Get us out of here.”

Louik’s hands moved quickly, interacting with various holographic commands and displays. Peiun didn’t see the stars and blackness of space return to the view screen. The center of the maelstrom swelled in size. They were being pulled in by an internal force of gravity.

“I can’t break free!”

4 Foster

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

Inside Invader fleet formation, Earth orbit, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 16:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster climbed back into her chair as the rest of the crew returned to their posts after being flung to the floor from what she hoped was the last nuclear missile strike near the Carl Sagan. Wearing a seat belt probably would have been a good idea, the inertia dampers were never tested after all to see if they would work properly during a nuclear strike. Then again, any attack that dropped shield power rapidly had a tendency to throw them out of whack.

“That last nuke did a number on our shields,” Williams said, checking his computer screen. “We’re at thirty-four percent.”

Foster’s eagle eye spotted a clearing through the debris created in the aftermath of the UNE’s nuclear rainstorm. There were fewer invader ships blocking their path, a path that led right to Earth and the protection of other Earth warships refusing to let invader ships get past.

“Chang, get us out of here,” Foster said, pointing at the clearing seen from the windshield. “Navigate the best you can through this crap.”

“I’m assuming those ships are the good guys?” Chang said as he brought the Carl Sagan about.

Foster shrugged. “I think.”

“That’s the UNE fleet,” Park said, reminding Foster that Park and her EDF team were still on the bridge.

“They just look a whole lot different,” Chang said. “You know without the habitat ring and all.”

Chang cautiously directed the Carl Sagan closer to the UNE fleet and away from the web of invader ships that had encircled them for several hours. Burning chunks of what looked like bones and flesh drifted past the windshield, proof the invader ships were indeed organic with mechanical parts such as its weapons, cybernetics, and engines.

As the Carl Sagan got closer to the UNE fleet, they also got closer to Earth. Weapons fire from the invaders focused slightly less on the UNE fleet as it added the Carl Sagan to its list of targets, making its aft and port-side shields flicker and flash a bright blue.

“And now the invader ships are shooting at us,” Chang said drily.

“At least we know who’s on our side now,” Foster said.

“I dunno,” Chang said. “Those nukes for a moment had me questioning that—”

Sparks and small flames shot away from his terminal. Follow-up explosions were rocking the ship, the Carl Sagan was not going to last long.

“Damn, these things pack a punch,” Chang said.

“I don’t get it,” Williams said. “Why did they wait until now to shoot at us?”

What Williams said raised an excellent question in Foster’s mind. The Carl Sagan had just entered its seventh hour flying alongside the invader fleet without being shot at. It was only when they began to move on their own and attempt to escape the invaders took notice. Was the Carl Sagan a battle trophy? Or were they convinced without a doubt that the Carl Sagan and its crew were valuable allies, allies that had no memory of agreeing to help.

Despite the repeated attacks, the Carl Sagan defiantly continued to push away from the fleet, turning and dodging around large remains of invader ships, and waving around individual invader ships that broke from their weblike formation around them.

Chang managed to sway away from the vast majority of them, but there were two particular ships that flew in front of the Carl Sagan in reverse, so their main forward guns were always in their face.

Those shots of energy were impossible to dodge.

Foster had enough. “Return fire.”

The Carl Sagan’s rail guns discharged, perforating holes in the two taunting ships. There were no exit shots. Whatever the fleshy material the organic ships were made of was tough, and from what Foster was able to observe, sealed shut seconds later. It was like watching someone get shot then the bullet wounds heal up right away.

The plasma missiles that launched from the missile tubes delivered similar results. They crashed and exploded upon the invader ships, burning, gouging, and hacking away chunks of the fleshlike hull. It took two minutes for the wounds to seal up, and the burn marks from the plasma missiles to vanish.

We may as well be throwing tennis balls at them, Foster groaned internally.

New beam weapon strikes hit the Carl Sagan from all angles and at least one of those strikes hit the hull, meaning shields in some sections of the ship were gone.

“Captain, we can’t take much of this,” Williams said.

Overshields, a psionic barrier that protects the primary shields, were not an option. Tolukei, their main shipboard psionic had exhausted his mind to keep them up during the first nuclear barrage almost an hour ago. Had he not, the Carl Sagan would have already been destroyed, by friendly fire at that.

An hour ago … It got Foster thinking. She faced the shirtless Javnis man. His face wasn’t as tired as it was during the barrage as he must have had enough downtime to partially recover his mind. Nereid was with him too, the Undine girl from Sirius and, Tolukei’s assistant for lack of a better term. She may not have been as talented at creating an overshield as he was, but her mind and his together, they could do things that people on Earth would consider impossible.

Like fly into the corona of Sirius A.

“Tolukei, Nereid,” Foster called out. “Use that overlord psionic amplifier thingy and get the enhanced overshields up.”

If the Carl Sagan could fly into a star as powerful as Sirius A and live, a couple of invader ships with their fancy energy weapons shouldn’t be an issue. Foster’s only regret was not using it during the nuclear bombardment. It wasn’t her fault she forgot about it as it was still a new tactic, and she sure as hell didn’t see anyone else suggest using it, including the two psionics who also probably forgot about it.

Tolukei reached down to obtain the device, while Foster noted that Nereid didn’t have her Voelika with her, a strange staff-like object that amplified her psionic powers. Probably left it in her quarters she figured, it’s not like anyone had been planning for this to happen.

While Tolukei did his thing, Foster returned her gaze forward at the two invader ships in front lingering in full reverse taking shots at them. She displayed a cocky smile at the sight of the two ships and pointed her index finger at them in defiance.

“Ya’ll just keep shootin’ at us,” she gloated. “We’s gonna fix you good any second now. Ain’t that right, Tolukei and Nereid?”

“I cannot find the device,” Tolukei said.

Foster shut her eyes and clenched her fists, wishing he had not said that. “What in the hell do you mean, you can’t find it?”

“It is not here, Captain.”

“Rivera put in a lot of time on her off hours to install a nice little storage shelf for that in case of an emergency,” Foster said, opening her eyes, and looking at Tolukei and Nereid’s empty hands.

“I understand that, Captain.”

“And you’re tellin’ me we done gone lost it?”

“It would appear so.”

“Check underneath, maybe it came loose and fell when we lost gravity during our cryo nap.”

“We looked there,” Tolukei said with enthusiasm. “Captain, it is missing, it is not an option.”

Foster pulled her hands up to face-palm. “Goddamn it!”

“Plus,” Tolukei added. “Wouldn’t it require some time for it to be reapplied on our heads?”

“Forget it,” Foster said, and removed her hands away from her face, returning her stare to the windshield and the multiple energy weapons finishing off the forward shields. “Just use what powers you got left to keep us in one piece.”

“Understood, suspending all ESP and weapon assist abilities,” Tolukei said.

“I shall do the same,” Nereid said.

A small and less than effective overshield returned to protect the Carl Sagan, waves of purple psionic energy rippled away from the areas the overshield was shot at by the invader ships. It bought them, at best, three minutes of survival before that one fatal shot landed.

EVE’s hologram appeared standing next to Foster. “Captain, at our current speed and trajectory and the rate of fire we are receiving, it is unlikely we will survive long enough.”

“Let’s think happy thoughts, people!” Foster exclaimed.

“She is right,” Pierce said, reading his computer screen. “According to my analysis, these ships are armed with tachyon weapons.”

“Tachyons?” Foster said with raised eyebrows. “I didn’t know those were possible.” Then again, she and the crew did and saw a lot of things at Sirius that wasn’t supposed to be possible. The universe was full of surprises.

“In any case, tachyons travel faster than light,” Pierce said. “Even if we break out of this gauntlet, they will still be able to target and shoot us. We need to either be multiple AUs away, have something else take the hit for us, or just be out of their line of sight.”

That was assuming, of course, the invaders had shipboard psionics. If not, then the Carl Sagan just needed to be out of reliable scanning range. Sure, the invaders’ weapons would still be able to hit them, but if they didn’t know exactly where to shoot, it was a crap shot. It would also explain why they waited until they were close to Earth to start shooting it and the ships around it. Ships, defense platforms, even the Earth, it all moved. Shooting a target say five AU away with an FTL weapon would still require the gunner to know exactly where said target would be when the weapon blast cleared those five AUs.

“That’s the plan,” Foster said, gesturing to the UNE fleet and their means of breaking the invaders’ line of sight to them.

“We need another plan that will allow us to get to the fleet …” Chang said drily.

Groups of clustering invader ships were shot away from their formation by the enormous main particle cannons of the Julius Caesar. The mighty Earth dreadnaught used its powerful shields and hull to shield the Carl Sagan from hostile attacks. Its fighters launched from its eight launch bays, and gave the invaders something else to shoot at as its weapons were more threatening than the Carl Sagan’s rail guns and plasma missiles.

It was the ‘another plan’ they needed.

“Will that do?” Foster said to Chang.

“Yes, it will, Captain, that ship is drawing all weapons fire!”

“Well then, Mr. Chang, less fancy dogging and more getting us the hell out of here!”

“Already on it!”

Once clear of the invader ships, now focused on the Julius Caesar, the Carl Sagan accelerated at greater speeds away from the chaos raging behind them. The windshields of the bridge might not have showed them what was going on, but rear sensor sweeps did. The invaders were either threatened by the hulking dreadnaught or upset that it allowed the Carl Sagan to flee.

The Julius Caesar was hit with multiple tachyon beam fire from several different angles. Its overshields shattered under the intense barrage, its fighters were picked off one after another with just two to three tachyon burst shots. The invader ships placed themselves in front of the Julius Caesar, as another twelve swooped down from behind. The Julius Caesar was trapped.

Its shields from its aft end shattered, the main rear engines caught fire, and triggered several internal blasts. The reactor overheated and began to vent plasma and deadly radiation onto its engineering crew. The hull began to twist and rupture, fires that began to spread from inside were put out … by the vacuum of space. UNE navy personnel flailed their arms and legs while their tumbling bodies froze from the coldness of space they found themselves blown out to. The emergency force fields weren’t activating, power had become a problem for the ship for that to happen.

The Julius Caesar vanished from sensor scans around the time a massive explosion consumed the ship, an explosion that ripped the ship apart bulkhead by bulkhead, compartment by compartment. Smoldering chunks of its remains shot outward, shredding the twenty-four invader ships that had encircled it. The invaders too endured the fate of the Julius Caesar. The Carl Sagan caught the tail end of the Julius Caesar’s destructive end, shattering the last of the psionic duo’s overshields, and sending it tumbling out of control, well past the UNE fleet.

“Keep us steady!” Foster said, locking her seatbelt in place.

Nonstop rumblings made it difficult for anyone to perform their duties. It was like they were caught in a magnitude eight earthquake, one that wouldn’t stop, one that wouldn’t allow Chang to regain control. And so, they spun and rolled as the view of Earth rolled in and out of sight. Every time the blue planet came into sight it was larger, all the while, the UNE fleet was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, the tumbling subsided and the Carl Sagan leveled off. Earth’s horizon was a lot closer by the time that happened, so were the clouds. Flames had raged up and across the windshield, atmospheric reentry was at hand. Earth’s gravity had them now.

“So …” Chang said amongst the sound of the ship falling apart. “Captain, is this a bad time to mention the Carl Sagan wasn’t built for atmospheric travel?”

“Well aware of that!”

“So, you know that this means the ‘what goes up must come down’ rule now applies to us?”

“Just find a nice spot to take us down,” Foster snorted.

The view of space from the windshield was long gone, replaced with blue sunny skies and the odd wave of white mist when they plunged through a cloud or two. Out from the clouds Foster noticed winged serpentlike creatures soaring through the skies. They looked like Pterodactyls and, quite possibly, were outfitted with weapons, cybernetics maybe? It was hard to tell at the speeds they were plummeting at.

Chang noticed the flying creatures as well. “What the hell is that? A dragon?”

A dragon, the other term to describe these creatures Foster wanted to avoid.

“It’s from the invaders,” Park said. “They’ve been deploying those all across Earth to support their foot soldiers.”

“Captain,” Chang said.

“What is it?”

“I know this is a really, really bad time to mention this but …” Chang faced Foster and locked his eyes on her head. “When did you cut your hair?”

“Oh, my lord,” Foster said, resisting the urge to bring up the fact his beard and hair had grown long. “Chang, of all the things goin’ on now, you gotta bring that up?”

“I just wanted to get those words in, in case this is it,” he added. “And it looks cute—”

“Eyes on the road!”

“What road? We’re in the fucking skies falling to our deaths!” Chang returned to attend the helm. “Do you see any roads up here?”

Foster smiled at Chang, he was military, and she was a civilian explorer. Foster wasn’t going to come down hard on him for his outburst. That, and she knew humor and snarky remarks were his way of coping with stress and brightening the spirits of others. And right now, they were facing the most stressful moment of their time on the ship.

“Maybe the road to heaven,” Williams snickered.

“Dom, stop, we’s got this,” Foster said to Williams.

“Captain, I am concerned right now,” EVE said.

Foster smiled at the holographic AI who was the only person on the bridge that didn’t struggle to stay still during the violent rumbling. “Just keep doing your thing, EVE, with your calculations, Tolukei and Nereid’s powers, and Chang’s piloting we could pull this off.”

“Captain, if this ship is to be destroyed, my operation would cease to function,” EVE said. “I would be … dead. I’m scared, I don’t want to die.”

“Like I said, we’s got this, ain’t that right, Chang?”

“After that last hit, I make no guarantees.”

Foster swiftly faced EVE. “Don’t listen to him, he be trippin’!”

The Carl Sagan’s rapid descent to the surface neared its end. Thanks to Chang’s piloting skills they did not burn up on reentry, Foster hoped his skills would continue to be an asset when it came to the landing, which would be rough and dangerous. Sweat began to roll across foreheads, heartbeats were at their maximum rate, and anxious thoughts were abuzz in everyone’s head.

Geneva was below according to EVE, and according to the plume of black smoke they passed through, the city was being razed by the invaders. Chang adjusted the Carl Sagan’s descent, forcing it to glide further north, away from the city and into the lake near Geneva, the safest place they could crash-land.

“All hands brace for impact!” Foster said via a ship wide broadcast.

Ten seconds to impact. The bridge crew ensured they were still strapped in.

Five seconds to impact. The bridge crew assumed crash-landing positions.

Three seconds to impact. The EDF personnel activated their shields, it was the only thing they would have going for them.

Two seconds to impact. Foster held her breath, in case the windshields gave out.

One second to impact. There was silence.

Then there was chaos.

Furious and unpleasant tremors arrived followed by the sound of metal being twisted and ripped apart. Foster’s body was thrown from left to right, forward to back, still held in place by her seat belt. Her vision was blurred from the constant vibrations of her head. Something that looked like sparks flared from a computer console while a tidal wave of water obscured all sights via the windshield.

The nightmare wouldn’t stop.

The ceiling lights flashed on and off, then eventually off when a loud bang went off from the rear of the ship. EVE’s hologram vanished, and with that, the holographic star charts and all computer activity.

It felt like an eternity had passed when the Carl Sagan finally came to a complete stop, floating on the surface of the lake. Earth Cube, the central government installation for the UNE was nowhere to be seen, they must have overshot it.

Disorientated, dripping wet with terror sweat, and distraught, Foster unbuckled her seat belt and slipped away from her chair. The bridge was dark without the power, save for the sunlight that came in from the windshield now the waves had pushed away. The sunlight that beamed in was partially obscured by rising smoke on the bridge from one of many new fires that would burn uncontrollably in the coming minutes.

With hesitation in her voice, Foster gave the order she had hoped to never give since being appointed captain. “Abandon ship …”

The Carl Sagan allowed her to live a dream she thought she’d never have. It allowed her to travel to a star she and her father used to look at through a telescope and ponder what was orbiting it. It gave her the ability to save the galaxy from an ancient evil.

The party was over. The Carl Sagan was dead in the water, literally.

As the crew made their way to the emergency escape hatches, Park, from behind, grabbed Foster, yanking her shoulder back to her. “Hold up, what the hell was that with your AI?” Park asked her.

“We’s alive, aren’t we? I think she did a hell of a job.”

“EVE experienced concern for its safety,” said Park. “She’s an AI, a computer, a machine, one that shouldn’t fear termination. That outburst was an emotional response.”

It was a fair observation, one Foster failed to notice.

“Captain,” Park said slowly. “What the hell did you guys do at Sirius?”

“At the risk of soundin’ like a broken record.” Foster grimaced. “I don’t know.”

5 Chevallier

ESRS Carl Sagan, Docking Bay

Upper Stratosphere, Earth, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 17:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Minutes earlier …

Master Chief Petty Officer, Mathilda Chevallier discovered the hard and awkward way that she was most likely the only Hammerhead member aboard. Nobody reported to the docking bay when she put out the ship wide broadcast, she also didn’t recall anyone else in cryo when she had left the chamber. From what she saw, she’d been the last person to awaken from their sleep.

She pushed her body up from the intense turns the Carl Sagan had made earlier, thankful that her combat armor and shields had been active. Many unsecured objects got tossed around like she did during the fall, including a transport ship that came loose from its magnetic grip, nearly crushing her.

That’s when the real sense of worry made it into her head, she, and everything in the docking bay, was bound by gravity. Only the habitat ring and bridge had gravity. The gravity on the bridge was subject to the psionic, if there was one present and their mind not tired, otherwise, that too, had no gravity.

Gravity in the docking bay meant one thing. The Carl Sagan was no longer in space. But, if they weren’t in space, where were they? She opened the docking bay’s doors from a nearby computer terminal and watched in awe as the large doors slid open and the azure skies of Earth appeared.

It wasn’t a beautiful sight.

It was a bad sight.

And might be the last thing she’d see unless she made her escape from the docking bay. It was located on the underside of the ship, and, therefore, would be the first section to be crushed on impact or suffer extreme damage.

Chevallier went for the exit, and then remembered how she was nearly killed by the transport that overturned and landed right in front of the door, on its side. She cursed repeatedly in French for a solid minute. There was only one option left, and that remained with the second transport still locked in place.

She boarded the transport along with an eRifle from the nearby weapons locker. The last thing she heard was that Earth was under attack, but to what degree she had no idea, and so she ensured to be prepared for whatever was crawling down below.

Her Hammerhead helmet came over her head, covering her short auburn hair. Its tactical HUD powered on and performed a quick systems check, while she sat in the transport’s cockpit and activated its main flight control terminal.

Its thrusters flared its blue and white flames and she began the complex task of piloting it out and away from the Carl Sagan as it continued to crash to the surface below. She was no skilled pilot, and it showed as the transport scraped the sides of the docking bay doors, walls, and ceiling, triggering its shields to rapidly flicker blue.

She managed to get the transport to pass through the irised force field that sheltered the main docking bay doors, and out into a sea of clouds. Her transport remained flying through the clouds, the Carl Sagan, on the other hand, sank through them. She was free and safe; her friends and crew were not. Those thoughts got pushed aside as distractions like that often got people killed.

Or in her case, shot at by flying lizard-like creatures. Who was she kidding? They had large wings covered in red scales, a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, a long, spiked tail powerful enough to slice an unarmored and shielded man in half, or at least knock him out. Then there were its feet and claws, which were big enough to pick up an unsuspecting victim. They looked like flying dragons, with small cybernetic upgrades. Cybernetic wyverns to be more exact. The world was truly coming to an end if such things like that flew through the skies.

She guided the transport away from the creatures. They pursued her, bathing her transport in a steady wave of plasma flames from their mouths, another hidden cybernetic upgrade she figured. Other wyverns had tachyon weapons mounted to their bellies, firing short and steady bursts of tachyon beams upon her failing shields as she pulled out of range from the plasma-breathing wyverns. Transports weren’t designed for combat, especially ones issued to exploration ships like the Carl Sagan. She needed to get to the surface quickly before the dragons blew her out of the skies.

She cleared the cloud coverage and took in the majestic view of Europe below. The computers revealed she was directly over Geneva, so was the falling Carl Sagan and dozens of UNE fighters and attack drones. Every ten seconds she saw flames burst away from the fighter crafts, followed by a trail of black smoke that crashed into the city. They were getting decimated by the wyverns in the skies.

So too were her shields as two plasma-breathing wyverns ascended upward from the battle below. The plasma fire from their mouths stripped away the last of her shields, alarms began to ring out, fires started to grow from the aft cabin, and the hull slowly vaporized. Three more wyverns glided in from the left across the horizon. They were fast at flying. She was faster at dropping.

Chevallier shifted the nose of the transport to the surface, increasing her drop into the city on a path that seemed suicidal. A heavily commercialized district of Geneva appeared in the windshield, it was littered with burning cars and the scars of war and it looked like it had been for several hours. It was the perfect place to make a crash-landing. Civilian casualties, if any, should be small. Should Chevallier not survive the crash, at least she’d have the satisfaction of knowing the cybernetically enhanced wyverns did not get a piece of her in the end.

The sound of Chevallier’s crash-landing echoed with a deafening thud throughout downtown Geneva.

Centre Commercial Balexert

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 18:21 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier came to. She discovered the shields for her armor sat at 32 percent and was convinced it had gone straight to zero at one point. Why else would she have been out cold? The transport she rode in on broke through a wall then rolled over in the central promenade of Geneva’s largest shopping mall. What remained of the hull integrity of the transport and her suit’s shields and armor kept her alive through the crash, which by rights, should have killed her.

The windshield was no more as her body hung upside down still strapped into the cockpit’s chair since it flipped over. Chevallier unbuckled her seat belt and plopped to the ground which was the ceiling of the overturned cockpit. She crawled into the back of what remained of the transport, it wasn’t a pretty sight. She found her rifle lying with burning rear cabin chairs and blown out control panels.

The shattered windshield served as her doorway out of the transport and into the mall, it too wasn’t a pretty sight. Every store was devoid of human life, its merchandise flung onto the floors along with shopping bags full of purchases probably dropped by their owners when the invaders hit. Flickering holographic advertisements and store signs had red flashing warning signs appear before them, demanding everyone flee and take shelter. Bodies of innocent shoppers that weren’t so lucky were partially vaporized and others were ripped apart with gaping claw slashes and teeth marks.

These aren’t Imperial forces … Chevallier thought as she moved through the carnage and shattered glass, searching for an exit.

The holographic mall directory flashed on and off too much for her to get an idea as to where she was. She cursed in French and pushed on with her aimless search within the huge futuristic mall shaped like a palace. She came to a stop when she noticed the dead that littered the floor weren’t civilians in the area she entered.

She kneeled and examined a body. It was a man in an exosuit of some sort, the flag of the nation he originated from was attached to the back of his outfit as his rifle rested with his fallen body. It was an UNE Marine. Further up, she saw at least twenty to thirty dead Marines. The cavalry had arrived, only to get knocked off their horses. The sacrifice the Marines made weren’t all in vain as many of them had fallen upon bullet-ridden bodies of the invaders.

The invaders had a humanoid form. Their armor was bronze in color while its surface was designed to resemble the skin of a dragon. Their backs were covered in six-inch spikes, longer spikes extended from their pauldrons, spikes that were almost as long as the horns on their helmet. Prickly talons covered the ends of their gloves and boots. It was nightmare fuel, and that was their foot soldiers covered in their full body armor. Then there were the other creatures, the ones that were probably responsible for ripping people apart.

Chevallier saw what looked like a smaller dragon, a drake. She imagined it walked on all fours, judging by its body slumped over onto its side. It was almost the size of a car and wasn’t fully armored like the rest of the foot soldiers, though it did possess cybernetic implants and mounted weapons. Most of the dead Marines were mauled to death by the drake, and the others were most likely shot and vaporized by the tachyon rifles the foot soldiers used.

Chevallier heard weapons fire echo in the distance. Her motion detectors directed her to the possible source of the sounds, the upper level of the mall. Nonfunctioning escalators took her topside where the repeated gunshot noises grew louder as she neared. She saw more invader and Marine bodies across the floor, all of them experienced a gruesome death on the battlefield. Their blood was fairly fresh, unlike the ones downstairs.

She arrived at the estimated source of the gunshots. Rays of light from the afternoon sun beamed down from a large hole in the ceiling forged during the fighting. Twisted and mangled fragments of concrete with grade beams protruding out rested below the collapsed ceiling, providing her an excellent place to hunker down and take cover. She looked about and scanned the battlefield before her, fixing her eyes on four armored soldiers in a decisive battle against three invader foot soldiers.

Neither side noticed her slip in. Perfect.

She took aim and saw the back of the heads of the invaders via her rifle’s scope, and then lost sight of them. Like the human soldiers fighting, the invaders were frequently lifting up and out of cover from the fallen ceiling’s debris. They were exposed when they went to take a shot and hidden when they stooped down.

The weapons exchange had ceased for a moment as the top of the heads of the invaders bobbed up and down facing each other, probably discussing a new plan of attack. Chevallier considered shooting but had doubts her bullets would do any major damage. She needed to see their whole head or body, not the horns at the tip of their helmets. The human soldiers weren’t able to clearly see what was going on, and so slowly pushed forward into the sunlight. They were walking into a trap.

Chevallier aimed her rifle toward the area she expected the invaders to raise up and shoot, placing her finger next to the trigger. She controlled her breathing and imagined herself playing a game of whack-a-mole.

The invaders’ ambush went into play.

It wasn’t what she was expecting.

A wyvern from the skies swooped down upon the nearest human soldier, and savagely disabled his shields with its claws and furiously moving and gnawing jaws. The wyvern, with extraordinary high speeds, took to the skies, bringing the soldier with it wrapped in its claws. In an instant, the fight became three on three as the hiding invaders rose up and continued their assault with their tachyon beam rifles.

Chevallier shook off the horrific event that happened seconds earlier and remembered her whack-a-mole game. She officially became an aggressor in the bout, as her weapon sung its battle cry and returned the conflict back into four on three. The conflict became two on four, then one, and then none, the humans were victorious.

The remains of the soldier that was taken by the wyvern fell back down. His torso, legs, chest, and head weren’t connected to anything as liters of blood poured down and splattered moments later. Full body armor couldn’t hide the disgusted and angry body language the three soldiers experienced when they saw what became of their team mate, it also didn’t hide the fact that none of them trusted Chevallier when she approached them.

Three rifles were aimed at her Hammerhead helmet. She lowered her weapon and raised her hands to show she wasn’t there to fight them. Their weapons lowered, the message had gotten across. At least she hoped so, as she did help save their lives.

Static noises played within her helmet’s audio speakers, an incoming transmission from the three soldiers. She heard what sounded like English but couldn’t make it out. Given how much more advanced Earth appeared from her trek in the mall, she concluded whatever they used to communicate, wasn’t compatible with her equipment.

Her hands undid the binding that kept her helmet attached, pulling it off and revealing her face to the trio. Face-to-face communication was going to have to make do. The three did the same as they neared. Chevallier glanced at the trio’s appearance, noticing, now she was closer, the equipment the three used, while similar, was different.

The first soldier approached her. He was a black man, buzz cut hair and possessed the simplest of their equipment, rifle, full combat armor that looked like a wetsuit and a helmet. “Thanks for the assist,” he said to her.

“No worries,” Chevallier replied.

“There a reason you using that gear, soldier?” said the second soldier. “And that … rifle?”

Chevallier looked at the second man. His dirty-blond hair was shaved into a short mohawk, and his armor, if you can even call it that, looked more like a web of skintight wires and cybernetic implants.

Chevallier held her rifle up. “Something wrong with this?”

The blond mohawk man pointed at it. “It’s an eRifle, haven’t seen one of those in decades.”

“Its standard Hammerhead load out,” Chevallier said.

Shocked and slightly staggered looks appeared on their three faces.

“Hammerhead?” said the third soldier, a woman with brown hair and a pasty complexion.

Her armor was the most fascinating of them all. Like the blond mohawk soldier, it was a skintight maze of implants and wires. Her gear, however, had additional round components attached to her waist and arms. Large holographic visages that resembled blue shimmering bracelets circled her wrists.

“There hasn’t been a recruit for that program since EDF phased it out in the twenty forties,” the woman continued.

“She’s a sleepin I’m guessing,” said the first soldier. “And picked one hell of a time to wake up and smell the coffee. Got a name, soldier?”

“Master Chief Petty Officer Mathilda Chevallier.”

He nodded. “Master Gunnery Sergeant Chris Boyd.” It took him a few seconds, but once he made the connection. “Wait … Chevallier? As in Admiral Chevallier’s daughter?”

Last time Chevallier checked, her mother was a captain. The news delighted her often cold heart and brought some much-needed good news to the terrible day she’d been having thus far. Her mother managed to get a promotion and was still fresh on the minds of people, suggesting she was still alive in …

Whatever year she ended up in.

“That’s right—”

Chevallier’s words were cut off as the shrieks of the cybernetic wyverns roared. Looking up, she saw the beast and two others dive down for another attack against the four. Talking would have to wait until they were safe, running and diving for cover was top priority.

The four fled, leaving behind random fleeting shots to cover their escape. They arrived at an area of the mall which still had its ceiling intact, giving them protection from the wyverns, or so they thought. The three wyverns that did dive down followed the four like hungry beasts in pursuit of their next meal. The high ceilings of the mall gave the wyverns enough room to flap their wings and still remain an airborne threat. Raging plasma-breaths from the wyverns, dive-bombing, tail swipes, and fear-inducing talons reduced shield power of the four to almost nothing.

Taking cover was useless, not when your adversary could fly over it and claw at you, staying mobile and shooting had to make do. Chevallier saw Boyd perform some impressive moves, leaping up toward the walls with the aid of a jetpack and perform a parkour-style wall-running sprint with his rifle blazing.

The brown-haired woman remained idle for the most part and flicked her wrists at any of the beasts that got near her, they were pushed backward instantly. Chevallier knew all too well what a telekinetic push looked like. It didn’t add up. Humans were incapable of psionic abilities unless the conspiracy theory rumors were true about the Titan base. The woman was probably a Linl, a species of the Radiance Union that looked exactly like a human, Chevallier concluded.

“This is getting too hot,” the blond mohawk man said as he flung a piece of a broken pipe at one of the wyverns.

Without touching it.

Telekinesis was used that time, no doubt about it.

“Need a top up, sir?” the woman asked.

Boyd ended his wall-running stunt and charged toward her, dive rolling away from a wave of plasma fire in the process. “Yes, do it!”

“Everyone, gather around,” the woman yelled. “Barrier going down in five!”

The three balled up close to each other, something told Chevallier she should do the same and join them, that, and her shield had hit a critically low percentage. The woman extended her left and right arms out, and her armor began to emit beams of blue light, while the holographic bracelets circling her wrists dazzled the sides of her body with a faint lavender color in an enigmatic manner. It resulted in a purple psionic dome of light that encircled the four as Chevallier approached. The wyverns crashed into it and screeched angrily as their talons, jaws, and plasma breath failed to penetrate the barrier.

The woman remained in place with her eyes shut, armor and spinning bracelets glowing and reflecting their light off her porcelain skin, as her hair waved about in the psionic energy winds formed as a byproduct. Meanwhile, the blond mohawk man strapped his rifle to his back and formed his left hand into a ball. Purple bolts of psionic energy surged across it like a plasma orb. From there he placed his fist into his chest, and an energy exchange followed. He repeated the same skill on Boyd, only it took seconds longer.

“Maxwell, hurry the fuck up,” Boyd said drily to the blond mohawk man. “This is the slowest psionic shield recovery I’ve ever seen.”

“Hey, I’m not the one that’s sitting at twelve percent shield strength,” he replied.

Chevallier was stunned. The two were indeed psionics, using Earth equipment and weapons. “We enlist Linl psionics now?” Chevallier said.

Boyd laughed while Maxwell tried to hold back a smirk. “Maxwell and LeBoeuf are human.”

“Wow. She really is a sleepin,” Maxwell said.

“You’ve missed a lot over the last seventy to eighty years you’ve been gone,” Boyd said to Chevallier.

Boyd and LeBoeuf confirmed to Maxwell that their shields had been restored after he performed the energy transfer technique on them. It was Chevallier’s turn. “Let’s hope this works,” Maxwell said to her. “I’ve never restored shields to armor this old.”

Maxwell placed his fist on Chevallier’s armor and watched as the psionic discharge transferred away from him and forced the percentage of her shield’s power to rise slowly.

4 percent.

6 percent.

12 percent.

Chevallier chuckled. “I like the future already.”

“This is going to be a while,” Maxwell said, grimacing. “Our gear was specifically designed to allow psionics to recharge shields, yours wasn’t.”

Three minutes of listening to the frustrated wyverns beyond the barrier scream and bash their heads against it had passed. Chevallier’s shield power made it 40 percent. LeBoeuf’s face began to wrench from the stress of maintaining the psionic protective dome. Like all psionics, the longer they used their powers, the greater the stress on their brains. LeBoeuf was probably in the early stages of having a major migraine, or worse.

“Sir, if you want me to light these assholes up, I’ll need to drop this barrier soon,” LeBoeuf said, opening her tired eyes.

“Maxwell, how much longer?” Boyd said to him.

“I’m going to be here for another five or seven minutes at this rate, sir,” Maxwell said. “This Hammerhead shit is too old school for me.”

“Don’t have that time,” Boyd said.

Watching the wyvern’s endless assault against LeBoeuf’s barrier made Chevallier realize she was the one holding up their chances for survival. They needed to act soon before LeBoeuf’s mind became weakened and useless. “Leave me, I’ll be fine,” Chevallier said, pushing Maxwell away.

He shrugged and rearmed himself with his rifle. “Suit yourself.”

“Maxwell, LeBoeuf,” Boyd said, raising his weapon up. “Light ‘em up on my mark!”

“Understood.”

“Ready?”

Maxwell’s cybernetic-armored body lit up with psionic energy like a Christmas tree. “I’m ready.”

The four stepped close to the edge of the barrier. The three wyverns on the other end did the same and clawed at it furiously. Boyd grinned. “LeBoeuf, you’re up!”

LeBoeuf forced the barrier to vanish and quickly followed-up with a telekinetic cleave by swinging her arm horizontally. The three clustered wyverns launched backward briskly, rolled, and tumbled to the floor. Her holographic bracelets started to glow a deep burgundy as she took hold of her rifle and pulled the trigger. Bullets didn’t come out of it as Chevallier had expected, instead a steady beam of what looked like electricity discharged.

The lightning bolts from her rifle hit the middle wyvern dead-on. The wyvern’s body began to convulse, as if it was suffering from an electrical shock, while the electric energy that hit it splashed away, burning and shocking the two others next to it. That’s when Maxwell slipped away from sight as blue psionic energy made his body fade, and rematerialize behind the left wyvern, a psionic jump port. He pushed the barrel of his rifle to the back of the head of the wyvern. A point-blank shot blew its brains out, what remained of its head burst into flames. Chevallier had doubts his rifle used bullets too.

The wyvern to the right was next. Focused fire from Maxwell, Chevallier, and Boyd put it down before it got to its feet to fly. There was one wyvern left, being the one LeBoeuf had locked down with her lightning attack. Chevallier shifted her sights onto it, and then lowered her rifle. The wyvern had collapsed from the relentless discharge with smoke billowing up from its crispy body and smoldering wings.

Maxwell kicked the body of his first kill. “Not so tough when they’re grouped together and can’t fly.”

“Maxwell, what the hell did you use?” LeBoeuf said as he returned to their group.

“Fully channeled incendiary round.”

“I’ll keep that in mind for the future,” she replied.

“Regular rounds weren’t working when they were flying,” Maxwell continued. “Guess you gotta hit them with the good stuff right away.”

Whatever the hell that means, Chevallier thought. She’ll have to brush up on the new combat tactics humans now employed.

Boyd waved his hands and created a small holographic window which he used to establish a communication link. “This is Sergeant Boyd to all UNE forces in the area, hostiles have been neutralized.”

“Copy that, Sergeant,” a voice replied from the projection. “I have a group of noncombatants here that need immediate evac, sending you the details via HNI.”

New information populated the hologram Boyd had summoned, including a top-down map of Geneva. Blue and red dots were speckled across it, though the vast majority of red dots were further east, away from the mall. Boyd tapped one of the blue dots on the hologram. “Putting in a request for you now, hang tight,” Boyd informed the projection.

Boyd’s work with the hologram had Chevallier impressed. This HNI, whatever it was, seemed to have allowed him to make various requests instantly with a personal holographic interface. LeBoeuf and Maxwell too conjured holograms of their own which apparently had been linked with their HNI. They all took the time to look over the tactical data it provided, and later pulled up stats based on their recent combat performance sharing it with one another during the downtime. Weapon accuracy, average heart rate, vital signs, kill counts, it was all listed.

Chevallier was officially obsolete.

She followed Boyd and his team to a sizeable department store where cowering civilians had taken cover under the protection of Marines in their exosuits. With no confirmed enemies discovered in the mall and on their HNI radar feeds, they led the civilians outside.

Evacuation transports descended from the orange-rich afternoon skies to the parking lot, a mess with burning cars and vans, cars and vans without wheels that was. Did they finally invent flying cars? Chevallier pondered as she looked at one battered vehicle while the tattered men, women, and children cheered with glee when the first transport began to lower itself.

And then exploded instantly, raining flaming bits of debris down upon them.

“Oh, what the fuck!”

LeBoeuf erected a dome, shielding everyone from the hot burning remains of the obliterated transport. They weren’t out of this yet.

“Transport is down, abort, abort—”

The second and third transports suffered the same fate, as a strange object that looked like a meteor crashed through them, bringing them to their golden fiery end.

“Get them back, get them back!”

The civilians were whisked back inside by the Marines, while Chevallier and Boyd’s EDF teams watched the remaining transports return to the skies before the setting sun. Dead center in the parking lot was the randomly scattered and burning remains of the third transport. In the middle of the carnage was the single meteor-like object that brought it, and the others, down, nestled in the newly formed crater in the parking lot. Chevallier used her rifle’s scope to zoom in upon it.

It wasn’t a meteor.

It was a man.

He stood and leaped out of the crater, strolled past the flaming wreckage he created, before dematerializing within a wave of blue light, psionic teleportation.

“Did you guys see that?” Chevallier said.

LeBoeuf formed a holographic window and directed everyone’s attention to its data. There was a pulsing red dot moving close to them. “I got movement on the rooftops.”

Boyd looked to the three burning transports. “My HNI can’t get a fix on their vitals.” He tapped his head a few times. “Are there any survivors?”

“Doubtful, after that,” Maxwell said. “Not sure why HNI isn’t reporting their vitals.”

“LeBoeuf, what do you got?”

Her newly summoned hologram filled with static and a computer error message, she growled and revealed. “Yeah, my HNI just took a shit.”

“What about ESP?”

“Too much chaos in the city,” she said. “I can’t get a solid fix on what’s up top.”

Boyd faced the mall, looking upward to its high rooftops. “Let’s check it out. Chevallier, refresh my memory, did Hammerheads have MRF tech?”

Chevallier raised her eyebrow. “Come again?”

“Mass Reduction Field,” Boyd said to her. “Our suits can lower or raise the mass of our bodies.”

Chevallier shook her head. “That’s a new trick to me.”

Boyd gave LeBoeuf a smartass grin. “Give Chevallier a hug.” LeBoeuf replied with a groan. “Either that, or you teleport us all up, but I’d rather you conserve what little mental power you have left.”

Boyd took point and jump-jetted upward, his mass-reduced body allowed him to soar high up, reaching the rooftops with one jump. Maxwell and LeBoeuf stared at each other. He laughed at her then used his psionic abilities to jump port out of sight, presumably to the rooftops with Boyd.

Chevallier’s limited knowledge of psionics reminded her while a teleportation would have gotten them all up, it would have consumed much more of LeBoeuf’s power. And without the fancy jump jets and MRF, the quickest way for her to reach the rooftops with them would be via a psionic jump port. Jump porting as she recalled was a short-range teleport, and that it was possible to bring another person with the user, provided they were within physical contact with them, and more often than not, was only good to carry one person at a time.

LeBoeuf’s reluctant arms wrapped around the armored body of Chevallier. The two ladies flushed as they stood in the awkward stance. “Let’s never talk about this …”

Chevallier concurred. “Agreed …”

Chevallier’s vision of the parking lot melted away as blinding blue light covered her. She felt her body become pure energy for a brief moment, and then return to its original state, only this time high up onto the roof of the mall with LeBoeuf quickly releasing her from her hold.

The strange figure from the parking lot stood at the edge of the rooftops, watching Geneva burn in the distance. He appeared to be humanoid, more so than the other invaders. His white glistening armor, similar to the invader foot soldiers, was designed to resemble the features of a dragon. And so, the surface of his armor resembled dragon scales and his gauntlets sported jagged metallic-looking talons. His helmet only covered his head down to his nose, leaving his mouth and jaw exposed, revealing that he looked more human than alien. Chevallier wouldn’t have been surprised if a dashing handsome human had existed under his gear, one with a brawny chest, and firm six-pack abs made clear thanks to how tight and formfitting his armor was.

He faced the four as they surrounded him with their rifles drawn. There was no fear in his stance, no worry at what the four angry humans could do to him if he made the wrong move. He was like a brave knight, wearing dragon armor. A Dragon Knight.

Boyd began to scream with agonizing pain, dropping his rifle, and holding onto his ears.

LeBoeuf’s holographic bracelets vanished, as she too yelped and crashed next to Boyd, her hands holding her head.

A third rifle met the rooftops they stood on. It was Maxwell’s as he joined the two, displaying the same symptoms of screaming loudly and holding his head before passing out.

Chevallier remained standing with her rifle forward while the Dragon Knight’s mouth twisted, clearly puzzled as to why things played out as they did. With three incapacitated targets before him, the Dragon Knight reached around and pulled forward a Voelika strapped to his back.

A Voelika being the same staff weapon Nereid and her people used to enhance their psionic powers. The ornament of the dragons on both ends of the staff began to glow a bright orange once the Dragon Knight firmly grasped onto the weapon and lunged at Chevallier.

She held the trigger to her weapon, and the noise it made signaled the start of their bout.

Chevallier’s shields took the first blow, then the second, third, fourth, fifth, and six. The Dragon Knight was fast as it circled around her, laughing, and taunting her in the process, before it leaped backward, curling its body into a triple summersault, landing perfectly on its feet. Feet that hovered above the surface of the rooftops with tiny red jets of energy propelling it.

Chevallier’s armor began to ring it’s no shields alarm. Her training told her to get to cover whenever you heard that, her training also prepared her to battle Hashmedai and human terrorists, not psionic Dragon Knights. Ignoring the alarms, she dove back into the fray with a blazing rifle. If Sirius and the Architect forces taught her anything, she had to make up her own rules.

The Dragon Knight swayed back and forth while it moved to close the distance between the two and evade her bullets by gracefully sliding its hovering body from left to right. The way it moved its body reminded her of a figure skater on ice, an extremely dangerous one at that. The odd bullet that hit him repelled off a barrier, a psionic one judging by the lavender ripples it made.

The gap was closed, and the Dragon Knight took another swing at her with its Voelika, now radiating blue waves of light. Chevallier recognized what was going on, psionic imbuement, Nereid fed her rifle some weird psionic energy once, and it increased its firepower by a huge margin, as in her bullets travelled more than triple the speed of light.

She dodge rolled to the side, hoping to not find out the hard way what would happen if that Voelika hit her without shields. She landed back first and reacquired her target that was still standing and upset it missed. All her rounds connected, a stunning light show of purple waves of psionic energy sprayed away from her target, causing the Voelika’s glow to dim.

It didn’t matter what species you were, psionic powers followed similar rules. If you used them too much, your brain becomes stressed. The more pressure she put on its barrier, the more mental work it had to do. Before she could jump back up, the Dragon Knight made another pass at her. In the span of three seconds it found itself above Chevallier, and its Voelika found itself sending her rifle swirling through the air.

It went to make a final downward thrust upon Chevallier’s downed body and missed as she rolled to the side and returned to her feet with a combat dagger in hand. The two swung their weapons, utilizing the advantage they had. Chevallier had what armored protection her suit still provided as well as its enhanced strength, which made her stabs and slashes quick and hard. The Dragon Knight had reach, speed, and unbelievably high agility. Psionic powers were for the time being a nonissue as long as she continued to put on pressure and force it to divert all its mental energy into strengthening its barrier and deflect her deadly dagger strikes.

A swift leg sweep sent Chevallier back to the ground and her dagger came loose from her grip. A swift kick from the Dragon Knight’s boot sent it away. Where it landed she had no idea, much like her rifle from earlier. Boyd, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell were still out for the count, their weapons lying dormant next to their bodies. Another quick roll from danger and a leap up got her back to her feet, feet that made a running dash and grab of LeBoeuf’s rifle. Its high-tech futuristic design entered her hands as she hit the ground for a swift combat roll, about-faced her attacker with the trigger pulled.

Nothing happened.

She quickly examined the rifle and its flashing lights and holographic windows, unable to make sense of what they did. The Dragon Knight swirled its staff weapon above its head and entered an aggressive stance while holding it and channeling its psionic power back into it. It began to glow once again.

“Chevallier …” Boyd’s weakened voice called out. She faced him, and with what little strength he had, he pushed his rifle to her. “You can’t use … psionic rifles.”

Boyd’s weapon was a lot different than LeBoeuf’s rifle and Chevallier’s eRifle. However, it was still able to perform the basic duties of a rifle. Aim, pull the trigger, and watch the person you don’t like fall. Everything except the fall part occurred after she got ahold of Boyd’s rifle. The Dragon Knight leaped to the side and continued to channel its psionic energy, ultimately buying her time to get to her feet and tinker with the rifle’s settings.

A small display gave her the impression that the rifle had two settings, the current one being listed as ‘physical.’ She tapped the screen switching the rifle’s firing mode. She felt it vibrate slightly, as if it was a car switching gears. It was all the testing she had time to do as the Dragon Knight slid, glided, and drifted toward her once again with its eyes set on her rifle.

She pulled and held the trigger and the rifle discharged short particle beam bursts, lighting her face with bright flashes of white light with every shot. The Dragon Knight’s psionic shield shattered after three direct hits, causing it to cease its pursuit of her and place its Voelika staff weapon across its armored chest. A burst of light flashed causing the presence of the Dragon Knight to fade and vanish. It laughed hysterically at her before she was able to make a fourth particle beam blast connect.

Boyd and his team recovered seconds later, each of them rubbing their heads, moaning and groaning. “And you call me the sleepin …” Chevallier said to the three.

“My … head …” Maxwell said.

“Ugh, I’d rather be hungover than feel like this …” LeBoeuf said.

Boyd addressed his team. “Did our HNI seriously just get hacked?”

“I’m really hoping it was just a glitch,” Maxwell said.

LeBoeuf gestured to Chevallier. “She wasn’t affected.”

“If it was an HNI hack, that would explain it,” Boyd said. “They didn’t have that tech back in, what? 2033?”

Chevallier kept silent, all the talk about HNI, as well as discovering the existence of psionic rifles, reinforced the reality that she was a relic from the past. It wasn’t her place to put in her two cents.

She tossed Boyd his rifle back. “Thanks for the assist, Sergeant.”

“No, thank you,” Boyd said. “You’re something else.” Chevallier grunted. “I’m serious, Hammerhead gear and eRifles are found in museums, and you just kicked some serious ass with that. We, along with those civilians down below, would be dead now if you hadn’t shown up.”

6 Foster

Transport departing from Carl Sagan crash site

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 2, 2118, 18:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster’s hand waved an emotional goodbye to the Carl Sagan as the transport, she and the crew boarded, pulled up and away from the ship of exploration’s final resting place within the waves of Lake Geneva, and into the afternoon sunset. By the time the transport built up enough altitude to pull away, the Carl Sagan looked more like a boat that came to a full stop with small flames burning from the bridge.

Geneva’s skyline came into view, a grim reminder there was a lot more lost today than the Carl Sagan. Pillars of smoke rose from the city as emergency transports flew away or landed in areas where people needed assistance while UNE fighters circled in the skies. From what Park had told her, the dragon-looking creatures they saw during the crash-landing had plagued these skies not long ago. The last group had evidently been killed at one of the malls downtown after the struggling fighters and defense drones had managed to turn the tables in their favor.

Foster stepped away from the windows of the transport and glanced at her crew, still puzzled at what became of the non-senior staff and Hammerhead team. Oh God, Chevallier. Foster had ordered her to the docking bay, which was probably being slowly flooded with the lake’s waters, and she wasn’t among those recovered from the crash site. Sending people to their deaths was the job of a military captain, not an IESA one.

She entered the cockpit where Park and her team stood behind the pilot as he guided them away to safety. “Any idea if we can get an update on what’s happenin’?” Foster asked.

“Sit tight, there’s some promising chatter on the HNI network,” said Park.

There was a bit of silence at first and a whole lot of nodding of heads, as if there was a non-vocalized conversation going on. HNI in action Foster figured, most likely listening in to some sort of military broadcast message being beamed into those implants.

“Okay, Foster, here’s the plot,” Park said to her. “We’re gonna make a small detour to Earth Cube.”

“Oh?”

“Well, EISS HQ to be exact.”

Foster’s lips curled. Earth Intelligence and Security Service, or EISS, is to the UNE what the CIA was to the United States, back when it was its own nation. Commander McDowell was revealed to have been a secret agent from EISS that infiltrated the Carl Sagan and ended up dying with a smile on his face. She and Williams often joked and laughed about them getting black-bagged upon their return to Earth to explain why one of their agents ended up dead.

Neither of them was laughing now.

“Can’t believe I’m flying Captain Foster of the Carl Sagan,” said the pilot.

She smiled at him. “The one and only!”

“I read about you in Time Magazine once word got out you and your crew stopped an invasion of Earth from Sirius.”

“Did we make persons of the year?” It was Williams. The group in the cockpit turned around and saw he had entered unannounced.

The pilot nodded. “Hell, yeah, you did.”

Well, at least some good things happened during our missing years, Foster mused.

“The Carl Sagan was talked about a lot when Tolukei’s first psionic message was received,” the pilot added. “Then came your disappearance and the data transmissions from your reports.”

The Carl Sagan’s data transmission would have taken at least eight years to arrive at Earth, the joys of fast-as-light communication. Any signals sent between the colony at Sirius and Earth, also would have taken the same amount of time.

“Even before you arrived at Sirius, your journey to it inspired a lot of people,” Park said. “Like myself … I was a little girl when you left for Sirius. Joined EDF because I wanted to see what was out there in space just like you all.”

“Couldn’t you have joined IESA?” said the pilot.

“Recruiting had been scaled back for years,” Park said, prompting Foster to remember the hard time she and Williams had recruiting people for the team. It was one of the primary reasons in fact why they operated with a skeleton crew since there weren’t enough bodies due to the cutbacks. “That, and I didn’t have the grades; I did, however, do a lot of track and worked out. I used that to my advantage to get into EDF.”

But enough about that. “So, what’s up with that promisin’ news?” Foster asked.

Park used her HNI to create a large enough holographic window for Foster and Williams to gaze at. Live video feeds from across the planet and in orbit around Earth played. “The invaders’ fleets seem to be withdrawing,” Park said. “They left behind their ground forces, however, so we’ll still have to deal with them, but at least they won’t be getting any backup or orbital support.”

It took another minute for the transport to arrive at Earth Cube, since it was built on an artificial island that floated in Lake Geneva. The cube-shaped government building, covered with windows from top to bottom, remained untouched during the attack. Foster guessed it had to do with the six squadrons of fighters making circles around it.

Under Earth Cube was the EISS HQ, which from what she recalled was a lengthy elevator ride down below sea level. She didn’t know if she should be excited to be visiting one of the most heavily guarded structures in UNE space, or afraid that they were visiting people that had more than enough influence and resources to make you ‘disappear.’

Disappearing from a spacefaring nation was a big deal. Anyone can disappear from Earth; just hop on a ship and leave. But disappearing from all known planets, moons, ships, and space stations in the galaxy? EISS had ways to make that happen, and there was a very good chance it wouldn’t be an enjoyable experience.

The transport lowered onto a landing pad on the rooftops of Earth Cube, next to its rooftop elevator. Foster and her crew leaped out of the transport and were greeted by a team of Marines out from the elevator. The Marines aimed their rifles at them.

“Please tell me this is just some kinda gun salute for our heroic return,” Chang said.

“Captain Foster,” the lead Marine said. “I need you and your crew to cooperate with us right now.”

Foster gritted her teeth. “Park?”

“Don’t look at me,” Park said, shaking her head. “My orders were to bring you here, they didn’t say for what.”

The Marines moved closer to Foster and her crew, demanding they all place their hands in the air. “Captain?” Pierce said to her.

“Misunderstanding, I’m hopin’.”

Foster followed the commands of the Marines, and they aggressively dragged her and her crew to the elevator at gun point. Foster noticed Williams’ face become drenched with sweat as he looked around a lot, very nervously. She thought it was due to the position they now faced, until she saw him look to the skies repeatedly. His eyes focused on the swarming fighters above, the Earth-built stratosphere carriers and cruisers soaring above the smoking Geneva skyline.

Williams’ breathing became visually erratic, his hands twitched, his legs weakened, his face contorted, and his lips began to move, as if he was whispering to himself.

“Dom?” Foster called to him.

“No, no, no, no, no!” Williams screamed, and flung his body to the ground, curling up into a fetal position. “We got to get to California!”

He repeated his cries over and over, drawing the attention of everyone, Foster especially, as she broke away from her Marine escort to kneel down to examine her friend.

“Dom!” she said, shaking his trembling body. “Dom, what’s wrong? Talk to me!”

“That’s enough! Get up you two, now!” a Marine shouted.

Foster faced the Marine, ignoring the fact that his rifle was aimed square at her head. “There’s somethin’ wrong with him!”

“Acting sick? Please, I wasn’t born yesterday,” the Marine said. “Both of you, up, now.”

“Get him a medic!”

“Don’t make me repeat myself!”

“Private!” Park yelled, drawing the Marine’s attention away from Foster. “What are you waiting for, soldier? Get this man a medic!”

The Marine nodded and lowered his weapon. “Yes, ma’am.”

Foster was forced back up and watched Williams’ body lay on the floor below her, still trembling and panicking, wondering what the hell triggered him. Park gave her a nod while ensuring that a medic was called to deal with Williams and his condition, while the rest of the Carl Sagan’s crew was hauled into the elevator with their Marine escorts.

The doors slid shut, and the elevator made its quick drop to the EISS HQ.

“This is bullshit,” Chang said.

Foster sighed. “Tell me about it.”

“I guess saving the galaxy is a punishable crime in the future?” Chang said.

“Look around you,” a Marine cut in. “Does Earth look saved thanks to your actions?”

“When these doors open again,” Chang said. “I expect a hero’s welcoming party.”

Minutes later, the elevator arrived at one of many floors to the facility EISS. There was no party.

“Dude,” Chang said drily to the Marines. “Where’s my party?”

“Chang …” Foster snorted.

“I know, I know …”

The crew was escorted into examination rooms where they underwent various tests with psionic doctors in hazmat suits. After twelve hours of being probed, prodded, scanned with strange equipment from the twenty-second century, Foster found herself sitting on a bed within a holding cell, alone.

It made her miss the craziness she endured at Sirius.

7 Odelea

Downtown Veromacon

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous system

(August 2, 2118, 18:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The hour plus long trek Odelea, Iey’liwea, and Ienthei, led by their two surviving ranger escorts, took them into the more dangerous areas of downtown Veromacon as a result of the invasion. Most of the time was spent walking slowly and quietly, waiting for invader scouts to pass while they hid behind trees, mangled vehicles, or the ruins of what was once a tall building. The deeper they pushed, the more of the bronze-colored armored foot soldiers they encountered patrolling the streets.

The Vorcambreum ranger had enough after they cleared the third patrol and stopped next to a squad of dead rangers. He plucked their pistols off their armored bodies, and then offered one each to the three.

“Are you serious?” Iey’liwea said, looking down at the magnetic pistol forced into her hands.

“It’s just the two of us left to protect you three, let’s not take any unnecessary chances,” said the Vorcambreum.

Ienthei was offered his pistol and then Odelea, who held it with contempt. The grip, the texture, its weight, it reminded her of the first time she held one. Ironically, that also happened one-hundred years ago when she was a young woman. Painful memories of being forced to kill with the weapon tore her mind apart. She had to resist every urge in her body to throw the weapon into the nearby burning garden.

“Odelea.”

Her head jerked up from the sound of the Aryile ranger calling her name, she was thankful for it. Having nightmares of the past while still awake was dangerous.

“Are you going to be okay with that?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah I will be fine,” Odelea said. “I just hoped I’d never have to hold one of these again.”

Odelea felt her hands tremble for the first time in decades, hands that were held by the Aryile ranger as he guided and showed her the proper way to hold, point, and use a magnetic pistol. “These are different from the ones you must have used years ago,” he said. “Let it sync with your implants.”

She followed his instructions and pulled up a menu of nearby devices her implants could link with. The holographic screen over her eyes located the pistol, and she selected it to be synced. A prompt appeared informing her that her implants weren’t military grade, and so the tactical data the pistol’s targeting scanner could provide would be limited. After accepting the message, new data appeared relaying the limited data the pistol was able to feed into her implants remotely.

“Point the gun at someone you don’t like, read the data, and then pull the trigger,” the Aryile ranger explained.

The numbers and screens the pistol transmitted to her implants were overwhelming at first for her. She minimized it all out of her vision for the time being, fearing she might spend more time analyzing the numbers and admiring how crisp the resolution of the targeting scanner’s camera was, rather than survival.

She felt the ranger let go of her. Her mouth twisted, she had no idea why he’d been so nice and helpful to her, had he held onto her longer, she might have been able to get a better idea and analyze his intentions. She found it interesting how, of all the noncombatants the Aryile ranger had to protect, he chose her to ensure she was prepared, even took the time to learn her name, yet she didn’t know his.

She faced him and his warm smile through his visor. She smiled back and gave him a nod that she’d be fine and made a mental note to learn his name once this was over.

The five resumed their stealthy movements through the ruined streets until they reached the lobby of the Souyila Corporation. Fires and broken glass greeted them along with partially vaporized receptionists and lab workers that failed to flee, the floor painted with their blood. Two of the three elevators were inoperative, and their doors were half melted by the invaders’ weapons.

The one working elevator had a deceased invader inside, his body sitting upright with its back against the wall. “I’m telling you, these aren’t Hashmedai,” said the Aryile. “Nor does this look like a plasma rifle.”

“It’s in full body armor, how would you know?” Iey’liwea said.

“Let’s solve the mystery once and for all then,” Odelea said, lowering herself and placing her hands around its helmet. She made four attempts to pull it off, none which were successful. Her soft and fragile hands hurt.

Iey’liwea yanked Odelea back up to her feet. “How about we do this when we’re in the clear?”

“If this isn’t a Hashmedai, this may be a perfect chance to—”

“Study it later; we need to get what we came here for.”

The elevator doors failed to close, yet it began to rise up the towering multistory building. The opened door became a blur of shut doors from connecting floors and bulkheads and continued to be so until it came to a stop at the desired floor.

The two rangers ran out with their rifles drawn into the dark office floor, the fighting in the area had long ago knocked out power and backup power. The all clear was given and everyone fanned out with guns drawn, hoping they wouldn’t have a need to use them.

“Check your fire, we got non-hostiles,” said the Vorcambreum as he entered the far office.

Odelea backed up slightly and saw Ienthei reunited with his twin sister, Queenea, the two shared a hug while the surviving office personnel were rounded up and whisked away to safety down below. There were about ten of them, should be enough to cram into a military transport, not very comfortably but doable.

With only one elevator in use and it being full, Odelea had the perfect chance to stride into her personal lab and office. She accessed a computer interface screen with her implants and searched for a machine that had power and therefore was able to link with her HNI. Only one device was found, it had been plugged into an ethereal battery supply in case of an emergency, like now.

She placed an empty data crystal into her hand and inserted it into the computer. Using her implants, she selected a command that ordered the computer to copy its contents onto the crystal. A blue progress bar manifested before her, it slowly moved while the files were being copied.

“Odelea,” Iey’liwea called out to her as she entered the lab. “Let’s go.”

The progress bar was at 45 percent. Just a little bit longer. “Can it wait? I’m almost done here.”

“Not really, we’re the last load to go down.”

“I could stay,” the Aryile ranger offered. “I’d hate for her to come all this way and lose whatever she needed to get.”

“We,” his superior corrected.

Iey’liwea placed her hands on her hips. “I thought you guys had orders to protect the council?”

“The transport you demanded is inbound now,” said the Vorcambreum. “You’ll be safe once you reach the lobby and step aboard. With that said, as of now, it’s safer to be downstairs than it is up here with us.”

“Head down with Ienthei,” Odelea said to Iey’liwea. “We will meet up with you, this I assure you.”

Iey’liwea released a long exhale and then turned toward the elevator where Ienthei stood waiting for everyone. It began to descend, officially leaving Odelea alone with the two rangers, who passed back and forth with rifles in hand waiting for her file transfer to finish, 22 percent left when she last checked.

“I guess you work for her as well?” said the Aryile ranger.

Odelea nodded. “Yes, of course, do you not recognize my name?”

“I just transferred here recently from the outer colonies. I never did pay much attention to politics on this side of the quadrant.”

Meaning he was young and experiencing the life of a young adult for the first time, unlike Odelea experiencing it for the second time. To him, the events that happened over the last hundred years were stories in a history book, assuming he took the time to read one, which was doubtful. Rangers needed to know how to fight and defend the Union and often recruited personnel that failed to progress through the ruthless education system the Radiance Union employed.

“So, no,” he added. “Don’t recognize the name, but I think it’s a beautiful name for a beautiful girl like you.”

Odelea’s face flushed, visible through her sun-kissed bronze skin. It muted her lips, his charming smile didn’t help, in fact it distracted her from the fact the file transfer had completed. The body and brain chemistry of a young woman, she was still trying to get used to it, more like remember how to be used to it. She had forgotten how a young woman reacted to situations like this. The Vorcambreum ranger entered the lab gesturing to the two.

“Are you finished?” the Vorcambreum asked. “The elevator just returned to this floor.”

“Oh, ah, ye … yes I am finished,” Odelea’s jittery voice said.

“Well?”

All eyes were on Odelea and her spaced out face. Right, she needed to take the data crystal. She returned to the computer and plucked the tiny diamond-like object away from it, storing it carefully in her side pocket, and joined up with the two rangers, eager to leave the towers.

The Vorcambreum stopped suddenly as he stared ominously at the opened elevator door and rapidly brought his weapon forward. “What’s wrong, sir?” said the Aryile.

“The elevator … look at it.”

All three of them glanced at it, Odelea saw nothing out of normal in regard to its construction and layout and configuration of its control panels. Yes, it showed signs of battle damage, but that was expected, this was a warzone. Yes, it had blood that was splashed into its walls from the dead invader that was inside—

The invader.

“Where’s the invader’s body?” she asked.

“I was hoping one of you two knew,” said the Vorcambreum. “It was there when the elevator returned not long ago.”

Odelea’s face wasn’t flushing anymore. Fear, anxiety, ancient Aryile self-preservation instincts triggered, the same kind that kept their people alive during ancient times when they were close to the bottom of the food chain and heavily hunted by predators, the downside to being an herbivore species.

The quickest and easiest action they could take was to sprint into the elevator and descend back to the lobby, while nobody was actively trying to shoot them. The longest and hardest was to search the entire floor and verify the invader they thought was dead wasn’t planning an ambush.

The quick and easy option was taken.

They regretted it seconds later.

Odelea heard the Vorcambreum scream as she stepped onto the elevator first. She spun around facing the office with her pistol in hand. The Vorcambreum was pinned to the floor with the armored invader on top of him, clawing away at his shields, well what remained of them. Whatever the invader used to blindside him, hit him hard as indicated by the pistol’s targeting data that outputted into her implants.

The targeting scans revealed his shields were down to 32 percent and were falling 8 percent per slash. He wouldn’t last long unless she shot the invader. She opted not to, after all the Aryile who had been at her side was there, she waited for him to do the honors.

The Aryile’s rifle fired multiple rounds at the invader. It only angered the invader and forced it to display the speed and agility it possessed as it leaped inside the elevator, pouncing on the Aryile like a beast from Paryo. Of course, this meant Odelea now shared the stationary elevator with the Aryile ranger and the invader. The melee attacks of the invader made the Aryile drop his rifle. Fear made her drop the pistol. The Aryile’s will to live forced him to fight and wrestle with the invader, forcing its back to face Odelea, Odelea’s fear made her retreat backward.

She didn’t take the shot. The shot the Aryile ranger so desperately hoped she would take. She couldn’t, not while her hundred plus year old memories returned to 2018, when she took a life for the first time with a pistol. Then forward to 2040, when she held a rifle and nearly ended the life of a friend with it.

She sank to the floor with trembling hands covering her eyes. Her frightened mind deactivated her neural link to the pistol, seconds before its cameras captured the ranger’s shields shatter, his helmet’s visor smash, and the sound of the flesh on his face being peeled away from his head like it was skin on a piece of fruit.

Rifle fire roared.

It wasn’t from the Aryile, his unmoving body fell to the floor before the shots were fired. It was the Vorcambreum most likely since the rounds came from the office. With her eyes still covered and her fear-gripped body weeping on the elevator floor, Odelea heard the Vorcambreum’s body crash into a wall. Then heard what sounded like his shields failing, and then his screams that ended abruptly.

Her eyes opened, the pistol was still there on the floor. Ahead of it was the Aryile with his face a bloody mess of shredded flesh and muscles, and his eyes gouged right down to his brain. The invader rejoined her in the elevator, dropping the head of the Vorcambreum next to him. It took one look at her with its helmet now fractured and collapsed, holding onto the freshly created gunshot wounds it received.

The elevator began its descent to the lobby, delivering Odelea to an empty victory. She looked gloomily at the dying invader, looking into its eyes and face now partially visible in the darkness. She looked so long she failed to notice Ienthei helping her up as the elevator had arrived at the lobby.

“What happened?” Ienthei asked her.

She replied with another question. “What was his name?”

“Who?”

Her distraught finger pointed at the fallen Aryile ranger. “What was his name?”

“I don’t know, maybe his squad leader knows.”

The Vorcambreum, only he was dead too, along with the other ranger earlier. The two people that could have known his name were gone, and with that was her chance to get to know him better and who he was.

The transport had landed outside the ruined lobby entrance, its doors wide open, awaiting the last two survivors to board. Odelea wasn’t ready for that, not after she heard vocalized sounds come from the dying invader’s mouth.

