Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Quadrilogy

Eddie R. Hicks

Prologue

Foster residence

Nashville, Tennessee

August 2, 2018, 04:53 EST

A strong storm front pushed onto the east coast of America … and the rest of the world.

Plasma rained from the skies, it didn’t stop. Its thunderous roars leveled entire cities in a matter of minutes. Rebecca’s home was no longer safe.

Her eyes opened, her head throbbed with pain, her hair a disaster, and her teenage body pinned under a bookshelf. Every window shattered into thousands of fragments. The TV crashed onto the burning floor; seconds earlier it was playing the Emergency Alert System. Her home glowed red and orange as raging fires ripped through it, releasing intense heat and choking smoke in its wake. The ground rumbled, over and over.

Expensive posh curtains had been reduced to charred material, the staircase leading upstairs had all but collapsed. Her mother frantically yanked Rebecca back up after unburying her from the fallen bookshelf and debris amidst the hellfire inferno. Rebecca staggered slightly upon seeing the state of their once upscale neighborhood. It was as if the apocalypse was upon them.

Alien space ships appeared before the rising sun, spilling orbs of green plasma down onto the city of Nashville.

Her mother tugged on her arm trying to drag her out of the burning house and out and into her car. Only it’s not where Rebecca wanted to go, not yet at least. She broke free from her mother’s grip and darted to their backyard patio, past the searing, hot flames and black smoke. She couldn’t leave it behind, not after all the work she had put into earning enough money to buy it for her father. The telescope had to come with them during their escape, alien invaders were not going to take it away.

Rebecca had fond memories of growing up in this house over the last eighteen years of her life. She ran through its halls and rooms enough times to know how long it would take to run to the patio, then run back into the house and out the front door to freedom. Ignore the fire, heat, and smoke, and you got this, she told herself. Yes, there was no reason why she shouldn’t try to get the telescope before turning tail and fleeing.

Her mother panicked and pleaded with her to return as Rebecca made her way through the flames; pleading that went unanswered, Rebecca needed to focus on the task at hand. She arrived at the deck, it too was set ablaze. Her bare feet bled; she forgot to take into account the hot shards of glass littering the floor. Rebecca secured the telescope in her hands, refusing to look at and assess the damage done to her body.

There was one final task left; to escape with the telescope in hand. A task she didn’t plan out very well as she saw the flames that engulfed her home spread quickly. There was no safe route back to the driveway up front. The heat caused her to sweat profusely and the smoke forced her to cough nonstop.

She heard what sounded like her father calling out to her from inside. She tried to follow the source of his voice, in hopes that he might have found a safe route to travel inside the burning house. Her frantic search for her father’s voice came to an end when she was once again knocked backward in the wake of plasma bombardment from the alien invaders.

I-40 westbound

August 2, 2018, 14:23 CST

Rebecca’s body pulsated with throbbing pain. She opened her eyes and discovered she was sitting on the front passenger’s side of her mother, Liana’s SUV. She saw a whole lot of nothing that surrounded the empty lane of Interstate 40, as she looked away from the crumpled NASA rejection letter addressed to her father. The state of the highway wasn’t a good sign, neither were the roaring sounds of fighter jets flying high above them followed by the tumbling noise of one, or two military helicopters. The aliens were still a threat.

Dad, she thought and looked about. Her father ideally should have been in the passengers’ side of the SUV, she should have been in the backseat.

“Mom!” Rebecca cried out.

“Not now, hon,” she replied in her southern accent just like hers.

“Where’s Dad?”

“Give me time to focus,” Liana’s eyes stayed forward at the highway that lay ahead. “You know how I am about talkin’ and driving.”

Rebecca’s hand reached over to activate the radio, in hopes of learning what transpired after she was knocked out during their dramatic escape from Nashville. Static. She switched stations several times, each one transmitted static or an emergency broadcast message asking everyone to take shelter or travel west.

“Don’t bother, it ain’t workin’,” Liana said.

Rebecca pulled her cell phone out from the pocket of her blackened blue jeans, decorated with small droplets of blood, her blood. The wallpaper of the phone displayed a selfie of her she took two months earlier during her eighteenth birthday party. She wondered if the happy girl with brown hair and blonde highlights would be able to achieve such a level of happiness again as the human race entered a new dark era, one they might not recover from.

Life as she knew it was falling apart.

2018 marked the year everything changed for the human race in the aftermath of the Hashmedai Empire’s failed invasion. Advanced alien technology found its way into the hands of brilliant human engineers and scientists who quickly learned how to reproduce it and adapt it to human society. In a few short years, the human race united to become a new and dominant superpower capable of interstellar travel and building alliances with alien species throughout the galaxy. A dangerous galaxy at that.

A Splintered Galaxy.

1 Foster

Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ (IESA)

Paris, Earth, Sol system

February 19, 2033, 08:21 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rebecca Foster strode into IESA HQ, a tall, white, and pristine building in Paris. It was formerly the location of the ESA before it was badly damaged during the Hashmedai invasion of Earth some fifteen years ago. The elevators made a digital dinging noise as they slid open giving her access to the top floor of the facility. Rays of sunlight beamed through the skywalk as she moved away from the elevator and toward the office of director James Barker.

She took one last glance through the windows and fixed her eyes on the Paris skyline amazed at how fast the human race was able to rebuild this city and many others across the globe. Most people born after the war had no idea of the amount of devastation that transpired during that dark moment when two billion human souls came to a sudden end. Only a history book provided them with that knowledge unless they traveled to the regions of Earth that society hadn’t gotten around to restoring, or the many glass craters that scarred the world in some regions like the east coast of North America.

She stepped away from the window and the reflection of her short brown hair and dark-blue IESA uniform with the flag of the United States stitched onto the shoulders of it. Many of the personnel she passed in the hallways had a uniform like hers; each had a flag of their birth nation. She entered the director’s office where Barker sat at his desk with his hands folded. The flag of the United Nations of Earth hung on the wall behind him, while two chairs were parked in front of his desk. In one of the chairs a familiar face Foster hadn’t seen in years was seated. A young man with dark skin, short black hair, thin and nicely trimmed beard also wearing an IESA uniform, Dominic Williams.

“Foster, glad you could make it,” Barker said as she took a seat next to Williams.

“Dom too?” she gestured to him with a smile. “We in trouble?”

“Big trouble,” Barker said. “We’re sending the two of you away from Earth. For a long time.”

Foster looked at the aging director with her eyes wide open. “You’re kidding right?”

“He’s serious, Foster, they found out.” said Williams. “Found out we’re too damn awesome.”

Foster and Williams had met in the days following the invasion of Earth, the two stuck together and made sure to share the same interests so they always had an excuse to watch each other’s backs. There were no laws during the first year or so after the main Hashmedai command ship was destroyed after all. Those years of watching each other’s backs lead to the two becoming members of IESA and the shared dream of exploring the great expanse beyond the solar system.

“Congratulations, Captain Foster,” Barker said to her as he offered her a new rank pin. He then addressed Williams and offered him a new rank pin as well. “And congratulations to you, Commander Williams, your flight to Sirius will happen.”

“Thank you,” she said while she resisted the urge to jump up and scream with joy. “What made things change? Thought the Carl Sagan was on hold indefinitely?”

“New President, new rules,” said Barker. “Construction on the Carl Sagan continued and is near completion.”

“You mean you knew it wasn’t scrapped in favor of new warships?”

“Had to keep a lid on this, people want more protection for Earth, not science and exploration ships. With that said the Carl Sagan will be the last for a while, the next ship in the pipeline will be a warship.”

“When do we get the keys, and move in?” Williams asked.

“That’s our next challenge, rather your challenge,” said Barker. “We don’t have a full crew yet.” Barker handed the two of them data crystals. “These are dossiers of people you should consider for the expedition. I’ll leave that in the hands of you two to recruit the best.”

“Us?” Williams asked.

“These people will not only be your crew, but your family,” explained Barker.

“We’ll be a long way from home, Dom,” Foster said to Williams. “Best we put that team together.”

“That, and I need to contact hundreds of colonists that were rejected due to lack of space, and tell them never mind, we got room still,” said Barker.

Williams stood up, eager to get started on the new task at hand. “Well then, let’s get to it.”

The two left the director’s office and made a brief detour sitting down in the cafeteria on the lower floor. They viewed the contents of the data crystals on their handheld data pads and began the tedious task of skimming through its contents while indulging in small lunch and coffee breaks.

There was a respectable list of names that appeared on their screens. Each name had biographies, psychological reports, education, and work history background details attached. Foster winced and sighed, she underestimated the amount of work recruiting a team for interstellar exploration was going to entail.

“That’s quite a list,” Williams said as he put his data pad down.

“Um, yeah. Tell you what, I’ll look into recruiting senior officers,” she suggested as she will be Captain and therefore the one dealing with senior officers the most.

“Fair enough, I’ll select well-rounded people for the rest of the crew.”

She tossed her pad onto the table they sat at and addressed the next problem before her. Her roast beef sandwich was getting cold. “Where will you start?” she asked after finishing three bites of it.

“I’ll look into securing our psionic first,” Williams said. “That, and it will give me an excuse to visit the Radiance embassy.”

Foster smiled and somewhat regretted not taking on that task herself. “You just want a free trip to Jamaica.”

“You know me too well!” Williams said with laughter. “Jealous?”

“Maybe.”

The galaxy outside of Earth was controlled by two factions. The Hashmedai Empire; the invaders of Earth, and the Radiance Union; a five-species collective who came to assist the human race defeat the Hashmedai Empire. In the aftermath of the invasion many of the governments around Earth crumbled. From the ashes rose a new global government, the UNE one that was aided by the Radiance Union as they shared their technology and knowledge of the galaxy with the human race.

Part of the reason why the human race recovered quickly after the devastating war was largely due to a fleet of Radiance ships that arrived at Earth from Alpha Centauri, the nearest Radiance controlled system. They uplifted humanity, helped rebuild cities, and guided the human race in constructing ships capable of interstellar travel. Like the UNE, which was formed by marrying all world governments together, IESA was formed as the ESA merged with NASA, CSA, Chinese, and Russian space programs, to name a few. According to Radiance, Earth existed in a region of the galaxy that was largely unknown to the union and the empire. IESA’s goal was to advance into that region of space before either of the two galaxy nations did, to explore, chart and colonize it, further cementing the UNE as a third galaxy superpower in their corner of the galaxy.

The ESRS Nikola Tesla, ESRS Stephen Hawking, ESRS Freeman Dyson were the first three IESA ships built and were planned to be launched at the same time from Earth to explore the unknown and establish humanity’s first extrasolar colonies without the watchful eye of Radiance. And now the ESRS Carl Sagan will be joining that fleet, taking explorers and colonists to the stars.

University of British Columbia

Vancouver, Earth, Sol system

February 21, 2033, 18:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The voice of a well-spoken man echoed throughout a crowded lecture hall within the confines of UBC. Foster entered the hall and kept her footsteps silent and her appearance low-key, no need to draw attention away from the eager students as she wore her IESA casual uniform. The young generation of students looked at the man who stood front and center before a series of holographic pictures depicting star clusters and planetary objects. Her father would have been proud to see how far humanity had come when it came to astrophysics.

Gone were the days were students learned about science based on scientific knowledge discovered by humans. Now students studied knowledge that was given to the human race by the Radiance Union, such as the information that was being disclosed in the lecture by acclaimed astrophysicist Doctor Travis Pierce. All of the breathtaking stills from the holographic presentation were planets and star systems discovered and explored by the Radiance Union.

Travis Pierce was a tall man with light brown hair slowly turning grey. He dressed in a professional manner as he waved his hand about to interact with the holograms around him. He spoke about the hundreds of Earthlike planets in the galaxy and how the evolution of life there differed slightly between each world. Students tapped the touch screens of their data pads as they took notes and saved its contents onto data crystals for future study.

“And that concludes all binary systems that we know of with life carrying planets around them,” Pierce said as he waved his hand in a circular motion, the holograms around him faded away.

A student placed their hand up to ask a question, Pierce nodded to them. “Don’t you mean what Radiance knows?”

“True, most of what I presented today is all based on knowledge Radiance has shared with us.” Pierce said. “Human exploration beyond Sol is limited to Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri.”

“But even then, the only reason humans exist there was because Radiance helped them escape the invasion, right?” asked another student.

Pierce folded his hands together and smiled at the student. “That’s correct, nevertheless, that is the limit so far as human exploration goes. Outside of that, everything we know about the cosmos has been studied with telescopes here in Sol or shared with us via the Radiance database. This is why it’s important we start exploring the cosmos on our own, with our own ships, so that we can discover for ourselves what’s out there.” Pierce looked at his holo watch as the minutes forced the new hour to arrive. “Well our time is almost up, are there any other questions?”

Another student lifted a hand up to ask. “Sorry, I got a bit of a stupid question,” they said.

“Now, now, there are no bad questions,” said Pierce. “If every brilliant mind throughout human history thought their question was stupid we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

“What’s your take on the Dogon and Sirius?”

“Ah, a hot topic as of late,” Pierce said as his face began to flush. “Before we go on, how many of you are aware of the legend of the Dogon?” Three hands rose up amongst the sea of bodies. “Well, long story short, an indigenous tribe in western Africa known as the Dogon believed that thousands of years ago they were visited by extraterrestrial visitors who called themselves the Nommo. The visitors allegedly informed the Dogon about space, the planets, and that Sirius, the system they claimed to have come from, was not one system but a trinary system.”

“But didn’t your presentation say that Sirius is a binary system?”

“Yes, that’s because our observations only discovered the two stars as well as long-range ones Radiance had made as well. Needless to say, the legend has been debunked for a number of reasons. Those that read my book about the Sirius mystery know that the arrival of Radiance and the Hashmedai proves that life and interstellar travel exists beyond Sol. There are some people out there that argue that perhaps there was some truth to the legends. Now to answer your question, I think its bullshit.”

Laughter erupted in unison from the hundreds that were in attendance.

“Think about it,” Pierce said. “The Nommo were described as being half fish half man.”

“Like mermaids and mermen?”

“Precisely, how can a species that lives underwater with no legs build ships and explore planets?”

Pierce wrapped up the lecture, sending a trove of students carrying data pads out into the hallways where Foster had entered. She moved her way down toward Pierce as he began to gather his computers, data pads, and notes. Pierce looked up and saw Foster approach, her uniform caused his face to wince as he laid eyes on it.

“Dr. Travis Pierce,” she said to him.

“That’s me, how may I help you?”

“I’m Captain Rebecca Foster of the IESA.”

“Ah.” He looked away and continued to gather his belongings in a large leather sack.

“I’ve been appointed to the command of the ESRS Carl Sagan and—”

“Sorry, I’m not with IESA anymore.”

“And you ain’t tellin’ those kids what you really think about Sirius either,” Foster said. “Pretty sure years ago you were saying the opposite about your belief about the Dogon.”

“I wrote that book from an objective stance, my personal thoughts from social media were not included in the final copy. Besides those were different times, back when I had the chance to explore space.”

“I’m giving you that chance now,” she said while taking a step closer to him. “I’m putting together a crew; I’d like you to be a part of it.”

Pierce placed the strap of his bag around his shoulders and fixed his eyes on the exit. “I think I’m fine where I am.”

“Are you? From my point of view, you’re takin’ back your beliefs, I reckon it’s to make yourself look good to keep getting work like this.”

“I got appointments I gotta go to today.”

“That’s fine. But if you change your mind let me know, I need a science officer and IESA will be more than happy to reinstate your commission.”

Exotic resort

Manila, Earth, Sol system

February 25, 2033, 17:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Hot humid air covered Foster’s body as she made her way into a tropical forested clearing. She seldom paid attention to the cup of latte in her hands, it was far too hot to be drinking a warm beverage in this weather, but the caffeine was too important to pass up. Large palm trees bestowed shade on a gathering of people engaged in complex yoga moves as they stood above mats on the fresh green grass. Foster did a double take when she realized at least half of the yoga students were of the Hashmedai race. She did another double take to learn that her informant was indeed correct, the brilliant engineer Foster came to speak to, Jasmine Rivera, was indeed a yoga instructor.

Rivera was a young woman, no older than twenty-five by her exotic Filipina looks, a combination of Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian background. Her long golden-brown hair was tied in a pony tail while she held a pose that would have made Foster groan in pain. Her human and Hashmedai students gracefully followed suit. The Hashmedai were dripping wet in sweat more so than their human counter parts. It was understandable as the Hashmedai race did not fare well with Earth temperatures, especially in regions like the Philippines.

The Hashmedai evolved on a planet called Paryo that orbits a red dwarf star. As such it received little light and heat compared to Earth. Their world was mostly covered in permafrost apart from its equator which was warm enough for ice cold liquid water to exist. Naturally a species that evolved on a planet like that thrived in the cold and suffered in mild temperatures or hotter.

Rivera took notice of Foster and brought an unexpected end to her session. “OK that’s it for now, let’s take a break,” Rivera said, and then repeated in the Hashmedai language which sounded like Russian, no surprise considering all Hashmedai had an accent that was very similar.

The yoga students left Foster and Rivera alone, as the two women shook hands and introduced each other. Foster couldn’t help but ask. “How the hell did you do that?”

“I’ve been doing yoga for years,” said Rivera.

“I mean teach it to Hashmedai, especially in this heat are you trying to kill them?”

Rivera pointed to several buckets of ice located next to the yoga mats the Hashmedai were on. “They stay cool with those.”

“Still, they’re Hashmedai.”

“Now, now, the yoga is for sharing,” Rivera said. “These Hashmedai will take what they’ve learned and experienced and pass it on to the rest of their kind. Peace, wellbeing, love, they will not commit violent acts against our people.”

“Tell that to Radiance and the UNE.”

“I sense a bit of tension in you,” Rivera said and dragged Foster over to a vacant mat by her arm. “Let me introduce you to the basics.”

Rivera began to stretch and fold Foster’s body into some strange yoga form, out in the beating morning sunlight. Foster made sure to get a firm grip of her coffee cup.

“Uh, that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why did you come?” Rivera saw the coffee cup in Foster’s hands, and took in its sweet soothing scent. “Is that pumpkin spice?”

“Hell, yeah it is.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Coffee shop around the corner.”

“There’s a coffee shop here?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I’ve been here for so long, and I never saw it.”

“Which is why I’m here,” Foster said. “You’ve been off the grid too long, time to come back.”

Rivera crossed her arms. “You’re not from around these parts, huh?”

“I’m from Los Angeles, born in Nashville if you wanna be exact.”

“Ah.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”

In the aftermath of the Hashmedai invasion of Earth, several Hashmedai forces surrendered when they realized they were not going to win the war. The ships they had left that didn’t flee had been destroyed or crashed on Earth, effectively stranding them there. The Empire never sent ships to recover them so the thousands of Hashmedai soldiers and ship’s crew became a part of Earth’s population and offered to work as laborers to rebuild the cities they destroyed.

Radiance, who were mortal enemies to the Hashmedai race, insisted that humans hunted down and killed all surviving Hashmedai. The UNE became fearful of losing Radiance support and began to aggressively capture Hashmedai to hand over to Radiance, while discouraging human communities from getting close to the Hashmedai. Some communities around the world refused, choosing to accept and forgive the Hashmedai, and allowed them to live amongst them despite UNE and Radiance disapproval.

Said communities took up arms and formed an extremist group known as the Hashmedai Liberation Front (HLF) to protect the Hashmedai and human sympathizers that lived with them. Eventually what started as protection for the renegade communities turned into terrorist activities worldwide, thus labeling cities like Manila and Vancouver as UNE ‘Red Zones,’ and advising all Radiance races living on Earth to avoid them along with members of the UNE military.

“You used to do work with IESA, right?” Foster asked?

“And contract work for the UNE military,” Rivera replied. “Helped design some of their ships and program the EVE AI.”

“Wanna come back?”

“Thought about it, but I’m too deep here you know? Someone will find out about me caring for Hashmedai in this community.”

“Not if you’re eight point six light years away.”

“Sirius?”

“Yep.”

“I thought the Carl Sagan was scrapped in favor of another warship.”

“The President forced it through, been a secret this whole time.”

Rivera gazed at her human and Hashmedai students as they sat and downed bottles of water together in the shade. “Don’t suppose my students can come with me?”

“Afraid not, I have no control over the colonists we’ll be taking, and I doubt any of them will be anything other than human.”

Rivera walked over to the group and began to address them in the Hashmedai language probably giving them the heads-up she wouldn’t be living with them soon, Foster figured.

“You speak their language well,” Foster said after Rivera was finished.

“I speak, English, Filipino, Hashmedai, and all six dialects of Radiance.”

“So, you’re a language expert as well?”

“It helped since Radiance did give us their technology to build our ships while we merged it with reverse engineered Hashmedai tech. Not to mention I helped program the EVE AI to speak multiple languages, had to make sure it spoke those languages correctly. Oh, and I helped design the Earth-based language learning tools.”

“That how you learned all those languages?”

“Of course, there’s no way I’d be able to fluently speak, read, and write seven different alien languages so quickly.”

“Sorry, I just never understood how those worked.”

“You load the app onto a data pad, link it with a neural interface that taps into your brain, and from there it uploads small fragments of the selected language into your head each time you use it.”

“Kinda like ‘I know Kung-Fu’ sorta deal?”

“To put it lightly, there’s a bit more to it than that, for starters it reads your synaptic pathways so that—”

“And that’s why I want you on the team.” Foster said cutting her off. She didn’t fully understand technobabble, but knew that life in a system far away from Earth was going to need someone that did, just in case things went wrong. “You’re smart, you know shit I don’t, and say words I can’t even begin to figure out how to say.”

Foster’s house

Los Angeles, Earth, Sol system

February 28, 2033, 05:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster sat on her living room couch and debated how she was going to approach him when he arrived. So … we gotta talk, Hey, listen … Hey babe. I love you but …

Whatever she went with, it had to be soft, she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea and she didn’t want him to curl up in an emotional ball and be alone forever, he was still young, much younger than her. The doorbell rang, its chime had awakened her pet tabby cat, Starlet, from its slumber on the arm of her couch next to her. Foster opened the door and allowed her boyfriend Mike Fisher to enter, for the last time.

“Hey, Mikey,” she said to him.

“Hey, babe.”

The two sat down at the couch while Starlet leaped away and jumped up onto the nearby windowsill where the night sky hung above. Foster looked into Mike’s face, the same face she couldn’t resist kissing, the same face she thought she’d see a lot more often after learning she wasn’t selected to become a member of the original three ships set to explore the cosmos.

“So … we gotta talk.”

Mike’s face cringed at her words. “Oh no.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re breaking up with me?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because that’s what all women say when they are ready to end it.”

She looked away and thought about what her next words would be. “Well you gotta understand—”

“Oi I knew it.” He slapped both of his hands across his face and sighed. She leaned in closer to console him.

“Mike! Look, they’re fixin’ to send me to Sirius.”

“I thought you’d be staying in Sol?”

“They got one last ship coming out of the shipyard; they want me to be the captain of it.”

Their eyes met up as his flustered face changed slightly to one that was happier, happy for her. “Oh wow, that’s great,” he said.

“Gonna be a seventeen-year trip, Mike.”

“And I can’t come, huh?”

“If you’d applied to be a colonist, maybe.”

“That wasn’t gonna happen and you know it,” Mike said. “I ain’t got no skills nor any say on which ship I’d end up on. Damn, I should have joined the navy or something, I reckon they’re sending military folks on your ship as well, right?”

“For defense, yeah.”

“So, this is it, eh?”

“If you been resisting the urge to cheat, you can do it now, I won’t get mad.”

Friendly laughter was exchanged between the two due to her comment. Starlet meowed like the attention-seeking cat she was. The two walked over to the window, observing what caught the tabby’s attention when they were talking. Starlet was looking to the stars; well, the stars that were visible in the LA skies.

Foster never understood why Starlet had such a fascination with the stars. From the moment she found her as a tiny kitten to now, it always spent part of the night looking up at the stars. It was Starlet’s fascination with the stars that reminded Foster of her father’s crushed dream to join NASA, a dream she intended to carry on in his honor and seek a career in space. Whenever she had doubts that IESA would accept her, she would look at Starlet, much like she was now and reinforce the motivation to study hard and pass their numerous entrance exams, physical tests, and training.

“I think I’m gonna enlist,” Mike said while he kept his eyes to the stars.

“Little late ain’t it?”

“Better late than never,” he looked away from the stars redirecting his attention to Foster, she saw the determination burning in his face. “I’ll enlist and push to one day fly out to Sirius and meet up with you.”

“Better make sure they put you on a ship then.”

“I’ll be a pilot or something. They’ll have to keep me on a ship with skills like that.”

She hit his arm in a flirty manner. “You can’t even drive a car!”

“I’ll learn! Flight school, enlistment, do my training and get posted on a ship.”

The two leaned in close and shared a passionate kiss, the last one they’d experience together. His hands held onto her waist while her hands cupped the back of his head, stroking his soft brown hair. Her life, going forward, would revolve around the expedition and building a new home for humanity. She had doubts that intimate moments will happen during that quest, and so made no attempt to let him go, and didn’t object to him unbuttoning her pants.

2 EISS agent 19, Codename: Test

Earth Intelligence and Security Service (EISS) HQ

Geneva, Earth, Sol system

February 28, 2033, 12:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Test, a secret agent for EISS, stood inside a rapidly descending elevator that plunged hundreds of feet below the surface of an artificial island in Lake Geneva. With the rise of the UNE, Geneva was established as the capital of Earth. Earth Cube was established as the central location where the President of Earth and various arms of the UNE government worked.

Earth Cube was just that, a cubed building that stood on the artificial island on Lake Geneva. It was covered from top to bottom with glass windows, thus giving off the appearance it was Earth in the shape of a cube during clear sunny days, as the glass reflected the blue lake and skies around it.

Beneath Earth Cube however was EISS headquarters, the intelligence branch of Earth. Similar to UNE where all nations came together to form one, EISS consisted of a combination of the various intelligence agencies around the world including the CIA, CISS, MI6, and others. The goal was to create an intelligence agency that would look out for Earth’s interests as they expanded outward into space, and compete against the intelligence agencies employed by the Radiance Union and Hashmedai Empire.

Test’s elevator came to a stop. He exited and walked through the white tiled hallways, past its operation staff, and several other agents like himself. He entered a small briefing room where the facility’s director and another agent stood waiting for him around a small projection.

“Glad you could join us,” said the director.

“What did I miss?” Test asked.

The holographic projection transformed from a hovering image of the UNE flag, into a top down view of the Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri systems. “We have reason to believe EDF-2 and several others have gone missing, and have been for a year.”

EDF, it was a term Test had not heard in a long time. The Extrasolar Defense Force or EDF was a Special Forces group established to look out for Earth’s interests beyond the solar system. It was formed after humans that fled Earth during the Hashmedai invasion arrived at Radiance-controlled colonies in Alpha Centauri. A handful of the personnel had been a part of the military, including a team that bested the Hashmedai command ship that was in orbit around Earth.

“A psionic telepathic communication from Radiance claims that a Radiance ship they were operating on conducted an operation on the outskirts of Proxima Centauri,” said the director. “They also claim to have evidence of an unknown ship either heading to or arriving from the direction of the Sirius system.”

“Have we verified their claims?” asked the agent.

“The data gathered thus far has been transmitted to us,” the director explained. “But as we know, it will take another four years before it reaches us. However, Radiance claims that the mysterious ship in question may hold the answers as to what happened to them and the Radiance ship they were operating on.”

“Proxima Centauri is Radiance territory, so I think it’s safe to say if there were unknown ships operating in that system Radiance would have found it by now,” said Test.

“Which means said ship is on a course to Sirius,” said the agent. “That’s where the Carl Sagan comes in.”

Test crossed his arms and grunted. “This ought to be interesting.”

“The EDF teams vanishing isn’t new, at least for the higher-ups,” said the director. “Contact with them was lost in July of last year along with dozens of Radiance ships. Radiance sent ships in from Alpha Centauri four months later, the approximate time it takes to fly between those two systems.”

Test winced as he put two and two together. President Mariana Salamanca was elected that past November, the month Radiance would have discovered the fiasco that went on in Proxima Centauri. “That’s exactly when President Salamanca was elected and made the decision to keep going with the Carl Sagan rather than scrapping it and building a new warship,” he said.

“She knew what was going on and knew that we needed to get our eyes in that system ASAP,” said the director. “A trip from Proxima Centauri to Sirius will take a little over eighteen years and Earth to Sirius seventeen years.”

“If we launch a ship soon we could rendezvous with them as they arrive …” said Test.

“It will also give us a chance to investigate a theory. You are aware of the Celestial Order correct?”

“Yeah, insane cult of fanatics from Radiance, right?” said Test.

The director nodded. “Captain Vaughan was a US marine that participated in destroying the Hashmedai command ship, in her report she claimed that a member of the cult was working with the Hashmedai commander who was in charge of the invasion.”

“Of course, our intelligence operations have been limited to the Solar system,” said the agent. “So, we haven’t been able to learn a lot about Hashmedai working with the Celestial Order, or if it’s even true to start with. But what we do know is that the HLF is growing in strength. And that two people recently recruited to join the crew of the Carl Sagan happened to be living in Red Zones.” The hologram changed into ID portraits of Dr. Travis Pierce and Jasmine Rivera, two persons of interests in EISS. The agent continued. “If the Celestial Order has Hashmedai members that were part of the invasion, then there’s a good chance some of those members might also be part of either the HLF or the Hashmedai community living on Earth.”

Test closely examined the hologram and the biography of the two newly recruited crew members. If EISS theory was correct, then the Carl Sagan could be hand-delivering deadly cultists into the Sirius system, only to meet up with a ship that may be under the influence of Celestial Order members, bad news to the colonists. Even if they were wrong, the Carl Sagan may be carrying personnel who might have HLF links though nothing was 100 percent confirmed, after all living in a Red Zone didn’t make you a terrorist per se. But, if one were to be affiliated with them, then they would have come from those regions, no questions asked. HLF members were primary concerned with defending Hashmedai communities worldwide. Green Zones such as Geneva were devoid of Hashmedai.

“I see where you’re going with this,” Test said as he looked away from the holograms.

“And that’s where you come in, I need you on that ship,” the director said to him. “If you’re up to the task.”

3 Chevallier

ESV Wilfrid Laurier, Captain’s mess

Earth orbit, Sol system

March 5, 2033, 18:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Mathilda Chevallier sat at a circular dinner table located in the captain’s mess. She became lost in thought as she looked out the window and took in the majestic sight of Earth in the background and multiple ships in orbit around it. Some ships were human-built, the rest were alien; part of the Radiance fleet that stood watch over Earth, protecting it from future imperial attacks while the young human fleet grew stronger in numbers.

The Wilfrid Laurier was one of six warships built to serve in the growing UNE navy. Using technology provided by Radiance and reverse engineered from downed Hashmedai ships, the UNE quickly adapted the technology from the two sources while enhancing it with human ingenuity. Rotating habitat rings located at the rear of the ship generated artificial gravity, and housed crew quarters, and the mess hall amongst other things. The rest of the ship was subject to the weightlessness of space, while the bridge had gravity, generated by a Radiance psionic with their psychic powers.

Mathilda barely touched her meal of savory pork chops with roasted fennel. Her mother and Captain of the Wilfrid Laurier, Agatha Chevallier, sat with her alongside the XO Commander Martin Xavier. Mathilda had green eyes, short auburn hair, dyed of course, as her mother’s hair was black and slowly fading into grey. Xavier’s hair and beard were in the process of making the grey transition as well. Agatha and Xavier spent most of the evening talking as per usual; they meshed well together given their backgrounds.

Xavier was a young officer in the Royal Navy during the war, while Agatha was an officer in France’s navy. Both fought the Hashmedai the best they could, given the limitations they were faced with at the time, and then fought for survival when their ships sank. Today the two were among the most talked-about, high ranking officers in the UNE navy, navy personnel from the old world that made the transition to space. A shining example of lucrative career opportunities that awaited those who enlisted.

“That was a mighty fine meal,” Xavier said after wiping his mouth clean with a towel.

“I was lucky to personally know the Chef prior to being assigned this position,” Agatha said then turned to face her daughter. “Mathilda what do you think?”

Mathilda looked down at her half-eaten pork chop. She quickly bit into it and projected the fake sense that she enjoyed it. In reality of course it had long gone cold, and it was the source of her misery. Dining with her mother and XO wasn’t part of her agenda; drinking and partying were.

“It’s OK,” Mathilda said.

“Hopefully you will be able to feast on meals this good in Sirius,” said Agatha.

Xavier looked out the same window that held Mathilda’s attention not long ago. He cocked his index finger toward the Carl Sagan as it appeared over the horizon. “That’s it over there, right?”

Agatha and Xavier got up from their seats and stood in front of the window to stare at the newest exploration ship. It looked different to the warships: two habitat rings, a smaller bridge, fewer weapon ports, and no nuclear missile launchers or fighter bays. It was a design Mathilda didn’t agree with. Should a ship like that come across the empire in deep space, they were finished. She often wondered how a ship would defend itself with only forward rail guns and two plasma missile launchers.

“That’s it, fresh out of dock,” Agatha said.

Mathilda remained sitting at the table in front of her half-eaten meal, uninterested in looking at the Carl Sagan. She had viewed enough of its designs with her data pad. “Guess I should get my things,” Mathilda said.

“We still got time before the launch,” Xavier said to her.

“Xavier’s right, and knowing the fleet, its launch will be delayed for another day,” said Agatha.

Mathilda stood up and slowly headed for the exit. “Is that what you know or is it wishful thinking?” she added.

“You’re my only child, the longer they delay this, the longer I’ll be able to see you.”

She stood before the sliding doors, grinned, then faced her mother. “I’ll be back one day.”

“In what? Thirty-five years minimum? Do you really think I’ll be around by then?”

“People are living longer lives thanks to Radiance medical tech.”

“Only by a margin, and should the empire return to finish what they started—”

The intercom beeped as a bridge officer announced. “Captain Chevallier to the bridge.”

Agatha sighed. “Oh, what is it now,” she said, then addressed her XO. “Xavier?”

“I’ll handle it, ma’am.” Xavier stepped away from the window and exited the captain’s mess. He stopped briefly and spun around facing Mathilda and offered a handshake. “By the way Mathilda, congratulations on the promotion, Master Chief Petty Officer.”

Mathilda looked back and saw her mother had remained at the window, looking off into space, as Xavier left. She figured her mother would be doing a lot alone once Mathilda departed for Sirius and goes to sleep for seventeen years. She joined her at the window. Two pairs of stunning green eyes gazed at the star filled void.

“I didn’t want you to go at first, truth be told,” Agatha said in French. “But our family line is going strong here on Earth all things considered. But out and beyond? It’s nonexistent.”

“I have no plans on having kids,” Mathilda replied in French.

“I said the same thing when I met your father. With that said, make sure your children take your name.”

“Oh, please.”

“I never took your father’s name and neither did you. Keep those traditions going in Sirius, who knows, maybe that will be commonplace there.”

Mathilda arrived in her quarters an hour later to pack up. Only one duffel bag was needed: clothes; data pad; music player; videogame console; and most important of all, a pack of Cuban cigars. Everything else was irrelevant. She picked up her data pad and winced at the flashing red icon of a new message notification. She tapped the touch screen while her eyes skimmed the contents of the message, it was another invite for her to attend a going-away-party with many drinks.

She groaned as she tossed the data pad in her duffel bag. She didn’t want to go to Sirius. She didn’t want to be cut off from the rest of the human race or the galaxy, she didn’t want to make Sirius her new home until the Carl Sagan was ready to return to Earth, whenever that was. Her antics brought this on herself and created headaches for her mother.

Mathilda was the daughter to the great Captain Chevallier. Because of who her mother was, she was rarely punished for things she did or trouble she got into, and oftentimes didn’t get passed up for promotions. It would have been bad press for the UNE navy to do otherwise, they needed people like her, her mother, and Xavier to encourage recruitment and strong morale. Xavier had his adopted daughter, Jessica Davis, rising through the ranks, Agatha had Mathilda.

Mathilda enlisted in the navy to make her mother happy, but her attitude toward her superiors did the exact opposite. Mathilda’s forced assignment to Sirius would deflect flak from her mother and help keep Mathilda from a court-martial, one that was a long time coming. One that would have brought shame to her mother and ruin the poster child image the navy wanted to project.

Mathilda leaving Sol however, it was great for the press, daughter of the famed Captain Chevallier who will travel to Sirius and lead the UNE navy personnel attached to the ship. Her mother in the end would be happy and proud while growing old, and dying never knowing this was not the life Mathilda wanted for herself. Never knowing this was Mathilda’s attempt at saving her from more embarrassment due to her actions.

Sirius was the rug, and Mathilda was set to be swept under it.

4 Williams

Radiance Embassy

Kingston, Earth, Sol system

March 6, 2033, 17:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Caribbean was one of the few places on Earth that lacked the scars of war from the invasion. It was deemed tactically unimportant at the time to the Hashmedai fleet, not to mention its warm climate deterred them from sending ground forces to raze its cities. Today, most members of Radiance could be found living on one of the many islands, as warm, tropical temperatures are highly sought after amongst Radiance, standard room temperature for Radiance was around thirty degrees Celsius. Needless to say, the primary Radiance Embassy on Earth was located in the heart of Kingston, Jamaica, with its warm tropical weather.

The Embassy was also the primary location where Radiance psionics were recruited. According to Radiance myth, their gods, who uplifted the Aryile race, gifted them with various forms of technology, such as interstellar ships and the ability to create psionics. If a person with potential was found, they underwent a special type of therapy that enhanced their brain processing power, giving them access to skills such as telepathy, telekinesis, and extrasensory perception (ESP.)

With the aid of advance cybernetic augmentation and years of training, a psionic could further develop their powers to not only augment their basic gifts, but gain access to the ability to teleport themselves or others around them, from one location to another, harness psionic power and convert it into deadly projectiles, control electronic equipment by thinking about it, or conjure a protective barrier for defensive purposes. Psionics were an essential member of a ship as they were able to sense what existed around the ship faster than its sensors which traveled at the speed of light. If there was an incoming asteroid forty light minutes away, it would take forty minutes for ships sensors to scan it, and another forty minutes for the data to return to the ship. A psionic could sense it instantly and relay that information so its crew could adjust course.

The Carl Sagan was going to be all alone in Sirius so a shipboard psionic was going to be mandatory to have along for the ride as humans were incapable of developing psionic powers according to recent studies. There have been wild conspiracy theories that a top secret UNE outpost on one of Saturn’s moons was conducting research into the development of human psionics.

Commander Dominic Williams entered the lobby of the Radiance Embassy and marveled at its crystal-like interior and high, hanging ceiling. Holograms replayed messages written in their language; important notifications he figured. He saw various members of the Radiance collective scurry about and speak with humans that were there. Many of them were of the Aryile race, humanoid creatures with scales on their arms and the sides of their necks, possibly other areas as well. They had reptilian eyes and took great care to ensure their hair was styled elegantly.

Javnis were a purely reptile species with green, leathery skin, four eyes, and a bad sense of humor from what Williams recalled from his early encounters with their kind. Rabuabin were an interesting bunch, they had catlike ears and tail, but also had ram like horns on their heads. Most of them had tanned skin though Williams suspected it was due to having to live on planets with lots of sunlight as the union favored colonies there.

The physical appearance of the Linl was indistinguishable to humans. It was the Linl race that pushed for Radiance to make contact with humanity when Radiance first discovered Earth, as many people in their society thought there was a link between humans and Linl. Of course, no such link had ever been discovered, as countless genetic tests had shown. Humans and Linl, outside of physical similarities, were two wholly different species.

Williams stood at the reception desk and saw one of the rarer species of the union, the Vorcambreum. They were a short race of people who were no taller than four feet in most cases. They had grey skin, yellow eyes, and large ears that sagged down toward their shoulders at times. They almost always sat on a booster chair that prompted laughter that Williams had to hold back every time he saw them.

“Greetings human, what can I do for you?” The Vorcambreum receptionist said to him.

“I’m Commander Dominic Williams.”

“Ah, yes, we’ve been expecting you.” His tiny Vorcambreum hands offered Williams a Radiance data crystal. “These are the psionics that are available for your expedition.”

Williams pulled out his data pad and loaded the crystal into a small slot on the bottom of it. The contents of the data crystal began to load and to his surprise showed only the dossiers of two Radiance psionics.

“That’s it? Just two?”

“You must remember you will be in stasis for many years, on a voyage to a system that even our people have never been to,” said the Vorcambreum. “Most of us came here to aid your kind not explore the unknown.”

Williams examined the list closer, he had to choose between a young and inexperienced Aryile shipboard psionic and an experienced Javnis combat psionic. It wasn’t an easy call.

Williams grimaced at the thought and asked. “Can I get back to you on this?”

“Yes of course. But if you want my suggestion? Invest in the Javnis, you never know if you’ll run into trouble out there.”

It’s a tempting thought, but at the same time, the Carl Sagan wasn’t a warship. They needed a shipboard psionic, not a combat one and taking the two was out of the question as Radiance only allowed one of their kind to serve on Earth ships.

Hot Sun Restaurant and Bar

Kingston, Earth, Sol system

March 6, 2033, 17:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams took a seat in a crowded restaurant not far from the Radiance Embassy. His belly demanded it while his mind wanted a place to pass the time before his transport ship was due to depart. The Carl Sagan was officially out of dry dock and several crew members he had recruited had started to arrive and make themselves at home in their quarters.

The restaurant was different from the rest in the area as it had a menu suited toward humans and aliens, and oftentimes fused the cooking styles of Earth and Radiance to create unique dishes that all could enjoy. At least one third of the menu was vegan, which made sense considering both the Aryile and Javnis races were herbivores. The rest of the menu was carefully crafted to suit the needs of humans, Linl, and Rabuabin, while a tiny section had meals made from insects, Vorcambreum feasted on bugs exclusively. Escargot was a huge hit here.

Williams’ lunch consisted of barbecued ribs, smothered in spices found on Talsyk the Rabuabin home world, served with poached vegetables from Foicanta, a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. A dish with ingredients from Earth and two other planets in the galaxy, describing it as something out of this world was an understatement, his taste buds could attest to that.

A finger tapped his shoulder from behind. He turned around, and saw nothing but servers taking orders from newly seated patrons in the restaurant. He then heard someone take a seat in front of him.

It was Foster, playing tricks on him as she smiled warmly at him. He almost didn’t recognize her through the sunglasses, blue summer dress and matching hat, with flip-flops.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her.

“Sorry can’t let you have all the fun!”

“I’m just doing paperwork.” He nodded at his data pad on the table as psychedelic images of its screensaver danced across the screen.

Foster made a face at his data pad and then from her bag, she pulled out a pad of her own. Only it was different, it projected a holographic screen as it powered on, one that she could interact with.

“What the hell is that?” Williams asked.

“Jealous?”

Damn right I am!

“It’s a holo pad,” she explained. “It’s gonna replace data pads in a few years. Least for us it is, doubt Radiance will use ‘em.”

“So, it’s just like a data pad?”

“Holographic interface rather than a touch screen, and its human-made.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Our new chief engineer, it was one of the last projects she worked on before, uh, going off the grid. I managed to convince command to let us use ‘em. May as well, as any new technological advancements will remain here and not with us in Sirius.”

“We got an engineer, progress.”

“She’s pretty cute too,” Foster added with a chuckle.

As far back as Williams could remember she was always trying to play the role of a matchmaker for him. It didn’t always work, and the few times it did the relationships he had didn’t last longer than two months. Nevertheless, like a big sister looking out for her adopted brother, Foster kept an eye out for women and pushed Williams to talk with them.

“Any progress on your end?” Foster said as she put the fancy, new age device away.

“Yeah we get to pick between a rookie ship psionic and an old psionic soldier.”

“We ain’t a warship, so I’d say take the rookie.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Williams tapped his pad and then lifted it up for her to view the contents of his screen. “Until I read this report on psionics. Their skill takes years to develop and a rookie might have a rough time with ESP, bridge gravity, and telepathic communications with Earth. Whereas even a combat psionic could still perform those duties provided they developed their mind after all those years.”

Foster stroked her chin in a sage like manner. “Hmm.”

“Yes, hmm indeed. I’m down for giving newbie’s a chance, but he’s useless to us if he can’t do those duties reliably. And remember we’ll be all alone out there.”

“Ain’t no backup or new recruits comin’ our way,” she said. “I’ll leave it in your capable hands, Dom.”

“I thought you’d say that.”

“The Carl Sagan is officially operational, we’ll be boarding it soon and therefore this will be the last chance to relax on the beach before its exploration, science, and discovery time. And I for one have a really daring bikini to try out before we do all that.”

They laughed heavily at her statement. Williams couldn’t blame her for sneaking in some last second R and R. Sirius was a star that was brighter, larger, hotter, and emitted more radiation than the sun. Sun bathing on a planet there would probably get you killed within hours. Sure, radiation shields could be built and probably were going to be used for the future colonies if they were on a planet that lacked a strong enough ozone layer, but where was the fun in that?

Foster was getting ready to get up from her seat as Williams went to finish his lunch. She stopped, almost frozen in time, as she saw his meal.

“I’ll be right here if you need me,” he said.

“On second thoughts,” she sat back down and leaned in closer to look at his dish, “I’ll join you for lunch.”

“You just want this because you saw it.”

“And smelt it. Shit that looks amazin’.”

Williams called for a server so that Foster could order a dish for herself. Idle chitchat followed, and they caught up on what they had been up to the last few days. The most shocking thing she revealed was that she broke up with Mike. The breakup itself wasn’t a big deal, as he himself had ended a relationship when he learned he would be leaving Earth for years. The shocking bit was that she seemed so eager for him to take a break and hang out on the beach with her. It was a tempting thought. He had been working out quite a bit prior to their assessment, but she was always like an older sister to him. It would feel odd for the two of them to walk on the beach together showing off their sexy beach bodies for the masses to see, as if they were a couple.

The server came back later to clear the two empty plates that were on their table and asked. “Enjoy ya meals?”

“Amazing,” Williams replied.

“It’s the chef’s last day,” said the server. “He’s retiring to go on a spiritual journey or something.”

The server’s reveal got Williams thinking. He checked the list of crew positions that still needed to be filled on his data pad. A head Chef was still vacant, and regardless of what psionic he’d end up selecting, they were going to need to eat food suitable for their species, and the chef here proved to be able to pull that off with ease.

“Mind if I have a chat with the chef when he’s free?” Williams asked.

“Sure, mon!”

Foster raised her eyebrow as the server left. “Dom?”

“If we’re going to be separated by eight point six light years, lets at least get some good grub with us.”

“He’s retiring though.”

“For a spiritual journey. What better way to do that than to go out to the stars, away from civilization, big cities, and such?”

5 Foster

Transport en route to ESRS Carl Sagan

Earth orbit, Sol system

March 10, 2033, 04:19 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster allowed her body to float freely as the transport she boarded broke free of Earth’s gravitational pull. It was a reminder that she had crossed the point of no return. She had left Earth and wasn’t going to see it for a long time, if ever. Her home had been given away to her mother, and they had shared a tearful and emotional goodbye as she went on to continue the work of her father, discovering more about the cosmos.

She tried her best to not let it get to her, and reminded herself that if her father was still alive, it probably would have been him aboard the transport packed with UNE navy personnel and IESA explorers, like herself, traveling to their assigned ships.

Just beyond the orbit of the Moon were the Nikola Tesla, Stephen Hawking, Freeman Dyson, and Carl Sagan in a diamond formation. A multitude of transport ships docked with or departed from the four massive ships, unloading crew, colonists, and supplies, while off-loading personnel that were to remain in Sol.

Foster entered the cockpit where a young Asian man with a thin goatee manned the transport. “Hey there, sorry didn’t catch ya name,” Foster said as she floated next to him.

“Chang, Flight Lieutenant Denis Chang at your service.”

“Give us a grand tour.”

“Grand tour?”

“Of the Carl Sagan,” Foster said, pointing toward it through the windshield. “I wanna see it from all angles before we dock.” She looked back at the various navy and IESA personnel behind her. “I’m sure y’all wanna check it too, so come on over!”

Chang grinned as he made the course adjustments on the flight controls before him. “One grand tour of the Carl Sagan coming right up!”

Their transport traveled silently toward the rear of the ship where its idle sub light speed engines were. Afterward he brought the transport around to its side, sunlight beaming off its hull as the transport cast a small moving shadow along it. The tethers that connected the main fuselage to the rear habitat ring were above them as they passed, Foster saw a glimpse of the mess hall through the windows, with people wheeling in kitchen equipment, pots, and pans for the chef and his cook team to use. Maintenance crews in EVA suits traveled to a disk-shaped maintenance hatch on the habitat ring after completing their structural integrity checks on that particular section.

More of the central section could be seen from the left side of the windshield, with personnel in space suits performing last-minute checks of the exterior of the hull, while others applied the finishing touches to the paint job, namely the name of the ship: ESRS Carl Sagan with the logo of IESA beside it and the flag of the UNE adjacent to that.

The forward habitat rings came into view, Chang made sure to slow down the transport as they neared it. The windows of that ring showed the countless families that boarded and were being guided toward their cryostasis pods. Hydroponic bays had small gardens and trees growing inside while botanists attended to them. Although most of the crew will be in stasis, a small rotating skeleton crew will remain awake to tend to the plants and monitor ship-wide systems.

Chang adjusted course, took the transport to the opposite end of the forward habitat ring, and allowed everyone to peer into the windows of the colonization pods that will be used to build the first cities. Small, compact homes and utility facilities were loaded into this section of the habitat ring. Once a suitable planet was found, section by section, the forward habitat ring will come apart and land safely on the surface of the planet, founding the first city. There were enough pods to provide shelter to the thousands of people aboard, as well as basic equipment to build mines, manufacturing planets, water treatment centers, and power generators.

The bridge came up on the next leg of their tour. It was smaller compared to UNE battleships. Foster saw Williams check out the bridge’s layout through the windshields. She waved to him, but he didn’t reply, no doubt he didn’t notice her or the transport that was in front. The final destination of the transport approached as they dipped down to the underside of the ship. Earth was huge in the background, and it was a fitting end to the tour as it was officially the last time everyone aboard the transport would be able to see it with their own eyes without the aid of cameras or recorded images.

“See ya around,” Chang said waving goodbye to the blue world. “Want another round?”

“I think we’re good,” said Foster. “Guess you’re coming with us?”

He began to pilot the transport to dock inside of the docking bay’s entrance located underneath the ship. “Yes ma’am, transferred here from the ESRS Nikola Tesla.”

“Why’s that?”

“My brother and sister were selected to be part of the colonists here rather than the Tesla, didn’t make sense for me to be serving out there when they are out in Sirius,” Chang said. “Besides, at Luhman 16 is just a pair of brown dwarfs … doesn’t sound like an exciting adventure to me.”

Earth, space, and the moon below them came out of view, replaced with the interior of the docking bay as the doors behind them slid shut. Everyone got off the transport, like passengers leaving a crowded train only weightless. Foster and Chang continued to talk about the life they were leaving behind and the new life that was awaiting them.

Out from the crowd stepped a woman wearing a UNE navy uniform and magnetic boots that kept her glued to the floor. Foster reminded herself to get a pair of those from the lockup, as she wasn’t fond of having to pull on the handle bars on the walls to gain momentum. The UNE navy woman had auburn hair and the name tag Chevallier on her uniform. It was none other than Foster’s chief of security and leader of all UNE naval personnel aboard the Carl Sagan, Master Chief Mathilda Chevallier.

“Flight Lieutenant,” Chevallier said with her heavy French accent, forcing Chang to salute her.

“Yes, Chief,” he said firmly.

“I think the captain has better things to do than to listen to you ramble, yes?”

“We’re good, don’t worry about it,” said Foster, then she faced the slender yet strong woman in front of them. “So Master Chief you’ll be in command of all UNE personnel then?”

“Actually, that will be Commander McDowell.”

Foster grimaced as she wasn’t informed of the change. Last-minute changes like that never worked out well especially when someone who was supposed to be in command has it taken away. “As of when?” Foster asked.

“As of last night,” said Chevallier. “He was transferred here, I’ll be serving under him.”

“Nice to know that the UNE gave me the heads-up.”

Officially the UNE navy and IESA were two different organizations. IESA employed scientists, explorers, and physicists while the navy brought on combat personnel and crew personnel to assist with the ship’s operations, most notably the Hammerhead team, which Chevallier was a member of. Hammerheads were the successors to the old world special forces groups such as the Navy SEALs, Joint Task Force 2, SAS, Special Boat Service. The name Hammerhead came from the design of their helmets which had two sensor modules on either side of it, giving it an eerie look, similar to a Hammerhead shark. However, with the creation of the EDF, recruitment into the Hammerheads had been scaled back in favor of funneling new recruits into the EDF program as EDF-1 was currently en route back to Earth to help in cross training.

Foster was the captain of the ship, but ultimately was still a civilian in the eyes of the military. While she still called the shots, navy members followed orders given by their CO, apparently Commander McDowell rather than the Master Chief as she was originally told. If Foster needed the navy she relayed a request to their CO who then rallied the troops into action.

It was easy to tell who was who just by looking at their uniforms since IESA and UNE uniforms were different. The flag of the nation the wearer was from were in a different location. Military personnel had their flags on the top back of their uniforms, while IESA had theirs on the shoulders. IESA uniforms were partly inspired by the uniforms NASA astronauts used to wear during the pre-war days, whereas navy uniforms were largely inspired by royal navy uniform used by the pre-war British.

Foster left the docking bay and traveled up onto the main decks within the central fuselage of the ship. Various people saluted her as she made her way to the rear habitat ring. A lengthy elevator ride took her up where she was graced with the feeling of the artificial gravity. She found the captain’s quarters and entered, it was bigger than her living room back in LA. Most of the furniture and her larger personal belongings were still stored in boxes. She had no plans on unboxing them just yet, they’ll just be idle for seventeen years anyways. She tossed her two duffel bags into the corner then exited, what was in the habitat ring was more interesting than her quarters.

She walked past an assortment of sections in the ring such as the gym and crew quarters. She couldn’t help but look out of the numerous observation windows as light from the sun slowly began to shine through. She saw Williams in the reflection of one window as he approached her from the side with the same mesmerized face she had.

“This is incredible,” he said.

“It is,” she said and pointed at a large construction scaffold above Earth in the distance. “Check that out.”

“What’s that?”

“New warship in construction already; they didn’t wait long. Apparently that one will take a lot longer to build than the others. It’s gonna have new fancy tech no other Earth-based ship will have.”

“Such as a QEC.” Foster and Williams spun around to see that Rivera had snuck up behind to join their conversation.

Foster smiled at her and began to introduce the two to each other. “Dom, meet our Chief engineer, Jasmine Rivera.”

“Nice to meet you, Commander,” Rivera said, shaking his hand as she put her holo pad away.

Foster whispered into Williams’ ear. “She’s single.”

Williams smirked and tried his best to hold in a laugh which made Rivera ask. “What?”

“Nothing!” Foster said, changing the subject. “So, about that new ship?”

“Yeah.” Rivera stepped closer to the observation window and locked her eyes on the construction scaffold in orbit. “It will be different from the rest of the fleet, Quantum Entanglement Communicator will be one of the biggest additions to it, and possibly an android version of the new EVE AI.”

“Android?”

“Still in the early testing phase, they aren’t even sure it will make it in time for the launch,” Rivera said. “Well, I’ll leave you two alone, I gotta see how engineering looks.”

Foster nodded to their Chief engineer. “Make sure we’re good for launch, we’ll be fixin’ to depart as soon as the last colonists arrive.”

“I hear music,” Williams said as Rivera took her leave.

Foster listened closely, there was indeed music playing. “That must be the recreation room.”

The sounds of the music led them near the entrance to the recreation room. Inside they saw a laid-back lounge set up, complete with a small bar, long tables, chairs, and couches. Lounge music played as crew personnel stocked the bar and unpacked several entertainment devices. It was the perfect place for the crew to unwind during their off-hours, especially during the first few years into their journey to the stars, as not everyone would be in cryo all the time.

“Oh, that reminds me,” Williams said, snapping his fingers.

“What’s up?”

He left the recreation room and waved for Foster to follow. His steps led her into the mess hall and then into the galley. Brand-new silver-colored cooking equipment was still wrapped in their shipping covers. Pots and pans hung from their hooks around the walls in a neat and organized manner. Foster heard someone in the rear food preparation area buzzing around as Williams guided her there.

“I got him,” Williams said as they turned the corner and saw a Jamaican man no older than fifty examine the food preparation area. He had short black hair, no doubt dyed black to hide any grey hairs, and wore a chef’s white jacket and black pants.

“This is Chef Demarion Bailey from the restaurant we had lunch at,” Williams said.

“Captain Foster,” she said, shaking Bailey’s hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Pleased to meet you too.”

“Settling in well?” Williams asked him.

“Ya mon, this kitchen is amazing,” Bailey said. “Gonna make some real nice food for you all.”

They toured the rest of the kitchen and noted the small cryostorage containers used for food, so that ingredients wouldn’t rot on their voyage, after all, what they brought aboard had to last, even after their arrival in Sirius. Livestock was brought aboard and placed into cryostasis as well, but it was reserved for the new colony once it was set up.

As they left the mess hall, two crewmen stopped and raised their hands to salute the two as they walked past, then returned diligently to their duties with data pads in hand. “I see you’ve been busy with recruiting, Dom.”

“We’re still short a lot of bodies compared to the other ships,” Williams said. “This was a last-minute addition to the fleet after all. Apparently IESA had scaled down recruiting and neglected to tell me.”

“Bah, so we’re running a skeleton crew?”

“Outside of the science and exploration teams yeah, we got the bare minimum with a lot of rookie transport pilots.”

“I’ll be sure to make sure only navy personnel pilots our transports for critical missions.”

Foster and Williams ended their hour-long tour of the ship at the bridge. The central sections of the ship that were not part of the habitat ring lacked gravity. It forced them to use handle bars on the walls to pull themselves forward or to stop their momentum unless magnetic boots were equipped. The bridge was the exception as gravity glued their bodies to the floor when they passed through its wide sliding doors.

“Gravity,” Foster said happily.

“Yep.” Williams gestured at the sole alien crew member of the ship who stood at the shipboard psionic station on the bridge. “There’s our shipboard psionic.”

“Rookie or the combat vet?”

“Vet. In the end he brought more to the table, that and the representative at the embassy really, really wanted us to recruit him. I figured he was trying to make sure we were in good hands.”

Foster eyed their psionic. He was a Javnis, though it was hard to see his four eyes beneath the dark cloak hood he wore. Like most psionics his body was implanted with cybernetic upgrades on his hands, arms, and across his chest. The upgrades needed to be exposed in order to ensure they worked correctly, so his green lizard-like body was on show as he wore only the cloak, and pants.

“Maybe the embassy wanted to get rid of him for reasons unknown,” Foster said.

Williams cringed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’m sure you made the right choice.”

“I can hear you,” said the psionic, as his four eyes remained gazing at the computer screen on his station.

“And he’s got excellent hearing, that might come in handy,” said Williams.

Foster and Williams approached the Javnis psionic as he continued to work on the computer. His cloak made it hard to tell what emotions were going through his body, if he had any at all.

“Captain Foster, pleasure to meet you.” Foster offered her hand for him to shake. The Javnis slowly turned his head away from the screen and looked at her, then her hand in a confused manner. “Umm, OK.”

“I got this, Becca,” Williams said. “Commander Dominic Williams. Your acquaintance is recognized.”

Williams performed what Foster guessed was a traditional Radiance greeting, placing one hand to his shoulder. Foster had heard about it from time to time, but never did learn it, she always assumed that most Radiance living on Earth adopted human customs. What was playing out before her showed otherwise.

The Javnis looked at Williams and in a deep monotone voice said. “Wrong hand.”

Williams stopped as the feeling of embarrassment hit him hard. “What?”

“You used the wrong hand for the greeting.”

“Oh well let’s try—”

“Don’t try again,” the Javnis said as his four eyes shifted to his computer screen.

“Well it was great talking with you,” Foster said to the Javnis. “Sorry, didn’t catch ya name?”

“Tolukei,” he replied.

“We’ll let you get back to it Mr. Tolukei,” she said.

“Just Tolukei, we do not have surnames.”

“It’s just a navy custom.”

“I am not part of your navy. Neither are you.”

“Yea but …” Foster stopped in the middle of her sentence. Tolukei was going to be a piece of work, based on their limited interactions. She smiled and simply said. “I’ll get going.”

Tolukei mumbled. “Yes, you should.”

Foster turned her attention away from Tolukei and toward the rest of the bridge. Its layout was different compared to that of UNE battleships. It was smaller and partly inspired by the layout of Radiance bridges. A captain’s chair was in the center while the helmsman sat up front. Next to the helm was the science officer’s station, communications off to one side and the psionic workstation on the opposite.

There was no central hologram that gave the captain and others a 3D projection of the ship or the system they were in. In fact, many of the computers on the bridge still used computer screens, budget cutbacks she figured, as a large part of the budget for the ship went toward the colonization equipment and extra cryostasis pods for the thousands of colonists aboard.

Williams poked around at the other stations on the bridge to familiarize himself with the crew and systems, as Foster approached the front to speak with her first choice in a science officer, Dr. Travis Pierce. He sat back in his leather chair and examined the contents of his computer screen, while a data pad and holo pad rested on its desktop-like surface along with half dozen data crystals.

“Dr. Pierce, glad to see you were able to make it,” she said to him.

“Well, apparently, I didn’t have much choice, funds are low right now and my landlord wanted to raise my rent,” Pierce said. “I hear rent isn’t an issue for those living in Sirius.”

“Once we’re done here, you’re gonna have an apartment better than you had in Vancouver.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, you know, gut feeling.”

“I doubt we’ll find Earthlike planets at Sirius. It’s not even possible given the age of the Sirius system.”

“There’s gotta be something of interest.”

“The entire Sirius system was created some two to three hundred million years ago; the dinosaurs walked the Earth when that system was in its infancy. Life on Earth started some three and a half billion years ago.”

Foster grimaced. “Oh,” were the only words she could muster.

“Do the math.”

She crossed her arms and stared at him. “You gonna be the negative Nancy of the crew?”

Pierce laughed. “I’m going to be the one to remind everyone not to forget science when pleasant things start to happen.”

Foster glanced at his screen and saw the time on the bottom right corner. Departure from Earth was due soon. She took a seat in her captain’s chair and activated the small computer mounted onto the arms of it. A blue and white holographic projection of a woman appeared in front of her suddenly. It caused her to yelp and draw the attention of everyone on the bridge.

“I am sorry, Captain, did my presence surprise you?” the holographic woman said.

“Not every day I see somebody appear in front of me like that.”

“My bad, Captain,” Williams called out from the aft section of the bridge. “I just activated it now.”

Foster looked closely at the hologram. She wore a UNE navy uniform, though the flag on the back was that of the UNE rather than a country of origin. She had long, braided hair and stood with her hands behind her back. There was little emotion or movement coming from her body, which led Foster to believe it wasn’t a holographic transmission but rather a computer program.

“EVE, I presume?” Foster said to the hologram.

“That is correct, Captain Foster; I am Electronic Versatile Entity version 1.8.”

Foster grinned. “1.8? That’s the latest update, nice.”

“That is correct.”

All UNE ships were outfitted with an AI known as EVE which served as the central computer system. EVE was capable of quantum computing, taking control of the ships operations if requested, as well as being able to speak and interact with the crew as if she were a holographic member of it. It was no surprise to Foster that the UNE was working on developing an android version of EVE for the next ship under construction as it would give the AI a chance to physically assist the crew. For now, however, they were stuck with the hologram as with all other ships.

“Well pleasure to … meet you,” Foster said.

The slow countdown to departure began as Foster enjoyed the new-car-smell of the bridge and her leather chair. She browsed through several ship-wide reports on her holo pad revealing the status of all sections. Several crew members were shocked to see that they were all issued holo pads to replace their data pads.

UNE command gave the final thumbs-up to the exploration fleet to leave, as the final colonists, crew, and supplies were boarded and ready. This is it, Foster thought as she stored her holo pad off to the side of her chair.

Foster opened a comm link with Rivera. “Engine room, are we good to go?”

“All my systems are green,” Rivera’s voice replied.

Foster faced the helm. “Ensign Collins?”

The young ensign checked his terminal. “Good to go, Captain.”

“Colonists are meandering about on the habitat ring but will be entering cryo shortly,” Williams said as he skimmed through a projection on his holo pad.

“If anyone’s having second thoughts now is the time to speak up, ain’t no turning back now!” No one spoke. They were all ready to make the huge commitment to the ship, crew, and human race. “Ensign Collins, take us out.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The powerful thrusters of the fleet of exploration ships flared and sent them away from Earth and the moon as they repositioned themselves in the direction of their destinations. Once they were clear of all space traffic from transport ships heading to and from Earth, Mars, the belt, and the moons of the gas giants, the small fleet entered sub light speeds, traveling at approximately half the speed of light.

The ESRS Nikola Tesla began a journey to Luhman 16 and was expected to arrive in 2046. ESRS Stephen Hawking was expected to arrive at Wolf 359 in 2048. A year later the ESRS Freeman Dyson would arrive at Lalande, and approximately a year after that the ESRS Carl Sagan should arrive at Sirius.

Foster’s holo pad beeped, she received a last second email from her mother and the last message she’ll receive from Earth until they reestablished contact on arrival.

“Good luck, your father would be proud.” The message said.

6 Foster

ESRS Carl Sagan

Edge of the Sirius system

May 18, 2050, 13:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

EVE was programmed to awaken the crew of the Carl Sagan once they neared the Sirius system. Bright blue-white light from the pair of stars reflected across the hull of the sleeping Earth ship while the ceiling lights inside slowly began to activate, section by section, starting with the cryo chambers, where most of the crew had slept for the past seventeen years. The automatic revival process triggered for Foster’s pod as it pumped her body with the chemicals needed to wake her, while the lid slowly swung up.

Her eyes opened though her vision was slightly blurry. She was only able to make out blotches of light and slight movement floating away from the walls, most likely the rest of the crew that awoke alongside her. The blurry visuals gradually transformed into familiar sights; the cryo chamber, and dazed, uniformed IESA and UNE navy personnel pushing away from their pods and into the weightless chamber.

Out from the embraces of Foster’s arms was a hidden guest that was in stasis with her, her cat Starlet. Being the captain had its privileges. The tabby cat flailed its legs about as it struggled to understand the disappearance of gravity and the disorientating feeling of being locked away in cryo for nearly two decades. Her hands wrapped tightly around her feline companion, kicked off the walls, soared across the chamber to its exit, and made the lengthy slog onto the habitat ring.

Foster went into her quarters and released her pet as its panic subsided when it felt the force of gravity once again. Foster was pleased to see that her quarters was still in decent condition, despite it being untouched for so long. As tempting as it was to finish unpacking and get set up, she had a job to do on the bridge, and a page in human history to start writing. She pulled out a can of cat food she had slipped into her pocket prior to entering cryo and popped it open.

Starlet leaped off the bed and ran toward her while she slapped some of it into its feeding bowl.

Leave it to a cat to want to be fed the moment you wake up, even if it was a multiyear sleep, she thought.

After a quick shower, Foster headed to the bridge not in full uniform. She wore a white shirt with a black vest over top of it along with black cargo pants. They were far from Earth, the UNE, and IESA and she was the captain of the damn ship. She was still a millennial at heart and wasn’t going to let something like being in full uniform all the time bog her down. Besides most of the crew was still in the process of getting back together. It was like a Saturday morning as far as she was concerned, nobody dressed formally on days like that.

She stopped to admire the bright blue-white glow of light in front of them. The twin stars of Sirius were the dominant figures on the bridge’s forward windshield, the material within the windshield dimmed to allow safe viewing.

“Stunning, absolutely stunning,” Williams said.

Foster sat down on her captain’s chair and paid no mind to everyone as they noticed she wasn’t in uniform. “Ladies and gents,” she said looking at the pair of stars. “Like it or not this is our new home.”

EVE’s hologram appeared and gave Foster an update, the Carl Sagan was still en route to the system at sub light speed while essential crew was still being revived section by section, while the colonists stayed in stasis until the order was given to release them.

“Mister Tolukei,” Foster called out to him. “Have you contacted a psionic back at Earth yet?”

“Mister? I do not have a surname,” Tolukei said.

“Remember when I said its human navy tradition and all?”

“I am not human,” Tolukei said with a shrug. “Nor am I a member of the UNE navy, and neither are you.”

“Oh, for god’s sakes … I know just—never mind, did you reach anyone at Earth yet?”

“I have not, but will continue to try.”

Foster spun her chair around to face him with concern in her eyes and a troubling wince on her face. “What’s wrong?”

Tolukei faced her as the darkness from his hood enveloped his face. “I cannot reach anyone’s mind, it is possible that the staff were switched during our journey. Even then, I should be able to find a psionic mind that I can connect with.”

“And you can’t?”

“There is nothing.”

“How about folks in Radiance?”

Tolukei folded his hands together, his head tilted upward as he entered his trance. Foster figured he was trying to establish a telepathic communication with someone from the Radiance Union. “Nothing, it is as if all psionics have ceased to exist.”

Foster and Williams exchanged worried glances as did the rest of the bridge crew. “Well, that’s not good,” she said.

“Is it possible the cryo trip weakened your mind?” Williams asked Tolukei.

Tolukei shook his head. “No, as I can sense what lies before us with my ESP.”

Foster shifted her chair back toward the front as she said, “Well let’s send a message to Earth regardless, informing them that we’ve arrived safely.”

“That will take eight or nine years to get there,” Williams said.

“I know …” Foster sighed.

“Here’s hoping a psionic back at Earth will reach out to us. They should know that we’d be coming out of cryo right about now anyway. In the meantime, let’s see what’s out there.”

“Right this way, Captain,” Pierce said from a station at the aft end of the bridge.

Foster and Williams walked over to the newly added section of the bridge where Pierce stood. It had massive 3D holograms that depicted the layout of the Sirius system and all its planets and moons, collected and cataloged by EVE and the Carl Sagan’s long-range scans during their trip.

“Well this is neat,” Foster said.

“Rivera’s team got it up and running during the first year of our journey,” Pierce said. “We can view a layout of the system here and plan where to go.”

Foster reached out and tapped the hologram which interacted with her touch and zoomed in or out depending on her hand movements. Labels appeared over planets that listed their size, orbital period, gravity, average surface temperatures, and atmospheric composition amongst other interesting facts.

“I see we already got a lay of the land,” Foster said.

“We’ve been scanning constantly as we slept and built this map,” Pierce said. “And now that we’re closer we can update it with new information from ship scans and probes, as well as anything Tolukei discovers with his ESP.”

The three began to examine the data closely as it progressively updated with new information as they approached the system. A lot of the data cataloged was heavily focused on the planets as Sirius itself, while interesting, they knew about from telescopes looking at it over the years. Sirius A was a massive white main-sequence star nearly double the size of the star Earth orbited, and produced light that could easily render someone blind in a matter of seconds as it was nearly 25 times brighter. Lucky for the crew all windows automatically dimmed to control the amount of light that came through.

Sirius A had a companion dubbed Sirius B a smaller white dwarf that orbited with Sirius and therefore was cooler compared to Sirius A. And upon closer inspection the trio discovered what appeared to be a third companion, one that wasn’t supposed to be there based on past knowledge of the system. After double-checking the data with the sensor logs along with EVE’s analysis and Tolukei’s ESP, they confirmed that it wasn’t a system glitch.

“A brown dwarf star,” Pierce said with interest. Foster made the projection zoom in toward the third star. “It has a planetary system.”

Foster smiled and said to Pierce. “Holy shit, you know what this means, right? Sirius C is real.”

“My god.” Pierce was floored. “Though it would explain why we were never able to detect it, at least not from Earth, it was too faint to be seen.”

“And orbited around the known Sirius pair,” Foster said. “Still doesn’t explain why Radiance never discovered it.”

“This is still an unexplored region of space to them; perhaps they only took brief scans, where the presence of a brown dwarf could easily have been missed if its orbit placed it behind Sirius A at the time of the scan.”

They watched almost in a trance like state as a simulation played on the hologram. It showed the brown dwarf Sirius C followed an orbital path that circled around the Sirius pair of A and B.

“All right, we got not two but three systems all in one, and all with planets around ‘em,” Foster said. “We got our work cut out.”

“Let’s chart Sirius B first,” Williams suggested. “We’re closer to it and it will be a great chance to see what happens to planets in the aftermath of a red giant.”

Foster tapped the image of the white dwarf of Sirius B. The projection expanded to show the orbiting planets at the edge of its system. As expected, there weren’t many planets close to Sirius B as many had most likely been destroyed during the time it was a red giant millions of years ago.

Foster returned to her captain’s chair while Pierce returned to his science station. “Helm, set a course to Sirius B.”

“Yes, Captain.”

ESRS Carl Sagan

Traversing the Sirius B system

May 18, 2050, 17:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Carl Sagan conducted short surveys of the planets that orbited Sirius B. The geologists aboard became ecstatic as data from the probes transmitted their findings and pictures back to the ship. The rest of the crew wasn’t as easily impressed, naturally the pictures that loaded were nothing more than frozen rocks, mountains, and craters. Every planet encountered was rocky, heavily cratered and devoid of all life. Most lacked atmospheres, burned off during the red giant stage with rugged terrain that resembled the surface of the moon back at Earth.

Some planets showed promise for future mining operations, traces of valuable minerals rested in the bellies of those worlds, waiting to be plucked by the new arrivals. Mining would be critical if they were to make this region their new home. Data sent back from a probe revealed one of the gas giants to have huge potential for heileum-3 mining, excellent news considering Sirius A also had a gas giant. Two sources of heileum-3 wasn’t a bad thing at all. Preliminary plans were drawn up by the colonization teams to establish mines and science and research outposts in the system.

Foster noticed the smile that stretched across Dr. Pierce’s face the longer they stayed in the system. Every probe they launched sent additional streams of data that updated their knowledge base of the system and its wonders. And to think, this was only Sirius B, there was still the planets of Sirius A and Sirius C to explore and catalog.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Captain’s office

SB-215 orbit, Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 06:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The crew awoke bright and early the next day. Foster gave Williams the heads-up about her cat and for him to look after it if she was on duty and he wasn’t. She had a feeling that she’d be pulling long shifts for the next several days as the trove of data collected by the dozens of probes deployed throughout the system continued to arrive.

The Carl Sagan remained in orbit around SB-215, a small, cold moon around the gas giant of SB-2. Foster was looking forward to the day they’d be able to give planets and moons a name rather than the automated designation EVE tagged them with. Foster sat in her office located beneath the bridge, another feature of ship design adapted from Radiance. Foster’s desk sat before a wide window that peered out into space. Plants from Earth decorated the office, while a small countertop off to the side became home of a coffee maker and a display cabinet held models of various ships in the UNE navy, though the layout was still a work in progress. Foster had hoped to further decorate her office with more of her personal belongings from her quarters.

She took a sip of her warm drink as she reviewed reports and data that were transmitted to the ship during their sleep. There was a problem that needed to be addressed right away, water. The Carl Sagan had enough water to satisfy the needs of the crew and a few thousand liters stored away for an emergency and more on reserve for the future colonists once they awoke. Safe drinking water needed to be found in the system otherwise they’d need to enforce strict water rationing protocols. The thought of monthly showers made her shudder. Then there was all the plant life growing in the greenhouses. They’d be critical for the start of a colony, especially if they had to settle on a world with unbreathable air and live inside an enclosed environment. Plants will remove CO2 and replace it with O2, but plants, like all living things, need water to survive.

A staircase off the side brought her up to the bridge where she approached Dr. Pierce who was reviewing data collected by the probes, namely if there was a world that had water.

“You’re surprisingly silent,” she said to him.

Pierce kept his eyes on his computer screen and his arm resting on his cluttered workstation. “Busy doing my job.”

“Doesn’t the discovery of Sirius C make you think just maybe?”

As important as it was to search for water, Foster was surprised that Pierce didn’t say anything more about the discovery of Sirius C. The Dogon tribes of West Africa claimed for years that aliens visited them from Sirius and told them stories that it was a trinary star system. Now they stood before proof that Sirius was indeed that. Pierce a former advocate of the theory of the Dogon kept quiet about it.

“Nope,” Pierce said after a slight delay. “OK, well it’s interesting, but we don’t know anything else. Plus, we haven’t seen any signs of ships, so it’s safe to say the legend about this system are still just stories told by ancient humans that didn’t know any better.”

His computer beeped causing the two of them to look at the flashing notification that appeared on the screen. Pierce’s fingers interacted with the terminal as he revealed the report that populated the screen.

“Here we go,” he said. “Got a planet here, a frozen one with traces of ice all across the surface. Lots of it too, looks like it was once an ocean.”

Foster leaned in closer to look at the data a probe had sent them two hours ago. It had landed on one of the most distant planets in the Sirius B system. It was an Earth-sized planet, tagged SB-417. Its distance would have placed it in the habitable zone during the age of Sirius B’s reign as a red giant, meaning that liquid water may have existed on its surface in the past as well as an atmosphere with rain clouds that never got stripped away from the punishment of the former red giant.

“Worth a look,” Foster said. “Helm, set a course to SB-417.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 08:11 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The ESRS Carl Sagan exited from sub light speeds and entered orbit around the frozen planet of SB-417. The planet’s orbital path not only placed it as the furthest away from Sirius B, but also away from Sirius A in the distance, thus making it the most remote planet between Sirius A and B.

Foster glared at the dark ice-covered planet from the windshield and wondered if this is what Earth would look like in several million years, after the sun goes through its red giant stage then shrinks into a white dwarf. Though in Earth’s case, its oceans would have long boiled away, this planet however still had its oceans, they just froze over.

“Deploy another probe, let’s get some detailed scans on that ice,” Foster said.

“We might want to do more than that,” Pierce said.

“Oh?”

“Now that we’re closer we got a better idea on what’s on the surface.” Foster stood behind him and looked at his computer screen. He directed her attention to the appearance of several objects on the surface, partially encased in snow and ice. “Those don’t look natural to me.”

“Those look like structures.”

Several areas of the surface, that was once solid land before the big freeze, had cylinder-shaped structures that surrounded several pyramid-shaped ones. The pattern of shapes was constant throughout the planet, there was no way it was a natural formation of rocks or ice.

“Intelligent life was here,” Pierce said.

“Most of these structures are at least two kilometers away from the ice too, guess you were right about the frozen ocean,” said Foster.

“Makes sense, Sirius B was a red giant and therefore this planet during that time received enough heat to have an ocean. What doesn’t make sense however is that’s not enough time passed for life to evolve, an intelligent species to advance, and build these before dying off.”

Pierce was right, given what was known about the Sirius system. White main sequence stars burn their fuel quickly which results in them swelling to a red giant, then collapsing into a white dwarf faster than a star such as Sol. With an age of two to three hundred million years, Sirius B only spent a fraction of those years as a red giant, so there was no way for anything major such as the evolution of multicellular life to arise on SB-417. The planet would have at best had flowing water on the surface, but nothing more unless a species that had access to interstellar travel arrived during that time.