Sounds she partially recognized.

Breaking free of Ienthei’s hold, she skirted back to the elevator to listen to the invader’s last words.

“Odelea!” Ienthei cried out to her. “We need to go, now; other invaders will soon be here!”

Odelea stood before the fading invader, and watched its lips move. “Let me listen to it speak.”

Ienthei furiously grabbed her from behind. “We came here for my sister, nothing more!”

“No please, just one more minute—”

“We don’t have that!”

This time, Ienthei picked up her lightweight body, sweeping her feet away from the floor, and ran with her to the transport. He carried her away to freedom and safety and carried her away from a major scientific discovery.

And a warning to the rest of the galaxy.

8 Moriston

Earth Cube, EISS HQ

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 09:24 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Special Agent Albert Moriston’s transport arrived at Earth Cube early in the morning after he received an HNI phone call that his presence would be required. As he took the elevator down, his HNI feed him links to various UNE news websites, all reporting about the devastation left in the wake of the unknown invaders. Invaders … he had really hoped it was the Empire. It would have been the perfect chance to demonstrate the military might of the human race, and how far it had come in the last century since they became a spacefaring species.

Radiance and the Hashmedai had been in space for thousands of years, fought each other and failed to officially claim victory. Many analysts believed that had the Hashmedai Empire’s invasion took place today there wouldn’t be much of an Empire left. Earth had the power to do what Radiance couldn’t with fewer ships. But no, it had to be an unknown enemy attack, one that turned tail and fled leaving behind their minions to harass the people of Earth.

He shut down the internet news feeds for the time being once his HNI informed him the elevator ride was halfway down. He pulled up the reports gathered about Captain Foster and her crew of the Carl Sagan. The ship was launched from Earth in 2033, arrived in Sirius in 2050, pissed off some crazy Javnis who thought he was a space god, killed him, and then vanished later that summer. Sixty-eight years later they arrived back at Earth with the assistance of the invaders that defended them until Park and her team boarded.

And they call themselves the good guys? Please.

Moriston arrived in his office with a cup of hot coffee. Behind him was Gunnery Sergeant Grace Park of EDF-17, in her regular EDF uniform. She took a seat at the front of his desk, while he sat on his chair.

“Gunny, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me,” Moriston said then took a sip of his coffee. “I’ll try to be quick, I know you and your team have some leftover invaders to deal with.”

Park offered Moriston a holographic projection of her team’s recordings as they boarded the Carl Sagan. He held onto the projection and pulled on its sides, enlarging the window for him to take in the full view.

“As per my report,” Park said. “We didn’t find anything out of the norm on the Carl Sagan other than the fact its crew was in cryo and awoke moments after we boarded.”

“Then Foster attacked you,” Moriston said.

“She claimed to have been acting on information their EVE AI told her.”

“An EVE AI that you mentioned made an emotional outburst correct?”

“Yeah, not every day you hear a computer cry out that they don’t want to die.”

“The same AI that was no doubt responsible for conveniently awaking the crew as you boarded, then told Foster to attack you.”

“You saying their AI went nuts?”

“We don’t know for sure.” Moriston took another gulp of his coffee. “There’s a team searching through the wreckage of the Carl Sagan now, but from what I’m being told all ship logs and recorders have been wiped after the date we lost contact with them.”

Park leaned back on her chair. “Strange.”

“No, what’s strange is that only the Carl Sagan’s senior crew was aboard.”

“I heard them say something about they went to Sirius with a small crew to start with.”

“And where’s the rest of that small crew?”

“Chevallier had escaped in a transport that crashed downtown.”

“Yes.” Moriston created a projection showing a typed-out report. “I received this report from Sergeant Boyd in regard to that, and her assistance helping his team rescue the civilians from the mall. I wanted to have her brought here as well for questioning, but downtown Geneva is still a hot spot for invader activity. Boyd has temporarily recruited her into his team to assist because of that.”

“I’d still like to know who the hell these invaders are.”

Moriston conducted a quick search and found classified reports, data, and video with his HNI. He created a projection listing each of his findings, pushing them over to Park. “It’s not the Empire,” he pointed to the video of Paryo in the aftermath of an attack. “The Hashmedai were attacked by the same ships, we don’t know the extent of the damage. The Empire is keeping silent on that. But our agents in that sector reported at least seven thousand Hashmedai have been killed on the planet alone.” The projection shifted to video of Aervounis and the devastation Radiance experienced. “Radiance was also hit; their mammoth-sized fleets weren’t enough to stop the invaders. They lost sixty-seven ships in orbit, and the death toll in Veromacon has risen to eleven thousand.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Then, there’s us, thirty ships lost, twelve thousand dead, and fighting in the streets of Geneva, Perth, and New Moscow continue.”

“What about the colonies?”

“All safe, the invaders ignored them, even Mars was spared. Hell, they didn’t bat an eye at the wormholes which would have given them direct access to the rest of UNE space. They bee-lined it straight to Earth, Paryo, and Aervounis, then targeted Geneva, Veromacon, and the Imperial Capital at the same time. They knew exactly where the heart of our three nations were.”

“Then left without finishing us off?”

“We suspect this might have something to do with it,” Moriston said as his HNI brought up footage from a UNE battleship.

He returned to his coffee, while the video loaded and played for Park to see. One of the invader ships had a green glowing sack on its top and bottom. It was destroyed as five nuclear warheads hit it dead-on. As the brightness of the nuclear blast in space subsided, the fleet of invader ships pulled away from Earth and entered FTL.

The video switched to an external camera of a listening outpost at the edge of the Sol system. The invader ships flashed into existence after exiting FTL and neared another ship similar to the one that had been destroyed in the previous video. Said ship created a disturbance in space that triggered storm clouds to form and grow, and the invader ships flew into it. The clouds vanished minutes later along with the ships.

“And just like that, poof, they’re gone,” Park said drily.

“The Radiance Navy apparently had a similar thing happen, supposedly the Imperial navy as well,” Moriston said. “The destruction of those ships got the invaders to panic and flee to another of the same type, then vanish within that storm cloud. The key to understanding this mess … lays with Captain Foster and her crew. Their ship, after all, was flying in a tight formation with the invaders’ ships when they first arrived.”

“You think they brought them here?”

“They were gone for sixty-eight years, then return with a fleet of ships that knew where the capital cities of the UNE, Union, and Empire were and can’t remember a damn thing, plus their databanks have been wiped out.” He finished the last of his coffee. And that’s where I come in.

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 10:21 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Moriston sat down with his first ‘interview’ for the day, the infamous Captain Foster. The two sat in an empty room with one light shining down onto a barebones table that separated the two chairs they sat on. Guards were posted outside, just in case Foster had some kind of alien programming within her head the doctors failed to pick up.

There weren’t any two-way mirrors in this room, as those had long been rendered obsolete. Moriston’s HNI recorded everything he saw and fed it to other EISS personnel watching from another room via a three-dimensional hologram.

“Please state your name for the record,” Moriston said.

“I’m Captain Rebecca Foster of the Carl Sagan.”

“Left Earth in 2033, arrived at Sirius in 2050, returned to Earth … in 2118. Sleepin of the century.”

“I’ve heard that term a lot.”

“Long story short, we’ve managed to reverse engineer Lyonria wormholes and use them to connect our systems together. That combined with the invention of FTL in the late 2060s means we spend less time, if any, in cryostasis. The Carl Sagan, like other ships built before these advancements, used sub light speeds to reach the stars. Ships that were deployed and were still traveling in space when FTL was invented were called sleepins, since their crew arrived at their destination during a time when we could have travelled there a lot faster.”

“So, there are others like us?”

“Yes, but they are becoming a lot less common as some of those ships had been discovered by our FTL capable ships, awaking their crew and telling them about the future they drifted into. Of course, your situation is different, a lot different. We searched for the Carl Sagan for years and found no sign of it, which brings us to why we’re here. What the hell happened to you guys?”

“I don’t know, I don’t remember anything.”

“Perhaps I can refresh your memory?”

She shrugged. “Knock yaself out.”

Moriston’s HNI brought up Foster’s archived reports from the IESA database as well as reports the UNE filed in regard to the Carl Sagan’s first contact with Earth when it arrived in Sirius.

“You arrived at Sirius?” Moriston said.

Foster nodded. “Yeah, I remember that.”

“You encountered a force known as the Architect there?”

“Marduk and his army, yeah, I remember that.”

“He captured your ship at one point with the intent of coming to Earth to conquer it, then later Radiance and the Empire?”

“Somethin’ like that, yep.”

“You stopped him, established the first UNE colony in the system at the cost of significant damage to your ship.”

“Yes, we were out of commission for months until it was repaired.”

“And then sensors picked up a ship entering the Sirius system.”

“I vaguely remember that.”

His HNI sent him a report based on her facial expressions that she might be trying to focus. “Come on,” he said slowly. “Think about it.”

“It … yeah,” she paused, hopefully trying to remember the incriminating details. “It had a Radiance IFF, that’s why we were so interested in it.”

“Then what happened?”

“Can’t remember, I think we went to investigate it, but it’s all fuzzy after that.”

“The last data packet sent from the Carl Sagan stated that you went to off-load crew on the Poniga homeworld for exploration.”

“Yeah, yeah I remember that now. That was our mission before we discovered the ship.”

“The Carl Sagan changing course to investigate the ship was the last time the colony or IESA command heard from you.” Moriston folded his hands and leaned in closer to her, hoping his HNI would scan for any signs on her face that might indicate if she was telling the truth or not. “Do you remember why that mysterious ship was important other than the Radiance IFF?”

She shook her head. Moriston tossed a 3D hologram of a Radiance cruiser that was in service during the 2030s. “This is the Abyssal Sword; do you remember now?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“The Sword was on a joint operation with EDF teams in the Proxima Centauri system during 2032 to combat the Celestial Order, an extremist cult of the Radiance Union. They were ambushed in an attack and were never seen again. A report from the system, however, suggests that it might have fled and set a course to Sirius. If that were the case, they would arrive sometime in the year 2050 since sub light travel was still commonplace during that time period.” Moriston pushed the hologram of the Abyssal Sword closer to her face. “Was this the ship the Carl Sagan went to investigate before your disappearance?”

“Like I said time and time again, sir, I don’t remember.”

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 11:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A distraught and depressed-looking Williams sat with Moriston. He had to be dragged in by two Marines as he refused to speak to anyone, let alone get out of bed.

“Please state your name for the record.” Williams shifted his gaze to the table top. “Hey, look at me!”

“Dominic Williams,” he grunted.

“Rank?”

“Commander, first officer …”

“So, Commander, what happened up top there before we hauled you down here?”

“No idea.”

“I’ve heard that one before …” Moriston mumbled. “Why did you and your crew enter cryo?”

“I’m sure you know my explanation.”

“Did Foster order you and the rest of the crew into cryo?” No reply. “Do you have any idea what happened during your sixty-eight-year disappearance?” No reply. “How about the Abyssal Sword? Even Foster has vague memories of the Carl Sagan encountering it; do you have anything to share on that?”

“Instead of asking questions, why not help us figure out what’s wrong with us?”

Okay, I’ll play your game, Moriston thought while he read via HNI Williams’ past history. His eyebrow rose as he stumbled across an important discovery. Williams and Foster met in Los Angeles during the Hashmedai invasion.

“You and Foster known each other for a long time, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“Met in Los Angeles during the Hashmedai invasion of Earth a hundred years ago.” He stopped to read more of the holographic imagery that appeared over his eyeballs. Foster was eighteen during that period, Williams was ten. “That must have been a horrific experience for a young mind to witness, the human race nearly facing its end, especially a kid from Chicago, a city that was razed by Hashmedai warriors.”

Moriston’s HNI reported facial signs of unease as well as an increase of sweat. He smiled when he came across the reports of Williams parents. “Even worse, when you made it out of the city alive, but your family didn’t—”

“What’s the fucking point of this?!”

“Did you not ask for me to figure out what’s wrong with you? Because I think I did, you, sir, have PTSD.” Moriston pushed a surveillance camera recording of Williams freaking out and crying to go to California up top of Earth Cube. “California was one of the few places in the former United States that was not attacked by the Hashmedai.”

“I’m fine; I’ve never had problems with my head.”

“I disagree.” Moriston enabled the video to loop. “You must have kept that experience buried so far inside you that you practically forgot about it until you saw the devastation the invaders did and was reminded of it. But what do I know? I’m not a shrink, but I’ll send a recommendation to IESA to ground you until you get checked out by one, for the safety of your ship and crew. If you ever get to work in space again.”

“I’m fine! Just ask my crew, I kept things together when we lost contact with Foster for a few days.”

“I read those reports,” Moriston said. “You had some confidence issues my friend. That’s not first officer material; combine that with your PTSD … But tell you what.” Moriston shut down the looping video and whispered to Williams with a pleasant tone of voice. “Just tell me why the Carl Sagan vanished, and I’ll put in a good word to IESA.”

Williams moved his face closer, to the point where their two noses nearly touched. “Go fuck yourself.”

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 12:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Please state your name for the record.”

“Flight Lieutenant Dennis Chang.”

Moriston asked Chang the usual questions in regard to the Carl Sagan and its disappearance, as expected, he did not know. He looked at the young Chinese-born American and his long hair and beard, his appearance looked nothing like the file photos he had downloaded with his HNI.

“Lieutenant, I understand that you were cut off from Earth and the UNE navy for a while, but you still have to keep your hair and face within standards,” Moriston said.

Chang laughed. “Don’t like the hipster look?”

“Somehow, I doubt you took it upon yourself to grow your hair out like that.” Moriston’s arms crossed. “I’m going to guess you were held captive against your will and was cut off from the ability to shave and get a haircut.”

“Yeah … none of that happened to me in Sirius.”

“I didn’t think so, but what about when you left Sirius?”

“As far as I’m concerned we went into cryo and just forgot about it for sixty-eight years.”

“Yet you had time to grow your hair out, and Foster had time to cut hers … probably because it got too long. You guys did more than just sleep during that time, you were in and out of cryo, long enough for your hair and beard to grow, and long enough for your body to suffer and recover from injuries.”

“Who? What? Me?”

“Yes, you,” Moriston said as he summoned a hologram displaying the results of Chang’s recent medical examination from the EISS doctors. “According to the doctors that just examined you, it would appear you had been beaten, cut, put through quite a bit of torture … maybe even alien experiments.”

“Hey, look, man, I’m just a pilot; I spent most of my time on the Carl Sagan. I’m the last person anyone would want to capture and torture.”

“Do you really think the invaders give a damn about that? Who knows, maybe the invaders needed to know how to take control of the Carl Sagan and chose you to teach it to them, by force of course.”

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 14:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Moriston’s next guest was Kostelecky, with whom he started the session by apologizing for making her wait. His belly had a craving for a BLT sandwich and an orange soda for lunch.

“Please state your name for the record.”

“Doctor Irena Kostelecky, chief of medical.”

He grinned internally upon hearing her eastern European accent and scoping out her smooth blonde hair, two of his weaknesses in life rolled into one package. “Doctor, have you noticed anything strange about Captain Foster, Doctor Pierce, or Master Chief Chevallier?”

“No, and doctor patient confidentiality says I don’t have to tell you jack.”

“No, but if it meant saving the lives of billions, I’d imagine even someone like you would break the rules.”

“Good thing billions are not at stake.”

“Oh, but I think they are.”

“The invaders left the system, what remains of their forces are being hunted down and killed. Try again.”

“Well I only ask because Foster, Pierce, and Chevallier were the three humans that had to enter decon due to being in an alien environment during your Sirius fiasco. Now, to my knowledge, you gave them all a clean bill of health and let them out, meaning nothing out of the norm was found. But did you really do enough as chief of medical?”

“I followed protocol exactly.”

“Did you take any deep neural scans of their brains? To be exact, Foster and Pierce since both were subject to Undine and Poniga engram experiences, an experience of which you had no idea if there would be any side effects.”

“You tell me? You guys had more than half a century to follow-up on our discoveries in Sirius after us.”

The UNE wormhole network and FTL had made travel to Sirius a lot faster in the 2070s, thus adding a few of the worlds there as part of the growing UNE-controlled space.

“We did learn a great deal more about Sirius and its indigenous people,” Moriston said. “But when it came to the engram, explorers and researchers were left in the dark. The Poniga and Undine refused to share information about it. Everything we know about engrams is limited to the discoveries the Carl Sagan made.”

“Well, isn’t that a shame.”

“Indeed so, I believe I should be asking you, you tell me?”

“Look, everyone was cleared for duty and I’m not the one you should be asking questions about engrams. I didn’t even read all of the crews’ reports on the matter.”

“Maybe you should have familiarized yourself with it more and took those deep neural scans. If they had been secretly under alien influence, it’s going to come down on you since you cleared them for duty, when in reality, they were ticking time bombs. That’s going to be two of three things that are going to work against you and the future of your career.”

“Two? I guess math isn’t a requirement for government agents anymore.”

“In this day and age, having psionic powers is mandatory for most medical positions, that’s number one. What I said earlier? That’s number two, so no my math is fine.” Within his HNI files, Moriston found the one piece of evidence that proved either the Carl Sagan’s crew had been lying, or they had gotten too close to aliens. He pushed the projection in question to her. “The doctors that examined you discovered this.”

Kostelecky looked at the projection wide-eyed with her flushing face, and mouth wide open. “This is a lie,” she said slowly with disbelief in her voice.

“As of now it is, only because I asked them to do just that, lie about the discovery. Tell me everything you know, everything you feel the need to withhold and this will never go public. Because, should the medical community find out about this, that’s going to be strike three for you, and you can kiss your medical career and your IESA commission goodbye.”

“I … I don’t know what happened, I swear.”

When the UNE returned to Sirius to reclaim it, there was debate as to what would become of the Undine and Poniga worlds. In the end it was decided to leave them alone and only travel there for scientific reasons. Radiance had arrived in the system around the same time to assist in the development of FTL. And probably conduct their own search into the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword.

In the classic fashion of Radiance ideology, when a new intelligence species is found, they feel the need to make contact with them if they deem them worthy, in which they will push said species into following their religion and becoming a member of the Union. Radiance missionaries spent weeks trying to get the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak—who told them no, then tried to sell them used ships—to embrace the three Gods and allow the Union to uplift their species.

The UNE felt the need to put a stop to it. They left those worlds untouched, so they may develop on their own, and make their own choices including if they wished to be uplifted. Radiance uplifted the Hashmedai, and then went to war with them when they refused to join the Union and accept their Gods. Javnis Muodiry were driven underground or into the Celestial Order because their psionic abilities contradicted Radiance religion. And like the Javnis Muodiry, the psionic skills of the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak contradicted Radiance’s religion.

The UNE protected worlds accord was passed days later. Any planet with a non-spacefaring species was officially labeled a UNE protected world, should the UNE discover it first. All spacefaring nations were banned from interfering with its development unless the UNE withdrew the label for the world.

There was enough proof to suggest that the Carl Sagan was not in cryo during the entirety of their sixty-eight-year disappearance. And so, one could argue that what the good doctor did, according to the hologram in front of her, happened when the Poniga homeworld was deemed a UNE protected world.

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 15:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Please state your name for the record.”

“Doctor Travis Pierce, science officer.”

Pierce was a rare sight for Moriston as he was a middle-aged man. With gene therapy being so widespread, he’d gotten used to seeing everyone walk around with nineteen-to thirty-year-old bodies, except for that time he was stuck on that one colony on the ass-end of UNE-controlled space. The folks there were very anti-high tech and opted to live life the ‘normal’ way. Until they got sick and begged for all the advanced medical supplies the UNE could provide.

After going through the standard Q&A for the crew, which their replies were ‘I don’t remember,’ Moriston moved onto the good stuff.

“Now, Doctor, you have a PHD in astrophysics, right? That makes you one smart motherfucker,” Moriston said.

Pierce grimaced. “Umm, thanks?”

“So, if you’re so smart can you answer me this? Why did you insist on returning to active duty after being held captive by the Undine within the time dilation device? From your point of view, two years of isolation was experienced.”

“I had a job to do.”

“The captain insisted you sit it out, you went through a traumatic experience. You being a smart person should have known you weren’t going to be one hundred percent and needed to psychologically recover.”

“It was that smart mind of mine that figured out what was really going on and set the crew on the path to save Earth and the galaxy.”

“Now, let’s back up to that subject now that we’re on it. The galactic invasion you helped prevent, your captors wanted to know everything about Earth and beyond, like the Empire. They mind raped you, searching for that knowledge.”

“They didn’t get what they wanted; if you’re trying to imply that the invaders got intel about the galaxy from my head.”

“I’m more interested to know why the Undine, while slave to the Architect, wanted Imperial knowledge from you more so than Radiance.”

“They were convinced Tolukei was going to tell them about Radiance, I’m sure.”

“But, why you for the Empire?”

“They had me, and only me, captive.”

“What I mean is … what made them push so hard to get Hashmedai information out of you? How did they know you knew so much about the Empire? Last time I checked, in 2033 most human civilians that were well versed about the Empire were members of the HLF.”

The HLF was a Hashmedai and human terrorist group that used violence to fight for equal rights for Hashmedai that were left behind on Earth in the aftermath of the invasion. Radiance, who were enemies of the Hashmedai, had a lot of influence over Earth during those years. They encouraged humans to mistreat the Hashmedai, many of which made Earth their new home and had children.

Pierce shook his head. “I’m not a terrorist.”

“It says here in your reports, they pulled memories from your mind about a woman named …” Moriston double-checked his files on Pierce to ensure he had the right name, he did. “Pernoy … says here her husband was a member of that group as well as his brother. Her daughter Eupiar was also a known associate of the HLF.”

Moriston’s HNI scanned Pierce’s facial expression change and sent him a notification that something was afoot.

“But I think we’re getting off topic here, the HLF is a thing of the past,” Moriston said, grinning. “Though, to this date, we still have outstanding warrants for the arrests of HLF members still alive and at large in the galaxy. But, you and Rivera, you two wouldn’t have anything to do with that group, right? I’m sure McDowell would attest to that if he were still alive.”

“I … suppose so.”

“Hmm, you were also the last person to see McDowell alive, weren’t you?”

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 16:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Please state your name for the record.”

“Chief Engineer Jasmine Rivera.”

The same opening questions were asked, the same ‘I can’t remember’ reply was given. Moriston was growing tired of the process. His after-work beer was waiting for him, it was the only thing that motivated him to push on and finish. His HNI brought to his attention that Rivera’s long golden-brown hair was about four inches longer than her most recent file photo, while the roots were her natural Filipina black color. More proof the Carl Sagan’s crew spent time out of cryo during the sixty-eight-year gap.

“I’ll cut the bullshit,” Moriston said. “We at EISS wouldn’t be very good at our jobs if we didn’t have a database with personal information on all UNE citizens. We know that up until you rejoined IESA, you spent a lot of time living in Manila.”

“I’m from the Philippines,” Rivera said. “What’s wrong with me living there?”

“It’s a former UNE red zone where most of its human population was sympathetic to the Hashmedai that lived there. And thus, were prone to aiding the HLF.”

“So, you think I’m a member?”

“It would explain a lot, the Carl Sagan going missing and its EVE AI having emotions. Perhaps an HLF member sabotaged the ship.”

“And then made a pact with alien invaders that attacked the Empire?”

“Maybe said HLF member was tricked into thinking it was going to work out? Look, all I know is, only the senior crew of the Carl Sagan was found along with you. You are the only person of that bunch that would be capable of pulling off a heist like that. The only thing that could have stopped you would be EVE … unless she was replaced with a copied and reprogrammed version.”

“The reprogrammed EVE you are referring to was created by Marduk aka the Architect of Sirius, complete with emotions.”

“Right and Foster foolishly brought that AI aboard, in which it proceeded to compromise your computers, correct?”

“It was taken care of; no damage was done in the long run. The original EVE was put back in control of the ship.”

“Did you delete the modified EVE?”

“No, it held onto archived data we discovered which was deleted from an ancient computer we found. If we deleted the modified EVE, we would have lost the data as well.”

“So, you kept an AI that was capable of hijacking the Carl Sagan for it to try again?”

“We placed it in a compressed file and physically kept it away from the network.”

“So, let me get this straight, if the modified EVE were to try and recapture the ship again, someone would have had to release it back into the AI core on purpose?”

“Yes.”

“And out of all the people we recovered from the Carl Sagan, who would be knowledgeable enough to do such a thing?”

Rivera’s face tilted upward and made a dejected sigh. “… Me.”

“The Carl Sagan did drop off some personnel planetside before going to investigate the ship that entered the system. But none of those people were from your engineering team; those people remained aboard when the Carl Sagan vanished. You are the only engineer left; the copied EVE no doubt was installed and overwrote the original EVE. Any idea how that happened Rivera?”

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 17:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“You sicken me.”

“Oh?” Nereid murmured, giving Moriston a childlike glare. “Why is that?”

Moriston grimaced at her, examining her human-like appearance. A quick glance and one would think she was a young woman with long, dark blue hair. But brush away the hair that fell over her shoulders and neck, and one would see a pair of gills. According to Foster’s report, she was some sort of genetic mutation of her species, the Undine, a species that closely resembled the mythical Sirens.

Foster even went on to say that the Undine were the Sirens the ancient human civilizations wrote about, and they had been visiting Earth during those ancient times. The scientific community, however, wasn’t entirely convinced, especially when they learned Doctor Pierce was her science officer.

“You are a byproduct of murder,” Moriston said to her in a cold tone. “You mother mated and killed McDowell, one of EISS best agents at the time. She then gave birth to you with his stolen memories. Luckily for us, McDowell’s knowledge of EISS secrets are years out of date. We don’t need another alien that has critical intel on Earth.”

“It is not anyone’s fault his life was extinguished,” Nereid said. “It is the way my people evolved, we can’t change that.”

“Murder of a human is murder, period.”

“Some female spiders on Earth eat the males after mating with them do they not? Spiders being a species you share your world with.”

“If I see a spider, I introduce it to the heel of my shoe.”

Nereid’s hands covered her mouth. Shock and disbelieve was written all over her face. “You would kill it?”

“Without hesitation, I don’t want those things crawling around in my presence.”

“Killing for survival, food, or reproduction I understand, but killing a spider just because it’s a spider?”

“Insects are an annoyance to me and others, they die when spotted.”

Nereid’s face turned a shade paler as Moriston’s mouth erupted with laughter aimed toward her. “Didn’t your stolen memories of McDowell reveal that?” he asked.

“I haven’t unlocked all of them yet,” Nereid said, staring down. “But I hope to one day learn what it’s like to be human.”

“You want to learn what it’s like to be human? Forget his memories, pick up a history book and read about the crusades, the conquistadors, World Wars One and Two, the holocaust, 9/11. War, fighting, domination, removal of things that is in our way, these are the real elements of human nature.”

He had no intention of asking Nereid any questions, only to express his hatred for her existence at the cost of McDowell’s life. He never understood why Foster sought to make Nereid, an alien, part of the crew, as she had no authorization from IESA to do so. Moriston made sure to note that in his reports, since Foster tiptoed around that detail in her reports.

Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 3, 2118, 18:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Moriston’s final interrogation began at last, and it was about time too, he really needed that beer and some alone time before he wrote his report. Tolukei sat down with him, the other alien crew member, though his presence was known.

Before the rise of human psionics, the UNE relied on their alliance with Radiance to supply the young Earth fleet with shipboard psionics, Tolukei being one of them. Unknown to the Carl Sagan’s crew, Tolukei was a Muodiry, a term given to Javnis who became psionics without the aid of Radiance technology.

Radiance, to this day, believed that psionic powers originated from their gods and so take credit for spreading the gift of their gods to the people of the galaxy, including humanity. Javnis Muodiry was the first sign their religious texts were not correct. Radiance began a campaign after their discovery to debunk, or remove, Muodiry from their society.

“Please state your name for the record.”

Tolukei’s four eyes, from beyond his cloak covering his lizard-like head, stared into Moriston’s soul.

“So, Tolukei, why did you betray the crew when the Carl Sagan was boarded by the Architect?”

Silence.

“Tolukei, were you the one responsible for the crew losing their memories? You do possess a level of psionic powers that Radiance themselves kept secret from us.”

Silence.

“Did you know if the Architect was in the system before the Carl Sagan departed from Earth?—”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” an EISS agent transmitted to Moriston via HNI.

Moriston sent his reply back over the HNI link. “Whatever it is, it can wait, I’m with the last crew member now.”

“It’s urgent, he’s about to—”

Light rays from the halls entered the dark interrogation room as the door swung open. Before it stood an angelic figure, almost quite literally. It was a Linl psionic Crimei, viceroy to the Radiance council.

He possessed the new Radiance psionic cybernetic upgrades, which consisted of multiple ethereal batteries attached to his back. When activated, they would spread out and resemble angel wings laced with wires, tubes, off-world metallic parts, and blue glowing lights. His bare and exposed chest was dotted with other strange alien devices which enhanced his psionic powers, though his were more advanced than the ones covering Tolukei’s chest.

“Never mind,” said the agent on the HNI link. “There he is.”

Moriston cut the link and stood up to confront Crimei, whom shoved him aside and walked directly behind the chair Tolukei sat on.

“Tolukei has been instructed to not answer any human questions on this matter,” Crimei said.

“Instructed?” Moriston spat. “He’s been in a holding cell since his arrival with no contact with the outside world.” Wait, they’re both psionics, they probably spoke telepathically.

“I’ll be taking Tolukei back to Aervounis,” Crimei said. “The Radiance council would like to speak with him personally.”

9 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Dark Energy Maelstrom

August 3, 2118, 09:14 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Meanwhile …

The Rezeki’s Rage was trapped, lost, and no longer existed in the known universe.

Acting Captain Peiun and his small bridge crew struggled to understand what had become of normal space and time after being consumed by the maelstrom, forged by the invader fleet. Sleep deprivation, unattended injuries, and critically damaged ship systems weren’t helping. The call was made for all crew members to get examined by doctors and rest up, after confirming the invader fleet had vanished within the ethereal realm they meandered into.

Peiun made a quick and long-delayed visit to the infirmary and had his neglected minor injuries tended to by the overtasked doctors and menders. It gave him a second chance to catch a glimpse of the staggering number of critically injured crew personnel that rested motionlessly on medical mats on the floor, like the two charred engineers he stepped over to exit.

The unsettling infirmary visit served as a reminder of the challenges that remained ahead, as the Rezeki’s Rage was in enemy territory as far as he was concerned. Then there was the active duty roster. Including himself, there were only four officers remaining able to tend to bridge duties. If we suffer another attack like this, a badly damaged ship will be the least of our concerns …

He twisted and turned through the dark corridors arriving at his quarters after being discharged from the infirmary. His tired body thanked him as he sat at the foot of his rough bed, and his tired brain goaded him to lie down and sleep. It took him two minutes to muster the will to unwrap his belt from his waist and his short plasma sword holstered to it, sending it to the hard floor with a thumping noise.

Another noise followed, it was his door chime.

“You may enter,” he called out to the unexpected visitor behind the door.

An alluring figure with deep red glowing eyes emerged from the doors that slid open. She sauntered under the dim light overhead, wearing a red lace blouse and skirt, the uniform of a servant. Her long, purple hair draped over her shoulders, and her skin was blue like the skies of his homeworld.

Servants weren’t uncommon aboard Imperial ships in this day and age. Gene therapy played a major role in that as the Hashmedai population continued to grow, while old-age deaths became the subject of history books and frightening stories told to children. A larger Imperial population meant a larger pool of able bodies to be assigned to the role of a servant. The empress saw to it that high-ranking personnel aboard ships had servants that would attend to all their needs, firmly believing that happier captains and admirals would be more productive and run more efficient ships.

Peiun, being a lieutenant, was only able to have servants clean his quarters once every five to six days, and nothing else. The servants often performed those duties while he was on duty. The young servant before him was indeed a puzzling matter, especially at this time.

“Did you forget something?” he asked her.

She made an entrancing smile, one that paired with her elegant bow. “I am Careiah, the captain’s personal servant.”

“The captain’s quarters are a deck above,” Peiun said. “Though, he’s dead if you haven’t been made aware yet.”

“I am aware of that, you are now the captain.”

Careiah’s entrancing gaze remained fixed on Peiun as her hands leisurely peeled her blouse off her chest. It prompted Peiun to remember the other reason servants were placed aboard ships. Hashmedai assigned to military duties were encouraged to use gene therapy to keep their age during their prime to possess stronger memories and physical prowess. The side effects? Raging hormones. Those that had personal servants had certain needs which needed to be taken care of, the deceased captain being one of them.

I’m still a lieutenant, I’m unworthy of this! In panic, Peiun stood up from his bed racing to shift her attire back on her body to cover her captivating exposed breasts, he failed. She held onto Peiun’s hands in a playful manner, giggling at his advance, and guiding them closer to the coldness of her chest.

“This is unnecessary,” Peiun spoke, much to the disappointment of the excitement growing in his pants.

“I’m following my orders,” said Careiah, leaning her lips closer to lick his neck.

“I’m an acting captain, nothing more—” She guided his hands down to her waist. For five seconds he fought how to speak properly. “It would be dishonorable for me to take advantage of you.”

She ended her playful approach, tilting her head at him with a wincing glare. “You don’t find me attractive?”

“That’s not the case at all!”

“And I find you attractive, so it’s okay to touch me.”

“My rank is not officially captain, and therefore I should not be able to have you.”

Careiah loosened her hold on him and stepped back to retrieve her top. “Very well.”

“Please assist the other servants in their duties; there is no need to pleasure anyone, especially given our current status.”

Careiah was fully clothed as she took her leave, giving him a neutral look when the sliding doors shut. Peiun fell back to his bed, running his hands through his silver hair, groaning loudly at the thought of what he could have been doing right at that moment, had he not sent her away.

He did not sleep well.

Peiun spent the better half of his day, after his short sleep, assessing the multiple compartments of the ship that had taken major damage during the invader’s surprise attack.

Repair crews had been hard at work using their Hashmedai tools to restore power, patch up crumbling corridors, and even rescue crew members that had been pinned under fallen equipment. Repairing external damage to the ship along with hull breaches would have to wait, however. He found out why as he strode into the cargo hold which had been sealed off when the wall that separated it from space was blown apart.

Peiun stood wearing an environment suit next to Alesyna, who made use of a psionic barrier to keep her body safe. Beneath her personal bubble of glittering purple psionic energy waves, was her psionic outfit. It was a long, black mesh dress that seamlessly plugged into her cybernetically augmented body. The dress, in some way, was an extension of her cybernetics, giving her psionic abilities increased range and potency. It was a step up from the old psionic cybernetics used in the previous century, in which the user was required to have sizeable segments of their body exposed in order for the implants to function correctly.

The two gazed blankly at the hull breach that afflicted the cargo hold and the mystical sight of the swirling clouds and gases the maelstrom was made up of beyond the vaporized hole in the wall. Alesyna pointed and directed Peiun’s attention to the edges of the hull breach as well as the floor and ceiling next to it. The floors, walls, and ceiling, they were all disintegrating into nothing as ripples of white light radiated away from them.

“Is this a result of the maelstrom we’ve entered?” Peiun asked.

“It is,” Alesyna said.

Her left hand rose commanding a drifting cargo container to do the same. The container swayed back and forth while in sync with her hand movements, before she pushed it outside beyond the gaping hole in the wall, with a single thought of her psionic mind. The container vanished from existence seconds later as it crossed the threshold out into the maelstrom’s eerie and twisting clouds.

“A maelstrom that vaporizes matter,” Peiun said.

“That wasn’t vaporized, it just ceased to exist.”

He faced her and her glowing psionic implants and dress. “How is that possible? You cannot destroy matter. You can change it, break it into pieces, but there’ll always be something of it remaining.”

“I don’t have an explanation for it,” Alesyna said. “I was able to feel the presence of that container with my mind one moment, then unable to the next. I’ve vaporized things with my abilities during my training, but I’ve always felt what remained of it. Water turns to vapor; a body turns to ash and smoke. That container is gone, along with the sections of this hold that’s fading away as you probably noticed.”

And that concern was the sole reason the repair crew had left the cargo hold untouched, and why nobody had yet to perform a spacewalk to patch up the exterior of the ship. His crew feared what the maelstrom’s clouds would do to their bodies, a fear he now shared. Alesyna went on to demonstrate that her powers, including a psionic shield, had no effect on stopping the exposed interior of the cargo hold from vanishing. Emergency force fields, now they were operational, had no effect either.

Peiun had a decision to make.

“Cancel repairs to this section and others.”

“Sir?”

“I know we’re in a dreadful situation, but we can’t take the risk of losing more crew,” Peiun said. “Let’s focus on conducting repairs to areas that have not and will not be exposed to the maelstrom’s clouds.”

“On the note of repairs,” she added. “There is something you should see.”

Peiun’s face twisted at her words as he confirmed his orders had been passed onto the repair teams via HNI. “Very well,” he groaned. “Show it to me.”

After taking one last glance at the majestic clouds from the hull breach, Alesyna folded her hands together, entered a deep trance and forced their two bodies to vanish with a glow of teleportation light. The two reemerged deep within a pitch-black maintenance walkway, Peiun shredded his environment suit, while the glow of Alesyna’s protective barrier diminished.

Alesyna led him deeper through the maintenance walkway, as their eye glow reached its maximum luminosity making the pitch-black lighting a nonissue, a reminder of why the Hashmedai race were such deadly predators during ancient times. They came to a stop within a hidden chamber where the soft humming noises of the main reactor bled through the walls. They weren’t far from engineering.

A mess of wires arched away from a contraption of human design, feeding into various compartments and vital systems of the ship. He looked at the unexpected contraption and cross-referenced it with his HNI’s database. The projection that flashed before his eyes contained concerning information.

“Why do we have an MRF?” he asked her.

“I believe the only two people that could answer that are the captain and first officer.”

“Who are no longer alive to explain this to us,” he said. “This ship isn’t important enough to have an MRF installed, given how rare these are to construct for our people.” Though its presence does explain why this ship survived the invader surprise attack. Reduced mass would have given us the maneuverability to survive. The captain must have had it secretly activated.

“Ships undertaking secret assignments given out by the Imperial throne do have these installed, regardless of their class.”

“Which this ship wasn’t part of, to my knowledge,” Peiun said, gazing at the device. “Is it operational?”

“It isn’t, it was damaged during the invader attack. And given the secrets around it, none of our repair teams are trained to conduct repairs to it.”

Peiun hissed at the device and slithered past Alesyna to exit. “Keep me informed if you discover anything else on this ship that I should know about.”

Alesyna crossed her arms. “You seem frustrated.”

“I was having a pleasant week before these invader monsters appeared,” Peiun said, stopping to address her. “When I learned we were returning to Paryo, I had made plans to visit my mother and father. And now … I don’t know if they are alive or dead.”

“You are frustrated.” She flicked a lock of her black hair behind her shoulder. “Did you not copulate with the servant?”

Peiun looked at her curiously, “How do you know about her?”

“I asked her to visit you. You are the man that will lead the charge for our ship, you must have a clear and relaxed mind, and she can help you achieve that.”

“I sent her away; I am unworthy of her body.”

“We all must fill our bodies with bliss to remove apprehension. It is what the empress has taught us since she took the throne. We all must ensure we do, so we can better serve the empire.”

“Are you offering to assist me, then?” Peiun asked, giving Alesyna’s figure beneath her glittering and seductive outfit a decent look.

“I prefer taller men, such as the servant that was tending to the first officer,” she drily said.

Peiun smirked at her. “Thank you for your concern, Alesyna, but I shall be fine.”

The two made one last round of the wounded ship, documenting the extensive damage done, and adding it to their growing list of concerns and tasks that needed to be accomplished.

Number one on the list? Escaping from the maelstrom.

10 Odelea

Abyssal Comet, Labs

Aervounis orbit, Luminous system

August 3, 2118, 19:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea’s vertical iris eyes were bloodshot.

She’d denied them the much-needed rest they craved since boarding the Abyssal Comet after her dramatic escape from Veromacon. The invader ships had left the system, vanishing into what witnesses reported was a storm cloud at the edge of the system. Navy personnel chanted their praise to the Gods for making the invaders flee. Odelea sang her praise at the chance to learn about the new discoveries that waited. It also helped her suppress the unspeakable things she saw planetside, when Odelea’s inquiring mind got rolling, the real world and its problems faded away temporarily.

Odelea commandeered an unused lab that sported a wide observation window where the planet Aervounis rotated, with its great oceans, tropical climate, and floating cities, outside of it. Sitting cross-legged on a chair, surrounded by fourteen holographic windows, Odelea’s brain reviewed everything that had been discovered about the invaders thus far comparing it to her notes.

An audio recording her implants took of the invader attempting to speak, replayed ominously in the background. She lost track of the number of lies she told herself about what happened before the recording had been taken.

“The entire quadrant is in total disarray, and here you are in the lab.”

Odelea spun her chair around, her fatigued face and eyes locked on an Aryile woman wearing a short silver dress and long fashionable cape, Queenea, Ienthei’s twin sister and co-owner of the Souyila Corporation. Queenea was a marvel within the Union, her blonde hair and flawless seductive Aryile looks were on par with her intelligence. Had she remained in university, she might have become a scholar like Odelea. Queenea’s presence within Souyila extended beyond the Union as various human publications, at one point, voted her ‘the galaxy’s sexiest alien.’

It’s not a hard thing to achieve when your parents gave you the most expensive genetic enchantments, Odelea mused, not surprised that Queenea managed to enter the labs without her noticing.

“Never squander the gifts from the Gods,” Odelea said. “The Abyssal Comet is a warship, yet it has a lab, that’s a rarity in the fleet. It’s no coincidence that we were evacuated here.”

“The Abyssal Comet isn’t a warship, it’s owned and operated by Souyila,” Queenea said. “That’s why there’s a lab, and why we were brought here. That, and it was the closest ship to Aervounis that wasn’t critically damaged by the invaders.”

“More proof of the Gods’ divine will, they ensured this ship would survive for me to access its long-dormant lab.”

Queenea looked at a plate full of browning apple cores, human fruit Odelea had taken a likening to. “How long have you been in here?”

“Since we boarded,” Odelea said, pausing the audio recording. “I’m onto something; I can’t bring myself to sleep on it just yet. The speech pattern the invader soldier vocalized is somewhat familiar. And then there’s the storm clouds in space the invader fleet appeared from and vanished into without a trace. Look at these sensor logs of the clouds.”

Odelea flipped through the holographic windows around her until she found the sensor logs in question, handing it off to Queenea.

Queenea winced a minute later after reading its contents. “It can’t be.”

“Pure ethereal energy? I think it is since these readings are almost identical to what our ethereal refineries scan and pull out from the aether space fissures.”

Queenea’s controversial research led to the discovery of tears in the space-time continuum that lead to aether space. It was within these tears in space where refineries were built, extracted and refined the energy that bled away, converting it into Radiance’s newest and most used energy source. The energy they refined, however, was not pure since it was old and lost much of its luster. Fresh and pure ethereal energy theoretically existed deep within aether space and was considered impossible to reach with the resources they had available, and, given what happened in the Barnard’s Star system in 2040, a large relief to many.

Things in life that are impossible to attain, are like that for a reason.

“Ultimately, we need more data,” Odelea said, taking the hologram back. “The navy was, of course, focused on combat, defense, and their survival, not scientific scans of these storms the invaders are able to use.”

“There’s that word again, invader,” Queenea said, rolling her Aryile eyes.

“This is not the Empire; these storms are not how space bridge jumps work, nor psionic wormholes. The Empire has not been able to create psionic wormholes since the battle of Barnard’s Star. We must alert the galaxy and tell them we face a new threat—”

“They know.”

“I mean outside of Radiance, the humans, even Hashmedai, they all must be aware.”

“They know,” Queenea reiterated. “Earth and Paryo have been attacked as well.”

Odelea’s hands covered her lips. “My Gods,” she whispered beneath her hands.

The news had Odelea stunned and planted new seeds of fear in her stomach. Radiance suffering an attack was one thing, but the Hashmedai and humans? Three of the mightiest nations in the known galaxy were unable to halt a singular threat. Her mind began to calculate the sheer number of mass extinctions that would plague the galaxy if the invaders fought a long, drawn out war with everyone. The number was staggering.

“It’s all over the knowledge network, Odelea,” Queenea said. “That’s why I’m here; you’ve been in here too long.”

Odelea pushed all but one hologram around her away. It was a projection of the invader she had to share an elevator ride with, half its face was exposed as its helmet had been damaged. There was thick, brown scaly skin exposed, arching horns, yellow eyes, fangs sharper than a Hashmedai. It made her heartbeat race, and fingers fidget. Suppressed memories of the attack were returning.

“I suppose I’m not the first one to capture images of this new species, then,” Odelea said.

“Sorry.” Odelea felt Queenea’s soft hands pat her back. “I know how much you enjoy being the first in the galaxy to discover something, and how much you want to be recognized as a high scholar for a marvelous find. But, this time, everyone discovered the invaders at the same moment.”

“It’s not over yet,” Odelea said. “Now the invaders have left the system …” She snapped her fingers. “Yes, of course, bodies of their fallen soldiers should be available for further study. Queenea, I have a request for you to forward.”

“What is that?”

“A formal request that all invader bodies be kept aside for my research, once we return to Veromacon.”

“I shall forward it to my dear brother as his seat on the council may sway things in your favor,” Queenea said. “But keep in mind, he is no longer aboard nor is Iey’liwea, the message may take some time for him to receive. Furthermore, this ship has—”

“Where is he?”

“The council learned of Iey’liwea and Ienthei’s attempt to flee and leave the rest of the council behind. They have been reunited with the council on another ship to participate in a lengthy debate.”

Gods please help them; we cannot afford to have the council bicker during a dangerous time like this!

The view of Aervounis through the observation window slid away. Wreckage of the Radiance navy, and burning ships came into view. Then there was a flash of light, the Abyssal Comet had entered an FTL jump.

Odelea stood at the window and observed her wincing glance from its reflection and snorted. “Of course, if we leave the system, the study of the fallen invaders may be placed in the hands of other scholars.”

She faced away from the window and used her implants to communicate with the bridge. The Abyssal Comet being a ship owned and operated by Souyila rather than the navy meant its crew was fellow coworkers. She had every right to speak with the bridge, too bad they ignored her HNI message requests. Oh no, please Gods don’t take this opportunity away from me!

Queenea spoke additional words to Odelea, words that became muted with her racing mind.

Fear of losing her chance to advance her career fueled Odelea’s movements, making her trot rapidly through the brightly lit hallways, up multiple elevators, and storming onto the bridge. Odelea had made first contact with the human race, cured the wraith outbreak, created gene therapy treatments, and helped make ethereal energy a reality. She still failed to be recognized as a high scholar. Odelea saw the bridge crew as people forming yet another barrier that was interfering with her progression.

Her fists were clenched as she looked at the confused bridge crew looking back at her. They saw a young woman that shouldn’t be there, she saw people that were about to make another scholar’s career flourish and blossom.

Odelea demanded to know. “Why are we leaving orbit?”

“Why is there a scholar on my bridge, yelling orders like she’s in charge?” the captain said. “You do your research and we’ll operate the ship.”

Odelea raised her voice. “We have to return to—”

“You picked a bad time to roll your age back with gene therapy,” Queenea said, pulling her into the corner, having followed her up.

Odelea snarled. “What does my appearance have to do with this?”

Queenea poked Odelea’s forehead. “There may be an old woman in that young body of yours, but you’re certainly not acting like it.”

Gene therapy was more than just the power to stop aging and/or roll back your age. It restored your body, hormones, and brain chemistry to the levels they were at the particular age you choose to be. Whatever desires young people had returned, and what one did a lot during those years also resurfaced. Odelea was trapped in a body of an Aryile woman entering adulthood for the first time, complete with outbursts, and the firm belief that she was right, and everyone was wrong. Retaining the knowledge and experience of an elderly woman didn’t help.

Thankfully, the old, wise, experienced woman within her head took control, calmed her skittering thoughts, and reminded her of the numerous young people she encountered over the years that all thought they were smarter than older generations.

“I’m sorry, Queenea, it’s just I believe, if we are going to survive further, we must learn everything we can about these invaders.”

“And we will, but first, we must travel to the human homeworld to escort a person of interest back to Aervounis.”

“The longer we wait—”

“If it were in my power, we wouldn’t be leaving,” Queenea said. “This may be a Souyila operated ship, but it still must answer to the council and its wishes.”

I must be the one that carries out the research, is what she wanted to say.

Odelea needed to become a high scholar and was convinced without a doubt that if another scholar had been in her position during the past, life in the galaxy would be horrific. The Celestial Order would have won the war, gene therapy wouldn’t have been invented, and people that would have been lost to old age wouldn’t be around today to make the contributions they make within the galaxy.

Someone else will get it wrong.

Odelea will not.

Fearing another new adult outburst, Odelea exhaled, counted to ten, and asked. “Can I at least remain in the system while the progress of my research is still fresh in my head? I’m no use to the new mission of this ship.”

“Had you not run away I would have been able to explain this situation better,” Queenea said. “There’s no turning back right now, this isn’t a ship built for war, and so is the only one that’s in good repair and can carry out this mission the council has voted for.”

“Voting already? They seem to be making decisions rather quickly given what has just transpired.”

“Only three members voted since Iey’liwea and my dear bother, Ienthei, were unaccounted for at the time. Perhaps now you see why they needed to rejoin with them quickly?”

“Of all the ships in the system—”

“They chose this because it’s in good repair, unlike the rest, and it isn’t a warship, warships being something the Union needs to remain in the system should the invaders return. The invaders hit the human homeworld the hardest and still have ground assault teams deployed. If we turn back now because of you, and the invaders launch a surprise attack on the individual we need to pick up, we’re going to point fingers right at you.”

Not ‘they’re,’ ‘we’re.’ Queenea’s words were sharp blades aimed at her throat. “You wouldn’t!”

“Stay quiet, look pretty, and I won’t have to.”

“Queenea,” the captain called out to her. “Are you done with the scholar?”

Queenea nodded. “Yes, Captain, Odelea here is going back to where she belongs for the time being.”

“Thank you, Queenea,” the captain said, turning his chair back to face the viewer.

Queenea stood behind Odelea guiding her into the elevator with her hands placed across her shoulders. She felt her fingers slither across her scales slowly as the doors shut. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Iey’liwea was known to do whatever it took to get her way; that included seducing other women if needed. Queenea was one of those women, who, in turn, added the technique to her repertoire after the two became business partners.

Odelea broke away from her grasp and kept her back to the opposite wall as the elevator lowered. “Where I belong?”

“You want to make discoveries?” Queenea said drily. “Start by finishing what you got going on in that lab you took over without asking for the captain’s permission or mine. We’ll get you everything else you need in time.”

“Why all this rush to escort a human back to Aervounis?”

“It’s not a human,” Queenea said, looking away from Odelea. “It’s Tolukei.”

Tolukei, the Javnis Muodiry that participated in the Sirius expedition. Odelea remembered reading about it on human internet news sites.

“The council wishes to speak with him, face-to-face, without telepathy,” Queenea added.

“In regard to what?” Odelea asked.

“In regard to the matter of the Abyssal Sword.”

11 Foster

Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ (IESA)

Paris, Earth, Sol system

August 4, 2118, 15:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Butterflies in the stomach, worried thoughts, cold sweating, irregular breathing, and heartbeats so intense the vibrating thumps could be felt through the body. These were the feelings Captain Rebecca Foster was experiencing as she stood before an IESA tribunal.

Three of the directors of the space agency sat at their long rectangular desk on the top floor of the pearl-white building in Paris. Their hands were folded over and eyes glancing at Foster as she glanced right back, hoping for the best, expecting the worst.

She wondered what thoughts had been going through their minds to prompt such silence, and then remembered HNI and its ability to pull reports, data, and share it with others. No doubt reviewing the reports of the recent events and weighing it against the good she’d done at Sirius. Were they going to announce that the Carl Sagan was salvageable? Offer her command on a new ship?

The anticipation was driving her insane.

“Captain Foster,” one of them finally spoke. “After a careful review of EISS reports conducted by Agent Moriston, reports filed by the EDF that boarded the Carl Sagan, and our own observations …” The director paused to consider their next words. Foster’s emotions braced for impact. “We have concluded that the crew of the Carl Sagan may be, or had been, under alien influence.”

Foster’s earlier symptoms doubled in intensity, and her skin grew pale.

“Who these influencers are remains to be seen,” another director said. “It might be loyalists to the Architect, or it might have been remnants of the Celestial Order. You did, after all, leave Earth at a time when that organization was still strong.”

“Whatever the case might be, the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword, which we are fairly certain entered Sirius during your time there, followed by the disappearance of the Carl Sagan, were most likely the beginnings of the invader’s current aggressions toward us and the galaxy.”

“This combined with questionable actions of you and your crew on top of what we’ve observed to be unprofessional behavior from you.”

Foster cleared her throat. “May I speak?”

“Of course, Foster.”

“As we have said time and time again since our return,” Foster said. “We are innocent, victims if anythin’. Our actions in Sirius saved the lives of billions.”

“Yes, of course, no one denies what you have done, and we are grateful for your bravery in Sirius.” The three directors exchanged glances with each other. “But that was the past, this is the present, and presently we cannot take the risk of you being in command of a ship as there might be alien programming waiting to be triggered.”

Foster looked up to the ceiling for a moment and carefully blinked to hold back, or at least delay, the moistening of her eyes. Space exploration, reaching the stars, continuing her father’s dream, it’s what she lived for. It’s what she worked so hard for. And now they were ready to take it all away.

“You and your crew are to be reassigned to IESA bases and outposts until further information can be obtained about your condition and the restoration of your lost memories.”

“Please, I beg you to reconsider,” Foster pleaded. This was her last chance to save her command, her last chance to prevent their decision from going forward. She had to speak up now and make it happen. “Don’t take the stars away from me. If you could let me—”

“I’m sorry, the decision has been made. You are to report to the Kapteyn’s Star system for your reassignment. Living arrangements have been made for you at Amicitia Station 14.”

Why not just straight-up tell me you don’t want me anywhere near Earth or a ship?

12 Chevallier

ESV Robert Borden

Earth orbit, Sol system

August 4, 2118, 21:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier was impressed with the layout of Earth ships of the twenty-second century. With the invader fleet gone, and the fighting on Earth reduced to a small pocket of resistance groups, she, along with Boyd’s EDF team returned to their ship, the Robert Borden, a small space to stratosphere destroyer.

The first thing she noticed upon passing through the airlock doors was gravity, yet there was no rotating habitat ring. Drifting from corridor to corridor was a thing of the past, one she’d never be able to return to and was glad for it.

After a long, tiring debriefing with the captain, Chevallier retired to the lounge, resting her exhausted body on a soft leather couch as Earth hung in the backdrop from its observation windows. She watched off-duty crew personnel come and go, sit and drink, and talk about the double shifts they’d been working since the attack begun. Fighter pilots played a decisive game of poker in the corner and poured out a drink for the members of their squad that would no longer be able to play with them.

The news played on a nearby holo TV, the news reporter’s words falling on deaf ears as people were too fixated on their drinks. Chevallier was not one of them.

“Like all colonies throughout UNE space, the colonists of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, are counting their blessings in the aftermath of the invader’s attack which has left thousands dead on Earth and in orbit,” said the news reporter on the holo TV. “Last night in Cassini City, a candlelight vigil was held in honor of the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives and the many innocent civilians who lost their lives in this horrific act of war.”

Chevallier watched a clip of the aforementioned vigil play. Saturn’s hulking presence appeared in the horizon of the domed city as hundreds, if not thousands, of people participated.

The reporter continued. “Many communities throughout Titan and other colonies are pleading for people to donate blood today or make credit donations to assist with the recovery effort at our homeworld and our nation’s capital.”

“Coming up next,” another reported jumped in after the clip ended. “An exclusive one-on-one interview with a Hashmedai that witnessed the invader attack on Paryo, and our analysts take a careful look at the now unstable galactic stock exchange as a result of the invaders’ attacks. Via QEC, this is Saturn Network News, the number one trusted news source of the Sol system.”

Metropolis on Titan, colonies beyond Sol, galactic stock exchange … Chevallier had a lot of catch-up reading to do and learn what had happened since 2033, on top of figuring out the motives of the invaders, and why they look like dragons. Though, if her experience at Sirius had taught her anything, mythology and real-world facts are one and the same.

Boyd entered later, wearing his off-duty tank top, exposing his bulging, strong and dark arms while his dog tags bounced off his burly chest as he moved. He slipped past the crowded bar, taking a seat with Chevallier, waiting for it to die down before he got a drink, at least that’s what she had been doing.

“You lied to me, Sergeant,” Chevallier said to him. “You said a lot has changed, more like everything has changed.”

Boyd laughed. “The end of 2040 brought in the foundations for what we have today. The wormhole network? We reverse engineered a Lyonria wormhole discovered in the Kuiper belt that linked with Barnard’s Star. That made space travel a lot easier until FTL was a thing when we returned to Sirius.”

“Let me guess, you reverse engineered the drones we encountered there?”

“Damn right we did.”

Over the course of a hundred years, the human race advanced to become one of the most high-tech galactic nations in the quadrant. And they did it by learning what aliens did before them, and then copied it by the sounds of it. She wondered if there was anything within human society that was of an original human design, and not a copy of a discovery aliens had made.

“So, that’s what the UNE has become?” Chevallier said. “A group that takes advance tech and adds it to their own?”

“We got no choice, Radiance and the Hashmedai had been in space for hundreds, if not, thousands of years before we walked on the moon. We need to catch up.”

“From what I see, we’ve surpassed everyone.”

“The UNE fleet is still the smallest compared to the Empire. And Radiance? The size of their navy is unbeatable. Both the Imperial and UNE fleets combined wouldn’t have enough numbers to match them ship for ship. If we can’t protect our colonies with large fleets, then we need to do it with better tech. Which brings up the next problem, peace.”

Chevallier chuckled. “How is that a bad thing?”

“The new empress wants peaceful relationships with the UNE; meanwhile, the UNE has convinced Radiance and the Empire to enter a ceasefire. This means new technological advancements get shared with those nations. We need to stay ahead, not allow everyone else to catch up with our advancements.”

“He also forgot to mention,” Maxwell said, interrupting, joining the two on the couch. “New advancements from Radiance have helped improved life here.”

Maxwell, despite being in off-duty attire, still looked more machine than human with his human psionic cybernetic implants.

“Like what?” Boyd snorted.

“Uh, gene therapy?” Maxwell said.

Boyd shrugged. “Debatable.”

“Hey, guys,” Chevallier said, drawing attention to herself with waving hands. “Girl from the past here, doesn’t know what you are saying.”

Maxwell grinned at her and explained. “It was developed by Scholar Odelea and the Souyila Corporation. Immortality, nobody dies of old age.”

Boyd countered with more facts. “Souyila, in turn, sold it to UNE corporations that modified and made it better, so people could reverse their age, and created other uses for it outside of ageing. And you know what happened next? That improved version made it back to Radiance AND the Empire. If anything, that proves my point, we got our hands on something made by aliens, improved it, racked in the rewards, and then gave it away to the rest of the galaxy in the name of peace.”

Boyd’s face turned to the observation window and examined crews in space suits recovering the remains of obliterated ships above the horizon. “Peace is dead,” he added in a grim tone of voice.

The debate the two had helped brighten Chevallier’s day. “Are you telling me the fountain of youth was invented?”

“Pretty much,” Boyd said. “I was on Earth during the Hashmedai invasion a hundred years ago. I don’t look a day over 26.”

If Boyd was around then, there was still hope for Chevallier’s mother to be around in this fantastic era of history. Radiance medical tech cured all known sickness back in the 2030s when she was still around, and, so, if she understood what they said correctly, death only came from external sources.

“Oh, look at that smile,” Maxwell said, smirking at her. “Bet you can’t wait to get your therapy and revert back to an eighteen-year-old hottie.”

“There’s so much I need to do,” Chevallier said.

Maxwell stopped suddenly and waved his hand, creating a holographic window in its wake. “Speaking of things to do …” he said as he scrolled through a long list.

“Oh shit …” Boyd did the same and viewed the same list. It was a list of names from what she was able to see over his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Chevallier asked, having noticed the mood switch from positive, to sour.

“UNE just released a finalized casualty list from the attack,” Boyd said, pushing the hologram closer to her.

Chevallier eyed the list, a stupidly long list of names of brave men and women whose lives came to a sudden end when the invaders arrived. Gene therapy meant that people she knew back in 2033 might be alive today.

Might be.

Being listed as KIA could change all of that.

The Wilfred Laurier was listed as heavily damaged, but not lost. She browsed through its KIA list. Its captain was listed as KIA. Her heartbeat raced, and then realized the captain wasn’t her mother, nor was she a captain anymore.

That’s right she’s an admiral now. “My mother …” Chevallier panicked. “What ship was she on?”

“Hold on.” Boyd performed a search and read the results. “She was on the Julius Caesar.”

The Julius Caesar’s casualty list was brought up.

All three of them gave it a blank stare.

“Oh my God,” Chevallier whispered.

The Julius Caesar was lost in the battle above Earth, no escape pods were found.

The first name on the Julius Caesar’s casualty list appeared.

Admiral Agatha Chevallier: Status – KIA

The manifest of the mighty dreadnaught’s crew followed, all KIA.

“I’m sorry.” Boyd said … or was it Maxwell? She didn’t know. The emotions that raced in her had caused all sounds around her to fade into muffled sounds. She couldn’t even hear herself scream and furiously punch the wall, drawing the attention of everyone in the lounge.

She survived Sirius but had doubts that her mother would have lived long enough to see her return. Gene therapy made that happen, despite the sixty-eight-year gap, only to discover she died right as she awoke from stasis.

The pain of sorrow burned hard in her chest, long enough to blacken it. Blackened like the void of space above the horizon of Earth that she stared off into via the observation window.

She pondered which of the billions of stars out there, was the home system of the invaders.

13 Foster

UNE military Cemetery

Paris, Earth, Sol system

August 6, 2118, 14:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Highly dressed UNE navy personnel led by Mathilda Chevallier marched in unison past a large crowd of onlookers. News reporters stood with camera drones hovering next to their heads as they televised the tearful event that was unfolding. The navy personnel wearing faultless white gloves carried a casket draped with the UNE flag. Inside the casket were the remains of Admiral Agatha Chevallier. Foster stood, wearing a black dress, along with Williams and the rest of the Carl Sagan crew to pay their respects to the great admiral who unknown to them at the time, sacrificed her ship and crew to protect the Carl Sagan.

Chang stood with his fellow navy personnel, and they all saluted as the casket moved past. The President of Earth, Lance Anderson, arrived to pay his respects when the casket arrived at the intended grave. President Anderson placed his hands upon the casket, then took to the podium to give his eulogy. Foldout chairs gave Foster and attendees a place to sit amongst the well maintained green grass in the cemetery. Gravestones of fallen UNE military personnel born in France sprung up in the distance.

Captain Martin Xavier took the podium later and gave a touching speech about the admiral. He highlighted her lengthy career in France’s navy before the creation of the UNE, surviving the Empire’s invasion of Earth, and then rising to become one of the most talked about captains in the new UNE navy. He talked about how she came to his rescue at the battle of Titan, and then later came to the rescue of his adopted daughter, Jessica Davis, when their convoy came under attack by the Empire. Agatha served the navy diligently while never forgetting about her daughter, Mathilda, who slept on the Carl Sagan which, at the time, was still en route to Sirius.

After an emotional twenty-one-gun salute, the casket was slowly lowered into its final resting place to the sound of bagpipes. Flowers floated down onto the casket while Chevallier stood with an emotionless look on her face and a fist full of the earth. She held it above the sunken casket and then released it, officially commencing the burial of her mother.

The grey skies released small droplets of rain upon the onlookers. Tears from the heavens, tears that mixed in with the ones that dripped from Foster’s eyes.

The ceremony ended, well at least for Foster, thousands had been killed in the last few days, and there were many more funerals like this to be held. Chevallier stood alone, her face never turning away from the grave of her fallen mother, unfazed by the fact the rain had picked up in intensity.

Foster stood next to her, offering a place under her umbrella. “I’m sorry for your loss—”

Chevallier grunted and shoved her way past Foster.

“I know what it’s like to lose a parent,” Foster called out her.

Chevallier stopped, clenched her fists, and faced Foster. “You don’t know what this is like!”

“I lost my papa during the Hashmedai invasion,” Foster said. “Had to take care of Williams because he lost his whole family. I know what this is like, believe me.”

“I was taken away from her, forced to go to Sirius. Lived through Sirius, lucked out and entered a future where old age would not have claimed her life … only for this to happen.”

“Your mother sacrificed her life and ship to save us, to save you, her only daughter.”

“And what were you doing, Foster?” Chevallier snorted. “Shooting at the EDF team who came to help us, bickering on the bridge when you should have pushed to get the Carl Sagan away from the invader fleet. She’d still be alive if you hadn’t been such a terrible captain.”

Foster staggered at her words, the umbrella she held nearly slipped out of her trembling hands. “Mathilda! Please …”

Chevallier’s flustered face looked away. “Your inaction as a captain forced her to make the sacrifice! No wonder IESA took your command away; they too must have realized the mistake they made giving you that.”

“I didn’t know any of this was gonna happen!”

“Yet you saw it important to secure your cat and had zero sense of urgency on the bridge?” Chevallier’s voice became dry and cold. “Do you really think that’s prime captain material?”

“As I recall, my leadership got us through Sirius.”

“Yeah, pissing off Marduk, then investigating a ghost ship without being prepared, which led to this. Every problem we encountered was a result of you poking around unprepared for what would happen next. And now the galaxy is being invaded, thank you for that, Captain, thank you for making my mother the first of many human lives lost.”

Foster stepped back, the anger in Chevallier’s eyes, the frown on her face, it wasn’t like her. With an index finger to Foster’s face, Chevallier finished. “Don’t fucking tell me you know how I feel right now, because you don’t.”

Chevallier slipped away into a sea of bodies as Foster glared blankly holding the drenched and dripping umbrella. She shut her eyes and allowed whatever tears that wanted to drip down do so, and assured herself this was it, no more tears, no more sorrow. It was time to rebuild and move on.