Either that, or what they knew of evolution was completely wrong. The latter seemed least likely as the Radiance database proved that life had evolved throughout the galaxy in a similar manner and timespan as that on Earth. Not precisely, but pretty damn close.

“Nobody is dead.” Tolukei’ s deep voice rang out.

Both Foster and Pierce faced him and said in unison, “What?”

“I sense psionic activity on the surface,” Tolukei said. “It’s very weak.”

“You’re saying someone, something is alive down there? In this cold and darkness? And it’s a psionic?” Foster said.

“I am saying there is a weak psionic force on the surface,” Tolukei said.

“Captain, permission to lead a survey team?” Pierce asked Foster.

“Granted, though I’ll be leadin’ it.”

Foster strode toward the exit of the bridge as Pierce followed excitedly behind.

“Isn’t the captain’s place on the bridge?” Williams said before she exited.

“Not this captain,” Foster said to Williams. “I didn’t travel over fifty trillion miles from Earth to sit on the bridge all day barking orders. Dom, you have the bridge.”

Williams nodded. “Understood.”

“I saw you eyeing that chair, so don’t be bashful, keep it warm for me.”

7 Chevallier

ESRS Carl Sagan, Docking bay

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 08:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Master Chief Petty Officer Mathilda Chevallier grinned as one of the crew had referred to her as ‘MC,’ a nickname that had quickly grown on her since coming aboard. She double-checked to ensure her equipment was good to go alongside her CO, Commander McDowell, and Petty Officer Third Class Kingston.

McDowell asked her and Kingston to join him, as the captain and some science officer insisted on traveling to the surface. Chevallier, and the rest of the party wore standard issue UNE Hammerhead combat armor complete with personal shields and helmet. The armor also doubled as an EVA suit allowing them to perform a space walk and traverse the surface of a hostile environment, like the one below. It even worked well in deep-sea operations, truly living up to the name Hammerhead.

Chevallier looked at the docking bay as she hovered in the weightless environment. On UNE battleships, this section of the ship was reserved for the storage and launching of transports or Solaris fighters. Here on the Carl Sagan, there were transport ships … and more transports, a few dormant probes, exploration rovers, and a bunch of other weird gizmos. She had no idea what they were called or what they did. She wasn’t impressed.

“So, I hear the bridge crew gets nice soft chairs to sit in,” Kingston said to her.

“Does that surprise you?” Chevallier said. “They’re not military; they can’t handle standing up too long.”

“It’s a Radiance design,” McDowell said. “They have seats for every station on their bridges.”

“I’m still sticking to my story,” Chevallier said.

Kingston laughed as he performed a somersault by some strange means to impress her, she rolled her eyes at him. “Can’t believe we got stuck on this boat that’s run by nonmilitary.”

“Eggheads aren’t fighters, they run the ship and from time to time get out and look around,” McDowell said.

Chevallier watched Kingston perform another zero-g somersault, he was clearly bored and growing impatient. “Then why is the Captain coming along?”

“The fuck if I know, guess she think she’s hot shit,” Chevallier said. “I hear she hasn’t been in proper uniform since coming out of cryo. Way to lead by example.”

McDowell snorted. “You’re one to talk MC?”

Chevallier looked at McDowell’s tall body and bald head, shot him a smug grin and said, “No, sir.”

He didn’t smile back, and she knew why. Chevallier’s long reputation of butting heads with officers was well-known throughout the navy, including the personnel assigned to the ship. There was not a single doubt in her mind that McDowell was asked to join the team at the last second as a means of undermining what was supposed to be her command and leader of all UNE navy personnel and Hammerheads. They glared at each other, Chevallier may have had a smaller and slimmer body compared to him, but she was still a fiery redhead who had broken the bones of men twice her size in the past.

She moved away from McDowell and hovered next to a weapons locker, then keyed in the pass code on the terminal’s touch screen. As its doors slid open she listened as Kingston and a crewman spoke. They were rambling about her. She held onto her eRifle and acted as if she was performing systems tests on it.

“What’s her story?” The crewman asked.

“HLF attacked a temple set up for Radiance in New Miami,” Kingston said. “She disobeyed orders, got everyone killed including her team. Got grilled by her CO, then broke his nose. But she’s the daughter of Captain Chevallier of the Wilfrid Laurier, so she got off with a slap on the wrist and was shipped out here, so they wouldn’t have to deal with her or the bad publicity.”

She continued to listen in as they talked about her lifestyle of partying hard and drinking people under the table. They compared her to a marine rather than someone in the navy. Captain Foster and the egghead scientist arrived sometime later, thus ending the chitchat as attention was directed to them.

“Coming with us, I hear?” Chevallier said to her.

“You heard correct.”

Chevallier grabbed two ePistols from the lockup and handed them to the Captain and the scientist, who introduced himself as Dr. Pierce. Not that she cared or would remember five minutes from now.

“I hope you know how to use these,” Chevallier said to the two.

“eWeapons,” Foster said as she holstered the weapon into her cargo pants. “I miss the old-world stuff.”

eWeapons were reverse engineered Radiance magnetic weapons. They fired bullets accelerated by magnetic fields toward a target. The weapons were wholly computerized and presented tactical data back to its user via a targeting screen. It was also capable of syncing with the computer systems within combat armor and relaying information gathered by the targeting scanner to the wearers HUD. Hunks of metal served as its ammunition, and the weapon sliced off pieces of the metal to form appropriate sized bullets for the encounter; no reloading required. The rail guns of the Carl Sagan and other ships functioned similarly but on a larger scale.

The weapons were indeed a huge step up from old-world guns used prior to the Hashmedai invasion of Earth, though it had its drawbacks, the biggest being power. If a rifle lost all power either from an EMP or low batteries, the weapon became useless. Computerized weapons also meant they were vulnerable to computer viruses or skilled hackers, though such incidents were extremely rare.

“Dr. Pierce?” Foster said, giving him a nudge.

Pierce looked at the weapon Chevallier had offered him, and did nothing but stare at it in awe. Chevallier suspected that a man with all his university degrees had never held a weapon, let alone looked at one. It was a troubling thought given his age, he had to have been alive during the invasion and lived through it. Every person she met that was an adult during 2018 had fired a gun or at least kept one on them on them for self-defense. Even cities that were never attacked during the war had a brief period of lawlessness when everyone had to look out for their own interests. Vancouver was clearly not one of those cities.

Pierce looked away from the ePistol and apprehensively glanced at Chevallier. “I’ve never held a weapon in my life.”

Yeah, no shit.

“Why do I need it? Aren’t you guys supposed to watch over us?”

Chevallier sighed and forced the weapon into his hands. “If we get separated, knocked out or killed, who will watch your ass?” She pointed to the pistol. “That will.”

McDowell, Chevallier, and Kingston armed themselves with eRifles before heading toward the open transport along with Foster and Pierce. A woman wearing an IESA uniform with the flag of the Philippines entered and shouted for the group to wait for her.

“Rivera, you coming with us too?” Foster said to her.

“Naw, my place is in engineering for now,” Rivera replied. “But I wanted you guys to have this.”

Rivera handed Foster and Pierce devices that looked like the holo pads everyone had been using. These however were different, smaller with a small sensor up top, similar in design to medical scanners.

“What the hell are these?” Foster said, eying the handheld device.

“Something I was working on during my shifts in and out of cryo on our trek here,” Rivera said. “It’s an EAD, Environment Analyzer Device. I took apart a few of the holo pads we had that had glitches and rebuilt them into these; you can use them to scan the area around you. It’s also linked with EVE’s processors aboard where she can perform a more detailed analysis as well as catalogue and store your findings.”

Foster activated the device, a small holographic window appeared above it, and it reported the findings the EAD detected. “Sounds handy.”

“Very handy,” Pierce said as he gave it a test. “I might be able to choose samples to bring back to study, rather than grab everything.”

Rivera gave them a quick rundown on how to use all the features of the device. It was a lengthy conversation that had her and Pierce spit out technobabble none of the military folks like Chevallier understood. Chevallier noticed that McDowell and Kingston had floated into the transport and took a seat up in the cockpit, she followed suit as well and hoped the IESA folks would hurry up and get on. Foster and Pierce eventually glided aboard, giving Kingston the green light to begin the transport’s prelaunch procedures as the doors slid shut.

“EVA suits are in the back,” Chevallier said to Foster and Pierce. “Make sure to keep your shields up, this planet is getting a nice dose of X-ray radiation from the star.”

“And we plan to harvest it for water?” Kingston said as he began to pilot the transport out and away from the Carl Sagan.

“We got some good water treatment systems on the colonization ring,” Foster said. “It should filter out all radiation and other contaminates that might be in the ice.”

Chevallier moved up front as Foster and Pierce began to suit up. She took a quick look at the planet as they began to descend through its dark clouds. Earthlike gravity took hold of them as the transport dipped into the planet’s exosphere, waves of red light splashed across the forward shields generated by its rapid entry into the atmosphere. Once past the cloud cover they got a better view of the surface and the scores of alien structures below them. Foster and Pierce entered the cockpit to observe their approach to the surface.

“Set us down over there,” Foster said and pointed. “It’s close to the frozen ocean and that structure.” Kingston complied and adjusted the transport’s course.

“Excited, Pierce?” Foster asked him.

“You have no idea. First contact with Radiance and Hashmedai was one thing, but this? No one from Radiance made it out here, we’ll be the first.”

Chevallier smirked. “Maybe the Empire did.”

“There’s no proof of that,” Pierce replied to her.

“Because the empire shares all their knowledge with Radiance, right?”

Kingston grimaced. “Running into Hashmedai out here would be—”

“Not boring like it is now?” Chevallier cut in.

“Bad was the word I had in mind ma’am.”

“Tolukei did say he detected psionic energy down here,” Foster said. “Radiance and the Hashmedai are the only two groups that could use such powers, if Radiance isn’t here then that kinda narrows it down.”

“Yes,” Pierce said snapping his fingers to the best of his ability considering they were wrapped inside of the gloves of his suit. “That would mean there’s another species out there that knows how to use psionic powers.”

“Didn’t psionics originate from Radiance? How would they get it?” Chevallier said.

As she recalled, Radiance legends told that their gods arrived at the Aryile home world and gave them all sorts of technology over the years, one of them being a device that could allow people to develop psionic powers. That same tech was shared with the Hashmedai Empire before the two species had a falling out and became enemies.

The transport landed on the icy surface as Pierce gave his answer to her question. “Only one way to find out!”

UNE Transport

Frozen tundra, SB-417, Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 09:34 SST (Sol Standard Time)

McDowell, Chevallier and Kingston got up and began to place their combat helmets on. A holographic HUD interface confirmed to her that the suits life-support systems had activated. According to sensor scans the surface temperature was somewhere around -150 degrees Celsius and had very little breathable air. Dr. Pierce scampered to the entrance like an excited kid on Christmas morning. Chevallier took one look at the condition of Pierce’s suit, shook her head, and grabbed onto his arm, yanking his body to her.

“You’re too excited, egghead,” she said to him.

“We’ve been through this,” he said back.

She tapped on his oxygen tanks, directing his attention to the fact that they weren’t properly connected to his helmet. “Don’t get yourself killed before we get the chance to leave the transport.”

She saw him flush through the visor of his helmet as he began to rectify the problem. A quick double-check of everyone’s equipment followed before the transport’s doors opened. Its shields were left active to keep the hostile environment out. The shields were programmed to iris slightly and allow them to step past it, then instantly seal up to prevent loss of atmosphere.

The shields onboard the Carl Sagan and other ships had the power to work the same way. If weapons needed to be fired with the shields active, they would open just enough to let projectiles through then quickly close. Transports and probes got a similar treatment as they were launched from the docking bay.

Chevallier felt the ice beneath her feet crunch as they stepped onto the unexplored frozen planet. She looked up and saw the faint white light of Sirius B radiate down from the clouds and light from Sirius A which appeared as a slightly smaller bright blue and white object in the skies opposite of the white dwarf. Hills made up of glaciers littered the land, frozen shores that were once beaches became eternally crystallized when the planet began to freeze over. A layer of white mist hovered around the snow and ice cover pillars that encircled the alien-made buildings up ahead.

“Well, where to first?” McDowell asked.

Pierce began to walk ahead and scanned the ice around them with his EAD and said. “Well lets—”

“I was asking the captain, egghead.”

“Let’s check out the fort thingy up ahead,” Foster said pointing at the alien structure in the distance. “We got probes bringing back data on the ice anyways.”

The five moved away from their transport and trekked across the snow and ice, generating a symphony of crunching footsteps as they neared the alien buildings. Foster and Pierce armed with their EADs took readings on every icy rock they came across. McDowell, Chevallier, and Kingston kept their rifles clasped in their hands, ready for the unexpected to leap out at them without notice.

At the front of the alien building they found a staircase that rose toward its front entrance. It was covered in ice, almost as if water had been escaping from it during the big freeze. Pierce and Foster took more readings with their EAD and sent the data back to the Carl Sagan and EVE for further analysis. A group of frozen trees next to what appeared to have once been a garden caught Pierce’s attention.

“How is this possible?” Pierce said, checking the readings of the frozen trees.

Chevallier approached him and looked at the frozen garden up and down. “Well last time I checked when things get extremely cold, stuff like trees snap-freeze.”

“These plants and trees shouldn’t exist,” Pierce said. “Not enough time passed by on this world for them to evolve.”

“Maybe someone planted them?” Foster said.

“Perhaps,” Pierce said and pointed at a small forest off in the distance. “That’s a lot of tree planting, though.”

Everyone’s eyes shifted toward the open entrance of the structure, a place where none of the sensor scans could see, a place where none of the probes went. What awaited them there was a mystery no one from Earth, the empire, or union knew. McDowell, Chevallier, and Kingston were the first to take on the challenge of climbing up the slippery and frozen steps. Well it wasn’t much of a challenge for them as their combat armor was designed to work in all environments. The EVA suits the captain and science officer wore? Not so much. The two struggled for a bit, slipping a few times which generated laughs from the three triumphant Hammerhead members. Eventually they made it up and everyone entered inside the pitch-black chamber of the building.

Helmet lights flickered on and illuminated the hallways before them, while the light from holograms of Foster and Pierce’s EAD glowed and continued to reveal their findings. The walls, ceiling, and floors where made of some sort of metal alloy. Statues were displayed along the walls, they looked like serpents, perhaps lizards? It was hard for Chevallier to tell, as many of them were damaged, while others were encased in ice that had spread from the ceilings.

“For sure this is alien,” Pierce said as they ventured deeper in.

McDowell chuckled. “Ya think?”

“I mean the design of this place. It’s not Radiance or Hashmedai in design according to our knowledge of their species.”

“An ancient building perhaps?” Foster suggested. “Both the empire and union had been traveling in space for centuries, the Linl too before they joined the union.”

Pierce tapped one of the commands on his EAD and spoke into it. “EVE, is there anything in Radiance’s database that matches the layout and composition of this fortress?”

A miniature version of EVE’s hologram appeared and hovered above Pierce’s EAD. “Accessing database, please standby,” EVE said. “Negative, Dr. Pierce, ancient structures built by the Hashmedai and Radiance races are different to what you have discovered. Furthermore, it is unlikely this structure is related to the Lyonria.”

Chevallier cocked her eyebrow. “The what?”

“Lyonria, an extinct ancient civilization,” Pierce said.

“Never heard of them,” Foster chimed in.

“It’s something Radiance never really spoke a lot of,” Pierce said. “They discovered several of their ruins throughout the galaxy. It should all be included in the Radiance database if you want to brush up on it.”

EVE’s projection began to speak. “Please keep in mind, Radiance at the time of our departure from Earth knew only fragments about the Lyonria. This could be an early construct of theirs, or perhaps a later one that was not documented by Radiance scholars.”

“Meaning?” McDowell grunted.

“We either found a new type of Lyonria ruin,” Pierce said. “Or we found a totally new race.”

They stopped as they entered a large central chamber. Motion detectors, or something similar, detected their presence as they entered. Lights, bright lights, powered on and revealed what was before them. They had arrived inside a circular room. There were three ring-shaped platforms, one on the outer edge, one in the middle, and a smaller one in the center, and a deep, seemingly bottomless pit below. Oval shaped objects were along the walls while an object that resembled a holding device rested on the middle ring.

“OK,” Chevallier said looking around. “This is cool.”

A bridge appeared as they approached the ledge, it stretched out and connected with the remaining ring-shaped platforms. They casually walked across the bridge, looking around for any danger, and taking scans of the apparatus around them, and the central ring with the strange-looking storage container. Pierce performed lengthy scans of it and carefully reviewed the data that populated his holographic screen.

“There’s your psionic,” he said. “There’s someone inside, possibly a person, and there’s psionic energy bleeding away from it.” He took another look at his readings. “Actually, there’s a lot of psionic energy here.”

“A tomb perhaps?” Foster said as she stepped closer to it.

Perhaps too close.

The containment device activated and began to emit waves of blue energy that rippled through the chamber. Survival instincts kicked in and three rifles rose up expecting danger. No such danger was detected, at least not through Chevallier’s targeting scanner.

“What the hell was that?” Kingston asked as he looked about through the scope of his weapon.

The blue energy waves returned and moved up and down the bodies of the five quickly. Then over their weapons, very slowly.

“I think we’re the ones being scanned now,” McDowell said.

“Leave.” A mysterious voice groaned from inside of their heads.

Or so Chevallier hoped. If not, she was hearing voices. “Did you hear that?” Chevallier asked.

“What, the wind blowing through the halls?” McDowell said.

“No, someone spoke.”

“All I hear is the wind—”

“Leave!”

“Oh, you mean that voice …”

“Yeah, I heard that,” Foster said. “EVE what’s the source of that voice?”

Static. There was nothing but disconcerting static on their comm lines.

Pierce checked his EAD and saw that their connection to the Carl Sagan had been cut, as indicated by a flashing red error message.

“What’s wrong?” McDowell asked Pierce.

“We lost contact with the Carl Sagan.”

Foster activated her communicator. “Carl Sagan this is Captain Foster, what’s your status?”

Silence and static.

“This is Commander McDowell to all UNE navy personnel can you hear me?”

Silence and static.

“I guess there’s some sort of interference in here?” Chevallier said.

“My scans were being uploaded to EVE just fine a second ago—”

“Leave!” The strange intimidating voice yelled into everyone’s heads.

Foster retorted. “OK, fine, geez we’re going!”

The lights in the room shut off, forcing everyone to rely once again on their helmet lights to see ahead of them. And what they saw was something sending back strange readings to Foster and Pierce’s EAD.

The oval-shaped objects along the walls began to shimmer, and in the center of them an image appeared. It looked like the interior of a ship, or perhaps a base. Armored humanoid creatures marched through as if it was a portal. They looked like soldiers straight out of the Bronze Age only their faces were completely covered. Some were armed with handheld shields in one hand, and a spear like object in the other, azure light emitting from the tip. They stood with authority like fearless generals, as another set of armored humanoid creatures moved past them, limping almost like zombies as they aimed large devices mounted on their arms at the five. Chevallier suspected they were weapons, but hoped she was wrong.

McDowell, Chevallier, and Kingston placed themselves in front of Foster and Pierce, seconds before aliens emerging from the portals opened fire with something that Chevallier could only describe as laser fire. They took the first set of blows, officially giving them permission to start firing back as the aliens unveiled themselves as being hostile. She, along with the rest of her team, returned fire and delivered a hail of bullets toward their attackers before taking cover behind the tomb-like container.

Chevallier looked out from her cover and analyzed new tactical data that appeared as holographic projections in her helmet. She saw that the aliens that took point had their laser weapons mounted in their hands as they fanned out, relentlessly hurling additional red beams of light at them. The overlord-looking aliens armed with spears and shields simply stood back behind the laser-wielding grunts and yelled words in their language.

Chevallier jerked her head backward as more lasers shot at her, analyzing their enemy would have to wait for later. Her rifle once again began to scream its battle cry, she hoped it was loud enough to send the message that they were prepared to fight, because as it stood, they were outnumbered as even more alien soldiers stepped out of the oval portal.

The limping laser grunts were fearless, more so than the overlords. They had no shields protecting them judging by the bullet holes Chevallier dug into the chest of one. It kept on limping toward them, shooting, oblivious to the damage done to it, the pain it should be experiencing, and most frightening of all, making no attempt to dive for cover. Scratch that, most terrifying of all, the grunts that did die rose again as their overlords behind slammed the butt of their spears on the floor.

“Where the hell did they come from?” Kingston said.

Pierce pointed to the oval portals. “There look at that; it’s a portal.”

Chevallier noticed two sources of light beam into the darkened room, looking like bright sunlight. She looked and saw there were other oval-shaped portals along the walls. Some were allowing additional alien reinforcements to march in, while one other, that was directly behind them, had nothing coming in or going out of it. A closer look revealed green grass, trees, and a bright sun in clear and cloudless skies.

A way out? She pondered as their battle raged on.

A battle that had no end in sight.

All five of them discharged their weapons’ lethal gifts at their attackers. Hostile targets that fell during the battle, as Chevallier experienced, rose up from the dead and limped closer toward them. Their bullets did nothing but slow them down while an endless supply of the alien soldiers continued to march out of the various opened portals. The path back to the exit of the building was blocked by the first wave of grunts as they limped closer, and they were cut off from the transport outside and any possible backup they might have coming, though Chevallier was quite convinced they were on their own.

McDowell insisted on fighting their way back outside and toward the transport. His argument was that their shields were still holding up against the aliens’ weapons and that backup might be coming to assist. Chevallier, after several looks down into the dark halls they came from, neither saw or heard any such backup. They had a perfect escape right behind them, the portal that lead to the sunny pasture beyond. Fighting their way back outside was suicide, there was no telling what the alien’s weapons could do to their shields once they were out of cover. And where would they go? What if the Carl Sagan was destroyed? It would explain why they had lost contact, an alien vessel could have ambushed them then sent their ground troops to finish their team off.

Chevallier’s way was the only way. To hell with what McDowell thought, he wasn’t even supposed to be in command! “Let’s fall back!” Chevallier yelled.

McDowell retorted. “No, we’re pushing through, back into the halls, now follow my lead!”

“Fuck that.” Chevallier lowered her weapon, grabbed onto the arms of Foster and Pierce, and dragged them to the portal with her.

“What are you doing?” Foster asked Chevallier.

“I’m doing my job, Captain. Keeping you and the egghead safe.”

8 Williams

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 10:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Commander, I have lost contact with the team on the surface,” EVE said as her holographic likeness appeared next to Williams.

He grimaced at the news while he sat in the captain’s chair and gazed out at the planet. “What happened?”

“It would appear they are being jammed.”

“I suggest you prepare yourself for battle,” Tolukei said. It was not the news Williams was expecting from their shipboard psionic.

“This isn’t exactly a battleship, Tolukei,” Williams said to him. “I’m sure it’s just a glitch or something; let’s give them time to reconnect.”

“There are four ships on an interception course to us from the moons of the gas giant,” Tolukei said. “As I said, I suggest you prepare yourself for battle. They have weapons ports opened. It is highly unlikely they are here to meet and greet us to the system.”

Williams faced Ensign Collins. “What do you have on sensors?”

“Nothing sir, but if they just launched it will be another hour or so before we get confirmation back.”

Tolukei was their eyes and ears in the delicate situation, what he said Williams had to trust completely and base all tactical decisions around. “Tolukei, what’s the ETA on those ships?” Williams asked him.

“Two minutes, they are … very fast.”

Two minutes to travel across the distance of thirty light minutes, they were officially dealing with ships capable of FTL. Something both Radiance and Hashmedai were incapable of developing, and something that wasn’t surprising when human scientists first learned of how fast their ships travelled as it only confirmed that Einstein was right, it was impossible to travel faster than light. The situation at hand confirmed otherwise.

“This is Commander Williams to Captain Foster, do you copy?” he transmitted, but as he feared there was no reply. “EVE, what was their last known location on the surface?”

“They entered a central chamber located approximately two kilometers into the alien structure.”

Williams considered sending another transport jam packed with Hammerheads to retrieve them, but there were too many risks. If those Hammerheads didn’t return, then he’d be dealing with two missing teams. Even if they did find Foster and her team, they had less than two minutes to get back to the Carl Sagan before the hostile ships arrived. Hell, the whole process of getting a rescue team suited up and a transport down to the surface would have taken two minutes.

What Williams needed was instant extraction and he needed it forty-five seconds ago. He faced Tolukei, knowing full well he was that source of instant extraction. “Tolukei, can you teleport down and recover them?”

“That will leave you without a psionic and at a disadvantage,” Tolukei said.

“I’m not leaving the captain and her team behind!”

Tolukei nodded. “As you wish.”

Williams addressed the rest of the bridge crew as alert alarms began to blare throughout the ship, springing the crew into action. “Everyone, strap in or get your magnetic boots active, we’re gonna lose gravity.”

Tolukei folded his hands together as the cybernetic devices on his body started to glow brightly. Williams couldn’t help but watch as the Javnis psionic used his gifts to teleport away. He had heard all about the abilities of psionics, viewed photos, watched videos. But never in his life had he witnessed one use their skills with his own two eyes, eyes that he had to shield with his arms. Tolukei’s body was consumed by extremely bright blue that dematerialized his body. Once it subsided, Tolukei was gone and the bridge lost gravity instantly.

Williams was tasked with the next part of the plan, survival. Survival without a psionic against an enemy that could move faster than sensor scans. “Shields at max, activate all defensive weapons,” Williams ordered, he then opened a comm link with Rivera. “So, Chief, we might be going into our first combat situation.”

He heard Rivera laugh and reply. “I was wondering what those alarms were.”

“In less than two minutes we’re going to be outnumbered four-to-one,” he said. “So, if you have any tricks up your sleeve, now’s the time to get them ready.”

“Commander,” Collins said, directing Williams’ attention forward.

From the horizon of the planet Williams saw two of the four ships arrive on a direct intercept course to the Carl Sagan. The ships were round-shaped almost like an egg, their shiny, grey exterior hulls reflected light from the white dwarf star in the distance. A hexagonal shaped crevice on the front of the ship began to glow red, and Williams assumed it was the opened weapons port.

“Try contacting them on all channels, let them know we don’t want a fight,” Williams said.

The red hexagon on the two ships pulsed briefly and sent out white beams of energy which impacted the shields of the Carl Sagan, distributing blue ripples of energy across it. It was strong enough to send slight tremors throughout the ship and trigger computers to beep with warnings.

“Something tells me they want a fight anyways,” Collins said.

One of the alien ships broke off and sunk into the atmosphere of the planet, while the remaining one continued its assault with its beam cannons.

“Return fire!” The words Williams had hoped he wouldn’t have to use during their peaceful exploration.

The Carl Sagan’s forward rail guns slid out from beneath the hull of the ship. They quickly acquired a target and sent targeting scanner data to Collins’ computer. EVE’s calculations assisted, and helped to compensate for the drift between the two ships. Magnetically accelerated slugs discharged rapidly, leaving behind red streaks of tracer light on their one-way trip to the alien ship. Every bullet that hit put holes into the hull of their target, there were no shields on the alien ships to hinder their performance. And judging by newly collected tactical scans, shields might not have been needed.

The Carl Sagan’s defensive assault left the alien ship with gaping holes torn through not only from the point of impact, but from the opposite end. They swiss-cheesed the hell out of it, and it refused to falter from its beam weapon assault against the Carl Sagan. Whoever the hell was piloting the ship was tough and still alive, much like the internal systems of the ship which should have suffered critical damage by now as another salvo of devastating energy collided with the Carl Sagan.

“Any idea where that other ship is heading?” Williams asked during the weapons exchange.

“To the surface, where the captain’s team landed,” EVE said.

Tolukei hurry up man! Williams thought as he established a comm link with him. “Tolukei, have you found them?”

“My teleport put me further away from them than I thought; it will be sometime,” Tolukei transmitted back.

“You might have incoming from behind, so hurry up!”

The Carl Sagan rumbled again while the next energy beam blast collided with them. “Shields holding sir, one-on-one, we got this,” Collins said as he checked his computer screen.

The remaining alien ships decelerated from their FTL jump and entered the fray, displaying the same deadly show of force the previous ones had. “You just had to say it, didn’t you?” Williams groaned and sighed at the sudden change of events. He had forgotten that Tolukei had mentioned four ships total.

The three alien ships ceased firing briefly and flew closer to one another, entering a tight formation. Energy that looked like bolts of electricity danced back and forth between the three ships and formed almost a triangle shape between them. It was a power exchange Williams figured, and EVE’s computing also agreed with his theory. With the three ships in sync with each other the lead one emitted a long and continuous burst of white and blue energy at the Carl Sagan.

“Forward shield down to sixty-five percent,” EVE reported, “sixty-four percent. Commander, at this rate we will lose shields in approximately one minute twenty-three point eight seconds.”

“Fire on the lead ship, throw everything at them, missiles and all,” Williams said.

The Carl Sagan’s rail guns snarled as its missile ports opened and released multiple plasma missiles at their focused target, white contrails were left behind in the missile’s wake. Williams hoped it would be enough to take it out of play as they had a limited supply of missiles. Until they got a manufacturing plant set up and mines producing enough resources, every missile fired, was a missile they didn’t have for a future conflict. And something told Williams, that even if they got out of this, it wasn’t going to be the last encounter.

The lead attacking ship burst into flames and was flung out of the formation. The all-or-nothing attack worked and the link between the three ships was broken. The two remaining ships, however, continued to fire slow and steady pulses with their beam weapons.

“Forward shields down to thirty-four percent, Commander,” EVE said. “Adjusting aft, port, and starboard shields to compensate.”

EVE’s reports and actions helped to put Williams’ mind at ease. The bridge wasn’t heavily staffed as helm control was tasked with navigation, guidance, and weapons. EVE was filling the role of multiple officers while her hologram stood next to Williams with her hands behind her back as if nothing was happening.

“Tolukei? What’s your status?” Williams transmitted to him.

“I’m under attack,” Tolukei replied, the sounds of explosions and weapons fire in the background.

Williams gritted his teeth. The longer they stayed put, the closer to death they got. True, they had enough firepower to do damage to the hostile ships, but it took an all-out assault to severely damage one. Keyword, damage, they didn’t destroy it.

“Tolukei, return to the Carl Sagan,” Williams said reluctantly.

Puzzled, Collins asked. “Commander?”

Williams pointed to the image of the ship that had left the battle to travel to the surface. It was returning to orbit and probably was going to enter that multi-energy-exchange attack again with the other two. They could attack, kick, and scream all they wanted but there was a high chance the Carl Sagan could receive critical damage during the next assault.

“We’re getting our asses kicked. We can’t do this. Not without psionic support,” Williams conceded.

Bright light briefly lit up the bridge as Tolukei reappeared from his teleport and returned to his post, gravity gripping onto Williams’ body once again. It was perfect timing, for the three alien ships took up a similar formation again, and began to exchange power between one another and release another continuous beam of white hot energy onto the Carl Sagan, blue waves of energy danced across the failing forward shields.

“Shields are dropping rapidly,” EVE reported. “It would appear the ship from the surface is more powerful than the others.”

Williams winced. “OK same deal; target the lead ship with everything—”

“More ships about to enter the sector,” Tolukei interjected.

Williams spun the captain’s chair around to face him. “How many?”

“Three hundred eighty-four,” Tolukei said. “ETA three minutes.”

“Well … shit.”

Three ships combining their firepower had the power to destroy them in minutes. Three hundred plus, there wouldn’t be much of a wreckage left in the aftermath of that battle. Williams looked about and saw the faces of everyone on the bridge, they were likely processing the grim facts that he just did.

Escape was their only option.

If Rebecca was still alive, she was on her own, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to change that.

“Get us outta here now,” Williams said.

Collins began to input an escape course into his helm controls, and asked, “What about the Captain?”

“We got thousands of colonists that just wanted to build a new home,” Williams said. “Take us out of the system, now.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Tolukei. Overshields on our aft section.”

The Carl Sagan pulled away from the planet as its shield flickered rapidly from the onslaught of the aliens’ weapons. Once clear it slipped away into a sub light speed jump while a psionic barrier was cast on the rear of the ship thanks to Tolukei’s powerful gifts. The three attacking weren’t finished with the Carl Sagan and began to chase them and briskly discharge their beam weapons. The Carl Sagan traveled at half the speed of light, the alien’s traveled faster than light, it took a whole five seconds for them to catch up. The alien ships came about and faced the Carl Sagan head-on where its shields were the weakest and didn’t have the protection of the psionic barrier.

“Oh, come on!” Williams yelled, clenching his fists.

The alien’s attacks were swift and shattered what remained of the Carl Sagan’s forward shields. Tolukei didn’t have enough time to compensate and cast a new overshield.

The bridge was exposed to direct fire and its crew felt the consequences of that. An explosion erupted and started small fires. Collins tried to force the Carl Sagan to swerve to the side to minimize what damage was coming to them. Another hit landed, forcing Williams to shield his face from the sparks and wiring that fell from the ceiling, while damaged pipes released white mist, or was it smoke? There was too much happening at once for Williams to have a solid idea.

A third explosion erupted, and it sent Collins flying backward as his terminal was turned into smoldering hunks of cables and shattered computer parts. Collins landed on the ground back first, his face covered in blood, his breathing shallow, and parts of his uniform ablaze.

Williams got up from his chair to check on the fallen helmsman. “Medic!”

“I have notified sickbay, they are on their way,” EVE said.

Williams looked at the windshield which thankfully was still in one piece, cracked in some sections, but holding together. He considered taking the helm as there was officially nobody in control of the ship. The flames and inoperative computer systems however made him think twice.

Williams faced EVE’s hologram. “Can you get us out of here?”

She nodded. “As you wish, Commander.”

EVE remotely took over all navigational control of the Carl Sagan and accomplished multiple evasive maneuvers that were preprogrammed into her AI for combat situations. With the Captain missing, their helmsman down, and the bridge slowly burning, the Carl Sagan was at the mercy of its AI and psionic.

“Tolukei, extend the overshield to cover the whole ship,” Williams said as he dragged Collins’ body closer to the exit of the bridge. “These guys are too damn fast.”

“I can do more than that.” Tolukei left his post and stepped closer to the windshield amidst the burning computers and flames. He looked at the three attacking ships strangely, as if he sensed something important, something they might have overlooked. They did. “These ships do not have mind shields.”

Mind shields were a programmable damping field installed on all ships to prevent enemy psionics from teleporting aboard, and or using their psionic power effectively. Radiance programmed their mind shields to block all Hashmedai psionics and vice versa. If the aliens before them had no mind shields, then the Carl Sagan had just gained the advantage they were looking for.

Tolukei moved his hands as if he were swatting a fly. As he did that, one of the alien ships was flung out of sight like an invisible hand picked it up and threw it away.

“Keep us still for one moment,” Tolukei said.

EVE brought the Carl Sagan to a stop. The three alien ships began to regroup and enter their deadly tri-attack formation. Tolukei’s mind reached out to the ships and forced them to move and slam into one another with his telekinetic powers. A bright explosion followed and reduced the imposing vessels into hulks of twisted metal that continued to fluctuate with tiny bolts of power.

“All targets destroyed,” Tolukei said.

“What about the other three hundred plus?” Williams asked him.

“They are still en route.”

“Let’s get out of here, maybe our show of power will make them think twice.”

EVE resumed their escape course and guided the Carl Sagan out of the Sirius B system. Both Tolukei and EVE confirmed sometime later they were not being pursued by the other three hundred plus ships behind. Williams sighed in relief then took his seat back on the captain’s chair as his mind began to calm down from the ordeal.

Medics arrived seconds later and carried Collins away, while the remaining bridge crew gawked at Williams and waited for their next commands amidst awkward silence. Only, he didn’t know what else to tell them. He was an explorer, not a battleship captain nor the captain of the ship, just the first officer, a newly promoted one at that. Experience was the key, the key he left back at Earth.

“EVE, are you OK controlling the ship until repairs are made?” he asked.

“Of course, Commander,” EVE said.

“All right, everyone,” Williams said, addressing the skeleton bridge crew. “We had an interesting day, relax while the damage control team does their thing.”

It was all he had to offer. The bridge was in no condition for operations until repairs were made. He placed EVE in control of all bridge operational functions until further notice and took his leave along with the rest of the crew while Rivera and her team came up to start repairs.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

Exiting Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 11:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams entered the sickbay which was located on the habitat ring where Collins had been transferred. To his relief there was only one medical bed occupied, and it was Collins, nobody else was injured during the battle. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Irena Kostelecky stood above Collins’ bandaged body as she waved a medical scanner over his wounds and reviewed the data that outputted into a nearby computer screen.

“Commander, can I help you with something?” Dr. Kostelecky said in her eastern European accent.

Williams stepped next to her and looked at Collins closely, he was out cold. “Just checking up on him, seeing if he’s doing well.”

“Seriously?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Take a good look at him; does he look like he’s having the time of his life?”

He looked at her and her long blonde hair, puzzled by her aggressive response. “Someone is having a wonderful time,” he heckled to her.

“Hey, if you think he’s good for duty, then we’re all in trouble with you in the captain’s chair.”

“What’s with the attitude?”

“You call this attitude?” Kostelecky walked over to a cabinet while her white IESA lab coat rustled behind her, the Czech Republic flag stitched to her jacket’s shoulders. She gripped a flesh regenerator tool and then returned to treat Collins wounds. “If so, you have a lot to learn about me my friend.”

“How much time does he need to recover?”

Kostelecky waved the tool around Collins’s burned skin forcing it to heal up slightly faster. “At least two weeks to be safe, so you better have a spare pilot lying around.”

“I have EVE at the controls right now.”

“Do you really plan on letting the AI pull off fancy flying skills in the heat of battle?”

“I’m not expecting any more combat; we’re here on a mission of peaceful exploration and colonization after all.”

“What happened just now—?”

“Wasn’t peaceful, I get it.”

“Just find a skilled pilot, ASAP.”

“Doctor’s orders?”

“Yes, because I don’t want to see more of the crew members end up in here because the AI wasn’t programmed to get us out of danger or some nonsense like that. Anything else, Commander?”

“That’s all.”

“Good, you can grab a lollipop on the way out.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess Hall

Exiting Sirius B system

May 19, 2050, 12:18 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams’ groaning belly forced him into the mess hall along with most of the crew, it was lunchtime. The mess was packed full of navy and IESA explorers alike, sitting, eating, and chatting about recent events. He overheard a few members talk about his recent actions in handling the matter, then stop abruptly once they noticed he had entered. He could sense that there was a difference in opinion in regard to his decision to abandon Foster and her team.

He filled his meal tray with a burger seasoned with herb spices from Aervounis and a salad known as Jaukta, a popular dish among Javnis. He looked for a place to sit and wondered how Rebecca was holding out. She didn’t have a large meal before leaving nor did their expedition team take a lot of supplies with them, they weren’t planning on staying long after all. If they were alive, were they stuck on some alien planet with no food?

Williams took a seat at a table with Tolukei and a navy man whose name tag listed him as ‘D. Chang.’ Tolukei was feasting on a large serving of the same salad Williams picked up, and kept his face and four eyes still obscured by his creepy, hooded cloak away from everyone else.

“Commander,” Chang said to Williams as he began to feast on his burger.

“How goes it?” Williams said to them. “Tolukei, enjoying your meal?”

“It is fine.”

Silence descended on their table as they began to eat. Williams could see that Chang wanted to engage in more chatter like the rest of the tables around them. “So, uh, is it true your race and the Aryile came from the same world?”

“No, the Aryile uplifted my species when they discovered us,” Tolukei said. “The Radiance Union was founded afterwards.”