On her way out, she found the crew gathered under a tree, talking, sharing laughs, and staying somewhat dry. The key thing was a laugh, that’s what Foster needed, something positive. She approached them and was pleased to see, Williams, Rivera, Pierce, Chang, and Kostelecky. Upset to see the lack of the alien crew members, Tolukei and Nereid, upset to see Chevallier not standing with them. And chef? Whatever did become of him? Comfort food would have really hit the spot right now, especially if it was made by him.

“Hey, guys,” Foster said, deactivating her umbrella. A flick of a button caused it to transform into a small pocket-sized bar.

“What happened with you two?” Rivera asked.

Foster looked to the where Chevallier had vanished to. “She just needed to blow off some steam; she did lose her mother just when she thought she had the chance to see her again.”

“I heard you all have been reassigned,” Chang said.

“Not all of us,” Williams said. “Forced medical leave.”

Foster’s jaw dropped. “What?”

Williams grunted and propped his body against the trunk of the tree with arms crossed. “PTSD apparently, they want me to get counseling before I get a new assignment.”

“Where are you going to stay?” Chang asked him.”

“I dunno, I gave up my old place here on Earth before we left for Sirius,” Williams grumbled.

“Bro, you can hang with me for a bit,” Chang offered. “My family has a nice place on the colony we got rolling at Sirius. I’m going to be staying there until the military gets back to me.”

“Rivera,” Foster said to her. “Please tell me you have some positive news.”

“They want me to assist in recovering the AI core from the Carl Sagan and see if I could restore the deleted log files.” she said. “After that, I don’t know, maybe I’ll work for UNE R&D. Turns out my EAD has evolved a lot since our absence and has become a popular tool in the galaxy. My invention, yet I’m not getting proper credit for it!”

“Where’s everyone else?” Chang asked.

Foster gave him the rundown. “Tolukei is being deported to Radiance; Nereid is going to be deported back to Merion.”

“Wow, IESA must really hate you guys,” Chang said. “The military is giving me the chance to train to be a pilot again.”

“Makes sense,” Foster said, looking at the new wave of caskets being brought in. “With the losses they took, they’re going to need every recruit they can get.”

Kostelecky kept silent as their chatter continued, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. Sadness from the funeral Foster suspected … and hoped. Because if there was something else eating her up, she’d like to know soon, as the two of them would be roommates on the station they’d been assigned to live on.

Suburban Neighborhood

Los Angeles, Earth, Sol system

August 6, 2118, 16:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The early morning sunrise from the North American west coast had lifted into the skies. Foster, still wearing her funeral attire, took a walk in the neighborhood she once called home before leaving for Sirius. Her flight off-world wasn’t due for a few hours and she’d opted to kill time there.

The homes in the neighborhood hadn’t changed much, unlike the rest of Los Angeles which sported flying cars, eye-opening towers complete with holographic advertisements. Green grassy lawns and driveway parking lots sat ahead of wide garage doors to her left and right. The majority of the two-story homes around her were visibly upgraded, sporting solar panels and oversized battery packs, powered by XE crystals now Radiance had no use for them.

Foster questioned why paved roads still existed when everyone had cars that could fly. A reminder of the past perhaps, or maybe it would have cost too much money to rip them apart. Children were at play in the front yards of several homes, they used their HNI to create holographic soccer balls to kick and play with.

It made Foster’s face cringe at the fact that even small children had the implants, yet she, a grown woman, did not, and therefore felt inferior. She began to wonder if she’d ever get her command back, as there’s no way in hell she’d allow doctors to dig a hole in her head and jam a chip into it!

One of the kids at play took notice of her walking past and waved to her. It was a strange feeling at first. The kids that waved to her had no idea that the woman before them once lived there in the community, during a time when their parents weren’t born. Hell, from Foster’s point of view she was here only a few months ago, it was 2033 then, its 2118 now. The Carl Sagan was in some way a time machine, one that was incapable of traveling backward in time only forward, sadly.

She arrived at her old house, happy to see it still stood, sad to learn that her mother sold it and moved out to live out in colonized UNE space. Her father’s dream of traveling to the stars was contagious. She had hoped to make contact with her mother and let her know she was alive despite the attack, but, with no HNI, no access to a computer, and her not living there anymore, well, that would have to wait until Foster was set up in her new place on Amicitia Station 14 in preparation for her reassignment.

She sighed and turned away from her former place of residence.

Then heard the door open.

“Rebecca?” A familiar southern accent called out.

She directed her face back to the house and saw Mike Fisher, her past lover, exit dressed in his morning robe. She laughed, smiled, and charged over to him, gifting him her warm and long embrace. If anyone was going to be living in this place she was happy it was him, he did after all spent a lot of time there when they were a couple. He must have missed her so much he took it upon himself to move in and remember the good old days she figured.

“Mikey,” Foster’s emotional voice said. “You’re alive.”

“You know about them gene therapy treatments, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve been catchin’ up.” She released him and noticed the silver dog tails dangling around his neck, reflecting the sunlight back. “Ah hell, you went and did it, didn’t ya?”

He smiled, lifting the tags up. “Yep, fighter pilot, full of all kinds of war stories, even fought in the battle of Barnard’s Star.”

Foster gestured to her old home. “Just couldn’t get away from my place, eh?”

“Shucks,” Mike said, then paused, stroking the back of his head. “Well, truth is, your mamma wanted to move out when we learned about your disappearance. She got a place on Terra Nova the colony in Sirius ya’ll set up, it was her way of being closer to your achievements. And well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of someone else living in this house here, ya know? So, I bought it.”

Foster’s heart warmed at the news and she made a note to make contact with her beloved mother when the chance arrived. The cheery smile that grew on her face lingered around longer, as her hands slid up and down his arms, military arms at that. She giggled. “Mikey, I’m so glad you’s still alive. I really need someone to talk to right now and—”

“Hun, who’s at the door?”

The two faced the front door and watched a stunning woman leave the house, also wearing a robe. Mike distanced his body from Foster’s swiftly. “Hey, remember the news about the Carl Sagan returning?” Mike said to the woman while pointing at Foster. “We’s got a celebrity here, it’s Captain Foster herself.”

“Oh wow!” the woman said as she scampered to Foster and shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you, I hope my husband hasn’t been talkin’ your ear off.”

“No … Not at all …” Foster’s face lit up with a smile, it was the perfect disguise for her disappointment.

“You free tonight? Perhaps you can join us for dinner,” Mike’s wife said, holding his hand. “Last one we’ll be having before he gets deployed to the frontlines.”

Foster grimaced. “Got a flight to catch later, sorry.”

“Reassignment already huh?” Mike said.

“Yeah, kinda,” Foster mumbled.

“I heard about what happened to the Carl Sagan,” Mike’s wife said. “Well, you’ll be pleased to know all the new exploration ships are way more advanced and faster. Hopefully, you’ll get a nice new ship to command.”

Foster made another faux smile followed-up with a nod.

“Well, I’mma head back in,” Mike’s wife finished, and gave her husband a kiss.

Once she returned inside, Mike’s attention returned to Foster with a mild wincing glare. “Sorry, Rebecca, I should have said something sooner about her.”

“You moved on, I get it,” Foster said.

“Well you did end it between us.”

“I know, I know …” And I was stupid to think you’d wait for all these years.

“Truth be told, I did wait for you to return, regardless,” he said. “That was until I heard about the Carl Sagan vanishing.”

“I’m happy for you.”

“Hey, add me to your HNI contact list, once this invader nonsense is taken care of, we should talk and catch up. My wife was an explorer too, part of the second-generation exploration ships that launched after yours. Maybe you two can share stories of the worlds you explored.”

“I ain’t got any of those fancy implants.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Mike said, scratching the back of his head. “Sorry, it’s just a common thing for us folks. You’ll want to get one ASAP, can’t do much in the galaxy without ‘em, including captaining a starship.” She saw his facial expression change, and his lips twist. “I’m guessing your reassignment ain’t gonna be on a ship then?”

“No, it won’t.”

“Damn, well get the upgrades and learn how to master using ‘em, it’s the only way to move forward.”

She had nothing more to say, and quite frankly had enough of the emotional roller coaster she’d been on since awaking from cryo. The two bade farewell and she began her journey to LAX via a flying taxi cab.

Major airports on Earth had been converted to interstellar starports, where large transport ships frequently launched into space and or landed with passengers. From time to time, the starports also sent transports from one port to another on Earth, much like what Foster did earlier when she left Paris.

She shared a seat with Kostelecky and Pierce since the two had also been assigned to the station for their new positions. Kostelecky still remained to herself keeping strangely silent, with the exception of her acknowledging Foster and Pierce’s presence. The standard preflight checks were performed within the passenger cabin. They were similar to the ones that used to be performed on old-world planes before takeoff. Flight attendants wearing their dazzling uniforms gave the eager passengers a rundown of what to expect, safety tips, and bringing everyone’s attention to the location of emergency escape pods. The experience reaffirmed Foster’s, Pierce’s, and Kostelecky’s current positions that they were truly relics from the past. Born and raised during a period of human history when walking on Mars was a dream and taking a flight to the other side of the world was an epic adventure.

The transport hauled up off the launch pad. Azure flames spouted from its thrusters and gave it the speeds necessary to reach the escape velocity needed to break away from Earth’s gravitational pull and enter the realm of space. To the onlookers watching below, the large civilian transport rapidly shrunk to the size of a tiny dot within clear blue skies. Artificial gravity activated automatically after detecting the sudden decrease of it as they pulled further and further away from the blue planet.

The view of Earth was a lot different than how Foster remembered it when leaving for Sirius. In 2033 a fleet of Radiance ships orbited Earth and stood watch in case the Empire returned to finish the job. Meanwhile, the six ships that used to be all the infant UNE navy had to offer joined them in orbit. Today? Foster counted at least twenty-six UNE ships, and just as many derelict ships being attended to by recovery teams.

Mars supported a similar number of UNE ships in close orbit, as did the belt along with its mining ships and platforms. Space stations circled the giant known as Jupiter. A number of the stations were home to civilian populations while others were research outposts and military bases. The three were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Titan, since the transport’s trajectory happened to send it on a close flyby pass of Saturn’s largest moon. There was a traffic jam of ships in orbit of the moon waiting for landing clearance from one of the many metropolis that covered its surface, much like Mars. Foster tried to visualize what the battle of Titan had looked like when the Winston Churchill took on Imperial warships while the majestic view of Saturn and its rings hung in the backdrop.

The FTL transport slowed when it arrived at the edge of the Sol system and maneuvered to approach five oval-shaped wormholes in space. At least it was five from what Foster was able to count, the droves of ships, both military and civilian, obscured her view periodically as they crossed the threshold to or from the wormholes. The wormholes indeed resembled the ones she and her team discovered in Sirius, only they were human constructed rather than Lyonria and significantly wider to allow ships to enter.

Their transport angled itself and joined the long queue of ships in single file, a queue that took one hour to shrink before they then plunged into the wormhole. The transport was in Sol one second and in the Arcturus system next, a thirty-six light-year jump. Behind the transport after the jump was another wormhole of similar design in the Arcturus system, and ahead of them were the ships that had made up the queue, as they all dispersed to travel to the various planets in the system or altered course to approach another wormhole. Pierce had reclined back in his chair catching forty winks and missed the eye-catching view of the transport as it glided over the red giant star which made the sun look like a small moon.

The next wormhole appeared beyond the horizon of Arcturus’ bright glow. The transport dipped inside and appeared in a binary system Foster knew nothing of. It was UNE territory as indicated by UNE warships standing watch over an Earth-like planet covered with bright lights from its cities.

The process repeated four times as distant star systems colonized by humanity came in and out of view from the windows, all interlinked with connecting wormholes, it was a mass interstellar highway. The voice of the transport’s captain played on the speakers above Foster’s head, awaking her from the slumber she, Kostelecky, and Pierce had fallen into. The transport had docked with Amicitia Station 14 at last. The passengers aboard arose to gather their carry-on possessions and slowly marched in the direction of the airlock.

The three did the same when the crowd around them shrank and cleared the way for them to enter their new home in the Arietis system. It was a home located one hundred-thirty light-years away from Earth, the invaders … and their place among brave men and women working to quell the new threat to the galaxy.

The feelings of rejection were difficult for Foster to accept.

14 Chevallier

Downtown Bar

Paris, Earth, Sol system

August 6, 2118, 23:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Drinking was mankind’s victory over depression, regrets, and bad life decisions, temporary victory of course. Once the buzz faded you were thrown right back into the darkness you sought to escape from. Chevallier was no stranger to this. She spent the remainder of her stay in Paris at this particular bar as it was close to the UNE base she was staying at. Though, after the funeral she had doubts she’d be staying at military bases or serving aboard ships going forward.

With her mother and the Carl Sagan gone, she was unsure of what to do next in her life. Resigning crossed her mind. She could board a transport with a one-way ticket to the Morutrin system become a pirate or something, she had the combat experience for that and the love for rum. The invader’s fleet hadn’t been seen for days, which had some people wonder if they would even return.

The Carl Sagan was part of their plans, perhaps when they lost control of it they gave up and returned to wherever they came from, she thought, after all, nobody said the evil plans of alien invaders had to make sense, dragon invaders at that. She went to nurse her third drink for the night when Boyd took a seat next to her. Why is he always around when I need to relax? She thought, then asked. “Boyd, you following me?”

“I’ve been to sixteen funerals today,” he said, pointing out the fact that most people in the bar were part of the military. “Looks like everyone else in here had to do the same or more.”

“If you’re here to talk about my mother,” Chevallier grumbled.

“I’m not, I’m here to drink,” Boyd said. “But since we’re here, I might as well offer you something I’ve been thinking of.”

“And what would that be?”

“You kicked some serious ass back in Geneva using outdated equipment, and while it took a while, you got a good handle on some of our gear too without any formal training. I’m going to be straight up with you. The Hammerheads are gone, Chevallier, you’re the only one left. Why not join us in EDF?”

She snorted. “What’s in it for me?”

“You’ll get the best training, the best equipment, the best teams, and, most importantly, the chance to strike back at the invaders.”

“Aren’t you guys supposed to operate out in deep space?”

“Yeah, the Robert Borden just happened to be close to a wormhole that connected to Sol when the attack started, so we went in to lend a hand. We’re going to stick around and help mop up the last of the invaders still on Earth, but after that? We’re goin’ back out into space, and we’re going to be hunting for them, wherever they came from.”

Boyd’s offer created a new option she thought about pursuing but was convinced would never happen, not without HNI. That option was revenge.

Chevallier slid her glass of beer out of sight, across the bar. “What do I need to do to make this happen?”

“HNI upgrades.”

Well so much for that. She reached out to retrieve her beer.

“But we can hold out on that for now, you’ve already proven you can fight well without them,” Boyd added.

Her hand stopped before the cold glass as her eyebrow lifted and her face projected a tell-me-more glare.

Boyd smirked. “And … I won’t lie, we got a new mission coming up, ain’t gonna have time to put you in for surgery.”

“Basically, what you’re saying is.” Chevallier licked her lips. “You have a mission coming up; you’re shorthanded and need me to fill that spot.”

“Yeah, pretty much.” Chevallier’s mouth roared with laughter, she needed that. “So, you in?”

Chevallier turned her back on the glass of beer. “I’m in.”

ESV Robert Borden

Earth orbit, Sol system

August 7, 2118, 07:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Boyd and Maxwell led Chevallier down a stylish and reasonably lit corridor of the Robert Borden. They entered an empty cube-shaped room where the walls, floors, and ceiling were covered with a grid of lines upon lines, it was the simulator room.

She joined the two at a weapons rack in the corner in which an assortment of pistols, rifles, and sniper rifles hung. Next to the rack was a closet-like storage chamber that held various suits of combat armor. Boyd slipped into his MK.V EDF protect suit while Maxwell selected several pieces of cybernetic equipment Chevallier knew nothing about and plugged them into the numerous sockets grafted onto his arms, legs, and chest, and wrapped his hands inside a pair of mechanical gloves.

Chevallier was up next. She outfitted herself with the same protect suit Boyd wore and listened as he gave her a quick rundown of the protect suit’s abilities and how to use them since she lacked HNI. Chevallier moved her arms about while in the suit, it was lightweight and felt almost as if she was still in her uniform. The protect suit was nowhere near as bulky as the Hammerhead combat armor she’d spent countless hours in. Once activated, the protect suit shrank to fit her figure and resembled the wetsuit-like appearance Boyd’s did, while the lights on the sides and storage slots around her waist lit up.

Boyd picked up a rifle off the weapon rack, the same one she had used on the surface to defeat the Dragon Knight.

“This is the ARMP2-1, standard issue rifle for all UNE forces,” he said, handing the rifle to her. Boyd reached for another rifle of a different design and held it out for her to see. “And this is the PSI2-1, a psionic rifle.” Boyd handed it to Maxwell.

“That’s the piece-of-shit gun that wouldn’t work,” Chevallier spat.

“It did work,” Boyd said. “Psionic rifles are designed to receive psionic energy from its user, then convert into pulses of psionic projectiles.”

“Human psionics took a slightly different evolutionary path compared to Radiance and Hashmedai,” said Maxwell. “Hashmedai psionics create extremely hot fireballs, and Radiance ones can forge plasma balls within their hands. Us? Well, we haven’t figured out how to activate that level of sorcery yet, not constantly at least. What we did figure out was how to channel that same psionic power they used into these rifles, turning them into variable energy rifles.”

“Variable?” Chevallier asked.

Maxwell stepped forward with his rifle in hand as three holographic training dummies flashed into existence at the far side of the simulator room. He stood with confidence and took aim at the three side-by-side holograms.

“Incineratay.” Maxwell’s psionic rifle erupted with red burning spheres, burning the first dummy.

“Cryonic.” His rifle sprayed pulses of freezing white and blue energy. It was cold enough to encase the second dummy with a thick layer of ice and make Chevallier’s face twitch from the frigid air.

“And finally, the arc disruptor.” The same electrical beam LeBoeuf had used discharged. It wasn’t the same nonstop flow of electrical beams, however, but rather steady bursts of bright lightning bolts.

Boyd joined the two, activating his rifle. “Alright, let’s get this shit started.”

The empty room morphed into the interior of a ship of Hashmedai design. Everything about it looked legit, from the feel of the walls, the smell, even the cold air. It felt as if they had just been teleported off the ship onto another.

Maxwell winced at Boyd. “Leviathan again, sir?”

Boyd smirked. “You know it.”

The three charged into the holographic simulation and gunned down Hashmedai warriors that appeared with their two-handed plasma swords cleaving left to right. Easy targets for the three and their rifles firing simulated rounds as they were automatically set for training mode.

With the first wave of simulated Hashmedai defeated, they sauntered into the enormous bridge of the ship known as the Leviathan. Boyd pointed at its forward windows, directing Chevallier to the stunning space battle outside. She saw what appeared to be a coalition of Radiance, Hashmedai, and UNE ships engaged in battle. The battling ships were all of a familiar design. They were ships that were in service when she was around. Chevallier even managed to spot the Wilfrid Laurier, her mother’s ship at the time, and Chevallier’s previous post before the Carl Sagan.

“This is a recreation of the battle of Barnard’s Star seventy-eight years ago,” Boyd said to her. “My team boarded this ship, the Leviathan, a Celestial Order-built dreadnaught that operated under the Hashmedai Empire’s flag. I like to come back to this battle now and then to sharpen my skills.”

“It’s also controversial.” Maxwell snickered.

“Please,” Boyd said, rolling his eyes, and facing away from the battle outside. “And what simulators do you use, Maxwell?”

“Good ol’ Vietnam.”

Boyd countered. “Yeah, running and gunning down Vietcong soldiers, fellow humans I might add, with psionic weapons and powers from the twenty-second century. Some would say that’s anti-human.”

“And those that want peace with the Hashmedai would say this is anti-Hashmedai,” Maxwell finished.

The simulator continued with the next level. Hashmedai warriors and plasma riflemen stormed their position on the bridge. The three dove and rolled into cover behind a computer workstation and removed threat after threat with their training rounds.

The second wave of simulated targets materialized from teleportation light, a Hashmedai psionic with warrior and guardian bodyguards. Maxwell and Boyd focused their attention on the warriors and guardians that attempted to pull them away from their cover. Chevallier glanced over her cover, aiming her rifle at the psionic. It was a perfect chance to show the two what the relic from the past could do.

Chevallier trotted from cover to cover across the computer-station littered bridge and relied on her training in the navy, always stay mobile when facing a psionic. The more you move, the harder it was for them to lock their telekinetic abilities onto you. If you stayed still too long, the psionic would ensure you remain still for all of eternity.

Her rifle discharged as her feet made her move in circles around her focused adversary. The added mobility of the protect suit made it easier for her to leap away from the white fireballs the psionic conjured and hurled at her. Every bullet that ricocheted off its psionic barrier made its mind weaker and brought it closer to defeat.

Or, so she thought.

Blue light temporarily blinded her. When the light had faded, and her eyesight returned to normal, she heard the laughs of two Hashmedai psionics from behind. Two new unexpected targets joined the battle, and before she could turn to react they vanished, and a loud noise buzzed.

“What the hell?” Chevallier groaned.

“You got gangbanged by three psionics,” Maxwell said. “You are now dead.”

“The barrier for the first one wasn’t dropping,” Chevallier protested.

“Wanna see something cool?” Boyd said, waving her back to their cover. Once in place, he called out. “EVE, restart simulation.”

The simulation replayed from the level they were on, the same psionic teleported in with a group of warriors, guardians, and riflemen. Boyd drew her attention to the holographic window floating above the barrel of her gun. “This is a two-in-one weapon, right now it’s selected to fire magnetically accelerated slugs at the target … well simulated ones of course.”

“Just like my eRifle.”

“No, these slugs travel much faster, but similar concept.” Chevallier examined the screen, and then remembered her experience with the rifle. Tapping the icon on it switched its firing mode. She selected the particle-beam option and felt the gears within it switch. “Try hitting that psionic now.”

Chevallier returned to the holographic fray, firing particle beams of energy rather than bullets. The beams of white-hot ions crashed into the psionic barrier and shattered it after three direct hits, and then vaporized after one shot struck its unprotected and exposed cybernetic chest.

“That was fucking awesome!” Chevallier triumphantly cried out.

The two psionics that got the jump on her from the last attempt appeared moments later. Her particle beams made short work of one target but gave out when it came to dispatching the second. Maxwell’s flaming orbs from his rifle came in for the save, turning the last psionic target into flames and ash, and completed the level.

“You need to be careful while using the particle beam,” Boyd said. “It creates a lot of heat and will drain your battery fast. The trick is, if you are facing a target with strong shields or a psionic barrier, use the particle beam to take down their shields, and then switch back to bullets to finish them off.”

Chevallier made a mental note of their tips and sought a way to combine it with her somewhat outdated training from the past.

“Saves you from overheating or swapping batteries in the middle of combat,” Maxwell added. “The old tactics of having to stay mobile while fighting a psionic get thrown out the window.”

“Well, not completely,” Boyd said. “If you stand still long enough they will still throw you around if your shields are low enough.”

“That’s where I come in,” Maxwell said, holding his rifle, now glowing with a mystifying field of purple waves. “Remember, my rifle is powered by my powers, I can shoot energy-based projectiles at targets all day as long as my brain hasn’t turned to mush. Throw in my other powers, and the battle can easily swing in our favor.”

They remained in the simulator for three more hours, clearing new levels, competing for high scores, sharing laughs, and even dipped into Maxwell’s Vietnam War simulation for kicks. They left after working up enough sweat for the day and went to make their way to their quarters for the evening.

In the corridors, Chevallier overheard several Marines talk about experiencing issues with their HNI during some battles on the surface. One group talked about how their HNI caused them to black out, nearly getting them killed.

“I hear people talk about HNI a lot,” Chevallier said.

“Holographic Neural Interface,” Boyd said. “Cybernetic implants you’ll need to get, it’s very important in life.”

Chevallier squirmed at the thought. “Don’t like the idea of someone jamming a device in my head.”

“It is what it is,” Boyd said. “As you know, psionics need cybernetics to enhance their powers including a chip in their brain.”

“That’s nothing new, Radiance and Hashmedai psionics in my time did that,” Chevallier said.

“And now, so do human psionics,” Boyd said. “Once we got our hands on the tech, we took it one step further and created implants for everyday use.” He flicked his wrist, out from it popped a projection that looked like a phone dial pad. “Remember smart phones from the early twenty-first century? Basically, we found a way to put it inside our heads and more. With HNI we can access the internet, make phone calls, read, learn, communicate, and activate holographic windows just by thinking about it.”

“Everyone gets them at a young age since it’s a vital part of the education system,”

Maxwell said. “School teachers don’t point at blackboards anymore; they beam that information into the heads of their students via HNI.”

Just like that, the future seemed slightly less desirable to her. “I think I’ll pass.”

“You’ll need it if you plan on staying in the military,” Boyd said. “It’s mandatory since it allows you to link your rifle and combat armor computers to your head and access a shitload of military HNI applications we all use.”

Chevallier snorted. “Your HNI wasn’t much help when that Dragon Knight attacked us.”

Boyd grimaced and scratched the back of his head. “Yeah … well.”

“She’s got you there, sir, we’re alive because she wasn’t wired into the network,” Maxwell butted in. “Can’t hack someone if they don’t have anything to hack.”

“Military HNI are damn near unhackable,” Boyd said. “Not even Maraschino could do it, and they were offered billions of credits by the military if they could break it, they couldn’t.”

“Well then,” Chevallier said in a conceited manner. “Looks like I’m your secret weapon.”

15 Foster

Atrium Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 7, 2118, 07:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Amicitia Station 14 was the largest space station in the quadrant, and the largest promise that a galactic cooperative community could be formed, a dream the UNE relentlessly sought to achieve over the last several decades. The station was human designed, built, and operated, and shared with aliens from across the cosmos. From a distance, the station appeared almost like a gigantic starfish made of white shiny metallic alloy, decorated with windows across it.

It quietly spun in the center of the Arietis system, at a position where light from the four stars, which made up this quandary system, were always drenching the colossal-sized station with light. There was no shortage of natural sunlight to those who lived on the station that wished to seek it.

The largest wormhole hub in the galaxy existed several thousand kilometers away from the station, making it the central place for intergalactic trade. In addition to multiple wormholes that provided access to UNE space, there were wormholes that linked the Union-, Empire-, and Qirak-controlled space within the system. There was even a wormhole that linked the Morutrin system, though its existence had remained a controversy for some time. Pirates, exiles, slavers, and wanted criminals had a tendency to make the lawless Morutrin system their home, however, the resources found in that system and beyond were deemed too valuable for the galactic nations to pass up. Each wormhole was guarded by patrols of ships from their respective connection points.

The starfish-shaped station had five arms, each one dedicated for a specific purpose. One arm held habitat and lodging for members of the UNE. Inside were fifty levels of homes, parks, residential centers, and schools. It was a fully operational city in space. The Hashmedai and Radiance arms respectively, were built in a similar manner, offering a city built to the needs of their people who resided in it. The fourth arm was a UNE military base, the station was still considered to be UNE territory along with the system after all. The fifth and final arm was an atrium. Its intention was to be a place of neutral ground where visitors could stay, dock their ships, and purchase goods from the various markets. Residents from the three habitat arms were all granted access to the atrium, creating the unique opportunity for the diverse groups living on the station to mix and mingle. It was a sight Foster, Pierce, and Kostelecky couldn’t believe as they stood at the top of a fourth-floor balcony, deep within the marvels of the atrium.

Escalators carried humans, Hashmedai, Radiance races, and Qirak to their destinations. Elevators within glass tube shafts lifted up or down silently, as geysers of water from the fountains on the lower floors sprayed and created a spectacle for a human family to watch. Green plants decorated the perimeters of walkways, the same type of plants also spiraled down from the mind-blowingly high ceilings. Trees provided shade for the light and heat sensitive Hashmedai that went about their business, bars were stuffed with humans and aliens who sat and drank with each other, watching news broadcasts from across the galaxy.

Cargo ship pilots who awaited their cargo holds to be loaded or off-loaded sat in restaurants, indulging in warm meals, or making arrangements to stay overnight in one of the many hotels nearby. The biggest surprise to the three as they continued to walk and tour, was watching a Rabuabin and Hashmedai couple embrace each other romantically. They were probably exiles, but still, it was a sign of hope that the conflicts between the Empire, Union, and Earth could finally be put aside. And all it would take was for people to stop acting like assholes to each other.

“Well, ain’t this somethin’,” Foster said as the three stepped into the market place.

“Remind me never to sleepin again,” Pierce said.

“Yeah, no kidding, eh?” Foster said, and then stopped to admire her reflection in the polished tiles below, while taking into account the hundreds, if not thousands, of humans and aliens that strode across them every hour and still maintained its perfection.

The three pushed deeper into the markets. It reminded Foster of a shopping mall and, at times, she had to remind herself that she was on a space station. The forests, lakes, monorails, and sunlight raying down from the sunroof ceiling to her right outside the window, were quite deceptive.

“To think, this was all designed and built while we were MIA,” she added.

An escalator brought them to face a four-story tall floor to ceiling observation window peering out into the black and star-clustered realm of space. Ships of a variety of sizes came and went, some traveled to the planets within the system, others to the space traffic jam near the wormholes.

“So, Pierce,” Foster said to him. “Which one of these stars is home?”

Pierce shrugged and chuckled. “I couldn’t tell you.”

“Ain’t you supposed to be an astrophysicist?” Foster said, joking.

Pierce stepped closer to the thick glass that wedged space and livable atmosphere between them. “There was a time when I would look at the stars and speculate what’s out there. Now … I speculate how many of those stars have human-built colonies around them—”

A half second flash of light from beyond the glass startled him. From that light Foster saw a ship exit from an FTL jump with an eye-catching and sleek design. “Get a load of that,” she said, pointing at the newly manifested ship in the cosmos.

“It looks different compared to the other ships I’ve seen,” Pierce said. “Well, Earth ones at least that I’ve been studying.”

To Foster, every ship in service looked like a thing of the future, but the one that appeared before them … it was different, almost as if it came from the far future. Even the way it curved around UNE battle ships as it approached the military base arm, displayed a level of mobility she never thought possible.

Holographic lights flickered on as they walked past smaller market kiosks within another district of the market area. The projections listed items merchants had that were in stock and, or, on sale. Qirak’s owned many of those kiosks, humanoid ratlike aliens from the other side of the galaxy.

Qirak are still obsessed with getting rich, I see.

“Remember those things?” Pierce said, pointing to a Qirak selling wares to a Hashmedai buyer.

“Yeah, wonder who let them out of Sirius?” Foster said.

“Didn’t Norauk say something about their species having access to ships?”

“I think he did squeak somethin’ about that,” she said. “I guess when the UNE went to reclaim Sirius, they made formal contact.”

“And FTL probably made it easier for them to return to their homeworld … wherever that is.”

“FTL and Hashmedai-made MRF,” the Qirak said to them, much to the shock of the three, well two, Kostelecky’s apathetic body language continued to linger. “Sorry, our hearing is quite good; it’s how we detect possible chances to earn profits.”

Foster faced the Qirak and asked. “I’m curious, what do you mean Hashmedai MRF?”

“Ah, Hashmedai have figured out how to copy human MRF,” said the Qirak. “Lower mass means faster travel with their space bridge network. Hashmedai cargo ships teleporting within Qirak systems helped us amass great profits. But enough of storytelling, you came here to shop yes, yes?”

Foster shook her head no. “Just checking out the place honestly, we’s newcomers to these parts.”

“Ah, I see. Your uniform …” The Qirak eyed the three up and down. “IESA human space explorers yes, yes? You must have been in cryo for years exploring faraway systems not linked by the wormhole network?”

Foster grimaced. “To put it lightly …”

An hour had passed since their gawking, touring, and marvel at what had been developed during the years Foster and her crew went missing. Tired and overworked legs became relieved when the three sat at a monorail station and awaited a train to take them to the inner arm of the UNE habitat.

Foster looked at Kostelecky whom at times she forgot was with them, thanks to her silence for an hour plus. “Hey, Doctor, you alright?” Foster asked.

Kostelecky broke her silence. “I’m fine.”

“You’ve just been so tight-lipped since we got released by EISS.”

“I just miss the old life we had.”

Foster made a half smile and nodded. “I understand, I’m still havin’ a hard time keeping up with the changes.”

“Try putting yourself in my shoes,” Pierce said as his eyes remained glued to the green tree scenery beyond the raised station platform. “I was born in the late nineteen seventies … I grew up in an era where the internet and cell phones didn’t exist. Then that became a reality, and I had to adjust to the changes of the world, then the Hashmedai arrived. Then I had to adjust to those changes … now this.”

What Pierce said helped put things into perspective for Foster. She was eighteen when the Empire arrived and change life for the human race, forcing her life to change with it. Now she was on a space station the size of five small cities, one hundred and thirty light-years away from Earth.

She pondered what her life as a young girl in Nashville would have been like and developed, had things not gone to hell.

The monorail glided into the station without making a sound save for the steps of passengers stepping on and off it, all speaking the languages spoken on the planets they were born on. When the train departed, its commuters had been reduced almost exclusively to human. Only those with UNE citizenship were allowed to enter this particular arm of the station, similar rules applied to the Imperial and Radiance arms.

Kostelecky’s silence and emotionless face remained during the entirety of their voyage into the UNE arm when the monorail entered the multi-leveled city. It arrived at a district reserved for IESA personnel, a soft chime sounded, and the sliding doors made a quick exchange of human passengers along with the three in the mix. Pierce had departed at that point and ventured to his newly assigned residence while Foster and Kostelecky arrived at their new home, a small two-person dorm.

Kostelecky vanished into her room isolating herself from Foster as its sliding doors slid shut. Maybe she’ll be more talkative in the morning, Foster thought as it had been a long voyage for them since awaking from cryo.

The internal computers within their dorm notified them it was switching to legacy mode, as neither of the two had HNIs installed. An assortment of holographic displays and terminals appeared, giving them access to a computer, internet access, messaging programs, entertainment, and more.

Email had been replaced with qmail, as its messages traversed across the QEC network. A thirty-minute computer tutorial taught Foster how to forge a message and send it to her mother, currently living in the Sirius system. She was eager to see how TV had evolved in this day and age after the message had been sent. Her yawns, however, directed her to her bedroom and reminded her of the long day of catch-up learning she had awaiting her in the morning.

Foster shed the black dress she wore all day and rolled into bed.

16 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Dark Energy Maelstrom

August 8, 2118, 09:44 SST (Sol Standard Time)

There was one positive outcome as a result of the Rezeki’s Rage multiple-day entrapment within the maelstrom, working at your own pace. Peiun and his crew were cut off from the known universe on a ship undergoing what little repairs it had the ability to perform. He didn’t have to answer to anyone else but himself, and so spent an extra ten minutes bathing in his tub full of ice-cold water within his quarters.

It gave him the chance to collect his thoughts, relax his sore muscles now free from his uniform, conjure strategies, and perhaps uncover a way to earn the respect of older crew members. Namely those members on the bridge whose abrasive attitudes had created heated arguments since their arrival within the maelstrom. Younger and older generation seldom ever saw eye to eye due to the policies Empress Kroshka employed throughout the Empire, which were radically different than those of her mother, Y’lin, when she held the throne.

Peiun’s ears picked up rummaging sounds in his quarters, last time he checked, he was alone. He briskly flicked away the holographic screen he had been reading and sat up straight, allowing his bare and firm chest to rise up above the surface of the cold water.

“Who is there?” he called out.

“Oh, my apologies,” a soft voice called out.

The servant Careiah stood at the entrance to his bathing chamber with her hands folded before her. Peiun winced. “Why are you here?”

“I came to clean up your stay,” Careiah said. “I was under the impression you had returned to duty.”

“I should be there now but opted to remain here a few minutes longer.”

Careiah smiled warmly at him as she neared him with a towel in hand. “The former captain used to do the same.”

“You can return to your cleaning duties,” Peiun said, reacquiring his holographic screen.

“You are bathing; it is my duty to assist you now that you are captain.”

“It’s fine,” he grunted.

Careiah stood behind him ignoring his verbal wishes, while answering his silent desire for her body to be closer to his, now more than ever as he was unclothed. “I cannot turn my back on you like this,” she said.

“My hair then … if you do not mind.”

“Of course not,” Careiah’s voice became soft and pleasant as she draped his head with the towel to dry it.

“And nothing else,” he added, causing her fingers that had slid against his shoulders to pull away.

“You still do not wish to have my body?”

“It would still be dishonorable, there is no guarantee I will remain captain once this is over.”

Careiah removed the towel over his head and passed several strokes with a comb through his damp hair. “If you get us out of this predicament, I’m sure the admirals would see to it that it happens,” Careiah said, then asked. “Do you have a mate?”

“I do not,” he snorted.

“All the more reason why you should not resist. As a captain, this ship will be your life, your duty. You will not be able to have a mate, unlike low-ranking personnel who have fewer duties and therefore can afford time away from the navy.”

“I will worry about it when the time comes.”

“Do not put it off for long; our bodies require copulation to reduce stress and anxiety, especially at the age we force them to remain at. We don’t grow old anymore. Can you imagine spending an eternity at your age as a captain, without a partner for pleasure?”

It was time for a subject change, before her alluring voice made him change his stance, as the bed wasn’t far away, and his body had shed all his attire to bathe.

“You spoke of the previous captain and his habit of starting duties later,” he asked her.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Did he share any details with you about the mission of this ship?”

“He did not,” Careiah said as he felt the combing of his hair cease briefly. “Although … he had a particular interest in transports, and human technology.”

“Oh, please, do tell.”

“I frequently saw him viewing holograms of older transports used in the navy during the Celestial Order wars.”

“And as for human technology?”

“I was asked to leave his office when I was in the midst of cleaning it, when he called a meeting with the first officer and the shipboard psionic.”

“Alesyna …” he mumbled to himself. Alesyna, the captain and first officer in secret meetings? What is she hiding?

“I believe that’s her name, yes.” Careiah returned to attending to Peiun’s hair while he interacted with the hologram, and the reports that appeared on it. “You somewhat remind me of the captain, bathing while viewing reports.”

“These are the invader ships that brought us into this realm, this maelstrom,” Peiun said, pointing at an image of an invader capital ship. “One we have no idea how to escape from.”

“Perhaps we should seek out the charybdis.”

His eyes squinted at her comment. “The what?”

“Charybdis, it’s a human mythological figure, thought to be the creator of whirlpool maelstroms in the oceans of their homeworld.”

He brought up a new screen from the ship’s database in regard to human literature, namely the Charybdis. Though in reality he was stalling, for his bathing was complete. If Careiah was the trained and loyal servant she appeared to have been, then she would try to pat dry his entire muscular body once he emerged from the water.

Battling one’s burning desires was almost as complex as battling the enemy.

Peiun arrived for duty on the bridge half an hour late but possessed a more confident composure as he gathered the bridge crew to surround him at his post. Careiah’s gentle touches against his body undoubtedly played a major role in that.

“We all have theories on what has happened over the last day,” Peiun said to his bridge crew. “So, speak, let us hear them.”

“This maelstrom, as you call it, eats matter, yet we are still alive,” Louik said.

“Perhaps the substance coating the hull of the ship has something to do with it?” Manzo asked.

Peiun remembered the invader ship they destroyed and the strange goo-like material that splashed and coated itself across the Rezeki’s Rage. An invader ship of the same type also created the maelstrom into which the invader fleet escaped and pulled them in when they got too close.

There was a link.

“Perhaps,” Peiun said. “It would explain a lot, considering the cargo hold resides on the part of the ship which received very little, if any, of the substance.”

“It received none,” Alesyna said. “My mind has touched the exterior of the ship several times, none of the substance made it there.”

Peiun turned his attention to the view screen and the clouds and lightning bolts flashing on it. The viewer was partially obscured by the green substance that coated the ship including its external cameras. In the horizon was the invader fleet which came to a standstill and remained that way since he awoke, and the ship encountered it.

“Still no change, I take it?” Peiun asked, eyeing the dormant invader fleet.

“None, nor can I sense Paryo, the Imperial fleet, or other bodies within the system,” Alesyna said. “We’re not in normal space.”

“I meant the invader ships,” Peiun said.

Alesyna licked her lips and took five seconds to reply to his question while gawking at the spectacle of the fleet on the viewer. “There’s no doubt about it, the invader ships are organic. They are living breathing bio-ships with hulls made up of thick flesh and augmented parts, most likely cybernetics.”

“Living ships,” Peiun muttered. “Could they possibly be … sleeping?”

“Maybe, my guess is healing from battle,” Alesyna said. “They entered with plasma burns, now those burns are nothing more than small blisters, and shrinking in size.”

“Could this be aether space?” Manzo asked.

“No, at least not according to the book the empress wrote about it,” Peiun said. “You have to enter that realm with psionic powers, even then, only your mind goes not your body.”

There were other factors as well, but Peiun had skimmed through the book after learning that most Hashmedai had viewed its contents as fiction rather than fact. How those Hashmedai managed to keep their heads after uttering those comments was a mystery to all.

The crew returned to their posts, scanning, and navigating through the maelstrom, searching for a way out, and to collect any interesting facts that might have been overlooked. Apart from the clouds, lightning strikes, and unreadable energy signatures, they found nothing else.

“Help me understand this,” Peiun said to Alesyna.

She smiled and said. “You want my opinion as your psionic or the scientist that never blossomed due to the discovery of my powers?”

“Let’s hear it from both minds.”

“I think this maelstrom is made up of a substance humans call dark energy,” Alesyna said.

Dark energy, the human’s explanation for the expansion of the universe and theoretically contributes to 68 percent of all the energy in the known universe.

“Radiance has similar theories which involve ethereal energy,” Alesyna continued. “Hence the suggestion that we’ve entered aether space.”

“So dark energy and aether are the same?”

“No one knows for sure, Radiance has been harnessing ethereal energy as its primary power source for the better half of the last century. However, humans insist that the ethereal energy Radiance uses to power their ships, equipment, cities, and psionics is not dark energy, at least not in its refined state—”

“Captain!” Louik called out to him from the main helm

Peiun returned his sights to the viewer and saw the invader fleet move from their idle stance, flying through the swirling clouds of the maelstrom.

“We need a way out, and I’m willing to wager they know where it is,” Peiun said. “Follow them but keep your distance.” That’s when Peiun remembered that they were twenty-eight light minutes away from the invader fleet. The footage from the viewer and scanners was nearly an hour old. A lot could have happened in that time. “Alesyna, can you sense them?”

She entered a brief ESP trance and revealed. “Not clearly, but I do have a general idea where they are now, updating tactical map.”

A blinking navigation point appeared on the view screen, transmitted by Alesyna’s HNI and based off her ESP sweep of the region.

Louik’s hands remained idle at his post at the helm. “Should we not try to return to the point we entered?” he asked.

“That entry point has long ago closed,” Alesyna said.

“According to your psionic mind,” Louik spat. “Not our direct observation, we should continue the search and—”

“Do you not trust the abilities of our psionic?” Peiun’s stern voice silenced him.

“I just think it’s risky to follow a fleet of ships that made playthings out of the deadliest Imperial ships.”

“We’ve been here for days and observing that fleet for hours, and they have not detected us,” Peiun said. “Their scanning equipment must be affected by the maelstrom, or perhaps they were indeed asleep and did so the moment they arrived. Either way, we have the advantage; they don’t know we’re here.”

The Rezeki’s Rage changed course plunging through a thick patch of magenta and red clouds and entered sub light speeds. They followed the pulsing holographic navigation point that floated directly in the middle of the view screen, while viewing the now out-of-date footage of the fleet taken by external cameras that were set to observe them, still partially obscured by the substance outside.

The silence on the bridge and long trek to their destination gave him ample time to wonder if the former captain and first officer had loyalty problems with the bridge crew. As it stood, Alesyna was the only person Peiun could trust. They had each other’s backs, the rest of the crew didn’t. It was a perfect plan for failure.

“Captain,” Alesyna called out, bringing his mind back to the bridge almost two hours later.

“What is it?”

“I’ve noticed something interesting about the invader fleet.” Alesyna pushed a three-dimensional projection of the invader ships, created by her thoughts via the ESP scan. “You see that ship in the middle?”

He pulled the projection closer to his face, staring curiously at the cluster of living ships. There were far too many bunched up for him to see the central ship. He glided his finger across the projection, highlighting all ships except the central one, and then selected an option on his HNI to temporarily hide them from view. The highlighted ships vanished, leaving behind one ship, the central ship, a familiar ship.

It was of the same type they destroyed at Paryo, the one that spilled its contents across their hull. Tiny waves of the substance pulsed from the glowing sacks on the ship, splashing across every other invader ship that circled around it. He allowed the projection to return to its original state with the entire invader fleet present. A closer look revealed that each ship had traces of the substance clinging onto its fleshy exterior.

“It’s protecting them from the environment,” Peiun said.

“Exactly, when we destroyed it that strange substance inadvertently served as protection for us,” Alesyna said. “Had we entered without it, we’d be watching the last of the Rezeki’s Rage fade away into nothing.”

Repair crews still were in the process of getting the shields back online. But given the fact that Alesyna had been maintaining overshields since she awoke from a quick nap and demonstrated that the force fields and her abilities were unable to stop the maelstrom from eating away at the cargo hold, he had doubts that shields would help.

One thing was for certain, the Rezeki’s Rage could not remain inside of the maelstrom for a long period of time, unless they found more of the substance to coat the hull breach near the cargo hold. The only source of that substance existed within the ship in the center of the invader’s fleet, the ship that opened the vortex into the maelstrom.

It was the charybdis he needed to seek out.

And it was moving away from them fast.

17 Williams

Liana Foster’s House

Halley, Terra Nova (formerly known as SA-139), Sirius A system

August 8, 2118, 07:26 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Dominic Williams felt his body plunge into a pit of despair. The horrific images of Chicago burning replayed in his head, back when the human race discovered the hard way that aliens existed. He was a kid back then, watching Imperial ships eclipse the sun while transports carrying Hashmedai death squads lowered into the city streets, painting it red with human blood and partially vaporized limbs. His mother and father were amongst those slain as they tried to flee the doomed city to the safe haven of California.

The images were too real.

The pain and anger were unbearable.

He yelled for help. But no help came.

Williams awoke from his sleep. His body was drenched in sweat while his eyes and mind readjusted from the very real dream of being back in 2018, in the body of a ten-year-old kid. He kept his body still and tried to relax and slow his accelerated breathing, calming his racing heart to the sound of birds chirping, whatever passed for birds on this planet.

It took him two minutes to remember why he was in the unfamiliar bedroom and soft comfortable bed. It came back to him. This was his home now on Terra Nova, the first human colony established in the Sirius system, a colony he officially gave the order to be built sixty-eight years ago.

He slipped out of bed wearing only his boxes to peer out the second-floor window. Bright white and blue light from Sirius A shined down as it hovered high above in the skies, a star that was twice as massive as the sun Earth orbited. An immaculate suburban neighborhood appeared out the window. The snow that covered the ground was in the final stages of melting away as the grass below it was seen for the first time in years. A year on Terra Nova lasted eight Earth years, winter’s two-year reign had come to an end, ushering in two years of spring.

Flying cars lifted away from their driveway parking lots of their respective homes. The cars entered the skies and soared into the downtown district of Halley, the largest city on the planet, and the first one built by the hands of the colonists the Carl Sagan deposited onto the planet. Williams turned away from the normalcy outside, and the one thing that helped calm his newly formed PTSD mind. He went to shower and get dressed, leaving behind on his bed a holo pad that displayed documents in regard to his forced medical leave from IESA.

He slogged into the main floor kitchen where he gave Rebecca’s mother, Liana Foster, a subtle good morning. Rebecca had contacted Liana, informing her of his arrival at Terra Nova and she’d offered him a place to stay. Liana sat at the table finishing her breakfast and watching the holo TV play. Gene therapy did wonders for her age, she looked younger than him and Rebecca, sporting an eighteen-year-old body and hair styled in the same manner Foster had when she was of the same age. Between Liana and the dreams, it was hard for Williams to remember what the date and year was.

“Feelin’ any better?” Liana said with her charming southern accent.

Williams sat at the table, helping himself to bacon and eggs which had a noticeably different taste and texture to them. Guess that’s what happens when you have livestock born and raised on a different planet. “Same dreams,” he said. “I don’t understand why this is happening to me now.”

“You were always the silent one when Rebecca and I took you in,” she said. “Maybe you were tryin’ so hard to repress all them awful things the Hashmedai did.”

“That’s what everyone else says.”

“Them invaders screwing with ya head, wiping yer minds clean didn’t help, I bet.” Liana gently tapped Williams arm. “Don’t worry, we’s gonna get you back to normal.”

Liana touching him was a strange feeling. She looked like Rebecca when they first met, yet inside that body of hers was an old woman, one that took on the role of being his mother and guided him and Rebecca to stick with each other, watch each other’s backs while the UNE rose from the ashes of human society.

“Have you spoken to Becca recently?” he asked after finishing his meal.

“Just brief QEC emails,” Liana said. “Ya’ll not having HNI is making it hard to stay in contact, gotta wait till Rebecca has access to a terminal. Ya’ll should look into getting fixed up with ‘em when you get the chance. Oh, speaking of messages …”

Liana used her HNI to create a holo window and pushed to Williams, a message that had been waiting for him. It was Dennis Chang, who Williams was supposed to be staying with originally. The message reminded Williams that he had agreed to assist Chang in settling in to his new place with his family, who ironically were part of the first generation of colonists to the planet. Williams, Chang, and Nereid had all shared the same transport that made the lengthy flight from Earth to Terra Nova via the wormhole network, though she was to be deported to the Undine world of Meroien, which orbited Sirius C.

Wonder how’s she’s handling the change, hell, wonder how everyone is holding up, he thought as he went to reply to the message.

Williams sat in the backseat of the car piloted by one of Chang’s relatives after they arrived to pick him up from Liana’s house, an hour later. He watched the house and community shrink in size as the car of the twenty-second century took to the skies and take flight rapidly into the downtown district of the city.

“Thanks for coming out to help, Commander,” Chang said.

“Just stick to Dominic; I’m a nobody right now.”

“Dude, you helped make this city, hell, this whole colony a reality,” Chang said, pointing at the astonishing towers, high-rise office buildings, and condominiums in the horizon. “This whole planet is like Earth now; we made that shit happen, we are fucking celebrities.”

Yeah, celebrities the government doesn’t trust, Williams thought, and shifted his attention to the driver. “So, is he your relative that was a colonist aboard the Carl Sagan?”

Chang nodded. “The reason I transferred to the Carl Sagan in the first place? Yep, that’s him.”

“Well, sir,” Williams said to the man in the driver’s seat. “I guess we owe you a lot of thanks.”

“Oh?”

“If Dennis here had remained on the Nikola Tesla as planned, I don’t think we would have survived the Sirius fiasco.”

“I guess what he’s trying to say is that you’re the real hero because it allowed me to be on the team,” Chang said. “Hold up, Commander—”

“Dominic.”

“Yeah, whatever. Are you trying to say that I’m the real star of this story then?”

Williams slumped back in his chair. “No, I’m just extending my thanks—”

“Oh, no, no, no, you were totally hinting I was the real slayer out here,” Chang spat. “My flying, my skills, my epic rescue of Chevallier …. Well, I’ll be damned, it’s like I’m the main hero of some kind of space opera story and I didn’t know it.”

“Is he always like this at home?” Williams asked his relative.

“They’ll never know for certain, I’ll be spending most of my time at the UNE base, mentally preparing for my HNI surgery,” Chang said.

Williams’ gut turned at the mention of him getting the implant. “You gonna go through with it?”

“I don’t want to … but it’s the only way to get my ass in the seat of a fighter,” Chang said. “Or back in space for that matter. What really sucks is the amount of retraining I’ll have to do. Since people live longer lives, experience carries a lot more weight. It takes years just to get from the simulator then into a real cockpit.”

Williams gazed out the window peering into the blue skies of the Earth-like world while faint white light from Sirius B shimmered in the distance, the second sun in the sky of a world that was once alien to them.

“Wonder how many more years it will be before I get back into space …” Williams grumbled to himself.

“With everything on your plate?” Chang said. “It’s going to be a long time, and then to get promoted to captain? Yeah, I hope you enjoy watching paint dry. You know who Martin Xavier is right?”

“I read about him in the news before we left Earth.”

“He was a commander back in 2033 when we went to sleep for seventeen years on our cruise to Sirius. Fast forward to today and he’s a captain, multiple decades of service weren’t enough time for him to make it to admiral with the new standard of life.”

“People have developed unlimited patience,” said the driver and Chang’s relative. “It’s not uncommon to see people go to college or university at age forty because they spent the last twenty years or so partying. We control our age and, with that, control our destiny.”

“So, what happens to sleepins, like us?” Williams asked.

“Adapt, or sit on the sidelines,” Chang revealed.

Williams grunted. “I’d pay good money for a time machine right now …” Travel back to 2018 and prevent the Radiance and Hashmedai arrival so that we could continue to live alone on Earth not knowing what’s out there.

The skies of Terra Nova became obstructed with the buildings of the city, as their car flew into a heavily populated and high traffic area. They rapidly sped past a restaurant, one with a familiar logo and name.

Hot Sun Restaurant and Bar.

“Bro, did you see that?” Williams shouted to Chang, while his excited and racing mind flared up.

“The girl in the red jacket with the tits? Yes, sir, I did.”

“No, that restaurant’s name we just passed.”

“Oh no, didn’t catch it, was kinda distracted by the girl.”

“It was called Hot Sun.”

“And …?”

“Chef Bailey, he had a restaurant on Earth called that before we recruited him.”

“Oh … I see where you’re going with this,” Chang said. “Chef wasn’t on board when we vanished.”

“No, we dropped him off on the Poniga homeworld with a team of explorers before we went to investigate that ship.”

“You think he’s still kicking around?”

“A lot of the original colonists are thanks to gene therapy, who’s to say he isn’t?”

The driver chimed in. “Want me to turn around?”

“Let’s get Dennis settled in first, it is what we came out for,” Williams said.

Chang concurred. “I suppose, it’s not like it’s going anywhere anytime soon.”

Hot Sun Restaurant and Bar

Halley, Terra Nova, Sirius A system

August 9, 2118, 10:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams and Chang returned to the restaurant the next day, during the middle of a roaring lunch service. The two both eyed the contact information of the restaurant on a flickering holographic projection next to the front door. The name of the chef was a person neither of the two knew.

“Well, that’s encouraging,” Williams said sarcastically.

The interior and layout of the restaurant was similar to the Hot Sun establishment Williams and Foster had dined at near the Radiance Embassy on Earth. The food the service staff brought out to eager guests sitting at their tables had a similar smell and appearance; Earth and Radiance fusion cuisine.

As welcoming as the atmosphere inside was, the sign outside the door said it all. Chef Bailey was not the one in charge. Perhaps he was at one point; he did have all those years to make it happen during the development of the colony.

“Hold on,” Chang said, waving for Williams to follow him inside. “I’m fucking starving, let’s at least grab something to eat.”

The two were seated at a table next to a window giving them a view of the spring-touched streets outside, as cars flew back and forth. The menu had Bailey’s touch all over it. Salads, appetizers, the mains, it was all food that was once served on Earth, food that was once served to the crew of the Carl Sagan. There was even a soufflé as part of the dessert menu which Williams ordered to finish their dining experience.

The perfectly prepared dish sat before him, triggering deep thoughts in his head. “I could really go for his wise words right now,” Williams said.

“He was full of some deep stuff at times,” Chang said.

The server that took their orders arrived with the bill when the time came, as Williams reached for his credit chit, he asked. “Hey, by chance, did a man named Demarion Bailey work here in the past?”

“I think so,” said the server. “The first chef and owner of this place created the menu but went away on a spiritual retreat about ten years ago.”

“Just upped and left like that?”

“Vacation I think, he asked his assistant to take over until he returned,” said the server. “If he does … nobody can get ahold of him at the moment since he refused to receive HNI.”

Both Williams and Chang slowly tilted their heads to face each other. “That’s got to be him …” Chang said.

“Ten-year vacation though?” Williams said.

“Remember, people live forever now, a ten-year vacation probably is the norm nowadays,” said Chang.

The facts fit the profile. Chef Bailey was planning to retire from cooking before Williams had recruited him for the Sirius expedition. And his reason for accepting? Because Bailey wanted to go on a spiritual journey and figured Sirius would provide the perfect setting to do that.

Looks like Bailey finally got around to doing it, several decades later than planned, but he did it. I suppose that’s why his name wasn’t on the door.

“One last question,” Williams said as he paid his split of the bill. “Do you happen to know where the first chef went?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know, but he used to quote a lot of deep stuff from the Poniga culture,” said the server. “It really helped me out when I was feeling down on busy shifts. If he went anywhere in this system, maybe there?”

Bailey had inspired Williams to push on during a dark moment aboard the Carl Sagan, inspiration he once again needed to get through a new dark moment in his life and get his career back on track. Newfound determination in Williams began to stitch together a plan that would see him reunited with the old Jamaican man.

Besides, he was still part of the crew, a crew member who probably would like to know that we’re still alive after all that’s happened. “Chang, let’s go find an old friend.”

18 Foster

IESA Dorm, UNE Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 9, 2118, 04:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster crawled out from her bed groaning. She was awoken by the sound of a computer notification, five minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She brought the holographic display closer to her, sat at the edge of her bed, and flicked across it until she found the newly received message. It was Rivera delivering some good news. She had joined a team that was assigned to conduct a recovery operation aboard the Carl Sagan. Foster’s cat Starlet was found alive in what remained of her quarters, barely, but alive. Rivera informed her vets would take care of it and that plans had been made to ship it to her residence on the station, along with one other thing.

Foster scrolled the message down and was treated to a selfie of Rivera smirking within the overturned captain’s office on the Carl Sagan. In Rivera’s hand was Foster’s telescope.

Foster collapsed back onto her bed, joy and emotion ignited by the discovery that the two most important things she left behind on the Carl Sagan, were in one piece and coming back to her.

Her motivation to push forward in life was restored.

That was slightly diminished when she struggled for twenty minutes trying to figure out how to activate the shower, again. Turns out the holo display for its controls had been shoved off into the corner and minimized.

Were good ol’ fashion shower handles really that hard to make and install?

Kostelecky was long gone to her new post working at a clinic for IESA members and families who were assigned to the station by the time Foster slipped into her new freshly washed uniform, one that did not list her rank as a captain. She marched over to the airlock on the far end of the station’s arm through a series of maze-like corridors, past several IESA members scurrying about. She bumped into Pierce whom had been mulling around near the airlock’s large sliding doors.

Pierce smiled at her. “Ah, Captain—”

“Rebecca is fine for now.”

“Are you busy by chance? I was hoping maybe we could tour the station more with Kostelecky?”

Foster waved a fist full of documents she pulled out from the satchel across her shoulder. “First day at my new post, I’m headin’ there now.”

“Mind if I tag along then? I’m not due to report to my post for another three days.”

“Uh … sure? Don’t know what you gonna do though,” Foster said as she approached the airlock door.

“Observe you I suppose,” Pierce said after security staff allowed them both to pass through and board the small transport. “You are, after all, commuting to a job located over hundred light-years away. Never in my life did I imagine such a thing to be possible.”

“Yeah … well it is now.”

“And I’m going to witness it!” The two took a seat toward the back. “Foster, err, Rebecca, this is going to be an extraordinary moment for me.”

Foster rolled her eyes.

Transport en route to Jacobus

Kapteyn’s Star system

August 9, 2118, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Kapteyn’s Star was a red sub dwarf star, much smaller and dimmer compared to the sun Earth orbited located 12.7 light-years away from Earth. It was home to a planetary system that had been settled by the second generation of colonization ships that left Earth in the 2050s.

The planet Jacobus was the most populated world in the system. It was a super earth planet by definition, significantly larger than Earth’s, but small enough to possess a rocky surface and not be a gas giant. A thin yellow layer of haze blanketed most of the planet, while it’s barren, rocky, and mountainous surface were once covered by towering metropolis built by the Lyonria. In fact, it was the discovery of Jacobus, along with the planets in the Sirius system, which prompted the UNE to prioritize colonization of systems where the Lyonria had once inhabited thousands of years ago. This effectively cut Radiance and the Empire off from its secrets, until the UNE was ready to share.

At least that’s what Foster read in a travel brochure as their transport began to dip below the sea of never-ending clouds and fight with the heavier gravitational pull of the planet. Endless mountains and canyons dominated the view outside the transport’s window as they lowered themselves further away from the clouds.

Human-built cities connected via trams provided homes to the colonists. All cities were heated by plasma heaters, allowing its residents to forget about the chilly negative eighty-eight-degree temperatures that existed beyond. Some cities were straight-up built inside the mountains as there was little flat open space on the planet.

The IESA base which was the destination of the transport Foster and Pierce rode on happened to be located within one of those mountain-built cities. Their transport landed as a wide docking bay located on the side of a towering mountain slid open for their arrival. Gravity dampers took hold of the transport and its passengers, allowing them to experience Earth-like gravity, opposed to the heavy gravitational pull one would experience beyond city limits, which was 40 percent stronger than Earth.

“That was something,” Pierce said as the all clear to disembark was given.

Foster stood up and joined the small crowd of uniformed personnel exiting. “I’m glad you’re enjoyin’ it.”

Pierce’s face looked like a kid that arrived at a theme park for the first time, admiring the view of the alien landscape from the opened bay doors. She couldn’t blame him, the existence of the planet had been known long before humanity had taken to the stars, when early astronomers looked up at the night skies with advanced high-powered telescopes. Pierce had always been an expert at the stars and space, and most likely would have known about this planet and the star it orbited back then. In 2018, stepping foot on this world was nothing but a fantasy to him, in 2118 that fantasy had become a reality.

Foster retreated into the halls to let Pierce have his moment and arrived at her new assignment, a small, sparsely populated office space with rows of computers. The computer at her desk was configured to operate in legacy mode, in anticipation of her HNI-less brain. She was given a quick rundown of what she was expected to do by one of the administrators, review documents and findings the research teams uncovered in regard to Lyonria ruins. It was a desk job.

Foster went from commanding a starship to pushing papers, typing on a computer, and gazing at the clock, 5 p.m. couldn’t come soon enough. Meanwhile, there was still the threat of dragon-like invaders from beyond, lurking in the shadows while brave starship captains and their crew from IESA and the UNE military did their part to put an end to the conflict. The cold hard truth that she had been sidelined out of fear she was an agent for the invaders made her thoughts go numb as she stared blankly at her screen.

Was this a result of our actions in Sirius? Marduk did seem eager to reclaim Earth and then spread out throughout the galaxy. Are these invaders part of his backup plan we missed?

“You!” an agitated voice snapped at Foster, bringing her mind back into the present and the fact that she had yet to sit down in her chair.

Foster looked away from her screen and into the office, she saw no one around.

“Down here, human!” the voice raged at her again.

Looking down, Foster saw the irate individual, the tallest Vorcambreum woman she ever laid eyes on. She was approximately four feet in height, dressed in a long, black jacket that covered up her grey skin. “Why have I not been approved to search dig site alpha-four-three?” The Vorcambreum continued.

“I couldn’t tell ya, first day on the job here,” Foster replied. “I still haven’t been briefed on all my duties.”

“I don’t have the authorization to utilize IESA networks,” said the Vorcambreum. “Please can you conduct a search with your HNI and ascertain the answers I seek?”

“Ahh.” Foster scratched her head and twisted her mouth.

“Ahh, what?”

“I ain’t got those implants.”

“What?” The Vorcambreum slid her hands through her white hair in a frustrated manner. “That’s preposterous, everyone receives them when they are born.”

“Maybe she’s a sleepin boss,” said a Rabuabin man who stood at the doorway.

The Vorcambreum faced the Rabuabin and pointed her tiny finger at him. “Quiet, Vynei!”

“Your friend there is correct,” said Foster. “I’ve been asleep for sixty-eight years; missed out on all these developments, don’t even got that fancy gene therapy thingy.”

The Vorcambreum’s yellow eyes gave Foster’s face a closer and long look. Her eyebrow rose. “Hmm, you do appear to be much older than most humans I have encountered … Very well, I shall believe your story, for now. But mark my words, human, IESA will hear about this incident from me, assigning a sleepin like you to this post is unacceptable!”

Foster crossed her arms. “And you are?”

The Vorcambreum looked shocked, almost offended. “You don’t know who I am?”

“Most human sleepins don’t know you—”

“Quiet, Vynei!” The Vorcambreum silenced her friend. “Please excuse him, he often forgets I pay him to watch my back, not speak. But to answer your question, I am the great Eicelea, galactic-renowned archaeologist from Radiance.”

“Didn’t know UNE invited your people to study ruins they uncovered.”

“They don’t until they uncover something they are not smart enough to figure out on their own,” Eicelea said. “That’s when I get called in.”

“Well I’ll tell ya what, Miss Eicelea; I’ll see what I can do for you.”

“Very well, human, we shall depart to the ruins as the trip there via the tram will take many hours.” Eicelea retreated back to the doorway joining up with her partner Vynei. “I expect us to be granted entry upon our arrival, do not let us down, human.” Were her parting words.

Foster silently gave her parting words back as they disappeared from sight, her middle finger—

“I heard that!” Eicelea yelled from within the halls.

Foster returned to her holographic keyboard and interactive screens around her to process Eicelea’s request. Five minutes of searching and typing unveiled the two had been approved but required the confirmation to be sent via an HNI link for the approval to go live. Log reports showed the officer that was supposed to do it left it for Foster as they were transferred elsewhere, not realizing she lacked HNI.

Foster’s limited knowledge of twenty-second century computers did not turn up any viable work-around other than copying the approval message into a holo or data pad, and then handing it off to Eicelea for her to show it for inspection. Even then, such a work-around was by no means a simple one, data and holo pads were no longer frequently used due to HNI becoming commonplace.

After a ten-minute search, she blew away a layer of dust that had blanketed a holo pad found within a storage drawer in the far back corner of the office. With the approval transferred to it, she departed to catch up with the two, as giving them the pad was faster than searching for authorized personnel to make the approval go live, not that she had any means of contacting one.

She marched onto the only tram platform on the base, devoid of all personnel except Pierce who was examining a map of the region and the tram lines. Holographic displays hung high above listing the ETA for the next train.

“Hey,” Foster called out to Pierce. “Did you see them two Radiance folk board a tram?”

“A Rabuabin and Vorcambreum?”

“Yeah, them two.”

Pierce nodded. “You just missed them; they took a tram heading south.”

Foster’s face made a grimace as she made a loud grunt. She stopped herself from returning back into the office upon noticing the tram times listed on the holo screen above. A tram traveling south was expected to arrive in two minutes. “Ah, to hell with it.”

She stood front and center on the platform, ready to abandon her position within the first few hours of starting. Desk work wasn’t what she signed up for, space exploration was. Riding a tram across the rugged landscape of a planet she never stepped foot on would allow her to do just that. Sure, the planet had already been explored and colonized by humans, but from her point of view just days earlier, she was in the Sirius system in 2050. This world and the system it was in had been unexplored by humans during that time. It was still a newly discovered world to her mind damn it!

“Waiting for a ride?” Pierce said, standing next to her.

“I need to give this to ‘em.” She waved the holo pad. “Gonna see if I can catch ‘em.”

“First day on the job and you’re already ducking out, huh?”

“Hey now, that Eicelea woman made it clear she was gonna complain about me being here and acted all super important. Why piss her off even more? I’ll hand deliver this and save the higher ups some headaches.”

Laughter, much needed laughter, bellowed out from the two. It helped Foster mentally prepare for the aftermath of her leaving her post without speaking to anyone about it. If this was the way her career with IESA was going to end, so be it.

The tram drifted into the station and she took a final look back at the hallways of the base she had exited, bidding farewell to the life of following rules and stepping aboard the tram that would take her on a new course, living life by her rules.

Pierce joined her on the ride. They both took window seats and admired the view of the mountains the base was built into as the tram sped away. Foster, once again, felt like a deep space explorer.

19 Chevallier

ESV Robert Borden

Above the Mediterranean, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 12:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Stratosphere capital ships were smaller UNE carriers, destroyers, and cruisers capable of atmospheric and space flight. The concept to construct ships such as this had existed since humanity bore witness to ships of a similar caliber unleashed by the Empire in 2018. In fact, the first Imperial ship ever destroyed by humanity had been a stratosphere-based capital ship. This ultimately paved way for the people of Earth to obtain their first piece of advanced alien technology.

However, constructing a large and heavy vessel that could perpetually remain in the skies proved to be a difficult task at the time for humans, and in turn, they opted for the construction of space-based capital ships, relying on transports and fighters for atmospheric operations.

That was then, this is now.

ESV Robert Borden dipped into Earth’s atmosphere, red flames ripped across its forward overshields during its reentry, as the blackness around it faded into a light blue color with the summertime sun hanging above. It shoved aside a small gathering of clouds during its descent into the atmosphere alongside a stratosphere carrier and a cruiser. Chevallier had stood watching the impressive space to atmosphere maneuver unfold via an observation window. The three atmospheric, Earth-built capital ships circled above the Mediterranean Sea, casting large and eerie shadows upon the crystal clear waters below.

The last remains of the dragon invaders on Earth had been reported somewhere in the region. All UNE bases near the shorelines had been put on full alert, ships in orbit near the Mediterranean had been ordered to remain in a geosynchronous orbit in case things got nasty, and the dozens of transports that flew alongside the stratosphere ships were full of EDF personnel or Marines waiting for the call to jump into action. Everyone was ready to do their part in ridding Earth of the dragon-like invaders once and for all. The topside flight deck of the Robert Borden was no exception as it quickly became buzzing with activity. Transports and a squadron of fighters got prepared for action thanks to the scurrying crew personnel, while Chevallier and the EDF team arrived via a lift and awaited a transport of their own to be made available.

Chevallier meandered over to the edge of the flight deck, admiring the clouds that were directly ahead and the calm waters of the Mediterranean Sea below. It helped take Chevallier’s mind away from the pain of losing her mother, which was still roaming around.

“It sure is something, isn’t it?” LeBoeuf said. She had snuck up next to Chevallier to share the high up view with her.

“Yeah, it is,” Chevallier said.

“I’ve seen this place so many times in holovids, even in holographic recreations. But nothing beats this, the real deal.”

“It’s a shame it takes war to bring us out to this part of the planet.”

“Or in my case, Earth in general,” LeBoeuf said. “This is my first time on Earth.”

Hearing a human say something like that, made Chevallier’s face glare at her in a strange manner. She expected to hear words like that uttered by aliens, but a human? These were indeed strange times.

LeBoeuf smiled at her after noting the weird glare Chevallier made. “I’m from Ninura, a colony, say … hundred light-years from here? There’s like one lake on that planet, the rest of the surface is boring ass rocks. But to see this …” LeBoeuf stepped closer to the edge of the flight deck, appreciating the blueness located in the horizon beyond the massive drop. “To see this … and knowing that at one point in history, this was the only planet humans walked on … wow.”

Chevallier shook her head. Her lips twisted upon noticing the writing etched onto LeBoeuf’s shoulder pads. ‘Witch Queen.’

Questions had to be asked.

“What’s with that name?” Chevallier said, pointing at her shoulder pads.

LeBoeuf chuckled. “It means what it means.”

“I don’t follow.”

“We call her kind ‘Warlocks,’” Maxwell interjected, having joined the two at the edge of the ship.

“Human psionics are divided into three categories,” LeBoeuf explained. “We nicknamed them Warlocks, Ravagers, and Mystics. How talented you are with psionic skills and the amount of cybernetic augmentation you are willing to receive determines your class. I happen to be one of the top Warlocks and earned the title Witch Queen by my peers.”

“Or in the case of her ex-boyfriend.” Maxwell snickered. “Bitch Queen.”

“Fuck off, Maxwell,” LeBoeuf spat.

Maxwell laughed like a hyena. His laughter was loud enough to turn the heads of a number of flight deck crew personnel.

“Boyfriend, eh?” Chevallier said to her with a smirk. “With all due respect—”

“Why is it whenever someone says, ‘with all due respect’ they follow-up by saying something disrespectful?”

Chevallier looked up and down at LeBoeuf’s skintight gear, and numerous cybernetic parts and cables hanging off it. “How do you have sex with all those implants and wires?”

“Very, very carefully …” LeBoeuf rolled her eyes.

“Foreplay requires a safe word.” Maxwell snickered.

An hour had passed, with no signs of enemy forces, no detection via scanners, nothing via ESP, and Chevallier was getting tired of watching the same plumes of clouds roll past while she sat with Boyd and the rest of his team.

“Well, this is exciting,” Chevallier said to Boyd sarcastically.

“The other ships haven’t reported anything,” Boyd said.

Chevallier looked at the landing strip, now devoid of all fighters. “How much longer are we going to stay out here?”

“All other enemy forces have been eliminated; this is the last group that needs to be dealt with.” He rubbed his forehead in frustration. “Command doesn’t want to pull out since we’re so close to finishing them.”

“What happens if they don’t show?”

“We’ll return and keep an eye on things for another day. If nothing then we’ll probably send you to get your implants, and then head back out into deep space to search for the invader’s fleet—”

“Guys!” It was LeBoeuf.

She stood up from her rest on the floor looking distraught as the holographic bracelets twirling around her wrists pulsed red.

Chevallier and Boyd stood behind her and saw LeBoeuf’s cybernetics hum and flair up with blue colors. Her body entered a quick trance, her breathing accelerated, and her face flinched. She broke out of the trance, crafting a small three-dimensional projection of the region with a brief wave and twirl of her hands and fingers. There was something big directly below.

Chevallier’s body felt the effects of adrenaline pour through her. She went for her rifle, and her mind ran a quick review of what she learned of the new gear she had to use and how to operate it without HNI.

The sea below began to slowly part as if a submarine the size of a small fortress was rising up. The UNE fleet above held position and waited for what came next.

“We got something big down there!” Chevallier yelled as she witnessed the mystery below unfold from the edge of the flight deck.

LeBoeuf’s eyes looked away from the hologram. “Holy shit, get ready!”

A long-necked scaly monster, no, a dragon raised its head, neck, and upper body from the sea, rapidly sending violent tidal waves in all directions. It scales were blue like the oceans of Earth; its tail alone was nearly double the length of its body and head combined. Its massive arms and legs stroked the waters around it, helping it propel across the Mediterranean at impressive speeds, speeds that forced the UNE group above to flare their thrusters and keep up with it. Numerous apertures ran along the tough back skin of the beast, the sea wyrm, as LeBoeuf began to call it. The apertures slithered open and allowed slime-coated wyverns to squeeze their bodies out, shaking their form and wings swiftly to rid themselves of the goo.

There were four at first. Then eight as more apertures opened, each one releasing two to three wyverns. Ten more opened thirty seconds later.

The skies became populated with wyverns seconds later.

Boyd reviewed his tactical hologram, and his face winced. “This is Sergeant Boyd to all UNE forces, we have confirmation of a super massive creature on a direct course to Lebanon. Alert all units in the area!”

The skies above the Mediterranean turned into a warzone.

Fighters sprung to action, launching in wave upon wave from their stratosphere carrier home. Their dogfighting skills filled the skies with plasma missiles and rail gun fire bullets. The stratosphere ships opened fire, lines of blue and white particle cannon fire formed almost perpetual grids of blue and white in the wake of their attacks.

Wyverns countered with dive-bombs and plasma flames from their breaths. Heavily augmented ones chased fighters with their mounted tachyon cannons. Fighter pilots, whose crafts became engulfed in flames ejected, well those that were lucky enough to do so in time. There was a seemingly never-ending stream of wyverns flying off the back of the sea wyrm as it swam at mind-blowingly high speeds. For every bloody husk of half-vaporized wyvern that fell into the sea, two more sprung up from the back of the wyrm.

Boyd called out to his team and Chevallier, gesturing to go back to the lower decks. There was no point in having the four up top. This was a battle for the flyboys and girls until the UNE regained air superiority.

Unknown to them, however, was the quick about-face the sea wyrm made in the sea the below, bringing its face to look up at the stratosphere carrier and the hundreds of swarming fighters it spewed out. The wyrm’s jaws opened and unveiled its collection of intimidating teeth resting inside a mouth more than capable of biting and tearing apart the bridge of any capital ship. Light began to build up from its throat, psionic light. The water and moisture that had rained down from the lips of the beast turned into vapor as the light from its throat shot into the skies in the form of a wide and continuous burst of tachyons.

The overshields of the stratosphere carrier flickered twice, then shattered when the beam from the wyrm hit in conjunction with the assault from swarming wyverns.

A red, glowing hole melted through the underside of the carrier, and then out from its topside. A chain reaction of internal explosions sent the carrier down from the skies, staining the white fluffy clouds a shade black from the billowing flames.

Chevallier tried to remain calm but doing such a thing proved to be a challenge when the shadow of the crashing carrier loomed over top. A collision with the Robert Borden was inevitable.

“Oh, for fuck sakes!” Chevallier roared.

The Robert Borden rocked violently when the carrier hit. Explosions repelled off its overshields before they shattered. Its regular shields came next as the carrier’s remains broke apart, creating explosion after explosion, crushing the entrance back to the lower decks. She faced away from the crashing carrier and fled across the flight deck.

Ferocious blasts of red and orange flames expanded outward, raging fragments of distorted metal and debris scattered, followed by the deafening sound of two colliding ships meeting their ends. Chevallier could tell by the look on Boyd’s face, he was glad neither of them had gotten around to entering the lower decks as he, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf ran alongside her.

A secondary blast sent the nose of the Robert Borden pointing to the skies at a forty-five-degree angle. The flight deck became a steep incline, one where artificial gravity and inertia dampers were no longer a reality due to the intense damage the ship received. The four and surviving flight deck crew tumbled backwards as if the outside deck was a slide, a slide where a deadly inferno and the remains of a crashed carrier awaited them with open arms.

Two idle transports approached Chevallier during her slide, their magnetically locked landing gear kept them still. She kept her back to the surface while sliding and shifted to the left most idle transport. Her hands hooked onto its side handlebar as she neared. She ignored the wails of crewmen falling into the inferno or off the sides of the flight deck into the sea, bad enough the horrific cries could very well have been Boyd, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell as none of them were to be seen.

The burning Robert Borden continued plunging toward the sea thanks to the remains of the carrier jammed into its aft, forcing it down. With that plunge came diving wyverns searing the now shield-free, crashing ship with their plasma breath, adding insult to injury.

Chevallier tried to get back to her feet, using the magnetically bound transport as a step. She was denied by another blast.

And then another.

Sparks, fires, and smoke rose from the inferno, obscuring her vision. The sea below grew larger in size, as did the sea wyrm unleashing new wyverns into the deadly air to air bout. Alerts within her protect suit beeped repeatedly, an overlay on her HUD revealed their altitude was decreasing rapidly. Forget alien invaders, dragons were one tough adversary.

Chevallier faced the sea below and gave the sea wyrm that swam through it a devious smile. She let go of the transport and allowed the blue thrusts of her jump jet to take her over the edge.

She was free. There was nothing above, below, or around her, just the rushing winds of Earth breezing across the shields of her suit and the Earth’s gravity pulling her into a freefall. The leap of fate gave her a better view of the battlefield and its relentless exchange of tachyon beams and scattering plasma breaths with particle cannons and rail guns. Dragons were pitted against UNE fighters above the glorious sea with a murderous sea wyrm chopping through the waters.

It was insanity. Their sane tactics weren’t cutting it.

It was time for something new.

Chevallier reached for her wrist holo screen to activate her MRF and slow her descent with reduced mass. She couldn’t find the button for it and dropped like a skydiver with no parachute.

Her fall broke when she crashed into the back of an unsuspecting wyvern below her. The beast arched its back hastily and shrieked loudly, drowning out the flapping noises its massive wings made. Chevallier held on, wrapping her hands around its thin and rough neck.

An aerial wrestling match ensued, as the two fought for the right to live to see another day. The wyvern moved and rocked its body swiftly, Chevallier held on. It somersaulted, her grip came lose, it shook, and, suddenly, Chevallier felt gravity take hold of her body again.

Looking up, she saw the tip of its right wing flapping. It was too much of a stretch for her hand to grab ahold of at first, reentering another freefall didn’t help. Its wing lowered to complete the flap, gravity no longer pulled her down.

The wyvern roared as her firm grip squeezed into the flesh of its wing and countered by positioning its body up right and wrapped Chevallier’s body up with its ten-foot-long tail. The strong muscles within its tail brought her body up and forward to face its menacing glare. Her shields held at 84 percent despite the strong grip holding her still. Lucky for Chevallier, her arms had been held high up during the unexpected binding.

Hands and arms, it was all she had to work with.

The two gazed into each other’s eyes once they met face-to-face. The wyvern’s jaws, dressed with implants, swung open, Chevallier grimaced. She saw three rows of pointy eight-inch teeth and dripping saliva that fell from the roof of its mouth. Chevallier pushed away the thought of what its teeth could do to her shields if its binding tail dropped them to 84 already.

It moved in to take a bite of her.

She reached back and searched for her rifle, she didn’t feel it.

Fuck!

The first bite caused her shields to distort and flicker rapidly. She saw blue swirling colors for a solid five seconds.

Then came the second bite, or so she assumed, once again, blue waves blinded everything around her. She made another attempt to confirm if her rifle, which was strapped to her back, had fallen off during the struggle.

She felt nothing.

Her shields fell to 50 percent.

She searched again for the weapon, nothing.

Shields: 34 percent.

Chevallier felt something solid, metallic, and human-made, it wasn’t her suit’s shoulders. She found the dangling rifle and aimed it forward with haste and fed the wyvern something to eat other than her, two point-blank particle beam blasts. The back of its throat vaporized, the intensity of the ionized particles spread to incinerate the rest of its neck. Red embers and ash blew away in the winds as the head of the wyvern separated from its body. Gravity, once again, became an issue, and this time she was wrapped within the death grip of a dead dragon.

Chevallier’s frantic search for the MRF controls resumed as her altitude dropped and the sea wyrm and sea surface neared. For a split second, she really wished she had gotten the HNI implants.

Seconds before impact, she felt the mass of her form reduce enough to slip away from the tail of the headless wyvern and slow the speed of her fall. She looked down and watched the beast tumble and splash into the sea next to the hulking sea wyrm still racing to the east, the back of the wyrm also happened to be her source of solid mass to stand on. Carefully timed thrusts from her jets with her altered mass, allowed her body to gradually glide down onto the back of the swimming wyrm. She stumbled briefly on impact, and felt the roaring winds attempt to blow her off the back of the wyrm. A quick readjustment of her mass rectified that issue.

One problem dealt with, now for the next, she thought as the Robert Borden and the carrier that brought it down exploded on impact into the sea. There was one UNE capital ship still in the skies and judging by the sheer number of wyverns circling and harassing it, it wasn’t going to swing by for a rescue anytime soon.

Chevallier was alone, stranded on the back of a wyrm making a marathon swim to the eastern portion of the Mediterranean.

Or so she thought.

“Chief!” Maxwell shouted, and waved to her as she spotted him and Boyd several steps across the blue-scaled back of the wyrm. She smiled at the two during her approach as they too had caught onto her idea of leaping off the crashing destroyer, though they obviously had a much smoother and less dangerous fall.

“Thought we lost you,” Boyd said to her.

“Where’s LeBoeuf?” Chevallier asked, looking from side to side.

“Further up with a survivor from the crash,” Boyd said, and gestured to a clearing across the skin of the beast before the three.

They marched over to the location in question. Chevallier’s face flinched at the various apertures they stepped over as they neared. Not long ago, said apertures were releasing swarms of wyverns. She held onto her rifle tightly, expecting the unexpected, and hoped the Marine that stood with LeBoeuf was as paranoid as she while his red hair blew in the winds.

“Okay so, we’re standing on top of a giant dragon, that’s taking us further and further away from the battle,” Maxwell commented. “Now what?”

“Now, we come to terms as to what the fuck happened,” said the Marine, Corporal McMillan.

“Not much we can do,” Boyd said. “Those wyverns got every airborne asset we have under a lot of pressure.” Boyd waved his left hand in a circular motion, and a holographic tactical screen appeared as a result. He examined the data. “We got reinforcements coming in to support them and cities to the east where this dragon is swimming to.”

“That’s it?” Maxwell bellowed in a worried manner.

Boyd pointed at the burning wreckage of the carrier and the Robert Borden floating up top of the sea’s surface, spewing black smoke into the sky. “This creature just butt-fucked two of our strato-ships in a matter of seconds, they aren’t going to take any risks right now.”

“Correction, sir,” LeBoeuf said. “It’s not a creature, it’s a ship.” LeBoeuf directed them to her hologram. She conjured a side-by-side view of the creature in the sea they stood on and one of the invader capital ships that attacked Earth. “The ships that attacked us were organic and from what I’m able to sense, this thing we’re standing on is nothing more than a smaller version of the ships.”

Chevallier looked to the horizon, and the head of the wyrm bobbing up and down as it continued to tread through the sea. “A ship that has a head, arms, and legs? The fuck?”

“You said it,” Maxwell chimed in. “The fuck, indeed.”

“It makes sense if they wanted it to swim and remain undetected,” LeBoeuf said. “We were scanning for large energy signatures which the invader ships did have. This thing below us operates mostly on elbow grease.”

“That beam it shot out from its mouth looked like it needed to be powered by a large energy signature,” Boyd said drily.

“That beam was psionically powered,” LeBoeuf said. “I sensed its psionic force seconds before it went off.”

“So, if what you’re saying is true.” Boyd paused to choose his next words. “You’re saying that inside this dragon turned into a ship, is?”

“More bad guys—”

Creepy noises silenced the four along with the surviving Marine, McMillan. Five rifles rose, and five targeting scanners reported no hostile targets. The noises sounded as if flesh was being torn and slashed opened. The apertures that littered the back of the wyrm vibrated, such as the ones closest to them. And the many they stood over top of.

Chevallier’s rifle fixed on the first aperture that began to open wide. “Look alive, people, we got incoming!”

A grotesque-looking collection of wyverns, invader foot soldiers, and drakes crawled up and out of the slit-like apertures before them like zombies in a horror movie. The newly arrived dragons and half-dragon-like soldiers were drenched in the same translucent goo witnessed earlier. The drakes lurched forward first and took on the role of a tank, as the tachyon-wielding soldiers stood behind, and the wyverns took to the skies. A fight with the five humans that imposed on their vessel was inevitable.

“LeBoeuf, feel free to teleport us out of here if a ship is in range!” Boyd shouted to her.

“Ideally, one that isn’t in distress,” McMillan added.

“Nothing safe is in range,” LeBoeuf said. “And remember, this is my first time on Earth, site-to-site teleportation from me isn’t recommended unless you want to risk ending up inside of a mountain.”

“Was afraid you’d say that,” Boyd said as he primed his weapon for action, gazing at the coming violence without fear. “Alright, Witch Queen, you’re up.”

LeBoeuf’s arms rose while the holographic bracelets that twirled around her wrists changed to a light purple color and her implants began to shine and glow with psionic energy. A psionic barrier flashed into existence ahead of her, one that resembled a wall, more like a barricade. It was perfect cover for the storm that drew near.

Chevallier, Maxell, Boyd, and McMillan hunkered behind it and periodically rose up to spray their human might into the battlefield, retreating behind it when the invader soldiers returned fire with their tachyon rifles. Chevallier remembered her tips and used particle beam strikes for targets that got too close and needed to be vaporized right away, namely the stampeding drake tanks which the soldiers hid behind.

“This is new,” Chevallier said, ducking from a tachyon beam.

“You can thank the Lyonria for that,” Boyd said. “They’ve been messing with our genes since ancient times. Human psionics got tricks Hashmedai and Radiance psionics can’t do.”

LeBoeuf’s rifle remained silent, as she opted to use her abilities for support. Drake tanks were pushed backward with the thrust of her hands, and wyverns were flicked away with telekinesis as she used what mental strength she could spare to reinforce the psionic barricade. Maxwell’s psionic rifle entered cryonic mode, snap freezing targets he found, then shattering them into pieces with a telekinetic push. McMillan and his exosuit body delivered three back-to-back headshots, splattering invader brains in random directions from the exit wound.

Chevallier’s rifle put down the last attacker, she grinned. Watching invaders die screaming was incredibly invigorating. She hoped her mother, from beyond, was watching and enjoying the show she put on.

More sounds of flesh tearing echoed. Another wave of enemy forces was due to pop out from the slimy interior of the apertures. Chevallier was more than willing to stand there all day and send them all to hell.

“We need to move,” Boyd said, scanning the area around them.

Running was the last thing on her mind. She wanted to stand her ground and fight. The dead dragons before her wasn’t enough, she wanted the entire surface of the back of the beast they rode on drenched with their blood, even if it killed her. At least, if it came to that, she’d be able to join her mother.

Someone screaming horrifically made her change her mind instantly.

One of the apertures below them opened, McMillan stood over it. Chevallier watched as his screaming body was pulled under and out of sight, jets of blood squirted upward like a broken fire hydrant seconds later. The apertures evidently had another function, human meat grinder.

Going out like that wasn’t exactly what she had in mind for a glorious death her mother would be proud of. Chevallier made sure to keep up with Boyd and the gang, while watching her racing footsteps, ensuring not to stomp into the hundreds, if not thousands, of lip-like apertures waiting to spit up new targets to attack them or swallow her.

Boyd tried to call for help, so did the dozens of fighter pilots that ejected from their crafts, so did the survivors from the downed capital ships. Everyone needed help, and they all needed it more than they did. What they needed was another way to survive until their turn came. Chevallier searched frantically as new dragons and half-dragons slowly began to emerge from the apertures around them during their retreat.

She found it.

Chevallier stood ahead of a large aperture and stared down at its goo-soaked lips which were in the process of parting and paving the way for more horrific surprises to leap out. As Chevallier recalled, if this creature was really a ship, then these dragons and half-dragon soldiers were its crew. The apertures were entrances into their ship.

“Here!” Chevallier called out to her group. Once their attention was drawn she pointed to the aperture below her. “Get inside.”

Maxwell’s face was flabbergasted. “Are you fucking crazy? Did you not see what that did to the poor guy?”

“He wasn’t ready,” Chevallier lowered her rifle and fired four rounds into the opening of the aperture, a muffled scream came out. “We are.”

“How does going inside help us?” Maxwell said.

“Fine, stay out here with those flying things,” Chevallier said then returned to firing rounds down into the slit.

Maxwell faced Boyd. “Sir?”

“I don’t see any other option,” he said, and joined Chevallier. “Maxwell, LeBoeuf, force this fucker to open up.”

LeBoeuf and Maxwell stood shoulder to shoulder, held their hands above the aperture, used their psionic might to force it open, and brought to light its soft, red, and slippery flesh going down. Three snarling foot soldiers within the aperture attempted to pull their bodies up to the surface, Chevallier and Boyd’s rifles put them back down and then sprayed additional rounds to ensure the hole going down was clear and safe.

Tactical scans revealed no possible contacts were present, and no signs of anything dangerous to them were inside if they entered. It was the entrance into the living ship, the escape from the terror nearing them. The four stood and exchanged neutral glances, not one of them wanted to take the first plunge.

“Fine, geez,” Chevallier said, and dove in.

20 Chevallier

Sea Wyrm Interior

Mediterranean Sea, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 14:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The fall was deep, much more than she thought it was. Chevallier’s slide down into the belly of the wyrm took two minutes, during which she cringed at the strange goo that coated her shields, and the swishing sounds the flesh made when her body slid over it. Light became rare the deeper she fell into the orifice, forcing her helmet’s night vision to power on.

The journey ended when she fell out from a slit on the wall, landing inside a darkened passageway over top of two corpses. It was the soldiers they recently gunned and pushed down. Their theory was correct, however, the wyrm wasn’t just a dragon, it was a vessel. A quick scout ahead revealed a maze of hallways, rooms, pipes, air vents, and even computers surrounded by throbbing flesh and organic material.

The interior of a ship was built inside a dragon, for lack of a better term. What kind of sick and twisted species are we dealing with?

Boyd’s body tumbled out of the slit on the wall next, followed by LeBoeuf and Maxwell last. Of course, he’d be last. The EDF soldiers came to their feet, except Maxwell who laid down looking up at the flesh covered ceiling that dripped a strange liquid.

“Yo, Maxwell, you okay?” Boyd said.

“I feel like I got pushed into a five-credit hooker’s vagina,” Maxwell moaned. “No, I’m not okay, sir.”

Boyd laughed and lightly kicked the side of Maxwell’s body, triggering his shields to flash. “At least you had protection.”

The four began a long trek through the maze of tunnels of the living ship, keeping an eye out for its crew, and listening to the strange noises in the distance. It wasn’t by any means a smooth walk, understandable since the wyrm was still swimming rapidly to the east. Any sudden turns it made they felt, and nearly tipped over. Random vibrations trembled across the floor, and they didn’t feel natural. The UNE might have begun bombing runs, and according to Boyd, now would have been the time backup from the UNE would make their presence known. It was both good and bad news, good because it meant the UNE had regained air superiority, bad because, well, they were still inside.

None of them were able to establish a communication link to the outside world, interference from being so deep inside the creature they suspected. Said interference, no doubt, was hindering LeBoeuf’s ability to teleport out. Though the most likely reason was because of the unknown cybernetics the wyrm had on its insides and out. The four intruding humans encountered a dozen search parties, including a group that most likely arrived after them from the surface.

Being caught in the maze worked out nicely as they were able to hide in dead ends, and then wait for patrols to pass. When said patrols lurched past, the four silently vaporized them and kicked the ashes and melted metal aside, eliminating the risk of another patrol discovering bullet-ridden bodies. The trade-off, however, was that it drained Boyd and Chevallier’s rifle batteries, while putting more mental drain on the psionic duo, as if they didn’t go through enough. Ammo conservation, for lack of a better term, was a reality.

“Keep your HNI on record guys,” Boyd said, looking around. “’Cause we’re getting some top-tier intel right now.”

“You weren’t kidding, it is a full-on bio-ship,” Maxwell said.

“I guess the invaders took a creature from their homeworld, stuffed it with cybernetics and corridors for a crew to operate in,” LeBoeuf said.

“And not one person noticed it do the butterfly dive from orbit into the fucking Mediterranean?” Maxwell snorted.

“Who knows? There was a lot of confusion during the opening hours of the attack,” Boyd grunted.

The four encountered two soldiers standing guard in front of a disk-shaped doorway. It looked like the opened mouth of an earthworm, complete with tiny teeth encircling it.

“Two guards standing watch,” Boyd whispered as they hid around the corner. “There’s probably something important inside.”

A double check of motion sensors revealed no other patrols were inbound, and probably nobody beyond the mouth-like doorway. Chevallier checked the status of her rifle’s power via its tiny holographic window. It was still up for more action. The four stormed away from their cover and greeted the guards with their energy weapons. Two piles of ashes blew away as they stood looking at the horrific doorway.

The mouth-like doorway retracted, almost as if it detected their presence and gave them access to what was beyond. Chevallier eyed the doorway and passageway that was lined with teeth and slime-coated flesh. Her face winced. I’m going to have nightmares about this place for years …

Chevallier crawled in along with her team, and ensured her finger was close to the trigger of her rifle, paranoia was at an all-time high. Night vision lit the way into the wet, gooey, and narrow passageway, one that forced them to crouch in order to pass through. Her teammates followed behind and then stopped suddenly when their motion sensors began to pulse with information.

“Anyone else noticing the same pattern of motion from this ship?” Chevallier asked.

Boyd concurred. “Yeah, thought it was just their troops making a whole lot of noise but …”

“There’s a pattern to the sounds,” Chevallier said. “It is consistent, like a heartbeat.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, indeed,” LeBoeuf said. “This is organic after all, and all living things need a heart to live, bio-ships are no exception.”

The heartbeat-like pulses on their motion detectors guided them through the narrow and sticky passageway into a central chamber, shaped like the inside of a hollowed sphere. The four stealthily looked over a railing before them after exiting the passageway. They took note that there were two levels to the chamber, a top level, where they stood, and a lower one where humanoid invaders without any armor operated computer stations. In the center of it all? The enormous heart of the wyrm, beating rapidly and pumping blood into its body via numerous veins the size of steam pipes.

The vantage point they had gave Chevallier the opportunity to closely examine the humanoid invaders, using the enhance zoom function of her helmet’s camera. The appearance of the invaders looked as if a human and dragon had a child, featuring long tails, razor-sharp claws for hands and feet, horns, thick, scaly skin, and yellow eyes that glowed, almost like a Hashmedai. Some were male, others were female, and it was easy to tell since they didn’t wear any clothes. Oddly enough, not all of them had tails and a select few had long and thin wings growing from their backs.

“Any bright ideas?” Maxwell said.

“Shoot it and give it a heart attack,” Chevallier snorted.

Maxwell gestured to the forces below the balcony. “And them?”

“They’ll probably be pissed and come after us,” Chevallier said.

“I say we should come back later with a full strike team,” LeBoeuf suggested, while observing the number of targets below. “We’re going to have a huge fight on our hands if we go loud. We should search for a place further away from the psionic interference, so I can teleport us all outta here.”

“Last time I checked, this is on a direct course to the east. Who knows what it will do once it gets there,” Chevallier said, standing up and priming her rifle. “We can kill it right now and prevent a shitshow.”

“Or, we could blow our load, not kill it, be stuck inside, and hunted. Let’s be smart about this.”

“I’m glad you weren’t part of the Sirius team,” Chevallier spat.

LeBoeuf faced Boyd. “Sir?”

She heard him sigh over their comm channel. “Stand down, Chevallier. We got priceless intel that needs to get out. We’ll come back with a stronger team, now that we know how to get in.”

“Fuck that,” Chevallier said, and peered through her scope, zooming in on one of the blood vessels. “Maxwell, LeBoeuf, you take care of any hostiles that come after us. Boyd and I will serve up some heartburn.”

“Whoa, when did she start giving orders?” Maxwell said.

Boyd forced the barrel of Chevallier’s rifle to lower with his firm hand pushing down on it. “Stand down, now! That’s an order!”

“Step aside if you’re not going to help.”

“Chevallier, we’re not doing this right now—”

“Just watch me.” Chevallier smirked beneath her helmet.

Her rifle switched gears entering projectile fire mode. Its rapidly fired bangs drew the attention of the shocked invader forces below and forced Boyd, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf to assist. Chevallier might have been going against orders and what they wanted, but she knew, like all soldiers, they weren’t going to leave her behind to suffer when the enemy started moving. She had plenty of experience to know this for a fact. Plus, where would they go? Even if they found a place free from interference, LeBoeuf wasn’t going to be able to make a teleport while under fire, much like how she was now, as her psionic barrier deflected weapons fire.

Shooting when told to hold, holding when told to shoot, it was the way Chevallier treated combat situations in which she didn’t agree with her CO, which was always. It’s what got her into trouble a lot, and it was her mother’s influence and rank in the navy that kept her out of the brig, until she was forced to the Sirius expedition. Even then, being eight light-years away from Earth didn’t stop her from doing things her way. Chevallier’s mother being dead, and her stuck inside the chest of a dragon, wasn’t going to change a damn thing.

Her impulsive nature and gunplay always produced results, such as the results her tactical HUD gave her, confirming the heartbeat of the wyrm was suffering. The ruptured veins began to spill a fountain of blood within the chamber amidst the death from above her team delivered onto the raging humanoid dragons below.

Chevallier’s finger released from the trigger as she lowered her smoking-hot rifle. She watched the now idle and bullet-ridden heart and veins drain its thick and warm fluids below, washing away the dead and not-so-dead invaders. She noticed plumes of steam escape the dead heart, and waves of more rising away from the now bubbling and growing ocean of blood below them. Thermal scans revealed its temperatures to be two-hundred three degrees Celsius and rising. Water boils at one-hundred.

The blood was showing no signs of stopping, and the second level they stood on was poised to become flooded with the super-heated liquid that would burn and drain their shield power. The sudden rumbles felt below their feet that tossed them all off balance didn’t help. The wyrm was dying and probably rolling in pain.

“Chevallier …” Boyd firmly said to her.

“Write me up later, we need to get out.” Looking at their psionic duo, Chevallier asked. “I assume teleportation is still off the menu, yes?” Chevallier had hoped with the wyrm dying that perhaps the psionic interference would fade and allow for teleportation. The angry glares that came at her from the two said otherwise. She shrugged it off. “Anyone remember the path we used to come in?”

The four backtracked into the narrow corridor, and most likely missed the entrance that they had used to enter it originally as they found themselves inside a maze of hallways that looked unfamiliar. They ran as the boiling hot blood seeped through the walls, flooding the floor, and dripped from the ceiling, burning everything it touched.

Left, right, left, left … they ran through the maze unsure of where to go.

The blood continued to rise at their feet, and their shields continued to lower slightly each time their feet splashed through it.

Right, right, left, and dead end. “Fuck!”

Backtrack, left, left, right? They were back where they started. The blood had reached their ankles and maintained its roaring, bubbling, and boiling effect.

They arrived at a long hallway where the walls took on a different appearance. The fleshlike hull was thicker than what they encountered previously.

“I don’t remember any of this …” Maxwell commented as they ran past.

Chevallier stopped and examined her helmet’s tactical scanner, then ran her hands across its surface. “This is the wall.”

Maxwell faced her and said. “It’s a wall? You don’t say!”

Chevallier smiled. “As in the outside world is beyond it!”

The rising blood rose to their waists, while their shields whistled alerts at the constant damage they were receiving. They didn’t have long before their shields shattered, and the armor melted from the rising heat. They would burn to death before they drowned.

“Why does it have to be burning hot blood?” Maxwell panicked, looking down at their impending doom.

“I guess it keeps the ship warm when it’s flying through space,” LeBoeuf said.

“Well it’s not in space now, why can’t it—”

“Maxwell, I don’t know how these operate!”

“Everyone, shut up!” Boyd said, and brought up a holographic window … smiling. “Chevallier was right, this must be the edge. I can get a signal.” Boyd waded through the rising blood standing next to the thick flesh of a wall. His HNI-conjured hologram listing all UNE fighters in the region. “This is EDF lead to any fighters in the AO; I need multiple airstrikes at my signal, ASAP.”

Static was the reply, Boyd tried again.

Static. Time was running out, as indicated by the now chest-high blood and Chevallier losing count of how many times Maxwell screamed, ‘fuck.’

“Copy that, EDF, ships inbound, ETA, forty-five seconds.”

The submerged communication window vanished.

“Multiple?” Maxwell asked.

“According to my HNI, they’ve been bombing this thing without doing any damage to the inside,” Boyd said. “If we want a hole in the wall, we’re going to need everything thrown at it at once.”

The four stood back, making rippling waves through the chest-high blood and flashing warnings that shield power had dropped to 23 percent. “If you guys have any powers left, now would be a time to use ‘em,” Boyd added.

“Might be able to deflect shrapnel with telekinesis, but not much,” LeBoeuf said.

“We’ll take anything.”

“Twenty seconds.”

“Get ready.”

A countdown on Chevallier’s HUD ticked away as the tactical scanners projected seven tiny yellow dots streak away from seven blue dots above them.

The plasma explosion that followed flung everyone backward, sending rays of sunlight into the darkened insides of the wyrm. The blood that had encircled them poured out like a rushing waterfall, taking them along for the wild and fast-paced ride. One by one their bodies fell onto a sandy beach and hastily rolled away to save what little shield power they had from the boiling and steaming blood that still poured.

Chevallier retrieved her rifle, limped up, and gasped. The wyrm had made landfall before it died. They were too late.

The beach they stood on, and the city before it, became a warzone infested with dragons.

21 Foster

Ancient City

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

August 9, 2118, 15:33 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster and Pierce’s two plus hour tram ride across the rocky surface of Jacobus came to an end, bringing the two uniformed IESA personnel to a security check situated outside the tram station. As they approached, Pierce directed his finger to a visually frustrated Vorcambreum woman arguing with a security guard, and a Rabuabin man with a magnetic rifle slung over his shoulders.

“Those two, right?” Pierce asked her.

Foster looked and confirmed on hearing the raging voice of a four-foot tall woman yelling upward at the human guard, it was none other than Eicelea and her partner Vynei. “Yep, that’s ‘em all right and they look mighty pissed.”

Foster approached first with the holo pad containing Eicelea’s approval in her grasp. “Excuse me,” Foster said.

Foster’s voice instantly got Eicelea to spin away from the security guard and stare up at her. “You!”

“Yes me, and I gots your permit to enter.”

Foster handed it off to the guard. He flicked through the holographic screen of the pad, nodded, and gave it back to her. “Alright you four are cleared to enter,” he said.

“Four?” Eicelea said with her hands wrapped around her hips. “It’s just the two of us going.”

“All IESA members are allowed to enter,” said the guard.

Eicelea and Vynei walked past the checkpoint as Foster grinned and looked out at the ancient city in the distance and its high rising skyscrapers that sat at the feet of majestic mountains. An ancient city full of discovery, adventure, and ancient tech, it was the type of work she was doing in Sirius, the type of work she should be doing now.

“Travis, let’s take a walk,” she called out to him, waving him over to the checkpoint.

“Why do I get the feeling you are going to regret this?” Pierce said.

“My post has been vacant for two hours, I’m already in trouble,” Foster said. “Might as well make the best of it.”

The guard gave Foster and Pierce the nod to enter. Beyond the checkpoint was a human-built pathway that led to yet another station platform that was perched along the side of a cliff. Looking down below, beyond the safety railings, Foster witnessed the nearly perfectly preserved streets, and elaborately decorated buildings that made up the ancient city.

A gondola lift was suspended over much of the ancient city and took passengers down into its central core area. Said gondola was where Foster and Pierce found Eicelea and Vynei making preparations to board.

“Hey, wait up,” Foster called out to them.

Eicelea looked up at the two with a warm smile, no doubt ecstatic that Foster came through with her promise. Eicelea gestured for the two to hurry up and board the small, cramped four-seater lift. Once the all clear was given, the gondola moved across its overhanging wires and slowly descended across and below to the downtown ancient city core.

The view from behind gave Foster a better look at the cliffside platform and walkway they had just left, as well as the high-rise tram tracks they rode in on. Window seats entertained the four with the off-world mountain valley where the ancient city rested for millions of years at its basin, untouched until the first human explorers had arrived.

“A Lyonria city virtually untouched by the test of time,” Foster commented, looking out the window.

“This planet is the only one that features an entire Lyonria metropolis throughout its terrain,” Eicelea said.

Pierce’s eyes opened wide at her comment. “Metropolis? As in, there are others?”

“This entire planet was once covered with their cities,” Eicelea said. “This one, however, is the most preserved city out of them all, and the humans kept its secrets all to themselves!”

“That brings up an interesting question,” Pierce said.

Eicelea laughed at him. “Why are you humans so greedy?”

“No … Why are you Radiance folks here?”

“As I explained to your friend,” Eicelea said. “I am the expert of the Lyonria civilization within Radiance. No, the galaxy! But humans, they want to surpass the technological advancements of Radiance and the Hashmedai, and hope that they’ll unearth secrets within these ruins.”

“And you’re here to help humans?”

“I’m here because the humans have conceded.” Eicelea shifted her dwarflike body to the front of their ride. She motioned to a large flat gold-colored and rectangular object hovering two feet off the ground within the center of the city. “For years, humans have tried to unlock the secrets of that monolith and failed. Just recently, however, it activated.”

Foster joined Eicelea up front locking her eyes onto the monolithic device. The shadow it cast on the ground revealed its thin shape as it hovered above the raised platform it was on.

“A thin, gold, glowing, floating thingy, that magically turned on for no reason, huh?” Foster commented.

“Puzzling, isn’t it? Hopefully we will be able to discover its secrets without being shot at,” Eicelea said, then cocked her thumb upward to Vynei. “But that’s why I have him follow me around.”

Foster eyed Vynei and his brawny Rabuabin body as he stood silently with his rifle. “Why the hell do you need a bodyguard?”

“Being an archaeologist is much more dangerous than you think, human!” Eicelea said. “Exiles, pirates, salvagers … I’ve been attacked more than you could imagine. A few decades ago I thought I’d be smart and leave the Morutrin system and all the danger it sent at me and study the ruins in the Barnard’s Star system.” Eicelea’s voice became haunted. “Religious cults had other plans. Every time I step foot into newly discovered ruins I run into trouble.”

“That makes two of us,” Foster said.

“Three …” Pierce chimed in with his arms crossed.

Foster shot him a smirk, he wasn’t wrong after all. Foster, Pierce, and Chevallier had their fair share of debacles within ancient structures in the Sirius system.

“Well, if we’re going to be so precise then four, as Vynei has been with me through it all,” Eicelea said.

Lyonria in Barnard’s Star system … Eicelea’s words, and Foster’s reminiscing mind of Sirius, got her thinking about the Lyonria wormhole hub they uncovered. And the engram experience she had, where she learned the primary wormhole within that structure had been shutdown automatically due to an incident in Barnard’s Star. An incident that happened ten years prior to their Sirius expedition.

“Hey, Eicelea, when did ya’ll study the ruins in Barnard’s Star?” Foster asked her.

“That must have been …” Eicelea scratched her silver hair.

“Seventy-eight years ago, boss,” Vynei said.

“Silence!” Eicelea roared at her hired gun. “And yes, it was seventy-eight years ago if memory serves me correctly.”

“That was ten years before we arrived in Sirius,” Pierce said.

Foster put the final pieces in place. “And ten years before we arrived, something happened in Barnard’s Star that caused the primary Lyonria wormhole there to stop working and piss off Marduk. So, that was you guys?”

“I had nothing to do with that!” Eicelea spat. “We were victims of a violent cult and things escalated rapidly with catastrophic results.” Eicelea erratically stroked her chin. “Marduk … why does that name sound familiar?”

“He was a human mythological being, boss,” Vynei said.

“No, no, no,” Eicelea’s face became lost in deep thought. Before Foster and Pierce could provide her an answer she snapped her fingers and said. “Sirius … that’s right. There was a fake report spreading across the galaxy at one point claiming that Marduk and Tiamat were real and had influence in the Sirius system. Thankfully, the human scientific community debunked those rumors—”

“They did what?” Pierce cut in with intense furiosity in his tone.

“Javnis Muodiry are not deities, neither is the imaginary Tiamat and her empty tomb,”

Eicelea said. Each of her words were daggers being pushed into Pierce’s heart. “And the Undine? While similar to their Sirens of human legends, the argument that they are them is quite preposterous. You humans and your fake news, it’s a miracle your species made it this far.”

Foster, in some way, wasn’t surprised given what she experienced thus far. She and the crew of the Carl Sagan had proved that the legends of the Dogan tribes in Africa were true, along with the existence of Marduk, Tiamat, and possibly other figures from Earth legends as with the Sirens. Society didn’t change in the way she would have expected, yet her time being held captive by EISS showed that they did indeed believe.

The UNE government covered up most of their findings and most likely ordered IESA to keep silent. Pierce and Foster exchanged depressed glances. “Our discoveries,” he groaned.

Foster shrugged. “Guess that’s what happens when you uncover the truth then vanish for more than half a century.”

“Whoever told you those reports were fake are full of it,” Pierce said angrily to Eicelea. “They are real.”

Eicelea rolled her eyes at him. “And how would you know?”

“Because we were there!”

Foster pulled on Pierce’s arm, convinced he was about to do something stupid, something that might get him shot by Vynei. “Down, boy!”

Eicelea climbed and stood on top of her seat, using the newfound height she attained to gaze directly into Pierce’s face, examining every aspect of it. Eicelea’s mouth opened in awe. “You couldn’t possibly be?”

“Doctor Travis Pierce? Yes, that’s me.”

“Oh, my Gods!” Eicelea’s flabbergasted face and voice shifted toward Vynei. “Why didn’t you tell me we were taking a misguided human scientist with us?”

“Sorry, boss, humans all look the same to me.”

Pierce went to set the record straight. “First of all, the ruins we found in Sirius were not all Lyonria; some were built by whatever species Tiamat was.”

“Nonsense, you merely encountered a different type of structure,” Eicelea said, and then pointed to the ancient city the gondola was above. “Like this city for example, it’s Lyonria, it was merely constructed many years prior to the ruins commonly found within the galaxy.”

“Let it go, Travis,” Foster said, holding onto his shoulder. “We know the truth at least.”

“I can’t,” Pierce said, shaking his head, and directing Foster’s attention to the statues in the city now they were closer to them.

Foster looked out the window. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. “Well … shit.”

The statues that became visible to them, were that of dragons.

The same dragon figures the two found within the Tiamat’s tomb.

The lift’s ride came to an end, and its doors slid open with a slick and smooth sound. The four made a lengthy walk throughout streets of the ancient city, across its diamond and gold decorated walkways and stairs, walking past towering building after building that blocked out the dim red light from the star through the yellow haze in the skies.

The same dragon and serpentlike statues appeared periodically on their journey, allowing Foster and Pierce to take a closer look at them. The two confirmed without a doubt, these were the same, right down to the size and material used to craft them. Whoever built the city, also built Tiamat’s tomb.

“So, expert of the Lyonria,” Pierce drily said to Eicelea. “Do the Lyonria normally have statues such as these?”

“In this region of space? Yes, but, as I said, the Lyonria here predate the Lyonria ruins found in Radiance-controlled space.”

Wait, Foster thought to herself upon taking another glance at the statues. These statues look like dragons … so do some of the invaders.

“How old do you suppose this city is?” Pierce asked Eicelea.

Foster’s face grew pale. “Hey, Travis—”

“One second,” Pierce interjected. “I’m having a moment here!”

Eicelea gave her answer. “At least six and half billion years old.”

Invaders, look like dragons, dragon figures are in Sirius … hell even Nereid’s Voelika had dragon figures on its ends, an uncomfortable eerie feeling wrapped around Foster’s mind. Too many things she never noticed were being noticed … and making sense.

“And the ruins found within the Union?” Pierce continued.

“We have determined the ages of those to be between two and five hundred million years old,” Eicelea said.

“Okay … so what about the ruins in Sirius?”

“That is …” Eicelea’s face cringed slightly as she tried to remember the facts. “Approximately, one hundred-twenty million years old.”

“This star, and its planets are of the oldest ones in the galaxy,” Pierce said. “It was created eleven billion years ago and existed long before Sirius and its planets, which were created around three-hundred million years ago.”

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Eicelea said.

“So, if the Lyonria that built these statues predates everything else,” Pierce said. “Why would they exist in Sirius? By your logic, those Lyonria would have been a thing of the past during that time.” Pierce’s words stopped Eicelea’s footsteps. Her wide-open eyes said it all. She was proven wrong. “Gotcha.”

“In my defense, the UNE, to this day has denied Radiance personnel from studying those ruins,” Eicelea said. “All my knowledge from that system, I admit, I read from the notes of humans that studied them. And, as we established already, humans love fake news.”

The four approached the floating golden monolith that hovered slightly above a circular platform. Blue-colored orbs decorated the edges of the monolith that shimmered and glowed as Eicelea directed everyone’s attention to it. “As you can see, it has powered on after remaining dormant for a great many years.”

“When did you say this became active?” Pierce asked.

“Seven days ago,” Eicelea said. “At approximately 15:18 Earth time.”

15:18 SST.

Those numbers flashed before Foster’s eyes, bringing her memories back to when she was in the Carl Sagan’s cryostasis chamber, saw the time, then discovered her hair had been cut short and asked EVE shortly afterward why were they back at Earth.

15:18. It was the exact moment Foster had awoken, and the exact moment the monolith activated.

“You mean it activated the day the invaders arrived?” Pierce asked.

“Indeed, their timing was impeccable with the matter,” Eicelea said.

“Travis,” Foster said slowly. “This thing didn’t just activate when the invader’s arrived. It activated the minute I awoke from cryo. And I was the one and only person awake for the first few minutes.”

Pierce’s eyes filled with terror. “Please stop making sense in the creepiest way imaginable.”

“Oh, I’m not done,” Foster said, pointing at the dragon statues. “Look familiar?”

“Didn’t we just agree these looked like the same ones we found in Sirius?” Pierce said.

“Yeah, and they also look like the invaders.”

“Oh … my …” Pierce whispered, giving the statues a look from another angle. “You’re right.”

“Humans talk too much!” Eicelea said, facing the monolith rubbing her hands. “Let us put our collective intelligences together and figure out the mystery that lays within this device—”

Air raid sirens began to blare their wailing sounds of doom. Foster, Pierce, Eicelea, and Vynei were the only ones within the ancient city.

“What’s going on?” Eicelea asked.

“An evacuation order has been called,” Vynei looked lost in thought as he searched for alerts via his HNI. “The invaders have entered the system.”

“No! Gods damn it!” Eicelea’s tiny balled up fists thumped against the solid surface of the monolith with fury. “We were so close!”

“We got to get out of here, now,” Vynei said.

“Where? The nearest transport is back at the base,” Pierce said.

“A little over two hours from here …” Foster added. “If this turns into a repeat of Earth, we’ll be dead long before we arrive.”

“Well, we can’t just stay here right?” Pierce said.

“That’s exactly what we need to do,” Foster said. “Only a transport is gonna save our hides. Any of you two with your fancy HNI able to send out a distress signal?”

“Already on it,” Vynei said.

“Use my name as the sender, might encourage rescue to come a little faster,” Foster said.

Foster looked to the cloudy skies as her heartbeat increased, hoping the next sight she would see was an evacuation transport, but knew fully well it would probably be massive winged serpents searching for an easy kill.

Survival until help arrived became their newest mission.

22 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage, Bridge

Dark Energy Maelstrom

August 9, 2118, 13:44 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“How long do you figure we have until the corruption reaches critical systems?”

“Less than a day.”

Peiun gave Alesyna a wincing glare as he sat back in his chair with a fully rested mind. Following the invader fleet within the maelstrom proved to be an annoying task. Their ships moved faster than the Rezeki’s Rage, stopping every six hours to rest, giving them the chance to make up lost ground, only to lose it once the sleeping bio-ships awoke and continued on course.

The central charybdis ship, as it was now unofficially named, was their only means out of this strange realm that was eating the ship from the inside out. Or is that outside in? The clouds are, after all, making matter vanish from the hull breach. “I grow tired of this storm …” Peiun groaned.

The Rezeki’s Rage had several opportunities to attack the ships while they slept with the long-range plasma cannon fire, opportunities he was hesitant on taking out of fear the fleet might retaliate. One damaged Imperial destroyer pitted against a fleet of invaders whose weapons and speed were superior to yours was no laughing matter.

However, the rumbling noises that came from the sealed off cargo hold the previous night when he tried to sleep said it all. They needed more of the substance the green-sacked charybdis ship possessed. They’d be dead in a day without it, and they’d probably be dead within a few hours if they try to fight for it.

Either choice he made would have the likelihood of the ship being lost with all hands.

“Target the charybdis ship,” Peiun ordered as he folded his hands together. “Helm, be prepared to take us directly into the substance that sprays out from that ship.”

“Of course, Captain.”

“Maneuver us accordingly and ensure that our hull breach gets a generous coating of it.”

“And then?”

Peiun smirked as he eyed the fleet of invader ships moving away from them via the view screen. “And then, we fight for survival.”

“Weapons ready,” Alesyna said.

Peiun gave her a quick glance. Alesyna’s face looked calm, focused, and mentally ready for anything that could come next. Without a gunner manning the weapons, it was going to be up to her to use her telepathic thoughts to become one with the ship’s computers and take aim. All while juggling the extra duties her psionic mind had to take on since entering the maelstrom and strengthening the overshields, as they were about to enter battle.

One major distraction such as her hitting her head during an attack, and her focus would be broken, taking with it, the lives of everyone aboard. Peiun might have been the captain calling the shots, but the crew owed everything to Alesyna’s powers.

“Fire on my mark,” Peiun said.

The Rezeki’s Rage’s forward plasma cannons repositioned and acquired a lock on the charybdis ship within the cluster of invader ships. The HNI data that beamed into Peiun’s head showed it wasn’t going to be the most accurate shot given that the fleet was moving away from them at a faster rate and reducing their accuracy percentage and firepower potency with each passing second. And those numbers were based on the assumption that they were in normal space, aether space had its own set of rules when it came to physics.

Then there was going to be the dash to the spill of the substance to get the affected areas of the ship coated, then fleeing without getting destroyed. All while knowing nothing of the new physical laws that would be governing their moves.

“Captain!” Alesyna called out, directing his attention to new information her ESP populated the view screen with.

The clouds and lightning bolts within the maelstrom began to part before the invader fleet, the charybdis ship in particular. In its wake was the abyss of space and the twinkling stars they all longed to see for the last several days. It was as if someone ripped a hole within the maelstroms chaotic wonder, a hole that led back to the known universe, or so he hoped.

The charybdis ship traveled through the hole first, lightning and violent waves of energy danced across its fleshy hull. The remaining invader ships began to follow suit, exiting the maelstrom into normal space.

Peiun smiled at the sight. “It’s a way out.”

“Shall we continue our attack?” Alesyna asked.

“Of course not,” Peiun said, unsure if her question was serious or not. “Helm, take us through, but keep your distance as before.”

They waited until more than two thirds of the invader fleet had crossed through, in which Rezeki’s Rage main thrusters flared, and pushed the ship toward its freedom. The opening into normal space expanded in size as they neared … then stopped. Peiun’s HNI display revealed they had nearly come to a full stop.

“Why are we moving at this rate?” he asked.

“It’s the invader fleet,” said Louik. “They have slowed.”

Peiun watched with frustration as the numbers of the Rezeki’s Rage rate of acceleration dropped to single digits, then zero. Louik hissed furiously and said. “Now, they’ve stopped.”

“Hold here,” Peiun said “There’s nothing else we can do except wait for them to spread out.”

Louik grimaced. “We could continue our attack …”

“Situation has changed, we have a way out.” Peiun felt his chair vibrate slightly. “Unless the interior of our ship vanishes before they move …”

Ten minutes passed with no change to their situation. The invader fleet remained at the opening of the maelstrom, their ships clustered together tightly, forming almost a web across their escape path.

“The maelstrom is sealing up,” Alesyna said, and updated the view screen.

The opening within the maelstrom’s clouds began to recede, as swirling pink and magenta clouds and thunder bolts began to close over the hole. It was obscuring the blackness of space and the invader fleet that remained just outside of the maelstrom.

If we remain here, we’ll be stuck forever. Well, not forever, the corruption of the hull will end us by tomorrow.

Peiun had to get the ship through, while the option to try was still a realistic one.

“Alesyna, any idea where this region of space leads?” he said, facing her.

Alesyna’s body showed all the typical signs she had entered a deep ESP trance, scanning the region of space that existed beyond the opening of the maelstrom. “I sense smaller human ships, and possible settlements.”

Peiun grimaced while turning his chair back to the view screen. “We went from Paryo to human-controlled territory …”

“This must be how they travel through interstellar space,” Alesyna said.

“And now they’ve rallied in a human-controlled system.” Peiun stroked his face before adding. “Any theories?”

“Perhaps this is a secret human weapon, and this is its launch site?” Manzo said.

Alesyna shook her head. “They’re planning to strike the humans.”

“What makes you think that?” Louik said.

“I would, this system is lightly defended,” Alesyna said. “And the wormhole is on the exact opposite end of the system, it will take human reinforcements several minutes to engage the invader fleet where it lays should they arrive now.”

An Imperial ship like the Rezeki’s Rage showing up in UNE-controlled space alongside an invader fleet was going to spark heated political arguments that would go on for months, especially if they were destroyed as they wouldn’t be able to speak for themselves. But what other choice did they have?

Survival, keeping what remained of the ship and crew intact and reporting back to the Empire everything they had discovered. That was Peiun’s primary mission as of that moment, a moment that was slipping away as the opening back to normal space continued to fade away, little by little.

“Full power to the engines,” Peiun ordered. “Take weapons offline and transfer the power to what little shield strength we have.”

“Understood.”

“Alesyna, give us everything you have for the overshields.”

“Yes, Captain.”

The opening shrunk to a hole barely small enough to fit the Rezeki’s Rage through. Peiun clenched his fists. “Take us through, now!”

The Rezeki’s Rage pushed past the numerous clouds in their path, ignoring the small lightning strikes that caused their psionic overshields to flicker with purple waves of energy. The hole got closer to them via the projection the main view screen displayed, escape was minutes away. And with that came the reality their escape from the maelstrom could be short-lived as the rallying invader ships still hovered next to the vortex.

Alesyna’s cries for everyone to brace themselves sent the crew to ready themselves for attack, more so than they did earlier. After all, they wouldn’t be the ones taking the first shot, or any shots for that matter, as long as power to the plasma cannons was being diverted to shield power.

The clouds were no longer present on the view screen, much to Peiun’s delight. That was replaced with the sight of space, stars, and the gauntlet of terror that surrounded them. Short bursts of tachyon beams impacted against their shields and overshields from all sides.

The invaders were not pleased to see them appear on their sensors.

Both Peiun’s hands gripped onto the arms of his chair. He gawked at the viewer with anticipation as they swung past a number of invader ships without incident. “Any signs of human activity thus far?”

“I sense nothing other than transports,” Alesyna said.

“Captain, if we get through this, where do we go from here?” asked Louik.

Peiun reviewed the newly populated tactical data from his HNI. “The wormhole is our only means of escape from this system.”

“And our direct link into another human-controlled system we do not have the authority to enter,” Louik replied.

“At this point,” Peiun muttered as he felt the effects of Alesyna’s overshield shatter. “I’d rather be shot by humans than these things.”

The Rezeki’s Rage soared away from the swarm of invader ships as what little remained of their weakened Hashmedai shields shattered and flickered out of existence. Unshielded areas of the ship had hull breaches vaporized into them by direct tachyon beam attacks. Fires ignited, unlucky crew members were vented out into space, and violent tremors rocked every deck. The minor repairs that had been made to the Rezeki’s Rage after the battle at Paryo had become undone in a matter of minutes.

The most agonizing aspect of it all was that the Rezeki’s Rage continued to move away from the fleet at sub light speeds, while the fleet remained stationary and struck the fleeing Hashmedai frigate with near pinpoint precision. Beam weapons traveling faster than the speed of light had no known counter other than to have shields ready to take the blow or to not be in the direct line of sight, neither were an option.

No wonder the Imperial fleet was caught off guard; these ships could target and destroy you from the opposite end of the system.

“At this rate, I don’t think we’ll be able to make it to the wormhole,” said Louik.

Peiun frantically searched for a way out. Luck had brought them this far, and he was certain it made plans for them to escape with their lives, provided he made the right choice.

He found it.

“Take us to the nearest human colony.”

“What do you intend to do?” Manzo snorted in an arrogant manner. “Request their transports as protection?”

“The only way to not be in weapons range is to break their line of sight,” Peiun said as he expanded his HNI projection for the bridge crew to see. “This planet here, put us behind it.”

“Using human colonists as shields …” Manzo muttered. “Such a noble plan, Captain.”

It wasn’t an honorable move by any means, but the colony was the only planetary body that was close to them. It was also the largest human settlement in the system and a large-sized planet in general. There was a reason the invaders arrived here, and it was to raze that world. It was doomed no matter what as far as he was concerned.

The planet also had a secondary function. “We may have to abandon ship,” Peiun said, and faced Manzo, sternly adding. “And if you continue to challenge me like this, I will personally see to it you leave first.”

“Don’t you mean last?”

“Humans shoot first then ask questions, those questions will be directed to those that arrive second or third.”

Peiun’s attention returned back to his HNI tactical overlay. He examined data about the planet based on Imperial intel gathered, Alesyna’s recent ESP scans, and the limited sensor data which was slowly trickling back to them.

“Send out a distress signal plus a warning that the invaders have arrived,” Peiun added. “Perhaps that will remind the humans whose side we’re on.”

Additional data appeared and populated his HNI overlay in regard to the planet, including its name, and the system they arrived in. The humans called the system Kapteyn’s Star, and the planet they were travelling to …

Was called Jacobus.

23 Odelea

Abyssal Comet

Earth orbit, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 15:26 SST (Sol Standard Time)

UNE battleships hovered in Earth’s orbit one moment, and in the next came the Radiance Union cruiser Abyssal Comet out from the brilliant flash of an FTL jump, bringing its journey to an end. A journey that took longer than expected due to the congestion at the numerous wormholes the Comet was required to travel through, on top of awaiting permission to enter UNE space in the first place to access them. The Comet being owned and operated by the Souyila Corporation didn’t help, as the humans had grown overly cautious in the wake of the attacks at the hands of the invaders.

The crew of the Abyssal Comet couldn’t blame the humans, as Radiance too had tightened security near their borders and the one wormhole that linked to the Luminous system. Odelea however could. The delays only reinforced the reality she was going to lose yet another opportunity to advance her career and, at worst, bring forth the end of galactic life since she was not the one making the discoveries.

The devastation the human fleet took floated past her lab’s observation windows as the Abyssal Comet maintained its steady orbit of Earth. The mangled wreckage of human ships and scattered debris reminded her of the devastation she and the Comet had left behind at Aervounis. She glanced at the blue world while nibbling on an apple, indulging on the nostalgia that soothed her mind from when she first had arrived at Earth to study the human race. They were so primitive back then, now their technology rivals ours. Why do the Gods favor their species? Most humans do not worship them.

She yawned and guided her sleeve across her mouth, wiping it clean of the sweet juices the apple deposited. The diminishing returns of the stims she had been injecting herself with daily had taken effect. Odelea strode out of the labs and into the bright, white lights of the halls, making her way to her quarters, her eyes and joints yearned for bed rest.

Queenea and Viceroy Crimei appeared further down the white hallways as the tiles reflected their likeness back up. Crimei was tugging what appeared to be a prisoner with him while Queenea stood smirking. The prisoner was none other than the infamous Tolukei. Odelea watched as Crimei pushed him forward past her and grimaced at the slave collar round Tolukei’s neck. Her eyes locked into the four eyes of Tolukei’s that peered back down at her through the cloak around his head.

“Why the slave collar?” Odelea asked Queenea as she approached her.

“He’s a Muodiry; we’re not going to take any risks with his powers,” Queenea said.

“I’m sure he’s no threat to this ship and its armed crew.”

“And if he manages to escape, kill the crew, and hand this ship to the exiles or Celestial Order remnants, then what?”

Crimei handed Tolukei off to an armored ranger who forced him to the brig at gunpoint.

“Thank the Gods you got here when you did,” Crimei said to the two having overheard. “The invaders still on Earth just launched an attack on one of their cities. With that said, may I ask a request of you?”

“Do I have a choice? You are the voice of the council here,” Queenea said drily.

Crimei’s arms crossed against his cybernetically enhanced chest. “I’d like this ship to remain in orbit a while longer while the humans battle the invaders on the surface.”

“You wish to spy on the humans?” Queenea snickered.

“Humans may still be the newcomers to the galactic stage,” Crimei said. “But don’t forget, they have proven to be quite resourceful, especially when it comes to combat.”

“I’ll have the captain remain in orbit,” Queenea offered.

Odelea frowned at the news. Their arrival at Earth was supposed to jump-start their return back home, not delay it even further. If she hadn’t been so tired, another outburst might have erupted as her patience in the matter had all but dwindled.

“I shall observe from the bridge,” Crimei said, and took his leave.

“Very well,” Queenea replied, then faced Odelea and her fatigued face. “And you, go get some rest, I don’t care how many stims you’ve acquired.”

“I was on my way to my quarters in fact,” Odelea said.

“Good, keep that mind sharp, we’re going to need it soon,” Queenea spat.

Silent sliding doors gave Odelea access to her second place of sanctuary on the ship, a small and restricting room that offered only a bed attached to the wall and a bathing pool small enough to fit one person. They were typical universal visitor quarters, and it made her miss the species-specific ones the Abyssal Explorer and other Radiance vessels built and operated had during that era. Odelea stripped away the lab coat and attire that clung to her tiny frame and dipped into the hot waters of the pool, cleansing her body, and washing away the cosmetics applied to her neck and shoulder scales. A face she had not readjusted to seeing reflected back at her as she looked down at the soothing waves that splashed against her breasts. The wrinkles on her face, grey hair, and withering body, were all gone.

She finished bathing and slipped into sleeping attire, crawling onto one of the more rugged beds she’d slept on. She used her HNI to create a small projection that hovered above her face as her head hit the pillow. The contents of the projection listed everything she had discovered about the invaders thus far as well as Tolukei’s dossier.

The bluish glow of the projection became the only source of light within her quarters when the lights shut off, while the flowing waves of her bathing pool created pleasing sounds in the background. Darkness surrounded her when her implants detected her mind had slipped away into sleep, automatically shutting off the reading material displayed on the projection.