“I see, so both the Aryile and Javnis coincidentally came from warm planets then?”

“That is correct.”

“And that’s why it’s so damn hot on Radiance ships.”

“You’ve been aboard their ships?” Williams said.

“Once, as a tour to show us navy folks how the Radiance navy operates,” Chang said. “Kinda felt sorry for the other races that had to endure those temperatures, kinda an asshole thing for the Aryile and Javnis to do—”

Chang stopped himself midspeech as Tolukei’s gaze shifted away from his meal and onto him due to his comment. Williams cringed internally and looked at Chang’s worried face. Offending someone that could kill you with a thought of their mind was never a smart thing to do.

“No offence,” Chang said abruptly.

Tolukei’s mouth twisted as he asked. “What’s an ass?”

“Well you see Tolukei an ass is—”

“Chang…” Williams cut in.

“It is the way of our people,” Tolukei explained. “Much like how your species is forcing me to endure these freezing temperatures. An asshole thing to do, as you put it.”

Chang ran his fingers through his short hair. “Ah, I didn’t think of it like that.”

“If you want, I could turn the thermostat up on the bridge,” Williams offered.

“It is fine,” Tolukei said, returning to his meal. “I keep a thin barrier psionic around me which traps the heat and humidity from my quarters.”

An awkward silence followed as the three resumed indulging on their meal. It was a silence Chang was determined to break two minutes later. “So, Tolukei … Javnis, eh?” Chang said to him.

“Yes.”

“And a psionic.”

Tolukei swallowed a fork full of his salad. “I prefer the term, Muodiry.”

“Muodiry,” Chang said. “What does that mean?”

Williams grinned and chimed in. “I came across that term in the Radiance database; it translates as ‘necromancer.’”

“Ah, necromancer Tolukei,” Chang said, while struggling to force a conversation with the Javnis. “That’s cool. And he likes the salad chef made.”

“My species is herbivore,” Tolukei explained.

“A vegan necromancer. Cool.”

Williams recalled that Muodiry was a term given to certain Javnis psionics. Radiance religion states that their gods gifted them with the technology needed to create psionics and in turn shared that technology with all the species that joined the Radiance Union. Prior to the Javnis encountering and joining the union, there were stories of people of the Javnis race that had skills that could only be described as psionic powers, the Muodiry.

Radiance religious leaders refused to believe such stories as it contradicted their understanding of the origins of their gifts from their gods. Some Javnis claimed to be descendants of the Muodiry and as a result were often treated unfairly within Radiance society. Tolukei’s admitting to being one only shed more light on why the Radiance embassy on Earth insisted on Williams recruiting him for the expedition over the other psionic. It wasn’t because he was highly skilled, it was because they wanted to get rid of him because of his origins. And what better way to do that than to put him on a ship that was to embark on a seventeen-year voyage to the Sirius system?

Williams began to wonder if he had done the right thing. On one hand Tolukei’s actions had helped save the ship, but on the other hand could he be trusted later on? Many of the stories Williams read from the Radiance database told stories of Muodiry lashing out at people around them because of how they had been mistreated their whole lives. It would explain why Tolukei was so distant with the rest of the crew.

Time for a subject change, Williams thought. “You navy folks keeping busy?”

“Most of us are pumped up and ready for a rescue mission,” Chang said.

“And you?”

“I’m just a transport pilot, one that’s glad he wasn’t asked to fly down to the surface.”

Williams delayed taking another bite of his burger upon hearing what Chang mentioned. “Is that so?”

“I enlisted to be a Solaris fighter pilot, never made the cut though, so I volunteered to come out here, and I convinced some of my family to come along for the ride.”

“Just like that?”

“I had nothing else better to do with myself,” Chang said. “Having my own fighter was my dream, and the UNE said I wasn’t worthy enough.” He shrugged.

Williams smiled. “Think you could handle this ship?”

“Can’t be all that hard, why?”

“Our helmsman is out for the count,” Williams said. “We launched with a small crew to start with, lots of rookies. I can’t shake the feeling that those aliens will come back for more. Need someone really good at the helm.”

“You’re looking at him then,” Chang said pointing his thumbs at himself. “I might not have made the cut, but I did originally train to fly a Solaris and spent a few hours in the simulator as well.”

“So, you got some moves then?”

“Fuck yeah, just ask the captain before we boarded—” Chang paused midspeech. Talking about Foster tended to stir some worried faces much like the one on William. “Err yeah, just let me and my superiors know, and I’ll take the helm for you.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Aft habitat ring

Interstellar space

May 19, 2050, 23:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams spent the rest of the day reviewing after-action reports, the status of the ship and its repairs, and the last trickle of data that the probes sent back before getting ousted from the system. He sat up from the chair he rested on in the lounge, realizing he was the only person inside. He’d had his face glued to his holo pad so long, he failed to notice all of the off-duty crew members leave him.

A notification appeared on his pad, repairs to the bridge had been completed much to his surprise. There was significant damage done, he assumed repairs would have gone on for another day at least.

Perhaps Rivera submitted the repair report as completed by accident? he thought, and tried to contact her via the intercom, but received no reply. His communicator produced the same results.

“EVE, locate Chief engineer Rivera,” Williams said.

“Chief engineer Rivera is in her quarters,” EVE’s voice replied via the intercom.

Williams arrived at Rivera’s quarters and pushed the door chime button. The door opened on its own seconds later, and he stepped into a room full of smoke and strange soothing meditation-like music playing in the background. Rivera sat on a mat in the middle of her quarters cross-legged like a monk with a lit bong next to her, the source of the smoke and weird smell that made him cringe.

“Sorry, didn’t know you had a Zen thing going on,” Williams said, trying to hide the awkward feeling growing inside of him, his hands waving the smoke away from his face.

“It’s all right, Commander,” Rivera said as she opened her eyes. “I was just about finished.”

She remained sitting on the mat smiling at him like she was spaced out. Williams pointed to the bong next to her. He may not have been the captain, but he knew prohibited items when he saw them.

“Ah, would you like to try it?” Rivera offered.

“Ah no, was more concerned about how you got that aboard to start with?”

“We’re light years away from Earth; a few rules can be broken.” Her voice, it was incredibly mellow and calm, Williams wasn’t sure if it was because she was high or relaxed from the meditation. Or both. “I had the botanist grow a stash for myself; they probably helped themselves to it as well.”

Williams crossed his arms. “So, you’re an engineer, a language expert, and a dealer, talk about a jack-of-all-trades.”

“This is legal in most parts of the UNE.”

“Most. Not all regions, and certainly not aboard ships. But I’ll let the captain deal with that.”

“She too has bent rules in her favor.”

“And now we don’t know where she is. Which brings me back to my question, what’s the status of the bridge?”

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“No, you didn’t, and you didn’t respond to my comm either.”

Rivera tilted her head to the side and saw her earpiece communicator resting on the bed. “Oh, my bad.”

“Maybe you should lay off that stuff, at least until we’re in the clear?”

“That stuff allows my head to be focused and clear.”

She held onto the bong and took a small hit. The smoke she blew out was done in such a graceful and elegant manner, almost as if she was trying to create art with it. Williams was impressed, which meant he was probably breathing in too much of the smoke.

“Case in point, we’ll be ready in the morning,” Rivera said. “Along with a few minor upgrades.”

“Really?”

She took another hit then pointed to the bong. “This is some good shit, what can I say? It’s probably why the great Carl Sagan himself was such a brilliant person.” Williams glared at her. “It’s true, look it up on the computer, he embraced cannabis on a regular basis. His mind, body, and soul opened up to the wonders of the universe we embrace and call home.”

“Just make sure you can do your job correctly. We’re going back for the captain and her team once the way is clear.”

“Promise us the same thing,” Rivera softly spoke. “Do your job correctly so the captain can come back, and these colonists can have a home. That, and I know she was close to you.”

“Says who?”

“Says the personnel I spoke with in and out of cryo during our fabulous journey. If I may ask what was she to you? Baby momma? Star-crossed lovers? The one that got away?”

“She took care of me when I lost my parents during the war. She was like an older sister.”

“Oh. Well that’s noble of her. Not very sexy, but noble.”

Williams shook his head, the muscles in his face struggled to hold back a smile as he left Rivera’s quarters and made the small trek into his. He was impressed how well the air recyclers worked in keeping the cannabis smoke inside her quarters and out of the halls. His quarters, unlike Rivera’s, were still littered with unopened boxes of personal belongings, Foster’s was the same when he was last in there to check on and feed her cat. A cat that might have to spend its days living with him until she was found.

He stood next to the window and observed the uncountable number of stars as they passed by during their sub light journey … Where are we going? “EVE, what is our current destination?” he asked.

EVE was nothing more than an AI, she did what she was programmed to do, and performed tasks that you gave her. As he recalled he didn’t request a destination, he had simply told EVE to get them away from danger and never followed up.

“No exact destination has been set,” EVE said, confirming his worry. “You requested we leave the system, Commander, however you did not state a specific location.”

Damn it, Dom, if you’re going to be a leader you need to think things through!

He took a deep breath and tried to clear his head for he needed to prove to the crew he could handle things without the captain. Having the ship flee in a random direction at sub light speed wasn’t the way to do that. They still had a mission and a duty to protect the colonists and find them a home.

He had to make that happen now. Thousands of lives needed his leadership, and the crew needed to trust his judgment calls.

Williams placed the palms of his hands upon the smooth and cold window. “EVE, set a course to Sirius A system.”

“As you wish, Commander, ETA seventeen hours.”

Williams saw the stars move from his window as EVE changed the course of the Carl Sagan. The light from Sirius A and B slowly began to beam into his quarters giving it a slight blue hue as he stripped out of his uniform and climbed into bed. If he was going to be leading the expedition he was going to need as much sleep as he could muster for the challenge ahead.

9 Foster

Meanwhile …

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 19, 2050, 10:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster’s body tumbled like a ball rolling down a hill before she came to a stop in the middle of a grassy meadow. She quickly got up and saw the oval-shaped portal Master Chief Chevallier tossed her and Pierce through. The portal hovered in the air above the hill Foster had rolled farther down, and the strange tomb-like structure they escaped from could still be seen on the inside of the oval portal.

Well that explains the fall, she thought as Pierce got to his feet. Chevallier leaped through the oval afterward followed by McDowell and Kingston. Seconds later the portal vanished but the oval-shaped device remained floating high above. Foster walked curiously toward it, scanning it with her EAD, its composition, power source, weight, estimated age all came back ‘unknown.’

McDowell groaned as he got to his feet. “What the hell was that?”

“No idea, sir,” Chevallier said to him.

“I mean that stunt MC.” McDowell stood face-to-face with Chevallier. He angled his index finger at her face in a condescending manner. Foster didn’t need him to remove his Hammerhead helmet to know he was pissed. “I’m in command here!”

“Sorry, sir, felt like it was the best course of action.”

Foster stepped in between the two and used her body as a wedge to force the two to step back from each other. “Commander, are you seriously gonna grill her for savin’ our hides back there?”

McDowell tapped an arm mounted computer terminal on his suit. A small hologram appeared above it relaying the sensor logs of his suit. “We had backup coming; our shipboard psionic was on the way.”

Chevallier waved him off. “Should have spoken up then.”

“That the attitude you give all your Cos, MC?” McDowell said.

“You read my file, you should know, sir.”

“OK, enough already!” Foster felt the need to interrupt.

McDowell faced Foster, and she managed to get a glimpse of his angry and flustered facial expression through his helmet’s visor. “Enough? She fucked us! We’re lost with no way back to the ship. Our supplies were left on the transport, not that we brought a lot to start with, and there’s hostile aliens that want to kill us.” McDowell pointed to the grassy meadows before them. “Like, fuck man, where the hell are we?”

“We’re still in Sirius,” Pierce said as he scanned the area with his EAD.

“Ah, the egghead will get us out of this,” McDowell said.

“We can get out of the suits,” Pierce said, taking his helmet off. “Breathable oxygen nitrogen atmosphere.”

Pierce was right. Foster checked her EAD and saw comfortable temperatures of twenty-four degrees Celsius and safe air, free of toxins and radiation. She removed her helmet along with everyone else and looked at the area around them with her own eyes. She had to squint for a while, the light that was beaming down from the sun above was intense.

“This is strange, however,” Pierce said keeping his eyes on the holographic results of his EAD. He looked up to the clear azure skies and aimed his EAD in the direction of the enormous sun while his free hand shielded his eyes from the intense white light. “We’re not on the same planet we landed on, that’s Sirius A in the sky.”

“How did we travel between those two planets just like that?” Foster said.

Pierce pointed at the oval device still hanging in the air. “That device, it must be a wormhole.”

“A what?” Chevallier said.

Pierce explained. “Theoretically speaking, you could bend the fabric of space time and join two places together and create a gateway, a portal if you will, between two locations. I think we just traveled through one.”

Chevallier cursed in French while everyone’s eyes returned to the dormant wormhole.

“Any idea how to get it up and runnin’ again?” Foster said.

“You want to go back to that?” Kingston said to her.

“We should be able to contact the Carl Sagan,” Pierce said. “The distances between Sirius A and B is equal to the distances between the sun and Uranus give or take a few AU depending on their orbit. We could send a message to them, but it will take a few hours for them to receive it.”

“That’s assuming we can get our comms workin’,” Foster said as she eyed the ‘connection lost’ notification on her EAD. “We’re still being jammed.”

“There’s a barrier around us, it might be blocking our signals,” Pierce said.

Foster linked her EAD with Pierce’s to view all the data he discovered. The projection that appeared on her EAD showed that the region they were in was protected by a dome shaped energy shield.

“Shaped like a dome, so there’s probably a wall someplace,” Foster said. “Maybe we could slip past it to get a signal out.” Following the data displayed to her she began to lead the way across the fresh green grass below them. “I reckon the closest wall is this way, let’s move it folks.”

The five spent hours drifting across the flat meadows, ankle high grass slithering across their boots. There were no winds that blew past them which was understandable as the dome probably prevented strong winds from developing. The pleasant and flat landscape of the meadows had taken them into a rocky and mountainous one where hills dominated, and valleys carved their way through the region. Foster hoped they were heading in the right direction. All it would take was a cliff to block their path and force them to make a detour. Had the Carl Sagan been in orbit and the barrier not blocking their signals, they would have been able to link up with scans from orbit and get a better idea of what was around them.

McDowell and Kingston chatted among themselves the whole time, mostly soldier banter, women they bedded, parties they went to during their younger days. Chevallier kept quiet, much like Foster and Pierce. Foster wondered what would become of Chevallier after they got back to the Carl Sagan now that her mother and UNE navy PR wasn’t here to protect her.

“So, any thoughts, Pierce?” Foster said to him, breaking their multi-hour silence.

“Hmm, too many mysteries about this system. Plant life? An ecosystem? Not enough time has passed since the creation of this system to allow for any of this.” His hand gestures reminded everyone of the bright sun twice the size of the one around Earth above. “Then we got Sirius A, we’re too close to it.”

“Was wondering about that myself.”

“Given what we know about the size and power of a star like this, I was able to extrapolate our estimated distance to it. Simply put, if Sirius A is that big in the skies we should be about one AU way from it.”

Foster winced at what he said. One AU was the distance between Earth and the sun. The habitable zone for Sirius A was five AU due to the intensity of the star. Yet there was an Earthlike planet around them, unaffected by the giver of light above.

“We should be dead if that’s the case,” Foster said.

“Heat and radiation should have killed us long ago, and even if it didn’t the light alone would have blinded us.”

“Then why are we alive?” Chevallier asked from behind.

Foster motioned to the rippling effects of the barriers that surrounded them. “Those barriers, someone built them to make life possible here.”

Pierce nodded in agreement. “Makes sense, though it still doesn’t explain how plants were able to evolve.” He swatted away an insect that resembled a fly with four wings away from his face. “And bugs.”

Foster wiped away a torrent of sweat from her forehead. The barrier, as strong as it was, didn’t filter out everything Sirius A was dishing out to them. Her EAD reported a 10 degree jump in the air temperature as the light grew stronger. They were amid the sun rising to midday, just at a slower rate to that of Sol on Earth, meaning longer day and night cycles.

She had everyone sit down and take a break under the shade of a nearby tree. Pierce passed on the offer and ran off like a kid in a candy store, to scan the plant and insect life around them. Critical situation or not, they were still the first explorers from Earth to make it this far.

“So, hostile aliens on one planet with weapons strong enough to take down our shields, and now this,” Chevallier said to Foster. “Something tells me we might want to rethink our plans to colonize this system.”

“Someone beat us to it,” said Kingston.

Foster fanned her face with her hands, the cool air coming from her EVA suit wasn’t enough. “That thought crossed my mind, but we still don’t know enough about this system to make a call. EVE even said there’s a chance this is all undiscovered Lyonria stuff. If that’s the case we ain’t got nothing to worry about, the Lyonria are long dead.”

“Oh my god,” Pierce called out.

Foster saw Pierce drop to his knees next to the ledge of a valley they were approaching. They sprinted over to him wondering what had him fired up. Foster arrived first and looked down into the valley below them. She saw large animals with massive necks, taller than giraffes travelling in packs. They fed on the plants that overhung on the ledges around them as the valley below lacked any vegetation. Tiny rodents that looked like a cross between a squirrel and bat ran away as the mouths of the long-necked animals came in to feed themselves on the hanging plants.

Foster looked at Pierce’s emotional face. He couldn’t take his eyes off the life before them, life that shouldn’t exist but did. After a long delay he began to speak to Foster. “This is—”

“Yeah, yeah not possible.”

“This changes everything we know about how fast life could evolve on a planet.”

Pierce was right, not only had the planets in the system had not enough time, but the barriers around them no doubt took some time to design, build and activate. They were probably set up years after the planet was created, thus shortening the window for evolution as there was a period were the planet’s surface was being bombarded with heat and radiation.

Foster lost track of how many hours had passed as the five ventured onward. They crossed a natural footbridge across the valley and later entered a forest, heavily populated by creatures with long rubbery arms, six of them they counted. The animals used the long reach of two of their arms to climb up the trunks of trees, while the remaining four held on tight to what appeared to be their children. They swung from branch to branch looking for food Foster figured.

Foster led everyone to a small river, something they were in dire need of as their supplies of water ran low. She analyzed the makeup of the water below them with her EAD, it reported no signs of toxins, radiation, or bacteria. It was pure water.

Break number two commenced as they cupped their hands together and brought up some of the cold, refreshing water to drink. Kingston sat down and began to unwrap and eat one of his protein bars.

Chevallier looked at him and grimaced. “So, what are we going to do when our protein bars run out?”

“Take up hunting,” Foster said pointing to Chevallier’s rifle.

“You really think we’re going to be stranded here?” Pierce asked.

“If we can’t get our comms working, then probably,” McDowell said.

“The Carl Sagan will have continued the mission regardless,” Foster said. “They’ll probably swing by this planet to study it eventually and hopefully find us.”

Chevallier chuckled. “Assuming the aliens didn’t kill them.”

“Must you be so negative?” Foster said to her.

“Just keeping it real.”

They heard movement in the nearby bushes. Everyone stood, on edge, three rifles and two pistols powered on. Foster and Peirce used their EAD to scan about, while the three Hammerhead commandos moved forward taking point.

McDowell checked his motion sensors and whispered. “I got movement.”

“So do we,” Foster said eying her EAD’s projection.

McDowell waved his hand around using military hand signals to communicate to Chevallier and Kingston to surround the bush before him. He began to count down with his fingers for them to act.

Three.

Two.

One.

They charged forward, and two people sprung out of the bushes screaming and yelling in fear, one was clearly female while the other was male. They each wore a burgundy robe and hood that wrapped around their face, leaving only their nose and mouth visible. A black and gold visor covered where their eyes were expected to be, while gold colored chains dangled from their necks and wrists.

The three rifle-wielding Hammerheads kept their weapons aimed at them and began to shout and demand to know who they where and why they were there. Irrelevant questions as far as Foster was concerned. For starters they clearly didn’t speak English, secondly this was their planet. Foster and company were the alien visitors, aliens that now jammed their weapons at the locals.

“Stand down, I don’t think they’re hostile,” Foster said to McDowell.

“After what we went through I’m not taking any chances!”

Foster took another glance at the frightened people before them. “They look human.”

Pierce moved closer to them with his EAD, and they leaped backward, yelping and trembling in fear. Foster put her pistol and EAD away and approached them slowly with her hands forward for them to see she was unarmed and meant no harm. “Hey now, it’s just a scan, he ain’t gonna bite ya.”

They weren’t buying it.

Foster pulled out one of her protein bars and removed its silver-colored wrapping. She displayed it to them, broke a piece off and ate it. They watched her consume it as she broke off another piece and then offered it to them. The male hooded local slowly reached out to grab a piece of her bar, his hands trembling in the process. He ate it and his tone of voice changed as he spoke to his traveling companion. Foster offered the rest of the bar to the two, which they took and devoured.

They must have been starving, she thought.

Foster tried to communicate her name to them in the classic sense of pointing toward herself and slowly saying her name. “Rebecca.” She pointed at Pierce. “Travis.” The two robed figures looked puzzled and unsure of how to respond to Foster’s attempt at first contact. “Rebecca. Travis,” she said again. Her index finger moved toward the rest. “Sylvester. Mathilda.” She stopped at Kingston grimacing. “Sorry, I never did get your name,” she said to him.

Kingston rolled his eyes. “I’m feeling the love, Captain.”

They responded slowly, mimicking Foster’s actions. “Eisila,” the female said, pointing to herself.

The male stepped forward, pointing to himself. “Mavron.”

“Eisila and Mavron, nice to meet you.”

Mavron began to walk away after bowing respectfully toward them. Eisila stopped and looked at Foster and the rest, no doubt debating her next actions. She called out to Mavron and exchanged several words back and forth in their language, then faced Foster and her team once again and gestured with rapid hand movement for them to follow.

“I guess they want us to follow,” Foster said to the group.

“Is this part of first contact protocol?” Chevallier asked.

Foster laughed. “We done tossed that book in the garbage with what happen at Sirius B. This is about survival, and the locals could help us out in that department.”

Local city

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 19, 2050, 22:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster looked at the time reported on her EAD, then looked up at the skies as the star of Sirius still shined brightly. Yep, long ass days here.

Mavron and Eisila led the five out of the forest and into a city. The buildings within the city were made of stone and wood. Wood burning ovens cooked their meals, rope bridges connected some of the larger buildings together, while armored people wearing chain armor that reflected white light from above patrolled, armed with primitive looking bows and arrows.

Much like their guides, all the inhabitants of the city looked like humans and wore hoods and robes with a similar design. Everyone that was outdoor had their eyes covered, Foster figured it was due to the bright light from the sun. They all spoke a strange language and stared in awe as the five humans donning EVA suits or combat armor walked the streets.

Three armored patrolling figures approached Mavron and Eisila and pulled them aside, leaving the five humans to explore the city themselves. Foster looked back and winced as Mavron and Eisila exchanged heated words with the armored guards and hoped that their presence didn’t get Mavron and Eisila in major trouble.

“Thoughts everyone?” Foster asked.

“They look human, or perhaps Linl?” Pierce said.

“I wanna say Linl; they were buildin’ ships before they joined Radiance. Maybe this is a forgotten colony?”

“Can’t you just scan them?” Chevallier said.

“These aren’t medical scanners, the only data we’re getting back is what’s on the outside,” Pierce said.

They arrived at what appeared to be a marketplace. Merchants yelled, trying to attract the attention of curious shoppers down toward their carts full of logs, hides, vegetables, and tools. Foster felt as though they had travelled back in time to an ancient Earth city as they moved their way deeper into the market. One particular merchant took interest in the five, as the five took equal interest in him for he wasn’t of the same species as the residents of the city.

The merchant in question was short, around five feet in height. He had two ratlike tails that grew out from the top of his upper back, its skin was beige and furry, while a thin mane of hair encircled his head like a lion. The creature’s head looked up at them with intrigue, it began to speak to them in a squeaky voice, and like the rest of the locals around them Foster didn’t understand a word it spoke.

The merchant reached out and touched Foster’s hand, she felt a warm wave of energy transfer from his hand onto her, then travel up into her head. Before she could react and let go that same energy force travelled back down her arm and back into its hand.

“Ah much better,” the creature said … in English!

Foster asked wide-eyed, “You speak our language?”

“I got the basis of it now, English you call it, yes, yes?”

She crossed her arms. “Now that’s what I call a quick study.”

The creature began to circle around the five, examining them closely from head to toe, stroking the material of their equipment. “I scanned your nervous system and absorbed your language into my mind. It’s an advanced form of a skill your people refer to as psionics.”

Psionics, proof that it didn’t originate from Radiance gods, they gonna be mighty pissed once we report this. “Where are we?” she asked next.

The creature faced the bustling marketplace with its arms wide open. “This is Togi-toki, central trade and travel hub on this world. You are not from around here I presume, yes, yes?”

A snickering sound left Foster’s mouth. “What gave that away?”

“Excellent!” The creature yelled and began to rub its hands together as if some sort of lucrative deal was about to me made. “I will be your guide here then, yes, yes?”

Foster shrugged and scratched her head. “Uh thanks, mister?”

“Norauk,” he replied. “Remember that name whenever you have a need to purchase something.”

“We’ll keep that in mind.”

“Come, come, let’s exchange stories,” Norauk said, grabbing hold of Foster’s arm as he led her toward a large multistory building. “Perhaps we can exchange business, yes, yes?”

Foster walked along with him, the rest of her team followed behind. “Business, huh?”

“That is the reason you travelled here? To sell and purchase? And I assure you I have the finest bargains in the city.”

Norauk lead the group into a three-story building which he described as a place where travelers and wanderers stayed as they conducted business. Basically, an inn. The main floor was elaborately decorated with crystalline sculptures of lizard-like creatures asleep and plants from the outside alien world. Further in, they arrived at a small dinner table. It was so small all of them would have to sit on the floor in order to utilize it.

Norauk insisted they all gathered around the table and sit as he walked out of sight into a back room for several minutes. Foster and her entourage exchanged odd looks with one another as they sat at the tiny table, the Hammerhead folks especially. If Foster didn’t know any better, it would appear they had become guests of honor at some kind of dinner. Guests that were still wearing combat armor or EVA suits.

Norauk returned with a large plate of cooked meats and fresh vegetables in his furry hands. At least that’s what it looked and smelt like. Alongside him were nine other people. Some were of his race, others were of the humanoid-looking people that made up most of the population of the city. The humanoid folks wore robes similar in design to the two they met in the forest.

The meal that was prepared and delivered was laid on the table for their human guests. Foster leaned in to sniff the spicy aroma of the seared golden-brown roast in front of her. For a world and civilization cut off from the rest of the galaxy, the smells did seem to be … familiar.

“All of this for us?” Pierce asked Norauk.

“It was the best they could provide on such a short notice, we seldom have guests.”

Norauk sat with them while he waved away his associates to return to the back, the kitchen. They all bowed in unison and took their leave, many of them gazing back at the five humans in awe and wonder. The humans were the alien visitors here.

“This gonna cost us anything?” Foster asked.

“Nothing, nothing at all, it is after all your first time here,” Norauk said as he reached over for a bowl of vegetables. “Eat my friends; you must be hungry from your travels, yes, yes?”

The five looked at the strange meals before them, none of them were willing to take the plunge and try it out, expect for Chevallier being the ‘I make my own rules’ person she was. Eating Radiance food was one thing as they studied humans for years before they made contact. Radiance knew exactly which foods they had that humans could eat, and which humans should avoid. But this? There was no telling if an off-world bacterium was festering in it which the locals would have developed a resistance to.

Pierce’s thinking was on the same level as everyone else’s as he used his EAD to take a long scan of the food. “We good, Pierce?” Foster asked him.

“I hope so,” he said, and looked at Chevallier chewing away at a piece of meat.

“This better be safe,” Chevallier said to him. “’cause I’m fucking starving.”

Pierce put his EAD way and picked off a thin strip of meat from the roast. “I think we’re good.”

Chevallier and Pierce’s eating eventually lead everyone else to dig in and fill their empty bellies. Foster couldn’t help but shake the feeling that she ate food very similar to this in the past. The smells, flavor profile, texture, and seasoning, it couldn’t have been a coincidence. She ate enough Linl foods to know that ingredients from other planets tasted and smelled different. The meat tasted like lamb and the salads tasted like something she had just recently.

Norauk excused himself and went into the back room to check up on the workers inside. Perfect timing, she thought and went to address her team. “I’ve had this before.”

“Just because food came from another world doesn’t mean it has to taste different,” McDowell said.

“Have you had a chance to dine in the mess on the Carl Sagan?”

“I went straight into cryo after boarding and was revived later, so no.”

“Chef Bailey had a unique way of blending human and Radiance food together, a technique he’s usin’ for all our meals,” Foster said, and looked down at their food. “I reckon this is the same deal.”

McDowell’s face cringed. “How do you figure?”

Foster offered him a bowl of her salad. “Taste this.”

“I’m not a salad eater.”

“Still, look at its shape,” she said pointing to it. “Looks like Hayco leaf, right? Those are only found on the Javnis home world and typically used for salads.” She took back her bowl and jammed her thumb toward the meat she was gnawing on. “That there is lamb, don’t care what anyone has to say. This is a combination of Earth, Javnis, and Linl cookin’.”

Foster’s discovery prompted Pierce to take more scans with his EAD. “Once we have access to the Carl Sagan’s database, I’ll run a cross check on these analyses. Perhaps the chemical compositions will shed some light on your theory.”

“Hey!” Chevallier mumbled with a mouth partly full of food. “Didn’t your mother tell you not to scan your food?”

Norauk returned five minutes later, rubbing his hands again. Foster suspected he was up to something. The food, offering to be a guide, he wanted something, the question was what?

“You two are married, yes?” Norauk said to Foster and Pierce.

“What? Us?” Foster said as the two of them began to flush.

“Yes, yes!” Norauk said, smiling, then faced Chevallier and McDowell who happened to be sitting next to each other. “And you two, husband and wife?”

“No!” They both shouted at the same time.

“Nope,” was the reply Pierce added.

“Oh my, this won’t do at all,” Norauk said, examining McDowell, Kingston, and Pierce. “What type of women do you like?”

“Ain’t nobody here to get hitched!” Foster bellowed at Norauk. We’re explorers damn it, not travelling bachelors.

“Surely you must know it is against the law for men to be without a wife?” Norauk said.

“Well, this is awkward,” McDowell said.

Norauk wagged his tails in a troubled manner. “You didn’t know?”

“We’re, uh, from another city,” Foster exaggerated for she wasn’t ready to reveal the presence of the Carl Sagan somewhere in the system. Or that they came from Earth.

“All cities on this planet have the same laws,” Norauk said. “Oh, you must be the others, from another planet, yes?”

“Another planet?” Foster said. “Yeah, you could say that.”

“Ah, I didn’t think there was more of your kind left!” Norauk’s tone changed to a more pleasant and excited one. “Well then, I shall find temporary wives for you all, unless you two females want to marry them?”

“Oh, poor Kingston,” McDowell said, laughing at him. “You’re going to be the odd one out.”

Foster shook her head. “We’re not marrying each other, even temporarily!”

“Ah, temporary wives it is,” Norauk said.

“No!”

Foster’s pleas went unanswered as Norauk ran off into the back rooms. As she recalled some of the people that brought out food were women. She dreaded the thought of them rolling out of the kitchen with a wedding gown on with Norauk at their side to perform a quick Las Vegas style wedding, back when Las Vegas still existed that was.

Kingston bit into a fruit that resembled an apple and put in his two cents on the predicament at hand. “She better be hot.”

10 Foster

Togi-toki, inn, third floor

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 12:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The planet SA-115 was littered with multiple dome-shaped barriers across its surface protecting its inhabitants as well as its ecosystem from the star it orbited. For thousands of years the people known only as the Poniga made the planet their home and lived a simple life of hunting, gathering, and trading with other members of their society. Each dome was connected via a network of wormholes, some of which were also linked to wormholes that existed on other worlds.

It was long believed that the Poniga originally arrived at SA-115 from one of these worlds and established it as their home. Legends had told that there were other members of their civilization on other planets, though contact with them had been long lost in the aftermath of a great cataclysm. A being, known only as the Architect, allegedly created the domes as a means for the Poniga people to live on a planet, that by rights, shouldn’t be able to support life. Most Poniga believe that it was the Architect that guided their early ancestors to the planet to survive. It went without saying, that the being known as the Architect quickly became a subject of worship and devotion as the Poniga people enthusiastically believed they owed their existence to it.

At least that’s what Foster’s interpretation was as Norauk spent most of the previous night and the early hours of the morning bringing her and her team up to speed. An act Foster wished he had saved for later her body needed sleep, sleep that was denied due to Norauk’s storytelling. The heat and white sun light didn’t help as the sun stayed in the skies long after they retired. Air-conditioning clearly didn’t exist with such a low-tech civilization and the barriers, as strong as they were, didn’t filter out all of the heat and light that baked the surface. According to her and Pierce’s EAD scans, the estimated day length on the planet, based on how slowly the sun moved through the skies, was approximately seventy hours.

She rolled out of the bed amongst the dry heat and looked at her EVA suit that rested on the floor and then at the clothes she was wearing, glad that she chose to bend the rules and not wear her IESA uniform. She peeked out the window and partly shielded her eyes from the brutal light above and looked at the Poniga people below as they went about their day, speaking a language none of her team understood.

Her gazing on, and observation of, the alien society came to an end as the wooden door to her room slid open, Norauk had arrived, his tails wagging on seeing Foster up and about. “Howdy, just the person I wanted to see,” she said to him.

“Oh? You want to buy something, yes, yes?”

“We need directions to the edge of the barrier we talked about.”

“Oh,” he replied with disappointment. “You wish to leave?”

“Like I said last night we’s passin’ through. Just wanna contact our ship—” Shit. You weren’t supposed to mention a ship Rebecca!

“A ship? You are from the stars then?”

Foster stepped away from the window and its searing light and debated if she should get on with it and spill the whole truth. After a slight pause she revealed a frown that appeared on her face. “We ain’t from these parts.”

“A ship, this is good.” Norauk rubbed his hands together, Foster began to wonder if he was planning something else, or was in a dire need of some hand lotion. “My people are known as the Qirak, we too are from the stars!”

Norauk’s reveal wasn’t exactly surprising per se. It was clear that there was no intelligent life on the planet that evolved naturally. The Poniga came from elsewhere and so Norauk’s people, the Qirak, must have come from another world as well.

“Is that so? How’d you get here?”

“We are traders, we travel the stars seeking fine wares and profit. We saw great opportunities here and brokered a deal with the Architect.”

“The Architect,” she mumbled to herself. She remembered him tossing that name out, but never did get around to asking follow-up questions. “Who is that?”

Norauk stepped in front of the window unaffected by the intense heat and light. Following behind, Foster saw him point down below into a courtyard where a bronze display took center stage. It looked like four spikes coming out from the ground forming almost a ‘W’ shape as they crossed with each other.

“That is the mark of the Architect,” Norauk said pointing to the sculpture. “People here consider him to be a deity. But me? He’s just a business partner.”

The Architect is a business partner, a ‘he’ at that. Must be some sort of advanced alien living in this region of space. Foster thanked Norauk for his time and gathered the rest of her team from their adjacent rooms, and out into the halls. She gave them the rundown on the situation and the game plan for them to leave and travel to the edge of the barrier.

Norauk chimed in during their talk. “You wish to travel beyond the barrier? It is dangerous there; you will not live long enough to contact your ship.”

“What do you think, Pierce?” Foster asked.

Pierce eyed the three Hammerhead personnel and their combat armor. “Combat armor with max shields should last a few minutes outside of the barrier before bad things happen.”

Foster nodded then addressed McDowell. “Commander?”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the sound of voluntold.”

“One of us should stay,” Pierce said. “There is still much to learn about these people and this Architect.”

Foster concurred. “I’ll stay, Dr. Pierce, you head out with them.”

His jaw dropped, and he began to protest. “Captain! You can’t be serious?”

“I got a feelin’ this planet and possibly this city is the center for all activity in the system,” Foster said. “If we’s gonna live here in this system then we best iron out a deal and make sure we ain’t building homes in someone’s backyard.”

“Ah, you wish to meet the Architect then? Yes, yes?” Norauk said.

“If he’s in charge, yeah.”

“I can have my wife arrange a meeting,” Norauk said. “But … payment.” Foster rolled her eyes, she had a feeling there was a catch coming sooner rather than later. “I take your friends to the barrier limit and arrange for you to meet the Architect. Two jobs, two payments yes, yes?”

“We ain’t from here remember? We ain’t gots your currency.”

“What do your people use?”

“Credit chits, and I’m pretty sure I left mine in my quarters.”

“Gems perhaps?” Foster shook her head no. “Jewels? Gold?”

“None of that sorry, mister.”

“Something from your ship perhaps? Technology is not common here unless it came from the Architect, or underground in which case it’s given to the Architect as tribute.”

Architect has high tech, good to know. “What about your people?”

“Ah, that’s a long story.”

“Tell ya what.” Foster showed Norauk her EAD. “There’s more of these, perhaps you want a few?”

“A scanning tool, very useful,” Norauk said looking at her EAD up and down. “Yes, yes this will do.”

It was a deal. Foster faced her team, all of them looked ready to embark, except Pierce. But that was OK, he’d be best for the job with his knowledge of science should they run into issues. And best part of all? No local laws get broken, Pierce, Kingston, and McDowell won’t be forced into marriage. “Well then, y’all ready to head out?”

“MC, stay with the Captain,” McDowell said to Chevallier.

Foster didn’t object, having an extra body to watch her back helped put her mind at ease while she prepared herself mentally to speak with this mythical Architect person. Norauk, McDowell, and Kingston left the city with Pierce dragging his feet like a moody child on his way to school. Prior to Norauk leaving he gave Foster the location where she could find his wife, who was out in the markets in the western edge of the city.

Foster and Chevallier took to the city streets and casually strolled through, trying their best to keep to the shadows the taller buildings cast. She had concerns about what the bright light from the skies was slowly doing to her vision. A full eye examination upon returning to the Carl Sagan was in order.

They turned the corner and arrived at a crowded marketplace. Some of the Poniga people were bartering with other members of Norauk’s race, while another large crowd was huddled around … something. Foster couldn’t see what had gripped the crowd’s attention, the blinding sunlight being the sole reason for that. They arrived at a kiosk where a solo Qirak female fitting the description of Norauk’s wife exchanged gold and jewels for … people?

Every Poniga that arrived at her kiosk dragged a small group of chained Poniga with them, made their exchange with her, then pushed the small chained-up group beyond the gathering crowd. Slave trading was the first thing that came to Foster’s mind, but Norauk mentioned nothing of that happening in this society.

It was Foster and Chevallier’s turn to speak with her as the queue shrank. “You must be Norauk’s wife Yalauk, right?”

She looked at Foster and Chevallier with a puzzled look on her face. Right, she doesn’t understand our language, Foster thought.

Yalauk reached out and touched Foster in the same manner Norauk did when he used his psionic gifts to instantly learn English. Foster began to wonder if the range of talents a psionic could use varied from species to species. No Hashmedai psionics or Radiance psionics were able to scan the body of someone and fully learn how to speak their language instantly. Yet the Qirak could, but lacked some of the common powers psionics could use such as telekinesis, at least from what she had been able to observe.

“Ah, greetings traveler,” Yalauk said. “You speak of my husband’s name? You must be the two he spoke of.”

“Howdy, name’s Captain Foster. Norauk said we could meet the Architect.”

“Ah yes, yes, the Architect’s bodyguards will be here soon, they can lead you right to him.”