Abyssal Comet

Earth orbit, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 17:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea didn’t sleep long. It was a difficult task when one went to sleep thinking about Tolukei.

Springing up from her bed, she accessed a new holographic projection listing notes, data, pictures, and firsthand reports the first human explorers that ventured to Sirius had made; the explorers that brought Tolukei with them.

Her brain raced around pulling up fact after fact, linking them together. Odelea was a prodigy when it came to understanding languages, she was able to speak the thousands of different languages humans had spoken, in addition to the six languages spoken within Radiance, the Hashmedai language, and deciphered the Lyonria language, before moving onto the Poniga, Qirak, and Undine languages, once that information was made available.

Being able to speak, read, and write in the thousands of languages that originated from various civilizations across the stars, allowed Odelea to notice patterns others couldn’t. Every language, regardless of its origins, had faint similarities, patterns she was able to effortlessly detect, understand, then translate. She never was able to explain how the process in her mind worked to others and wrote it off as one of life’s mysteries that would never be solved. She was a gifted woman, one that was in possession of a brilliant brain no other Aryile … or person in the galaxy for that matter, had. The more she listened to an unknown language, the closer she got to cracking its code, and working on a means to translate it. The process, to her, was like wiping moisture buildup off a window and peering through it to see what was inside.

The invader she encountered on the elevator was chanting to a deity of some sort and issuing a stern warning that others who worshiped said deity would be united and fight with them. Tolukei’s dossier reminded Odelea of the alleged reason why he, while aboard the Carl Sagan, vanished from Sirius. The Abyssal Sword, a Radiance battle cruiser that some believed had been boarded by the cult of the Celestial Order, members of Radiance that had a twisted view and worship practices of the three Gods. It drifted into the system, prompting the Carl Sagan to investigate its appearance, and then the two ships vanished.

The deity the invader worshiped must have been the same the Celestial Order heretics did. It would explain how the Carl Sagan ended up in the hands of the invaders and their fleet.

There was a connection. It was all the more reason why she must be the one to carry out this research, who else in the Union, or the galaxy for that matter, would be smart enough to think and make the connections she did? Her perception of the universe was vastly different from everyone else and it was that gift that allowed life in the galaxy to be where it was today.

News reports from the knowledge network beamed into her head via her implants. Reports of invaders that had been encountered on Aervounis claimed that rangers and psionics had eliminated them all. Aervounis and the Luminous system was 100 percent free of all invader activity, Radiance killed off any chance of her learning more of their language. Knowing the Empire, they probably did the same, not that she would be allowed to enter their space or access their knowledge network. There was one place left in the galaxy where Odelea could find living invaders that could speak.

Earth.

And the humans were aggressively fighting and killing them with each passing hour.

It was unlikely human soldiers would attempt to capture an invader. Even if they did, they would hand it to their intelligence agency, EISS, and keep whatever they learned to themselves. Human brains weren’t as developed as hers. They wouldn’t be able to make the connections she did, and it was unlikely they would decipher and discover a means to translate the invader language, not quickly, at least. Odelea was able to translate all human languages into Radiance, just by listening to it repeatedly, carefully analyzing its written form, and discovering the patterns.

Odelea leapt out of bed, got dressed, and established a connection with Queenea using her HNI. Her holographic likeness appeared over Odelea’s eyes.

“Odelea, shouldn’t you be sleeping?” Queenea said.

“There’s something on my mind keeping me awake,” Odelea said.

Queenea sighed “What is it now?”

“What are the chances we can travel to the surface of Earth?”

“This can’t be what’s keeping you awake …”

“I assure you, it is.”

“Look, the humans won’t like the idea of us roaming around on their world uninvited, especially given what’s happened. We don’t have any control over their government like we did seventy years ago and staying in orbit as long as we have is making them suspicious of us. Unless they request our presence on the surface, we’re not allowed. Tolukei was different, Crimei was already there and put in a request to have him extradited back to Aervounis.”

Extradited, my Gods, she speaks as if he committed crimes then fled, which is hardly the case.

Then again, being born a Muodiry was viewed as sacrilegious to many within the Union. And, at one point, Odelea was one of those many, until her scientific mind raised questions about the origins of the Javnis race.

“Thank you for your time,” Odelea said, and Queenea’s holographic presence on the bridge vanished.

She stepped over to a shelf that held the magnetic pistol she was given during her escape from Veromacon. Her hands hovered above it in hesitation, causing her heart to race fast and breathing become erratic. Flashbacks to the Aryile soldier that lost his life flooded her mind, a death that could have been prevented if she had just pulled the trigger.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to take hold of the weapon. She marched to the brig, doing everything she could to convince herself she didn’t touch it, and wiped away the tears whenever she failed to do so. Tolukei was alone, sitting miserably within his force-field-protected cell. She wasn’t surprised given what he was, most Radiance members couldn’t stand being in the presence of an individual who was walking, breathing proof that the religious texts about the Gods might have been incorrect. That and all armed personnel aboard the Comet were being paid by Souyila, rather than ordered by military personnel. Good help was hard to find, regardless of what planet you were from.

Odelea’s fingers tapped in a code on a wall holographic interface. The force field flashed off and Tolukei looked up at her with confusion as her delicate hands safely removed the slave collar, giving his psionic abilities back, and removing the threat of the bomb inside of it from exploding.

“Your actions are most puzzling,” Tolukei said, standing up.

Her head shifted up past the cybernetics on his chest, making eye contact with him. “I need your help.”

“What do you wish from me?” His deep monotone voice said.

“Please … I … I need you to take me to the surface.”

“The surface?”

“We are still in orbit of Earth; the invaders are attacking one of their cities. I need to capture one, alive; I need you to help me do that.”

“Why not ask your ship and crew? They are more than capable of doing that task.”

“They will not listen, truth is, humans will resent us being there uninvited.”

“And they won’t resent us?”

“Not if they don’t know we’re there.” She breathed deeply and shook off the jittery feelings running through her arms. “I understand this request may seem sudden and controversial, but please understand I must be the one to study the language of the invaders. The ones on Aervounis are dead, I don’t know about the ones on Paryo, but knowing the Hashmedai they too are dead.” That, and the Hashmedai don’t take prisoners, and the few they take are executed days later.

“The invaders on Earth are still alive … I see your predicament.”

“They will not be for long, I’ve watched firsthand what humans will do to protect their homeworld. These invaders will not survive.”

Tolukei stepped out of his cell facing her in a manner that caused her to experience anxious thoughts. Would he help? Or perhaps he really did belong in the cell with a slave collar. What happened next was going to be up to him.

“I have no reason not to help you,” he said. “Please stand next to me, I will grant you your request.”

Teleportation light removed the presence of the two off the ship.

Mountain Peak

Mount Hermon, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 18:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea and Tolukei materialized on top of a mountain peak overlooking human forces engaged with invader forces at a city near the foot of the mountain. The cooler air from the high elevation sent shivers across Odelea’s arms, as her tropical-loving body was not prepared. She suspected Tolukei was suffering more since he had to have his chest and arms exposed for his cybernetics to operate correctly.

“The humans battle the invaders below,” he said, pointing at a city with black smoke rising up and away from it. “This was my best guess as to where the enemy was, though, clearly, I have overshot.”

“I appreciate you doing this,” Odelea said to him. “I suppose we could use this high ground to gain a better vantage point, before we teleport further.”

Ignoring the cold, the two made their way across a path that led down a steep incline on the mountain to the war-torn human city. Teleportation light flashed, someone else had joined them behind.

That was quick; she thought and moved to face the new company.

Odelea’s plan was improvised. She knew it was only a matter of time before someone on the Comet figured out what she’d done and sent a psionic in pursuit of them. Though by her calculations, such a thing shouldn’t have occurred for another hour at least.

Odelea gasped in fear and tugged on Tolukei’s arm, halting his trek on the path.

The psionic that teleported behind them wasn’t from the Comet.

Or the galaxy for that matter.

The two faced three armored invader soldiers armed with their tachyon rifles, rifles that rose to take aim at them. Tolukei shoved Odelea, and her small body tumbled to the ground behind a boulder while he assembled a psionic shield around himself to draw their fire.

“Remember, we need at least one alive and to able to speak clearly,” Odelea shouted to him as he unleashed his psionic wrath upon them.

Unknown to her was the source of the invader’s teleportation. Last time she checked, invader soldiers lacked psionic powers. She peeked over the edge of the boulder, laying her eyes on a fourth hostile figure. It looked human or Linl and wore light armor, the reflective surface of the armor was designed to appear as if it were scales—

High-pitched ringing noises shattered Odelea’s mind.

Her HNI had gone haywire and took her brain along for the ride.

24 Chevallier

Residential Neighborhood

Sidon, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 18:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Mathilda Chevallier’s idea of touring the Mediterranean and its coastal cities when she was in her twenties, before the uplifting of the human race, did not involve death and destruction at the hands of dragons from outer space. Then again, neither did her vision of Earth a hundred years into the future at that time.

C’est la vie.

The sea wyrm they rode in on may have suffered a fatal heart attack, but its crew of invaders, along with their wyverns, continued to be a threat to the UNE forces that engaged in a dicey battle with them. The streets of Sidon became a deadly stage of urban warfare as gunfire exchange between Marines and invader soldiers blazed endlessly. Robotic mechs and Marines sporting heavy exosuits tackled the large tank-like drakes, literally. Fighters danced with the screeching cybernetically wired wyverns in the skies in a desperate act to keep their talons away from Marines, mechs, and of course, the EDF team Chevallier had unofficially become a part of. Though she questioned how long that would last given her recent actions.

Her HUD flashed bringing to her attention that her recently recharged shields had already dropped to 88 percent. As much as she wanted to rise up from her cover and allow her shields to keep her alive while her rifle took as many invader lives as possible, she needed to hold back on unnecessary risks. Maxwell and LeBoeuf didn’t get much rest for their psionic minds, and their ability to top up shields was off the menu until the fighting was over.

Slow and steady wins this race, she thought, and waited for the sound of tachyon rifles to cease, before guiding her rifle back out into the battle from her cover behind an overturned truck. Two invader soldiers fell over backwards with steaming hot blood gushing out from holes in their chest and backs, Chevallier took a moment to admire her work.

The neighborhood was officially secure, for now. The four performed a quick perimeter check to confirm that they had indeed downed the last known invaders in the area. LeBoeuf stopped suddenly as her fingers pressed against the side of her left temple.

“Maxwell, you feel that?” LeBoeuf said to him.

“What remains of my migraine? Oh, yeah, I totally feel that.”

“No, someone teleported into the region,” LeBoeuf said.

“I’d imagine our forces would be teleporting in and out, no?” Chevallier said.

“They are, but this one is different,” LeBoeuf said as her face slowly looked up toward Mount Hermon in the east. “They landed way the fuck up there, two different ports.”

Boyd lowered his rifle, his gaze followed LeBoeuf’s. “Nobody mentioned anything on comms about activity in the mountains.”

Some psionics had the ability to detect incoming or outgoing teleports, assuming their mind was scanning the area where the teleporting had occurred. If human psionics part of the UNE military were teleporting in and out of the city, then a psionic, rather, psionics not part of the UNE had been operating in the mountains.

And if that’s the case, they might be working for the invaders … or someone else. “We should check it out,” Chevallier said.

“Whoa, whoa, you still think you’re in charge?” Maxwell said to her.

Chevallier retorted. “Are we seriously going to have this debate?”

Boyd stepped in between the two with his large imposing body. “Chevallier, you’re lucky right now that—”

“File charges against me once the fighting is over,” Chevallier interjected assertively. “Don’t worry; my mom isn’t here to protect me anymore. But if you guys don’t know anything about not one, but two teleports into the mountains, then I’d say we make that our priority before things get out of hand.” She looked up at Boyd’s face and added with a smirk. “Sir.”

“Did you undermine McDowell as well?” Boyd grunted.

“He undermined himself,” Chevallier said, walking away.

“You two going to get married now?” Maxwell said. “Or are we going to make a decision?”

“I’ll let command know we’re going in,” Boyd said. “Either of you two good for a small site-to-site teleport?”

“I’d rather we conserve our power in case we run into problems,” LeBoeuf said. “And remember, I haven’t spent enough time on Earth to safely do that.”

“Right, we don’t want to end up inside a mountain,” Chevallier said. “Maxwell?”

“I’m a ravager class, you don’t want me teleporting anywhere.”

“I’ll call for a transport,” Boyd said. “Let’s try not to crash it like we usually do.”

Chevallier looked at the skies and the circling, soaring wyverns dogfighting with fighters. With those things still flying, crashing the transport is exactly what we’re going to do.

Boyd led them to an open clearing in the streets where a transport lowered, scattering dust in circles from its landing jets. Chevallier took one last glance up at the skies as they boarded and began their ascent. She took a deep breath and hoped the wyverns saw them as a lesser threat as the transport became level with them, especially the ones that flew circles around the summit of Mount Hermon.

The pilot grimaced and slowed the transport’s speed when it approached the mountains in an attempt to keep their distance. Fear and hesitation drove him to not provoke what was quickly unveiling itself to be a hornet’s nest waiting to erupt with fury by the circling cybernetic wyverns.

“Don’t think I could punch through, sir,” the pilot spoke.

“Fighters?” Chevallier suggested.

“All available fighters are still occupied with the battle near the beach and the city,” the pilot said.

“I’d rather not pull them away from that, our troops could use the air support,” Boyd said.

Maxwell scowled at the mountains via the opened transport doors. “And so could we.”

Chevallier did the same and eyed the circling wyverns with contempt. They looked as if they were flying around to stand watch rather than prepare for an attack. Hell, any one of them could have broken out of their formation and attacked the lone transport that hovered in the air debating their next move. They didn’t.

The circular flying patterns and lack of aggression … They were protecting someone, or something, like the target that teleported into the region. Chevallier glanced at her rifle’s batteries charge. They were at near full power after the battery swap she made when they left the beach.

“Pilot, bring the sides of the transport to face those dragons,” Chevallier yelled toward him.

“Chevallier …” Boyd said in a condescending manner.

Chevallier stood next to the wide-open transport door, aiming her rifle forward with its particle fire mode selected. “We just became the air support we needed.”

Maxwell grinned. “As much as I hate this girl,” he said, joining her with his weapon. “I love this girl!”

Boyd and LeBoeuf reluctantly stepped next to the two, also taking on an offensive stance. She felt no shame in undermining Boyd like many COs before her, deep down Chevallier knew she was right. Balls-to-the-wall recklessness, that’s what got the job done in the face of non-human enemies, especially hive-minded ones like the dragon invaders.

The transport returned on its original path to the mountains. Their imposing nature grasped the attention of a dozen wyverns that broke away from their circling to intercept the human transport. The pilot shifted the transport to the side and allowed its opened door to face the incoming wyverns. A steady spread of particle beams and psionically powered energy rifles streaked across the skies to greet their targets.

The enraged wyverns that weren’t partially vaporized broke away, Chevallier counted at least eight. The battle that ensued played out with little words spoken from all parties aboard the transport as there wasn’t much time to communicate, only time to improvise and work on the fly. The second set of doors slid open from behind, it was another spot where the four could stick their rifles out to attack.

Chevallier was the first to switch places, knowing that within a matter of seconds they would have wyverns swarming them from all directions, breathing deadly plasma fires from their mouths. She was right, she hated when she was right at times.

Her particle beams fired rapidly with short bursts to prevent her rifle from overheating too quickly. One wyvern yelped and spiraled down to the landscape below with embers blowing away from a hole in its chest. The shields of the transport flashed blue, and, in some areas, psionic purple. LeBoeuf used her powers to create a weak overshield, understandable as she needed to reserve what power she had left to power her rifle, and telekinetically push away wyverns that might get too close.

Boyd joined Chevallier and added his particle beams into the fray. She suspected he was trying to show off by downing the attacking wyverns on a transport engaged in complex maneuvers, dives, rolls, and spins. It was no easy task. Thank God for inertia dampers and artificial gravity, we would have been flung out of this craft ages ago!

The vaporization of the last wyvern gave a non-verbal signal to the pilot to continue on course and triggered four separate stress-relieving exhales from the EDF members and their smoking rifles.

The transport landed at a clearing close to the mountain’s summit. The four leaped out before it came to a solid rest on the grassy terrain, ready to search for the two psionics responsible for the unexpected teleportation.

“Alright, you two, lead the way,” Boyd said to LeBoeuf and Maxwell.

LeBoeuf’s eyes shut to focus and enter a quick ESP trance. Her augmented finger rose, pointing to where her mind directed. “This way; keep in mind whoever teleported in might have moved by now.”

“But they didn’t teleport out, right?’

LeBoeuf’s eyes opened. “No, not that I can sense, they should still be in the region.”

Boyd’s rifle rose. “Alright, eyes sharp, everyone.”

The four moved quickly, taking two steps forward, and then screamed in pain, holding their heads, and collapsing to the ground. All except Chevallier, who altered her body’s mass in preparation for what was coming next.

A brilliant flash of light.

A body formed from within.

It was the Dragon Knight.

Chevallier didn’t wait for what would come next and threw the first punch in the form of white beams of energy from her rifle. The Dragon Knight’s psionic barrier flashed before it jump ported behind her, standing on top of their idle transport. It heckled and laughed at her, drawing her attention to something that was different about it.

This one was different. A female, unlike the last one she fought, which was clearly male. The feminine-sounding laughter and voice was the biggest give away, followed by a closer inspection of her armor. Like the male counterpart, she wore formfitting armor that highlighted her feminine, toned body and curves. Though her armor was more of an armored dress, and like her male counterpart, the surface of the armor resembled the skin of a dragon as her long blonde hair slithered out from the back of her helmet shaped like a dragon’s head. Her hair blew in the mountain’s winds elegantly like a femme fatale straight out of a fantasy novel. She was a young deadly maiden, a Dragon Maiden.

The Dragon Maiden brandished her Voelika staff weapon, while the jets from her boots made her body hover and drift off the top of the transport and over to Chevallier, giving her a look of death and hatred. Chevallier’s particle beams shot forward, each shot missed as the Dragon Maiden jump ported away to safety, laughing hysterically each time.

One moment the Dragon Maiden was behind, the next she was off to the side, and then she was nowhere to be seen. Chevallier’s rifle battery power was nearing its end. She’s trying to get me to waste ammo … Chevallier’s teeth gritted as she sprinted to the transport, the only source of fresh batteries. She didn’t make it far. The Dragon Maiden’s jump port placed her in between Chevallier and the transport, swinging her Voelika like a staff-wielding martial artist.

Every blow landed, every blow caused the staff weapon to glow brighter as psionic energy built up within it. Chevallier’s rifle was utterly useless at this range. Even if it wasn’t, how could she target an opponent that danced circles around her, performed backflips over her, or straight-up leaped out of range then appeared behind her?

Chevallier let go of her rifle and placed her back to the side of the transport, effectively removing one part of her body away from the Dragon Maiden’s attacks. There was silence as she shifted her eyes from left to right, scanning the terrain for her absent attacker and their psionic trickery. Must have jump ported away, but where?

The Dragon Maiden appeared from its jump port, twirling its Voelika above its head in preparation for a massive blow. It went in for the strike, Chevallier went in for a head-butt, the shields of the two ferocious, fighting women flashed and crackled. It was a move the Dragon Maiden was not prepared for as she staggered and lost control of her Voelika. Chevallier’s hands wrapped around it and instigated a tug of war for the staff weapon, a war neither of the two was going to give up on.

Chevallier pulled.

The Dragon Maiden pulled back.

They both pulled at the same time.

The vertical glowing weapon was their key to victory.

An explosion further up the mountain instantly made their two faces shift to the side to identify its source. Chevallier saw the exposed mouth of the Dragon Maiden cringe with concern. Something wasn’t going according to her plan, and that explosion was the source of it. The distraction from the blast loosened Chevallier’s grip on the Voelika just enough for the Dragon Maiden to pull it from her grasp.

Shit.

Chevallier stood fast, ready for another bout, ready to improvise and counter whatever bag of tricks her adversary was going to throw at her. Instead, it briskly folded its arms and flashed away from sight and didn’t return. Seconds later, Chevallier’s downed comrades in arms rose to their feet, groaning.

“My head is going to explode …” Maxwell moaned as he stood.

“Let me guess …” Boyd said. “Our Dragon Knight friend is back?”

“There’s another one,” Chevallier said with displeasure. “Something over there got its attention.” She aimed her index finger at the summit of the mountains.

“That’s the approximate area of the teleport,” LeBoeuf said, having noticed where she was pointing.

“Shit, I’m going to call in a strike, let’s get out of here,” Boyd said.

“An airstrike?” Chevallier said. “Didn’t we just determine fighters are busy?”

“Not an airstrike,” Boyd said as he approached their transport. “An orbital strike.”

Chevallier shook her head, objecting. “Hold on—”

“Stop. I know the chain of command means fuck all to you, but it does to the rest of us,” Boyd’s voice was irritated. “You even said so yourself, there’s two of those Dragon Knight things which can hack our HNI. If those two are up there, then this is our chance to blow them to hell without getting our brains fried.”

“That Dragon Knight left in a hurry,” Chevallier explained. “There’s something going on that has it worried.”

“Put it in a package and mail it to, not our fucking problem. We’re taking those two out, now.”

“We don’t have any forces in the area, right?”

“No, we don’t, all the more reason for an orbital strike.”

“Exactly.” Chevallier took back her rifle and made a quick battery swap from a stash in a storage compartment within the transport. “Don’t you want to know what got it spooked so much that it had to run over rather than finish me off?”

Boyd snorted. “Not really.”

“Let me go and find out, please. You guys stand watch here.”

Maxwell chuckled as he entered the transport. “There she goes again.”

“Alone?” Boyd said. “You’re crazy.”

He eyed Chevallier up and down, probably thinking about the fact she had minimal training and experience with their weapons and armor and lacked HNI.

HNI will get them killed, but not me. “Quick recon, nothing more, just so we know exactly what we’re up against,” Chevallier said.

“Fine, thirty minutes, after that—”

“If I’m not back, I’m dead, feel free to blow the place up.” She leaped back outside and sized up the quick mountain climb she would need to make. “It will save you the hassle of having to bring charges against me.”

A thirty-minute countdown ticked down across Chevallier’s HUD while the adrenaline flowing through her set her body in motion to make the rapid ascent to the summit. She lowered her mass periodically with her MRF in unison with her jump jets. Steep hills were ascended in seconds, and rock faces were climbed and scaled swiftly. Every minute, every second, had to count, there could be no missed steps on her climb to the top to uncover what was going on.

Boyd didn’t understand the position she was in. Her memory had been wiped out along with the Carl Sagan’s crew, and these alien invaders were responsible for it, no doubt about it. There were too many mysteries about them, clues needed to be uncovered, no matter how small, such as the ones she was quickly gaining on as she made her last mass-reduced jump jet that took her to the summit.

Her body soared softly to the ground and she charged into what appeared to have been a battle. There was a lone attacker caught in a pincer’s attack, the Dragon Knight duo on one side, and four invader troopers on the other. In the middle of it all was a large boulder where someone with psionic powers hid and launched relentless attacks upon the two forces.

Chevallier ran with her rifle, yelling at the Dragon Knights and dove over to the cover of the boulder where the lone psionic was, and hoped they were friendly once she slid in behind.

They were.

“Tolukei?” Chevallier said with shock.

Tolukei’s four eyes gazed at her. “Master Chief … you are alive.”

Lying on the ground below Tolukei was an unresponsive, young, and skinny Aryile woman. “Who’s the girl?”

“Odelea, she is a scholar.”

Tachyon beams discharged from the invader soldiers further down the summit. Their missed shots sent plumes of smoke up from the ground below their feet. Chevallier’s arrival and chitchat brought distraction to Tolukei’s psionic mayhem. It also prolonged their stay on the mountains … she needed to get him and Odelea to safety before the orbital strikes.

She checked the countdown on her HUD.

Fifteen minutes, not good.

“Sergeant Boyd, this is Chevallier, I have Radiance personnel on the mountain tops.” Chevallier heard static as the reply. Whatever the Dragon Knights use to fuck with HNI must be jamming my signals. “Tolukei, are you able to get us out of here?”

“I am,” Tolukei said as his cybernetic hands hurled psionically generated balls of plasma at the Dragon Knight duo.

“Do it, don’t care where we land, we just need to not be here in a few minutes.”

“Not until I have completed my mission.” Tolukei flicked his hand at the four invader soldiers, and they flew backwards via a fierce telekinetic push. “I made an agreement with the scholar to capture one of these alive.”

“This is really not the time—”

“I will deal with the psionics, please keep the soldiers at bay!”

Tolukei wasn’t listening. Then again, as she recalled from her limited interactions with him, he wasn’t much of a people person due to his limited experience working with humans. This put her in a tough spot. She found the source of the teleportation, though it didn’t yield the clues she was hoping to find. If Tolukei was willing to throw his life away for his mission, so be it, she wasn’t going to end hers for an interrogation. And, as for the girl? She could care less about her. There was no reason for Chevallier to remain as she collected what little intel there was about the unfolding events.

It was time to go. Too bad she drew attention to herself on her climb and run up into the fray. She looked at the four invader soldiers as they regrouped behind large rocks for cover, they weren’t going to make her escape easy, and neither would the two Dragon Knights. Like it or not, Chevallier was faced with limited options. Help Tolukei finish before the orbital strike hits so that he could teleport them away to safety, or thin out the numbers of the invader soldiers, and hope to God the knight duo won’t switch targets and chase her.

Before she made her choice, she shouted to reiterate. “Tolukei, the UNE is planning to obliterate this area with an orbital strike!”

“Tell them to delay it.”

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?!”

“I have made a pact with Odelea, which I intend to fulfill.” She was impressed on how his psionic powers were able to keep the Dragon Knights at bay. “How much time do we have?”

She checked her HUD, “Twelve minutes.”

“Then we must ensure we are a victorious before that!”

Thin the herd it is. Chevallier brought her rifle forward, selected projectile fire mode, and zeroed her targeting scope’s reticle in the general direction where the four invaders hid. She pulled the trigger when one of them thought they’d be slick and take a shot.

Four bullets turned one soldier into a bloody mess, only for it to rise like an undead zombie. It brought back the stressful days when she had to battle the undead grunts at Sirius, who were all being mind controlled remotely via a psionic—

That’s when it hit her. She lowered her rifle and gazed blankly at the strange stance Tolukei entered. The soldier that rose from the dead was his doing, the forbidden powers of a Muodiry psionic was at work. Powers Radiance denied in order to make their religion’s history sound truthful. Muodiry literally translated as necromancer for a reason.

Tolukei sent his newly acquired minion to harass the Dragon Knights. It made Chevallier grin as her rifle went to acquire new targets to conscript into Tolukei’s undead mind-controlled army. Her bullets found the neck of one soldier, jets of blood squirted from the jugular while they staggered from the impact. Two shoots to their exposed chest finished the job, and Tolukei’s mind control turned it against its Dragon Knight masters.

“Remember, we require at least one alive,” Tolukei said.

None will be alive when I’m done. The invaders brought the end of her mother’s life, like hell she was going to show mercy to them, especially with time running out.

Case in point, the two remaining soldiers tried to readjust their position and take aim at the two mind-controlled soldiers whom were wearing down the psionic barriers of the two jump porting Dragon Knights and their fancy staff-twirling moves and swings. Chevallier glanced at Tolukei, his shut eyes, determined and focused face, showed her just how hard it was to mind control two dead targets. He was oblivious to the fact that she left her cover as her scope zoomed in and searched for the repositioning invader soldiers.

The Dragon Knight duo was still struggling to rid themselves of the two undead soldiers, not realizing that you can’t kill what’s already dead. The tachyon rifles held by the undead soldiers were making short work of the Dragon Knights’ psionic barriers. Chevallier’s freedom from the hole she leaped into was near. Whether she’d have enough time to make her escape was another story, as the countdown on her HUD began to pulse red.

Five minutes left, I need to finish this!

Desperation took complete control over Chevallier’s body. She moved like a silent killer in the night, her finger was centimeters away from the trigger, and her scope an inch away from the backs of the last two invader soldiers. They came into view when she approached them from behind. Five seconds of rapidly fired rounds rendered Tolukei’s mission a failure and hopefully would put some sense into his head. This was not the time to be taking prisoners.

“Why did you do that?!” Tolukei spat upon hearing and seeing what she had done.

“My finger slipped.” Chevallier smirked, not that he’d be able to see it under her helmet. “Sorry about your mission, but we got to go.”

The rocky ground rumbled, and for a moment Chevallier thought the orbital strike had begun. Her HUD said otherwise, there was still time. She looked beyond her new cover and examined the Dragon Knight duo, the source of all remaining action on the mountains. One of them had collapsed, the male one by the looks, as smoke blew up and away from its singed armor. Tolukei’s psionic attacks and his last remaining undead minion made progress, progress that would allow for her to escape.

Chevallier sprinted away from the rock, away from Tolukei as her pleas for him to escape with her went unanswered. I tried, if he wants to waste his life for this battle, that’s his own problem.

With the pointless battle behind her along with the threat of someone shooting her gone, Chevallier’s mass-reduced body leaped and glided down the steep incline of the mountains. Rocks, trees, and the like moved past her just as fast as the remaining minutes and seconds ticked away on her HUD’s countdown. Light flashed suddenly behind her, she wasn’t sure if it was a teleportation or Tolukei’s battle with the Dragon Maiden taking an unexpected turn.

What she did know was the next bright pulse of light that came moments later was the UNE ion cannon orbital strike. Ka-boom did not begin to describe the explosive blast that knocked her over and sent her body into an uncontrolled tumble to the surface.

25 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Jacobus orbit, Kapteyn’s Star system

August 9, 2118, 18:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Hundreds of human transport ships fled from the colony as the invaders’ fleet neared and prepared to hurl its winged, serpent life-forms into its atmosphere. Peiun observed from the bridge of the Rezeki’s Rage when it entered orbit around the planet, that many of the fleeing human ships had opted to make their escape into interstellar space, as opposed to utilizing the wormhole. A wormhole that had been blocked off by several invader ships.

“We should do the same, Captain,” said Louik as the rest of the bridge crew watched the view screen. “Let us flee while the invaders have their way with this world.”

“And where would we go at sub light speed?” Peiun said. “It will take us decades to return back to Imperial space.”

Human and Radiance ships were equipped with FTL, Imperial ships, however, were still slave to the old sub light engines, relying heavily on the space bridge network for interstellar travel. Ships that entered the space bridge could teleport anywhere within the galaxy, with one stipulation. The larger a ship was, the longer the process took.

Imperial ships with MRF, however, could reduce their mass enough to speed up the process to take several minutes to an hour. The Empire literally had the power to teleport ships from one location to the next, provided the right conditions were met. The Rezeki’s Rage had a secret nonfunctioning MRF and found itself in a system dozens of light-years away from Imperial space, and a space bridge. Said conditions were not met.

“So be it, let us sleep this conflict out,” said Louik.

Peiun faced him, his voice growing firm. “A moment ago, you were ready to give up your life to fight; now you want to sleep out this war?”

“That was before I realized how insane an enemy we faced.”

Manzo showed signs of agreement with Louik with nods and grunts of approval, while Alesyna remained committed to following the chain of command and defending Peiun’s choices. Louik and Manzo were all loyal to the original captain and first officer and were key players of the bridge’s main operational team. Peiun mostly served below decks and rarely appeared on the bridge unless requested. His rank was the sole reason he sat in the captain’s chair. He was in some way an outsider taking control, an outsider that needed to be removed. The four members of the overextended bridge crew were divided.

“It would appear the humans have left people behind,” Alesyna said, cutting a swathe through the testosterone in the air that Peiun and the feuding bridge crew were creating. “A team of researchers are stranded near the Lyonria ruins on the surface.”

Peiun adjusted his posture. “Show me their location.”

The view screen updated, zooming in to a rocky and mountainous region of the planet they orbited. A glowing navigational marker was superimposed over the location of the distress signal coming from the surface.

“How soon can we have a transport ready?” Peiun said, eyeing the projection.

“You can’t be serious?” Louik said to Peiun. “We are in no position to rescue anyone, let alone humans!”

“The humans have a saying, scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,” Peiun said. “If we save the lives of those left behind, we could use it as leverage.”

Louik made a wincing glare at him. “Leverage for what?”

“For the UNE not to shoot us down once we enter the wormhole without permission,” Peiun growled, hoping his new tone of voice would remind them who’s in command. “Because, as of now, that’s the only way we’re leaving this system. I will not sleep for seventeen years while we return to Imperial-controlled space.”

“UNE battleships are on their way to the system now,” Alesyna added.

“All the more reason to rescue these researchers now,” Peiun said.

Four invader ships entered orbit having dropped out of FTL. Peiun grimaced as he witnessed hordes of the winged serpents soar away from the organic ships along with large pods that sank beneath the clouds, officially commencing their assault on the planet. The survivors responsible for sending the distress beacon had very little time left.

The Rezeki’s Rage remaining in orbit already put them at great risk. It would only be a matter of time before the rest of the invader’s fleet swarmed the enormous planet, having discovered the lone Imperial frigate hiding in orbit.

The time to act was now, regardless of whatever path they chose.

Whichever path he chose.

“I still didn’t get an answer about that transport,” Peiun said.

“Why not send her to teleport down?” Manzo grunted, pointing at Alesyna.

“I’m the only psionic aboard,” Alesyna said.

“Indeed, her place is on the bridge,” Peiun said. “If the invaders choose to continue their attacks against us, we’ll need her to survive.”

“Then, let’s just leave now and save ourselves the danger,” said Manzo.

Peiun spun his chair to face him. “Did you not listen to a word I said?”

“I did, and I think your own plan is putting what remains of this ship and crew at unnecessary risk,” he spat back. “Take us out of the system, no wormhole, no leverage, let’s enter cryostasis and return to the Empire.”

Alesyna retorted. “You need to follow the orders of the man that sits in that chair.”

“I refuse.” Manzo said, and stood.

Louik stood in defiance, joining him. “It was a mistake to have you take command. Your generation, like all the younger ones, is soft … weak, sympathetic.”

Peiun and Alesyna remained sitting and staring at the rebelling officers with their red glowing eyes. “If we weren’t in such a dire situation, I’d kill you where you stand,” Peiun calmly spoke.

Louik laughed. “You don’t have the fangs for that.”

Peiun furiously hissed at him like an angry beast, showing his sharp fangs. Louik returned the gesture then allowed his retractable claws to sprout out from his fingers.

“Enough!” Alesyna yelled, pointing at the invader ships on the view screen. “That is the enemy, not the people around you!”

Manzo left his post, cracking his knuckles, drawing his claws out. “Who’s up next for the captain’s chair?”

Louik smirked. “I am.”

Manzo reached for his sheathed, short plasma sword. “Then, let’s get you in there.”

Louik joined him in his mutiny, arming himself with his sidearm plasma sword. Both their weapons activated, releasing a green glow of light illuminating the dimly lit bridge, raising its temperature slightly in the process. Their actions forced Peiun to rise from his chair and do the same and answer their challenge to the captain’s chair.

Conflicts like this were perfectly legal within the Imperial navy. If a captain incurred the rage of their subordinates, they had the right to challenge the captain to a duel to the death and replace them with someone the crew would prefer to serve under. Should the captain win the fight, then it would send a powerful message they were not to be crossed, and therefore they belonged in the seat. If the captain lost? Then they were weak, hated by the crew, and got what they deserved.

Gene therapy only made matters worse as there were multiple generations of Hashmedai serving. The most common generations being those born and raised during the reign of Empress Y’lin and Emperor Rezeki, when war and vengeance were encouraged amongst Hashmedai, and those that were raised during the reign of their daughter, Kroshka, where peace within the galaxy was encouraged.

The two generations repeatedly conflicted over their ideas, which were expected, given the past history of the Empire. Only this time, older generations did not die off due to old age, or were in limbo due to cryostasis sleep, or a lengthy space bridge teleportation. Both generations worked together, and both generations refused to accept each other’s differences.

Alesyna and Peiun were the youngest of those present on the bridge.

Peiun held his blade forward and faced his two attackers. Three blades infused with burning plasma energy clashed against each other. The swings of his blade were made for defense, while his two attackers swung for the kill. Peiun’s finesse and swordplay kept him alive. Skills and moves his mother taught him were recalled in an instant, they were skills and moves his mother used during the many assassins she committed in the name of the Empire.

He saw and predicted their swings seconds before they executed them and countered with the appropriate move of his body or swing of his blade. He shifted his body about, ducking when a swing went for his head, leaping back when that wasn’t an option, deflecting when he felt his sword would do the trick. He would have made a decent assassin had the Empire not forced him to join the navy.

Ultimately, however, his moves were taught to him at a young age, oftentimes when he and his mother were free. Peiun was by no means an experienced assassin, and there were limits to his abilities, limits Alesyna saw as he backed into the gunnery control station unexpectedly. Louik lunged forward to make what was supposed to be the fatal strike that would end Peiun’s command. Alesyna’s psionic might intervened with a telekinetic knock back.

Officially, Alesyna’s intervention was a foul, as the captain was expected to face their challengers solo. For all intents and purposes, Peiun had lost the match and was expected to give up command and be thankful he didn’t have to give his life up to make that happen.

“Alesyna …” he grunted to her.

Manzo, playing by the rules powered down his blade, holstering it back at his side and moved to aid Louik, the new captain. Alesyna’s cybernetic arms began to glow orange and gold colors as they charged with super-heated energy generated by her psionic powers. White flames rippled away from the palms of her hands, white flames that formed into a fireball she launched into the chest of Louik turning it into ash and setting what remained of his legs on fire.

“The new captain is dead,” Alesyna said, smirking at Peiun. “I guess that makes you the ranking officer … again Peiun.”

Technically it should have been her, but she didn’t officially state she was challenging Louik for the chair. Not that anyone had plans to argue with her on that topic, as her actions reminded everyone who really had the power aboard the ship … the lone shipboard psionic.

Peiun powered his weapon off. He pushed aside the fact that the bridge crew wanted to remove him as captain and focused on the real problem at hand, the invaders, the survivors still on the surface, and their leverage to flee into human space without incurring their wrath.

“I’ll take the transport down myself,” Peiun said as he moved to leave the bridge. “If I’m not back in time, take the ship back to the Empire via sub light.”

“Very well …” Manzo said, reluctantly.

“Alesyna, you have command,” Peiun said.

Alesyna looked at him, confused. “Me?”

Peiun verified his decision via searching the crew manifest with his HNI. With Louik’s vitals fatal, Alesyna’s name moved up the list, she was the first officer now. “Louik is dead; you’re the ranking officer now as long as I’m gone. Rest your mind up as well we may need the overshields again.”

He watched as Alesyna happily left her psionic workstation to take the captain’s chair, sitting cross-legged, confident that nobody would dare try to challenge her for command.

Peiun hurried across various corridors and elevator lifts, arriving down in the central docking bay where he entered a transport and began the preflight take off sequence. His transport left the Rezeki’s Rage minutes later, giving him a closer view of the extent of damage done to the exterior of the ship, and the strange goo-like substance that clung to its hulls.

As he neared the planet, he brought up the distress signal in question and guided the transport closer to its location and reviewed information about its sender. Oddly enough the signal itself used a Radiance HNI to broadcast, though the contents of the message were transmitted in English, a human language.

The signal was being transmitted on behalf of a human female, an explorer named Rebecca Foster.

26 Foster

Ancient City

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

August 9, 2118, 18:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Wyverns flapped their massive wings as they dove below the thick yellow and grey clouds above the ancient city. Their earsplitting shrieks increased in volume as they closed the massive gap between Foster and her company from the skies, instilling her body with fear for what would come next.

The invader soldiers were a frightful thing to be seen as they fell from the skies in their organic drop pods, and landing within the streets of the ancient city, clawing their way out with tachyon rifles in hand. Aged pillars and the dragon statues were the only sources of cover for Foster, Pierce, Eicelea, and Vynei with his blazing rifle, from the invader’s energy weapons that shot through the air.

One Radiance magnetic rifle, versus dozens of invader tachyon rifles, it wasn’t a fair fight at all.

“Every time I venture into new ruins trouble finds me!” Eicelea yelled. “The Gods must be trying to communicate a message to me.”

“Time for a career change?” Foster snickered to her.

Eicelea nodded. “Indeed.”

“Don’t bother,” Pierce said. “I tried that once, look at what it got me?”

Three pods plummeted from the skies, creating small craters within the ancient streets as they landed. Four invaders clawed and ripped their way out from the skin of each of the three pods, with their bronze armor covered in translucent slime. Vynei was now faced with a grand total of twenty-one soldiers. He’d managed to kill three just seconds before the new pods landed. Nevertheless, the four were faced with twenty-one blasts of tachyon beams, beams which were vaporizing chunks of their pillar and statue cover with each shot.

Eicelea patted Vynei from behind. “Vynei, keep shooting like this, get me out of here in relatively good health, and I shall double your salary!”

“Sure thing, boss,” Vynei said before sticking his rifle back out into the fray, spraying bullets at the closest invader soldiers.

Foster peeked around the corner of her crumbling pillar and noted the number of invader soldiers still pushing toward them. She shook her head. “We’s gotta fall back,” she said to Eicelea.

“Back? Look around, human, there is no safe place! Except being next to Vynei …”

Foster pointed at the mysterious monolith behind them. “That floating thingy is gonna give us better cover than these flimsy ass pillars and statues.”

“Have you gone mad, human?” Eicelea said. “Put the monolith in direct line of fire between the two of us? That is the most prized structure in this system.”

“Suit ya self,” Foster said, grabbing ahold of Pierce’s arm. “Let’s go, Travis.”

Foster and Pierce made a quick dash backward to the monolith, keeping their heads low, and what remained of their cover behind to obstruct the invader’s aim at them. Their hasty departure from the invader’s choke point brought to their attention additional drop pods falling around them, cratering the once pristine and undamaged streets.

“Uh, run faster,” Foster murmured upon noticing the skin of the pods quickly start to rip open from the inside.

Unlike the original invader group that continued to shoot toward Eicelea and Vynei, this newly landed group would be in the perfect position to gun all four of them down. Foster quickly looked back and shouted to Eicelea and Vynei. “Ya’ll might wanna look behind.”

Eicelea’s dwarflike body leaped up and down with panic, her arms flailing. “Vynei, do something about this—”

“Run to us, you fools!” Foster cut in.

Foster and Pierce continued to run, marching up short flights of stairs onto the platform where the golden monolith hovered and hummed. Behind her, she heard the footsteps of Eicelea and Vynei totter as they fled to join them. Amidst those sounds were the pods being torn open, and slime-covered invader soldiers splashing out from them, searching for their rifles still on the insides of the pods.

Foster resisted the urge to look back out of fear of witnessing an invader take aim and end her life. If she was going to go down running, she’d rather it come without warning. Then there was Eicelea and Vynei, who were also in the danger zone, more so than Foster and Pierce. No need to have their last moments of life etched into her mind because she decided to look back and see what was going on.

The monolith neared, and the hairs on Foster’s neck stood on end, still expecting that one fatal shot from behind.

She and Pierce made a hard turn to the left, placing their bodies behind the mysterious and towering device. They were safe for the time being, huffing and puffing noises were made by the two humans, while sweat from their run and the terror behind them soaked their uniforms. Eicelea and Vynei joined the two seconds before a barrage of tachyon fire erupted. Foster saw energy beams travelling faster than light streak past their sides as they remained hidden behind the monolith. Vynei made zero attempts at returning fire, looking from behind the monolith was suicide at that point.

Eicelea looked intently at the monolith and growled. “I am about to go down in history as the archaeologist that helped play a role in the destruction of the most important Lyonria discovery ever.”

Eicelea’s fists bashed against the surface of the monolith repeatedly. It made Foster wince, roll her eyes, and reach down to grab ahold of Eicelea’s fist that remained resting against the monolith. “Hey, slammin’ yer fists on this ain’t gonna do any—” The monolith flashed on with a surge of energy. “Good?” Foster finished.

Both Foster and Eicelea stepped away from it, looking at it in shock, removing their hands from the cool surface of the device. It became dormant with the exception of it hovering slightly off the ground. Eicelea went to place her hands on the monolith again.

Nothing happened.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Eicelea grumbled to herself. “We might have figured something out!”

She attempted to touch it again.

Nothing happened.

“This is hardly the time to be concerned about discoveries,” Pierce said to Eicelea.

“No, it ain’t,” Foster concurred as she went to place her palms upon the monolith. Seconds after she made contact with it, another surge of energy radiated through it. A holographic screen emerged from the monolith and floated next to Foster. The hologram had an image of a handprint on it with alien text flashing above it. Curiosity guided her hand to rise and touch the holographic handprint.

The hologram vanished the instant Foster touched it. A translucent figure flashed before the monolith, it looked like a naked woman. The woman’s eyes opened and met with Foster’s, it strode over to her, like a ghost embracing her.

The ghostly figure vanished.

So did Foster’s vision.

When Foster’s sight returned, she witnessed strange sights.

People screaming in horror.

Stars, lots of them.

A globular cluster of stars outside The Milky Way.

A woman dressed in dragon-like armor, being knighted, or something like that, by some sort of alien queen.

Slaves, thousands of them, forced to seek vengeance.

The vision shattered into millions of pieces as if it was painted on glass, and Foster’s mind returned to the ancient city and the monolith they took cover behind. Her body was paralyzed, she was stuck within a stasis field. She could see the three around her, calling out to her, though the sounds of their voices were muted by the field.

Foster felt her skin become irritated and extremely itchy along her hands, down her arms, legs, and along the sides of her thighs going up to her chest. Her spine became sore as though billions of tiny pins had been pushed into it. The pain traveled up her spine, into her neck, and into her brain.

The stasis field ruptured seconds later, hurling her mystified body to the floor, she shook uncontrollably. Pierce was the first to help her up. “Rebecca!” he called out to her repeatedly.

Foster wasn’t able to vocalize a reply, at least not right away, as she waited for her body to recover and regain control of basic functions, like being able to speak. “Travis …” Foster grumbled a moment later. “I think that was an engram.”

Engrams. They were thoughts, experiences, memories, converted into a form of pure psionic energy to be exchanged with others. The Undine and psionic Poniga used them quite frequently amongst each other to educate and preserve memories and experiences, and, apparently, so did whoever built the monolith.

“What did you see?” Pierce asked her.

“A lot of weird shit that didn’t make any sense,” Foster said as she slowly stood amidst the sounds of tachyon beams and scouting invader soldiers pushing forward. “It was different than the one I experienced in Sirius. This one didn’t transfer the knowledge of the language the engram creature had spoken. Had no idea what in the hell people were screaming and hollerin’ about.”

“Satisfied?” Pierce asked Eicelea who replied with an enthusiastic nod as she examined and scanned the monolith.

“Fascinating,” Eicelea said. “There’s pure psionic energy emitting from this.”

“Umm, Rebecca?” Pierce said, pointing at Foster’s hands. “What happened there?”

Foster looked at her hands, they were etched with sky-blue tattoos. She peeled back the sleeves of her uniform to see how widespread the alien tattoos were. The tattoos had formed along her arms, where they had felt irritated when she was trapped within the stasis field. There was a good chance the rest of her body that had become irritated suffered the same effect.

“Oh boy …” she said with her heart racing fast.

The number of invader drop pods continued to rain down, smashing new craters into the surface, adding three to four soldiers with each drop. Foster took a brief glance around the monolith when the shooting had let up. She stopped counting at thirty attackers, it was too demoralizing to fully assess the danger they found themselves in, never mind the drop pods that fell deeper in the city out of their sight, and the ravaging wyverns in the skies.

“So, Travis, I’m starting to think maybe staying back at the base was a better option …” Foster said drily.

Pierce grinned, keeping his body covered behind the monolith. “Isn’t this the part where you instill us with confidence with some speech about us surviving worse battles than this?”

“We’re surrounded by enemies with weapons far more advanced than ours, only one of us has a gun, and we’s got angry dragons gettin’ ready to poach us like vultures.” Foster wasn’t one to be full of negativity, especially as a leader. But what else could she say? Sirius was rough, but the enemy had a weakness, and there had been the Carl Sagan just a few AU away to save the day. None of that currently applied to their hellish ordeal. “What we need is someone to draw their fire away from us.”

Less than a second after she spoke, the wyverns altered their flight, turning, and preparing themselves for something else that had entered the fray, something they were not expecting. The soldiers on the ground halted their fire as leaders of their assault groups shouted orders in their language. The invader soldiers began to fan out and take cover behind pillars, dragon statues, and excavation equipment.

A steady burst of plasma fire sunk down from the clouds, vaporizing three wyverns that failed to fly away.

Pierce and Foster looked up at the unexpected event. “How about that?” he asked.

Foster smiled. “That’ll do.”

Following the plasma fire came a transport ship of Hashmedai design, at least that’s what Foster assumed. It looked different from Hashmedai transports she had seen in the past, the biggest changes being the small plasma cannon mounted onto its forward end. However, as it neared their surrounded position, the flag of the Empire was clearly visible for all to see.

The invader soldiers welcomed the Hashmedai transport with a torrent of tachyon rifle fire. Dozens of beams from the surface collided with the shields of the transport as it swooped down to land next to the monolith, blocking the line of sight from the raging invader soldiers.

The side doors of the transport slid open and a single Hashmedai man stood before it, dual-wielding a pair of short plasma swords that shined brightly. His skin was pale, his hair not too far off, while the red glow of his eyes faded as he stepped out of the transport into the hazy sunlight. His Imperial navy uniform waved about in the winds as he passed through the irising shields of his craft. Hashmedai always reminded Foster of vampires whenever she saw them, the fangs in their mouths didn’t help her unsee the similarities. The only thing missing was an unnecessary glittering effect since he now stood in the sunlight.

The Hashmedai man beckoned to the four to join him. The mere thought of accepting help from a Hashmedai irritated her thoughts, more so than the danger they were facing.

“Come with me, this planet will be overrun soon,” said the Hashmedai, his accent was reminiscent of a Russian one, as with all Hashmedai.

Foster winced. “Go with you?”

“Yes.”

“A Hashmedai?”

“Yes … that is what I am.”

“I think we’ll be fine, right here—”

Two invader soldiers marched past his idle transport. The Hashmedai was quick to react by engaging in swordplay and elegantly weaving together combos of rapidly executed thrusts, slashes, and rolls across the ground to escape weapons fire. His speed and reflexes were unmatched, one of the many unique traits of the Hashmedai species, they did evolve from a predator species on their homeworld after all. And it was those primitive survival instincts the Hashmedai before her utilized to sever the arms of the two invader soldiers, disabling their ability to shoot. His twin blades took turns impaling the chests of the two invaders, splashing their steaming hot blood against the flickering shields of his transport.

The Hashmedai turned to face the four and reiterate his offer. Foster wasn’t convinced, not for a second. His savage display only reminded her of the ruthlessness his people unleashed upon her home city of Nashville many years ago.

“Oh, no, no, no, don’t listen to her, she does not speak for us!” Eicelea said, clearly impressed by the Hashmedai. “Vynei, let us make our escape.”

Eicelea and Vynei raced into the Hashmedai transport, Foster stayed put and was ready to force Pierce to do the same.

“This planet is about to be made into a wasteland,” the Hashmedai said to her. “I am offering you a chance to escape and you wish to … argue with me?”

Pierce stepped toward the transport as more invader pods rained down from the skies amongst the sounds of the soldiers pushing forward to get around the transport blocking their attacks.

“Travis …” Foster grunted, stopping his steps.

“Rebecca, come on please,” Pierce pleaded to her.

“Last chance, human,” the Hashmedai said as Pierce reluctantly entered the transport. “My ship has orders to withdraw from this system if I do not return in time.”

Foster sighed. “Fine …”

It was the Hashmedai Empire that killed Foster’s father. Accepting help from a member of their species … It went against her every instinct. What ultimately made her climb aboard his transport, wasn’t the fact they were seconds away from being overwhelmed by the invaders, though she would have preferred that outcome than being saved by a Hashmedai. It was the fact both Eicelea and Vynei climbed on without a second thought. Eicelea and Vynei were members of Radiance, a galactic nation that hated the Hashmedai for centuries fighting in what seemed like an endless genocidal war between the two.

Something ain’t right if Radiance trusts Hashmedai more than me …

Foster joined her company in the rear compartment of the transport, as its doors shut and the Hashmedai piloted it back into space. The temperatures inside were chilly, enough to make their sweating from the action outside come to an end, and their deep breaths to release white mists from their mouths.

Eicelea grinned at Foster as she took a seat on the icy chair. “Ah, so she came to her senses at last.”

“For members of Radiance, you two seem awfully trustworthy of a Hashmedai,” Foster said to her.

“Trusting a Hashmedai with our lives is one of the many reasons we are alive today,” Eicelea said. “If you want to survive in this galaxy we live in, you’ll have to trust monsters, and be skeptical of your own countrymen.”

The transport rumbled slightly during their escape from the surface. Foster’s hand wiped away a layer of fog and frost from the window next to her. Angry wyverns flew alongside the transport during its ascent up and away from the clouds into the void of space.

They weren’t going to make the rescue an easy task.

27 Foster

Transport on approach to Rezeki’s Rage

Jacobus orbit, Kapteyn’s Star system

August 9, 2118, 19:16 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Hashmedai man cursed in his language.

He exerted a great deal of effort to keep the transport still as it left the high gravitational pull of Jacobus and soared toward the Hashmedai frigate in orbit. The pursuing wyverns flapped their wings and discharged their cybernetically mounted weapons or waves of plasma from their mouths. He spoke to another Hashmedai via the transport’s communication system, most likely notifying them that they’d be coming in hot, at least that’s what Foster would be doing in his position.

Foster joined the Hashmedai man in the transport’s cockpit and gave a concerned glare at his piloting skills. Where did you learn to fly? I could fly this better than you and I can’t make head or tail of your chicken scratch looking language!

“I take it that’s your docking bay over yonder there?” Foster said, pointing at the opening within the center of the frigate.

“It is,” he confirmed.

“We’s gonna crash at this speed and angle then,” Foster said. “And it’s gonna be nowhere near the docking bay, mister—”

“Peiun.”

“What?”

“My name, Peiun Starblazer,” he said. “Forgive me for the late introduction.”

“Right, uh, so, Mister Starblazer—”

“Just Peiun, Starblazer is the title I earned during my youth.”

“Well, whatever!” Foster spat loudly. “Look, if you don’t adjust our heading then we’s gonna be blazing like the stars in the next three minutes.”

Following Foster’s advice and guidance, Peiun readjusted the angle and speed of the transport, allowing them to make a quick landing within the protection of the frigate’s shields and docking bay. The pursuing wyverns from behind broke off and away, hopefully back to the planet, though Foster had a feeling their escape was far from complete.

The five exited the transport into the dark confines of the ship, rubbing their numb hands together to create friction heat, except Peiun, of course. He strode away into the corridors as if the near-freezing temperatures were nothing. Foster followed behind, prompting the rest to do the same arriving at the ship’s main bridge minutes later.

An uneasy feeling crept into Foster as they stepped aboard the bridge unexpectedly. Multiple pairs of glowing red eyes examined the four while Peiun went to take his post. It was lightly staffed judging by the various stations that were unmanned and the fact that the shipboard psionic had been keeping the captain’s chair warm during Peiun’s absence. Why the hell would the captain be the one to make the rescue mission? Foster pondered.

The view screen upfront showed the planet Jacobus come under siege from the invader forces, fires raged from the cities, and blackened the skies. Hundreds of wyverns swarmed around in front of the scenery displayed on the viewer, taking shots at the frigate they were aboard. Two invader ships appeared over the horizon and discharged their tachyon cannons, creating havoc on the overshields of the Hashmedai frigate.

Peiun issued orders to his extremely small bridge crew in the Hashmedai language, some of them replied back, hopefully with good news as the planet shifted out of sight from the viewer.

“You think this is a bad time to ask if they got any coats to wear?” Foster said to Pierce.

“Probably, they’re all busy trying to get us to the wormhole.”

The ship broke orbit and entered sub light speeds. The wyverns that had been swarming it were no longer an issue. The two invader ships, however, were, as they continued to be within weapon range, dishing out punishing strikes with weapons that travelled faster than the ship.

The Hashmedai bridge crew spoke some more with their captain, Pierce listened in and said. “They have doubts they’ll be able to make it to the wormhole in time, there’s too many ships in the system shooting at them, plus several others patrolling in front of the wormhole.” More Hashmedai chatter filled the chilly air. “They’re going to try and fight their way through.”

Foster was impressed with his translations. “You speak their language?”

Pierce shrugged his shoulders. “Not very well.”

“Why?

“I’m from Vancouver.”

“Yeah, and?”

Humans that spoke the Hashmedai language and lived in places like Vancouver were more often than not, loyal to the HLF terrorist group. Pierce’s reluctance to shed more details on the subject made Foster’s mouth twist. Any more secrets I should know about?

The wormhole became visible on the view screen minutes later into their escape. A small blockade of invader ships sat next to the mouth of it. Some were firing tachyon beams through the wormhole, most likely to deter the UNE forces on the other side from pushing through. The rest spun to face the approaching Rezeki’s Rage as it neared.

The shipboard psionic had long entered a state of deep focus to maintain the overshields. Her pale face twitched with each successful shot that impacted against the overshields, while her cybernetic implants glowed along with parts of the seductive robe she wore. The colors that radiated away from her reminded Foster of the mysterious alien tattoos that had covered her body, they too began to emit traces of light. It was a worrying thought, as she had no idea of the level of change her body had undergone.

A direct hit to the forward overshields caused the psionic to groan, her mind was getting weak. The blockade facing the wormhole had begun to unleash their wrath, adding to the random salvos of tachyon beams hitting them from elsewhere in the system. FTL weaponry was a major game changer.

Hashmedai words became a roar from all members of the bridge crew, none of it seemed promising given their tone of voice. Pierce, once again, listened and gave his translation. “And now they’re arguing, sounds like the captain and first officer were only promoted because of unexpected deaths,” he said. “Oh, and they don’t have a helmsman, seems the only one trained to fly this ship is dead.”

A crew that didn’t work as a team was a recipe for death in a situation like this. Foster gazed at the novice captain and the worrying look on his face. She swallowed her pride, all of it, and approached him amongst the sudden vibrations and computer stations erupting with sparks and explosive blasts from the attack.

“What kind of escape you got going here, pal?” Foster asked Peiun.

“Most of our officers were killed days ago in battle,” Peiun said. “The plasma cannons were offline earlier since we needed to divert its power to the shields. However, it is clear we will need weapons to make our escape. We don’t have a gunner; our psionic, Alesyna, has been using her mind to remotely power the plasma cannons.”

“Her powers aren’t focused then,” Foster said. “She’ll be able to form a stronger overshield if she just concentrates on that.”

“We don’t have any other option; the rest of our crew aren’t trained for bridge operations.”

“I could do that,” Vynei said as he stepped in front of the tactical station, interacting with its flashing holographic buttons and screens. “These controls aren’t much different from the ones Radiance uses.”

“Since when did you know about such things?” Eicelea said, gazing up at him.

Vynei continued to type commands into the console. “I used to be in the navy, it’s where I learned how to shoot.”

Foster looked at the Hashmedai that sat at the helm, remembering what Peiun had said about their real helmsman being dead. Whoever the Hashmedai was, he was no pilot and guided the ship with the same level of skill Peiun used to fly the transport. Peiun nearly crashed the transport trying to land it in the docking bay. The Hashmedai at the helm was poised to crash the ship into one of the invader ships … or the lip of the wormhole gate.

“Let me take the helm,” Foster said.

Peiun’s face became flabbergasted. “You?”

“I was a starship captain,” she said as she stepped next to the acting helmsman. “Can’t get in the captain’s chair if you ain’t never spent time at the helm.”

Peiun ordered the Hashmedai at the helm to surrender it to Foster. His command was met with furious hissing noises. Peiun hissed back louder and pointed his finger at the psionic, Alesyna. Foster wasn’t sure what Alesyna had to do with anything, but it made the Hashmedai step away and attend to the communication station, giving Foster access to the helm.

Pierce ran behind her as she sat down. “You can’t be serious about this?”

“Can’t be all that hard,” Foster said, looking at the controls and holographic screens. “I think these are the maneuvering thrusters.” Her hand went for the commands she thought were the thrusters.

The entire ship came to a full and complete stop, making the invaders’ job easier.

Foster’s face flushed. “I meant to do that!”

“Maybe we should get a Hashmedai officer to fly the twenty-second century Hashmedai ship?” Pierce suggested.

“Just translate what all these labels mean, and I’ll get us out of here.” The invader blockade and wormhole behind it began to grow larger on the view screen as speed was restored. “And I’ll do it without slamming into the invader ships.”

Pierce pointed at several controls that had words written in the Hashmedai language across them, translating to Foster what they were. Following his words, she quickly caught on to the operation of the helm controls as they weren’t that different from those of the Carl Sagan, or other Earth ships.

All Earth ships, at least those that were in service during 2033, were built using reverse engineered Hashmedai and Radiance technology. Furthermore, Hashmedai technology was originally given to them by Radiance, since it was them who uplifted the Hashmedai race from their homeworld and taught them how to build ships. All technology used by Radiance, Hashmedai, and the UNE had their origins from Radiance and so operated in a similar manner.

Everything Foster needed to fly the ship was at her fingertips. The commands she needed to access were just in a different location and had several other functions that were new. Understandable, given that she was now operating a ship from an entirely new century.

With Alesyna tasked with fewer responsibilities, the Rezeki’s Rage moved forward to the blockade at sub light speeds and a marginally stronger overshield. Vynei’s skills as a primary gunner helped take the pressure off the ship as balls of plasma burned the flesh of the organic ships during their close approach.

“Strap yourself in, boys and girls!” Foster jubilantly spoke, for their journey through the gauntlet leading to the wormhole had just begun.

The Rezeki’s Rage carefully maneuvered past a multitude of invader ships in a no-fear attempt to reach the wormhole. Tachyon beams deflected off the overshields, plasma balls soared and crashed into tachyon cannons, destroying them, or damaging them enough to disrupt their energy output. Weapons fire from across the system became less frequent as they pushed deeper into the blockade, the invaders weren’t going to risk friendly fire.

With three ships left to zigzag around, and an overshield down to 24 percent, Foster pushed forward as a clear and somewhat straight path to the wormhole neared. She could see a fleet of UNE warships on the other side in formation, pondering their next move she figured. Now, more than ever, since a lone Imperial ship was on its final approach.

Lightning bolts struck before them, and a cloud of exotic gases from a storm cloud in space expanded outward rapidly, enveloping the sight of the wormhole, cutting off their escape. From the storm cloud maelstrom, came a fleet of invader ships entering the system single file alongside thousands of wing-flapping wyverns.

“You gots to be kiddin’ me …” Foster moaned and forced the Rezeki’s Rage to pull a sharp turn away from the maelstrom now blocking the wormhole.

The clouds of the maelstrom shifted out of sight to the left via the viewer, only the stars of space appeared along with the odd tachyon strike.

A second maelstrom appeared.

Foster silently cursed as the Hashmedai crew spoke.

“Two maelstroms are feeding us two more fleets of invader ships,” Pierce translated. “Whatever that means.”

The Kapteyn’s Star system was poised to be overwhelmed by not one, but three fleets of invader ships and dragons. It got Foster thinking. The Empire, Union, and UNE were all attacked by one fleet, meaning the invaders had at least three known fleets operating in the galaxy. What was playing out before them, could very well be all the ships used to attack Earth, Paryo, and Aervounis. One fleet nearly brought down Earth and Sol, and now there were three, three that were aware of their presence and cut off their access to the wormhole.

I knew I should have stayed in cryo …

“They use those maelstroms as a means of interstellar travel,” Peiun said to Foster. “Try not to get too close, there’s a gravity well that could pull us in.”

The Rezeki’s Rage remained on its approach toward the second maelstrom. In truth, Foster had no idea what else they could do, they were exposed to tachyon fire from all invader ships once again, and the wormhole was no longer an option, neither was an FTL escape. Light reflected off her face, partially illumining the darkened corner of the bridge she sat at. Looking down she saw the source, her alien tattoos. They began to glow blue colors like a Christmas tree. Even the tattoos covered by her uniform had their light bleed away from it. The closer they got to the maelstrom, the more intensely her tattoos reacted to it.

“We can’t get to the wormhole from here, not with all those ships coming out of the maelstrom,” Foster said. “I’m going to assume you guys have experience navigating through the maelstrom?”

“It’s dangerous to stay within it for a long period of time,” Peiun said as a rear computer console burst into flames amid a violent rumble of the ship, thanks to a direct hit from a tachyon beam. “But, if we’re cut off from the wormhole …”

Foster held onto the helm’s console to minimize the swaying of her body during the assault. She looked back at Alesyna’s weakened face and her body partially slumped over onto her workstation. The overshield was almost gone, and from what Foster was able to make out from the controls, critical ship systems were on the way out.

“We ain’t got no other choice,” Foster said. “Settin’ a course.”

“Those ships,” Peiun said, bringing Foster’s attention to an invader ship with a large green sack up top and another on the underside of it. “We call them the charybdis; they can open and close the maelstrom at will.”

Foster eyed the charybdis ship as it left the maelstrom while they approached it. “So, without them we’re stuck inside?”

Peiun nodded. “Quite possibly.”

“It’s a long shot, but I might be able to goad a few of their ships to follow us in,” Vynei offered.

Foster adjusted their course. “Worth a shot.”

The Rezeki’s Rage made a close approach to the charybdis ship, unleashing a nonstop barrage of plasma into its side, before propelling to the maelstrom.

“That got its attention,” Vynei said.

He was spot-on with his assessment, the charybdis and six other smaller invader capital ships changed direction, opting to chase the fleeing Hashmedai frigate as it accelerated as fast as it could into the now swelling maelstrom clouds.

Foster felt her body temperature rise thanks to the tattoos pulsing rapidly the closer they got. The view screen was dominated by majestic clouds of the maelstrom as the last wave of wyverns flew out while the Rezeki’s Rage flew in. Lightning flashed, briefly lighting up the darkened bridge and smoke from its fires slowly burning out of control.

Foster briefly brought her hands to her face to examine the tattoo’s glowing light. It caught Peiun’s attention. “May I ask what it is you’re doing?”

“I have absolutely no idea whatsoever,” Foster said drily.

The view screen switched to an aft view as the Rezeki’s Rage crossed the threshold into the maelstrom. Normal space and time appeared as a small shrinking circle of black with specks of white amongst the ethereal clouds of the realm they entered.

That’s when Foster realized something critical.

The opening leading back into space wasn’t shrinking because they were flying further away from it. It was shrinking because it was closing, closing without the charybdis following them in as planned.

“They didn’t join us …” Pierce said with concern as the vortex closed, officially trapping them within the maelstrom.

Pierce went to say something more, but his words became muted along with everyone else. Foster saw his lips move, but no sounds were made, or rather none were heard by her. Foster’s tattoos began to glow brighter than before, enough for everyone on the bridge to take notice and speak, but, like with Pierce, she heard no sounds, other than the pulsing thumps of her heartbeat.

And it was beating way too fast.

Then it wasn’t beating at all.

Foster heard the soothing waves of the clouds outside, the thundering noises of the lightning strikes, and the hum of the Rezeki’s Rage as it flew through the maelstrom, a maelstrom she felt at one with. She envisioned what felt like a tunnel the ship was traveling through, tunnels that led to several locations throughout the universe. These tunnels … they collapsed slowly over time when not in use, and so she was only able to detect recently used tunnels. She sensed where some of them could lead and a network-like map leaped into her head, navigational data to traverse the maelstrom.

In some way, the tunnels were similar to a subway system. The invaders, from what she could tell, used them to bore through this alternate realm that existed in parallel to the known universe. Traveling here allowed them to bypass detection, stars, planets, asteroids, and other ships, all while arriving at a destination faster than it would take to use FTL.

Foster sensed tunnels that led to the Hashmedai homeworld of Paryo, another that led to the Aryile homeworld and capital of the Radiance Union, Aervounis. Four other tunnels were detected, one, as expected, led to Earth, another to the Kapteyn’s Star, being the one they were currently traveling through, another to the Arietis system. And a final tunnel … it hadn’t been in use for some time, and, as such, it was collapsing. Its entry point was a location from beyond the edge of the Milky Way.

As fascinating as the dark energy tunnels were, they needed escape.

“I don’t think we need ‘em,” Foster said, as her mind partially returned and navigated the Rezeki’s Rage through the tunnels and the vibrant clouds ahead of them.

Her thoughts left her body again as she watched the Rezeki’s Rage move through the tunnels like an ethereal creature. It arrived at a fork where she guided the ship into another tunnel. Upon reaching the end of the cloud tunnel, Foster reached out, almost as if she was trying to touch the clouds themselves. A tear in the fabric of space-time appeared and the star-filled skies of space welcomed them back into the normal universe. How she was able to make that happen was another story.

A maelstrom appeared at the edge of the Arietis system. The Rezeki’s Rage was the sole ship to appear from the vortex of clouds as they slowly retracted back into nothingness. Foster’s tattoos became dormant immediately afterward, and her skin began to cool down, thanks to the chilly air of the Hashmedai environment.

“Alrighty, folks, new rule,” Foster said, staring wide-eyed at the view screen. “We don’t do that again.”

“Sweet Jesus, where are we?” Pierce said.

Peiun consulted with Alesyna and revealed. “This is the Arietis system according to our psionic.”

Silence fell upon everyone while Foster sent the Rezeki’s Rage on a course to Amicitia Station 14, almost a day away from their current position. Her face turned a shade pale upon realizing the invaders had direct access to the system yet were never seen.

Or so they thought.

28 Odelea

Abyssal Comet, Infirmary

En route to the Luminous system wormhole, Arietis system

August 9, 2118, 19:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea’s forehead flared with mild pain during her recovery on one of the seven Radiance medical beds in the infirmary of the Abyssal Comet. She kept her eyes shut and tried to recall what had happened that would have resulted in her admittance into the infirmary. She remembered freeing Tolukei from his bindings, and teleporting onto the human homeworld, Earth. The two had stood on a mountain, and then she woke up back aboard the Comet.

Her HNI logs revealed a tremendous amount of data corruption moments after the teleport down to the surface, followed by a period where it ceased to record anything until now.

A cold set of fingers slid across her face, down her neck.

And neared her chest.

She leaped up from her rest having realized how vulnerable she had become.

“Oh, did I wake you from your attempt to sleep the guilt away?” Queenea stood next to Odelea, giving her a flirty glare. Odelea gave her a frown back.

“Attempt?” Odelea said, rubbing her forehead. “My head feels as if it has been pureed in a Hashmedai food processor.”

Odelea’s voice lured a doctor over to scan her body. She was given the okay to leave afterwards. She pushed her fragile frame off the bed, took one step, only to be yanked back by Queenea and her firm hold of her arm.

“Hold on, I’m not done with you,” Queenea said. “The captain, Crimei, and I aren’t pleased to know you made this ship a target to the humans, and the council isn’t pleased to know you might have jeopardized our relationships with their species.”

Odelea double-checked her HNI’s recorded data to ensure she didn’t miss anything. There was nothing of value. Whatever happened on Earth with her and Tolukei must have not gone smoothly.

“My Gods, Tolukei, what happened to him?” Odelea asked her.

“He’s back in his cell, along with your captured specimen,” Queenea said. “That specimen is the sole reason why we’re not making you join him.”

Odelea’s exhale brought relief to her thoughts. “Thank the Gods.”

“You better thank them, because you’re going to need their assistance once Tolukei finds out how we’re going to spin this.”

“Spin this? What do you mean?”

“The official story will be that he kidnapped and forced you to the surface of Earth, being the devious and sinful Muodiry that he is.”

“But—”

Queenea silenced Odelea by placing her fingers across her lips and smiling with perverse lust. “I suggest you keep your distance from him when that story goes live. He will kill you.”

Queenea escorted Odelea down the vibrantly illuminated, white, shiny hallways of the ship. Her previously calmed thoughts flared back up to the previous level of panic and terror.

“Queenea, there must be another way?” Odelea asked.

“There is another way. The council exiles you,” Queenea offered. “Iey’liwea was born an exile, and she’s told me stories about that kind of life. It’s not the exciting adventure human movies make it seem to be. And with the young pretty body you have now, pirates will make you hate all men for years to come, like they did to her.”

“Was that before or after Iey’liwea bedded and seduced you to help her found Souyila?”

“You should watch your tongue, scholar, I can’t guarantee you’ll have a place in Souyila after your stunt on Earth.”

Several observation windows they walked past unveiled the ocean of stars as they traversed through space at FTL. “Are we en route back to Aervounis?”

“Yes, assuming the humans let us leave their space, with that said—”

“I’ll get back to work.”

“So, I see you’re not choosing the exile option, excellent.”

Odelea returned to her commandeered lab and froze momentarily when she noticed a humanoid man dressed in elaborate armor within a containment field. Queenea laughed and continued to impose within Odelea’s personal space, massaging her shoulders.

“Find out everything you can,” Queenea said. “I’ll be assigning a team of rangers to stand guard outside.”

“That won’t be necessary, the containment field, slave collar, and mind shields should render it and its abilities harmless.”

“The guards won’t be here for your protection exclusively.”

In other words, they didn’t trust her anymore.

Queenea took her leave, giving Odelea a slight slap on her behind, it was a hidden message. There was a third choice for Odelea, sexual intercourse with Queenea, after which she’d use her corporate power and her political influence with Iey’liwea to protect her.

I miss being an old woman.

Odelea slipped into her lab outfit, armed herself with scanners, and approached the containment field where the armored specimen sat watching her with resentment. At first, she thought it was a human, Poniga, or perhaps Linl, simply wearing invader armor. However, its speech proved otherwise, speaking a language that was similar to what she had recorded from the dying invader.

The containment field prevented her from getting an accurate bio-scan to determine its genetic makeup, a pity really. If this specimen was indeed either human, Poniga, or Linl, it would be a major development. Factor in the human exploration ship, Carl Sagan going missing, and then return with members of its crew gone and the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword. The possible theories that flooded her thoughts became overwhelming and distracting.

Focus, I need to learn how to speak with it.

The specimen became increasingly agitated the longer she listened to it yell. Odelea confirmed meanings of certain phrases it spoke after an hour into her study of its language and documenting the findings with her HNI. She noted that its language was not the same as the invader soldier, similar, but, in the end, the specimen and the dying invader soldier she encountered had spoken two different languages. Whoever these invaders were, they were most likely a collective of races similar to Radiance, each with their own language that was developed and evolved over the years before meeting up with each other.

Such a theory would also explain why there were varying types of attackers the invaders had within their ranks. There was serpentlike humanoid soldiers with bronze armor, the winged dragons, the large tank-like dragons, and now this specimen before her in his elegantly designed armor. Then one couldn’t forget about the invader’s fleet of organic ships, which she suspected were of another species that had been subjected and genetically modified by them.

The following hour saw Odelea take a break while guards outside provided her with a bowl of Earth apples to dine on. As she bit into her favorite meal, she once again accessed records in regard to the disappearance of the Carl Sagan, its return, and reports about the Abyssal Sword next to it, scanning and consuming the knowledge both articles provided her simultaneously.

The Sword’s last mission was to assist human special forces soldiers known as EDF. They were on a joint mission to defeat the Celestial Order within the Dark Lejorania system—known to the humans as Proxima Centauri. There was a battle there which resulted in contact being lost with the ship and its human soldiers that had been aboard. Radiance had long confirmed that the Sword was not amongst the ships found within the debrief field, and that long-range scans suggested there was at least one ship on course to Sirius that had left the system.

The Carl Sagan vanished around the expected time a ship traveling at sub light speeds would have arrived in Sirius from Dark Lejorania. The cult of the Celestial Order was known for conducting experiments and using Lyonria technology, an experience she knew all too well from that dark moment of her past.

Was it possible the Celestial Order in that system uncovered something that compromised the Abyssal Sword? If so, that might explain why the Carl Sagan vanished.

Odelea’s meal and reading of holographic literature superimposed over her eyes distracted her from the fact the Abyssal Comet came to a full stop, as indicated by the observation window she sat cross-legged in front of.

She brought up the current time with her HNI, they were still hours away from Aervounis and Union-controlled space. Coming to a full stop within human space made no sense given that there was fewer checkpoints leaving human space, unlike entering and venturing deeper into it. She approached the thick window and looked out into space, and the quandary star system they were in.

She then gasped when five UNE battle cruisers dropped out of FTL, surrounding the Abyssal Comet. Seven other flashes of light from space suggested more UNE ships were appearing.

“Odelea, change of plans,” Queenea’s holographic likeness appeared via HNI. “The humans want to have a chat with us.”

29 Chevallier

UNE Transport

Above Mount Hermon, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 19:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier was no stranger to a one-on-one sit down with a CO, much like the one she was about to have with Boyd. The two sat facing each other in the rear cabin of their transport as it drifted away from the darkened scars of the ion cannon orbital strike that devastated the mountain range earlier. She went over in her head the various ways the sit down could possibly end in her head, none of them saw her being a happy person.

Her recent actions with the previous battles was the reason she was there, and the holographic screen Boyd had taken a few seconds to review likely had the formal charges he had hoped to bring against her. And the displeased look on his face? The result of his mind processing the right words to use next.

“Alright, hit me,” Chevallier said as she calmly reclined in her chair with a grin. “Lay it on me.”

“The invaders have been spotted near Baghdad,” Boyd said unexpectedly. “Evacuations are currently underway but HNI disruptions are popping up all over the place.”

She nodded. “The Dragon Knights live, looks like your orbital strike was a waste.”

“I’m gonna be straight up with you. You’re implosive, hard to work with, don’t follow instructions, and have little respect for the chain of command. I now understand why they shipped you to Sirius.”

“But you need me,” she finished for him, as her grin transformed into a confident smirk. “That HNI hack doesn’t affect me, I’m you’re ace in the hole, the reason you can’t toss my ass in the brig.”

Even with her mother dead, Chevallier still found a way to have immunity to the rules. Wish I had my Cuban cigars now!

“Three times you saved my life and the lives of my team,” Boyd said reluctantly. “We need you for this, as much as it kills me to admit it. Our forces in the area are moving to Baghdad now, we’re to join them ASAP.”

“These attacks aren’t random,” Chevallier said. “The Mediterranean, the push into the mountains, and now Baghdad? There must be something in this region they’re searching for and can’t simply teleport to it directly.”

“What about Radiance? Any idea why Tolukei and that Aryile girl were there?”

“I never worked with Tolukei that much, but from what Foster told me, he’s a pretty straight-up guy … most of the time. He said they were there to take a prisoner.”

“From what I’ve been told, the Abyssal Comet went into FTL just as the ion cannons were fired. The navy is searching for them now, if they managed to escape, we’ll have our answers soon enough. As for us …”

“As for us …” Chevallier sat up from her seat reaching for her rifle. “We got dragons to slay.”

She saw by the negative expression on his face that he wasn’t pleased with the fact she practically ordered him into getting ready for action when it should have been the other way around. His silence, followed by the two of them leaving to prepare for the coming mission with Maxwell and LeBoeuf, however, showed that, in the end, she was right. Just like with each and every insubordinate action she had ever made.

Southern District

Baghdad, Earth, Sol system

August 9, 2118, 19:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier watched intently as Baghdad came into view from the transport’s side windows. Beautiful palm trees were at every corner while the towering skyscrapers that shined and dazed brightly in the nighttime skies gave the city a bustling feeling. It was a very different city than the one she had last seen before leaving for the stars, one that proudly wore the twenty-second century seal of approval for what a human-built city should look like in this era.

It was a shame to see such a gorgeous city have some of its structures set ablaze thanks to the dragons, as scores of flying cars, trucks, and evacuation transports participated in a mass exodus of its noncombatant population, replacing it with more dragon invaders, and UNE Marines.

Their transport came to a landing within a small commercial district, near the southern most region of the city, the hot spot for invader activity. Chevallier was the first to leap out of the transport, and the first of her team to view the hundreds of UNE Marines that came from various locations on the planet and the Sol system to combat the last remains of the invaders’ forces.

Psionics, imbedded with Marines, used their powers to generate barriers to deflect swooping wyverns. Marines in heavy exosuits led the charge with their wrist-mounted guns, shooting or using their massive armor-clad hands to hold back drake tanks from charging toward Marines.

It was time for Chevallier, Boyd, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell to join in the fun.

Idle cars were used as cover when LeBoeuf was too focused on her duties. Tachyon fire made short work of their cover, resulting in the team playing a game of musical chairs with other cars in the heated nighttime urban combat. Multiple squadrons of fighters were too occupied with defending fleeing civilians and escorting Marine transports with reinforcements to or from the city. The wyverns had no fighters to challenge them. Luring invader soldiers into ruined lobbies of office buildings became a viable tactic once the swooping plasma-breathing wyverns began to shriek their death calls from above.

From time to time, several fighters would break away and harass the wyverns, clearing the skies for the four to enter back into the urban combat, and push deeper to the south, where the majority of the invader forces had rallied to. The intensity of the invader’s attacks increased as the hours ticked by on Chevallier’s HUD and the closer they got to the southern city limits.

Eventually, the only gun shots that were heard were their own, the only dragons that were engaged in combat were the many they had to dodge, flank, gun down, or dispatch with the psionic powers of LeBoeuf and Maxwell. Chevallier and the EDF team were alone and had penetrated deeper than any of the other Marines had since the fighting started.

“Hold here,” Boyd ordered, and directed the group to go prone at the foot of some large palm trees.

Chevallier saw exactly why further in the distance at a nearby park. Her night-vision mode HUD highlighted a number of downed Marines in the streets outside of it. Their vitals weren’t being detected, yet some of them limped ever so slightly while on the ground. They were suffering from HNI disruption, a Dragon Knight was near.

“Are they alive?” Maxwell asked.

“Can’t tell with the HNI interference, its blocking out their vitals,” Chevallier said.

LeBoeuf groaned. “So, if we take another step closer it’s gonna be bad for our heads?”

Boyd nodded. “Yeah, I’d say this is as far as we go.”

Chevallier used the scope of her rifle directing it at the park. She enhanced its zoom to max that overlaid what it saw onto her HUD. She saw the Dragon Maiden stand within the center of the park, her long blonde hair flowing in the winds like the leaves of the palms trees above her. A sphere-shaped object hovered next to her face, it glowed a vibrant color, bright enough to create the only source of light within the darkened streets, devoid of any power due to the fighting. Chevallier temporarily deactivated her night vision and saw the object discharge a thin purple beam of psionic energy and penetrate the ground below.

She manually sent what her rifle’s scope saw to the others.

“It’s not moving,” Maxwell said. “We could snipe it.”

“No, it has a robust psionic barrier,” Chevallier said. “We might piss it off and send it charging after us.”

“If all four of us hit it with everything we got, we might be able to weaken it,” LeBoeuf said.

Chevallier lowered her rifle facing LeBoeuf. “And when it comes running over, then what?”

LeBoeuf’s cybernetic hand gave Chevallier a hearty pat on the back. “Then we run, and you handle the rest.”

Boyd exhaled deeply. “It’s too risky—”

“Actually, we might be able to make this work,” Chevallier cut in. “She doesn’t know we’re here, let me move closer, then we time our shots. With any luck she’ll see I’m the closest and come after me.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Boyd said.

Chevallier made a slight wince as that scenario played out in her head. “Then she’ll pursue you three, in which I’ll be shooting her from behind,” she said. “If our combined attacks are strong enough, she might not have enough mental energy to keep her barrier active, let alone use her powers effectively.”

Smoke began to rise as the beam from the summoned drone continued to burn and cut into the ground. Chevallier got up from her cover to take several silent steps closer to get a better view. Her scope displayed the ground below the Dragon Maiden burn red as a small hole appeared. A hole that grew deeper with every pulse of psionic energy.

Whatever the Dragon Maiden was interested in, it was underground, and it made Chevallier wonder if there was a connection between the park before her and Mount Hermon.

She sent the footage to the rest of her team again. It didn’t take long for Boyd to say. “Do it.”

Not that she needed his approval.

“Stay safe out there, Chevallier,” LeBoeuf added, for Chevallier had become the lone wolf in this leg of their mission.

Boyd, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell remained hidden behind their respective cover while Chevallier pushed deeper toward the park via the streets. A move that might result in their plan being foiled should the Dragon Maiden look away from its work.

Chevallier entered an office building adjacent to the park, long abandoned since the invaders arrived to create the havoc in this part of the city. She strode past holographic emergency evacuation signs and entered the fire escape staircase. She groaned at the number of steps she’d have to climb to reach the rooftops as her helmeted face gazed up.

I’m getting a good workout today …

Her armored feet crunched across the office’s rooftops, thirty-four floors later. Taking a breather to catch her breath would have to wait. She crouched and approached the edge of the building, facing the park below where the Dragon Maiden remained standing, focused, and determined to complete her psionic drilling operation.

Chevallier peered down the scope of her rifle and shifted its targeting reticle onto the Dragon Maiden, its head to be exact. Using her suit’s manual controls, she allowed her HUD’s display to feed live data to the HUDs of the rest of her team, waiting outside the danger zone, where their HNIs were safe from hacks.

They saw what she saw, she saw what they could see, and what she saw was three sets of screens, all taking aim at the head of the Dragon Maiden.

“I’m in position,” Chevallier said as she selected the particle beam fire option.

“Copy that,” Boyd replied over the comm lines. “We’re all good to go.”

Her HUD reported that Boyd too had selected the particle beam mode with his rifle while the two psionics began to channel their powers into their rifles, imbuing them with psionic power to unleash a continuous beam of lightning energy.

The first Dragon Knight Chevallier fought had its psionic shields weakened after three direct hits from a particle beam blast. The Dragon Maiden within her scope’s sights was focusing part of its psionic powers on controlling the drone, thus it should have less mental energy available to power its barrier.

Two particle beams, and two psionic rifles firing at the same time … there’s no way this bitch could survive our second and third shots.

“Fire on my mark,” Chevallier said as her finger neared the trigger.

An automated countdown began to blare within the HUDs of all four of them. As it counted down, Chevallier began to think of several scenarios in her head as to what could happen once the shots were fired.

Scenario number one: if someone missed, then she’d have a lot of improvising to do to ensure the Dragon Maiden remained focused on her. If it chose to ignore her, then that would probably be the end of Boyd and his team, and probably the downed Marines still in the streets still suffering from the HNI hack.

Scenario number two: they kill it with the first barrage, in that case half the battle here in the city would be won in an instant.

Scenario number three: they take its shields down and all hell breaks loose as they rush to kill it as quickly as possible before things get bad.

The countdown time hit zero.

Her finger pressed against the trigger at the same time the rest of her team did.

The darkened streets below lit up as two streams of lightning discharged from LeBoeuf and Maxwell’s rifles, while the particle beams from Boyd and Chevallier’s rifles shot forward. Every shot hit their target dead-on, scenario one wasn’t going to happen, much to her relief. Chevallier’s targeting scanners reported that the Dragon Maiden’s barrier and vitals still remained, scenario two wasn’t happening either.

The Dragon Maiden yelped and staggered backward upon realizing the danger it was now in. Her Voelika entered her hands via telekinesis, and the dragon wing figures at both ends of the staff weapon began to glow orange. The Dragon Maiden vanished into blue light, darkness enveloped the park afterwards. Where she had jump ported to was anyone’s guess.

The HUD feeds for the three turned into static, their screams of pain followed. The Dragon Maiden wasn’t interested in Chevallier.

“Fuck!” she cursed while frantically searching from the rooftops as to where exactly the Dragon Maiden had materialized.

Chevallier charged to the opposite end of the building, peered into her scope scanning the nearby rooftops, the streets below, and the palm trees her team had hidden behind. There was nothing. She checked the next corner, the downed Marines still remained. The fourth and final side neared as she made a mad dash over to it. The scope unveiled the same sights, no movement, no activity, and no comm chatter. Visually, she was alone. Realistically, her target was out there, stalking her and her unresponsive team. The two became furious lionesses hunting each other as they both saw one another as the only threat in the AO.

Cracking sounds followed. Chevallier’s motion detector flared and placed red pulses of lights on her HUD, directing her attention behind.

A flawless one-eighty-degree turn made her face and aim at the staircase entrance she came from. There was nothing in it, nothing behind it, nothing else on the rooftops.

Her motion detector flared up again, this time it didn’t stop. Its pulsing red lights flashed ominously on her HUD, it was growing in strength. That’s when it became apparent what was moving as her feet felt vibrations, vibrations that quickly spread into her legs.

The building she stood on was rumbling.

Leaping off and using her MRF to slow her fall to the streets below crossed her mind, until she fell backwards and rolled chaotically over to the opposite end. The building began to tip over, crashing into another. Sparks flew up, glass shattered, and a deadly domino effect began to play out as the weight of the building forced the one it crashed into to tip over.

It was a frightening display to look at, especially from Chevallier’s point of view. She held on with one free hand at the edge of the building, watching the shattered glass from its blown-out windows rain to the streets, along with office desks, water coolers, computers, and whatever the hell else people in this year used in an office. It all slid out and down, plunging into blinding dust that rose up.

The Dragon Maiden appeared high above, floating in the skies, admiring her work, heckling and laughing at Chevallier like a witch. It snapped its fingers and a pulse of kinetic energy slammed against the building. The impact of it caused the edge Chevallier was holding onto to crumble. Her body tumbled to the madness below.

MRF plus shields prevented Chevallier from falling to her death as she hit the surface and crashed upon a cabinet that fell from above. As for her surviving everything else that was coming down upon her, well, only luck, dodge rolling, and what remained of her shields would get her through that. The dust cloud in the dark she was in didn’t help.

Minutes had passed, or was it hours? Chevallier wasn’t counting.

Her armored hand rose from the rubble that had buried her, rubble she had to dig herself out of. She made note of the various warnings her HUD reported, ranging from her shields being down, to significant damage done to her armor, though the massive crack on her screen was a clear sign of that.

The lone Dragon Maiden had returned to its previous spot in the park, unmoving, standing focused as the glowing orb-like drone continued to burn and cut away at the ground. It was trying to conserve its psionic power Chevallier figured, that would explain why it didn’t straight-up fight her as she was expecting. Easier to push buildings over by thinking about it and let the chaos do the rest.

The drone before the Dragon Maiden vanished along with the cutting beam, its tunneling had completed. Chevallier went for her rifle, a rifle that had fallen out of her grasp and got buried behind the fallen and crumpled building behind her. She yanked a pistol that was stored within her side leg storage slot and strode to the Dragon Maiden. The two made eye contact, the Dragon Maiden muttered parting words to Chevallier in its language, and then leaped into the newly created pit in the park.

Digging for her rifle would take too long as would signaling for help, not that it would be of any use with the HNI disruption still in effect. Chevallier was the one and only person on the face of the planet that could put an end to whatever the Dragon Maiden had intended to accomplish, and she had a pistol, no shields, and a damaged protect suit at her disposal.

Chevallier tilted her head downward at the pit seeing nothing but darkness, as the earth at the mouth of the pit glowed red with rippling heat waves rising above it. Her scanners revealed a long straight dip down, approximately six kilometers. Six kilometers? That sounds familiar, she thought while reminiscing about Tiamat’s tomb. Not a fucking chance I’m going down there.

Maxwell’s voice began to groan over the comm lines, followed by Boyd and LeBoeuf’s voice. The HNI disruption was over. The Dragon Maiden moved too far away for its ability to be of any threat. Where the pit below took her became a worrying and troublesome thought that would keep Chevallier awake at night for months to come.

“Hey, Sergeant,” she communicated to Boyd. “I’m gonna need a vacation.”

30 Williams

Open Plateau

New Babylon (formally SA-115), Sirius A system

August 10, 2118, 12:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The more time Williams spent away from the home he now shared with Foster’s mother, more he began to wonder if leaving so abruptly was a wise course of action. True, he did give her the heads-up he’d be heading out for a few days. What he didn’t do was explain why he and Chang took it upon themselves to travel to the Poniga homeworld, New Babylon—appropriately named as the Poniga were descendants of the people from Babylon—on what looked like a camping trip, complete with oversized hiking bags strapped to their backs. Of course, the real reason was to conduct a search for Chef Bailey, a member of the Carl Sagan’s crew that was fortunate enough to not be aboard during the night it vanished.

New Babylon being a UNE protected world meant the two had to wait for approval to enter via planetside wormholes, originally constructed by the Lyonria, now operated by the UNE. Thankfully, Williams being a member of IESA despite his condition and Chang being enlisted in the navy, gave them clearance with little issues and questions.

Bailey’s past service to the Carl Sagan probably allowed him to freely come here as well, Williams thought as they stepped into the wormhole, and into a planet barely changed over the course of the last sixty-eight years.

New Babylon, by rights, should be a dead world due to its close proximity to Sirius A. It was a star that had the power to ravage the surface of the planet with blinding light, radiation, and heat hot enough to vaporize anyone or anything that stood in it without shields. Shields being the main reason why life, grass, trees, lakes, and an otherwise Earth-like environment existed. Massive dome-shaped shields, built during ancient times, littered random regions throughout the planet, protecting everything on the inside from what existed outside, allowing the Poniga people to live their peaceful, yet primitive, life.

Most of the Poniga villages still stood that were around when the Carl Sagan was, though some of them featured minor upgrades, made possible by the downfall of Marduk and his army that had enslaved the human-like population of the planet for thousands of years. Or so Williams had remembered from the reports, he and Chang had spent most of their tour in Sirius aboard the Carl Sagan. The two of them making their hiking trek across the planet, was their first time stepping foot on it.

The two had travelled from village to village over the course of several days, speaking with the locals, acquiring hand-written maps, feasting on their limited food and water supply, and camping out whenever they got tired. Sleeping was by no means an easy task due to the long day and night cycles the planet had. There were some moments where they had to camp out in the shade just to sleep and stay cool from the punishing heat and sunlight from the white main-sequence star. Poniga villages that had vacant inns were a godsend.

Highlands appeared in the distance and grew larger the closer they trekked to them, and with that came new Poniga villages. Many of the residents of the villages, despite the language barrier, seemed to have known about Bailey whenever Williams presented them a holographic photo of him from his holo pad. With each village they arrived at as they neared the highlands, the more often they encountered Poniga that crossed paths with Bailey.

Qiraks, who had been living on the planet trading with the Poniga for years, were most forthcoming with information. Information that came at a cost, jewels and gold were the most commonly exchanged currency. Williams’ and Chang’s rank pins found themselves lining the pockets of the Qiraks as a result.

The information, however, paid off as they were led up a path into the hills of the highlands. Looking back as they reached the maximum height up the hills, treated Williams to an elevated view of the region they had trekked across. The lush forests, lakes, multiple Poniga villages … and a reminder of how much time they’d need to spend to walk back to the wormhole.

An hour later, the two stopped at the entrance of a mountainside hamlet of Poniga design. Tents made of leather, skinned from the local wildlife, gave shelter to those that made this place their home. Camp fires roared roasting slabs of meat on a rotating spit, or boiling pots of what smelt like stew bubbling. In the rear of the hamlet was a white, flowing waterfall, raining down a torrent of fresh mountain water into a nearby river. Bodies of naked men and women rose from the river, swimming and laughing with each other.

It wasn’t until those men and women dove into the river that Williams gasped at the sight of their long fishlike tails that rose briefly. Those in the river weren’t Poniga out for a swim. They were the humanoid Undine, the Sirens. I thought the Undine and Poniga didn’t get along? A lot must have changed.

“Well …” Chang said, staring at the river full of Sirens. “I can see why Chef wanted to retreat here.”

“If this is where we’ll find him,” Williams said.

“Oh, dude, we will find him here, just look, man.” Chang pointed at a female Siren that plopped out of the waters. Droplets of water dripped off her breasts and her drenched long black hair. “If I was stranded on this planet for years, I’d probably hang out here too.”

“You might want to keep your distance from them, remember what happened to McDowell and Kingston?”

“Yeah, yeah, they had a little death by snu-snu moment, but you know what? The galaxy is fucked, if I had to choose between getting vaporized by the invaders and dying in her hands?”

The Siren had perched herself up onto a rock, wading her eight-foot-long tail through the waters. “Look at her,” Williams said.

“Oh, believe me, I am.”

“Do you see a vagina?”

Chang’s face dropped as the reality hit him and obliterated his fantasy. “Ah, I see …”

“They reproduce by impaling males with tendrils that suck all genetic material out from their body to impregnate themselves.” Not sure why we or the other men here haven’t been lured by their psionic mind control. Marduk’s fall must have really changed the rules—

A secondary female form rapidly rose from the small river before the two, at speeds fast enough to drench their outfits with spring water, triggering them to leap backwards startled by the rush.

“Jesus!”

“Holy shit!

A familiar face stood in front of them, a young woman with a human-like appearance, raven-blue hair that was wet and sticking to her back and shoulders, covering the gills on her neck, standing with no shame at the fact she was naked.

Chang winced. “Hey, is that?”

“Nereid …” Williams said, and then quickly looked away from her bare form.

Chang didn’t, until Williams slapped him across the shoulder to do the same.

“Commander Williams …” Nereid’s mysterious voice said. “Flight Lieutenant Chang.”

Nereid was of the same species of the Undine, just a different type, one that was born with human-like features from the waist down. Some sort of genetic defect, though the side effects were that she possessed enhanced psionic powers and suppressed memories of her father, Commander McDowell, a deceased member of the Carl Sagan’s crew.

Like the Undine, she needed to keep her body wet with water periodically in order to prevent fatal dehydration. The concept of clothing was a foreign one. It took Foster a good while to remind Nereid she needed to stay clothed while being aboard the ship.

“Uh, Dominic is fine as of now, Nereid.”

“As you wish,” she said, reaching for a damp robe in the baking sunlight. “Has the Goddess sought to guide you here as well?”

“Define here …” Williams glanced at her from the corner of his eye, noting her body had been covered by the robe. His elbow gave Chang a nudge as they were free to look at her again. “Last time I checked, Poniga and the Undine didn’t get along.”

“With the Architect gone, my people and the Poniga have reached out to mend the years of bad blood between our people,” Nereid said.

“Thought you were deported back to your homeworld of Meroien?”

Nereid gave him a smile while offering them a tour of the small hamlet. “I arrived here by accident via the wormhole, my guide inputted the wrong destination,” Nereid explained. “I was going to request that he correct the error, when I realized this was my last opportunity to visit another world before I was forced to remain on Meroien.”

“And so … for some reason you decided to randomly walk up here and found this camp?” Chang said.

“No,” said a deep voice from a nearby tent.

Out from the tent came a man, draped in a brown tattered robe and cloak, pants cut into shorts, sandals made by the hands of Poniga. His hands pulled the cloak shrouding his face away, the face, the smile, and the voice. It was a man of Jamaican descent, Demarion Bailey.

Smiles stretched across the faces of Williams and Chang, their long journey was not a waste.

“She, like everyone here, came here ‘cause they hear the cries at night,” Bailey finished.

Bailey exchanged firm handshakes and fist bumps with Williams and Chang. Williams glanced at Bailey’s grey unkempt hair and beard, and the fact he hadn’t aged a day since they last saw him, gene therapy no doubt at work.

“Bailey, man, it’s good to see you again,” Chang said.

“Dominic … Williams …” Bailey said, struggling to remember his name, understandably, as, from his point of view, it had been sixty-eight years. “And Dennis Chang, ya? You got no idea how great it is to see you two alive and well! When I first saw Nereid arrive here, I was like? What is this?” Bailey’s loud laughter made his gut fill with joy he hadn’t felt in years. “Thought I lost you all for good, but with you alive here now, means there really is hope for the other missing people.”

“Don’t know if Nereid told you, but we all woke up from cryo not too long ago,” Williams said. “In any case we’re alive, separated, but alive, save for a few missing crew personnel and Hammerhead members.”

“No, mon, there’s more,” Bailey grimly said. “A lot more …”

Bailey led the group to the edge of the hamlet, overlooking a steep hill heading back down hills of the highlands. It gave Williams yet another stunning view of the world, a world enclosed in an energy shield dome where a hellish nightmare existed beyond it.

“Nereid tells me your memories got erased,” Bailey said.

“Partially, yeah,” Williams said.

“Do you remember what happened before you went to search that ghost ship?”

Williams recalled the night, when their lives went from peaceful explorers, to victims of aliens. “We left you and a few explorers here, when we went to investigate.”

“Right, we all went to do our thing,” Bailey said. “The explorers explored the lands; I went to secure fresh crops for the kitchen. The team I was with came to these mountains, looked up to the skies and saw a storm, high up.” Bailey pointed upward. Williams’ eyes followed and saw what was behind the dome over top and its faux blue skies and clouds, the stars of space. They were hard to see, Sirius A’s light didn’t help, but they were there.

“This planet doesn’t have an atmosphere,” Chang commented.

“The domes create the illusion of blue skies,” Bailey said. “But once you reach high places like this, you can see beyond that, and see the stars peek through.”

“And you said you saw a storm from here?” Williams said.

“Ya, mon … But … but, there’s no real sky or clouds, right?”

“That storm would have been in space then,” Chang said. “Like right in orbit of the planet.”

“A storm in space …” The thought got Williams to connect the dots and add up the facts. “That must have been when we vanished I take it?”

“Not just you,” Bailey said. “Half the explorers that came here with me disappeared. When we came down the mountains, there were Poniga families who vanished as well.”

“The Poniga and the Undine here believe this location to be sacred because of the sighting of the shooting star here afterwards,” Nereid added.

“I saw that shooting star …” Bailey said. “But mark my words; it was no normal shooting star, something crashed out in that bang-up, bang-up, land outside the dome.”

Williams looked back at the horizon and the edge of the dome where mountains and the landscape burned and baked with radioactivity. “Stupid question; has anyone been out there to check it out?”

“Probes and orbital ship scans or whatever, nothing major from what I was told,” Bailey said. “It’s just a hot wasteland beyond the dome, with little else for the UNE to be interested in. And again, was only us locals that saw it, UNE thinks it was a meteorite or something.”

It would make sense for the UNE and IESA to discredit their claims as much as it pained Williams to admit it. Had the Carl Sagan detected it, a more detailed scan could have been made. Performing detailed scans based on the request of a displaced Chef and primitive Poniga? Such an act wouldn’t have transpired, never mind the fact it was years before Earth-based ships flew in the system after the Carl Sagan’s disappearance other than transports.

“So, let me get this straight …” Chang said. “This place is now a holy land because of what you saw that night?”

“Not just that, mon,” Bailey said, guiding their sight to the Poniga and Undine making their living in the hamlet. “They are all psionics; they sense something from the direction where the object landed.”

“I do as well,” Nereid said, fixing her face to the horizon, where the object from space supposedly landed. “It’s not very strong, but when I stand here, closer to the canyon, I can feel it.”

“What do you feel?” Williams asked her.

Nereid’s eyes shut, placing her mind in a short psionic trance. She gave her reply seconds later. “A cry for help.”

“I might not have psionic magic, but I too, at times, feel like there’s something out there that only we know about,” Bailey said. “My time away from the city is spent here, meditating and feeling out the land, hoping to communicate with the spirit that lives out there.”

“You know it would be a lot easier if we got the IESA to check it out,” Chang said to him. “And you wouldn’t have to live like a monk.”

Williams laughed at him. “Didn’t you just finish saying earlier you wouldn’t mind living here?”

“Hey, I was totally down with the tits in the water deal until you told me that creepy-as-fuck story, man. But now? I think—” Chang halted his speech, wiping away the grin on his face. “Okay, we’re getting off-topic here, aren’t we?”

Williams’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, we totally are.”

“Sorry, guys.”

“The Poniga won’t allow it, anyways,” Bailey continued. “Ever since that night the Carl Sagan disappeared, the Poniga refuse to share anything with outsiders.”

Radiance, and their activity in the system, didn’t help since they tried to acquire the Poniga and Undine into the Union, encouraging them to follow their strict religious beliefs.

Throw in the protected world act, and the UNE and IESA would need a permission slip from the locals to study something the Poniga would consider to be sacred.

“I guess you’ve heard the news about the invaders?” Williams asked Bailey.

“Some details, yes.”

“From what you just said about the storm appearing above these skies, it proves they did take us away, and probably the Sword as well. Then after that, something dropped out there … something that Nereid not only senses but can feel emotions from.”

“Emotions,” Nereid’s voice murmured softly. “I did not think of it like that … but yes, I do feel that from what lies out there.”

Williams looked at Nereid as her blue hair quickly began to dry in the heat from the large white star. “Can an engram contain emotions?”

She nodded. “Yes, of course.”

“I don’t need to be a psionic to know what’s on your mind there, buddy,” Chang snickered.

Williams grinned and stood from the rocky landscape he sat on, keeping his face aimed at the edge of the dome. “I think we might have found our lost memories … in the form of an engram, waiting to be recovered. We need to check it out.”

Chang stood next to Williams. “Out there? Man, look at that, it’s hell in space.”

“We’ll need EVA suits with strong shields, and probably psionic overshields for extra protection.”

“Something neither of us have access to or will get, I doubt the UNE will bend the rules on their protected world act just for us.”

“We got Nereid for psionic support …” Williams said, smiling at her. “If you’re down to come.”

“Of course, I will assist in any way,” Nereid said. “I too would like to recover my memories from that fateful night.”

“I may be able to assist,” Bailey offered. “But first you all should eat and rest.”

Food, water, and rest, it had been a long hike, one their bodies took quite the punishment for on their way up.

“Yeah, so Chef … I know you aren’t in the kitchen ‘cause you’re doing your thing out here and all but …” Chang stood in front of Bailey. “Would it still be possible to get a steak, or something cooked by you?”

“Bro …” Williams snorted

“Dude, I fucking miss steak night, that stuff was so good.”

31 Foster

Rezeki’s Rage

En route to Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 10, 2118, 13:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster always wondered how Hashmedai ships, doors, and computers managed to operate correctly despite the cold temperatures and slight frost buildup that should by rights short out electronics. The sliding door that led her out from the temporary quarters she, Pierce, Vynei, and Eicelea made use of, for example, saw tiny crystallized chips of ice fall off as it opened, then automatically shut.

The same thing repeated when the four entered Peiun’s office located next to the bridge. The two humans, Vorcambreum, and Rabuabin all displayed similar signs that the cold environment was getting to them, hopping up and down, shivering, or blowing warm air into their fists. Foster was surprised none of them went into hypothermia during their ice-cold sleep.

“You think it would be too much to ask them to turn the heat up a little?” Pierce half-jokingly said to Foster.

“Considering we never did for Tolukei back on the Carl Sagan? Yeah, I don’t think so.”

Peiun joined them as promised after he finished speaking with his bridge crew. “I am pleased to see you all have made it; I trust your slumber was of little issue?”

“It was cold …” Foster grumbled.

“We will be docking at the station soon,” Peiun said. “And with that, I shall be contacting my government in regard to what we uncovered, which is why I gathered you all here. I need assurance you all will do the same.”

“You can rest assured my government will hear of this!” Eicelea said. “Between what happened to Foster and the monolith, I need my people to know of what we uncovered to credit me appropriately.”

“What we all experienced may be deemed farfetched by our people,” Peiun said. “I know the Empire will be skeptical of the story of Foster guiding this ship through the maelstrom. However, if we all reach out to our respective governments, they will be forced to take our reports seriously.”

“Not us,” Foster said drily.

Peiun looked at her with a peculiar look. “Why is that?”

“We awoke from cryo with our ship flying in formation with the invaders when they arrived at Earth,” Pierce added.

“The UNE doesn’t trust us,” Foster said. “It’s one of the reasons why they forced us out to these parts. What we need is proof.”

“Are the logs of my ship not enough?” Peiun asked Foster.

“For what happened in space? Yeah, but on the surface? Not really.”

Peiun nodded and strode over to his desk. “You said you had a vision when you touched the monolith, yes?”

“Yeah, an engram one,” Foster said. “But I sure as hell can’t remember all of it. Even then, it didn’t make sense.”

“Perhaps I could assist,” Peiun said as he reached for a small triangular-shaped object that slipped into the palm of his hand. “This is a memory recorder.”

“I’ve heard about those, you can literally view and record memories of an individual and convert it into video to watch,” Pierce said.

“As long as you still remember partially what you experienced, I should be able to record it. You can use this as the proof you need to convince your people what happened on the surface,” Peiun said.

Partially remember? Well so much for using that to recover our lost memories. “I’ll pass …” Foster said, shaking her head.

“He’s right,” Pierce cut in. “If the UNE can see the monolith was responsible for your tattoos and view the engram vision … This could be what we need for them to take us seriously and stop vilifying us as sleeper agents for the invaders.”

Peiun approached Foster with the device and waited for her to give him the okay. An okay she wasn’t happy to give. “Fine, just don’t go too far back in my head, got some embarrassing moments in there.”

“We all do,” Peiun said, applying the device to Foster’s forehead. “I remember the first time this device was used on me during my training. My instructor uncovered memories of the first woman I inseminated.”

Foster winced at him. “I took my ex-boyfriend’s virginity, so let’s stay away from that moment please.”

“Ex-boyfriend?”

“A former mate, as your people would say.”

“Ah, I understand,” Peiun said. “This virginity you speak off, you took it from him and now he wants it back, but you refuse it as you two are no longer partners.”

Foster’s face flushed, Pierce’s face struggled to contain laughter. “Ah …”

“And in your memories, you know where you hid it from him.” Peiun brought up a large holographic window as it began to receive footage from Foster’s memories. “Rest assured, if I were to accidently view where you kept his virginity hidden, I shall keep it a secret.”

“Let’s just get this over with …” Foster groaned and hoped the first image that appeared on the hologram wasn’t that first romantic encounter with Mike.

Foster’s point of view appeared on the projection, moments before she touched the monolith. Everything in the view played out exactly how she remembered it, including the translucent woman in her natural form that embraced Foster. The spiraling wonder of the Milky Way appeared next as the engram vision had begun to play out. The five stood in awe.

“This is all the same stuff I saw when I got hit with the engram,” Foster said, pointing at the galaxy as lines appeared superimposed over it. “These lines, that’s the stuff I sensed in the maelstrom, it’s like tunnels the invaders use to travel.”

“According to Alesyna, when in the maelstrom we leave normal space and time,” Peiun said. “We assumed it was aether space.”

“Aether space …” Eicelea grumbled. “The Lyonria wormhole on the planet Oyuri was supposedly able to bridge a connection to such a theoretical place.”

“Same with the one we found in Sirius,” Foster said. “Marduk was obsessed with it.”

Such a theoretical plane of existence was also where Marduk sent Poniga and Undine he favored to gain godly psionic powers. He even offered Foster a chance to become a Goddess-like figure, had she agreed to his terms, by assisting him with the conquest of Earth, the Empire, and Union.

“Sirius, Marduk, the invaders, Kapteyn’s Star system, what is the connection?” Foster said.

The illustration on the projection changed and melted into a fortress, or perhaps a palace on a desolate and highly volcanic planet. A beautiful woman wearing a full-body cloak stood in the shadows on a balcony, glancing down at the garden below. In the garden were people, the humanoid invaders without their bronze armor on, and they were singing praise and worship to the woman above them. They chanted a long string of words none of the five understood.

Except for one word.

Tiamat.

“Okay, now we’re getting somewhere,” Foster said, and pointed at the mysterious woman at the balcony. “That is Tiamat.”

Pierce’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Of course!”

“What’s a Tiamat?” Vynei said.

“Part of the overly complex stories of human mythology,” Eicelea said to him.

“Only, they’re not stories,” Pierce said. “Not from what we’ve experienced at Sirius, and not from what this engram is trying to tell us. Mythology did depict Tiamat as being either a dragon, or stunning-looking woman who was the creator of dragons.”

Foster eyed the projection more, noting the dragons that glided in the skies of the alien planet. “The invaders look like dragons.”

“That’s because they are dragons,” Pierce said. “These must be Tiamat’s minions. Think about it? It all makes sense, what we saw in Sirius? Dragon statues, dragon figures on Nereid’s Voelika. Even the design of the structures within the Undine capital city had forms of dragon influences. Why? Because Tiamat once claimed that system as her stronghold. The Undine worshiped her as a Goddess and took it upon themselves to create dragon-like figures as a means of that worship.” Pierce paused for a moment to process his thoughts, facing Peiun. “My God, is there anything else we can recall from her memories?”

The projection changed to Foster’s sights as she fell to the ground after the experience in front of the monolith. “That is it, as I said earlier, we can only record what she can remember,” Peiun explained.

“They think we did it,” Eicelea said, snapping her fingers.

“Did what?” Foster asked.

“Is it not obvious?” Eicelea said. “I admit I read the alleged fake news reports of your expedition into the Sirius system. This Marduk you spoke of was a Javnis, no?”

“That’s right,” Pierce said. “He killed Tiamat, he was from the Milky Way, and Javnis are members of Radiance.”

“Not Marduk, he was taken from the Javnis homeworld before the Aryile uplifted their race,” Foster said.

“But, put your feet in the shoes of the invaders?” Pierce explained. “How would they know the difference? They see Javnis as members of the Radiance Union as with the Abyssal Sword which fought Radiance cults that were experimenting with Lyonria technology. Myself and Miss Eicelea had a lovely conversation on how one could easily mistake Lyonria ruins with those of Tiamat’s people, being the invaders. Now, with that said, perhaps the Radiance cults uncovered something they thought was Lyonria tech but turned out to be lost invader technology. That tech did something to the Sword, resulting in it becoming compromised, which would explain why it upped and left and traveled to Sirius.”

“Sirius was Tiamat’s last known stronghold,” Foster said. “When the Sword arrived, it must have learned of her death and who was responsible for it, Marduk. Then enter us waltzing in to colonize the system.”

“Eicelea is right,” Pierce said. “The invaders think we all played a role in Tiamat’s demise. The Abyssal Sword made it happen.”

“We should find Marduk and bring him before the invaders then, it’s his fault, not ours,” Peiun said, breaking his silence.

Foster scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, about that … we kinda vaporized him.”

“Then justice has been delivered,” Peiun said.

“Not if they think we played a role in Tiamat’s death and know nothing of our victory over Marduk,” Foster said. “We vaporized him, his ship, and bumped off most of his army, there ain’t no proof that he bit the dust, just that he can’t be found. The galaxy is a big place, I reckon they probably think he’s gone into hidin’ or somethin’.”

“So, now what?” Vynei asked.

Foster smirked. “We find a way to deliver the truth to the invaders.”

Imperial Arm, Airlock

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 10, 2118, 15:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Battle scarred, tired, and covered in a substance of extraterrestrial origin. The Rezeki’s Rage slowed and latched its side airlock onto the arm of Amicitia Station reserved for the Hashmedai Empire. Hashmedai inside were promptly notified of the dire condition of the ship and rapidly sprung into action to conduct repairs and receive critically wounded crew members of the Rezeki’s Rage.

And to remove the substance that clung to its hull, though Foster knew damn well it was to study its chemical composition in secret. I only hope they share whatever secrets they learn with the rest of us, Foster mused as she and the five passed through the airlock onto the station. This is not the time to be gaining tactical advantages over the invaders and keeping the rest of the galaxy in the dark about it.

Eicelea and Vynei hastily slipped away out of sight into the winding corridors of the Hashmedai arm of the station, keeping their faces down and their lips shut. Radiance folks were never welcomed in these parts, lucky for them, the Radiance arm was only a tram or two’s ride away.

Foster and Pierce had a lengthier journey ahead of them to reach the UNE arm. Which meant a lengthy amount of time would pass before the UNE was notified about what they experienced, neither of the two had HNI to make contact with anyone, and the Rezeki’s Rage communication systems were still down.

“Thank you all for your assistance,” Peiun said to Foster and Pierce.

“We’re even,” Foster said.

“My ship will be stuck here for several hours, if not days, while it undergoes repairs,” Peiun said, looking back at the station’s Hashmedai repair teams storm past them into the airlock. “Perhaps we could share stories as to—”

“We have matters to attend to,” Foster snorted drily. “Like notifying our government of our discovery.”

“Of course, by all means do that first,” said Peiun. “Please allow me to show you the way out,” Peiun offered, extending his hand toward the corridor before them. “The journey to the human arm is a long one from here.”

Foster exhaled warm air into her numb hands, rubbing them together as she said. “We’ll find it.”

She marched down into the darkened corridors, the pride in her walk that instructed her to accept no further help from a Hashmedai.

“Thank you for the rescue again,” Pierce spoke before joining up with Foster who nearly left him behind. “Since we’re still new, do you think we should at least allow him to show us the way out?” Pierce said to her once he closed the gap.

“My papa must be turning in his grave right now,” Foster said, turning at a fork in the corridors. “No, I’m done being helped by Hashmedai.”

Travelling through the corridors was akin to walking through a cold, dark, and haunted forest. The two passed the odd Hashmedai, their red or orange glowing eyes only added to the hair-raising experience. A Hashmedai voice spoke over the speakers every so often. Foster could only imagine what they were saying.

Dim light appeared in the distance after making an uncountable number of turns through the maze of corridors. The dim light was the lighting source of the city-like-scape that encompassed a large portion of the Imperial arm. Buildings of Hashmedai design littered the area, holographic clouds above blocked out the natural sunlight from the quad star system the station resided in. Artificial snow blanketed the city, it was as if they were transported to a winter wonderland, one under control of the Empire and located within the station’s arm. Icicles hung off the sides of the footbridge the two walked across, heading toward the nearest tram station, or so Foster hoped.

Foster’s hopes didn’t come true, and the two walked around aimlessly for ten minutes in search of a tram station. Pierce’s limitation in his knowledge of the Hashmedai language was revealed. He struggled to make sense of holographic directories and directions the locals gave them.

The two found themselves back at the airlock leading to the Rezeki’s Rage, where Peiun stood, reading reports of his ship via a floating hologram.

Reluctantly, Foster said to him. “So, about that guide …”

Peiun deactivated the hologram, and his Hashmedai face shot her a smile. “Please, follow me.”

An hour later, thanks to Peiun’s guide, Foster and Pierce arrived via tram to the UNE arm of the station. They sat in bliss as the room temperatures suitable for humans warmed their numb joints and hands, it was a missed feeling. Foster looked at her hands once they warmed up, and the alien tattoos etched onto them.

Which reminds me, might be a good idea to get checked out by the doctor first, before we report to IESA and the UNE.

Foster and Pierce stomped into the clinic where Kostelecky had been reassigned. Its waiting room wasn’t packed as empty chairs lined up alongside the walls next to the reception desk, even the receptionist wasn’t present.

Must be a slow day, Foster thought, and shouted for Kostelecky.

Kostelecky left one of the examination rooms further up, dressed in her white lab coat, holding a holo pad. She made a subtle grin eyeing Foster standing and waiting for her.

“Hey, Doc, you free?” Foster said, keeping her hands behind her back.

Kostelecky winced and tossed the holo pad onto the reception desk. “The last person that called me that didn’t get a lollipop!”

“I see your personality has returned.”

“I’m just happy to have a job.”

“A job is something the two of us ain’t gonna have by the way things are going.”

Kostelecky crossed her arms. “And why is that?”

Foster stepped closer to Kostelecky and waved her hands before her face, then rolled up her sleeves to show off the tattoos that formed on her. Kostelecky’s blue eyes scanned up and down at the tattoos, her eyebrow rose. “What the hell is that?”

“Was hopin’ you could tell me.”

“Come, come,” Kostelecky said, ushering Foster to walk with her into an examination room. Pierce went to follow behind. Kostelecky’s finger and aggressively wincing face stopped him in his tracks. “Not you! This is doctor patient time; you aren’t that kind of doctor, Doctor Pierce.”

“Travis, see if you can contact someone from the UNE, tell them what we went through and show ‘em the proof,” Foster said to him. “I gots the feeling this ain’t gonna be a quick examination as I thought.”

Kostelecky grinned and lifted a flashing medical scanner out from her side pocket. “Unless you got drunk and ended up in a Linl tattoo parlor, but I’m going to assume this is the result of the madness in the news.”

The sliding doors behind them slid shut and locked as Kostelecky guided Foster into the examination room, making her sit on a medical bed. Kostelecky waved the medical scanner around Foster’s hands, its results outputted onto a holographic projection in front of Kostelecky’s face, displaying the insides of her.

Foster gave Kostelecky an update on what she experienced, how the tattoos came to be, and what they allowed her to do when they entered the maelstrom. The story made Kostelecky face-palm.

“I should have stayed in Prague, not join IESA.”

“Not up for the challenge, Kostelecky?”

“A challenge would have been you coming back with an alien anal probe stuck in you. This? This is what we doctors fear having to do, tell your ill patients there’s something wrong with them and we don’t know what it is.”

Foster’s face turned a shade paler, more so than it was since her arrival.

“I guess a tattoo laser removal ain’t gonna work then, huh?”

Kostelecky laughed. “Take off your clothes and lay down.”

“Uh, what?”

“I need to see how much this has spread across your body,” Kostelecky said as Foster’s pale face flushed. “Don’t worry, you’re not my type, besides, I’ve seen you without clothing already.”

Kostelecky stepped back and allowed Foster to strip out of her uniform, unveiling to not only Kostelecky, but Foster herself, the full extent of the alterations done to her body. Both paused with shock and worried looks before Kostelecky continued with her scans.

“As I feared, cellular mutation,” Kostelecky said, reading off the newly generated holo screen. “Whatever it is that infected you, has completely changed the bio chemistry of your skin.”

“In to what?”

Kostelecky pushed the projection toward Foster. She caught a closer glimpse at the horrid changes that had been done to the insides of her body. “An unknown element with cabling … I think,” Kostelecky said.

“Cabling? You mean like I’m wired electrically?”

“Exactly, if I’m using this equipment correctly, and it’s entirely possible I’m not.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“I haven’t had much time to catch up with all the fancy gadgets of this century.” Kostelecky took back the projection to examine it further. “Your tattoos, as you call them, are wired into your spine and brain.”

Foster gazed at her tattooed hands, arms, waist, and legs, coming to terms with what Kostelecky had said. Foster became a walking cyborg with alien technology. “And here I was all scared to get HNI implants,” Foster said drily.

“Now you got yourself a set of alien implants,” Kostelecky said. “I see what you mean by your career ending. If you go to IESA with this, expect to be naked like this every day while scientists study your body.”

“That would be a good thing.”

“If that’s what gets you off these days, fine, I won’t judge.”

“No, I mean, given what we face out there,” Foster said, grabbing her uniform and under garments. “When I said we’s ain’t gonna have jobs, I meant it in the most extreme manner.”

“Being?”

“Gonna be hard to find work, when life in the galaxy done gone extinct.”

32 Odelea

Union Arm, Research Area

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 10, 2118, 15:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea rubbed the back of her neck that had become cramped with pain. She’d lost track of the hours she spent inside a dark and cramped cargo container, while the crew of the Abyssal Comet smuggled her, and her lab equipment, off along with Tolukei. All evidence of her actions on Earth had been wiped out before the human boarding party arrived to conduct room-by-room searches of the Comet.

She wasn’t sure how the human soldiers had managed to miss searching the cargo containers that were used to smuggle her. Though, Queenea and Iey’liwea, who were both owners of Souyila, were known to conduct shady business dealings in the Morutrin system. The Abyssal Comet was one of many ships in ownership of Souyila that participated in such actions.

The new lab Odelea found herself in was a lot less desirable than the one on the Comet. Its interior was small and compact, and the computer servers that lined up within the middle of the lab didn’t help.

It will have to do, she thought as she approached the Dragon Knight, as the humans called it, within its containment field, also smuggled in with her.

“So, was it worth it?”

Odelea looked toward the source of the voice, it was Tolukei. His chained body sat up from the pile of blankets on the floor he was forced to sleep on, with his slave collar still bound around his neck, suppressing his psionic powers, and waiting to explode if he crossed the line.

“Was it?” Tolukei reiterated.

“Oh,” Odelea softly spoke. She was unsure of what to say, fearing she might anger him.

“I am talking to you, not the captured enemy.”

“I’m sorry, please forgive me,” Odelea said, bowing to him. “Whatever they said, just know that it wasn’t really me, it’s a lie—”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our teleport to Earth, the council wishes to lie and say you abducted me.”

“I am a Muodiry, the council will do anything to get rid of my presence,” Tolukei said. “They sent me to Earth to fight the Hashmedai when they tried to invade. Their hope was that I would be killed in combat. I defied them and lived. Then they sought to have me board the Carl Sagan, in hopes they would never see me again … They almost got their wish, until I made my return.”

“Am I to assume you don’t wish to kill me, then?”

Tolukei’s four eyes gawked at the Dragon Knight. “You are trying to learn about our new enemy, an enemy that is responsible for my missing memories. It would be in my best interests to see you succeed, as it will create a path for me to walk and uncover where I have been for the great many years that have passed.”

Odelea’s nerves relaxed somewhat along with her body language as she went back to work studying the speech patterns of the Dragon Knight. “So, I say again,” Tolukei said. “Was it worth it?”

Odelea took a deep breath and addressed his question. “It was. I am close to creating a basic translation program for their language. Unfortunately, language is the only breakthrough I’ve been able to muster. I can’t perform detailed scans of its body while it remains in the containment field.”

“A containment field, a wise choice,” Tolukei said. “When you first looked at it with your eyes, you lost consciousness. I was forced to fight it and protect you.”

“You protected me?”

“I am still a psionic soldier of Radiance, it is my duty to protect and fight for Radiance … Regardless of how they treat me.”

Odelea held her chest, and faced the floor lost in thought. “You fight and protect for the same people that fear and despise your very existence.”

Tolukei nodded. “It is the way things are.”

And here I was ready to continue my studies, advance into a high scholar at the expense of his well-being. Odelea’s thoughts got her reflecting on the past, things she threw away to get to where she was now. The rangers that died back in Veromacon because she wanted to backup her data. The Comet being boarded by humans, and now Tolukei, bound and suppressed like a criminal, accused of kidnapping, and making unauthorized teleports on Earth. And for what? Because she wanted to impress the Union with her achievements and become a high scholar. Yes, saving the galaxy was important but she couldn’t keep fooling herself. Her primary goal since the invasion began was her own personal gain.

Perhaps there was a reason why she never made it to high scholar. Odelea had always been at the center of some sort of controversial discovery, whether it was working with heretic scholars, or aiding the Celestial Order—against her will. Even her work at the Souyila Corporation was considered by many to be borderline heresy. Ethereal fissures were considered to be sacred to some, and the ground-breaking studies first made were carried out by Telinei, a heretic member of the Celestial Order.

It was a sign from the Gods as far as she was concerned. Start doing the right thing in life and good fortune will start coming to you—

The fists of the Dragon Knight violently smashed against the containment field.

It’s furious screams and yells pierced her ears, grabbing the attention of Tolukei who looked on with concern. “Did you anger him?” Tolukei asked.

“Not any more than he has been,” she said, shaking her head, backing away from the containment field slowly. The Dragon Knight roared more, keeping its face to the observation window, peering out into space and the nearby Hashmedai arm of the station.

“Do you understand its cries?”

Odelea tried to listen into its speech and anger-filled screaming. She memorized the sounds it made and compared it with her HNI notes, rough translations of its language. “It’s angry about a thief?” She listened closer, filtering out all background noise, carefully analyzing with her mind the sounds that came from its lips. “He’s surprised she stole it and arrived at the station.”

“Stole what?”

Odelea followed the Dragon Knight’s eyes to the observation window. Looking out the window, she saw an Imperial ship move in to dock with the station. It was an anti-capital ship class plasma frigate, badly damaged with multiple hull breaches and its hull coated with a strange slime-like substance.

There was something on that ship that beckoned to the Dragon Knight, something it was able to detect, something that enraged it. “The Hashmedai have brought something to the station,” Odelea said.

“Such as?” Tolukei asked.

“I don’t know, but we must find out quickly. The Dragon Knight is upset about something on that ship; they might have endangered us all.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that you might have endangered the people on this station with your test subject?”

“I … well …” Odelea fumbled with her words, for Tolukei was right. She and the Dragon Knight staying aboard the Comet was one thing, as it would put that ship at risk, and nothing else. But the station? “We must contact ops at once and tell them lives might be at risk.”

“You will do no such thing.” It was Queenea who stood at the entrance to the lab. Her body leaned against its side, quite possibly for a good while listening in as the two spoke.

“You removed an invader from the human homeworld,” Queenea continued while stepping closer to the enraged Dragon Knight in its containment field. “They targeted and boarded my ship to search for you and the Muodiry, and, ultimately, would have discovered the Dragon Knight in the process. We went through a lot of trouble to get you this far.”

“There are millions of lives on this station,” Odelea said to her. “If the Dragon Knight could sense what that Hashmedai frigate brought back, it is possible others of his kind can as well. If we tell ops, we can have the Hashmedai ship removed or—”

“Think about what you said,” Queenea said, silencing her. “Informing ops would require us to reveal every party in this room, including the Dragon Knight. None of you are supposed to be here.”

“Does this situation not concern you?”

“It does, I’ll ask Iey’liwea and my dear brother on the council to deploy Whisper agents to look into it.”

In truth, there was no guarantee it would happen or at least in a timely manner. The council would have to vote on it first, and given what had happened, they may vote no to distance themselves from Odelea. A catastrophic event could occur long before that happened, and with the humans still searching the Comet, returning to that ship wasn’t an option. All while the questions that Odelea sought to have answered would remain just that, questions.

“We can’t allow the humans to know of this,” Queenea continued. “They advance by plucking technology away from others, adding it to their own. The Gods have gifted us in Souyila the chance to put an end to that. So, get back to work, scholar, and extract every last bit of data you can from this specimen of yours. Let’s allow Souyila to develop the technology needed to rid the galaxy of these invaders and advance the Radiance Union back to the technologically superior nation it once was.”

Odelea wasn’t visually pleased with Queenea’s demands. But in the end, Odelea was still an employee of Souyila and Queenea was her boss. She grimaced and sighed. “Understood.”

“Now, don’t look so down, this is exactly what you wanted, is it not?” Queenea said, stroking the side of Odelea’s cheeks. “You will be the first to crack the code and speak their language; you will be the first to perform a more detailed study of this thing and help us develop a weapon to stop them. You will become a high scholar for your discoveries, Odelea, just think of the prestige, the funding. All the projects you wanted to study but couldn’t will become a reality.”

“Understood,” Odelea said, as she processed the jubilant thoughts of Queenea’s offer.

“Well then, Odelea, you have work to do,” Queenea said, and left Odelea alone with the Dragon Knight and Tolukei.

Odelea returned to her task of studying the Dragon Knight with a hovering holo screen following next to her.

“She is your superior, correct?” Tolukei called out to her from his darkened resting space.

Odelea nodded while reading the new data that loaded, ignoring the raging noises of the Dragon Knight. “She is, yes.”

“It would appear she will stop at nothing to get what she wants and will sacrifice anything to make it happen.”

“It would appear so.”

“Is putting the lives of everyone on the station worth becoming a high scholar and financial gain?”

“No …”

“Then, you do have work to do, Odelea,” Tolukei said. “Choose the right path.”

33 Foster

Central Operation Spire, Intergalactic Leadership Forum

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 11, 2118, 08:19 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The central most section of Amicitia Station 14 was reserved for station operations, CPU cores, AI core, environment controls, primary reactors, and, most importantly, the Intergalactic Leadership Forum. The forum was a majestic chamber used by the leaders of the Radiance Union, Hashmedai Empire, and UNE, where the three galactic nations could discuss matters of galactic diplomacy, settle disputes, and build the seemingly difficult idea of true peace and cooperation between the three.

The forum was originally created to settle the growing territorial disputes between the three nations during the start of the colonization rush. Gene therapy had eliminated death from old age thus resulting in a massive population growth in the galaxy, and the need to claim as many planets and systems as possible. Its success prevented all-out war between the three nations over planets, and then later helped the Empire cease human hostilities to its people as many still mourned the loss of two billion lives during their invasion. Following that, the UNE used the forum to encourage Radiance and the Empire to enter a ceasefire, bringing an end to thousands of years of war between the two.

The leaders of the Qirak, from time to time, used the forum as a means to reach trade deals, while elders from the Undine and Poniga that wished to speak to galactic leaders on rare occasions were offered the chance to travel to the forum to sit and talk.

Foster and Pierce contacting the UNE and unveiling what they discovered and presenting proof had once again prompted the three political leaders of the galaxy to come together and discuss their findings in regard to the new threat, one that took the lives of thousands from all three nations. Foster approached the lift which led to the forum and waited for it to arrive as Peiun strode in from around the corner. He too stood waiting for the lift.

“You too?” Foster said to him with her arms crossed.