Yalauk pointed to the group of Poniga beyond the crowd next to her. Now that Foster and Chevallier were closer, they were able to see what the vivid sunshine from above had obstructed. There was a large gathering of Poniga, beyond them were the chained and shackled ones the two had witnessed being sold to Yalauk for whatever reason. Their robes were torn and dirty, while their faces were drenched with blood and despair. Half of the chained and beaten Poniga had weeping children with them, it made Foster’s gut wrench. The more she looked at it the more she began to think they were indeed slaves.

“What do you figure is going on here, Captain?” Chevallier whispered to her.

“I don’t know.”

“Slaves, perhaps?”

Foster grimaced, even Chevallier started to wonder the same. She faced Yalauk and asked. “What are these people here for?”

“Ah, people of your kind should not associate themselves with this. These are the Poniga that worship the goddess and plot against the Architect.”

“What exactly did they do?”

“You will have to ask those that live here. My kind is just here for profit! The Architect rewards those that bring him these people; I share the reward with those that hunt them.” Chanting and cheering erupted from the crowd as the chained Poniga were forced to walk forward. “Ah yes, yes, the Architect’s entourage is coming, follow those low-lifers to them.”

Foster reached down to make sure her ePistol was still on her. It was. “Let’s keep our distance, don’t want people to think we are part of this bunch.”

Chevallier nodded and they followed slowly behind the group. They watched as the chained Poniga were forcibly assembled in front of a building with large wooden barnlike doors. The doors swung open and the cheering crowd grew louder as they saw what was inside the darkened structure.

It was a wormhole. The very same oval-shaped one they passed through to get to this planet.

The wormhole activated, and its center glowed brightly then transformed into what looked like the interior of a dark and grimy ship. One that looked familiar, like from their encounter with the aliens back at the ice world of Sirius B. Correction, it was the same interior, as the same armored aliens marched out of the wormhole and into the city, spear-wielding overlords in the back, limping laser-wielding grunts in front. They began to examine the chained Poniga harshly. Armored hands gripped onto chins and forced their mouths to open, hoods were torn off to closely examine their hair.

Frightened, chained children began to whimper and shed tears, angering the overlords that were overseeing everything. The overlords pointed to the crying children, prompting their grunts to kick them to the sandy ground below. The parents of the assaulted children objected, naturally, and some tried to attack those that brought harm to their offspring, only to have the side of an arm-mounted laser cannon send their bodies to the ground with their children with a loud, clobbering sound. Defiance grew stronger in the chained crowd as the first batch was dragged into the wormhole, their feet flailing about as their lips cried out in terror. Three chained Poniga refused to sit back and watch as their own kind and children were beaten endlessly and tried to fight despite being chained. The grunts with laser cannons mounted to their arms put them down, for all eternity.

Foster hated every second of it.

She wanted to fight, she wanted to save these people. Whatever happened she knew that the children couldn’t be faulted. They were being taken away because of the actions of their parents, nothing more.

The chained Poniga were herded through the wormhole onto the ship, the ones that weren’t killed by laser blasters. Their bodies were left to cook in the streets as smoke rose from their wounds and the sunlight beat against them. A familiar face glanced back at Foster from the crowd of the chained and condemned, it was Mavron, the robed woman next to him, no doubt Eisila. The two people that helped guide Foster’s team into the city was now on the receiving end of some sort of punishment.

The group of chained Poniga quickly shrank as they continued to be pushed or dragged into the wormhole along with their children. The armored grunts made their way back toward the end of the shrinking group and toward Foster and Chevallier. They did, after all, request a meeting with the Architect, too bad neither of them knew that the Architect was one of the aliens that attacked them.

“Sainte merde,” Chevallier said as the armored grunts neared.

“You can say that again.”

“Holy shit.”

11 Chevallier

Streets of Togi-toki

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 14:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier slowly reached for her rifle that was strapped over her shoulder as she saw Captain Foster reach for her pistol. The two tried to backpedal and slip into the cheering crowd behind them, hoping that the aliens, rather the Architect’s soldiers, were too focused on gathering their prize. Aliens, Chevallier thought to herself. We’re the aliens, they are the locals.

They tried to slip away, all while trying not to draw too much attention to themselves from the crowd of Poniga that gathered to watch the chained-up creatures being taken away. The Poniga onlookers began to speak as the two pushed deeper into the crowd, Chevallier hoped it wasn’t about them trying to exit stage left. One of the Architect’s overlords made a noise, it sounded critical, like they saw something they didn’t like. More words in their strange language were spoken to one another, they didn’t sound happy.

Suddenly, the crowd they had slipped into began to disperse quickly as one of the overlords began to yell and aim their spears at them. Like a wave receding from the beach, Foster and Chevallier were exposed as the crowd moved away from them, their cheering and chanting stopped in the process. Whatever the overlords had said to them, they obeyed, and quickly.

The Architect’s soldiers in turn gazed at the two humans as two grunts stepped up to Foster and Chevallier in a threatening manner with their arm-mounted laser cannons aimed at them. Behind those grunts was an overlord who stood, holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, barking orders to the grunts like some kind of squad leader.

Nobody was interested in talking or bargaining at that point.

“Captain, you still got that piece on you?”

“I’ll need to make a sudden movement to get to it, but yes.”

Chevallier grinned and activated personal shields. “Good.”

Chevallier pushed Foster aside and drew her rifle quickly. She fired from the hip with remarkable accuracy and efficiency, perforating the chests of the two grunts that approached them. Their bodies dropped fast. She hoped that her sudden actions drew all the attention toward her and not on Foster who had no shields.

She hoped right.

Chevallier’s shields flashed as it deflected multiple shots of laser blasts from the two soldiers. Foster’s pistol joined the action and put down one grunt that began to react in the distance. The violent exchange got the Poniga who had been watching running to hide within the buildings behind the market kiosks. Some leaped through windows in fear, paying no mind to what they might have landed on as they fell to the ground. They were doing something Chevallier and Foster needed to have done two minutes ago.

Flee.

The two ran through the streets, Chevallier firing blind shots to help cover their run. The overlord soldiers of the Architect’s army began to yell orders to their grunt minions. ‘Get them’ Chevallier figured. As she and Foster turned the corner, she looked back to see how many were chasing them and saw a terrifying sight. The three dead soldiers they had put down rose back up just like their first encounter. It was like they had been resurrected from the dead. The holes that were put through their bodies were still there, coagulating blood oozed out ever so slowly.

Shit, shit, shit!

“Too many bystanders here,” Foster shouted as they continued to run away, firing their weapons blindly behind them. “We’s gotta take this fight elsewhere.”

To Chevallier that meant not running inside a building as there was a good chance that bystanders would be hit in the crossfire. Even if they ducked behind furniture or a wall, eWeapons traveled nearly at the speed of light and were powerful enough to put a hole through the stone walls the buildings were made of.

Foster tugged Chevallier’s arm as they passed a stable, well what would pass as one on this planet. They entered and saw creatures that resembled horses, they were equipped with a harness and saddle that were of similar design. Foster approached one of them and tried to climb on.

“Ever been horseback ridin’, Master Chief?”

Chevallier eyed the horselike creatures and shook her head. “These aren’t horses, Captain.”

“Close enough.” Foster gave the harness firm taps with her hand. “They clearly use ‘em the same way.”

Chevallier wanted to object to her idea, but heard the stomping noise of the Architect’s soldiers. It grew louder. They were getting close, and they needed an escape that didn’t involve running. Chevallier climbed up onto the animal with Foster and hoped that riding one would be as effective as their Earth-based equivalent.

Foster tried to get the animal to move and ride out of the stable. “C’mon, giddy up you!” It didn’t move, much like other ones around it.

“Let me try.” Chevallier fired random bullets into the air, the thunderous roar of her rifle spooked all of the animals, including the one they sat on, to run away and flee into the streets. A raging stampede ensued.

A stampede that flattened four of the Architect’s soldiers as they literally ran into it thinking they were going to get the jump on Chevallier and Foster. Their escape out of the stable and away from the danger behind them was almost like a scene out of an old western movie. Horseback riding, guns blazing, a southern American at the forefront of the action even Foster let out an excited ‘heehaw’ as she commanded the animal to run side by side the stampede they created.

Chevallier looked behind and saw several of the Architect’s grunts that didn’t get trampled amongst the swirling clouds of dust that rose into the air. Their laser cannons ejected their hot energy, red streaks of light zipped past the corner of her peripheral vision. Chevallier peered through the scope of her eRifle, its targeting scanners acquired a target lock, and she pulled the trigger as its holographic reticle appeared over the heads of the grunts. Chevallier brought out her combat experience from the war with the Hashmedai and skirmishes against HLF terrorists, faces exploded into pieces, heads held on by a tiny slice of flesh from the remains of their necks. Let’s see you resurrect from that, Chevallier thought with a satisfied grin.

The edge of the city neared, at least that’s what the two hoped, the blinding light from the sun made it hard to see. Chevallier wished she had her helmet on instead of hanging off the side of her suit, the visor would have dimmed enough for her to get a better view. The animal they rode scurried around seemingly at random, its raging gallop made it increasingly difficult for Chevallier to stay on with each passing minute.

“Captain,” Chevallier said, trying to draw attention to her frantic movement.

“I know, I know gimme a break here, this is harder than I thought!”

“Pretty sure I mentioned these weren’t horses!”

“Got us this far, didn’t it?”

The city walls came into view and the forest beyond it, and beyond that? McDowell, Kingston, and Pierce she hoped as they closed the gap between their group and the edge of the barrier to make contact with the Carl Sagan.

The stampede, Chevallier and Foster included, rode out past the city gates, too bad neither of them saw the ambush waiting for them behind the walls. A light show of laser fire blazed, their horse yelped in pain as its burning body fell over, launching them into the dust billowing up from the panicking stampede.

Chevallier lost track of what happened afterward as she tried to avoid getting trampled. Her shields held out for the most part, but she knew between the lasers she got shot with, the fall onto the ground, and getting trampled, they weren’t going to last long. She wore no helmet or tactical visor and therefore had no access to a tactical HUD that could have reported her shield’s power.

Dust, bright light, the ground, legs of the animals. It was all she saw as she continued to roll and get out of danger. The noise of the stampede subsided, and she rose to her feet, thankful her shields lasted as long as they did. She saw a dead figure on the ground as the dust around her subsided. She panicked and ran closer to it to get a better look, while her hands shielded her eyesight from the white sunlight.

It was the horse they rode on. That was it. There was no sign of Foster.

“Captain, come in,” Chevallier transmitted over her communicator, there was no reply.

She stopped herself from speaking into it again as the Architect’s forces were there not long ago, and could have been still lurking around. Her voice might give her position away, but at the same time if Foster was able to reply, she would have, or at least would have tried to reach out to her since it was clear neither of them knew where they were.

Save your breath, there’s no point in communicating.

Chevallier looked at the forest ahead, knowing that the only help available to her now was her team, even though communicating with them posed the same risks as communicating with Foster. She began to run into the forest to create some distance before trying to speak into her communicator again, and hoped nobody was planning an ambush, for she was alone now, and her shields were still low.

12 Williams

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 16:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Commander Dominic Williams arrived on the bridge after receiving notification in the mess hall of their arrival in Sirius A system. He saw Chief Rivera’s repair team make their exit with tool boxes in their hands as he entered. Rivera stayed behind and stood next to Chang as he sat at the newly restored helm controls, getting a feel for handling the ship.

“Everything good, Chief?” Williams asked her while he took a seat at the captain’s chair.

“For the most part,” she replied. “Just giving the lieutenant a rundown of everything.”

Williams looked at the vibrant white main sequence star in the distance as its light upstaged the ceiling lights of the bridge and cast new sunlight shadows of all bridge personnel on the floor. The Carl Sagan had been at Sirius for two days with zero progress made toward its primary objective, that had to change, it was going to start that day.

“How soon can we deploy colonization pods if we find a suitable world?” he asked.

Rivera turned away from Chang and looked at the shimmering projection on her holo pad. “I’ll need to double-check the status of the colonization habitat ring, shouldn’t be an issue since most of the battle damage was focused here.”

“Get to it as soon as you can, please,” Williams said. “We need to set up a home and base camp in this system, and then we find the captain and her team.”

“Understood,” Rivera confirmed, and took her leave.

Helm control of the ship was transferred back into the hands of a human. Williams didn’t need to look at Chang’s smiling face to know he was having the time of his life piloting the ship throughout the system at sub light speeds. Williams made his way to the rear section of the bridge to examine the holographic projection of the Sirius A system.

“EVE, any thoughts?” Williams asked.

EVE’s hologram manifested next to the projection. Like a tour guide she began to point to and explain what the ship’s scans had picked up since their arrival. “There are five planets orbiting Sirius A. Two dwarf size worlds, a gas giant followed by two other worlds equal in size and mass to that of Earth.”

As EVE explained, the respective worlds enlarged before him. The dwarf planets mentioned were too close to Sirius. Their atmosphere was burned away by the furious power of the star. The gas giant had good potential for heilum-3 mining and possibly ore mining on its many moons. Given its proximity to the star however, they would have to take extra precautions there. Most likely set up mining platforms that follow the night cycle of the gas giant to reduce the amount of work the shields will have to do to protect its crew from radiation, especially if they have to perform a space walk.

Williams asked EVE to show him data about the two Earth-sized worlds as they both had gravity on par with Earth, something the sleeping colonists aboard would be more than grateful to make their home on as they all came from Earth. One planet labeled SA-115 by EVE was 1 AU away from the star while the other labeled SA-139 was 5 AU away, the goldilocks zone for Sirius A. Not too hot, not too cold, Earth-sized. If the planet had a strong ozone layer thus making solar radiation a nonissue, SA-139 was the best choice for a new home for the crew and an expansion for the UNE’s sphere of influence in the galaxy.

Williams flicked the hologram of SA-139 toward Tolukei. “Is it possible I can get an ESP scan of this world and the nearby sector?” he asked him. Tolukei began to shut his eyes and focus while his psionic mind reached outside of the ship and touched the surface of the planet in question.

“Puzzling,” Tolukei said after ending his trance. “Once again, I sense psionic activity in the system.”

“Location?”

“It is hard to tell exactly where it’s coming from, I will need more time to touch it with my mind. But it is strongest on the fifth planet you are considering.”

Williams looked at the projection of SA-139, the fifth planet in the system and crossed his arms. “Of course it is,” he mumbled. “Chang, set a course to SA-139.”

The young flight lieutenant nodded. “Understood, setting new course, Commander.”

Williams returned to his chair as the Carl Sagan adjusted its course and accelerated to the fifth planet in the system at sub light speeds. “If there is a civilization on that world then that instantly makes this system no good to us.” Though that wasn’t entirely true.

Williams knew that the Carl Sagan was prepared to tame any planet for human colonization, thanks to the technology handed to them by Radiance. Domed cities could be built protected by shields strong enough to protect people from heat and radiation. However, such a task would take more effort than it was worth, not to mention the upkeep as a lot of labor and resources would have to be used to keep those conditions maintained. Ideally, settling on a world with minimal upkeep would be best, as the man power and resources could be used to acquire more resources and then later jump-start a colony on a harsh world.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 18:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The image of SA-139 caused much of the bridge crew to don smiles of delight as Chang placed the ship in a stable orbit. It was almost as if they had returned to Earth given the many familiar features of the surface of the planet. Large continents were surrounded by blue oceans, while puffy white clouds hung above. Many of the continents had blotches of green regions such as grass, forests, and the like. Other regions were yellow and brown, especially near the equator, deserts and dry canons and mountains arching toward the skies.

Swirling vortexes of clouds were seen exiting the terminator of night into the white sunlight and battered the coastline of one of the southern continents. EVE reported it to be a hurricane, not that Williams needed to know that, the eye of the storm was big enough to give that fact away. As their orbital path continued they arrived at a side of the planet that was experiencing winter. It resembled Earth when it was going through its ice age as the landmasses and water around it were frozen. According to EVE’s data one year on SA-139 was equal to eight years on Earth, thus meaning winter went on for multiple Earth years. The news made all the botanists aboard excited as it would be a chance to study how plant life evolved and adapted to the climate the planet possessed. True, the Radiance database was filled with knowledge of similar planets, but none of those worlds had been explored by humans. Reading about it, and experiencing it were two different things.

Multiple probes were launched. Some traveled to the surface below, others traveled at sub light speeds en route to the rest of the stellar objects in the system. The probes that arrived on SA-139 began to transmit their findings back to EVE, and she began to catalog and flag areas of interest. The biggest discovery, and partial relief to Williams, was despite the Earthlike appearance and the signs of animal life on the planet, there were no signs of intelligent civilizations. Recon teams consisting of Hammerhead personnel, scientists, and explorers traveled to the surface later via transports and only confirmed what the probes discovered, nobody had made claim to the planet. It was ripe for colonization.

Tolukei’s ESP scans of the system also confirmed no signs of ship activity since their arrival. Apart from the hostile aliens that chased them away from Sirius B, all signs pointed to the Carl Sagan and humanity as the only interstellar species anywhere. The fact the aliens chose not to chase the Carl Sagan, and had no presence in Sirius A that they could detect, fueled their confidence, though Williams had a feeling they hadn’t seen the last of them, they would still need to keep an eye out for them.

“Well I see no reason to not settle here,” Williams said after reviewing data from all probes launched.

“You got my approval if it means anything,” Chang said.

Williams opened up a comm link to engineering. “Rivera, are we green for colonization release?”

“You’re good to go, Commander,” her voice transmitted back.

“Chang, bring us closer to the planet,” Williams said, directing him to a warm region in the southern hemisphere. “Right there, should be summertime there.”

“Copy that,” Chang complied and keyed in the new course to his terminal. “So, this place is going to have what? Two years of summer weather? I think I’m going to enjoy this place.”

Williams laughed at his comment. “Don’t forget, there’ll be two years of fall, two years of winter, two years of spring before you see summer again.”

“Well, we could always do like birds and migrate back and forth to escape the cold months.”

Williams began to fantasize about how the planet will look in the years to come as they approached the southern hemisphere. Would large cities consume the surface? Would people travel to summer homes during the long winters via transports? There was little land mass near the equator compared to Earth, so making a home there wasn’t going to be an option for everyone due to lack of space.

Whatever the future held, Williams was happy they were finally making progress in their mission and bringing the colonists to a safe place to live. Should the Carl Sagan be lost at the hands of the aliens, at least the colonists aboard would still be alive. Chang guided the Carl Sagan to establish a geostationary orbit around the southern hemisphere’s landmass. Further in the distance he could see the hurricane, though EVE confirmed it would have long died out by the time it hit the proposed settlement.

The colonization ring began its countdown to departure. Each section of the ring held pods that would serve as future homes, storage compartments, power generation stations, and the likes for the colony. One by one the colonization ring dismantled itself and its parts soared away from the Carl Sagan and entered the atmosphere of the planet. After a rocky entry through the atmosphere with the shields protecting the pods from the red glowing friction, they landed at the foot of a mountain that overlooked the ocean, creating the foundation for the first city on SA-139. As the pods landed, the crew below on the surface began the task of unwrapping the contents, and designated which will be used for homes, schools, markets, and operational centers. The colonists aboard the Carl Sagan began to awake from their long cryo sleep and were directed to the docking bay where transports ferried families and their belongings off the ship and onto SA-139, their new home.

The process left the Carl Sagan a changed ship, one with only one habitat ring and less mass to tow around. It was no longer a ship of colonization, it became purely a ship of exploration and science.

Williams lost track of how many hours had passed and how many cups of coffee he downed since the process began. Most of the bridge crew retired for the night while he remained in Foster’s office, keeping her chair warm as he reviewed the reports that came up from the surface in regard to the establishment of the colony. The people below wasted no time on jump-starting other projects, such as deploying transports to lay down the groundwork on heilum-3 mining, and to start work on constructing mines for minerals across the system.

Interesting data regarding SA-115, the other Earthlike planet in the system began to trickle back to EVE via the probes sent out earlier. It would have to wait for another time, however, as he tossed the holo pad onto the desk. His eyelids became heavy and some of the reports he was reading weren’t sinking into his head. Williams’ body needed rest, for it was a long, productive day.

He made his way up into his quarters in the habitat ring and was greeted by Foster’s cat Starlet, who had now made Williams’ quarters its new home. Temporary home of course. Now that the colony was established, he was free to focus on his next mission. Rescuing the Captain and her team.

13 McDowell

Edge of protective barrier

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 20:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“The edge of the barrier you seek this, yes, yes?”

The six-hour trek came to an end as McDowell inspected the edge of the protective barrier that encircled the region. On the inside of the barrier where the four stood were trees, vegetation, and water flowing from the river behind them. Beyond the barrier was a desolate rocky wasteland, heavily cratered, with heat waves in the background and stars in the atmosphere-less sky.

McDowell looked at Pierce who scanned the barrier in front of them up and down with his EAD. “So, egghead?”

“I don’t like the looks of this,” he replied.

“The looks of what?” Kingston said, then reached out to touch the barrier. The shock from touching it caused him to leap backward. “Son of a bitch!”

McDowell’s HUD reported that Kingston’s shields dropped 10 percent just from the brief contact. So much for punching our way through.

“The harmonics of the shield don’t seem to be self-irising either,” Pierce commented after watching what happened to Kingston.

“Norauk,” McDowell called out to him. “Is there a way we could get beyond it?”

“Hmm, did not consider this problem, no, no.”

McDowell jammed his finger at Norauk in an aggressive manner and said. “You brought us out here knowing we wanted to go beyond, and you didn’t know how to make it happen?”

Pierce held onto McDowell’s shoulder. “Easy there, killer.”

McDowell shrugged him off. “Shut up and figure out a way past this!”

“I can’t, it’s a powerful shield designed to do just that, shield the inside from everything coming in from the outside, and vice versa.”

“Ah, I have an idea, yes, yes, it will deliver what you seek,” Norauk said to them.

“Starting to sound like a flea market sales person,” McDowell said.

“Follow, follow, I have a means of getting beyond the barrier, you will be able to contact your ship, guarantee.”

Norauk began to move in a different direction, one that was further away from the barrier. McDowell shrugged and signaled to the rest to follow behind with him. “This detour going to cost us extra?”

Norauk stopped and faced McDowell with a devious smile. “Not at all, no need to worry about paying me for this.”

Lake shoreline

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 20, 2050, 22:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The group exited the forest after a lengthy walk, one that required Pierce to stop, sit, and take a break partway through. As they left the forest, they found themselves walking along the shores of a large lake. The motion of the water from the lake was calm, almost lifeless, no waves hit the beach. SA-115 lacked tides as it had no moon orbiting it. McDowell stopped briefly to admire the glorious spectacle of Sirius glowing brightly in the skies above the lake taking up a large portion of the sky due to its size, as the shield of the dome protecting the region provided a faux sky over head.

McDowell couldn’t help but notice that they were walking further way from the barrier and more toward the center of the region as they continued walking along the lakeside. Distrust began to form in his gut, delivering a sinking feeling that Norauk might be leading them into a trap. McDowell kept both a close eye on Norauk and his small, unarmed body and the safety of his rifle off. Assuming his psionics weren’t an issue, him and Kingston should be able to take him with ease.

Pierce on the other hand.

McDowell looked at Pierce and grimaced, he was another concern of his. “So, Dr. Pierce.”

“Yes?”

“You’re from Vancouver, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Why did you come out here? It’s one of the few cities that got ravaged during the invasion and you were a respected person in the scientific community.”

“Maybe for that city, but not elsewhere in the UNE.” Pierce began to scan the lake next to them with his EAD. “And to answer your question, Commander McDowell, Captain Foster insisted I join. I didn’t want to at first, but money was becoming an issue, and it was a chance to see what was out there.”

“What do you think about Rivera?”

“I think she’s kinda hot, sir,” said Kingston.

“Wasn’t asking you,” McDowell grunted. “Though, I do agree.”

McDowell and Kingston shared laughter and then faced Pierce who kept silent and continued to scan the lake.

“Pretty quiet there, egghead,” McDowell said.

“Sir, maybe he’s not into women?” Kingston said.

“Naw man, he’s from Vancouver, there’s lots of Hashmedai living there. Ain’t that right, Dr. Pierce?”

Pierce sighed. “Yes, there is a significant concentration of them living in the region.”

“Oh, I get it, he likes Hashmedai women,” Kingston said.

“How ‘bout it, egghead?” McDowell said, nudging Pierce with his elbow. “Do you eat Hashmedai pussy?”

“Careful, sir, he might be one of those HLF sympathizers.”

Pierce kept his eyes looking down at the holographic screen of his EAD as if there was something important about its contents, McDowell knew better, however. The lakes and rivers had already been thoroughly scanned in this region, pure water flowed through them with the odd alien fish swimming through it. “Well, he got all silent, guess we struck a chord?”

Norauk lead them to a section of the lake where a dormant wormhole resided partially submerged in the water. Norauk pointed at the wormhole in question while McDowell held onto his rifle and gave the wormhole an uneasy stare. The last time they came close to these devices, bad things happened.

“Ah, here we go!” Norauk said as he ran and splashed through the shallow waters headed for the wormhole in the lake.

“More of those wormhole things,” McDowell said as his finger inched closer toward the trigger.

“I got a bad feeling about this, sir,” Kingston said.

“No, this might be exactly what we need,” Pierce said. “Perhaps one of these could take us to a world not under the cover of the barrier.”

“Then we could get a message out.” McDowell liked the idea Pierce suggested, there was just one problem. “What world would that be? The one we got chased from?”

Norauk’s small hands tinkered with a holographic interface that appeared next to the wormhole in the lake, it flashed briefly as it powered on before he waved to the rest to join him in the waters. McDowell glanced into the mouth of the wormhole as it activated, he saw what looked like another world. Its skies were darker as if a sunset was in progress while a vast ocean calmly flowed below the horizon. The wormhole on the other end must have been partially submerged in shallow waters in the same manner as the one they stood in front of as water freely flowed back and forth through the gate.

“Egghead?” McDowell asked Pierce who wasted no time running a scan with his EAD.

“I detect oxygen, but lower traces of it,” Pierce reported. “Breathing will be a challenge, but doable.”

“Well, we got our suits if need be.”

“It’s also hot, approximately forty-eight degrees.”

“Again, we’re not staying …” McDowell lost his train of thought midway through his sentence. “But.”

He heard a song play in his head or at least that’s what it felt like. It was something soothing and enticing, he felt the overwhelming need to make last-minute changes to their mission. Someone beyond the wormhole wanted him to stay for a while and he wanted to make them happy they did.

“It wouldn’t hurt to do so,” Kingston said slowly, for he too felt the same as McDowell.

Pierce lowered his EAD and looked into the wormhole almost in a dreamy state of mind. “Yeah.”

Norauk lead them through the wormhole and the four stood in the middle of what appeared to be a shallow ocean upon their arrival on the new world. There were no signs of any landmass, just the waves of the waters below them crashing against their bodies, the wormhole behind them and the semi-night star-filled skies above. Sirius B shined small traces of light down plus another larger object, a brown dwarf star, probably Sirius C which dominated 25 percent of the skies alongside a large moon.

Pierce didn’t seem to care of the discovery of a new world or the spectacular view of all the stellar objects in the sky, while McDowell became less worried about Norauk. Nothing else mattered to the three men but one thing, locating the source of the song, the alluring voice that had forced its way into their heads.

They waded through the shallow ocean away from the wormhole. Norauk said some words but they went in one ear and out the other. In the horizon ahead of them was a sunrise, bright white blue light, Sirius A perhaps though it was much further away, thus giving off less light than on the other planet … What was it called? McDowell’s memories became fuzzy, he couldn’t remember his rank, his mission. How he came here.

But that song. It had to have been a beautiful woman singing it. He must speak with her. He just had to do it. Norauk was long gone at that point, none of them saw where he scurried off to, and none of them cared.

The surface of the water slowly started to rise the further they walked away from the wormhole as the land below them sloped downward. The shallow ocean was quickly turning into a deeper one. The water had risen to McDowell’s chest before the voice asked him and the rest to stop. He looked down and saw a deep trench below them, vast, dark, deep, blue ocean teeming with life unknown going about their daily lives.

There was something in the waters in front. Someone. Their head emerged from the water. It was a woman with long black hair, dripping wet from being under the ocean for so long. Part of her hair was draped over her shoulder and stretched downward, partly covering her left exposed breast. McDowell thought she was human or perhaps one of the locals, that was until he saw gills on the side of her neck and that everything from her waist down looked like a fish’s body. For a lack of a better term, she was a mermaid of some sort.

Chevallier’s voice transmitted to his communicator. He ignored it, the voice, the lady in the water in front of him wanted him to disregard the critical situation Chevallier and the Captain were in. The lady in the water lifted her soaking arm up, she wanted him to hold her hand as she guided him into the ocean. A task he didn’t hesitate to do after he took off his combat armor.

A second woman rose up from the waters next to Kingston, she too had an irresistible allure to her body. Everything about it was—perfect—a work of art. The droplets of water that dripped off her breasts, her chestnut brown hair resting along her back, travelling down to and across her fishlike lower body.

Both Kingston and McDowell had stripped out of their gear and watched as it sank to the bottom of the waters. Kingston made the first plunge and leaped into the arms of the second water lady. She embraced and passionately kissed him and telepathically assured him everything would be alright. It was McDowell’s turn. His fascination focused on the first water-lady and he trusted her implicitly, allowing his body to enter her sensual hold. Her soft wet lips kissed the sides of his neck and down to his chest. He felt her drag him further out into the deeper parts of the ocean, he didn’t realize how far out they had gone, her kisses were an experience he had never felt before, enhanced by a strange psionic link she created between her mind and his. He looked back and saw Pierce standing alone, the two ladies assured him that their sister was coming for him next.

Pierce’s vanished from sight as McDowell’s body was forced underwater. He was still able to breathe, a psionic force field covered him and the lady that found him fascinating. Their passionate play continued as they sank lower, the purple hue from the barrier became the only source of light within the dark ocean realm. It wasn’t until he felt her nipples slide across his chest that he realized she had taken his uniform off.

He sensed that she needed him alive for what was going to come next via the psionic bound she created between the two. She assured him it was OK and not to resist. He assured her he wouldn’t, she was too beautiful, and he was too roused and hard to say no.

Long tendrils grew out from the center of her back where her spine was. There were four of them, maybe five, and they raised high above her head as the ends faced McDowell. She began to kiss him again, this time much more aggressively. Her tongue entered his mouth, her left hand held onto his shoulder while the right stroked his shaft. Her body pressed hard against his, moving up and down while her tail slowly wrapped around his legs.

The intensity of her lustful actions drew his attention away from the tendrils that sprouted out of her back, and the fact that the tips of them had become razor-sharp. Their foreheads pressed against each other as her sultry eyes gazed into his. One last look before her tendrils slithered behind him and impaled his body. He sensed the pain and possible fatal trauma his body was enduring. But the gaze she shot him, it was paralyzing. She was controlling his body’s natural need for self-preservation while genetic material was leeched away from him, into her tendrils, then into her.

She moaned erotically, and while her body shivered with pleasure and ecstasy, the psionic barrier shutdown. Seconds later their bodies were truly submerged in the warm water around them. McDowell was drowning while his blood squirted out from the gaping holes on his back. With the last bit of life he had left in his body, he turned to see what had become of Kingston. The lady that had taken him performed the same move on his naked body. She removed the impaling tendrils out from his back, then ejected his drowning body into the abyss below.

McDowell’s partner did the same seconds later with a smile on her face.

14 Foster

Architect’s ship

Interstellar space

May 21, 2050, 00:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Foster’s head and back pulsated with pain.

She felt as if she had run face first into a brick wall as her eyes slowly opened. She saw what appeared to be the floor of where she had been resting. It was a dark, shiny, metallic alloy, along with the rest of the walls and ceiling. Windows along the sides revealed the stars and blackness of space. A large door was sealed shut ahead that led further into the ship while the oval dormant wormhole that no doubt brought them aboard was behind them.

This wasn’t the first time Foster saw this chamber. The aliens … rather the Architect’s soldiers that attacked them back at Sirius B and at Poniga city exited via a wormhole that linked to a room like this.

She pushed herself up and looked around, Poniga were skulking about, the same ones that had been chained up and gathered by the Architect’s men. The middle of the room they were in had a glass floor which Foster stepped across seeing the stars of space. Then it hit her, she stepped across it, there was gravity. Yet the stars weren’t moving suggesting the ship didn’t use rotating habitat rings, a shipboard psionic was probably generating gravity elsewhere she figured.

Her weapon and EAD were missing, probably taken by her captors, wherever they were. She continued to search through the room amongst the sad, weeping Poniga. Some of them clearly had passed away during the struggle as their lifeless bodies rested on the floor, their robes charred by laser fire. In the four corners of the room were the Architect’s laser cannon grunt troopers.

Perhaps there was a jail break attempt I missed when I was out cold? She thought.

From time to time the Poniga would try to speak to her in their language, a language she couldn’t reply to. The tone of their voices was sympathetic, as if they were sorry for getting her dragged into the mess, Eisila and Mavron especially. Mavron motioned for Foster to approach her as he sat with his sister in the corner. He held something in his hands, something that radiated light, he wanted her to look at it.

Footsteps echoed from outside a large door, they got louder as they neared it causing Mavron to panic and cancel whatever he had hoped to reveal to Foster. The doorway slithered open and overlord soldiers barged in yelling and screaming at the Poniga, pointing their spears at them in a threatening manner.

The overlords pushed and shoved their way past the Poniga clearing a way to Foster, Eisila, and Mavron. The sharp tips of their weapons hovered before their faces. Eisila, Mavron, and the overlords exchanged heated words back and forth resulting in the overlords brutally pushing the two siblings aside and directing their focus toward Foster.

Foster’s hands rose up in surrender while the overlords continued to yell at her. “Sorry, hun, I don’t speak asshole.”

The dead grunt soldiers scattered about the room began to rise up to their feet making everyone cower in fear as the overlords continued to yell more questions at Foster, questions she didn’t understand. It frustrated them to the point one of them bashed her face with its Bronze Age like shield. The blow sent her flying backward onto the floor and turned her headache into a migraine.

A small boy began to scream as he saw Foster fall. Foster kept her head to the ceiling for she knew the soldiers weren’t a fan of crying children. Several thumps and whacks came moments later followed by yelling and then laughter from the soldiers before they left. Whatever they did, it silenced the terrorized boy instantly. Mavron and Eisila helped Foster slowly get back to her feet as she tried her best to ignore the pain in her head and back. The grunt soldiers that had rose up from the dead, fell back down dead as their overlords left the room.

There’s a connection between those two types of soldiers, she thought. Mind control perhaps?

The mother of the boy cried out as she looked down to her unresponsive offspring. Several Poniga limped toward the downed child then quickly turned away in disgust and anger. Foster pushed past Mavron and Eisila and moved to see what had happen to the child, doing everything she could to prevent the pain in her body from growing stronger from the sudden movements.

She ran her hands over the body of the child checking for vital signs. He wasn’t breathing, nor was there a pulse. Well, no pulse she could detect, Poniga might look human but their insides could be different. Think, think, think, how can I figure out where their pulse would be? Foster began to randomly touch the Poniga in the places one would find a human pulse. As it turned out they had a pulse where humans have one, therefore the boy on the floor had lost his heartbeat, probably due to the beating.

Foster took a deep breath and recalled her first aid training, her hands moved down to perform chest compressions on the unresponsive child, hoping that CPR was a technique that would work on their species.

It did.

Life came back into the badly beaten and bloody boy after a few coughs. The Poniga along with the child’s mother looked at Foster in shock. Given how primitive their species was, Foster suspected they saw her as a magical healer rather than a human with basic first aid knowledge.

The mother spoke to her in a grateful and tearful manner. “Uh, you’re welcome,” Foster said.

Hours had passed when Foster found herself waking up having fallen asleep with the rest of the Poniga. A risky mistake considering she might have had a concussion. She shuffled next to the windows and gazed out into the cold vacuum of space. The faint light from Sirius B could be seen below, while metallic egg-shaped ships flew next to them in formation. There were hundreds of them from what she saw.

She began to examine the dead grunts on the floor. Their weapons were mounted onto their bodies, no way was she going to take it without cutting into their armor. The grunts showed signs of intense battle damage to their armor, one particular soldier had a hole the size of a basketball in the middle of his chest, and as she recalled, he was one of the few that had risen when the overlords arrived. Undead soldiers? That’d be the perfect army, can’t kill what’s already dead.

An alarm started to blare while dark blue lights from the ceiling started to flash. The sleeping Poniga were woken by the noise and huddled around their loved ones. One of them shouted toward Foster as if they were trying to warn her that someone or something was behind her. Foster spun around and saw the wormhole. Its lights activated as energy began to charge through it as it powered.

Three spear-wielding soldiers barged into the room yelling, panicking at the sight of the wormhole. Whatever was about to happen it didn’t sound like it was planned by them. Foster hunkered down with Mavron and Eisila and waited for the situation to play out, so that should an opportunity arise, they could improvise and form an escape plan on the fly.

15 Chevallier

Lake shoreline

SA-115, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 00:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier eyed the open wormhole sitting in the lake ahead of her. She double-checked her instruments and confirmed that McDowell’s signal had come from whatever world the wormhole connected to. She hid behind a large rock on the beach as she heard someone wading through the waters next to the gate.

The wading sounds stopped, and she took a quick peek around the rock. What she saw caused her to hold onto her rifle tightly, and she started to take deep breaths. There was a woman swimming through the waters next to the wormhole. She looked like a mermaid, one that shamelessly didn’t cover up her chest.

Next to the woman was none other than Norauk who gratefully accepted a fistful of shimmering jewels. The mermaid swam through the lake and into the wormhole seconds before it closed. Chevallier’s instruments stopped receiving McDowell’s signal. She needed to get back to that world. She needed to find out what happened to the rest of her team, because as it stood, she was alone now that the captain was missing.

Norauk’s drenched body made it back to the beach and began to walk back toward the forest, eying his reward of jewels with glee and awe. Chevallier kept her eye on him and stealthily followed behind him, doing everything in her power to resist all out killing him. Norauk after all had traveled with her team now he was returning alone. Their signals were coming from another planet and neither of them was replying to her communications when the wormhole had been opened.

He had done something. She wanted to do something to him in return.

She double-checked the surroundings around her with her motion detector. It was just the two of them walking. Then later, it was just her, standing above his body after the butt of her rifle smashed against the back of his head.

“Where is my team?!” Chevallier demanded as she aimed at his face.

“Oh, this is unexpected,” Norauk said, rubbing the back of his head where she had struck him.

“What did you do? Out with it now, you rat!”

“Please, don’t shoot! I had no choice.” Norauk pointed at the wormhole in the lake behind them. “Undine, they offer great rewards to people that provide them with mates.”

“You traded my people for profit?” Chevallier’s finger came close to the trigger. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill you now!”

“It was important!”

“How is this important?”

“Profits!” Norauk showed Chevallier the jewels he had clenched in his free hand. “Look at all of this! You have any idea how hard it is to get men out here? There’s a reason it’s illegal for men to not have wives, single men are always lured to the sea temptresses. A loving wife and children keeps them in the cities, and cuts into my profits.”

Chevallier groaned having processed that Norauk was clearly concerned with one thing, material possessions and would gladly trade in the lives of others for his own gain.

I wonder if his entire species is like this …

“Ask for a refund, I want them back. Now.”

“I can’t—”

Chevallier pushed the barrel of her rifle into his forehead.

“You don’t understand!” Norauk yelled. “Mating with the Undine is fatal; two of them have already met their ends.”

“Two … goddamnit! Where is the other?”

“A third took him as I got payment, she maybe pleasuring herself right now with him.”