“My government has summoned me here,” Peiun said. “I was hoping my report was all they needed, it would appear I was wrong.”

“Oh,” said a timid voice from the corridor Foster had passed.

Foster turned and smirked at a young Aryile girl. She looked a lot like the girl that was on TV when Radiance first landed their transport ship on the White House lawn. Odelea was her name if Foster remembered correctly. It was hard for her to forget that as it was one of the last times she sat down and watched TV with her father, excited to discover the human race wasn’t alone in the universe.

Then promptly wished they were days later, when the Empire struck.

“I was under the impression I was the only one speaking during the forum,” the Aryile said.

Peiun grunted. “A human, Hashmedai, and an Aryile, speaking with the leaders of our respected nations, this will be amusing.”

The lift doors swung open and the three piled in. It’s rapidly powered parts lifted upwards toward the forum’s location as silence enveloped the three. Silence Foster tried to break. “You look like that Scholar Odelea girl that was part of the Radiance’s first contact with Earth.”

“I am her,” she revealed.

“Just couldn’t give up the young body, huh?”

“Oh,” Odelea looked down at her young adult body. “I recently reverted back to this form; it was to celebrate one-hundred Earth years since we uplifted your species, saving you from the demonic the claws of the Empire—”

“That’s racist,” Peiun cut in.

“Oh, my apologies,” Odelea said, facing him. “I didn’t realize you had joined us.”

“What did you think I was doing down there?” Peiun said, his voice growing annoyed. “Waiting around for no reason?”

“Please, forgive me,” Odelea reiterated and bowed.

Peiun crossed his arms in an uncaring manner, leaning his back against the lift’s walls. “Its fine, I’m used to the entire galaxy hating my kind.” He gazed at Foster, smirking, she rolled her eyes.

The lift’s ascent came to an end and its wide doors slid open and the three stepped into a circular room, the Intergalactic Leadership Forum where realistic holograms served a videoconference system for the leaders of the three nations. On the left was the Radiance council, who sat at their wide desk in the council delegation chambers in Veromacon, Aervounis. Iey’liwea, the Rabuabin representative sat in between Ienthei the Aryile representative, Zealoei the Javnis representative, Marchei the Vorcambreum representative, and Hanei the Linl representative.

It took Foster the better half of the day to match their names with their faces and species and was certain she would forget it all by the end of the next hour, if not, within the next two minutes.

In the center of the room sat Emperor Eensino and Empress Kroshka on their respective thrones in the Imperial throne room on Paryo. The two Hashmedai leaders waited for the forum to start, donning glittering white robes that matched their pale skin and platinum-blonde hair, adorned with gold and platinum rings. Black-colored highlights covered one half of Kroshka’s hair.

Finally, off to the right was none other than the President of Earth, Lance Anderson, who sat at his desk in his office in Earth Cube with his hands folded and his black suit and tie looking spiffy. Geneva’s devastated skyline could be seen in the distance behind him. The crisp and realistic imagery of the holograms made Foster wonder how much money was spent on the projectors. The more she looked at them, the more she felt as though she had one foot on the station and the other on Earth, Paryo, or Aervounis.

“Is this everyone?” President Anderson asked.

“For now,” Iey’liwea said.

“Well then, let us begin,” Emperor Eensino said.

The meeting started with all parties introducing each other, and then Odelea stepping forward and introducing herself. It drew unexpected glares from all members of the Radiance council.

“Scholar Odelea …” Iey’liwea said. “What are you doing here?”

“I’d like to know that myself,” said Anderson. “We have been looking for you.”

Odelea broke her silence, and her sun-kissed skin turned a shade red. “I cannot remain silent any further, so I have made the choice to appear before you all today.”

Foster saw Iey’liwea’s face twitch and her posture become uncomfortable. Odelea was about to do something that wasn’t part of the council’s plan. Or perhaps just her plan, whatever that was.

“Is that so?” Emperor Eensino said. “Well, do share with the rest of us.”

Odelea exhaled deeply, mustering the courage to speak. “Tolukei did not force me onto Earth. I forced him.”

“You what?”

“I needed to continue my research,” Odelea said. “I needed a live invader soldier to study. The ones on Aervounis had all been slain and I imagine Paryo as well, Earth was the only source, and there was no time to ask for permission. I needed a live sample and I needed to be the one that had exclusive access to it. Souyila convinced the Union to blame Tolukei in order to protect me and keep my research a secret.”

There was silence and deep musing from all those present, thanks in part to Odelea’s bombshell, dropped on her own people at that.

Odelea continued. “The UNE boarded the Abyssal Comet, likely out of suspicion of our presence on Earth, so Souyila had me, Tolukei, and the invader specimen we captured secretly moved to the station.” She waved her hand in the air and a hologram of the Dragon Knight appeared, trapped behind a force field. “Last night I witnessed an Imperial vessel dock with the station, the specimen with me reacted to it. It knew there was something on the ship that it deemed important, something it claimed was stolen. I was asked to stay silent about it.”

“This Imperial ship you speak off was most likely the Rezeki’s Rage,” Anderson said.

“That is correct,” Empress Kroshka said. “No other Hashmedai ships have docked with the station within the last twenty-seven hours.”

Anderson sat back in his leather presidential chair, with a fierce grimace. He faced the duo leadership of the Empire. “We called this meeting to exchange critical information. Is there a reason why the Rezeki’s Rage didn’t inform the station’s crew of this important stolen item they were bringing with them?”

“We were not made aware of this, only that the ship had been covered in a strange material, which we extracted and had shipped out of the system for further study,” Eensino said. “Peiun, why didn’t you reveal that there were more facts?”

“We brought nothing else with us other than the strange material, as you mentioned, and the four survivors from the Kapteyn’s Star system,” Peiun said. “I don’t know what this scholar speaks of.”

Peiun was asked to go into greater detail in regard to the Rezeki’s Rage’s escape from Kapteyn’s Star and how it arrived there in the first place. Foster’s situation with the tattoos came next, which gave her the abilities to navigate through the maelstrom, followed by a replay of her engram experience from the monolith.

“That must be it then,” Odelea said. “Foster, you must be what the Dragon Knight sensed; you must be the thief it referred to.”

“I ain’t no thief, I didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to me,” Foster said. “These tattoos were forced on me when I touched the monolith—”

“Spare us your excuses, it seems quite clear to me that the invaders and the cults of the Celestial Order are working together,” Marchei said.

“Explain,” Eensino said.

“The Abyssal Sword, before vanishing, conducted operations against Order forces,” Marchei said. “The Order must have boarded the ship then fled to Sirius.”

“No, this is all related to Tiamat,” Foster spoke up. “The statues we saw at her tomb in Sirius are the same ones we found at the dig site near the monolith.”

Kroshka faced her, her face twisted with confusion. “Tiamat?”

“Old Earth mythology,” Anderson said.

“It ain’t any myth, it’s true,” Foster said. “We encountered Marduk himself out in Sirius.”

“Captain Foster is referring to debunked reports of their Sirius expedition,” Anderson said. “They claimed to have discovered that Marduk, another part of old Earth myth, was really a Javnis Muodiry. During their disappearance, it was later discovered the Javnis called Marduk was nothing more than a rogue Javnis. The ruins belonging to Tiamat were of another generation of Lyonria.”

Foster reiterated her stance. “It’s all true, Tiamat, Marduk, the Sirens Undine whatever you wanna call ‘em. Earth’s past mythos was more real than we thought. What we’re facing right now are forces loyal to Tiamat who believe we’ve wronged them. Fighting them head-on ain’t gonna solve anything.”

“Thank you for proving my theory,” Marchei said to Foster with a devious smirk. “You are indoctrinated.”

“Bullshit!”

“He may be correct about that. If the Sword was under control of the Order, then this proves Tolukei’s true allegiance,” Heinei of the Radiance council said.

“Yes, Tolukei abducting Odelea to force her to the surface of Earth …” Ienthei said. “He must have been trying to reconnect with the invaders, who very well may be sinful spawns of the Order.”

Foster saw a troubled look appear on Odelea’s face, like she was placed in an uncomfortable position.

“How can you be so sure of Tolukei’s allegiance to the order?” Kroshka asked.

“Almost all Muodiry ended up in the arms of the heretics, clearly, he had plans to as well,” Iey’liwea said.

“Captain Foster,” Kroshka said to her. “Tolukei was a member of your crew was he not? Did he not play an important role in your survival?”

Foster nodded. “He did. He saved my hide from being held captive, if he was workin’ for the Order; he did a lousy job of that.”

“Might I remind everyone,” said Marchei. “If Tolukei was a member of the Order, he may have tampered with the minds of the Carl Sagan’s crew. Furthermore, this Marduk you encountered in Sirius, was he not a Javnis Muodiry?”

“Yeah, that he was,” said Foster. “We theorized he was taken from the Javnis homeworld by aliens, aliens we suspected to be of the same species Tiamat was. Which we now suspect are the same alien invaders we’re conflictin’ with.”

“A Muodiry on the Carl Sagan, a Muodiry ruling the Sirius sector,” said Marchei. “The Carl Sagan’s disappearance, along with the Sword, and reappearance may very well be part of a well-orchestrated plan in which all parties involved had been indoctrinated to following the Order’s beliefs. Captain Foster, I’m sorry to say, might be under their control attempting to manipulate us.”

“That’s nonsense,” Peiun cut in, his voice raised, drawing attention to him. “I had to rescue Foster from the surface of Jacobus. She was under attack by invader forces which you claim are possibly allied with the Order.”

“But we can’t look past the facts,” Marchei countered, his voice growing more arrogant. “The Abyssal Sword, we all can agree, had most likely been compromised by the Celestial Order, not beings related to ancient human stories. They arrived in Sirius, annexing the Carl Sagan, which returned alongside the invader fleet, with part of its crew missing, and those that weren’t had their memories wiped. Why would the Sword travel to Sirius? To seek help from Marduk, a Muodiry, of course. Why would Tolukei abduct Odelea and try to flee to the surface of Earth? Because he secretly serves the Order.”

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Foster said. “Radiance, I don’t know what kinda game ya’ll tryin’ to play, but it ain’t workin’. We ain’t indoctrinated, Tolukei is not a member of the Order, and we wouldn’t be talking if he was. Odelea admitted to doing what she did, and you saw the proof of the vision that monolith put in my head. Pull your heads out from your asses and listen to the words we speak.”

“You are quite bold to say such things, human,” Zealoei spat at Foster.

Foster’s finger pointed toward the stars of space visible by the observation window behind her. “We’re quite possibly facing the extinction of all life in the galaxy, and the three biggest forces that could stop it ain’t working together. The wars between our people are over, ain’t it? So, let’s start acting like it. Radiance, Hashmedai, humans … ya’ll need to cooperate as one alliance, and you can start by reviewing the findings we presented to you, and start pooling your collective thoughts together to figure this shit out.”

“I, for one, welcome the idea of an alliance if it means the preservation of our people,” Peiun said.

“She is correct, accusations and bickering are getting us nowhere,” Eensino said. “We called this meeting to find a solution to the common threat we all face.”

“Very well,” Zealoei said, folding his fingers together. “Then, what would our next step be?”

“The three fleets that attacked us are still in control of the Kapteyn’s Star system, correct?” Anderson asked. “Perhaps a swift counterattack with the combined power of all our forces.”

Foster shook her head. “No, that will only make matters worse.”

“The intel we have gathered has given us the advantage, so long as that armada remains in one location,” Anderson said.

“I happen to agree, we can’t waste this chance,” Ienthei said. “If they spread out it will only make it harder for us to track … or worse, they could use the maelstroms to strike new targets. We have to end this now.”

“Ya’ll ain’t listening to me. This whole invasion was a misunderstanding,” Foster said. “They believe we wronged them in the past by killing one of their deities.”

Ienthei’s eyebrow rose. “Deities?”

Marchei sighed. “You are referring to Tiamat and Marduk again?”

“They think we did her in,” Foster said. “I’m guessing the Sword was compromised before we went to investigate it. From there, someone must have told them the lie that we all in the galaxy were their enemy. Maybe it was Order members aboard the Sword, maybe it was ancient tech, we don’t know for sure. But if we’re going to end this conflict, we must find the Abyssal Sword. The clues on that ship will point us to what we need to do next, and that’s findin’ the location of their homeworld. From there, we can contact their leaders and prove to them that we ain’t their enemy.”

“She is correct,” Odelea added. “From what I’ve been able to translate, they seem to view us as if we’ve committed a malicious act toward their people.”

“We could dispatch several ships to conduct a search,” Ienthei suggested.

“No warships, remember, we don’t want them to get the wrong idea,” Foster said.

“We should send one ship, it will draw very little attention,” Peiun said. “Ideally, said ship shouldn’t be heavily armed for prolonged combat and have a skilled crew.”

“Madness, one ship?” Marchei said. “What if there are more of these Dragon Knights? All it would take is one to appear and bring the crew of said ship to their knees.”

“Which brings up the next issue of your idea, HNI,” Anderson said. “We can’t remove the implants without killing the user and we all receive them at birth. A small ship and crew would be vulnerable. The only people that don’t have implants are those that live on remote anti-tech colonies, even then, those people would hardly be qualified for such a mission—”

“Then send me,” Foster interjected. “I’m a sleepin, along with my crew, we never got the HNI implants, we’re trained and experienced explorers, part of a crew that already saved the cosmos from an ancient threat.”

“Foster, you’ll still need more personnel for your team, personnel that will have HNI,” Anderson said.

“That’s fine, because I’ll still have my senior crew with me. If we lose the whole ship to an HNI hack there’ll still be a skilled team ready to take control of the situation, the only team in the galaxy that stands a chance at fighting any Dragon Knight.”

“Is this really the right thing to do?” Marchei asked. “Did the human government not suspect her and her crew of being unwilling agents to the invaders?”

“Watching Foster and Doctor Pierce come under attack by the invaders at the monolith and continue to be so after her interaction with it, makes me believe the Carl Sagan’s crew were victims, nothing more.” Anderson said. “I will have to consult with EISS before I make a final decision about this, however.”

“Send her,” Kroshka blurted. “Or I will personally see to it she and her crew receive a commission with the Imperial navy and serve on one of our ships. If they are successful, the invaders will remember the Empire as the people that sought to end the conflict, not Radiance or the UNE.” Kroshka made eye contact with Foster, her tone switched to a more confident one. “So, prepare yourself and your crew Foster, because your new mission will happen one way or another.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Anderson said, holding his hands up. “And as Foster herself said, warships are out of the question.”

Foster grimaced. “I’d say get me back on the bridge of the Carl Sagan, but that ain’t an option right now.”

“Not to mention out of date,” Anderson said. “But … there is one other option.”

34 Foster

UNE Arm, Hanger Bay

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 11, 2118, 12:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rebecca Foster’s eyes opened wide when the heavy sliding doors parted.

Her mouth opened wide.

Her heart and chest filled with joy.

She, along with Pierce and IESA director Barker, entered the hanger bay. Barker extended his hand forward, introducing them to the ship that rested inside.

“I present to you, the XSV Johannes Kepler,” Barker said. “A joint venture between the IESA and the Radiance Union, fully funded by the UNE.”

Foster and Pierce recognized the ship immediately, recalling the strange one that had flew outside of the station’s atrium observation deck when they had first arrived. The XSV Johannes Kepler was a small deep space scouting and exploration ship Barker briefly explained as they gawked at its sleek design, fresh coat of paint on the hull that reflected the lights from the ceiling. There were three decks from what Foster could see, with the lowest one having an entry ramp lowered where teams of IESA personnel pushed crates of cargo up the ramp into the ship.

“We caught a glimpse of it strutting its stuff about,” Foster said.

“Final test flights,” Barker said as they moved closer to it. “We got word the other day that it’s officially spaceworthy, and about damn time too. The FTL engine alone cost us billions to design, test, and build.”

“And well worth the effort,” said a Rabuabin woman who walked off the entry ramp, dressed in a Union Navy uniform, a grey jumpsuit. “It’s the fastest ship in the quadrant, clocking in at two light-years per month.”

“This is Saressea,” Barker said, introducing the two to her. “She is the Radiance liaison officer of the Kepler.”

Saressea made a half smile and stepped closer to them, the rings attached to her horns made slight clinking noises amidst her dark caramel hair. “Don’t forget, engineer, acting captain, on again off again, everything else the damn ship needs.”

The four boarded the ship via the lowered entry ramp into its cargo hold. Slipping past multiple crates, they climbed up a ladder that took them to the second deck, and were given a quick tour of its corridors, waltzing past access panels that had been left open for last-minute system checks.

“As you can see, it’s smaller compared to other ships, making it ideal for atmospheric flight and landing on planets should a suitable landing zone be found,” Barker said.

“I can’t see this housing a large crew,” Foster said, noting the short amount of time it took to walk from the aft to the forward section of the ship, passing past the science labs, sickbay, hydroponic bay, and cryostasis chamber.

“No, it can’t, fifteen to thirty personnel, tops,” Barker said. “Just a team large enough to conduct ship wide operations and venture outside to explore, which was its primary function, deep space exploration and recon.”

Their tour continued, strolling through the third and final deck which housed crew quarters, mess hall, gym, and recreation rooms. Pots of plants decorated the walls making it feel almost like the hallways to a hotel, while observation windows to the left, right, and above displayed what was going on outside. It reminded Foster of the habitat rings she was familiar with, only there was no need for the ring itself since artificial gravity was a reality.

Their tour ended when they arrived at the bridge. Similar to the Carl Sagan and Radiance ships, directly below the bridge was the captain’s office. The bridge itself was flashing with holo screens hovering above computer stations with the main view screen upfront upstaging everything with various holographic overlays from its HUD.

Barker and Saressea spoke of the bridge details, such as the fact they were in the process of modifying it to be more user friendly to non-HNI users, since Foster and company will be taking command. Other facts were blurted, facts that went in one ear and out the other with Foster and for good reason.

The captain’s chair.

It drew her closer to it as if she was magnetized to it.

She stood next to it, stroking her finger across its material, wondering what the small holo screens floating above its arms were able to do. She reminisced about the brief moment she sat in the captain’s chair, in command of her own ship.

“It’s all yours, Foster,” Barker said, snapping her attention out of the trance she put herself in. “That is, if you’re willing to accept the new assignment.”

A smile fueled by pure jubilation stretched across her face, and without further words Foster leaped into the chair, resting her arms on its armrest. She felt at home and gave Barker her reply. “Of course I am.”

“Very well then,” Barker said, facing a workstation off to the right. “EVE?”

A woman with long brown hair tied in a braid, donning an IESA uniform, stood from a computer she was performing a service on. She looked like EVE, only in human form, opposed to the holographic AI Foster and Pierce had become used to seeing.

“EVE … love the new look,” Foster said as EVE approached.

“New look?” EVE said, looking puzzled. “I have been in operation with this exterior shell for approximately one month, seven days. There is nothing new about it.”

“She’s a far cry from the hologram assistant we’re used to,” Foster said to Barker.

“This is the latest EVE model,” Barker explained. “Gone are the days of the holographic EVE models. All Earth ships are now given at least one humanoid android which houses EVE’s quantum computing functions. In addition, an exact copy of her AI also exists within the ship and is constantly linked with the physical android model.”

“That is correct, Director,” EVE said. “In addition to assisting the crew with system related matters, I am also able to assist with physical duties, ranging from repairs, medical attention, combat, or exploration.”

Foster’s memories flashed back to the day the Carl Sagan made preparation to leave Earth. She, Williams, and Rivera had spoken about an android EVE model that had been in the designing phase before they left for Sirius. Looks like they went and made it standard.

“EVE, this is Captain Rebecca Foster, she will be the new CO of the Kepler,” Barker said.

EVE nodded keeping her hands behind her back in a professional manner. “Understood, Director, crew roster has been updated. Will there be any other additional members to the crew?”

“I will be …” Pierce said. “If the good captain is okay with it?”

Foster looked up at Pierce, the two of them smiled at each other. “Don’t be silly, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” Foster said, then addressed their android assistant. “EVE, this is Doctor Travis Pierce, Science Officer.”

“Understood, crew roster has been updated, is that all for now, Captain?”

“That’s it for now, EVE, thank you.”

EVE returned to the work on the computer terminal with its wires and circuitry exposed from its sliding panel.

“As you might have seen already, Foster, the Kepler doesn’t have much of a crew at the moment,” Barker said. “Radiance will be sending a select few of their members soon as per our agreement with them.”

“Eh? What sort of agreement?” There’s always a catch.

“Radiance helped build this and they want at least a small team of Radiance personnel to be members of its crew at all times. The rest of the crew was supposed to be made up of IESA and UNE military personnel. But given the new crisis we face, I’ll leave recruitment and the handling of this mission in your hands.”

Foster eyed the vacant bridge stations. The helm and navigation, communication, psionic station, tactical station… “There’s one team we absolutely must have,” Foster said. “My crew from the Carl Sagan.”

Barker nodded in agreement. “You already know where to find Kostelecky, Rivera should still be on Earth, Tolukei is here on the station in custody of the Union, everyone else has gone to Sirius to live.”

“Call in whatever favors you can, I need Tolukei here,” Foster said.

“I’ll do what I can.”

“As for everyone in Sirius,” Foster mumbled to herself. “This ship got one of them fancy QEC I keep hearing about?”

“Yes, it’s directly linked with ops here on the station,” Barker said. “They’ll be able to relay any message you need to send across the network.”

Last time Foster checked, Williams was living with her mother in Sirius. Now that she had a ship, sending a message to them should be easier. I’ll contact Mom and have her give Dom the good news, he’ll grab everyone else to join the party.

Foster stood to give the forward view screen a closer look, admiring all the holographic overlays it displayed in regard to the ship’s operational status, with the view of the hanger bay in the background … And a small commotion brewing near the hanger exit doors.

She shifted her face closer to the screen requesting it to zoom in on what was going on. The screen flickered and changed, external cameras depicted two UNE Marines arguing with Odelea, blocking her entry into the hanger.

“Heh, what ya’ll think is goin’ on down there?” Foster said, pointing.

“Great,” Barker said drily, standing next to Foster, observing the screen’s contents. “Give me a moment to sort that out.”

Foster wasn’t one to read lips, but she wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if one of the Marines had told Odelea to ‘fuck off’ as indicated by his face and hand gestures. Foster shook her head and retreated, following Barker outside into the hanger, where the conflict between Odelea and the two Marines continued.

“Miss Odelea, may we help you with something?” Barker’s condescending voice said.

Odelea looked forward past the barricading arms and rifles of the two Marines, locking her Aryile eyes with Foster. “My Gods, Captain Foster!”

Renewed energy poured into Odelea’s body, allowing her skinny, arms, legs, and frame to slip and squirm away from the grasps of the Marines, strutting over to Foster amidst the grunting shouts of the two men.

“Uh, yeah that’ll be me,” Foster half-jokingly said as Odelea fetched a holographic document for Foster to read.

“Please, I have a dire request to make—”

“Do it through the Radiance embassy,” one of the Marines said, yanking Odelea away from Foster. “I’m sorry about this, you two, we’ll have her removed.”

“Thank you, Corporal,” Barker said to him.

Foster winced looking at the distraught and desperate Aryile girl after skimming the holographic document given to her. “Let her speak.”

“Foster, don’t worry about her,” Barker said. “After the forum meet up, I’ve been told she’s landed in hot water with her own people. Never mind the fact she attended uninvited.”

“Yeah, so let her speak,” Foster insisted.

“It’s a waste of time.”

“Director, you said somethin’ about me having authority to run this gig anyway I see fit, right?”

“Well—”

“And we’s gonna need Radiance personnel onboard before we can take flight.” Foster glanced at the bright glowing document hovering before her face. It was a formal request for Odelea to join the crew. “Let the poor gal talk before ya’ll haul her ass away.”

Barker gave the nod to the two Marines to release Odelea, sighing loudly in the process. Odelea ran past him back to Foster, forcing her to brace herself, half expecting Odelea to leap in to her arms at the speed she was moving.

“Thank you, thank you!” Odelea chanted. “I would like to be a part of the crew, I have as you already know, made several breakthroughs in regard to language of the invaders, amongst other things.”

“That might come in handy,” Foster said to her. “Unfortunately, we got a science officer and he ain’t one for having assistants, tried that back in Sirius before we lost our memories.”

“Oh, I see then …” Odelea said with sadness.

“Radiance, to my knowledge, hasn’t finished selecting personnel for the crew anyways,” Barker said. “If you’d like to be part of the team, best to apply with them first, rather than jumping ahead in line.” Barker’s hand beckoned to the Marines to remove Odelea, this time for good.

Foster looked at the sadness of Odelea’s face as her lips twisted, it brought back memories of her undergoing a similar feeling not long ago. Feelings she felt back when the development of the Carl Sagan was put on hold, along with her dreams of traveling to the stars. What ultimately changed her fate and feelings was the decision of the newly elected president at the time to order the Carl Sagan’s construction to continue.

That one call changed everything, not just for Foster, but for everyone, as it led to her team putting an end to Marduk and the threat he posed. Foster was now poised to make a single call, one she hoped she’d be thankful for making in the future.

“I’m okay with trial runs however,” Foster said to her. “And I’m sure Doctor Pierce is as well.”

“We should let Radiance make the call here,” Barker said.

“How long will that take?” Foster said, facing him. “We’s need to get this boat goin’, the way I see it, if we bring her along, its one less person Radiance needs to find, and I still want Tolukei on the team, so that’s two, three, if we count Saressea.”

“You might be onto something there …” Barker said, then paused to enter a deep thought. “That will bring the current crew manifest up to six when Kostelecky transfers over. Three members of Radiance to three members of Earth, the Union will be okay with a premature launch with those numbers.”

Odelea’s hands and legs moved in a skittish manner. “Then?”

Foster made the decision. “Welcome aboard, Odelea.” Don’t make me regret this girl!

“Scholar Ary Odelea reporting for duty,” Odelea said, and performed the traditional Radiance greeting gesture. “Your acquaintance is recognized.”

Foster smiled returning the gesture by placing her hand over her shoulder. I hope that was the right hand … “Your acquaintance is recognized. Now, get whatever you need to make this happen; I wanna leave as soon as we secure Tolukei.”

35 Fighter Number 3,482

Ancient City

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

Vanunu Season, Day 24, Stellar Cycle 8,579 (August 11, 2118, 12:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Fighter Number 3,482 lowered his rifle when Divine Commander Lahamu graced the presence of his squad, using the powers gifted to her from the great creator of the universe. Lahamu, known to the humans as a Dragon Maiden, summoned Fighter Number 3,482 to stand in front of her, remove his helmet and kiss the sacred figure on her Voelika, and then kneel in front of her divine beauty.

Divine Commander Lahamu’s words echoed in his head, she was attuned to the emotions of negativity, anger, and hatred. The forces she brought onto the human homeworld had been slain, and her partner, another Divine Commander, taken captive. His whereabouts was unknown. Divine Commander Lahamu asked for a status update, reluctantly, Fighter Number 3,482, gave it, though the words he put into her mind weren’t ones that would make her emotional stance transmute into a positive one.

Fighter Number 3,482 put the words into her head that a human female touched the sacred monolith and stole what they came to secure. Lahamu responded by bludgeoning to death five random fighters of his squad, coating the ancient road with boiling blood, fragments of their skulls and horns. Fighter Number 3,482 was grateful that was the punishment she had chosen as the children of the five would be granted the privilege to continue to live, breathe, and grow strong.

Lahamu touched the monolith and attempted to use her divine magic to pull any useful information away from it. The winds of the planet blew past her, scattering her golden hair about. The monolith began to glow the longer her hand rested on it. She pulled away with a gesture on her face that was still attuned to the emotion of anger and then gave Fighter Number 3,482 permission to put new words into her head, words about the alien ship that fled the system.

The ship was constructed by a species known as Hashmedai. It was puzzling as to why a human would board one of their ships, even more puzzling that a female Vorcambreum and a male Rabuabin had accompanied the human female and her male partner. Humans, Rabuabin, and Vorcambreum seeking refuge on a Hashmedai ship went against all the foresighting that had been conducted over the past stellar cycles.

The Divine Commander later learned that the Hashmedai constructed ship entered the conduit. The ship had somehow covered itself with the ethereal fluid needed to exist within the conduit, preventing the balance of nature from taking corrective action, and removing matter that did not originate from the other universe.

Divine Commander Lahamu’s emotions underwent a shift and became closer to positive feelings as Fighter Number 3,482 knew a lot about what had happened. She made arrangements for the mystics to extract his mind and convert it into an engram for her to study further and learn of the thief that stole the divine powers from the monolith.

Fighter Number 3,482 was brought aboard the vessel Divine Commander Lahamu used to flee the human homeworld undetected with its magical stealth abilities, bypassing the detection abilities of the human battleships. She rewarded him by allowing himself to have a name rather than a class designation while a mystic guided him away to perform the engram conversion procedure. The mystic was a half-dragon like himself, draped in transparent robes, brimming with energy from her magical powers.

Divine Commander Lahamu stood in front of a visage of the universe located on the bridge of her ship. She used it to chart a path to the next system which needed to be liberated from the alien infestation that had plagued it for far too long.

One fleet was selected to lead the charge, while the remaining two remained in control of the system they were in. Words were put into the heads of the horde that made up the selected fleet, instructing them to enter a new conduit that tore open the fabric of space-time. The paths within the conduit would lead the Divine Commander Lahamu on her next mission, a star system known to the humans as Sirius. It had been many stellar cycles since they ventured into the system.

Divine Commander Lahamu hoped the believers that lived in that system had remained unharmed by the human infestation.

36 Williams

Marques Desert

Terra Nova, Sirius A system

August 11, 2118, 12:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Marques Desert was one of the few arid places on Terra Nova where sand, rocks, and dry hot air were in complete dominance, denying the thirsty land of the rain water it desperately needed. Within the center of twirling dust storms and sand dunes hovered an oval-shaped Lyonria crafted wormhole, one of many discovered throughout the planet’s surface by the first generation of human explorers that arrived via the Carl Sagan.

The Poniga and Undine seldom made use of the wormholes on Terra Nova in the past, understandable given the control the Architect, Marduk, had imposed over both their societies during his reign over the entire Sirius system. From time to time, Poniga or Qirak living on New Babylon would traverse through the forgotten wormholes to trade with humans, an act Demarion Bailey became all too familiar with during the years he spent living amongst the indigenous people, helping them discover dormant wormholes on Terra Nova.

It was Bailey’s knowledge of the existence of the Marques Desert wormhole that allowed him to lead Williams, Chang, and Nereid through it to wade through the scorching heat of the desert air above, and the blazing sands below them. Five sets of footprints dotted their way away from the wormhole onwards to what seemed to Williams as an object buried below the sands.

Bailey’s tattered-robed body stopped ahead of the buried object, and shoved heaps of sand away from it with his hands. He unearthed the side of a ship’s hull, a ship that bore the flag of the Hashmedai Empire.

A flag that sent Williams back in time.

It brought back memories of Hashmedai transports that bore the same flag, painted on the sides of their transports that descended to the city of Chicago. The transports released hordes of Imperial death squads, beheading civilians, the national guard that tried, and failed, to stop them, razing every structure they came across, and eventually ending the lives of his mother and father. It was unnecessary blood and gore for the child he was to see—

“Williams!” Chang yelled, shaking Williams’ body to return to the present.

“I’m fine,” Williams grunted.

“Yeah, bullshit you are.”

Williams glanced at Chang’s sand-and dust-covered hands and arms, noting that the outfits Nereid and Bailey wore too had been dirtied in a similar manner as the unburied crash-landed Hashmedai transport took center stage. Did I seriously blank out and stand there while they unburied it? Williams’ mind grumbled. “What’s a Hashmedai transport doing out here?”

“The Poniga found it,” Bailey said, dusting his robe off. “Since I’m the only human they trust, they told me, and only me, about it.”

Williams cautiously approached the transport making circles around it. The exterior of the craft showed signs that the desert had made it its home for a number of years, the once purple color of it had faded to lighter colors, thanks to the consistent bombardment of Sirius’ light.

“I know our memories are fuzzy, but I do clearly remember everything we did here in the system,” Williams said.

“Yeah, and I sure as hell didn’t pick up on the scanner a Hashmedai transport,” Chang said, looking at the craft.

“Neither did the probes we sent out,” Williams said. “Or the first wave of explorers we had scout this planet for that matter.”

“So then, this transport arrived after we went missing,” Nereid added as she brushed a wet cloth across her face and arms. She, being a species of the ocean, needed to keep her skin moist whenever possible. Williams was surprised the desert hadn’t taken her out already.

“Undetected? Doubtful, not with all the bases on this planet and the ships in the system,” Chang said. “Someone would have detected a Hashmedai transport entering and crash-landing here.”

“Yeah, that’s now, presently,” Williams said. “But what if it came just after we went missing? The Carl Sagan was the eyes and ears of the system, without it, the colonists had nothing but the odd transport we left for them and planetary satellite detection.”

“Hmm, in that case,” Chang said as he eyed the transport longer. “Yeah, this could have slipped in undetected if they took the right flight path that put them out of scanning range.” Chang kicked up a plume of sand into the air. “And all this sand covering it up after all these years would have made it harder for anyone to find it. As for the pilot …”

“Nobody has seen a Hashmedai runnin’ around in the years since we found this,” Bailey said.

Williams looked back at the large and seemingly never-ending sand dunes and dust-covered rocks around them and the transport. “Hashmedai won’t last long in this heat, they’re probably dead, and their bones long buried in the sands.”

“I feel as though we’re getting a little off topic here, you know with the mysterious old Hashmedai transport that has nothing to do with our situation and all …” Chang drily said.

Faint pulses of light, visible from the transport’s windshield in the cockpit caught Williams attention. The light came from its computer terminal upfront, the transport still had power. Williams stood in front of the side entrance of the transport and took several deep breaths to keep his head in the game, cast away any looming fears that Hashmedai warriors might still be inside, and searched for the manual control lever to force the doors open.

The haggard transport hissed. Its doors slithered open for the first time in years, sand that fell into its joints and grooves sprinkled down from the newly opened doorway into the darkened interior of the craft.

“Off topic, huh?” Bailey said, nudging Chang as the four stepped inside. “You wanted to check out the wastelands beyond the dome, right?”

“Wait … with this rust bucket?”

Williams entered the cockpit, ignoring the odd odors that entered his head and eyed its computer terminals more as noticeable pulses of light flashed. “It’s got power,” Williams said, grinning. “With the right hands, tools, and knowledge of the Hashmedai language, we might be able to make it spaceworthy again and get our answers.”

And the best part? It would be an old Hashmedai transport. UNE personnel monitoring scanners would have to look twice at their computers before they took action, and then scratch their heads as to how an Imperial vessel entered the system undetected. Space bridge jumps always left behind a burst of psionic energy, easily detectable by scanners and psionics.

We could be in and out before UNE moves in to investigate their protected world. Williams faced the three while they sat in the rear cabin, with blissful looks on their faces. They were after all indoors and out of the sun’s heat for the first time in hours.

“Anyone got Rivera’s contact information?”

37 Peiun

Atrium Arm, A-OK Fourteen Pub

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

August 12, 2118, 13:26 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Peiun felt like an outsider sitting on the bar stool within the human-run pub. The music, its mostly human patrons, and holo screens playing human news media broadcasts, was a different experience for him compared to pubs run by Hashmedai.

Much to his surprise, the establishment was equipped to service non-humans. The cold glass of Hashmedai ale in his hands was proof of that, the chair that blew cold air up his spine was another. The chairs were programmed to link with one’s HNI and deliver an experience that would be best suited for their species. An Aryile that sat on a chair for example, would feel tropical heat rise to comfort them. For a Vorcambreum? The chair would lower for their short bodies to sit on it, and then rise for them to face the bartender, a human bartender that wasn’t afraid to speak to extraterrestrials like him.

“Let me top that up for you.” Or offer refills.

“There is no need,” Peiun said to the bartender. “I have to save my credits anyways.”

The Empire was a currency-less society, Hashmedai were given implants that kept track of their standing within the Empire. Those that worked hard had high Imperial standing which allowed them to receive whatever they wished from markets. Underperforming members of Imperial society received lower standings, which limited them to which goods and services they could receive.

Such a system, however, didn’t work in UNE-controlled establishments or Radiance ones for that matter, only credits. Peiun, like other Hashmedai that frequently visited stations like this, took on small side jobs for humans to earn UNE credits, credits which in turn allowed them to conduct business on the station. Credits were also quite handy to use in regions such as the Morutrin system, in which neither, Union, Imperial, or UNE forces had claim over, only pirates, salvagers, and criminal organizations, Radiance exiles, and people that want to disappear from one or more of the three galactic nations.

“This one’s on the house, soldier boy,” the bartender said, pushing him another cold glass of ale.

“Excuse me?”

The bartender simply pointed up to the various holo TVs hanging off the wall playing the news. “There’s a war going on, one everyone that comes in here wants to deny. Take those men over there, for example.”

He directed Peiun’s attention toward a group of large and strong-looking uniformed human males sitting at a round table, exchanging laughs and consuming copious amounts of human-brewed drinks. “Ah, human warriors,” Peiun said.

“Marines,” the bartender corrected him. “But, yes, they make up the core of the UNE ground-based fighting power, and up until a few days ago, I rarely seen Marines in. Same goes for Radiance rangers, and Imperial military folks like you. You boys and girls are fighting to defend the galaxy from the invaders or working long hours to prevent other colonies from falling. This on-the-house beer slushy is my way of saying, thank you.”

Peiun motioned joyfully and drank his newly refilled drink. Its partially icy contents helped lower his body temperature more, making him forget the fact that he was sitting in an establishment with the sweltering room temperatures humans loved.

“I like you, human, what is your name? What do they call you?” Peiun asked.

“Name’s Paul, you?”

“I am Peiun Starblazer, acting captain of the Rezeki’s Rage.”

“Oh, a navy boy, sorry then for confusing you with a soldier,” Paul the bartender said, pointing at Peiun’s chest and arms. “That beastly body of yours led me to believe you swung plasma swords for a living.”

Peiun gazed at the decorations that covered the wall behind Paul as he wiped the bar clean with a towel. The decorations were of human origin, though Peiun had a hard time figuring out their purpose. A half dome object with a round board at the end of it colored blue and white, in particular caught his attention.

“May I ask what those are.” Peiun said, pointing at the decorative items.

Paul smirked and held one of the decorative items in his hands. “This is a Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap.”

“Baseball cap? Explain.”

“Hah, long story,” Paul chuckled. “Toronto was a city that was turned to ash by the Empire many years ago. I used to live there, got lucky and escaped death when I slipped out of town to do some business and visit family right when the invasion started. I collect and gather all things that came out of Toronto before that fateful day.”

Peiun grimaced with shame. “My apologies for what my people did to you,” he said. “It must be hard for you to serve drinks to a man that is part of a military force that killed two billion members of your species.”

“It’s all history now, the Empire has changed, and so has the galaxy,” Paul said. “If we keep holding onto old grudges we’ll never move forward with this new conflict on our hands.”

Peiun nursed his beverage for thirty minutes while watching various human warriors, Marines, depart and arrive amongst Radiance rangers, and the odd Qirak merchant. Foster and Pierce to his delight were among the newly arrived patrons. She took a seat next to Peiun, though judging by her uncomfortable body language, he had a feeling she wasn’t sitting there to speak with him. It was because it was the only free chair next to the bar.

“Ah, Foster, it is a pleasure to see you again,” Peiun said to her.

“I just needed to take the edge off my situation,” she drily spoke, keeping her eyes away from him.

“Indeed, I heard about the new ship you have been assigned,” Peiun said. “You must feel honored.”

“Don’t get many IESA folks here,” Paul said to her after eyeing her uniform. “Can I get you anything?”

“Does Jack Daniel’s still exist in this century?” Foster said.

“You must be a sleepin, and yes, it sure does,” Paul said.

Foster nodded. “Hit me.”

Paul moved to retrieve her requested human beverage as Peiun pondered who or what a ‘Jack Daniel’ was, for it was a rather odd name for a drink. Then he thought about Paul’s last words while giving Foster a long gaze. “You’re a sleepin?” Peiun asked her.

“Did you not figure that out from the forum meetin’?”

“I did not, though I am not fully versed in the details regarding the Abyssal Sword.”

“Well, yeah, I am.”

“As you can see, the galaxy has undergone many changes,” Peiun said as Foster took her newly poured drink and downed a large gulp of it.

“I’m aware of most of them,” she said, pushing her glass away from her lips.

“What is your opinion of things, so far?”

“No offence, but there’s other people you could strike up conversations with,” Foster’s cold reply to Peiun was followed-up with another gulp of her drink. “I ain’t the gal you wanna speak with right now.”

“I understand, I was just attempting to set a better example to you in regard to my people.”

“I know what your people are,” Foster said, facing Peiun for the first time since she sat down. “And the lives they’ve taken.”

“Every human sleepin I’ve met has hatred toward Hashmedai for the invasion of your homeworld hundred years ago.” Peiun did his best to maintain his polite and pleasant voice, though the stories of the Imperial invasion of Earth also made him upset. “But please rest assured that Empress Kroshka has been a major advocate for peace with humans ever since she took the throne. The generations of Hashmedai born during her rule don’t hate humans.”

Foster snorted. “So what? You one of them new generation of Hashmedai?”

“I admit … I was born during the reign of Y’lin—”

“Empress Y’lin.” The name of the former Empress of the Empire made Foster finish her drink. “The bitch that ordered the invasion in the first place?”

Peiun winced. “Yes.”

“You just gave me this whole speech about post-Y’lin Hashmedai being all nice, and now you’re admitting you ain’t part of that group?” Foster’s voice evolved into a more assertive one. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t curse you for killing my papa?”

“I was born after the invasion; I was still a small child when Kroshka took the throne. As such, I spent the rest of my childhood and into adulthood to follow her message of peace and her love for the human race.”

Foster laughed at Peiun and faced the bartender Paul. “You hear this guy?”

Paul shrugged. “He’s not wrong, Hashmedai are some of my better customers.”

Foster made a cringing glare at him. “Get outta here, seriously?”

“They tip, Radiance folks don’t. It’s that simple, darling,” Paul said.

“Sorry, I’m havin’ a hard time imagining a world err … galaxy where what you say is true,” Foster said. “Hashmedai on Earth were the only ones that were known to be comfortable around humans and that was because they were forced to live there. Even then, they tended to get wrapped up with terrorist groups.”

“I’ve been comfortable around humans since I was a child,” Peiun said. “My mother was an assassin; she took a human as an apprentice for a while. He was the first one to work for the Empire in fact.”

Peiun paused briefly, attempting to recall the name of that human. Nothing came to his head as it had been many years since he heard it. I think his name was Jazz, but I’m certain that was a title given to him. Wonder what became of him, mother never spoke of him again after she returned from a mission.

A small group of Rabuabin business men departed the establishment, freeing up a table near the corner. It prompted Foster to settle up with Paul and excuse herself to sit at the newly vacant table. Pierce joined her moments later, while Peiun watched them.

“Better luck next time, Peiun,” Paul said to him.

“For?”

“You have a lot to learn about women, sir, especially human ones.”

Peiun made a face. “Care to let me in on your secret?”

“Telling a story on how you’re not the bad guy isn’t the way to a woman’s heart. You came off like you were begging her to not dislike you.”

“I merely wanted to reiterate who’s the real—”

Peiun’s HNI received an urgent notification, its contents beamed into his head and flashed over his eyes. The notification brought to his attention that an important message was waiting for him aboard the Rezeki’s Rage.

“The real what?” Paul asked.

“Actually, I don’t know. Perhaps you are right.” In truth, he needed to get back to the Rezeki’s Rage as quickly as possible or risk execution if it was a top priority request. Peiun used his credit chit to pay the bill and noted its balance slowly getting lower and made a mental note to look out for odd jobs offered by humans or Qirak as he stormed out of the pub, and into the crowded station atrium.

Peiun stormed onto the bridge of his ship cursing the worst expletives the Hashmedai language had to offer.

The Rezeki’s Rage had been docked at the station long enough for all repairs to be made, and the ship to be sent on its way back to Imperial space. The walk he took past affected areas on his way to the bridge said otherwise. He witnessed only members of his crew diligently working on repairs, crew that should have been resting after the ordeal they went through. It was the duty of the Imperial personnel stationed at the station to restore the ship into working order.

“Why haven’t repairs been completed?!” Peiun furiously demanded.

“Imperial personnel from the station were recalled for other duties,” Alesyna said.

“I can see that, why?”

“The order came from high up, no reason was given,” Alesyna said, shrugging her shoulders. “Perhaps they were only concerned about collecting the substance off the hull to study.”

Even if she was right, the condition the ship was in was still unacceptable given the amount of time that had passed. It looked as if the station’s personnel collected the substance, made minor repairs, then did nothing else before being recalled. They didn’t even patch up the hull breach in the cargo hold! “There’s a message waiting for me, correct?”

“Yes, I received a telepathic message from the Empire,” Alesyna said with a smile. “You are to assume the role of captain as of now, congratulations.”

“Is that so?” The news caused his face to light up with happiness.

“The massive loss of life in the navy has resulted in a lot of personnel moving up the ranks quickly to fill the void.”

“Who authorized it?” It was a critical question.

Now that communications had been restored, an admiral should have contacted him personally with the news, not relay it via a psionic. He was also on the station at the time of the HNI notification, reaching him via the station would have also been a viable option.

Alesyna paused and her face twisted with confusion as her telepathy went to work. “Wait … this can’t be right.”

“Who authorized it, Alesyna?” Peiun reiterated.

“The Empress herself.”

The sounds of the bridge’s computers humming were the only sounds to be heard thereafter. Peiun, Alesyna, and the new replacement bridge crew all stood with troubled glares. Empress Kroshka was a psionic, that wasn’t anything new to those in the Empire or the fact that she never underwent cybernetic augmentation to enhance her powers, like all Hashmedai psionics were required to do by law. It was one of many advantages of being of royalty.

The Empress, however, contacting Alesyna’s mind via telepathy personally made no sense. Why her of all people? If the Empress needed to get ahold of them, she would have asked one of her many psionic servants to do so for her. And most importantly, why would the Empress request his promotion?

“The Empress has more to say,” Alesyna added.

“Put it through,” Peiun finally said, breaking the silence.

Alesyna used her HNI to convert the telepathic thoughts in her head into audio, which played over the bridge’s speakers. Kroshka’s soft and soothing voice played, the same voice Alesyna’s mind had received from across the galaxy. “Captain, I will make this request brief for I know you have much to do.” Peiun chuckled at the statement. The Rezeki’s Rage wasn’t going anywhere in its battered condition. “Rather, you will have much to do very soon. I need you and your ship to report back to Paryo, approach the space bridge when you arrive and await further instructions.”

Or so he thought.

“She has disconnected from my mind,” Alesyna said.

Peiun grimaced. “It would appear we have new orders. Request clearance to depart at once.”

Broken ship or not, if the Empress sends you a direct request like that, you followed it through or be forced to accept one of two fates. Losing your head or living in fear for the rest of your life in lawless systems like Morutrin, hoping an Imperial assassin won’t slit your throat while you slept. Either way, you were bound to die a violent death.

“Yes, sir,” said the newly recruited and young helmsman.

Peiun had Alesyna follow him to a discreet corner of the bridge, away from the ears of the new crew as they sprung to action. “Has the Empress ever contacted you via telepathy?” he asked of her.

“Of course not, this was as much of a shock to me as it was to you,” Alesyna said.

“How was she able to find your mind out of all the psionic ones in this station?”

“She’s had nearly hundred years to grow her mind, perhaps she’s quite adept at filtering out all psionics except for the one she wishes to commune with.”

Peiun had personally encountered droves of trained and cybernetically enhanced psionics who had been around longer than the Empress. They were all unable to reach the minds of other psionics via telepathy who they never met in person or communicated via telepathy with before. Knowing the mind you wished to communicate with and having a general idea as to where in the galaxy they were, were two of the most critical steps to interstellar telepathy. And again, without the cybernetic upgrades or intense training, it only made such a task that much more difficult.

Kroshka should not have been able to speak with Alesyna, unless the two had met and communicated with each other in the past. Alesyna wasn’t telling the truth as far as he was concerned, and, according to Careiah, participated in secret meetings with the former captain and first officer.

Alesyna was keeping something from him, and now she was the first officer who he was to trust implicitly.

38 Williams

Marques Desert

Terra Nova, Sirius A system

August 12, 2118, 13:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams gave his holo pad one last grimacing look at the ‘no signal’ warning that periodically flashed on its display. The Marques Desert, much like New Babylon, was too far away from UNE transmission relays. As such, the four were forced to take a day off from their mysterious discovery to return to the city of Halley to contact Rivera and wait for her arrival, before heading back to the desert and the Hashmedai transport with her.

Williams’ holo pad had flashed seconds before they passed through the wormhole that led back into the desert, notifying him of a newly received message from Foster’s mother. A message he didn’t get the chance to read, let alone download onto the holo pad.

The more he looked at the holo pad and its inability to connect to the network, the more he wished he had taken the time to do that before passing through the wormhole. Worry about it later man, got important stuff to deal with, he thought as he placed the holo pad back into his hiking bag and entered the transport.

Inside, he saw the Carl Sagan’s Chief Engineer, Jasmine Rivera, enter the fourth hour of performing repairs throughout the transport. She utilized tools from the current century and used her knowledge of the Hashmedai language to read what the restored computer screens and holograms outputted.

“Hey, thanks for coming out,” Williams said to her as he entered the cockpit with her.

She smiled at him while wiping away soot that had smeared across her face from a computer that had been burnt badly. “No problem, the salvage team I was assigned to took a break to visit family now that Earth is free of the invaders. I had nothing else better to do.”

“Salvage team?”

“The Carl Sagan’s still afloat in the waters; I and a few other IESA personnel are going through it to recover valuables and to see if it’s possible to recover the deleted ship logs.”

“Any idea what was up with EVE on the Carl Sagan?”

“Not yet, examining the AI core is one of many tasks we haven’t gotten around to yet.”

Williams gazed at the forward flight terminal, now shimmering with working computers and holograms. “How much longer would you say?”

“Should be good to go in a few,” Rivera said as her hands and tools went back to work.

“That was fast.”

“This may be old to the people of the century, but to me?” Rivera said amidst the sound of sparks flaring up and her tools pulsing. “It’s no different than the transports we had on the Carl Sagan … with the exception of one thing.”

“And that is?”

Rivera ended her session with the terminal after confirming it was in working order once again. She guided Williams into the rear cabin where the rest of the group had sat, escaping from the heat and light outside. Several control panels were lined up on the walls covered by a rectangular cover, one of which was yanked off by Rivera. She directed Williams’ attention past the maze of Hashmedai-made wires and computer parts, and onto a device that had been roughly slapped inside. Upon closer examination, the device had English and Chinese words and numbers written across it.

Williams grimaced. “What the hell?”

“That, Commander, is a QEC jury rigged into an Imperial ship,” Rivera said, pointing at the device.

“Meaning what? I heard that term used a lot, but I have no idea what it is.”

“FTL communication, it’s how you were able to reach me on Earth without the eight-year communication delay,” Rivera explained. “Here’s the thing, this is UNE tech, tech they never shared with the Empire or Union outside of building communication relays for the two to use our internet or communicate with someone within the UNE.”

“Then how did this transport get one?”

“I’m still playing catch-up with all the new rules and advancements within the galaxy,” Rivera said as she placed the cover to the panel back on. “But from what I’ve been able to read, pirates in the Morutrin system place high value on tech like this and sell it to the highest bidder, who in turn does mercenary work with it.”

“So, this might have been a merc operation?”

“Most likely, a merc being paid by the Empire. This way, if they get caught, the Empire will just blame it on pirates and mercenaries, washing their hands of any wrongdoing.”

Rivera left Williams to think and ponder over her discovery as she returned to the last remaining systems that needed her attention. Less than an hour later, she called out for everyone to join her in the cockpit.

“So, we good to go?” Williams asked.

Rivera nodded as she read data outputted by the transport’s holo screens. “Shields, life-support, inertia dampers, and main propulsion are online.”

Chang winced as he took a seat in the pilot’s chair. “That’s it?”

“I got to transfer power from everything else to the shields, we’re going to need that the most in case Nereid’s overshield fails,” Rivera said to him.

Chang looked down at the Hashmedai-designed controls. “Just tell me which button does what.”

The transport’s doors slid shut minutes later after Chang got the rundown on the operation of its systems. The blue glowing launching thrusters fired, lifting the newly restored transport into the skies, and scattering the sand below them during their take off. A burst of energy made the transport vanish from existence within the atmosphere of Terra Nova as its sub light engines engaged.

Hashmedai Transport

En route to New Babylon, Sirius A system

August 12, 2118, 16:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The smoldering world of New Babylon appeared in front of the transport during its hour-and-a-half journey, free of incident for the time being. Their approach to the world gave Williams another chance to view its surface from space. He marveled at how some areas of the planet were beautiful almost Earth-like while under protection of the shield domes, as the rest of the landscape outside the domes resembled an environment akin to the surface of Mercury. Not even Mercury, Sirius A is larger, brighter, and hotter than the sun.

Chang adjusted their course heading, sending the transport over to the domed region Bailey called home for the last ten years as he and Nereid guided him to the rocky hellish landscape outside it, where the shooting star had allegedly fallen to the surface.

“What’s our game plan afterwards?” Chang asked Williams. “’Cause you know the UNE will be all over this ship once we finish.”

Williams pulled his drifting body closer to the front of the cockpit amongst its weightless environment. Nereid teleporting them to safety came to mind then left it promptly as he remembered Undine don’t have teleportation psionic powers, at least not from what he saw during her brief time on the Carl Sagan. Flying to a safe area on the planet within its dome barriers wasn’t an option either, as the domes did not iris to allow transports, ships, and people to pass through. The only way to venture into the lush greenery inside the domes was via the wormhole.

“Let’s focus on getting there first, without being intercepted,” Williams said. “If we can’t get past that stage, then we’re finished.”

In truth, Williams never did come up with an exit plan. He was blinded by his desire to learn what was out there and then later the discovery of a derelict Hashmedai transport … one that had a QEC installed.

Maybe Moriston was right … he grumbled. The self-doubt he thought he defeated returned to his head, making him ponder if he really deserved to be promoted to the rank he was. Chang was about to send the transport into their operation, an operation Williams was spearheading and didn’t think ahead for an exit strategy once they were finished. That sort of mind-set was the same as he had during those early days of the Hashmedai invasion of Earth. You didn’t plan what you were going to do later that week, only what you needed to do that minute to get what you wanted. Back in those days, what you wanted was immediate survival.

“Approaching the region now,” Chang said, guiding the transport lower into the harsh region of New Babylon’s surface.

Williams nodded, thankful nobody seemed worried they were, at this point, making things up as they went along. “Any sign of UNE patrols?”

“Got nothing on sensors, but without ESP, this data is out of date,” Chang said.

ESP was another psionic skill Undine like Nereid lacked. Her duty as their shipboard psionic was going to be … an interesting one as she lacked two of the most critical skills, teleportation and ESP. Sensors traveled at the speed of light, ESP was instant within the limited range of the psionic.

“Good enough for me, at least it means nobody is close by right this second,” Williams said as he lowered his drifting body in preparation for gravity to take hold. “Take us down.”

A psionic overshield protected the descending transport while it dipped into the atmosphere less world, allowing the transport’s shields to recover from the punishment Sirius’ energy unleashed upon them and the surface of New Babylon. Nereid remained silent, her mind and body focused on keeping the overshield strong and active, while Chang conducted a search of the rugged landscape that enlarged via the forward windshield. The rest watched in awe.

Volcanoes erupted and released their red-hot molten contents high up before the star-filled skies, forming rivers of lava onto the searing landscape of blazing red rocks, jagged mountains, and valleys with hypnotic heat waves in the backdrop. The purplish hue of the overshield rapidly flickered as the transport hovered and flew two kilometers above the surface, searching for something that shouldn’t be there. Sirius A’s luminous white orb-like glow hung in the horizon and served as a constant reminder of how lucky the Poniga within the many dome barriers were. The fury that star brought to the planet was incredible.

“Not having much luck here, Commander,” Chang said ten minutes into their search. “Wanna take the risk and keep at it?”

Their transport had been active and in flight for nearly two hours. Its aged IFF, by now, should have been detected by someone within the system. UNE ships could very well be arriving at FTL to apprehend them, since from the point of view of the UNE a Hashmedai ship was in direct violation of the protected worlds accord.

It wasn’t an easy choice for Williams to make, especially when considering he never planned ahead to start with.

“I feel it,” Nereid said, breaking her silence and pointed forward. “Over those hills.”

Following Nereid’s psionic guidance, Chang adjusted course and took the transport beyond several large hills not far from the dome they were all in earlier. Williams gave the blue shimmering visage to the left a hard look, noting the greenery inside, the blue rivers, majestic mountains, and fake blue skies and clouds. It was like peering into a snow globe that sat on the cliffsides within the depths of hell, minus the snow effects of course.

Nereid directed Chang to stop and land at the area in question, making Williams wonder exactly what was out there. Nereid, after all, had no ESP gifts, yet she guided them to this location as if she had them. The only conclusion he could draw was that it was psionic in nature and used said psionic energy to work as a beacon.

Guess we’re about to find out what’s up, Williams thought as he got up from his chair. “Nereid, you still good for this?”

She nodded. “Yes, I will be fine.”

Nereid stood next to the transport’s main exit, using her psionic powers to extend the reach of the overshield as the doors opened, giving everyone access to the tormented world outside. Her abilities were quick to filter out the heat and radiation that had been lurking on the surface for years. It drew an impressed look from Rivera while she scanned and read the data that outputted to the holographic screen of her EAD, confirming it was safe for them to exit outside into a protective bubble, conjured by Nereid’s thoughts.

“Wait, you guys are going to step out just like that?” Chang called out to them from the cockpit.

“Shouldn’t be an issue if we’re quick,” Williams said to him.

“Our track record in Sirius isn’t too good,” Chang said. “How many times have we stopped to take a look and ran into trouble?”

Williams retreated to the rear cabin. “Rivera, you said this was a merc ship, right?”

“Probably, or an Imperial one masquerading as one,” she said.

Williams looked up grinning at the overhead storage compartments where weapons and equipment were normally kept. “Last time I checked, mercs liked guns,” Williams said, reaching up and pulling the storage compartment open.

Hashmedai weapons fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Plasma rifles, pistols, and swords of varying sizes made a small pile in front of Williams. He shifted through it handing off pistols or rifles to everyone.

Rivera pushed the rifle he offered her back at him. “I don’t like violence, remember?”

“Yeah, yeah, Zen pacifist stuff, I forgot,” Williams said, and tossed the rifle in the air. Chang shiftily grabbed it as he joined them.

“What’s the game plan?” Chang asked as he powered it on.

Williams stood next to the opened exit of the transport and watched the hellish landscape. “The game plan is the same as our original exit strategy,” Williams said. “Make it up as we go, with guns blazing if necessary.”

Nereid stepped outside first and, with a quick flick of her wrists, forced the psionic bubble to reduce the light levels around her. Sirius A was after all bright enough to instantly blind unprotected human eyes. Williams joined her after tucking a plasma pistol in his pocket. Rivera and Bailey followed, all took care not to distract Nereid too much as she walked forward, keeping the bubble around them. Should her barrier fail because she lost focus, they’d be vaporized by the heat instantly.

Williams grimaced when he looked back at the transport. Blue light traversed around a barrier covering it, meaning its shields were keeping it safe. Nereid’s overshield protection had faded in order for her to maintain the bubble they used to trek across the surface. We need to hurry this up; the transport’s shields won’t last long in this heat.

“Well, there it is,” Nereid said as she stopped in front of a silver-colored metallic sculpture. “What do you think it does?”

Rivera kneeled next to the object, passing her EAD scanner above and around it. The EAD’s results populated its small holographic screen. “Whatever it is, it’s blazing hot, probably not a good idea to touch it until it cools.”

Nereid extended her hand above the object and forced a psionic barrier to appear around it. “The best I can do is shield it and prevent the heat from escaping,” she said, showing visual signs of mental agitation across her face.

“Good enough for me, let’s go,” Williams said.

Nereid took care of bringing the object back as the four went to backtrack to their transport and it’s failing shields, past the uneven hills and rivers of lava flowing. A mesmerizing sight in the skies above them blotted out the sunlight from Sirius, drenching the landscape with darkened levels of light.

Williams looked up. Williams’ jaw dropped.

He hoped the UNE ships would arrive quickly, the opposite of what he was wishing seconds earlier. A majestic vortex appeared high above, red and magenta clouds spewing away from it amongst frightening lights of thunder bolts.

“A storm in space …” Williams said with concern. “Bailey, is this what you and the others saw the night we vanished?”

Bailey nodded having viewed the phenomenon brewing in space above them. “Yes, this is exactly what it looked like.”

Organic ships appeared from the clouds in droves. Alongside the ships were the flapping wings of dragons, seemingly resistant to the heat, radiation, and hostilities of space and the planet they were on as they swooped down, descending to their location. The invaders had arrived.

“Shit! Alright, let’s move, people!”

The dragons were quick to move. They appeared simply as dots amongst the ships that emerged from the clouds, growing in size within a matter of seconds to large reptilian creatures shrieking their cries of oncoming death toward the four that ran back to their transport. The dragons repeatedly collided with Nereid’s barrier like dive-bombing hawks. Dragons that were augmented with cybernetics sent quick pulses of tachyon beams upon them and their transport, and others opened their mouths and allowed waves of plasma to burn from it.

Ignoring the assault from above and the thoughts of what the invader fleet had planned to do with the Sirius system, they ran past the rocks, craters, and such amidst the diving dragons, immune to the hostile environment. A barrage of tachyon beams crashed into the ground, the explosive blast in the aftermath tossed the four to the ground, cooled by Nereid’s gifts, gifts that were quickly fading. Williams pushed himself back up, relieved to see the opened transport door was close, distraught as he saw Nereid panic and attempt to backtrack.

She’d dropped the object, and as long as she continued to look for where it had dropped, their bubble would remain stationary as it only moved with her. If she didn’t board the transport for their escape, then none of them did.

“Nereid, let’s go!” Williams shouted as the circling dragons above prepared their next attack.

Nereid’s attention remained fixed on the fallen object, outside of the reach of her bubble. “But the device—”

“Fuck it, we got to get out of here.”

Nereid remained stationary as did his eyes on the dropped device. Running back to retrieve the object was risky as it would be more time outside, more distractions for Nereid’s mind to deal with, and a greater chance of her bubble shattering. He wanted the object in their possession just as much as she did, after all, it could very well hold the answers to the many questions in regard to their disappearance from Sirius.

Answers they’d never get if they remain outside any longer. Williams tugged on Nereid’s shoulder, pulling her closer to the transport. They had to leave it behind.

The second wave of dive-bombing followed by tachyon blasts, the terrorizing show of chaos that came in the aftermath, saw the four close the last two meters needed to board their idle transport. Rivera and Bailey boarded first, Williams was due to step in next, when he ran into the protective bubble, meaning that Nereid retreated backward, forcing it to move with her.

“What the hell?” Williams spat as he spun to face Nereid and her unexplained action. “Nereid, seriously, we need to get back to the transport—”

Williams caught wind of her reasoning.

The circling dragons above were no longer circling. Rather they stood calmly on the smoldering terrain. A figure walked away from the standing gathering of dragons, a stunning woman suited up in a dragon-inspired armored dress with long, flowing blonde hair. She was armed with a Voelika, just like Nereid and used its power to create a bubble-like barrier around her.

Williams’ voice grew firm as he repeatedly cursed and pleaded for Nereid to return to the transport, words that went unanswered. Nereid moved to retrieve the artifact and then stood gawking at it and the woman with her gathering of dragons. Both parties showed no signs of hostilities toward each other as the mysterious and armored woman rested the palms of her hands upon Nereid’s psionic bubble, causing an oval section of it to glow orange then fade. The mysterious woman entered Nereid’s bubble as if the newly created oval was a doorway. She eyed Williams, forcing his breathing and heartbeat to race, it made him wonder if he was about to experience the last moments of his life.

The woman brought the figure at the end of her Voelika forward, and eyed Nereid next with a stern glare. Nereid bowed before the woman and kissed the figure on her Voelika. Williams winced. “Nereid, what are you doing?”

“Begging for forgiveness,” Nereid said.

“Okay, well, when you’re done with that, can you ask her really nicely if we can go back to the transport with the artifact and not get attacked?” Williams said.

“She needs it,” Nereid said as her hands slowly offered the artifact to the woman.

“So do we, and you know that.”

“Yes, but—”

“I’m not going to pretend I know a lot about your culture and religion, Nereid. But these dragons and this woman? They’re the enemy; they’ve taken the lives of innocents across the galaxy and not long ago were trying to kill us.”

The woman set her Voelika aside in preparation to receive Nereid’s offering to her with both hands.

“It’s not that easy,” Nereid said.

“Yes, it is, tell her to fuck off. Don’t let her manipulate you.”

“Please, Williams, do not make me choose,” Nereid’s voice became apprehensive. “The Goddess will not be pleased with me.”

Williams retrieved his hidden pistol and took aim in the direction of the two. “Don’t make me choose, either.”

The mysterious woman stopped and glared at Williams and the new threat he unexpectedly became.

Nereid made her choice.

The mysterious woman was about to make hers.

Williams made his and pulled the trigger.

Two bolts of plasma shot the artifact from the hands of the mysterious woman. Her voice snarled as a result and then later, her psionic powers. Everything became a blur to Williams afterwards. His body was pushed to the right, then to the ceiling of the bubble, then someplace else. It was most likely by telekinesis powers. His plasma pistol had flung out from his hands when he finally crashed onto the ground, amidst the sounds of multiple Voelikas charging with psionic energy, and Nereid and the mysterious woman having at each other.

Williams pushed his body up and grinned having caught a glimpse of a ship that emerged in the horizon over the mountains, one he didn’t recognize.

He assumed the worst and hoped his death would be quick and painless.

39 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

On approach to Sirius wormhole, Wolf 359 system

August 12, 2118, 16:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster gave the personal computer in her quarters a long glance. The qmail message inbox was devoid of any messages in regard to Williams, other than the approval messages IESA and the UNE government left her, granting her request for him and the rest of the Carl Sagan’s crew to be reinstated and placed back under her command. A message her mother sent, stating that Williams had left with Chang to go on a camping trip was the last message she received from Sirius.

Damn it, Dom, you picked the worst time to be out of range of a relay tower, she thought while shutting the computer off to slip into her uniform.

Foster exited her quarters moments later and smiled at the stars moving outside the ship, visible from the observation windows. It was a splendid feeling, knowing that she was once again back on a ship, in command of it at that, flying toward her next mission, flying to the Sirius system were it all started.

She rode the lift down to the middle deck, musing at the fact that a trip to Sirius via FTL and utilizing connecting UNE-built wormholes, took less than a day, opposed to the seventeen years it took for the Carl Sagan to arrive via sub light directly from Earth. Foster swung into the labs before marching onto the bridge to checkin with Odelea. The two never did get the chance to speak much after their departure from the station to travel to Sirius.

Foster gasped loudly as she entered. The lab was stuffed full of equipment Odelea had brought over to the Kepler … including a containment field chamber that housed one of the so-called Dragon Knights. He didn’t look pleased to be held prisoner as Odelea stood before it, running tests, Foster figured. Tests that Foster was not made aware of.

“Odelea …” Foster groaned as she approached her.

“Greetings, Captain, how are you?” Odelea said, keeping her face buried amongst hovering holo screens.

“I know I said to bring what you need, but …”

Odelea faced Foster, folding her hands before her waist in a prim and proper manner. “I need all of this, and more, but it was the best the Union could do given the limited time.”

Foster gestured to the Dragon Knight as it sat upright, mumbling to itself in its strange language. “You didn’t tell me about that.”

“He will not bring harm to anyone so long as the containment field is active.”

“And when it isn’t?”

“The crew without HNI will be the only ones able to subdue him,” Odelea said. “Furthermore, I had a secondary damping field installed within this lab. Should it escape, its ability to hack HNI will still be neutralized until it leaves the lab itself.”

“You really should have checked with me first about this,” Foster said face-palming.

“He is the sole reason why I have made so much progress toward understanding their people. Without him, I have little else to work with. It is imperative we keep him here.”

The thought of a powerful enemy being held as a POW, prodded and tested on her ship without her consent, annoyed Foster. Their mission, at the end of the day, was to prove to the invaders they weren’t their enemy, what Foster saw before her would convey otherwise. If Sirius hadn’t been a stone’s throw away, she would have ordered the Kepler back to the station to get rid of the Dragon Knight. If Odelea had to go as a result, so be it. A crew member doing things behind Foster’s back had no place on her ship.

“Odelea, I can’t guarantee it’s going to say—”

The Dragon Knight threw itself onto the force field keeping it in place, making direct eye contact with Foster. Its finger pointed at the alien tattoos that dressed Foster’s hands and began to speak to her in its language.

Foster stepped past Odelea, standing directly in front of the field and the vicious and dangerous human-looking alien inside clad with its dragon-like armor. “What in the hell do you want with us?” she asked, not that it would understand.

“With us?” Odelea said, flicking through page after page of holographic notes. “He seems to have taken great interest in you.”

“What is he saying?”

Odelea’s finger slithered down the holographic note written in the Radiance language. “I’m not sure; I will need some time to translate it as none of these words are in my notes.”

Foster nodded and went to take her leave. “Let me know when you’ve found somethin’.”

She arrived on the bridge after walking through the straight corridor. Pierce was awake and sitting at the science officer’s station, a steaming mug of coffee was resting on it. Foster made a mental note to ask him where he got it, there was no coffee maker in her quarters or office, and she sure as hell could have gone for one.

EVE’s faux humanoid hands performed the last adjustments and modifications to the remaining computers on the bridge, allowing for personnel without HNI to use them with ease. All the while, she remotely operated the ship, flying it toward its intended destination of the Sirius system via the wormhole network.

Foster smirked at Tolukei, grateful that Radiance allowed him to return and serve under her command once again, and grateful he was all too pleased to man the shipboard psionic station once again.

“Tolukei, good to see you back in action,” she said, taking her seat in the captain’s chair.

Tolukei rubbed the sides of his neck. “It is … finally good to not have that slave collar on.”

Foster reviewed the ship’s readiness via a holo pad, everything was green. Her qmail inbox, however, remained unchanged, nor were there any other notifications that would have given her better insight as to where they could get ahold of Williams and Chang once they entered the system.

“EVE, any word from the UNE in Sirius?” Foster asked.

“Nothing, Captain, would you like me to try follow-up with them again?”

“Please, I’m gonna need my team back in order to pull this mission off.”

“Contacting UNE command in the Sirius system, please standby,” EVE said, and then replied a second later. “I am unable to establish a connection via the QEC network. Attempting to use other nodes, please standby.” EVE paused briefly, searching for another means of sending a message to Sirius via QEC. “There is no response, Captain, the Sirius network appears to be down.”

“Are you sure it’s Sirius?”

“Yes, Captain, the QEC is only able to establish a communication to a fixed point. The QEC aboard the Kepler, for example, can only communicate with Amicitia Station 14, which in turn must relay the signal to other nodes throughout UNE-controlled space, eventually reaching Sirius.”

QECs were able to send transmissions faster than the speed of light, and so if there was a problem within the network, it shouldn’t take long for an android like EVE to try all possible relays, and conclude which was operating correctly, and which wasn’t.

“Captain, I have also confirmed with Amicitia Station 14 ops that Sirius has indeed gone dark,” EVE added.

Butterflies filled her stomach as worst-case scenarios came into Foster’s head. None of them saw a pretty outcome. They were unable to contact Sirius, and no new messages were received from Williams. The system, as far as she was concerned, just got consumed by the fog of war. A fog that rendered the fate of her team there, unknown, along with her mother.

“Do you think it’s the invaders?” Pierce said.

“I’m hopin’ someone just spilled some coffee all over the communication equipment,” Foster said as cold sweating ensued.

“We are minutes away from the wormhole, Captain,” EVE said. “Do you wish to change course?”

“Might be a wise choice,” Tolukei said. “Allow your military to investigate first, and determine if it’s safe for us to venture in.”

“EVE, is the UNE aware of the situation?” Foster said.

“All UNE vessels stationed in the Sirius system have their QECs linked with the system’s central QEC relay,” EVE explained. “If said relay is down, those ships will be unable to signal for help during an invader strike, only their psionics. With that said, there is no mention of a telepathic SOS anywhere within UNE communications channels. Please bear in mind if the ships in Sirius are engaged in combat, shipboard psionics will be overtasked with their duties to send an interstellar telepathic message. Nearby UNE ships are preparing to investigate, however.”

“How long would it take for them to arrive?”

“Most ships have been redeployed to Earth in the aftermath of the invader’s attack,” EVE said. “A fleet leaving now would arrive in Sirius in approximately twelve hours.”

“Twelve hours … and we’s minutes away,” Foster said, and watched as the enormous space wormhole built for ships increased in size via the view screen.

“Not to mention the fastest ship,” Pierce added.

Foster made her decision. “Stay on course, EVE.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“Let Saressea know we’s might be headin’ for a bumpy ride.”

The Johannes Kepler crossed through the wormhole, hurling it out of the Wolf 359 system, into the Sirius system. Ship wide sensors failed to pick up anything out of the ordinary at first. Tolukei’s ESP, however, guided them to a disturbance within the system. One that existed just below a debris field that was once a space station and the home of the Sirius primary QEC relay. As Foster feared, every single UNE ship was engaged in combat, with its largest concentration of ships fighting before the clouds of the maelstrom, which appeared in orbit around New Babylon, the Poniga homeworld.

The light emitted from the maelstrom shined a dark reddish hue onto the bridge and its crew as they approached it and the battling UNE ships in opposition of invader ships at high FTL speeds.

“It’s the same fleet we encountered, isn’t it?” Pierce said.

Foster nodded. “It’s just one maelstrom, thankfully.”

“So, a one-sided battle?”

She recalled the Carl Sagan’s last moments in space, back when the invaders first arrived in Sol and obliterated half of the UNE fleet stationed there. It was just one invader fleet, pitted against multiple Earth fleets. Sirius, as expected, was going to have smaller numbers to defend it, now more so than ever as other fleets were recalled to fortify the defense of Earth. And the nearest fleet is twelve hours away? There’s no way they’ll hold out that long without backup.

The only saving grace that could be seen was the fact that the wormhole hadn’t been annexed like the one in Kapteyn’s Star. Civilians on Terra Nova could flee on transports, though their window of opportunity to do so was closing with each second. The lack of evacuation transports on the sensors didn’t help put her mind at ease, nor the small group of invader capital ships en route to Terra Nova according to Tolukei. If Terra Nova and New Babylon fell, so did the other worlds within the system.

And if Karma was truly the bitch it always was, Foster stood to lose her mother for eternity since her previous actions resulted in Chevallier losing hers.

“Where do we begin?” Pierce said.

“We ain’t got no idea where Williams and Chang are right now,” Foster said.

“But if they’s still on the planet, then we’s gotta buy ‘em enough time to escape. Take us to the fight, EVE; let’s give the UNE a hand.”

“Understood, Captain.”

The Kepler pushed through space at its high FTL speeds, nearing the clouds of the maelstrom and the scorched world of New Babylon. The shields of UNE battleships sparkled in unison with the thunderbolts coming from the clouds. Foster felt the tattoos across her body react and glow brighter the closer they approached the battle and the maelstrom that fed more and more invader ships into the system.

“Captain, I sense there’s activity on the surface,” Tolukei said.

Foster looked at the hot volcanic planet adorned with blue domes that housed the indigenous population. “Well, it is the Poniga homeworld …” she said drily.

“I mean beyond the domes that houses their people,” Tolukei said. “I sense a transport … and psionic activity.”

Tolukei sent a holographic overlay from his station over to the view screen, highlighting a region of the surface of the planet that was just below the source of the maelstrom, opposite of them. Foster faced EVE. “What do you got?”

“Nothing at the moment, Captain, please be aware the navigation point Tolukei has provided us is on the direct opposite side of the planet, our scans will not be able to get a clear reading from our current position.”

“And that side of the planet is where the action is, we’d have a decent fight on the way down to find it,” Foster said. “EVE, I know the ‘V’ in your name stands for versatile, but are you adept enough to fly this across the surface of the planet to the navigation point?”

“Standby,” EVE said as her face twitched briefly. “Yes, Captain, I am now able to do so. Do you wish for us to descend?”

“Yes, EVE, take us down now when ready.”

The Johannes Kepler appeared in orbit around New Babylon as it exited from FTL and dove down toward the surface of the planet, utilizing its ability and small size for atmosphere flight—or lack of it in the case of New Babylon. Numerous domes of the planet’s surface passed below the low-flying Johannes Kepler on its course to the navigation point at the opposite end of the planet experiencing daylight and the storms of the maelstrom.

“Wait …” Foster said slowly to EVE. “What do you mean, now?”

“To complete your request, Captain, I needed to download and install an update,” EVE said with her hands behind her back, remotely operating the Johannes Kepler. “It is now part of my programming; I have general knowledge of operation of this ship while flying near the surface of a planet.”

Leaving flight of a ship in the hands of an AI was one thing, leaving it in the hands of one that had to download and install an update in order to do it made Foster’s face grow stiff with worry, the same kind of worry both Pierce and Tolukei possessed as they learned of the risky situation they were in.

“Err … so what you’re saying is, this is your first time?” Foster asked EVE.

“That is correct, Captain, the tasks I have performed since my activation have been limited to modifying computer hardware, data analysis, assisting in engineering, and preparing citrus tea for Saressea before she goes to sleep.”

“So, you’ve never done this before,” Pierce said to confirm what he overheard. “And you needed to download an update on how to pull it off in the first place.”

“That is correct, Doctor Pierce,” EVE said to him. “This will be an interesting experience as the software update is still in its beta testing stage.”

“Tolukei, you got the overshields active, right?” Foster hastily asked him.

“Yes, Captain, we are prepared for combat,” Tolukei said.

“Combat is the least of my worries right now.”

The maelstrom appeared over the horizon, eclipsing the sunlight from Sirius while the Johannes Kepler closed the distance between it and the navigation point. Foster eyed one of the domes off to the side as they flew past it. It brought back memories of a time she and her team had been trapped inside one, trying to get out to regroup with the Carl Sagan.

“Nereid …” Tolukei blurted out. “I feel her mind down here; she must be the one in the transport.”

When Foster last checked, Nereid was on her way to be deported to her homeworld of Meroien elsewhere within the Sirius system. “Are you sure?” Foster asked Tolukei.

“Yes, I have spent many hours training her mind, this is her, and she is in distress.” Tolukei updated the holographic navigation point on the view screen. “She is beyond those hills, we must hurry.”

EVE’s ability to remotely fly the ship brought them to hover above the hills in question. The view screen switched to a view directly below them, via its external cameras. Wyverns hovered around a transport, a transport of Hashmedai design from what Foster could tell, and from what EVE’s scans revealed. In between the two was a glowing psionic protective dome with two or three figures inside, it was hard to tell with the colorful rippling effect and their distance. The wyverns tilted their heads up at the Johannes Kepler, as it idled above them. Their wings began to flap, their jaws lowered, most likely to roar as they took to the skies.

“EVE, do you have to download and install an update to teach you how to engage in combat with this ship?” Foster asked.

“No, Captain, that has been preloaded into my matrix,” EVE said.

Foster grinned. “Then let’s push ‘em away.”

The wyverns swarmed the Johannes Kepler from all angles, unleashing a relentless barrage of tachyon beams from those fitted with cybernetics, waves of plasma breath attacks, or kamikaze dive-bombs, all of which caused Tolukei’s psionic overshield to ripple rapidly. EVE acquired targets quickly with her quantum computing and released a steady burst of slugs from the two forward rail guns.

The wyverns that got hit exploded with bloody results when high velocity rounds traveling at near-light speeds shredded their bodies. Tolukei assisted in the battle by using his telekinetic mind to control the rapidly fired slugs, forcing the shots that missed to turn around, come back and try again to hit their target. Wyverns that got too close to the Johannes Kepler, either intentionally due to a dive-bomb attempt or accident, were flicked away by Tolukei’s thoughts.

The skies became clear of all wyverns after the Johannes Kepler made its third and final circle around the action zone, leaving behind mangled wings, bullet-ridden bodies of wyverns, and chunks of their flesh and blood painting the flaming hellish lands below.

“All hostile forces have been eliminated, Captain,” EVE said.

Foster felt like cheering but knew the battle was far from over. There was still a fleet of invader ships directly above in orbit, more than capable of sending more wyverns down, and more than capable of directing their tachyon cannons to the surface to finish the job.

They needed to act quickly.

“Set us down someplace safe,” Foster directed EVE.

“Searching for suitable landing space now.”

It took EVE’s processors four seconds to scan the landscape and locate a suitable landing area for the Johannes Kepler, one that would keep it close to the Hashmedai transport and the psionic barrier outside of it, where Nereid supposedly was. Landing thrusters outside the Johannes Kepler fired, allowing the ship to quickly, but safely, come to a landing eight meters away from the transport. Its landing gear deployed and worked as legs to keep the ship steady when it touched down on the burning and radioactive surface.

The forward view screen updated, zooming in on the transport. Its main doors had opened, and Foster saw what looked like Nereid using a psionic bubble to protect four other personnel, two of those personnel needed to be carried.

Foster leaped out of her chair and headed for the bridge’s exit. “Let’s give ‘em a hand. EVE, have Doctor Kostelecky meet me in the cargo hold.”

The entry ramp of the Johannes Kepler lowered, its shield and overshield prepared to iris and allow the fleeing five to escape danger in the form of invader reinforcements from the skies above, Foster guessed. Though their panicked faces suggested something else was out there lurking. Foster charged into the cargo hold while Kostelecky stood behind her with medical instruments in hand as the epic rescue unfolded.

The three running bodies, carrying the bodies of two others, ran past the two layers of shields outside the ship and marched up the ramp. Nereid, Chang, and Chef Bailey? Foster had to give him a double take, but it looked like him, rugged and dressed like a monk, but it was him. Williams and Rivera were the two that needed to be carried in. Their bodies dropped onto the floor unresponsive, though Williams made a subtle grunt while he went to crawl back to his feet. How, and why, they all ended up together outside the barrier domes of the planet, was a question to be asked later.

“Becca,” Williams said to Foster, huffing and puffing. “We got to get out of here, now.”

“Gonna be getting ready for takeoff in a few, what’s wrong?—”

Everything became a chaotic mess, interrupting Foster in the process. The still-open entrance to the ship and lowered entry ramp became a liability. Blue ribbons of psionic light danced past her into the cargo hold materializing the femme fatale figure of the Dragon Maiden, armed with her glowing Voelika.

Foster took one step toward their intruder and paid the price with a bash across her face from its staff weapon. She assumed everyone else inside suffered the same fate, if not worse, when she heard a torrent of violent thumps and cargo boxes hurl through the air, no doubt by a telekinetic mind.

Foster’s head spun around as she came to, and her wrist wiped a trickle of blood that dripped from her nose. The bodies of everyone she had stood with seconds earlier were on the floor, slumped up against the wall, or on top of a cargo crate. The Dragon Maiden stood up top of the second-level balcony within the cargo hold, irritating Foster’s ears with heckling laughter, and then retreated into the nearby corridor.

Foster ascended up the ladder to the upper deck and charged after her.

There was no time to call for help, not without a working intercom, which EVE hadn’t gotten around to installing. Whatever the Dragon Maiden had planned to do, it involved the deck the two were on as it pushed deeper and deeper toward the rear end of the ship via the corridors. Odelea was still in her lab, Saressea was in engineering. They were both at risk and they both had HNI.

The Dragon Maiden forced open the doors of the lab with its mind. Odelea was its target, Odelea who had been studying the captured Dragon Knight. Odelea was seconds away from experiencing its wrath once it saw what she had done.

Foster charged into the lab tackling the armored Dragon Maiden from behind, plowing their bodies to the floor. She heard it growl and curse in its language seconds before it leaped to its feet with haste, haste that was greater than Foster’s.

Foster made her second strike against the intruder, ramming her fists across its armored face. It hurt Foster a lot more than it hurt the Dragon Maiden, but she refused to give up. Punches and kicks were dished out by Foster, none of which seemed to have any effect. The Dragon Maiden used its Voelika to deflect Foster’s second and third wave of hand-to-hand attacks, then used it to sweep her legs out when she went for another kick.

Foster saw the ceiling as her head hit the floor, and admired how slick its design was, including its lighting fixtures, there wasn’t a single pipe in sight—

In came the Dragon Maiden with its raised Voelika, blocking out the imagery of the ceiling, ready to bludgeon Foster’s face. She rolled her body away from the blow and cringed at the loud thump the weapon made as it crashed into the floor where her face had just been. A psionic pull ended Foster’s dramatic escape, yanking her body to stand before the Dragon Maiden, a body that was sent spiraling back to the ground with a right hook delivered via the end of the Voelika. That end being the part of the staff that was decorated with a solid figure of a dragon, the pointy corners from the figure sent painful stinging pains into Foster’s head.

Foster’s vision became distorted. She crawled across the floor, hoping it was taking her away from the armored vixen behind her. She heard its footsteps clang behind, it wasn’t done with her.

It stood behind her, or was it to the side? Foster’s spinning head couldn’t tell. Foster heard the Dragon Maiden raise its weapon upward. She heard strange sounds and then felt the weight of an unwanted and heavy object crash onto her.

Foster’s vision faded away. A small pool of blood formed next to her body.

40 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Paryo orbit, Uemaesce system

August 12, 2118, 17:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

There were four space wormholes close to Amicitia Station 14. One led into UNE space, another, and most controversial one, led to the Morutrin system, another led to Aervounis, the capital of Radiance, while the last took travelers, such as the Rezeki’s Rage, through it into the Uemaesce system, the location of Paryo and the capital of the Empire.

The Rezeki’s Rage, as instructed by its Empress, entered orbit around the frozen homeworld of the Hashmedai race. Several of its major cities were blackened and bore the scars of war from the recent invader attacks. Such devastation was something the Hashmedai people worked tirelessly over the centuries to prevent Radiance and the UNE from having the satisfaction of doing. If only we knew of the invader’s existence beforehand … Peiun’s thoughts echoed as he watched his wounded homeworld rotate on the view screen.

One of the many space bridges in high orbit around Paryo appeared over the horizon. They were moderately sized and staffed space stations outfitted with the Empire’s most advanced psionic amplification technology. The Rezeki’s Rage made its approach past spinning hulks of ships that were once part of the mighty Imperial fleet, coming to a full stop ahead of the designated space bridge as swarms of medical transports slipped past the battered frigate.

Whatever the Empress has planned for us, it better be a simple task. This ship can’t take much more. “We’re here, what does she want?” Peiun bellowed.

“I’m in contact with her now,” Alesyna said.

“Let’s hear it.”

“There’s no need,” Alesyna said with a worrying glance at him. “She has asked me to pass on one request, use this space bridge to enter the Sirius system and—”

“Sirius …” Peiun interjected. The name of that system keeps coming up, what is so important about it now? “That’s human-controlled space, what could she possibly want there?”

“It would not be the first time we entered human space uninvited,” Alesyna said.

“And I have a feeling it will be the last, humans can detect space bridge jumps,” Peiun said, reclining back on his chair.

“There’s more, Captain,” Alesyna added. “She has provided me coordinates of a planet within that system, and we are to go alone without the aid of a command ship as we do have an MRF installed.”

“An MRF that is damaged like the rest of this crumbling vessel.”

“The MRF has been fully restored, sir,” Alesyna said. “Thanks to the station’s crew.”

“The stations crew …” Peiun said, facing Alesyna, quickly realizing the real goal of the station’s repair crew. “I get it now, they didn’t complete repairs because they were focused on collecting the substance off the hull AND repairing the MRF.”

What Peiun didn’t get, was why he only now learnt of this and how did Alesyna suddenly know about it. She seemed clueless like him as to what the station’s repair crew had been up to. Keeping the repairs of the MRF a secret he could understand, as EISS made relentless attempts in the past to sabotage Imperial-made copies of the device and the ships that had it successfully installed. MRF was stolen human technology after all and the Rezeki’s Rage was docked at a station constructed, operated, and located in UNE space. Even his HNI didn’t show any reports of the MRF being repaired in the ship’s logs, or its existence within the list of all ship systems and installed devices.

None of that, however, explained Alesyna’s motives for keeping that information from him. If she was concerned about an EISS spy aboard, she could have informed him in private, they had more than enough time to do so while they waited for clearance to leave the station.

“Alesyna, how long have you known about the MRF being operational?” Peiun asked.

Alesyna’s snickered. “Perhaps we should follow the direct orders of the Empress before she adds our heads to her collection of those that defied the Empire?”

He shot her a grin, and she shot one back and returned to direct the bridge’s crew. Alesyna wasn’t going to give up the answers he sought, at least, not right now. He recorded the newly discovered clues in his personal logs, saving them with his HNI. Perhaps Careiah was right about what she witnessed. I’ll have to keep her a lot closer going forward.

“Contact the space bridge and inform them that we wish to travel to the Sirius system.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Activate our newly repaired tool.”

The Rezeki’s Rage’s mass altered as the MRF activated and it approached the space bridge. The team of psionics serving aboard the space bridge used the full power of their minds in conjunction with the space bridge itself to teleport the Rezeki’s Rage away from existence. The Rezeki’s Rage and crew was psionically rebuilt atom by atom in its desired location, the Sirius system.

Such a process with a ship as large and massive as the Rezeki’s Rage, would have taken years. With its mass reduced, however, the process had been reduced to a mere hour. A surge of psionic power erupted in space bringing the Rezeki’s Rage back into existence and accelerating within the heart of the Sirius system toward the coordinates provided.

New Babylon.

And it was under siege by the invader fleet as their organic ships and dragons swarmed out from the vortex of the maelstrom, delivering punishing strikes against the small UNE fleet and it’s failing defensive formation around the planet.

“The invaders …” Peiun said, standing up from his chair, looking intently at the view screen.

“The Empress must have sent us here to help the humans,” Alesyna said.

“If that were the case she would have ordered an entire fleet,” Peiun said, getting a grip on his raging thoughts. “Not a single damaged frigate.”

Peiun ordered for the ship to come to a full stop, not that it did much. Their space bridge jump delivered them right into combat. Their shields took seven direct tachyon hits once their presence registered with the invader ships.

Peiun sat back down and watched beams of tachyons race back and forth across the view screen. “What can you sense about the coordinates?”

“A transport,” Alesyna said as her eyes shut to focus and enter a quick ESP trance. “It’s … one of ours, an older model, but Hashmedai none the less. There’s a human ship on approach to it.”

“On screen—” Peiun paused to reflect on his previous talk with Careiah, remembering the previous captain’s fascination with transports. Older models at that.

He shook the thoughts away for the time being and gazed at the new image that appeared on the viewer, showing what existed directly below their ship. A top-down view of the volcanic surface of the UNE protected world where the transport Alesyna sensed had landed. Another ship had landed next to it. The view screen’s magnification shifted to its maximum setting giving them a closer view of the area.

Peiun smirked at the sight of the human ship next to the transport. “It’s the new ship Foster has been given.”

What Foster and her newly commissioned ship was doing on the surface of such an inhospitable world, next to the transport no less, was another question to be asked. Along with how the Empress knew of the transport’s existence in the first place.

Two direct tachyon hits to the aft and port sides of the Rezeki’s Rage made it clear that Peiun’s objectives would have to wait a moment longer.

“There’s nothing we can do to complete our mission so long as these invaders are here,” Peiun said. “Let’s assist the human fleet.”

The young and eager bridge carried out Peiun’s orders. The Rezeki’s Rage jumped into the heat of the battle while still under the effects of the MRF. Altered mass gave the Hashmedai anti-capital ship frigate increased speeds and maneuverability. It opened the option for Alesyna to further assist by sending slight telekinetic pushes against the hull of the Rezeki’s Rage to evade incoming enemy fire should she predict it. Her psionic powers also supported in their ability to dive up or below UNE ships that were in the way, striking the invader ships that lurked in the distance.

The flesh of the alien organic ships singed and melted as the gap between the Rezeki’s Rage and invader capital ships closed with a torrent of plasma fire from its forward cannons. Dragons were vaporized instantly, reducing the numbers that were meant to assault the planet’s surface. A burning UNE battleship was saved from what was supposed to be its end when the Rezeki’s Rage with its full overshields came about and soaked up the tachyon barrage that was meant to end the crippled human ship. Green orbs of plasma shone their light against the reflective hulls of the UNE ships when they glittered away from the Rezeki’s Rage and delivered destructive blasts that sent targeted invader ships adrift.

The Rezeki’s Rage efforts, as valiant as they were, weren’t enough. Its performance was still lacking due to the minimal repairs it had received, and it would only be a matter of time before Alesyna’s psionic powers grew tired. The true strength of the Rezeki’s Rage, or lack of it, was staged to become unmasked. The Hashmedai crew and their predatorial hunting instincts did nothing but buy the humans extra time to stay in the fight longer. A fight that would sway in the favor of the invaders one way or another if the six obliterated UNE vessels and hundreds of escape pods adrift were an indication.

The invaders relied on their numbers and fire power, something Rezeki’s Rage and the shrinking human fleet did not have. Peiun mused at the thought while his HNI brought up a tactical overlay of the system.

He then remembered the invader’s fleet one weakness.

“Alesyna, find the charybdis ship with your mind,” Peiun said.

“At once, Captain.”

Peiun’s quick review of the tactical overlay showed that the charybdis vessel was nowhere near the invader fleet, the maelstrom, or the planet. No new invader ships came through the maelstrom since their arrival, ruling out that the charybdis was still inside. But at the same time the invaders needed that ship close by to guide them back through the maelstrom when the time came. It was in the system somewhere, hiding from the fiery battle in orbit of New Babylon.

“Found it,” Alesyna said as she updated their tactical data with the results from her ESP scan.

Peiun’s HNI pulled the newly acquired data, updating the holographic map of the system that appeared over his eyesight. The charybdis ship was found under escort by three invader capital ships and hundreds of dragons flying in a defensive convoy formation. A straight line extended outward and predicted the estimated trajectory of the newly discovered convoy. It was on a direct course to the human colony known as Terra Nova. Said convoy was not under attack by any UNE ships, of course not, the convoy was in the process of plowing through a newly created debris field from the remains of UNE vessels.

“Ignore everything else,” Peiun said. “Take us to the charybdis and destroy it at all costs.”

This wasn’t going to be a battle that would be won by military might and firepower. This was a fight to force the enemy into submission, and the eminent destruction of the charybdis would deliver those results. The invaders fled the battle at Paryo when Rezeki’s Rage ended one of their charybdis, and they’d do it again once they end this one or, at least, severely damage it.

At least that’s what Peiun’s hope was. The Rezeki’s Rage pulled away from the turbulent orbital battle and entered sub light speeds on a direct course to the small invader convoy. He eyed the estimated time of arrival that counted via his HNI and hoped that the debris field in front of its convoy slowed it down long enough for them to catch up.

May the Empress forgive us if this plan fails.

41 Odelea

XSV Johannes Kepler

Smoldering wastelands, New Babylon, Sirius A system

August 12, 2118, 17:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea’s hands didn’t tremble.

Not even when she aimed the magnetic pistol at the Dragon Maiden and shot it four times.

The same pistol she hesitated to use in the past became the weapon that saved Captain Foster’s life. Odelea looked down at Foster’s unmoving body, unsure of what her condition was, though the tattoos on her hands still shined their luminous blue color. Next to Foster’s body limped the Dragon Maiden, holding her gut that bled and pooled next to Foster, having dropped its staff weapon on her as a result. The Dragon Maiden’s blood-soaked arms were visible thanks to the destructive power of the magnetic pistol shattering a segment of its armor, and with that came the shocking discovery of what lay beneath.

Blue glowing tattoos. The skin of the Dragon Maiden and Foster were nearly identical.

Odelea continued to aim the pistol at the Dragon Maiden, as newfound confidence gushed through her body, fueled by the knowledge that the Dragon Maiden was unable to use its HNI hacking ability while the extended damping field covered the entire lab. The field evidently had the adverse effect of limiting the Dragon Maiden’s psionic powers from what Odelea had witnessed when she had hidden in the corner during Foster and the Maiden’s fight.

The Dragon Maiden gave Odelea a defiant glare and she slowly backpedaled in a lame manner. Its blood-drenched and fractured armored body shifted next to the containment field where its male partner had been confined to.

Odelea pulled the trigger once again.

A warning shot put a sizeable hole into the floor next to where the Dragon Maiden stood.

“Why are you here?” Odelea said, speaking in the strange alien language the invaders used.

The Dragon Maiden’s face looked and smiled at Odelea from its cracked dragon-head-shaped helmet. “You speak our tongue?” it replied back in its language.

“I have been studying your language, though I admit this is the first conversation,” Odelea said. “Your friend has not been very talkative.”

“He is my brother, and you have caged him like an animal.”

“Your brother is a threat to the survival of my people … of all the people in this galaxy.”

The Dragon Maiden snorted in an arrogant manner as its hypnotizing emerald eyes shifted onto Odelea’s pistol. “Aryile, female, herbivore species, close to the bottom of the food chain on the world they evolved from.” She paused to spit a glob of blood at Odelea. “Aggressive tendencies are not a natural evolutionary trait of your species, fleeing from danger is. I am not afraid of the inferior weapon you wield, or the natural desires to flee you are trying to repress.”

“The Hashmedai and the other species we share our nation with has taught the Aryile the importance of self-defense and military might.”

“Aryile, Javnis, Rabuabin, Vorcambreum, Linl, Hashmedai … humans. You are all thieves; you have all taken what rightfully belongs to us.” The glowing tattooed arm of the Dragon Maiden pointed at Foster’s unmoving body. “She being the worst of you all; a traitor and a thief.”

“What have we stolen? Explain it all to me so that we may negotiate peace.”

“Peace?” The Dragon Maiden looked surprised at Odelea’s words.

“We do not have to be enemies,” Odelea pleaded. “We can work together to better one another. But we cannot get to that stage if we do not understand exactly how we have wronged you.”

“Look at your worlds, look at your technology, look at the sheer number of your pitiful beings that offer no thanks to the one that made it happen. Hand all of that over, all of which you stole, and repent the actions of Marduk.”

Odelea’s face became distraught while lost in thought and lowered the pistol. “Marduk …” she murmured.

“Can you make that request happen?” The Dragon Maiden said calmly.

“I cannot this very moment; it is not that easy.”

The Dragon Maiden growled at her. “Then there shall be no peace!”

The Dragon Maiden briskly placed her hand upon the computer terminal connected to the containment field and reminded Odelea that it still had minimal access to its psionic powers. The computer exploded, erupting into flames and sparks, sending an electrical short that disabled the force field, freeing the captured Dragon Knight.

Odelea’s pistol returned to action, blazing at not one, but two targets. None of her bullets hit, her unfocused skittish mind worked against her. The Dragon Maiden and Knight duo laughed as they assaulted Odelea, knocking her to the floor next to Foster, kicking away her pistol, amidst her screams and cries of terror.

Odelea tried to get away, the pain that rushed forward into her body served as a deterrent, forcing her to crawl and flail her panic-stricken arms and legs to get to safety. The blood from the Dragon Maiden on the floor caused her to slip and splash into it. The boot of the Dragon Knight rolled Odelea on her back as he held a Voelika high up in preparation to finish her, and probably Foster, off.

The tattooed hand of the Dragon Maiden held onto his arm. “Let her experience what her species is good for,” The Dragon Maiden said to him. “Cowering from predators.”

The Dragon Knight lowered his weapon and spoke harshly at Odelea. “We are not finished Aryile.”

The duo marched out of the labs as the fear Odelea tried so desperately to hold back returned. The fear forced her to curl up on the blood-soaked floor and watch helplessly while the two left the confines of the labs dampening field. Their abilities returned, adding to Odelea’s fear, for she knew if she were to step out of the lab now her HNI would become compromised, while the full extent of their psionic gifts would be made available.

The thought of retrieving the pistol didn’t even come close to gracing her thoughts.

The Dragon Maiden and Knight stood at the open door to the lab. They gave Odelea one last fleeting look before their combined psionic powers illuminated their bodies, bathing it with luminous bright blue light that slowly made their existence diminish away from the ship.

“Tiamat is eternal!” Were their parting words to Odelea before teleporting away.

42 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Smoldering wastelands, New Babylon, Sirius A system

August 12, 2118, 18:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Foster’s senses gradually returned to her, starting with her ability to hear, namely the sound of the heartbeat monitor next to her. Then came her ability to feel, like the medical bed she found herself resting on … and the pain in her head. Sight was last when she finally mustered enough energy to sit up and open her eyes.

She was in sickbay aboard the Kepler along with Williams, Rivera, and Odelea who rested on medical beds adjacent to her while Doctor Kostelecky examined her wounds with a medical scanner. That’s when Foster remembered the situation they were in, and hoped she wasn’t out cold for long.

“Aw, hell,” Foster groaned.

Kostelecky returned back to Foster. “Easy there, Captain.”

Foster sat at the side of the bed. “Kostelecky, how long was I out?”

“About five minutes.”

Foster looked at Williams and Rivera whom both sat at the edge of their medical beds. “What happened to you two?”

“The same thing that happened to you,” Williams snickered with a grin. “How’s it looking, Doc—Doctor?”

“You’re a big boy, you’ll be fine,” Kostelecky said to Williams, waving her medical scanner over Foster’s wounds. “As for you, Rivera—”

“I fainted,” Rivera said, leaping off the bed.

Williams’ mouth twisted. “You fainted? That doesn’t sound like something you’d do.”

“I thought we lost you two to that woman,” Rivera said to him.

That woman … The Dragon Maiden, right, she boarded the ship. “What happened to our intruder?” Foster asked.

“Gone,” Odelea said, sitting up as well. “Along with my specimen.”

Foster sighed in a dejected manner facing Odelea. “Remember when I said it was a bad idea to bring him along?”

“I’m sorry,” Odelea said. “I didn’t know the second would be here.”

Foster examined her hands and arms, noting her tattoos still glowed. The maelstrom and Dragon Knights were still in the area. Sitting in sickbay was not the place she needed to be. She leaped off the medical bed, the built-in scanners within it ceased to monitor her vital signs as she stormed over to the glass sliding door.

“Wait, I’d like to keep you in observation for another hour,” Kostelecky called out to Foster.

“In another hour we’ll all be dead,” Foster said. “Dom, with me, Rivera, get to engineering and have Saressea give you a quick rundown.”

Foster debated in her head amongst the ringing noises that wouldn’t stop as to what she should do with Odelea. Her antics, as she feared, put the entire ship in danger, during their first mission at that, and possibly the last thanks to the delay they experienced. She cast thoughts aside for the time being, it only amplified the pain in her head.

Foster and Williams arrived at the bridge and made a half smile when they saw Chang and Nereid waste no time doing what they could to assist and learn of the new functions the Kepler had to offer.

Foster took her seat in the captain’s chair. “Chang, you think you can fly this?”

Chang sat at the helm giving its terminal, controls, holograms, and screens a long stare down. “Shouldn’t be an issue, EVE filled me in on the new stuff.”

“Good enough for me,” Foster said. “Get us back into the fight!”

Chang returned to his old duties as if he was aboard the Carl Sagan, and input commands that prepared the Kepler to initiate its launch sequence, as its entry ramp lifted up, closed and sealed shut.

“It handles like a fighter,” Chang said as the landscape seen from the viewer lowered out of sight, replaced by the stars of space, and the raging maelstrom in orbit. “I might be better at the helm of this than the Carl Sagan.”

The Johannes Kepler broke away from the gravitational pull of New Babylon, rushing into the fray that had been brewing in orbit since their arrival. Burning remains of UNE ships that weren’t so lucky drifted past them, invader ships half vaporized by nuclear missiles did the same. Chang’s skill guided them past the carnage, zigzagging away from the scattered remains of ships from both sides. The Johannes Kepler soared towards the remaining UNE ships that still held their ground sending steady streams of particle cannon fire onto fleeing invader ships.

“Looks like they’re retreating,” Williams said, eyeing the tactical holograms at a vacant station.

“Your assumption is correct,” EVE said. “A Hashmedai plasma frigate unexpectedly entered the system and began to assault the invader ships.”

Foster’s eyebrow rose. “Is that so?”

EVE gave Chang the location of the Hashmedai ship mentioned. The view screen updated giving them the closest possible zoom of a lone Hashmedai destroyer, flying elegant circles around three invader ships, multiple wyverns, and an invader charybdis within the center.

“The Rezeki’s Rage …” Foster said with a grimacing glare. “Peiun, you fool.”

“The actions of that ship have forced the bulk of the invaders to retreat to the anomaly they arrived from,” EVE said. “Furthermore, it would appear their actions have resulted in deterring that invader group from carrying out an assault on Terra Nova.”

The Rezeki’s Rage’s plasma cannon fire focused heavily on the charybdis ship with each pass it made. Foster was impressed that such a large ship like that was able to perform the dives and twirls it was able to do, it was no doubt the reason it had lasted as long as it did solo.

“He’s tryin’ to destroy the charybdis. Without it, this attacking fleet will be stuck,” Foster said.

The Rezeki’s Rage scored three impressive direct hits against the charybdis, burning a third of its fleshy hull and damaging whatever cybernetics it had. Another hit should finish it off, Foster thought … then cringed as four invader ships flashed into their view and unleashed heavy covering fire directed at the Rezeki’s Rage.

The charybdis pulled away from the assault and adjusted its course to one that would take it directly into the maelstrom. The singed flesh of the bio-ship quickly began to regenerate, undoing all the Rezeki’s Rage’s efforts. It stood alone to face the remaining escort convoy and the four new invader ships that slipped out of FTL to confront it.

“Without help, that Hashmedai frigate will not survive this fight,” EVE reported.

The Rezeki’s Rage was facing its end. Even if it were to turn and flee, it was limited by sub light speeds and its crippled state, if its blacked and partially melted hull was of any indication. Then there were its shields that were on the verge of failing according to sensors, while seven beams of tachyons struck it from multiple angles.

He sacrificed his ship to save human lives … it was a thought Foster never in her life would imagine processing as she glanced at Williams and the holographic tactical model of the battlefield he interacted with. The charybdis was making its retreat back into the maelstrom thanks to Peiun’s actions, which would inevitably force the remaining invader ships to take on a defensive stance rather than offensive. Terra Nova’s fall was prevented because of him, and the UNE forces defending New Babylon were given the chance to stay in the fight longer.

Peiun, a Hashmedai, saved her mother’s life and the lives of the humans and Poniga and Undine in the system.

It was time to return the favor.

“Mr. Chang, take us into the maelstrom,” Foster briskly ordered.

“Captain?”

“Let’s give them something else to shoot at, lord knows the UNE is gonna hold at New Babylon and pick off what ships they can rather than jump in to save the Rezeki’s Rage.”

The Johannes Kepler flipped around, and its engines pushed them into the vortex of the maelstrom. Scattered beams from tachyons weapons sent a clear message to the brave crew of the Kepler, stay away. The Kepler replied with a message of defiance via its forward particle cannon, vaporizing the wyverns that attempted to intercept them.

The Johannes Kepler sunk into the storm-like vortex and entered a universe where clouds and thunderbolts fueled by dark energy became a reality. The pursuit for the charybdis ship ahead of them had begun. Nereid and Tolukei endowed the Johannes Kepler with a double-strengthened psionic overshield, deflecting scores of enemy fire. Sadly, shields and overshields did nothing to protect the outer hull of the Kepler from the mysterious clouds it flew through that began the slow process of removing the ship from existence by disintegrating it.

“Status report,” Foster asked as she noticed her tattoo’s glowing intensify and her thoughts seemingly fuse with the universe they entered.

“The invaders have broken off their attack,” EVE said. “They are pursuing us.”

“Of course, we’s crashing the party,” Foster said. “Target the charybdis vessel, unload everything we got.”

“Alert, structural integrity is failing,” EVE said.

“I know …” Foster said, grimacing. Without the substance the Rezeki’s Rage had protecting them, the Johannes Kepler would not last long. Their window of opportunity was closing fast, like the vortex that allowed them to enter the maelstrom.

Foster’s tattoos split her thoughts in half. One half of her mind was focused on the bridge and her duties as a captain, the other, was one with the maelstrom, like an outer body experience that gave her an omnipotent view of the situation around her ship. Every minute that passed saw a thin layer of the Johannes Kepler vanish due to the corrosive effect of the clouds. For all intents and purposes, the Johannes Kepler was disappearing. It was up to Chang’s elite piloting skills, in conjunction with the Kepler’s MRF, to get the job done.

“The last ships of their fleet is entering behind us,” Williams reported from his terminal.

“Good, let’s round ‘em all up inside here,” Foster said. “The charybdis is their ticket home, if I’m right, they’ll pull their forces out of Sirius to defend it.”

A hard turn to the left followed by a barrel roll pulled the Johannes Kepler away from a tachyon beam directed to them by the last remaining invader ship that had entered the maelstrom. A second roll placed the Kepler directly above the fleeing charybdis and its plasma-burned skin nearly fully healed.

“Captain, vortex of the maelstrom is closing,” EVE said.

Pierce checked his instruments. “If that thing shuts we’ll all be trapped, unless you’re up for navigating us through like last time.”

“Unless this charybdis can spill the goods all over us, that ain’t happenin’,” Foster snorted.

The charybdis moved in and out of sight from the view screen. Each time it came back into view Foster gritted her teeth, for it was still in one piece and its wounds mending itself. It was the opposite of what she needed it to be. “Mr. Chang, why isn’t that charybdis dead yet?”

“Kinda hard to aim and stay out of their line of sight at the same time,” Chang said. “FTL weaponry is no joke.”

“Chang, use rail-guns only,” Foster ordered.

“Aye, Captain.”

“Tolukei, guide those slugs into that charybdis, and only the charybdis, nothing else matters.”

“Understood, Captain,” Tolukei’s monotone voice replied.

“Nereid, you’re on overshield duty.”

Having two psionics was quite handy, it was one of the major advantages Radiance ships had back in the 2030s, and probably still today. The Empire lacked the means to create psionics, a limitation that plagued them to this day. Meanwhile, humans were still new to the world of psionics and had only begun to compete.

With the final invader ship and swarm of wyverns inside the maelstrom, the Johannes Kepler made its last stand, while it still existed inside the mysterious plane of existence. Its twin rail guns discharged high-velocity rounds that took on a life of their own. Tolukei’s telekinetic thoughts took hold of the rounds and forced them to seek out and fill their target with holes. Chang didn’t need to take aim or utilize targeting scanners. He just held down the weapons fire command and executed the elusive dodging rolls needed to keep the Johannes Kepler together amidst the assault.

The key to avoiding FTL weapons was to not be in the line of sight of them when they were fired. That meant staying mobile, moving when invader ships attempted to reacquire you as a target, and keeping your distance from the swarm of angry wyverns rapidly fluttering their wings and flying circles up and around the Johannes Kepler. Whenever the chance came up, Chang had the particle cannon beam cut swathes across the organic hull of the charybdis, bringing it one step closer to its end.

An end that came with cheering on the bridge, when the charybdis spun out of control and exploded into meaty chunks and flaming bits of cybernetics. The two green sacks that were a dominate part of it exploded afterwards, spreading the mysterious substance in all directions amongst the chunks of flesh that remained.

“Ha! Smoked that fucker,” Chang triumphantly shouted.

“Soak us with that goo and then get us the hell outta here!” Foster said, directing Chang to a floating glob of the protective substance.

The Johannes Kepler’s dove into and out of the wavy glob, coating the hull with a murky gel to prevent the ship from vanishing from existence within the maelstrom as stage two of Foster’s plan came into effect, escape. Tolukei’s psionic mind returned to assisting Nereid powering the overshields and Chang continued to dodge the ship about, keeping them away from the invaders’ weapons range.

“So, any idea where the front door to this place is?” Chang said. “Sensors are sending back error messages.”

Chang’s flying, as amazing as it was, didn’t help. His dives, rolls, spins, and erratic movement placed them off into the deeper reaches of the maelstrom. They were out of visual range of the vortex’s opening that led back into normal space, assuming it was still open.

Foster allowed her thoughts to become one with the maelstrom again, and her tattoos’ glow reached their maximum luminosity. She sensed Williams, Nereid, and Chang give her an odd glare, understandable as they weren’t brought up to speed of her newfound abilities. A staff meeting after this fiasco ought to cover that. If we get out of this alive.

The tunnels the invaders used to bore their way across the maelstrom and into normal space emerged into Foster’s head. She sensed the particular tunnel they used to enter. It was close, the battle had indeed made them veer off course and out into a thicket of clouds. With her eyes shut and her brain touching the realm around, Foster verbally guided Chang back onto the right course, back onto the invisible pathway they were in, and back on a course to the normal universe. The vortex slid back into view on the screen as a shrinking black and star-filled hole with the planet of New Babylon in the horizon.

Foster forced her physical body to pull her thoughts back in, as alarms across the ship began to make a racket overhead. The invader fleet was still a threat.

“Full speed ahead and ignore everything else,” Foster said.

The Johannes Kepler accelerated at maximum FTL speeds on an all-or-nothing race to the finish line located outside the maelstrom. Staying out of the invaders’ line of sight was impossible, considering the large gathering of ships they had to fly past just to close the distance between them and their closing gateway back home, one Foster was unsure of how to reopen.

Their escape from the maelstrom with the Rezeki’s Rage was different since it had opened as they approached. The exact opposite of what it was doing now. There was no time to figure out exactly how the rules of this universe worked, especially with the light show of tachyon beams behind. They needed to get through that vortex, and it needed to happen five minutes ago.

“Let’s go! Everything you got!” Foster said to Chang amongst the violent tremors that rocked every deck on the ship.

“Direct hit!” Williams reported.

“Not much I can do about that, Captain,” Chang said. “Gotta keep us on a straight path or we’ll never make it!”

Foster addressed her psionic duo team. “Tolukei and Nereid strengthen the aft overshields.”

“Understood.”

The vortex shrunk more.

They still weren’t inside.

“Why aren’t we there yet?” Pierce said, panicking.

It shrunk to a size barely large enough to fit the Johannes Kepler through.

“You wanna get out and push to make us go faster?” Chang said.

The vortex continued to swell up.

“We’re not going to make it, are we?” Pierce said.

“Shut up, man, I got this!”

The vortex shrunk to the size of a fighter, Foster shuddered at the thought of what might happen if they tried to cross through anyway.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

Foster’s head returned to her out of body experience. She experienced the feeling of floating outside of the Kepler, watching the suspense unfold from a bird’s eye view. She felt the vortex shrink and the feeling of normal space-time and physics just beyond it, slipping away from her hands.

Hands.

It gave her an idea.

She envisioned her thoughts working as hands, hands that wedged themselves into the closing vortex. Hands that in turn pulled against it, forcing it to stop swelling, and then forced it to expand open.

It was working, she couldn’t explain how or why, but it was. The vortex grew large enough to allow the Kepler through. Foster’s body, mind, and trippy vision that felt one with the ethereal universe demanded it. This was the break they needed, and she had no means of communicating with the crew with her physical body. Her thoughts were too deep within the maelstrom.

Go, go, go, go! Her thoughts roared as she felt the Johannes Kepler continue its race to freedom.

The task she bestowed upon herself was exhausting, and definitely not something she could do for a prolonged period of time. She wondered if this was what it felt like to be a psionic that overused their powers—

The bridge of the Johannes Kepler appeared. Foster found herself standing with her hand extended out as if she was attempting to touch an invisible force in front of her. The bridge crew stood, raising their hands in victory, screaming and cheering loudly as the normalcy of space appeared on the viewer. The Johannes Kepler soared past the battle-weary UNE fleet standing overwatch of New Babylon.

Foster lowered herself back into her chair little by little. She stared ominously at her tattooed hands as their diminishing glow faded away while the maelstrom’s vortex did the same and diminished from existence. “Any sign of hostile forces?” Foster asked, breaking her silence.

“None have been detected, Captain,” EVE said. “It would appear they have been trapped within the maelstrom.”

“Hopefully permanently, now their means of leaving is gone,” Pierce said.

Foster smiled having remembered the intel Peiun had gathered. The charybdis didn’t just provide the invader fleets with a way in an out of the maelstrom, it also sprayed the protective substance onto the fleets that remained close to it. The invaders trapped inside weren’t just stuck without any means of an exit. They were also doomed to fade away into nothing, a fate they almost suffered.

“I wouldn’t cheer just yet, they still got the other two fleets,” Foster said.

“Incoming transmission, Captain,” EVE said as her android eyes blinked to process the data. “It is the Hashmedai frigate.”

Foster let out a warm smile. “On screen.”

Peiun’s hologram appeared in front of the viewer, sitting on his chair on the bridge of the Rezeki’s Rage with his hands folded, and an impressed look growing across his face. “Remarkable ship you have there, Captain,” Peiun said.

“Remarkable bravery you made there, Captain,” Foster said. “Thanks for coming to the aid of my people.”

“And on behalf of myself and the crew of the Rezeki’s Rage, I thank you for risking yours to save us.”

“Will ya’ll be able to make it back to the Empire?”

“We’ll need to make … more repairs, but we’ll be on our way in a day,” he said. “I trust your people won’t mind our ship lingering around for a while?”

“I’ll pass it on.”

Peiun bowed his head in a respectful manner. “Well then, farewell, Captain, and good luck.”

“See ya around.”

Peiun’s likeness dissolved into nothing as the view of his ship from the view screen shifted out of sight.

“Alright, so,” Foster said, facing Williams. “What in the world were ya’ll doing on the surface of New Babylon?”

“Long story …” Williams said with a chuckle. “What I’d like to know is, what in the world did you do to get your hands on this ship? And those tattoos?”

Foster smirked at her first officer. “Long story.”

Epilogue

Imperial Palace

Imperial Capital, Paryo, Uemaesce system

August 14, 2118, 02:50 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Peiun was dismayed at the destruction done to the Imperial Capital as a result of the invaders’ attack. He couldn’t remove the disturbing thoughts of how many young children and entire family lines were vaporized in an instant by the monstrous creatures that tore apart the fleets defending the homeworld of the Hashmedai race and fell into the cities from the skies.

He rode a long elevator up into the center spire of the Imperial Palace, under escort by the Emperor and Empress’s personal guardian and protector. When the elevator came to an end, he was guided into a meeting room, carrying a small bag with him as ordered, for his debriefing. He braced himself for the numerous glowing eyes that were expected to gawk at him from the gathering of Imperial generals, admirals, and invited captains such as him, while the Emperor and Empress sat in and listened.

The room he entered was dark with only a small central spotlight shining down on the circular table that was inside. His eyes began to glow red as his body stepped into the low lighting area, unable to see anyone else in the room, with the exception of one person. Empress Kroshka, who was sitting cross-legged at a large decorated chair reserved for her.

“Thank you, Onatiasha, you may leave us now,” Kroshka said, dismissing her personal guardian, and leaving Peiun alone with the Empress.

“Empress, it is an honor to be here in your presence,” Peiun said, taking a seat. “May I ask? Where is the Emperor and everyone else? I thought they would be joining us.”

“The Emperor is busy for the time being,” Kroshka said.

“And everyone else?”

“They are not important.” Kroshka leaned forward, allowing the edge of the light shining down upon the table to bathe across her pale skin and platinum hair. “Did you bring it, Captain?”

Peiun placed the bag on the table and slipped out from its confines a shiny silver-colored artifact. He pushed it close to Kroshka while she fixed her red-orange eyes upon it. “My team found this on the surface of the Poniga world, known as New Babylon; it was lying close to the transport you ordered us to capture.”

“And you believe there is a connection to this and Captain Foster?”

Peiun guided Kroshka’s attention to a number of hieroglyphs carved along the side of the artifact. “These markings here, they look exactly the same as the tattoos that appeared on Foster’s body against her will.”

“The tattoos you claim allowed her to navigate your ship through the maelstrom, yes?”

“That is correct, Your Majesty. Foster’s condition, this artifact, the maelstrom, and the invaders, are connected.”

Kroshka pulled the artifact closer to her, lifting it next to her face before returning her attention back to Peiun. “And the transport?”

“As I said in my report, we recovered it. It wasn’t easy with the number of UNE ships in the sector; thankfully, most had been severely damaged during the battle. The old transport is currently aboard my ship, give the order and I shall have it delivered to any location you desire.”

“Keep it in your store for now,” Kroshka said. “I’m placing you in charge of locating the personnel that took that transport to the Sirius system.”

Peiun looked puzzled. “Me?”

“It was the mission of the former captain and first officer of the Rezeki’s Rage,” Kroshka said, gliding her fingers across the smooth surface of the artifact. “I’m passing that mission onto you and Alesyna. You will only report to me, should Admiral T’esih order you to do otherwise, tell her to speak with me.”

“Understood.”

Kroshka’s head curved to the side, examining him. “Your mother was Veloshira Snapshot correct?”

“That is correct.”

“Very well then, she did not fail the Empire when her time to serve it approached. I expect the same from you.”

“I will carry out this mission and will not fail you.” Peiun stood and bowed before his Empress as she dismissed him from their meeting. He stopped seconds ahead of the exit. There was one last thing on his mind. “If I may, Empress.”

“Yes?”

“What is the importance of the personnel that took that transport and installed a human QEC onto it?”

She reclined back on her decorated chair, folding her hands together and filled the room with silence before replying. “The operators of that transport arrived in the Sirius system during the moment the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword vanished, yet no Hashmedai has ever been reported to be seen there. The transport’s crew vanished with those two ships. Humans and Radiance aren’t the only groups that had people disappear that night, fellow Hashmedai did as well, important ones at that. I need you to find out where they went and bring them back.”

XSV Johannes Kepler, Lab

Terra Nova orbit, Sirius A system

August 14, 2118, 18:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Well, look at you.”

Odelea looked behind, then to her left and right. Nobody else was in the lab, and its doors had been shut. She returned to face the holographic projection of Iey’liwea, the Radiance Rabuabin representative, and cofounder of the Souyila Corporation. With the Johannes Kepler’s QEC linked to Amicitia Station 14, it gave Iey’liwea the perfect chance to catch up with Odelea in private.

“The Captain of this ship has allowed me to stay for the time being,” Odelea said.

“The Gods must really like you,” Iey’liwea’s miniature projection said. “Who are we to judge you for your actions?”

“So, I will not be exiled?”

“What’s the point? The humans will take you in then pluck your mind to advance their own people. With that said.”

“Any major breakthroughs I uncover, I will be sure to share it with Souyila.”

“I can live with that, just remember, so long as you remain a crewmember of that ship, you are not just representing the Union, but Souyila as well. Make us look good, will you?”

“Is there anything else, Councilwoman?”

“I’m transmitting some data I want you to look into. Keep that data away from your human friends for the time being.”

“I understand, Councilwoman. May the Gods’ light shine upon you.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Iey’liwea’s projection vanished as the transmission ended. Using her HNI, Odelea connected remotely to her computer terminal, accessing the encrypted documents and pictures Iey’liwea sent over their secure connection.

One particular file caught Odelea’s attention as she swiped across the holo screen quickly during her review.

It was the staff of a Patriarch, religious elders within the Union. Its design was consistent with the staffs Patriarchs had used during the Celestial Order wars. She sat back and picked up a fresh apple from a bowl resting on her desk and began to read through the long document, confused as to what the staff had to do with their current mission regarding the invaders.

No, not invaders, they had a name. One she finally managed to translate. That reminds me, I need to speak with Captain Foster about that.

General Irons’ Office

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

August 14, 2118, 19:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Mathilda Chevallier crossed her arms and waited for the middle-aged man—by appearance—to finish reading the holo document in his hands. General Derek Irons of the EDF sighed and rubbed his face, placing the document back onto his desk decorated with photos of his family and medals he was awarded over the years, including some dating back before the Hashmedai invasion of Earth.

“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?” Irons said to her.

“I’m done,” said Chevallier. “I have no place in the military, not anymore, and not in this century. I want out.”

Irons pushed the document, Chevallier’s official resignation from the navy, toward her. “Doesn’t sound to me like you’ve given it much thought, Chief.”

“Then you’re wrong, I have.”

“Your mother, and the PR that existed back in the day, isn’t here to protect you,” Irons said. “Gone are the days when the UNE was young, rebuilding Earth, and looking to recruit as many bodies as they could to replenish the military personnel killed during the Empire’s invasion. The navy doesn’t need you anymore.”

“I get that, understand why I need out?” Chevallier said drily.

“What you don’t get is that the navy would love nothing more than to bring up old charges you avoided and remind everyone of what you’ve done recently,” Irons harshly spoke. “Let me break it down for you. The navy will fuck you if you stay and fuck you on the way out if you leave. Take Boyd’s offer and mine, join the EDF, and I’ll personally see to it you’ll get treated right.”

“I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want me around either.”

“He’ll get over it, he’s old school like me. He was a Navy SEAL before we made the jump into space,” Irons said, and pointed to his medals earned when the United States used to exist. “And I was in the US army. What Earth lacks right now are people that were around before UNE, people that remembered what life was like when aliens and dragons didn’t exist. Those kinda folks have a real appreciation for Earth, humanity, and what was lost to get to where we are now. Yeah, you’re hot headed, don’t give a shit for the chain of command, but in the end, you want to get the job done and will do whatever it takes. That’s what we need out there, defending our colonies from fucking aliens.”

Chevallier smirked. “I want my own team.”

“That I can’t give to you just yet, there are still things you need to learn,” said Irons. “Master the gear EDF uses and I’ll see to it you get that and anything else you need. Master it without HNI? Hell, I’ll give you your own fucking ship if it means keeping our people safe. I just need you to follow orders.”

“One last request.”

“What is it?”

“I want a pack of Cuban cigars; mine got trashed on the Carl Sagan.”

Irons laughed. “Consider it done.”

XSV Johannes Kepler

Terra Nova orbit, Sirius A system

August 15, 2118, 07:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Foster, Commander Williams, and Odelea stood next to the holographic projection of director Barker of the IESA within Foster’s office. Everyone’s attention had been locked onto a presentation Odelea put on depicting images of the various types of invaders seen thus far and the translation notes she made.

“What I’m about to say will be covered in much greater detail within my report,” Odelea said, sliding her hands across the floating holo screen, changing the slide. “The invaders are in indeed a multispecies collective, they call themselves the Draconian. I am unsure if that is the name of their collective species or their nation. They firmly believe that everything we have, from our colonies to technological advances, originally belonged to them, and they want it back.”

“Most likely a fib whoever was aboard the Abyssal Sword told ‘em,” Foster said.

Barker’s hologram grimaced at Odelea’s presentation. “As I said earlier, Foster, you have full authority to carry out this mission any way you see necessary, the President himself also agrees. Find out everything you can about these … Draconions, leaders, homeworld, colonies, everything. Make peace with them if they are willing to listen as planned.”

“Of course, sir,” Foster said.

“But, in the case peace isn’t an option, then you are to bring back any pieces of advanced technology they use and report back to us the size and strength of their forces,” Barker said. “If it’s going to boil down to all-out war, I think the navy would like the heads-up and the chance to level the playing field by installing their weapons onto our ships.”

“Will do, Director.”

“Good luck out there, Captain, we’re all counting on you.”

Barker cut the transmission, leaving Odelea’s presentation as the only holograms in operation in Foster’s office.

Williams snorted. “Yeah, no pressure or anything.”

“I think the real pressure is on Nereid,” Foster said.

“That Dragon Knight and Maiden are to Tiamat, what Jesus is to God,” Williams said.

“And we’s stringing her along on a mission where she might have to choose between her faith and us.”

“Yeah, in which one of us might have to choose between allowing her to follow her faith and pointing a gun at her,” Williams said, rubbing the bruise on his forehead. “If this is all a misunderstanding and we prove that, I think she’ll be fine in the long run. Hell, Nereid might be able to help us push for peace.”

“And if everything goes to shit, then what?”

Williams grimaced. “She’ll gut this ship from the inside out with her mind, in the name of Tiamat.”

Odelea cleared her throat, folding her hands before her waist. Foster gave her the attention she sought. “So, is this it then, Captain?” Odelea said. “Am I to return back to my people?”

Foster’s lips twisted while she recalled the fact that Odelea’s presence on board was merely a trial run, one she royally screwed up. Her experiment nearly got her killed, only to escape, meaning it was entirely pointless for it to have been brought aboard in the first place.

“Let me get some grub first,” Foster said. “I ain’t had anything decent to eat since coming out of cryo.”

Much better … Foster’s thoughts and her belly agreed at the same time upon finishing a freshly cooked meal by Chef Demarion Bailey, the first of many in the Johannes Kepler’s mess hall. She strode over to the galley where Bailey, now clean-shaven, went to work cleaning up the food preparation area. She offered him her compliments for a wonderful meal, feeling thankful he returned to travel with the new ship and crew. Who am I kidding? I’m glad everyone we managed to find is back.

On her way to the bridge, Foster made a pass by sickbay and took a quick glance at Doctor Kostelecky as she activated newly received medical equipment, designed for use with doctors that lacked HNI. Foster walked across the catwalk above the cargo hold and smiled watching Rivera and Saressea stand next to each other with holo pads in their hands. Saressea was giving Rivera a quick update on what she needed to know about the technical specs of the Johannes Kepler.

Williams kept the captain’s chair warm for Foster when she arrived on the bridge to take command. Nereid and Tolukei stood ready at their psionic station and gave Foster a nod when she walked past. Pierce analyzed data collected by Johannes Kepler during their escapade into the maelstrom and the chemical composition of the mysterious substance they managed to acquire for themselves as a result of that.

Behind Pierce was the communication officer’s station. Odelea sat at it, dressed in an IESA casual uniform that didn’t fit her skinny frame very well. “Odelea, you ready?” Foster said as she approached her.

“EVE has shown me how this station works,” Odelea said, double-checking her station’s instruments. “I never imagined myself serving as a communication officer on a ship before, however.”

“If anyone is gonna hold this down it’s gonna be the girl that can speak over six thousand languages,” Foster said.

Odelea serving part-time as the communication officer was the deal the two managed to strike, since Pierce was the science officer. The move allowed both Pierce and Odelea to share the lab as one of the two would probably be on the bridge busy with their duties. And it gave Foster’s mind a certain ease, knowing that bizarre experiments weren’t going to be conducted every waking moment Odelea was around, especially after she read her files and past history.

Foster took her seat, and Williams returned to his station, interacting with a three-dimensional projection of their corner of the Milky Way galaxy.

“Mr. Chang, are we ready to take our leave?” Foster said to him.

Chang nodded while his hands stood ready to input a new course. “Ready and waiting, Captain.”

“Alright, ya’ll,” Foster said, addressing her crew. “The galaxy is depending on us to pull this off. So, let’s get out there and find out where these critters came from and our lost memories.”

“Course, Captain?”

“Over yonder that way,” Foster said, pointing to a cluster of stars on the view screen. “Let’s find ourselves a short cut to the edge of the galaxy.”

Next time on Splintered Galaxy…

Captain Foster and her human and Radiance crew of the XSV Johannes Kepler continue to scour the galaxy for clues to the location of the Draconian homeworld, seeking the aid of the Empire. Meanwhile, Peiun’s mission leads him to the discovery of a UNE conspiracy, one that has their eyes on the Empire and Foster’s plan.

Unsanctioned Reprisal: Edge of the Splintered Galaxy book 2.

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Also by Eddie R. Hicks

Cyber Witch: 2082

Cyber Witch

Specter Protocol (February 2020)

Digital Coven (TBA)

Psychic Rush (TBA)

Contaminated Souls

Kiss of the Demon Girl

Wrath of the Demon Girl

Awakening of the Demon Girl

Deception of the Demon Girl

Nemesis of the Demon Girl

Liberation of the Demon Girl

Splintered Galaxy Universe

Splintered Galaxy

Celestial Ascension

Uprising of the Exiled

Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1

Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

Edge of the Splintered Galaxy

The Siege of Sirius

Celestial Incursion

Unsanctioned Reprisal

Hallowed Nebula

About the Author

Eddie R. Hicks is a Canadian author known as a man of many talents, and for good reason. He’s educated in media arts, journalism, and culinary arts, and now he writes dark and sexy science-fiction and fantasy novels.

If he’s not working with skilled chefs in the restaurant industry, baking an epic red velvet cake for the hell of it, or playing video games, then he’s in front of his computer doing what he always dreamed of doing since he was a kid: storytelling.