Chevallier put her rifle away and grabbed Norauk, flinging his small body onto the beach via the enhanced strength her combat armor gave her. His reward of jewels scattered and rained down into the wet sand as his body tumbled, rolled, and came to.

She pointed at the dormant wormhole. “Open that shit up!”

“But—”

“Now!” She took her rifle back into her hands, and aimed it at his face.

“It’s not a good—” She fired two shots, the slugs hit inches away from his feet sending plumes of sand upward. “OK, OK, I will open it, yes, yes, I will.”

Norauk’s furry hands trembled as he stepped back into the shallow section of the lake while Chevallier followed behind, her rifle being the factor that ensured he held up his end of the new bargain she offered him. She saw his reward in the sand below, and she rapidly scooped it up with one free hand, placing it inside her side storage container. Blood money.

They waded through the water toward the gate, creating small ripples in their wake. A tiny holographic interface appeared as Norauk reached over to interact with it. Seconds later the gate hummed, glowed, and reopened, connecting to what appeared to be an ocean on another planet judging by the location of the Sirius stars in the skies.

Chevallier went to check her instruments to see if she could reestablish a lock with McDowell’s signal. That was until she was jumped from behind.

She didn’t get a chance to see where her attacker had come from or how they had managed to avoid being detected by her motion sensors. Norauk screamed like an exotic animal and ran away, oblivious that his reward was no longer in his possession as Chevallier tried to fight of the attacker that had appeared from the waters behind her.

The struggle continued, Chevallier noticed her shield power quickly drain as the attacker laid into her.

80%

40%

0%

Fuck me!

Alarms in her suit blared, notifying her that her shields were down, while she felt a second force grab her rifle and toss it into the water, a force that was stronger than her armored grip on it, that force was telekinetic. She was having a bout with a psionic.

The wrestling between the two caused wave upon wave of water to splash around them and eventually led to Chevallier being dragged down into the waters of the lake below. She managed to get a glimpse of the attacker, a man, half-human half-fish and all psionic minus the cybernetic upgrades. A brawny merman. It was of the same species she saw earlier, there must have been a second that stayed behind in the water and swam behind the two as they entered.

Her helmet came loose as it wrapped its massively long tail around her body, restricting her movement and keeping her head below the water. With her helmet ajar from her suit, water quickly gushed in. It was only a matter of time before her face was fully submerged. Chevallier needed a way out, and fast. She found it; rather it was there the whole time.

Slowly, Chevallier managed to break her arms from the deathly grip of the creature’s tail. Her body was still bound but not for long as the enhanced strength her suit endowed her with had just enough power to grab hold of the long tail wrapped around her and squeeze hard. Hard enough to make the creature groan in pain and release its grip, its physical grip at least. Its follow-up psionic attack was another story.

Chevallier stood, bringing her head above the surface of the rippling lake, and backpedaled to create distance from her attacker. She felt her body become numb and forcibly drawn in closer to the creature, only to get knocked back hard via a vicious slap from its tail. It was like a game of baseball, only she was the ball and its tail was the bat. Whatever psionic powers it had it was limited to telekinesis and draining her shield’s power, which now that she thought about it, was a new skill that neither Hashmedai nor Radiance psionics had.

Chevallier was pulled in again as the creature primed itself to smack her again with its tail. She countered with a well-placed elbow to its face as it tried to slap her again. The blow sent the creature to the bottom of the lake, its mind dazed by the sudden blow, rendering its psionic powers ineffective until it came to. It was the break she needed, she faced the opened wormhole wading and splashing through the shallow waters and crossed over onto the new planet beyond.

She heard the creature from behind rise from the waters she had sent it into. A telekinetic pull would force Chevallier back through the wormhole and into the creature’s grasp again, she had doubts her armor could take a prolong beating without its shields. Looking down she saw cracks form across her chest plate and arms, the tail slaps were doing a lot more damage than she thought. They were quite possibly enhanced by its psionic powers to deliver a robust deadly blow with reduced damage to the sender of said blow. Another new psionic trick.

Chevallier strafed to the left of the wormhole knowing that whatever psionic powers that came through would miss her as she was out of their line of sight. She quickly splashed her way behind the wormhole, shocked at what she saw next. She saw the landscape that was behind the wormhole on the other world, including her rifle, floating away. The wormhole worked both ways, entering it from behind would place one behind the connecting gate. She leaped back in as her adversary leaped through the gate on the opposite side to chase.

Chevallier pulled her soaking wet rifle out from the water and aimed it toward the mouth of the wormhole wondering if the creature would follow her behind the gate. She found her answer seconds later as it came into view, her rifle welcomed it back into the fight with a hail of bullets that turned the shallow waters it swam through a murky red.

Norauk was long gone at that point and given what she had experienced with wormholes thus far, they automatically shut after a while. If it closed on her she might lose her chance to find out what happened to the rest, and if she entered it would probably close, trapping her on the planet beyond. She made her choice and stepped back through, over the body of her now dead adversary. She glanced upward at the unfamiliar skies and the large brown dwarf. The oceanic planet orbited Sirius C. Then she realized she was beyond the domes on the other planet that was blocking all transmissions to, and from, the Carl Sagan.

She began to quickly send a distress signal and hoped the damage done to her helmet wouldn’t be an issue. Bad enough that a signal sent from her current location would take an hour or longer to reach the Carl Sagan, depending on how far away they were. With the message for help sent she began to follow the source of McDowell’s signal through the shallow waters. She tried to forget about the fact the wormhole had shut behind her, effectively stranding her on another alien world until help arrived, if it did.

She found the source of McDowell’s signal, his helmet and combat armor along with Kingston’s in the waters below her. She took a few steps back after realizing it was close to a steep decline on the surface where the shallow waters became deep very quick. Whatever story Norauk had told her had some truth to it. If those mermaids … those Sirens had taken the three men away, it would have happened right there.

She circled around the area having discovered that the shallow section of the water didn’t extend far beyond the wormhole, confirming that she was truly trapped on what was really just a tiny isle partly submerged in the ocean’s water. There was nothing left for her to do, she found their signal and she sent a transmission to the Carl Sagan. There was nobody around her that needed to be rescued other than her.

She began to scan the horizon with her HUD in hopes that there might be a small island she could swim to, the results from the flickering projection came back negative, just the surface of the ocean as far as the eye could see, except for … she zoomed in after receiving new critical data transmitted to her HUD. Waters in the distance were raging and quickly began to arch upward blotting out the view of Sirius C.

A towering tsunami approached, and it was poised to wash her away. She used the max zoom function of her helmet, the imagery, and data she got back wasn’t promising. The tsunami was nearly sixteen stories tall and growing. Eventually the towering, churning waters obscured the visible sky including the huge crimson moon, most likely the source of the gigantic title wave in conjunction with the planet’s proximity to Sirius C, or was it because of the combined gravity from Sirius A and B? Chevallier had no idea exactly, that was Pierce’s job. And boy, did she wish his brains were here to help her survive what was coming.

Chevallier had no idea how to work the wormhole and swimming at this point wouldn’t do any good as the tsunami would still pick her up and running? Fuck that she was stuck on this partially submerged isle.

“You got to be fucking kidding me …” were her last words before the tsunami hit and dashed her body out into the ocean.

16 Williams

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 09:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams started the day by reviewing all newly collected data about the system. As much as he wanted to return to Sirius B with guns blazing, he knew even with the reduced mass of the ship and increased maneuverability they were going to need a better idea of what they were going to be up against in their search and rescue operation. The probes launched in Sirius B were still transmitting their data, a good sign as it meant either the aliens didn’t detect them or didn’t care about them.

“Commander, please join me on the bridge,” Tolukei’s voice said via Foster’s office intercom.

Williams traveled one level up onto the bridge and joined Tolukei at his station. “What’s up, Tolukei?”

“I’m not sure. I’m sending you the location on the planet’s surface, something of importance is there.”

Williams looked at Tolukei’s screen on which there was a place of interest highlighted within the region where the hurricane was still devastating. The same data populated Chang’s navigational computer screen.

“Want us to check it out?” Chang asked Williams.

“Might as well since we’re here.”

Chang broke the geostationary orbit and had the Carl Sagan travel toward the northeastern ridge of the landmass where the hurricane spun. There was a large tropical rain forest that had just been enveloped by the thick clouds, strong winds, and heavy rainfall covered by the darkness of night.

“The source of the psionic activity is here,” Tolukei said looking at the windshield of the bridge. “I know it is.”

“EVE?” Williams said facing her blue and white hologram.

“The storm over that region is creating moderate interference for sensor scans, Commander.”

“Probes?”

“I advise against that due to the severity of the storm, Commander. A transport may be more suitable assuming its shields remain active.”

“In other words, if the shields fail.”

“Then the transport may become damaged.”

“Send me,” Tolukei offered.

Williams grinned at their four-eyed Javnis crew member. “Ballsy.”

“I can teleport down and keep a psionic barrier around me to stay safe.”

“By yourself? Don’t think so.”

Williams admired Tolukei’s willingness to help, but knew that if something were to happen to him they were out of a psionic, something they were going to need in their search for the Captain. Case in point, Tolukei knew something was up with this particular region of the planet, something that could be related to their search.

“I can extend the barrier to protect others, if you wish,” Tolukei said.

“Hmm, that works for me,” Williams said. “Chang, have Rivera meet us in engineering.”

Chang grimaced and faced Williams as he and Tolukei proceeded to exit the bridge. “With all due respect, Commander, we lost the Captain and our Hammerhead CO and XO already.”

“I understand, but all of our exploration teams are focused on the colony and other parts of the world. We don’t have any teams available to investigate this. Besides Tolukei is coming along, if we get into trouble he’ll teleport us out.” Williams faced Tolukei. “Right?”

“If we run into a combat situation I may be forced to use my powers offensively,” Tolukei said.

“But you can still get us out, right?”

“If my mind grows tired from heavy psionic use, then no.”

Everyone on the bridge winced at his words. “But that’s a big if, so …”

Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 11:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The darkened forest briefly lit up with the flash of blue light from Tolukei’s teleportation. He used his psionic powers afterward to cast a protective bubble around himself while Williams and Rivera kept close to him and inside of it. The bubble consistently shimmered and flickered purple as the howling winds and torrential rain crashed against it from all angles. Next to Rivera was a probe they brought along with them, it was the only means of getting it to the surface without the winds above damaging it.

The winds were also the only sounds Williams could hear other than tree branches and leaves flailing about, while the trees that they were a part of struggled to remain in their place. A flashlight attached to Rivera’s and Williams EAD lit a path for them to traverse through the soggy land below them. Rivera input a string of commands onto her holo pad that sent a signal to the probe for it to activate and rise into the skies, not too far up of course, the winds were still rough.

“EVE, are you receiving us?” Williams transmitted, however there was no reply. His EAD also revealed connection to the EVE and the Carl Sagan had been lost.

“It’s the storm,” Rivera said as she fingered her pad more. “Give me a sec, I’ll try and reroute our signals through the probe, it should help clear things up.”

The probe above them flew around searching for a sweet spot it could use to transmit data. After several frustrating minutes, it found one and began to relay data back and forth between EVE and Williams and Rivera below, data regarding the layout of the forest, data the Carl Sagan wasn’t able to accurately get due to the storm’s interference. There was a structure of some unknown design further up.

A quick trek past upturned trees, and through winds that should have knocked them over, led them to the structure, one that was overrun by the vegetation around it and seemed to have been for thousands of years. Williams couldn’t get a good look at it due to the darkness and rainfall, but according to his EAD and the probe above them, it was massive with towering pillars around its base, and a central spire in the middle.

“This is it,” Tolukei yelled over the noise of the storm. “This is where the psionic power is coming from.”

“Any idea where that power’s going?” Williams yelled back.

“It’s transmitting outward, to an unknown location.”

17 Williams

Ancient construct, Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 11:26 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Rivera said.

Williams too had an uneasy feeling as he, Rivera, and Tolukei walked into the structure. Lights illuminated the darkened hallways as they entered. They shined down from the three or four-story-high ceilings held up by ivory pillars lined with azure-colored orbs. The walls and floors were smooth to the touch, and were made of the same ivory material as the pillars. Strange markings were on the floor below them. They looked like lines and circles that formed a pattern; a welcome mat Williams had hoped.

Pearlescent white flowers were placed along the sides of the walls, probably as a form of decoration. Williams’ EAD revealed that the flowers were still alive despite the lack of water or light. The petals of the flowers moved in sync with Rivera’s hands as she waved it over them. On closer inspection they found a large cerulean-blue orb within the center of the flower, EAD scans were unable to determine what it was made of, or its purpose.

“EVE, anything in the Radiance database regarding this?” Williams asked as they walked further in.

“Please stand by,” EVE said with static interference in her voice. “The composition and designs of this structure are consistent with Lyonria ruins, Commander.”

“Lyonria?”

“The Lyonria is an extinct ancient civilization heavily studied by Radiance,” EVE said. “Major ruins of their culture have been found in the Linl home system, the Barnard’s Star system, Alpha and Proxima Centauri, and the Morutrin system. Other systems within the Radiance Union have uncovered the presence of smaller though less significant ruins.”

Williams looked up. “Do they always build their ceilings so high?”

“Unknown, Commander, this is the first largely intact Lyonria structure found according to the Radiance database.”

“Oh, really?”

“Please keep in mind, Commander, we have been disconnected from the UNE and Radiance for seventeen years, it is possible more ruins have been uncovered since then. Furthermore, this region of space is considered to be an unknown frontier to both the Hashmedai Empire and Radiance Union. Barnard’s Star, Alpha and Proxima Centauri, and Morutrin as well as Earth and the Sol system are all considered to be located at the start of that region of space.”

“And Sirius?”

“Sirius too is part of the realm. It is entirely possible that additional traces of the Lyonria civilization exist deeper into this unexplored region of space.”

The group stopped at the end of the wide hall in front of an alcove that had a blue-colored pad below it and a small holographic screen beside it. Rivera examined it up and down with her EAD. “EVE, what about this?” she inquired.

“There appears to be traces of—”

“Psionic energy,” Tolukei interjected.

“That is correct, Tolukei,” EVE continued. “This device is powered by a low level of psionic power.”

Tolukei nodded. “I can sense it.”

Williams looked at the small holographic screen next to it. The screen changed every ten seconds to an image of various rooms, rooms that all had the same or similar design as the structure they were in. He tapped the hologram and it changed, repeated touches forced the image to change again. Every picture that loaded had an alcove that looked exactly like the one they stood before.

“What kind of psionic energy, Tolukei?” Williams asked.

“It is consistent with teleportation.”

“I am detecting several devices like this throughout the fortress, Commander,” EVE said. “It may be a form of transportation the Lyonria used.”

Williams slipped his EAD into his pocket and cracked his fingers. “Well, only one way to find out.”

Williams stepped toward the alcove as EVE began to speak again. “I advise against that, Commander, until further testing can be—”

Williams’ body rematerialized onto an alcove that faced a long rail-less bridge high above a massive drop with strange machines at the bottom churning out radiating bolts of electricity. Further ahead, across the bridge, was a square room which appeared to have been floating as if the bridge itself was holding it up.

“Advise against what?” he said with a smug grin.

“Well, that was … unexpected,” EVE said.

The alcove behind him flashed twice, Tolukei and Rivera appeared from it and looked in awe at the large drop below them and the room at the end of the bridge. Williams briefly looked back at the teleportation alcove and the holographic screen next to it.

“I’m guessing those screens are linked with a camera to let someone know what area they are teleporting to inside this place,” he said. “We are still inside, right, EVE?”

“That is correct, Commander. The alcove you have passed through has placed you in a location in the top spire of the fortress.”

The three walked across the bridge on the way to the room at the end. EAD scans from both Williams and Rivera had a tough time identifying what was going on with the machines below them, and the energy it was releasing as a byproduct. Tolukei looked ill the deeper they moved in, Williams figured he might have had acrophobia. It was a long way down after all should one of them trip and fall off.

“OK, this is big,” Williams said as they neared the entrance to the square-shaped room. “And I’m not talking about this fortress.”

“Intact Lyonria ruins, Radiance is going to be so jelly,” Rivera said. “No offense, Tolukei.”

“Why should I be offended?” Tolukei said, rubbing the side of his forehead.

The closer they got to the room the more discomfort Williams noticed he was in. “You OK, man?”

“My head hurts, the pain has gotten stronger since we’ve been here,” Tolukei said. “Not to worry, I’m sure it will pass.”

They pressed on and entered the room as EVE and their EADs scans did not report anything that could be dangerous. The room was dark at first, until motion sensors detected their presence and activated ceiling lights. The room was empty apart from an oval-shaped device, a holographic interface next to it, a computer terminal before it, and control panels on the walls.

“EVE, what’s the status of that storm?” Williams said as he lowered his EAD.

“High winds and rainfall continue to batter the region, Commander.”

“We need to set up a base camp here ASAP,” Williams said while they began to spread out and observe their new discovery. “The colony is important and all, but this …”

Rivera stopped next to a wall control panel and began to carefully analyze it with her EAD. “The Lyonria were using some high-tech stuff, there’s a lot that could be learned here.”

Rivera began to pull the panel apart and gain access to the strange ancient wiring on the side of it. It looked like white and green crystals with blue dots of light flowing through it.

“Careful, Chief,” Williams said.

“If we’re going to be staying here, we need to learn how their tech operates.” Rivera’s hands moved some of the crystalline electrics aside and took additional scans with her EAD. “I’m going to assume this is a data port.”

“It would appear to be so, Chief,” EVE said. “I may be able to interface with it so long as your EAD remains in proximity.”

“Commander?”

Williams shrugged and looked at the holographic screens that displayed words written in the Lyonria language. “Why the hell not? I can’t make head or tails of how to use this stuff.”

“Very well,” EVE said with static once again, making it harder for them to understand her. “Attempting … Interface—

Williams tapped his EAD as a connection lost error message appeared. “EVE?”

“The storm is interfering with the probe’s ability to relay data between the Carl Sagan and us,” said Rivera while she reached for her holo pad. “I’ll try and reposition it someplace better.”

Tolukei sat down on the cold, dusty, white floor and placed his hands over his face. Williams frowned the longer he looked at him in distress. “Yo, T’ if you need to head back up—”

One of Tolukei’s eyes looked up and at Williams. “What did you call me?”

“T’?”

“T’ is not my name, it is Tolukei. And do not be concerned about me.”

“You’re part of the crew.”

“Am I? Or am I your means to psionic support and teleportation which your species lacks?”

“Dude …”

“My name is not dude, it is—”

“Commander, I believe I have gained access to this structure’s computer network,” EVE’s voice returned with slightly less static. “Furthermore, I am in the process of learning how Lyonria programming works.”

“Anything useful so far?”

“The device in the center of the room appears to be a wormhole generator.”

Williams and Rivera looked at the oval device laying front and center. “Really now?”

“That is the best I could figure out as the Radiance database has limited information pertaining to Lyonria language,” EVE said. “Fascinating, Commander, this device appears to have been used approximately ten years seven months ago.”

“And that’s important, because?”

“The Lyonria race was thought to have gone extinct nearly two hundred thousand years ago.”

“And then someone ten years ago used it while we were still in cryo.” Williams stepped closer to the wormhole. “EVE, can you open it?”

Rivera winced. “If you don’t mind me asking, sir, why would you want to do that?”

“It’s a wormhole, and to my understanding, they can theoretically connect two points together thus forming a gateway,” Williams said. “The Lyonria probably built this as a means of travel between different regions in space. We might be looking at the doorway to their home world.”

“Or a gateway to hell.”

“What like Paryo? If that’s the case, open it up I’d like to avenge my parents’ deaths.” Williams saw Rivera stare toward him turn to a negative one as if she was highly offended at what he said. “What? The Hashmedai made me an orphan.”

“Their species isn’t pure evil.”

“Tell that to the two billion dead humans and Radiance rangers being killed daily on the frontlines of war with them.”

“Vengeance only forges a path of destruction and endless conflicts,” Rivera said. “The Hashmedai are a beautiful race of people who were led astray by an Empress that wanted vengeance.”

Rivera’s words triggered him. He wanted to shoot back with stories of the horrific things he saw during the invasion of Earth, put her in her place, and remind her that her hippy and peace and loving ways have no place out in space. In the end Williams chose to swallow his pride and keep quiet, he and Rivera were on the same side and members of the same crew.

Unless of course she was an HLF sympathizer, then that would change things, a lot.

“This the part where you tell me not to walk the same path of the Hashmedai Empress?” he said.

She lowered her holo pad. “This is the part where I tell you we need a leader that isn’t going to stray from the mission, especially if we don’t get the Captain back—”

“I did it, Commander,” EVE’s voice interrupted.

The wormhole in the center of the room began to power on and established a connection with another wormhole someplace else in the cosmos. Williams slowly looked away from Rivera and to the wormhole with a frightened look on his face and his eyes wide open. “You did … what?”

“You said ‘open it up’ so I did,” EVE said. “The wormhole is connecting to its most recent destination now.”

Williams stepped away from the wormhole quickly, worried at what might come through. “Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean that literally, EVE!”

The center of the wormhole glistened, flashed, and transformed into what appeared to be the inside of a ship. Distressed and tattered people wearing robes were seen in the distance while armored alien soldiers marched out from the doors behind. Other armored aliens that had been resting on the floor for some spaced-out reason rose up to their feet and pointed arm-mounted weapons at Williams and Rivera.

It was the sight of weapons that got Williams to dive for cover behind the nearby terminal and reach for his ePistol. “EVE, if you can close it, now would be a good time!”

“Attempting to—”

Static. Their connection to the Carl Sagan was lost again due to the storm. “EVE? EVE?”

Rivera hunkered down in her spot next to the opened wall control panel as her hands frantically interacted with her holo pad. “It’s the storm, Commander. Again, gimme time to find a better spot for the probe.”

Williams peeked over his cover and saw the robed people flee through the wormhole, many of them had been chained up and struggled to move quickly. Some tripped over and nearly got trampled, other’s handed children off to those that had been ahead of their escape. None of them looked hostile to him, just insanely scared and running for their lives as the hostile armored aliens behind began to open fire with their laser weapons. Williams saw four robed people fall over dead with blackened, burning wounds to their backs and arms.

“Dom?” A familiar voice called out from inside of the wormhole.

Williams peeked up above his cover and saw Foster amongst the fleeing robed people. It looked as though she was trying to get them all to flee.

“Becca?” He called out to her.

Rivera saw the good news before them. “Captain!”

“What are you doing there?” Williams said.

Foster ducked from a blast of laser fire. “No time to explain!”

Robed people are good, armored ones are not, Williams thought as he aimed his pistol forward to lay down covering fire for the fleeing people. His magnetically accelerated bullets created enough noise for the armored aliens to focus their attacks on him and less on everyone else.

Most of the fleeing robed people had left the ship through the wormhole. All that remained was Foster, and one other who was pinned down behind a crate, plus the hostile aliens up front making it impossible for her to exit without getting shot up like several dead robed people on the floor. Williams ducked behind his cover, escaping from a barrage of laser fire that flew over his head. Looking back, he saw Tolukei on the floor unmoving, passed out he hoped.

“Tolukei!” he cried out to him. “Tolukei, get up, we need your assistance!”

“This just gets better and better doesn’t it, Commander?” Rivera shouted to him.

Williams’ pistol alone wasn’t going to get Foster out to safety. Rivera not firing hers wasn’t helping the problem. “This is Commander Williams to any UNE navy personnel,” he began to transmit. “We are under attack and require evac!”

“No use, Commander, unless someone is close by, this storm is gonna muck up our com lines,” Rivera said.

Several laser-wielding grunts managed to limp through the wormhole and slowly began to close the gap between them and Williams and Rivera. Williams held on to his weapon, cleared his mind of all unnecessary thoughts, then sprung up to continue to play his role in the battle. The grunts had no shields, which was good. But they also kept on standing despite Williams putting six holes through their bodies. It only added to the anxiety he was trying to keep suppressed since he lost track of where Foster was, nor had he heard her voice recently.

“Commander!” Rivera shouted. “Give me your piece.”

Whatever Rivera had planned he hoped it would get them out of this mess quickly. He tossed his pistol through the air, she caught it only to throw her pistol back toward him. A quick three-second look at her pistol revealed that some quick modifications had been made to it.

This better be worth it, he thought, and returned to the battle. The modified pistol roared rapidly, putting more holes in his targets at a faster rate, and eventually bringing some of them down to the floor. “Impressive work, Chief!”

“I’m recalibrating the computer of the pistol, making it fire shots in a more rapid succession.” Rivera’s handiwork turned the pistol into an SMG. Williams fired more shots rapidly, it caused their advancing adversaries to think twice about their actions. “It won’t last for long, the heat sinks aren’t big enough to sustain that type of firepower,” Rivera said.

“I was just going to say why don’t all our pistols work like that?”

“Rifles have the size needed for large heat sinks, pistols don’t!” Rivera slid Williams’ original pistol across the floor to him.

He held onto both pistols and grinned as his dual wielding SMGs dropped three more armored aliens. He lowered himself behind his cover as reinforcements from their ship entered spraying laser fire all over the place.

As much as Williams enjoyed the extra heat he was packing, it left Rivera defenseless. “Two? What are you gonna use?” He asked her.

“Remember my Zen thing?”

“Chief, this isn’t the time for nonviolent pacifist stuff!”

“I prefer not to personally use violence against a force that we didn’t try to speak to.”

“They’re shooting at us, and you wanna talk?” More laser fire flew over his head.

“This could be a misunderstanding.”

He sighed, and sarcastically said. “OK, go on and talk, I’ll wait you’re also multilingual.”

“Oh, um well …”

“What was that, Chief? Sorry, can’t hear you over the noise of these Star Wars lasers zipping over my head. Something tells me these assholes are in the exact same position! So, now that we’ve determined that talking ain’t gonna do shit, why don’t you help me out here?”

An overlord alien armed with a spear stepped next to Tolukei examining him. It quickly ran back to the rest of its kind speaking to them in a shocked manner. Williams curiously watched them from his cover, wondering why Tolukei’s presence got them so worked up and eventually forced them to retreat back through the wormhole, shooting toward Williams and Rivera in the process.

Williams with his dual might rose up from the chaos to let loose another wave of weapons fire when suddenly the wormhole shut off. “Oh, what the hell?”

“Commander, I have shut down the gate as per your request,” EVE’s stable voice revealed.

“Chief?” Williams asked as he began to look for Foster amongst the dead bodies and robed people.

“I got the probe in a stable position,” Rivera said. “I didn’t think she was going to shut it down so fast.”

Williams double-checked the bodies on the floor and the crowd of terrorized people that escaped the ship. Foster was not among them to his anger, she never made it off the ship. The only silver lining was at least she wasn’t one of the dead bodies below him.

“I don’t see the captain,” Rivera said.

“Neither do I,” he added as they both looked at the dormant wormhole.

“Should we open it back up?”

Williams considered that thought for a moment only to look at the displaced people around them. Many of them were in need of medical attention and still shaken up from the battle. Then there were the aliens at the other side, who was to say they weren’t standing guard waiting for them to reopen it? Williams and Rivera were just two people, two people who weren’t soldiers. They weren’t set up for a large-scale battle to start with, or a rescue mission.

Getting the people around him into the hands of doctors was his top priority, Foster risked her life to get those people out of danger. If she had been killed and he abandoned these folks, then her death would have been for nothing. Then there was Tolukei who was still out cold on the floor suffering from something, while his presence made the aliens retreat.

“We need to get this situation under control before we act further,” Williams said. “Need a damn transport to get these people out of here.”

“That storm,” Rivera reminded him.

“I know, I know.”

“I could modify the shields of some of our transports to give them an extra kick.”

“That requires you to be back on the Carl Sagan doesn’t it?”

Rivera approached him while she brought up a holographic map of the planet on her holo pad. “If we have a transport from our newly established colony fly close to the ground, they might be able to survive the trip here. From there it will be a task of flying away from the storm while keeping low, then back into orbit.”

“That’s gonna take time, but I guess it’s the only option,” he said, then established a communication link. “Williams to Carl Sagan, have Dr. Kostelecky and a medical team head to the surface and await further instructions.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Rivera, when the transport arrives to pick you up, we’ll have the doctor do what she can for the wounded.”

She nodded. “Let’s hope they get here fast.”

18 Chevallier

Ocean surface

SC-149, Sirius C system

May 21, 2050, 12:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier’s hand wrapped around the first solid object she encountered during her twelve-hour tour of the ocean via the tsunami express. Whatever the object was, it was stationary, and put an end to her drift in the currents as she tried to reorientate herself and get used to the feeling of not being tossed about by raging waters.

She activated the headlights on her damaged helmet lighting up a path within the darkness that had now enveloped her and the region, all while continuing to ignore the low oxygen and shields down alarms that had been screeching repeatedly for gods knows how long. She glimpsed at her hand she had used to catch a hold of the object keeping her in place, shining her helmet light on it. The object she held onto was metallic, something constructed by an intelligent being. She saw more of the object as she turned her head to the side, it was large and part of it was above the surface of the water attached to some sort of craft. She found large grooves on the side of the craft and used them to pull her body up along it and out of the ocean.

Nightfall had fallen, tiny clouds in the skies obscured many of the stars above including Sirius B, which looked like a full moon on Earth. Chevallier was able to get a better look at the craft now that her head was above water. It was definitely a ship, though the make of it was unknown to her as she climbed up top as it floated on the violent waters. Rust was a prominent feature on the exterior of the ship while the sides of it showed signs of fires that had once burned uncontrollably, melting 60 percent of its surface.

She discovered what looked like a doorway into the ship, perhaps an airlock when it was spaceworthy. Both of her hands slid between the slits of the sliding door and forced it to slide open, the sounds of rusted metal grinding against its nonfunctioning joints were irritating. The interior of the ship was dark as expected though a few floor lights were still active, an indication that its reactor still had some juice left.

She pushed on deeper into the halls, her helmet’s lights guided her and prevented her from walking into walls while her HUD relayed tactical data back. This reminded her. She loosened her helmet and deactivated its life-support systems, taking in the fresh air around her. It made her gasp at first, the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere of the planet were a lot lower than she had been used to, and the sweltering heat that slipped into her suit didn’t help. But when you have less than twenty minutes of air left, you don’t complain. The downtime gave her the chance to scroll through the various error messages on her HUD. Low oxygen and shields she knew of, she flicked those messages away and began to eye the others she was oblivious to.

“Aw shit …” she moaned upon learning of the damage done to her suit.

The emergency broadcast beacon she had activated ceased to function shortly after the tsunami had hit. She was no longer transmitting a distress call to the Carl Sagan, so her only hopes of rescue now lay in the Carl Sagan picking up the first few minutes of her beacon before it was cut off.

The old rickety floors made a pathway through the corridor into the bridge, cockpit, command center, whatever the hell it was. She saw computer screens everywhere, on the walls, hanging down from the ceiling via a rectangular pole, and six up front neatly lined up with each other. Most were inoperable, the shattered screens were a dead giveaway. Those that still operated, flicked on as she stepped closer, some form of motion sensor detecting her presence as she sat down on a chair, its material showing the signs of aging over the years that had passed.

Familiar letters appeared across the screen of the newly activated computer to her side, she leaned her face closer to read the green, white, and black colors the screen projected. The text was written in the Linl language, a language she knew all too well from her earlier days in the navy, and the on again, off again relationship she’d had with the former shipboard psionic of the ESV Wilfrid Laurier.

Years had passed since she read anything written in the Linl language, and so it took her several minutes to scan and scroll through the text. But like riding a bike, it came back to her quickly and with that came new questions. What was a Linl ship doing out in Sirius?

She found what appeared to have been the ships logs, its recent ones at least according to the date. And what a date at that, they were over two-thousand-years old. She accessed the first log, a snowy static-filled video recording played, the ship was once buzzing with a Linl crew. A Linl man sat next to the camera and began to speak in his native tongue, he wore a black-and-white latex outfit that shined as light hit it.

“This is Doctor Golvin, entering the first scientific log entry of the Talok’s Odyssey. It would seem my theory was correct,” the Linl man in the recording said. “The Lyonria were not responsible for the uplifting of the aquatic species in this system, despite evidence that suggests they had colonized this system during their apex. Someone else was responsible for bringing the aquatic species into this system, someone else that had access to interstellar technology during the age when the Lyonria controlled the galaxy. There are other species out there, vast galactic empires with technology we could only dream of having. What a time to be alive.”

The recording ended, and curiosity fueled Chevallier’s fingers to access the next recording. The same Linl man, Dr. Golvin appeared in a different location in the ship, tanks full of water were behind him, it looked like an aquarium.

“It took some time, but we managed to acquire specimens of the aquatic species to study.” He stepped away from his desk before the aquarium. “We are currently operating in the upper atmosphere of the planet to allow gravity to take hold. I doubt these creatures have been in a weightless environment before, let alone a weightless aquarium full of water.”

The camera zoomed in closer to the shiny reflective glass keeping the water separated from the rest of the ship. A Siren-looking woman swam close to the glass, the palms of her hands rested upon its surface. She was joined by another within the aquarium, this creature looked similar to her, but different. Its upper body resembled more of a fishlike species, unlike the woman next to it which had an upper body that looked human.

“We haven’t figured yet why two types of this species exist, though I have a team analyzing DNA samples we collected.” The palms of his hands met with hers against the glass separating them as they gazed into each other’s eyes with lust. “I can’t explain it but … there’s something about her that’s alluring. I must figure out a way to communicate with her. She’s … so beautiful, more stunning than my wife.”

The next video played, the same two aquatic species swam aimlessly in their captive tanks as Golvin sat at his desk. He brought his hand before the camera and within it rested a white glittering orb. “I did it. I know how to speak with them, and this.” He looked at the orb in his hands. “Is the key. They call it an engram, thoughts, memories, experiences, all balled up into pure psionic energy. These engrams are the most common way they share knowledge, stories, or entertain one another.”

He pushed the engram orb against his forehead. It sank into it like a stone splashing into a small river, the flesh on his face rippled like a distortion field as the engram vanished. His body began to tense up and tremble from head to toe, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head. He began to breathe heavily when the psychedelic trip ended, and then slowly faced the camera.

“I just experienced nearly a hundred thousand years of history passed down over the generations of her people. They don’t educate one another; they simply copy memories and hand them off to a younger generation. Brilliant. They call themselves the Undine, they came from an obscure ocean-covered world deep within the galaxy. The planet they came from orbited a star that captured a smaller star within its gravitational pull, thus transforming their home star system into a binary one, heated by two sources of light and energy, it was that extra heat that led to the planet’s ice caps melting and flooding its surface.”

He stopped to note his discovery on his computer. Chevallier looked to the side of the screen and saw added notes had been attached to the recording, it was a listing of all known binary star systems, Golvin was trying to narrow down the search for the Undine true home world. Her attention shifted back to the recording as Golvin spoke again, he had more to say.

“The Undine originally looked like the male subject behind me,” he pointed to the Undine in the tank that had more of a fishlike appearance. “Understandable, since fish and aquatic life were probably the only life forms that survived in the aftermath of their planet’s ice caps melting. I’m guessing from there, they developed larger bodies and larger brains that allowed them to fight off sea predators and forge a community that looked after one another. I’m not sure however, I’m starting to … forget details from the engram experience, I plan to try again later.” He stood up and stepped next to the tank, gawking at the Siren woman and her upper humanoid body. “They also have a strange form of telepathy, this might explain why I had such an attachment to her. She was trying to reach out to me. Using a song.”

The final video recording auto played, others had been made, however the data containing those files had been corrupted, at least that’s what Chevallier assumed, she was no computer tech. In the video she saw Golvin stand over the bloodied and multi-impaled body of a Linl lab worker. The Siren in the tank had several long tendrils protruding out from her back as she floated calmly in the water with a satisfied look upon her face

“We made some … interesting discoveries today, though it cost the life of my assistant.” Golvin sat down in front of the camera and folded his hands together. “The Undine has a unique means of reproducing, where the female absorbs genetic material from the male, and in turn uses it to impregnate herself. Due to the nature of their mating rituals, this almost always leaves the male suffering from fatal wounds as you can see behind me. The Undine can reproduce with other species, and their offspring can inherit the unique features the father of the other species had. As you can tell by her appearance and by the results of our DNA testing, she is a cross between Undine and another species, one that looks Linl.”

“Females will always give birth to two offspring if memory serves me correct from the engram … one male and one female, the male being almost an exact clone of the father, complete with its memories while the female is a whole new being. Which gender got the better deal is another argument, males always die after bonding with a female only to be reborn. Females could move on from partner to partner, never having to worry about death unless it came via external forces or natural causes as with all living things. This might explain why the female subject behind me chose not to mate with the male with her, better to sacrifice the male of another species than one of their own. Which brings me to the subject I had intended to talk about before my assistant sought to experience sexual pleasure with my specimen … my most recent engram experience gave me a glimpse of how the Undine arrived here. An alien species took great interest in their abilities, uplifted them, gave them their psionic abilities, and transplanted them here. We have unconfirmed reports of a ship discovered in the remote regions of the system, the captain suspects it might be the aliens that transplanted them here. We plan to contact them, and build a working relationship with them and our newly established colonies in the system—”

Chevallier heard footsteps clang on the surface behind her, prompting her to leap to her feet and draw her rifle, the video playback proved to be quite the distraction. She saw the silhouette of a small person stand within the doorway that had led into the cockpit she sat in. The person in question instinctively raised their hands in surrender while Chevallier walked closer to them, the light on her rifle unveiled who they were.

A female Qirak.

“Who the fuck are you?” Chevallier said, jamming the barrel of her rifle closer.

The Qirak trembled and squeaked as the video recording continued to play in the background, though Chevallier had long lost interest in it. She continued to grill the Qirak with a raised voice and her finger close to the trigger of her rifle, then remembered the experience they had when they had first met Norauk.

Chevallier extended her left hand toward the Qirak while keeping the other wrapped around her rifle, and waited for it to perform its psionic nervous system mind-reading whatever-the-fuck it-is they do to understand alien languages. The Qirak slowly made contact and drew upon its psionic power to transfer Chevallier’s understanding of English into its brain.

Only it didn’t. “Please, I mean you no harm.” The Qirak spoke in French, Chevallier’s first language.

“What are you doing here?” Chevallier replied in French.

“This is my home. You look like the owners of the ship, coming to reclaim it, yes, yes?”

“Just passing through, I’m a little lost.” Chevallier lowered her rifle, convinced that the five-foot ratlike creature posed no threat. “You got a name?”

“Juloo is my name, yes, yes, it is. Yours?”

“Mathilda; Mathilda Chevallier.”

“Excellent, you seek not to take my home away!” Juloo trotted away back into the main halls of the ship waving for Chevallier to follow. “Come, you must be hungry, yes, yes?”

The mention of food reminded Chevallier of her neglected belly and the fact that it’s impossible to eat when you’re stuck in a suit of combat armor and being washed away by a big ass tsunami for twelve hours.

Juloo lead Chevallier through the long halls, past the entrance she forced open and into a dark central chamber. A camp fire glowed brightly while a pot hanging above it boiled. It smelt awful. Vacant cryostasis tubes were the dominant sight within the long chamber, a chamber that easily made up 70 to 80 percent of the ship. This was a colonization ship, no doubt about it. Why else would they require so many cryo tubes?

“We rest in here,” Juloo said as she attended to her soup. The broth had come to a rolling boil. “Thick shielding within the hull protects skin from radiation in here.”

“I take it you know a lot about ships then?”

“Yes, yes! A requirement if one wishes to have passage on a ship from the great merchant fleet of the Qirak.” Juloo dipped an unclean ladle into the pot, and brought it to her lips, a satisfied smirk appeared after her tiny sample of the soup. “This ship may not be spaceworthy, but it is seaworthy.”

“You turned it into a boat?”

“I sail the oceans of this world searching for other ships like this. A great many exist in the system all full of items Poniga and Undine would trade for great profits.”

“Do you know where the wormhole on this planet is?”

“Yes, yes. There is only one, I use it on occasion to trade with the Poniga.”

“I need to head back to it, can you take me there?”

“Maybe,” Juloo said, eying Chevallier’s weapon and equipment.

Right Qirak only care about personal gain and profits, Chevallier thought.

She reached inside of her side storage, hoping that the contents inside hadn’t been swept away into the ocean.

They hadn’t.

A fist full of jewels came out of Chevallier’s container, the same ones that were given to Norauk. But she didn’t need to know that part.

Juloo’s eyes lit up while her ratlike tails wagged. “Oh, yes, this will work!” Juloo’s excited eyes fixed in on the container where Chevallier brought the jewels out of. “You have more, yes, yes?”

“Is this not enough?”

“You know how to use wormhole?”

“Well.” Chevallier bit her lip, she knew where this was going to lead, and she knew that if things were going to go sideways she’d need a way off this planet. “No, I don’t.”

“I can explain, but that’s extra jewels!” Juloo cocked both of her index fingers at the container. “Your armor is low on power, yes, yes?”

Chevallier groaned. “Yes …”

“I may be able to recharge its energy cells. But that’s even more jewels.” Chevallier emptied the contents of her storage container. Multicolored spheres and ovals clattered and rolled all over the cold floor. “Yes, yes! This will do,” Juloo said, while leaping to the floor to pick up her payment, her tail wagging intensified briefly then stopped as she looked up and stroked the material of Chevallier’s armor. “You know—”

“I don’t have anything else to give.”

“Jewels are good, but technology is better, Undine and Poniga cannot build them.”

Chevallier hurled her helmet onto the floor next to Juloo, it was damaged anyways and lacked further use now that her oxygen supply was nearly depleted. Juloo lifted the Hammerhead helmet up holding it high above her head, maniacal laughter escaping her mouth.

Chevallier slipped out of her armor as Juloo directed her to a series of crude cables plugged into partially working cryo tubes. Juloo fiddled around with the cables, frantically searching for a way for them to connect to the combat armor’s main batteries. Sparks flared out for ten seconds as contact between the batteries and the cables was made. Chevallier kneeled and checked the status display of her equipment, the recharge icon had flashed.

Chevallier and Juloo sat next to each other at the camp fire, indulging in the soup she had created for their meal. It tasted worse than it smelt, the tiny fish bones floating on top of the brown broth didn’t enhance her enjoyment of the meal. Chevallier took another look at the cryo chamber that Juloo had turned into her personal bedroom, kitchen, and workshop, and winced.

The ship easily held hundreds if not thousands of people, the chamber itself had to have been four stories tall. Juloo alluded that there were other ships like this on the planet and scattered throughout the system, a system that by rights should be on the same level as Lejorania Sanctum or Morutrin Prime, planets that were colonized by the Linl before they joined Radiance. The videos she had been watching also referred to Linl colonies in the system. And it was that realization that caused concern and worry to grow within her head as she double-checked and confirmed that every cryo tube had been opened.

What the hell happened to them? What the hell happened to the Lyonria colonists before them? What the hell is going to happen to the human colony we have planned to build?

Suddenly the Carl Sagan’s expedition into the Sirius while dragging along thousands of colonists looked like a very bad idea.

19 Williams

Ancient Lyonria Construct, Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 14:34 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Commander Dominic Williams was relieved to see the Carl Sagan’s medical team led by Dr. Irena Kostelecky storm into the chamber that several hours ago was a battlefield. Behind Kostelecky and her team, was a team of eight fully armed Hammerhead personnel that stood overwatch in front of the wormhole in anticipation of it opening again with more hostile forces on the other side.

The doctor quickly began the task of triaging those on the floor, and then later examined Tolukei who had remained lifeless on the ground since their arrival. With each passing minute, the ancient Lyonria chamber turned into a makeshift medical and military camp, complete with beds and mobile computers.

The intensity of the medical team reduced as they managed to get the situation back under control. Williams took advantage of Kostelecky’s more relaxed attitude and approached her. “Thanks for coming, doc.”

“You guys are really making me earn my pay,” Kostelecky said as she lowered her medical scanner to face him.

“If there’s anything I could do to help.”

“You could start by handing me that flesh regenerator there.” She pointed to a table with various flashing tools on them. Williams picked up and handed her the device and wondered if he’d ever get used to such advanced means of healing wounds. Using modified Radiance medical equipment to heal was still a strange concept to him. “Good, now you can help me further by talking less and letting me focus.”

Kostelecky used the device to treat the injured robed person below them. Not even a ‘thanks’ eh? Williams thought. “I’ll be on my way then.”

“Actually.” Kostelecky pushed the device into one of the many pockets on her white medical coat. “I need to get some of these people back to sickbay; the equipment I have here isn’t going to cut it with some of the badly wounded, including Tolukei.”

“How many people are we talking about?”

“A transport’s worth, no more than that.”

“I’ll make the call.”

Williams established a connection with the Carl Sagan, still unreliable due to the storm, and informed the team still in sickbay to prepare to receive wounded. Kostelecky returned to scanning her patients, the strange robed people that fled from the wormhole earlier. “Co to kurva!” she said, cursing in Czech.

“Doc?”

“Tell them to hurry up, Commander,” Kostelecky said, eying the results of her medical scanner display. “There’s something very odd about these people and I don’t think my scanner is going to be able to tell me the full story.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 14:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams glared at the white spinning clouds of the hurricane that continued to pummel the region where the Lyonria structure was via the bridge’s forward windshield. He was impressed how well the transports with modified shields handled during their trip as they transferred Tolukei, Kostelecky, and a handful of wounded into sickbay. Rivera was unquestionably a great asset to the team, and he felt bad for grilling her about her choice to not engage in combat alongside him.

“Commander, I have some important data regarding your recent encounter with the aliens,” EVE said, seconds before he was about to strap in his weightless body to the captain’s chair.

“Well, let’s hear it.”

“Please direct your attention to the star charts.”

Williams glided over to the rear section of the bridge and was greeted by EVE’s holographic appearance as well as a large projection of the entire trinary Sirius system.

“What am I looking at, EVE?”

“When the Lyonria wormhole was opened I was able to briefly scan the interior of the alien ship. There were windows in which the stars were visible. Using our data of the star constellations here in Sirius, I was able to extrapolate the approximate location of the ship at the time of your encounter.”

EVE changed the hologram into that of a closer view of the orbits of Sirius B and C. A flashing dot appeared between the orbits of the two stars as an arrow in front of the dot glowed showing the estimated trajectory of the ship.

Williams was impressed. “It’s local, huh?”

“That is correct, Commander. The ship appears to be on a course to Sirius C.”

“How come we didn’t detect it earlier?”

“Unknown, Commander, it is possible scans were blocked by larger celestial objects such as the gas giants or Sirius A when the ship was traveling behind it from our point of view. Furthermore, Tolukei’s ESP range is limited; he cannot scan the entire system.”

“This could be a problem. The aliens have a wormhole of their own on that ship, what’s stopping them from using it again and invading the planet along with the colony?”

“Nothing, Commander, if they have the capability to reopen it, they can, and will, pass through.”

“Not if I can help it,” Williams said before establishing a link to Rivera via the intercom. “Chief, how many more of those upgraded transports you got?”

He heard Rivera moan over the communication before she gave her reply. “Something tells me you’re gonna request a lot more.”

“I want enough to send every military personnel and their equipment down to the surface, ASAP.”

“All of them, sir?”

“Yeah.”

“As in, we’ll be defenseless?”

Williams hesitated to answer as he began to question if he was making the right call. He sensed that the bridge crew behind him was watching and listening in, his body language projected the message of self-doubt and his hesitation. He stood up straight and took extra care to ensure nobody was able to detect his indecisiveness in the matter.

Damn it, Becca I need you back, he thought, then gave Rivera his reply. “Yeah, all of them, protecting the colony is our top priority.”

“I’ll get right on it …”

“Let me know when you’re done.” Williams added, then cut the link. “Mr. Chang, set a course to Sirius C once all military personnel have left for the surface.”

Chang’s fingers began to input a series of commands into his terminal. “You know, Commander, I’m part of the military too.”

“You’re also my helmsman until further notice,” Williams said to him. “Don’t worry, you ain’t going anywhere.”

“No worries, I’m totally cool with that, you know, being on a ship with no security.”

Williams grimaced at Chang’s comment. “You have a problem with my call?”

“No, not at all. I’m Siriusly cool with it.” An awkward silence followed. “Get it? Siriusly?”

Williams facepalmed. “Oh my god …”

“Not a single laugh?” Chang twisted his leather chair around facing the rest of the bridge crew. “Come on, we all need a bit of informal humor given what’s happened lately.” Williams shook his head. Bad jokes were never his thing. “Commander, why so Sirius?”

“Sickbay to bridge,” Kostelecky’s voice played in the intercom. Williams moved to reply to her message.

“Williams here.”

“Commander, you have a sec?”

“Absolutely, doc.”

“OK, one, it’s doctor not doc. Two, please join me in sickbay. Got something you’re going to want to see.”

Williams groaned as his magnetic boots carried him to the exit. “Be right there.”

“Damn, I guess the doc is a Sirius person too.” Williams stopped in his tracks, glaring at Chang. “All right, all right, I’ll shut up and fly the damn ship.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 15:34 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams entered sickbay, his body thankful for the artificial gravity created by the rotating habitat ring. Inside, he saw Tolukei alive and awake resting on a medical bed alongside the wounded helmsman, still recovering from his injuries from their first encounter with the hostile aliens. Further up were medical beds where the robed people they rescued from the ship were recovering thanks to the aid of Dr. Kostelecky.

Williams stood next to Tolukei’s bed and looked down at him as Kostelecky neared them. “How’s he doing doc—tor.”

“He was seconds away from death,” Kostelecky said, showing him Tolukei’s brain scans via a computer screen next to his bed. “Turns out there was a strong wave of psionic energy that was overloading the psionic chip implanted in his brain. In any case, he’ll be on his feet in another hour or so, though he might want to give his brain a good rest before using any of his powers.”

Williams looked at Kostelecky. “Where was it coming from?”

“The Lyonria fortress, Commander,” EVE replied instead. EVE’s holographic likeness appeared directly behind Williams startling him in the process.

“EVE! Give me a heads-up when you’re going to do that!”

Kostelecky snickered. “EVE’s data has surprisingly been helpful considering none of my patients here are human.”

“Thought you knew a thing or two about xenobiology?” Williams asked Kostelecky.

“I do, but when does Radiance let me treat one of their own back at Earth? Tolukei is my first nonhuman patient.” Kostelecky pointed her thumb back at the injured robed personnel. “Then we got these folks here, don’t even get me started on them.”

Kostelecky led Williams toward them while EVE’s flickering hologram followed behind with her hands behind her back. Many of the wounded robed people were resting comfortably on the medical beds. A few sat on the edge of their beds and spoke to each other, probably counting their blessings.

“I take it Tolukei wasn’t what you wanted to show me?” Williams said, observing a resting robed man.

“You catch on fast, Commander.” Kostelecky handed Williams her data pad. It displayed the results of her scans and analysis of the people they rescued. “Not sure how to put this, but these folks have traces of three different genomes. Linl, human, and a third I’ve never seen before.”

“So, we’re dealing with human crossbreeds?”

“Not quite, think of them, and humans, as dogs and wolves. Dogs only exist because a group of ancient wolves started keeping humans company after discovering they could get free food from them rather than having to hunt for it. Throw in thousands of years of human influence such as breeding, and domestication, and you have what we know as dogs today. These people are a similar deal.”

Williams began to wince at the news then faced EVE’s hologram. “This can’t be right … EVE?”

“Dr. Kostelecky is correct, Commander,” EVE said. “I have performed bioscan analyses myself, and have concluded that the Poniga are a result of several thousand years of crossbreeding between three species, one of them being human.”

“Wait, hold on, EVE, Poniga?”

“That is what they refer to themselves as, Commander. Those that are currently awake attempted to speak with us. I have detected words within their language that are similar to the Linl language along with traces of Arabic and Hebrew.”

“So, you could understand them?”

“Not quite, Commander, as there are several other words I cannot understand. Given time, I may be able to better understand their language and translate. However, I will need Dr. Kostelecky to continue to speak with them so that I may further analyze their speech patterns.”

“Great,” Kostelecky said sarcastically as she took back her data pad from Williams. “Because I’m just such a lovely conversation partner.”

Williams continued to gaze at the Poniga with his arms crossed and his face confused. “How the hell did humans make it to Sirius thousands of years ago?” he asked. “And Linl for that matter?”

“The Linl were a spacefaring race before joining the Radiance Union,” EVE said. “It is possible that some of their earlier exploratory ships arrived here thousands of years ago. The Linl home world is only fifteen light years away from Sirius, a thirty-year journey at sub light speeds.”

“If that was the case, what happened?” Kostelecky said. “I’ve seen pictures of the cities on Lejorania Sanctum and Morutrin Prime, those were all originally Linl colonies built before their time in the Union, why isn’t any of that here?”

“Unknown, Doctor, please keep in mind we have not yet explored all worlds in this system. It is possible ruins of a failed Linl colony exists or perhaps an external force attacked them before they had the chance to establish one.”

Williams stroked his chin. “Like the aliens we encountered.”

“And we are building a colony …” Kostelecky said. “Quite possibly on the same planet the Linl intended to build on before they vanished from the system. Awesome work, guys.”

Williams developed an uneasy feeling in his stomach. His call to establish the colony may have just doomed all the people on the surface currently building a new home, oblivious to an unknown threat lurking in the background. And now they were about to leave orbit and potentially pick a fight with the alien ship that might have the captain aboard, leaving the colonists to fend for themselves.

“So, somehow Linl and ancient humans found their way here,” Williams said. “And a third species … Lyonria.”

“That is unknown, Commander,” EVE said. “The Radiance database has no information pertaining to the genes of the Lyonria. There’s no way to know exactly what the third one is at this time.”

“It has to be, we found confirmation that the Lyonria once inhabited this system. They vanished thousands of years ago and according to you two, the Poniga have evolved after thousands of years of crossbreeding between the three. And all that most likely happened here in this system.”

“It is a distinct possibility, Commander,” EVE said.

“Hmm, all right, if you guys find out more, let me know,” Williams said as he began to make his exit from sickbay.

“Whoa, hold on there,” Kostelecky called out to him. “We ain’t done yet.”

Williams stopped and turned back to face Kostelecky. “There’s more?”

“Other than the fact they have higher resistances to radiation and psionic potential? Yes, a lot more, come with me.”

Kostelecky moved in between two beds with bodies draped in a white blanket over top, deceased Poniga he figured. She removed the blanket and unveiled one of the armored aliens that had attacked them on the surface, its body riddled with bullet holes from Williams’ pistol.

“Jesus Christ!” Williams said upon seeing the corpse.

“Don’t give me that, this is your handiwork,” she said, pointing her index finger at the chest wounds. “Nice shooting, by the way.”

“I was aiming for his head.”

“And I’m glad you didn’t hit the mark.” She placed a pair of medical gloves on and reached down to remove the aliens helmet. “It would have made my next discovery a real bitch to deal with.”

She pulled the helmet off its head. Williams took a peek down and saw what laid underneath it. The soldier had a humanlike appearance with cybernetic implants on the back of its head.

“A Poniga?” he asked.

“Bingo,” Kostelecky said, tossing the helmet aside then directing his attention to a nearby computer screen. “From what I can tell, these cybernetics are a form of psionic amplification.” She directed his attention to the second bed with a corpse covered with a blanket. “And behind door number two, we have this guy.” Another armored soldier, the type that had its laser weapon mounted to its arm. As she began to remove its helmet, he noticed that it was much more heavily augmented than the last one, with a sizeable hole through the side of its head.

“Ah, this must be the head I was aiming for.”

“Only it isn’t. An eWeapon didn’t create that hole; in fact, none of your bullets hit him.”

“Then, how did I kill him?”

“You didn’t, he was already dead.” Kostelecky began to run scans on the corpse, the data outputted to another monitor next to its bed. “From what I can tell its suit isn’t just armor, but a mobile cryostasis chamber and the body stuffed in it has been dead for the last two hundred years. How it was moving on its own I couldn’t tell you—”

“It was not moving on its own.” It was Tolukei.

The two turned around and saw that Tolukei had gotten up from his rest and hobbled toward them.

“You, back to bed. Now,” Kostelecky demanded of Tolukei.

“I am fine,” Tolukei said, and limped closer to them. “I was once a fighter in the war without end against the Hashmedai.”

Kostelecky winced. “Just because you got fancy space magic doesn’t make you a superhero, lay down now.”

Ignoring her request, Tolukei extended his hands forward. It caused one of the dead bodies next to Kostelecky and Williams to rise out of its bed as if it were still alive. Kostelecky dropped her scanner and data pad, Williams reached for his sidearm, a sidearm he didn’t have on him. The Poniga who were awake began to scream, EVE merely stood, watching, observing, and recording as the sight straight out of a zombie movie played out in front of them. The thought of calling for security crossed his mind briefly, only to remember he had just ordered them all to leave the ship, they were on their own.

Maybe I shouldn’t have sent them all to the surface …

“Do not be alarmed,” Tolukei said as he lowered his hands. The body of the soldier fell back to the floor and resumed its deceased state. “That was my doing.”

Kostelecky’s trembling hands picked her data pad back up. She cursed in Czech and threw it aside after noticing the screen had cracked. “Overworking your brain right now with telekinesis will only make you worse, lie down and rest, doctor’s orders.”

“That was not telekinesis, it was mind-control.”

She rolled her eyes and began to push Tolukei back onto his medical bed. “Whatever.”

“Mind-control?” Williams said. “I didn’t know that was a skill psionics could use.”

“As I said before.” Tolukei leaped back onto his medical bed. “I am a Muodiry.”

Williams remembered the conversation he and Chang had with Tolukei days ago. Muodiry was the Javnis word for Necromancer. What Tolukei just demonstrated proved he was just that. Using mind-control against the dead and forcing them to rise and carry out his will. Radiance must be hiding something, I’ve never heard of psionic mind-control, let alone mind-control of the dead.

“Doc, make sure T’ gets the rest he needs. I have a feeling we’re going to have a long chat.”

Tolukei’s head jerked upward from his rest. “My name is not T …”

Kostelecky chimed in. “And if you call me doc one more time …”

Williams smirked at them on his way out of sickbay.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

En route to Sirius C system, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 20:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams’ body felt unexpectedly heavy as he sat, strapped into the captain’s chair. Gravity on the bridge was restored, which meant only one thing. He spun around in the chair and saw Tolukei enter and return to his psionic station.

“Ah, the doc let you out?” Williams said to him.

“Yes.”

“Good, we got some talking to do.”

“Indeed.” Tolukei said as he began to input new data into his computer terminal. Williams deactivated his magnetic boots and stood next to Tolukei. “Take a look at this; it is the reason why my telepathic messages have not reached any minds beyond the system.”

Williams saw a diagram of the planet SA-139 and an impressive amount of psionic energy radiating from it. “That’s a lot of psionic power. I’m guessing its coming from that Lyonria fortress?”

“It wasn’t until I was placed in my incapacitated state that I was able to sense how strong it was, and how widespread. It has flooded the entire system creating a field where all psionic thoughts are reflected after a certain point. We must have crossed it unknowingly when we were still in cryo.”

“Well that problem is solved, we just need to travel beyond the interference and we’ll be able to contact Earth,” Williams said. “EVE, how long will it take us to reach such a point?”

“Approximately six months eight days at sub light speeds, Commander,” EVE said.

“Well, shit.”

“Want me to turn us around, Commander?” Chang said, having overheard. “You know, so we could call home and let them know we arrived safely.”

“Given the recent turn of events, calling home is at the bottom of our priority list.”

Chang nodded. “Staying on course then.”

Williams walked back to the captain’s chair as he looked at the star-filled void of space through the windshield. “Hang tight, Becca, you’ll have your chair back,” he mumbled to himself.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess Hall

En route to Sirius C system, Sirius A system

May 21, 2050, 23:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

It took a while for Williams to figure out why he was having problems sleeping. He neglected to eat much during his long shift. Stress, anxiety, and self-doubt, those were the three meals he’d consumed since the day started.

The mess hall was devoid of all personnel apart from Chief Rivera, who also had been working long hours. Chef Bailey was kind enough to stay in the galley and prepare meals for the two before he set to the tiring process of cleaning up and making plans to retire to his quarters.

Williams sat with Rivera with his meal tray full of food. A medium-rare steak from the Rabuabin home world, seasoned with Montreal steak spices, and sautéed vegetables. Rivera had just finished her meal and made no attempt to acknowledge Williams as she fiddled with her holo pad.

“Thought I was going to be eating alone,” Williams said to her. “Hey, sorry about what I said earlier on the surface about your Zen thing, it was out of line.”

“You did what you felt was necessary.”

“Stress I guess, being pinned down like.”

“We got out of it alive and rescued those Poniga in the process.”

“But not the captain.” He paused and looked at his meal. “Damn it, I got to stop screwing things up.”

Rivera grimaced, shut off her holo pad, then stood up. “I gotta go.”

“Chief,” he called out to her before she vanished through the sliding doors. “We good?”

“Yeah, don’t sweat it, sir.”

Williams sat back in his chair after finishing his meal. He felt his body slowly return to something like normal as he looked out the observation window on the far side of the mess. Bailey joined him sometime later and placed a perfectly baked soufflé and fork on the table.

“Hey, Chef, how you doing?” Williams said to him.

Bailey’s aged face smiled at him as he removed his chef hat. “Fine, mon. But are you doing good?”

“I hope so.”

“Forgive me, but it don’t sound like it.”

“Like I was explaining to Rivera, I’m just a bit stressed out. I wasn’t expecting to be in command so long during this expedition. Honestly? Between you and me, I’m not sure I should be doing this.”

Bailey began to spin the dish the Soufflé rested on around and around, staring at it intently. “Let me tell you a story. When I was a young apprentice, the head Chef nearly cut off his thumb in the middle of a banquet service, he had to leave, and I was left in charge of the kitchen.”

“Why you?”

“All the cooks were young. I was the only one with experience, mon! I had to make it happen, but at the time I ain’t never made a soufflé which was the last course to be finished. I knew if I panicked, the cooks would lose it. I had to take control and lead them, I had to not let my worry that it wasn’t gonna rise properly create self-doubt.”

“I see where this is going.”

Bailey pushed the soufflé across the table to Williams. “The soufflé was served. You need to stop this self-doubt nonsense, its messing with your head, creating negativity, negativity that’s spreading to th’ crew. Want to know how I know this?”

“Enlighten me.”

“She wanted this soufflé, I was going to present it to her personally if she was willing to wait for it. Now she’s gone.”

Williams cringed. The more he thought about it, the more it was clear, Rivera upped and left because of him, not because she had something else to do. “I made her leave …”

“You got to take command of this ship, steer it in the right direction, and instill your team to follow and support you. You might get the captain back and protect the colony, or you might mash up the ship tryin’, but you have to try. Just like the soufflé, it might rise or fall, but I had to get it in the oven and accept what came next.”

Williams stayed silent as Bailey got up and went back into the galley to clean up, leaving the soufflé on the table before him. Bailey found a way to make it happen back then, take leadership control of an unexpected crisis.

Rise or fall, I can’t run away, I have to do this. “Thanks, Chef.”

“Cool runnings.”

Williams gnawed away at a piece of the soufflé.

The soufflé was the best Williams ever had. Had Bailey backed down that night, he wouldn’t be eating it right now.

Bailey ran a damp cloth across the surface of his cutting board, removing blotches of spilt sauces and tiny fragments of vegetable trim after a day’s worth of cooking for the ship’s crew. He watched as Williams strode out of the mess hall with pep in his footsteps and a brimming smirk on his face.

Hugo, his sous-chef, approached him from behind having overheard the story exchanged minutes earlier. “So, how did that soufflé you made back then turn out?”

Bailey snickered, and knocked his fist on the cutting board he wiped clean. “Came out flatter than this board!”

Uncontrollable laughter from the two shrieked from their mouths, nearly causing them to fall over.

20 Foster

The Architect’s ship

En route to Sirius C system, Interstellar space

May 22, 2050, 00:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster had awoken to the sound of her prison cell door opening. Her surprised and disoriented body crawled away from the cold hard bed and watched two overlords toss a robed Poniga into the cell, slamming the doors shut as his face hit the floor. She limped next to him, fatigue still in her eyes and legs. She reached down and wrapped her hands around the Poniga as she lifted his head to face her, it was Mavron.

Blood trickled down his face from the large gash across his forehead as she helped him move over to the bed to lie down, and recover from whatever beatings Architect forces put him through. No doubt punishment for their failed escape attempt through the wormhole. Foster cringed at what they might do to her since she was the one that pushed for it to happen when it opened unexpectedly.

And what an escape attempt that was. A random wormhole opening from behind with none other than Williams and Rivera at the other end, too bad she and Mavron didn’t make it through. What Williams and Rivera were doing in that strange chamber, and how they figured out how to open a wormhole was another story. One she hoped to hear after finding another way off this ship. Sirius was indeed full of mysteries and it would seem her crew had begun to unlock some of them.

Mavron grumbled a long-winded sentence in his native tongue, one she couldn’t understand. He gently pushed her away and folded his hands together, his eyes shut while faint light began to emanate from his folded hands. Slight blue and purple waves of light rippled around his body, it was psionic energy, Foster had seen it enough times to know what it looked like.

The semi-dazzling light show stopped, his hands lifted and unveiled a shimmering white, glowing orb, she suspected this was the same object he tried to show her earlier. It psionically left his hands and floated in front of Foster’s face as he leaned his body back up to face her.

Foster merely looked at the stunning, but strange-looking orb floating in front of her. It moved with her as she tried to tilt her head away from it. “I’ll pass,” she said, and pushed it back toward him, only for it to get shoved back toward her with his mind.

Mavron said something to her; probably ‘I insist’ or something similar. At least that’s what his facial expression suggested. Foster swallowed and braced herself as the orb hovered toward her forehead. It pushed into it like a single raindrop falling into the middle of a pond.

Everything around her went dark. She wasn’t herself, she felt different. She looked at her body to find she was a man, a young man at that. The darkness faded away, suddenly, she saw that she was a Poniga by the looks of the maroon robe and the strange off-world landscape in the distance, similar to that of the Poniga home world.

She became fluent in the Poniga language as if she had been speaking it her whole life, she was experiencing someone else’s memories, experiences, and knowledge. She obtained data about the Lyonria wormhole network. Smaller gates connected planets together within a system, the Sirius system was full of them, left behind by the Lyonria when they used it as a base and also to mine minerals. Midsized gates were strong enough to connect to wormholes located in different star systems, larger gates were typically found in the depths of space, these were capable of sending ships to either different parts of the galaxy, or to distant galaxies in the universe.

Then there were the grand gates.

These were special ones, only found inside a room in the top spire of their central travel hubs. These gates were not only powerful enough to link to any type of wormhole across the cosmos, but were powerful enough to open a gateway to an alternate plane that existed outside of normal space and time.

Ten years before, there was an incident within the wormhole network after a planet that orbited Barnard’s Star went offline suddenly. As a result, it forced all nearby gates to lockdown. Only the smaller, inner system gates were able to operate normally, as they were separate from the primary wormhole network. The lockdown drove the Architect insane.

He was close to figuring out how to use the gates to leave the system, and escape from a trap a goddess had set, her name was Tiamat. A trap he couldn’t disable, since it, like Lyonria technology, was based on complex programming that took him centuries to master. Rather, centuries for the Poniga and Undine to figure out. It was the job of the Poniga to uncover and excavate Lyonria ruins and artifacts. The Architect then forced the Undine to use their psionic powers to unlock its secrets, and present their findings to him. New discoveries about Lyonria technology were used to further his knowledge of the Lyonria wormhole network, and how to unlock Tiamat’s trap. These memories and thoughts, they all had belonged to Mavron. He was once a laborer tasked with unearthing buried Lyonria artifacts and bringing it to the Undine ocean world known as Meroien. Foster was witnessing and experiencing the enslavement of Mavron and his people.

Foster saw a glimpse of the other plane of existence from the memory engram. It was the source of the Architect’s power, where he supposedly became a godlike entity thanks to mysterious beings that lived deep inside of it. Anyone that ventured inside for a prolonged period of time died, at least their physical body did, only to be reborn into something much greater. The Architect, from time to time, had used the gate in the Lyonria hub to send Poniga and Undine he favored on a journey to transform and ascend them into a higher state of evolution.

The trance ended, hurling Foster to the floor.

Her body jerked repeatedly as if an electrical shock had hit her.

21 Nereid

Xal’oxnia

Meroien, Sirius C system

Clock Error: Error source: unknown interference

Xal’oxnia was the capital city of the Undine, located deep below the darkened oceans of their world Meroien. Meroien orbited the brown dwarf star of Sirius C, which in turn orbited around both Sirius A and B. Heat from the three stars contributed to the warm weather of the ocean planet as well as the warm temperatures deep in the oceans despite the lack of light the planet received from its parent star.

Lustrous towers arched up from the bottom of the ocean and formed the tallest structures in the undersea city. Fish swam past, attracted by the many lights that covered the sides of them. Below the towers were smaller structures, mostly food stores for the Undine people, and homes that formed a web of lights when seen from above. The center of the city was an enormous structure originally built by the goddess herself. It provided the city with a limitless supply of power. Computers within each home displayed relevant information about the status of the planet to the Undine that wished to swim to the less populated regions, to explore and embrace life as an aquatic species, and tell stories of how the goddess brought them across the stars to this world. It was the only pastime the Architect allowed them to indulge in.

From time to time, rare births would occur amongst the Undine where a female would give birth to one child, instead of the female and male that they would normally have. This single child was always female, but appeared to be more human than Undine, often having a pair of legs. They possessed the memories of their father, and according to many unconfirmed reports, were able to activate the biometric technology that the goddess had used to prevent unauthorized users from using their dormant ships. These birth defected children were called the Nereid by the ancient humans that had discovered them on Earth in the past.

The Architect, enemy of the goddess and Undine, learned of the first Nereids that were born on Earth and their interactions with the humans. The Architect feared that if Nereids were to interbreed with the humans, their offspring might lead to the rise of a powerful psionic hybrid species. It was a well-known fact to the Architect that humans had been experimented on by the Lyonria before they vanished. The Architect’s ship, in response, arrived at Earth to remove all Undine and Nereids, preventing any further Nereids from being born without the Architect’s knowledge, and forcing the Nereids to activate technology left behind by the goddess.

They did as asked, but not before activating a trap left behind by the goddess, a damping field that encompassed the entire system preventing psionic thoughts from leaving it, and the activation of drones programmed to fire on, and destroy, any ship that wished to leave. The Architect was unable to return to Earth and punished the Undine by exiling them on their ocean world within the system, and forced them to research a means to deactivate the trap. No one knows what became of the defiant Nereids, most likely executed, or forced to breed with the land dwelling species that eventually evolved into the Poniga, under the Architect’s supervision of course.

Undine mating with Poniga wasn’t anything new in fact. The Architect encouraged it as it gave an opportunity for him to have a Nereid born loyal to his needs. Qirak’s were paid to lure men toward Undine women. Undine women that pleaded their loyalty to the Architect were allowed to rise to the surface and enchant the men to swim into her arms. No Nereid, however had been born, only Undine-Poniga crossbreeds. Humans were the key.

A Nereid being born within their society therefore meant one thing, the three men that Norauk had sold to Lysi and her sister Cinil were human. Humans managed to cross the stars and arrive at Sirius. The Nereid that Lysi gave birth to was proof of that. The leadership of the Undine, a puppet government controlled by the Architect, ordered the last remaining human male to be brought down below the ocean into their vast undersea city for questioning.

The Nereid that was born, spent her childhood days living an isolated life, her birth was considered to be too important for her to mix freely. The elders that controlled the Undine government feared the Architect’s forces would punish them heavily should something happen to her. Furthermore, Nereids were always born with their father’s memories locked away in their minds, therefore she had access to human information, though it would take years for her to recall everything.

She had a humanlike appearance, and like the Nereids born before her, borrowed a few features from her Undine background. Gills on her neck allowed her to breathe water, while her body was able to adjust to the temperature changes of water instantly, allowing her to swim through warm or freezing cold waters with little issues. She possessed strong psionic abilities, enhanced by the Lyonria genetic manipulations all humans possessed, but didn’t know.

Given the short lifespan of her people, she was an adolescent by age one. Her raven-blue hair grew quickly, reaching down to her knees. She required very few lessons from her first year in existence due to her having some of her father’s memories. She only needed to be taught about her people and their language, since she only knew of human customs and the English language. Lessons were all taught via the exchange of engram orbs from other members of her society.

At age two, she had the body of a fully developed adult, and was able to recall more of her father’s memories. He was an EISS agent named Sylvester McDowell, codename Test, masquerading as a navy commander. He was assigned to a human exploration ship, known as the Carl Sagan, in secret by the EISS to search for any threats to Earth, and to keep tabs on two members of the ship’s crew that might have been affiliated with a terrorist group. She couldn’t recall who, or the name of the group, but as the months went on, more of McDowell’s memories and personality came to her mind.

During her two years of life she heard stories of a third human that traveled with McDowell and Kingston to Meroien, he had been captured and kept within the central palace built by the goddess. Inside the palace were special chambers devoid of water and had fresh oxygen pumped inside. In the past it was used for a place where the Poniga people stayed when they were visiting the city, though nowadays such visits rarely happened, due to the bad blood between the Poniga and Undine.

With adulthood came the next phase of her life. Forging her loyalty to the Architect. Nereid were still too valuable, so even as an adult she wasn’t allowed to leave the city. She was in turn given the task of speaking to the captured human within the palace in hopes of getting it to reveal how humans had advanced so quickly, and trigger more of her human memories inherited from her father. And most importantly, discover if the human race worshipped the Architect.

She swam to the palace and caused a group of fish to scatter as she arrived at its entrance. The tubular halls inside led her to the chamber where she saw the human via a force field sitting on the floor in a miserable state. She remembered him from her father’s memories, Dr. Travis Pierce, or egghead as he called him from time to time, whatever that meant.

Pierce had a long, ungroomed beard; understandable since he had been held inside the chamber for two years. The Undine lacked hair on all parts of their body except their heads, so tools to shave were nonexistent. She was about to enter to speak with him directly when she stopped herself. She wore no clothes, her people had no need for such a hindrance. For humans like the Poniga and Qirak, however, it was taboo for one to appear without apparel on as she recalled. And with Nereid possessing a full humanlike body, she of all people would need to obscure her bare natural figure. She left briefly, and obtained robes left behind by a Poniga who was charmed into mating with an Undine several years ago.

Wearing clothing was a strange feeling to her and a confusing task. It took her twenty minutes to figure out how to put her arms through the sleeves of the robe. And when she figured out how, she discovered it was on backward. It took another fifteen minutes to get it on correctly, she didn’t bother trying to figure out how to tie up the front as she feared it would have been another hour before she got to her duties for the day.

She used her psionic powers to slip past the force field and entered the chamber where Pierce had been held. The sound of her entering caused him to slither backward to the end of the chamber like a frightened caged animal. She felt a sense of empathy toward him, it was likely the first time in two years he was able to see someone face-to-face. The other Undine that questioned him over the last two years used their telepathy to speak with him or forcibly created engram orbs from his memories to study, orbs that had a high failure rate as he wasn’t a psionic. It was because of that form of forced communication Nereid was convinced he didn’t give up the information they wished to gather from him.

It was now her turn to try, her opportunity to impress the Architect, so that it may allow her peoples’ continued existence. Nereid stepped closer to him and left behind a trail of water that dripped away from her soaked body and robe. A body that had never been out of water until this very moment. Pierce trembled as he cowered in the corner. Nereid stopped before him, and extended her hand outward to show she was harmless.

“You are afraid?” she asked, then paused. She had spoken aloud for the first time. Her fingers lightly touched the top of her lips, surprised at how it felt to utilize her vocal cords.

“Tired of having my mind picked apart,” Pierce said. “I told you everything. I’m an explorer to this system.”

“You have learnt a lot about our people since you arrived.”

“Your mind-rape sessions rubbed off bits of your peoples’ memories into my brain.”

“Yet, we know so little about your people.” A lie since she had McDowell’s memories, although most were fuzzy. “I am honestly curious, however. How much about my people do you know?”

“You know the answer to that, why do you care anyways?”

“You are a man of wisdom, one that wants to learn more about the universe. Don’t you wish to know why we visited your kind in the past?”

“You didn’t.”

“We did, and you know it, you deny it out of fear your colleagues would become strangers.” Her mind briefly flashed back to the copies of the engram orbs given to her from the previous interrogators, tiny fragments of Pierce’s past appeared. “You even tried to spread that limited information about my people to your own kind through literature.”

“You’re not the Nommo.”

“Open your mind, please don’t deny it.” She sat next to him as if they were close friends. “Let me tell you a story. A goddess and her husband discovered a planet not far from here. They were interested in it as life on it evolved on its own, unlike here in this system and other worlds in which terraforming was required. That, and the Lyonria species had taken an interest in this particular world and the primitive species that began to walk on its surface, that world was Earth.”

“Right …”

“The goddess sent ships to Earth carrying many of my people, the Undine aboard them, they landed at the western edge of a large continent and revealed themselves to the humans living there, I believe you called them—”

“The Dogan.”

She smiled at him, progress was being made. “Don’t you see the connection, Travis? We Undine are the Nommo. We were sent as messengers from the goddess to speak on her behalf. We told them that Sirius was a trinary system, we told them that Saturn had rings, we tried to teach them about what existed beyond the realm of Earth.”

“What became of your goddess?” Pierce grunted.

“She and her husband explored Earth and tried to earn the devotion of your species, while the rest of the Undine made the oceans of Earth our home away from Sirius.” She pointed to herself, still maintaining the charming smile. “The result is what you now see, Human-Undine hybrids, your people called them Sirens. We’re not so different, human blood flows through my body as it does in several others who have a humanlike appearance, though their numbers have swelled over the years. Most of the humanoid Undine you see are actually crossbred from Poniga.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Nereid faced the ceiling giving it a somber look. “War took our goddess away. There was an uprising and the goddess and her husband had been slain, their ships taken over by their enemies. Humans were forced to accept the enemy of the goddess as their god, some had been taken aboard ships to be used as servants. The Undine on Earth tried to fight back and found a means to enhance the potency of their psionic powers, but it came at a cost, rapid aging, it’s rare for us to live past age seven. With shorter life spans and a war to fight, we needed to reproduce quickly. Humans became the source of that.”

“Legends on Earth told stories of sea nymphs that would lure sailors to their death if they heard their songs.”

“All legends have roots in reality; those stories were true. We mated with them but as you know, males always perish afterward; it’s just the way our species had evolved.”

“By the looks of things, I’d say you didn’t win the war.”

“We had a chance when the first Nereids had been born. But in the end, our enemy had starships that gave them a major advantage. They captured us and imprisoned us on this world, only those that worship him and fully dedicate their lives to them are allowed to leave. Even then, it’s only to carry out their bidding.”

“Fascinating.”

“Now that I’ve told you that. Why not tell me more about you?”

Pierce became distant once again. “I have nothing more to tell you, I’m sorry.”

Her progress toward getting him to open up was crumbling away.

Perhaps a pleasant picture will cheer him up, she thought, and stretched her hand toward him.

She used her psionic powers to create a lifelike projection of a woman with long, blue hair, based on what she learnt from the engrams. “Not even about this woman?”

“Stop …” He pushed the projection away. “You have no right to probe my mind like this!”

“She isn’t human, is she? What’s her name?”

“Pernoy … there, are you happy?”

“She’s very beautiful. Hashmedai if I’m not mistaken? Where do they come from?” She asked, Pierce snorted. “They attacked your world in the past with a great fleet. How many ships do you think they have in total?”

She saw his head tilt upward suddenly as she leaned in closer. Looking down she saw why. The robe she wore still wasn’t tied up, and her breasts had slipped out due to her movement. She wrapped the robe up against her body better, then began to ask a question her superiors insisted she ask.

“I can’t tell you that.” A reply he typically gave when asked about the location of Earth as well.

“If I gave you a star map, would it help?” Another question her superiors wanted answered, having discovered the existence of other space travelling species beyond Sirius. She continued to press him for answers, including a personal one she had been yearning to have answered since birth. “What was McDowell like?”

Pierce grunted. “Why do you care about him? You people killed him and Kingston.”

“That’s not true.”

“You brainwashed us, we just wanted to go back to our ship!” Nereid tried to console Pierce, he acted quickly by slapping her hand away and got up to his feet. “Don’t cross the human race like this again. We have nukes, we have ships, and we have crazy military brass that wouldn’t hesitate to use them like we did against the Hashmedai!”

She winced, sat up, and took a step backward from him knowing that due to his incarceration and loneliness he was acting abnormally, saying things he wouldn’t usually say. Her vague memories of him were of a peaceful man that loved science. His outburst, however, was interesting. Atomic weapons, warships, aggressive military leaders. It helped her to remember more of McDowell’s past life on Earth, and that humans typically responded to threats with violence. McDowell’s job was to search for threats.

She bowed to him and held onto her robe to ensure her breasts didn’t fall out again. “Thank you for your time.”

She took her leave to process what had been experienced, and swam back into the residential district of the city, larger multilevel chambers. There were many entrances around it which Undine swam in and out of. Inside was where her people slept, clustered together tightly within the darkened waters.

It was a natural state. Ancient Undine on their home world often slept in this manner to discourage other forms of aquatic life from attacking them in their sleep. All it took was an Undine to awake and make the call to rouse the hundreds of others nearby to jump to action, killing any unwanted guest instantly. Unless of course it was the Architect’s soldiers, their weapons, technology, and numbers were unmatched.

Nereid looked at the two to three hundred people in her designated chamber grouped together as they slept, and wondered how she was going to get a comfortable sleep. There was no privacy, and as far back as she could remember she was fine with that. But the talk with the human, Pierce, it not only triggered more of her father’s memories, but also human habits such as having a private place to rest.

She swam over to one of the less densely packed areas of the chamber, and turned her face away from the rest of her slumbering people. She tried to imagine that she was alone and that she had her own quarters aboard a human-made starship in the cosmos.

Nereid returned to her superiors the next day, and presented them with an engram orb, the copy of her recent memories in the form of pure psionic power. The thoughts within the orb she presented showed the brief conversation she had with Pierce. Impressed with the progress she had made, she was ordered to return and pester him with more questions, namely the ones he refused to answer.

When Nereid returned, Pierce replied with subtle grunts as he sat on the floor of his chamber with his back to the wall, and his hands up to his knees. Nereid tried everything to get him to open up, and reveal more about Earth, humans, their mission, and the empire. Who do humans worship? Pierce refused to cooperate, Nereid thought back at some of the memories McDowell had, memories of him interrogating a terrorist. People were more forthcoming if you either tortured them, or found a way to earn their trust. Torture was out of the question, what he been through for the last two years was enough pain, and even then, they had made little progress.

Nereid offered her hand to Pierce, and smiled at him. “Come with me.”

He looked up at her with his rough appearance. “To where?”

“Outside of these walls, I suspect you haven’t been let out since your arrival.”

“I can’t swim very well in water, and as for breathing under it …”

She touched his hand and thought briefly about a psionic shield protecting the two of them. As her eyes opened, her gifts had brought it into reality. The two shared a psionic barrier; one that had enough heat and oxygen within it to keep him alive.

“You will be fine with me,” she reassured him as she guided him out of his cell, through the palace and into the undersea city.

Swimming wasn’t necessary as her telekinetic powers allowed them to glide above the various structures that adorned the ocean surface below. She spent hours showing Pierce the marvels of the city he had been imprisoned in for two years. The arching towers, the enormous sleeping chambers, the elegant central palace. A school of fish floundered past them as they traveled toward the city limits while extremely faint white light from the surface above beamed down upon them.

“This is outstanding,” Pierce said.

“Most of our species resides here,” she said as they hovered up top of a nearby sunken mountain, wormlike aquatic creatures slithered away in fear of their presence. “The rest of us exist in smaller cities throughout the planet.”

The two watched the city from their higher prospective as Nereid explained to Pierce more about her people, the goddess that brought them here, how the cities were created; by extracting silicon and other minerals out from the sands below, and fusing it together with the aid of adept psionics. The more they talked, the more McDowell’s recent memories of arriving in the system formed in her head. She had to remind herself several times she wasn’t an EISS agent masquerading as a UNE Hammerhead officer.

“So, in some ways we’re just like your species,” Nereid said. “We arrived here from the stars and were faced with the challenge of making it our home.”

“It has most certainly been a challenge for us,” Pierce said, and sat down within their psionic bubble. “Us … I’m likely the last one left of my ship.”

“Your ship was destroyed?”

“We arrived at the white dwarf, the star we call Sirius B. There was a planet with abandoned structures on it; we traveled inside one to explore it. That’s the last I saw of the ship, we were attacked by aliens.”

“How did they look?”

“They were armored, they attacked us with lasers; some had spears and shields and the others had laser cannons attached to their hands.”

Nereid grimaced, what Pierce described to her sounded exactly like the Architect’s loyal followers. She tried to recall more of McDowell’s memories, hoping that she could confirm the attack Pierce talked about. She saw the fortress … no tomb, tomb of the goddess. Its layout and design. It was built by the goddess and then later converted into a tomb for her in the aftermath of her demise, and therefore was the foundation of the Architect’s rise to power with the technology that existed within it.

The information he revealed helped her unlock more of McDowell’s past before arriving at the system. He was a rather important agent within EISS, even had access to secret command codes and security protocols in regard to Earth’s defenses. Her superiors wanted her to gather everything about Earth and while Pierce didn’t reveal much, the memories within her did. But most importantly, Pierce revealed that the Architect’s control over the system could come to an end, provided humans lent their support.

The Undine lacked ships of their own after the fall of the goddess. Wormholes didn’t help either without the aid of EVA suits and from what Pierce told her, they would need one to travel to that planet where the tomb was located. The educational engrams she received as a child did suggest that the tomb was where the Architect forced the Nereids to activate the goddess’s technology, and was where the trap to keep the Architect in the system was activated. There must have been something there that could be used against the Architect, something that could result in the Undine and Poniga being free of their slavery. And humans could be the ones that could make that happen. They just needed guidance.

Nereid submitted her engram orb to her superiors the next day, though she carefully doctored it to omit memories of Earth from McDowell’s mind and her wavering devotion to the Architect in light of her new discovery. The more she looked at her superiors and the elders that controlled their society, the more she was reminded of the situation McDowell had to deal with living on Earth. A collective of five species known as the Radiance Union had quite a bit of influence over the UNE government to the point where some laws were passed, not because the UNE deemed it necessary, but rather Radiance wanted it done to slowly ease the human race into joining their collective. Agents like McDowell were periodically tasked with assignments to prevent Radiance from gaining too much control over Earth via covert-op missions. As much as humans valued the friendship between them and Radiance, they valued freedom more.

Nereid saw a similar situation brewing as the elders of her people submitted to the will of the Architect, and allowed its armies to inspect the city at random times to search for any signs of a resistance growing. The elders saw it as a means of keeping their people alive as the Architect could have them wiped out in a bloody siege that would turn the oceans of their world red. The Undine and the Poniga were not free, freedom being something humans greatly valued. Freedom being something all species living in the system must be able to experience.

Her superiors once again pressed her to obtain more information regarding Earth, or reveal new details she might have remembered from McDowell’s memories. Superiors who were taking orders from the elders, elders who are trying to please the Architect as if it was some sort of angry god.

Nereid and Pierce continued their swim through the city once again. The more she showed him, the more he began to open up and converse with her. This in turn helped her recover more of the hidden memories and emotions in her head regarding McDowell’s past. He lived in one of the many countries that once divided the planet Earth. He had the choice to study at college or university to better himself. He had access to many privileges none of her people had. True, not all humans were lucky to have the level of freedom he had, but not all humans were oppressed either. The Hashmedai Empire tried to take that away, but the humans fought back and won.

“I was thinking about this planet,” Pierce said, interrupting her thoughts. “Everything my people knows about the system suggests that life here would not have had enough time to evolve given the youth of the system. But if your people came here from across the stars then that would explain that, but what about the sea life? Where did that come from? And what about the life on the other planets in this system?”

“Come with me,” she said, and guided him with her psionic thoughts closer to the surface.

Their ascent came to an end as they arrived at a blockade consisting of several patrolling ships capable of undersea travel. Between those ships were circular shaped platforms where heavily armed Architect soldiers stood watch at the entrance alongside Undine that devoted their lives to the Architect.

“Your people are correct, this is a young star system,” Nereid said.

“Then why is there life? Surely not all of it was transplanted here from other worlds?”

“It was the Architect’s doing.”

“There’s that name again.”

“The Architect has had complete dominance over this system for thousands of years, molding every planet in their image.”

“Terraforming?”

“More than that.”

“The domes on the Poniga world, the Architect built those didn’t it?”

“Yes, one of many examples of how it uses their power to control the evolution of all planets in this system.”

She pointed upward directing Pierce’s eyesight to the edge of a temporal bubble, one that encompassed the platforms and everything below them including the cities of the Undine along with the surface of the oceans floor. He looked closer to see what she saw. The ships above the platforms looked almost as if they were frozen in time, unmoving. Fish that swam past them toward the ships stopped moving instantly as they crossed the threshold of the temporal bubble. The rippling waves also looked as though they came to a near standstill beyond the bubble they had been inside.

“This is the answer to your questions,” she said to him.

“Another shield?”

“It’s a temporal sphere, generated by abandoned technology from the goddess. Time outside of the sphere accelerates at the same speed the universe does. Inside, however, time accelerates at a slower rate.”

“Time dilation.” Pierce gasped in shock. “My god. That explains it.”

Nereid demonstrated another example by creating a plume of air bubbles within the waters that surrounded them. The bubbles rose up and outside of the time dilation dome and then stopped moving. Only they didn’t really stop, but rather time was accelerating so fast from their point of view, that anything beyond the time dilation dome appeared to have come to a standstill.

“The Architect simply slowed time on the worlds while it went to terraform them.”

“That’s why there’s so much life in the system,” Pierce said. “The planets here, due to the time dilation, are much older than the stars they orbit. I suppose that explains the name ‘The Architect’ they designed the worlds in this system.”

“This planet is different from the rest however. It is the only one with its, as you call it, time dilation still active.”

“And not encompassing the whole world, why is that?”

“The Architect controls the technology used to operate them, he is using it as a means to control our people.” She directed his attention to the platforms above them. “You are familiar with the Lyonria correct?”

“Was wondering when that name was going to be used.”

“We study and deconstruct their relics with these facilities. It’s a process that takes years … centuries. The time dilation speeds it up in the eyes of the Architect.”

“Amazing, what sort of things have you discovered?”

“It’s all taken away by the Architect, including our people that learnt anything of value.” She frowned and spun away from the platforms, tilted her face back down facing the city in the darkened oceanic abyss. “So, it is not an amazing experience. It’s a death sentence since those people are never to be seen again.”

“I’m sorry; I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“The Poniga are in a similar predicament, they are forced to excavate Lyonria ruins and artifacts their whole lives while worshiping the Architect or serving in its army. Their people were carefully bred to perform specific tasks.”

“Slavery,” Pierce slowly muttered. “What you’re saying is your people and the Poniga are slaves.”

“We tried to rebel, but without ships and the Undine and Poniga not working together it’s impossible.”

“The two of your people share the same burden, you need to work together to overthrow the same power that binds you.”

“There’s too much bad blood between us. My fellow sisters rely on Poniga males for reproduction over our males.”

“Right, the more you crossbreed with another species, the more your kind evolves.”

“And the increased chances of a Nereid like me to be born, though I’m the first one to be born here.”

“That’s why Poniga males were forbidden from not having a wife, it was to deter young men from being lured by your kind.” He looked to the skies past the seemingly still rippling waves and paused. “My god, I’m an idiot.”

“How do you figure?”

“We’re in a time dilation bubble, time moves at a faster rate inside here. I’ve been here for at least two years. How much time has passed beyond the bubble since my arrival?”

“One year here is equal to one Earth day beyond.”

Pierce began to smile in a way Nereid had never seen since she first met him or saw via engrams of others that interrogated him. “I’ve only been gone for two days! Yes, yes! My ship, it might still be around, I just assumed it was destroyed or left the system since there were clearly no signs of its crew exploring this planet.” Pierce placed his hands across Nereid’s shoulders and excitedly asked. “Tell me, what does it take to cross the time dilation bubble?”

“It’s forbidden, unless you are meeting with someone from other worlds to trade or are confirmed to be truly loyal to the Architect.”

“Or lure a male.” His smile grew brighter. “I need to get back to my ship. Can you help me do it?”

“As I said it’s—”

“You said yourself you need ships to aid in a rebellion, we could help. And from what it sounds like my people already encountered the Architect forces, so like it or not, your enemy is now ours. Help me, so I can help you, please.”

Nereid had ignored all telepathic messages her superiors had sent her over the last two days. She couldn’t bring herself to show them what she experienced, and became worried that traces of McDowell’s memories might bleed into the engram despite her best efforts to keep it secret. Her superiors and the elders, while their intentions were focused around the preservation of the Undine people, it was achieved by appeasing the needs of the Architect. Earth, humans, the empire, McDowell’s memories, and the development of her unwavering devotion so the Architect could have a Nereid in their ranks, that’s all they cared for, and at one point so did she, until another way out was discovered.

Nereid made up her mind. She wanted to experience freedom for real and not just by reliving old memories from McDowell, and getting Pierce back to his ship was the key to making that happen. She swam to the central palace and took one last glance at the city before she entered, musing if she’d ever see it again. And if she did, will it be a city of a spacefaring species her people once were during the age when the goddess was alive to guide and protect them.

Inside, she paid no mind to the many Undine guards that hovered next to the various hallway entrances she swam through. She arrived at an armory deeper inside, and used her clearance to gain access to a stage two Voelika. Voelika’s resembled a long staff outfitted with cybernetics that enhanced the psionic gifts of the user. Both ends of the staff were decorated with green translucent ornamental sculptures that resembled the wings of a dragon. The sign of the goddess.

The Voelika began to emit orange light as she held onto it, and then strapped it to her back. Her legs and arms furiously stroked and kicked through the waters bringing her body to the holding cell where Pierce had been for the last two days. As she got closer, she noticed several guards swimming through the halls, their heads moving about with a sense of urgency, searching for someone. Probably searching for her she figured, since she ignored all telepathic communications directed to her, and now suddenly arrived at the palace while still refusing to speak with anyone.

To her surprise two guards stood watch over the entrance to Pierce’s holding cell. Two guards that swam over to her holding their Voelika staffs in both hands, obviously ready for combat. “The elders have been looking for you,” one of the guards said telepathically.

“I’m busy,” Nereid said, and tried to push past them.

The Voelika’s of the two guards crossed, forming an ‘X’ in front of Nereid, blocking her path. “They insist you see them at once with your report,” the guard said.

“Later, I must talk with the human,” Nereid said.

“We have orders to arrest you if you resist. You must report in at once.”

“I don’t have anything new to report.” A lie of course, Nereid hoped they would be stupid enough to believe it. “I may, after I speak with him.”

“You are a poor liar,” said another telepathic mind behind her.

Nereid spun around and saw another Undine guard swim closer to her along with an Architect soldier outfitted with undersea armor. The presence of the Architect forces inside was confirmation that the Architect considered her and Pierce to be top priority in its plans. And it was confirmation that the first engram orb she submitted might have had traces of McDowell’s memories on it after all. And if that was the case then they knew she had critical knowledge of Earth, but with most of it locked away.

“Do not let the human poison your mind with its lies,” the third guard said. “Report everything you have discovered with us at once.”

Nereid looked at the Architect soldier, its breathing apparatus provided it with fresh air to breathe into its helmet. Architect soldiers were always confusing to her, inconsistent. Some didn’t require any breathing devices such as the ones who routinely patrolled the city, while others like the one in front of her, armed with his spear and shield, did require air.

Her unmoving composure forced the third guard to draw his Voelika, while the Architect soldier hid behind his shield and extended the tip of his spear next to her. There were four targets, four weapons pointed at her, and only two options for her to handle the situation. Give up and accept their terms and throw away freedom like the elders had been doing. Or take a stand and fight, as a human would do.

She held her hands out, her Voelika flowed into the palms of them via her telekinesis and a quick and decisive underwater psionic battle ensued. The Architect soldier and the guard with him were pushed backward into the hallways, their bodies becoming slower as she slowed the particles inside of the water around them, causing it to crystallize and freeze. The two remaining guards were dealt with via shattering the barrier protecting Pierce’s cell. It was a calculated risk as rushing water gushed into his place of sanctuary for the last two years. However, the sudden and unexpected flow of water rushing backward into his cell and draining out from the halls threw the two guards off balance. Her psionic barrier prevented the rushing currents from taking her away, her body lunged forward into his cell as the raging waters began to fill it up and wash the two guards around. A telekinetic pull yanked Pierce toward her and into her barrier, seconds before the waters swept him up for good.

She battled her way outside into the city, her psionic powers doing most of the work. Lucky for them, most of the psionic Undine had been assigned to defend the elders, so the battles easily swung in their favor. The tradeoff was, however, the hordes of Architect soldiers from above descending toward them. All of them heavily armed, all of them ready to make her suffer like past Undine that tried to rebel. None of those Undine however had been a Nereid, she was about to find out if her enhanced psionic powers combined with Lyonria modified human genes were enough to fight for freedom.

The intensity of the fight caused Nereid to piece together more fragments of McDowell’s memories. She vaguely began to remember the wormhole he, Pierce, and Kingston had traveled through when they first arrived on this world. Someone that went by the rank Master Chief had contacted him when her mother had psionically mind-controlled McDowell, putting him in a trance.

Time moved slower outside of the time dilation field and therefore the Master Chief should still be on her way to them, trying to follow in their footsteps. Nereid used the might of her mind to move her and Pierce’s bodies through the ocean, up toward the edge of the time dilation field and toward the shallow region of their ocean world where the wormhole resided.

She sensed the temperature of the waters around them increase to extremely hot levels. Hot enough to cause her barrier to flicker as roaring bubbles appeared from the corner of her eye. She looked back and saw the reason why. Architect grunts were behind and closing fast, their lasers were capable of underwater usage and had the effect of heating the temperatures of the water where the beam traveled to a boil. Returning fire at them was not an option. Their escape relied now on her ability to keep the psionic barrier up and her telekinesis pushing them forward and past the blockade of ships above them.

They crossed the barrier and their bodies began to adhere to the new rules of the passage of time, rules that the rest of the universe did. The ships that looked as if they had been in suspended animation began to move swiftly, and their weapons ports opened and took aim at them. Nereid held onto her Voelika tight as it glowed orange, infused with psionic energy, energy that escaped out from the Voelika into her body, enhancing her psionic brain activity. She prepared her barrier for an attack and hoped her brain was up for the new challenge.

22 Williams

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

Entering Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 01:10 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“How are our guests doing?”

Kostelecky directed her attention away from the microscope she was peering into, locking her blue eyes on Williams’. “Recovering and speaking in English apparently, broken but understandable.”

Williams and Kostelecky walked over to EVE’s hologram as she observed the recovering Poniga. “Made progress, EVE?”

“I am only able to translate parts of their language, Commander,” EVE said. “If you wish to speak with them you may, and I will do my best to translate between the two of you.”

“Cool.”

“In addition, Commander, I have reason to believe you may be correct in your assumption that the Lyonria had interbred with these people.” A hologram appeared next to EVE, it had what appeared to be text written in a strange alien language. “This is an example of the Lyonria written language I came across while I accessed their technology in the fortress we discovered.”

Kostelecky held up a piece of paper next to the hologram for Williams to see the side by side comparison. “And this here was one of them trying to write a sugarcoated love letter to us.”

“As you can see, like the language, their written form contains several letters from the Lyonria text. In time, Commander, I may be able to partially translate the data that was recovered from the Lyonria fortress.”

“Good work you two, make that your top priority. Learn any of their names?”

Kostelecky gestured toward a female Poniga. “I call her, vive la résistance.”

“Resistance?” Williams said to the Poniga.

The female nodded in regard to his question as EVE began to translate between the two of them. “Yes, we resist the false teachings of the Architect and perverse the true teachings of the goddess.” EVE’s voice was dubbed over as she spoke. “I am called Eisila.”

“I’m Commander Dominic Williams, pleased to meet you,” he said as EVE translated his statement to Eisila. “So, the Architect, who is this?”

“The Architect are the rulers of this system who have been trying to force us to worship them,” Eisila said. “We know they aren’t gods.” Eisila pointed at the dead soldiers Kostelecky and Williams had looked at earlier. “And you do as well it seems. They tell us lies, that their soldiers are ascended Poniga, and that they have magic that prevents them from dying.”

“The captain of this ship was aboard the ship we rescued you from,” Williams said. “Do you know how she got there?”

“Rebecca?” Eisila said.

“You know her?”

“Myself and my brother, Mavron, met Rebecca and comrades of hers on our home world. She was taken prisoner shortly after we were betrayed by our brothers and sisters.”

“Do you know what happened to the others Rebecca was with?” Williams said.

Eisila frowned as her green eyes filled with sorrow. “Do not know, if they angered the Architect, they may be dead,” Eisila said.

The Carl Sagan hadn’t visited and explored all planets in the system, let alone gathered all the data from the many probes that were deployed, leading Williams to believe the Poniga did not originate from the ice world around Sirius B; Foster and her team’s last known location. There was no way a civilization was there according to sensor scans, not to mention its inhospitable environment.

The wormhole was most certainly in play here. If the Lyonria structure and the existence of a wormhole on the Architect’s ship was any indication, it’s that there were possibly more wormholes throughout the system, connecting all worlds in a vast network.

“Commander Williams, please come to the bridge,” Chang’s voice played over the intercom.

Williams shrugged. “Duty calls.”

“These folks need more time to rest anyway,” Kostelecky said as she reviewed information on the cracked screen of her data pad.

“EVE, see if you can get them talking more in the meantime about their written language,” Williams said on his way out. “Being able to interface with Lyonria tech might give us an advantage here.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

Entering Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 01:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Williams entered the bridge and sat on the captain’s chair with a new mindset.

One he refused to move away from as the Carl Sagan crossed into the third and newly discovered star of the trinary system. The crew needed his leadership and he needed them to perform their jobs at maximum efficiency. He was the captain now until further notice.

“What’s our status?” Williams asked.

“Got a signal incoming,” Chang said, checking his computer terminal. What he read on the screen caused his face to light up. “Commander, it’s from Master Chief Chevallier.”

“What the hell? Location?”

“One moment.” Chang began to check the source of the Master Chief’s signal. “Got it. It’s coming from one of the planets in the system, the signal is weak, but it was definitely coming from there. Scans show it’s a world with no solid land.”

Williams smiled. “How they got there is another story, set a course.”

The Carl Sagan made a slight change in its direction and moved via sub light speeds to the planet in question. The trip took them approximately thirty minutes, in which the ocean world began to grow larger in size in the windshield before them, as faint light from both Sirius A and Sirius B, hung in the back drop next to the brown dwarf Sirius C.

“Commander,” Tolukei called out to Williams. “The alien ship.”

Williams spun his chair around to face Tolukei. “You sense it?”

“Yes, it is on a course to the same planet.”

“The same ship bolting to the same planet we’re heading to,” Chang said.

“They might have detected the distress signal,” Tolukei said.

“Somehow, I doubt they’re flying over to lend a hand,” Williams said. “Chang, what’s our ETA?”

“Entering orbit in five.”

“And the alien ship?”

“Difficult to tell, it appears to be traveling at FTL, it may arrive before or after us.”

“Get us close to the side of the world where the signal is coming from and see if you can establish a connection with the Master Chief.” Williams stopped himself briefly, he was about to request a Hammerhead team to board a transport for a possible rescue op. Since there weren’t any teams available for the task he changed tack. “Tolukei be ready for a teleport once we zero in on her position.”

“That may not be wise, Commander,” Tolukei said. “The ship is indeed approaching fast.”

“Chang?”

“Can’t go any faster and I’m going to have to slow down once we arrive in orbit. Then there’s the whole bringing us about to hover over the region she’s at … so.”

They needed a distraction, something to force the Architect’s ship to focus on them rather than the surface, while a transport slipped in to find Chevallier. Williams looked at the ocean world as its waters reflected light back via two sources of sunlight while he slowly weaved together a plan.

“Chang, don’t worry about getting us close to their signal.”

“Commander?”

“Once we get in orbit head to the docking bay and await further instructions,” Williams said. “Tolukei, I hope your psionic brain has rested enough, because we’re going to need it.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SC-149 AKA Meroien orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 02:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Carl Sagan dropped out of sub light speeds on one side of the ocean world of Meroien, the Architect’s ship did the same on the opposite side baked in sunlight, the side being the location of Chevallier’s emergency signal. A single transport ship piloted by Chang left the underside of the Carl Sagan and plunged toward the surface of the planet beneath its clouds, while Williams sat up front at helm control, the joys of rolling with a rookie skeleton crew.

He looked down at the controls, buttons, flashing lights, and computer screen and recalled his training and simulator runs. As tempting as it was to simply have EVE take control, he needed her processors working at maximum power to create an algorithm that could allow them to fully translate the Lyonria and Poniga language. Chang transmitted that he was in the clear and away from any action that was about to unfold in space.

Williams’ fingers raced across the terminal, he began to acquire a target on the other side of the planet; the Architect’s ship. ESP data acquired from Tolukei updated the Carl Sagan’s sensor data in regard to the exact location of the ship. Battle station alarms blared as Williams launched twelve plasma missiles into space, Tolukei’s psionic powers formed a protective overshield around the Carl Sagan, as his mind took control of the missiles and forced them to arc up and over the horizon of the planet. Twelve white contrail lines stretched around the planet as the twelve missiles rammed into the Architect’s ship in a glittering display of emerald explosions. The process required complete focus of Tolukei’s psionic powers, and as such the artificial gravity he conjured for the bridge shut off, weightlessness becoming a reality once again.

New data appeared on William’s screen on the missiles payload delivery, generated by Tolukei as it was his ESP that scanned what happened not the Carl Sagan’s sensors. The data that he read was both good and bad news. The good news? The Architect’s ship wasn’t destroyed, after all their attack was to disable it, Foster was still aboard and needed to get out. The bad news? It suffered no damage at all, like the Carl Sagan the Architect’s ship was under the protective grace of a psionic overshield.

“Chang, no pressure, but everything is now on those slick flying skills of yours,” Williams transmitted to him as he saw the Architect’s ship come about and face them with its weapons ports open.

“Commander, this ship of the Architect. It has overshields,” Tolukei said.

“I’ve noticed. The other ships we encountered didn’t have regular shields let alone overshields.”

Tolukei began to focus by shutting all four of his eyes. “There is a psionic aboard that ship. No; several in fact, one of their minds is familiar, however.”

The Carl Sagan viciously rumbled in the aftermath of taking several direct blows to its forward shields. “Define familiar?” Williams said as he began to arm and fire the rail guns.

“I can speak to him. And he can speak to me.”

“Who?”

“The Architect.”

23 Chevallier

Derelict Linl colonization ship, Adrift in the ocean

SC-149 AKA Meroien, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 01:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier’s mouth produced blatantly fake smiles every time she forced herself to consume the putrid soup Juloo had made. Rediscovering the wormhole couldn’t come soon enough. She emptied her bowl of soup to the best of her ability and checked the status of her suit’s power via its diagnostic screen, 23 percent. The jerry-rigged power charges Juloo had latched onto it were taking their sweet time.

She entered the cockpit and watched as the tiny Qirak woman took control of the Linl colonization ship turned boat, sailing it through the choppy waters of the planet. It had taken them nearly two days to get to this point, tsunamis streaking across the ocean world’s surface were a common encounter. Juloo had to make eight detours during their trip to avoid getting hit by the torrential waves.

The journey provided Chevallier the chance to follow-up on the data left behind by the first generation Linl colonists, saving the data into the computers built into her suit. She hoped that someone aboard the Carl Sagan would find it useful. The Carl Sagan, she groaned upon thinking about that ship convinced that she might be stranded on this world forever, unless there was a skilled Qirak out there that could figure out how to repair her human-made equipment.

“Ah! The gate draws close!” Juloo exclaimed, forcing Chevallier to gaze out the windshield.

Amber light from the skies shined into the cockpit while moisture built up along the sides of the windshield due to the extreme humid temperatures around them. She saw the oval-shaped gateway to other worlds seemingly float up top of the surface of the water, unaffected by the tsunami that struck days earlier.

“Sure you don’t want to stay?” Juloo said to her. “Many, many old junky ships lay around with profitable items still inside.”

Chevallier grimaced and shook her head dejectedly. “If I can’t get back to my ship I might have to take you up on that offer.”

Shallow Ocean

SC-149 AKA Meroien, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 02:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier bid her farewell to Juloo as she leaped off the ship onto the shallow clearing next to the wormhole. She was back in her combat armor sans the helmet, though its power and shields still had not fully recovered. Her heavy footsteps slashed through the waters leading her toward the control interface of the wormhole.

Before she activated it, she spun around and gave one final wave goodbye to Juloo. The ship turned boat sailed off to the horizon, the white flames from its rear engines providing it just enough propulsion to propel the ship, and take Juloo toward old Linl tech to raid and sell to the Poniga and Undine.

She returned to the control interface of the wormhole and took a few seconds to recall what Juloo had told her in regard to operating it. Its tiny holographic display appeared along with holographic buttons for her to push, her finger pushed downward to key in the open command.

Then stopped.

She heard strange noises come from the deep of the ocean.

She stood up on the edge and readied her rifle, two figures floated up from the waters covered in a protective psionic barrier. One of them was Pierce, or at least she thought it was, he looked roughed up, dirty, his head full of unkempt head and facial hair. But his uniform as ripped up and messy as it was, it was clearly one of a member of IESA.

The person with him, however, she was an unknown, a half-naked woman wearing an opened and soaking wet maroon robe with a glowing staff in her hands. She had long black-blue hair and looked directly at Chevallier as if they were old friends that hadn’t seen each other in years. The two dashed and splashed their way over to Chevallier looking back behind them every so often, the standard signs someone was being chased.

Chevallier held onto her rifle and checked the status of her suits shield recovery.

They had risen to 32 percent. Better than nothing.

“Chevallier?” The strange woman called out to her. “Soul of the goddess, is it really you?”

How the hell do you know my name? “And you are?”

“MC, she’s a friend.” Pierce said.

“Dr. Pierce? What the fuck happened to you?”

“No time to explain.”

The ground began to shake sending slight ripples of waves across the shallow waters. Pierce and the woman moved behind Chevallier as she stood watching the ocean and horizon before them. A horizon that was eclipsed by the sudden sight of an egg-shaped alien ship rising out of the ocean like a whale, only unlike a whale, the ship didn’t dive back into the ocean where it came from, it rose into the skies, faced them head-on, and hovered.

“Prepare for battle, Chevallier,” the woman said as she held her glowing staff.

Chevallier looked at the oval-shaped alien ship. Its main weapons locked on them as the sides of it evaporated away, revealing the inside of it. There was an overlord and six grunts looking out as they prepared to leap off.

Chevallier, Pierce, and Nereid stood back to back in the ankle-high shallow waters. Behind them was the inactive wormhole gate, before them a hovering alien ship as the small squad of Architect soldiers splashed down with their laser blasters blazing. There wasn’t much any of them could do for cover, Chevallier’s still weakened shields kept her alive for the time being as Nereid used her psionic powers to create a dome that protected her and Pierce.

The alien ship in the air didn’t fire its main weapons as Chevallier had expected. Clearly, they wanted someone alive and wanted the attacking grunts before her to make it happen, the question was; who was to live and who was expendable? As if she didn’t know the answer, her shields took all the laser fire, Nereid’s barrier took none, it just twinkled its purple colors and looked pretty.

Chevallier returned fire, and engaged in a very brief weapons exchange as a transport of human design made a daring and risky maneuver by landing in between the line of sight of the alien ship and them. Its side doors slid open, Lieutenant Dennis Chang stood next to the entrance, waving for them to leap aboard quickly with an eRifle firmly grasped in his hands.

The three of them rapidly ran through the shallow, splashing water all about in their wake, and climbed aboard. Chang quickly returned to the cockpit and eagerly awaited the chance to pull up and out of the chaos, laser fire from below collided with the transport’s blue ripping shields.

Chevallier counted a four body total aboard. “Get us out of here, L.T.”

She watched Chang’s piloting skills go to work, guiding the transport as it lifted off into the skies. Then it rumbled and shook. The alien ship began to fire its white-hot energy beams upon it in an attempt to disable or force them to land. She grimaced at the thought of them crash landing, let alone crash landing in the deeper parts of the ocean.

“Ah, shit!” Chang yelled. “OK, ladies and gents this is your pilot speaking, buckle up, ‘cause we gonna get fucked.”

Ignoring his request, Chevallier stood behind his chair and watched the action unfold via front row seats. “Keep it together!”

Sparks blazed up from a nearby console, a follow-up blast sent everyone except Chang to the floor. “Yeah, I wasn’t joking about the seat belts, guys,” Chang said. “Inertial dampers tend to get wonky during situations like this.”

The side door was still open during their rise to the skies, had the shields not been active Chevallier would have rolled outside to her death. She got to her feet and saw the ship swing about and prepared to discharge its main energy cannon at them. Chang managed to evade most hits, but quickly found the closer he was to the surface the less they were fired upon. The Architect’s men were sending a message, land or we’ll make you do it.

Nereid stepped next to Chevallier and eyed her rifle from top to bottom, then stroked the sides of it as her eyes shut. Chevallier looked at the bizarre half-naked psionic woman as she continued to touch her rifle, Nereid’s hands began to radiate a soft lavender color. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I remember this,” Nereid said. “Human magnetic rifle, originally developed by Radiance, correct?”

Chevallier rolled her eyes. “Pierce, your girlfriend is creeping me out.”

Nereid lifted her hand away from Chevallier’s rifle, it began to glow a bright blue and purple. Chevallier was now the one that looked at her weapon from top to bottom in awe at what had become of it. She turned around and looked at Nereid who stood holding onto her immaculately crafted staff weapon. “I have imbued your weapon with psionic energy, please fire it quickly … the effect … will not—”

Nereid’s body became limp and slumped over. Pierce was quick to spring to action and hold her seconds before she collapsed onto the floor. Nereid looked exhausted and dizzy, her psionic powers were overworked, her brain wouldn’t be able to take much more without a few minutes of rest.

“Uh … sure,” Chevallier said, then addressed Chang. “Iris the shields up front here, and bring my side of the transport to face that ship.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, the Carl Sagan had a hard time blowing those things to hell; I doubt your eRifle will do any good.”

“This glowing mystic shit says it’s our only way out of this. Unless you got something to add, Pierce?”

Pierce shook his head as he secured Nereid’s body on a nearby seat. “My expertise is astrophysics not metaphysics.”

The transport spun around placing the alien ship within both Chevallier’s line of sight and the targeting scanner of her rifle. She saw the ship aim its forward energy cannon directly at them and charge its weapons.

She pulled the trigger. And hoped for the best.

A loud blast echoed throughout the skies, her bullets tore cavernous holes through the ship including its main weapon, a chain reaction of blasts and flames erupted from the interior of the ship, blue flames burned uncontrollably and eventually consumed the craft, sending it crashing into the ocean below, black smoke billowing upward.

She was surprised at how effortless she did that, a weapon of the size and power she had shouldn’t have had that much firepower. The holographic display of her rifle reported that her slugs traveled at speeds forty times faster than the speed of light. It was impossible. The impact on a shot like that should have done damage to her and the transport, hell the amount of energy required would have been much more than the combined power output of all of Earth’s ships.

Said energy existed in her hands and had no lingering side effects.

With the ship a nonissue, an escape route was paved allowing the transport to escape back into space as the side doors slid shut, something Chang should have done once they got aboard. Chevallier floated into the cockpit as gravity ceased to exist inside of the transport while Nereid slowly returned to the land of the conscious. “Chang, thanks for the rescue.”

“No problem, MC. What happened to everyone else?”

“McDowell and Kingston are gone. I don’t know what happen to the captain.”

“If we’re lucky she might still be alive.” Chang pointed at a larger ship in orbit harassing the Carl Sagan with a torrent of energy beam cannons similar to the ones the smaller egg-shaped ship used. “Some dickhead known as the Architect is aboard that ship, and apparently she’s being held captive there.”

Chevallier looked at the interstellar slugfest between the Carl Sagan and the Architect’s ship. Both ships overshields flickered purple as energy weapons and rail gun fire blasted back and forth between each other. “So, if the Captain is aboard, why are we trying to destroy it?”

“We’re trying to disable it.” Chang and Chevallier quickly shielded their eyes from a bright chain reaction of explosions that illuminated the interior of the transport like a second sun. “But I don’t think that plan is working.”

Chevallier heard Nereid release an innocent yelp from behind. She turned and saw the strange psionic woman struggle with the lack of gravity. Pierce pushed and glided toward her to help her get right side up.

“It’s a bit different from swimming,” Pierce said to her.

“Goddess help me,” Nereid mumbled.

With Nereid’s body stable, Pierce helped her float into the cockpit, the battle outside in orbit made her want to come watch as they neared the action. “That’s the Architect’s ship?” Nereid asked Chang.

“Yep.”

“Then what were those ships that we were attacking?” Pierce said. “They look different.”

Chevallier looked at the Architect’s ship, then began to think about the ship she single-handedly shot down. They were indeed different from each other, similar weapons, but that was it. “He’s right, the designs of these ships are different, like they were built by two different cultures—”

More sparks flared up as the transport took an unexpected hit from behind. Chevallier checked the computers and noticed additional red dots appear in sensor range behind them. They were closing in fast.

“Well, right now, these ships see us as a target,” Chang said as they took another hit. “Yeah, you might want to stay away from any computers back there, this ride is gonna be a helluva rough one, starting now!”

Chang commanded the transport to once again engage in slick maneuvers, this time maneuvers that would allow them to dodge the fire between the Carl Sagan, the Architect’s ship, and the three or four oval-shaped drone ships from behind.

Fifty evasive rolls later they saw the interior of the Carl Sagan’s transport bay as they neared, and hoped that once they crossed past the irised shields of the Carl Sagan the bogies behind wouldn’t come on in for the ride.

They neared the opening in the shields, Chang increased their speed and plowed toward their freedom.

Ten seconds left.

Five seconds left.

They crossed, and the shields and overshields behind quickly contracted. Everyone waited a half second in anticipation for what would happen next.

The four drone ships collided with the shields and exploded on impact.

24 Williams

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SC-149 AKA Meroien orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 02:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“The transport is safely docked.”

A smirk appeared on Williams’ face, it prompted him to spool up the sub light speed engines. “Getting us out of here!” he said, while his fingers activated and established a communication link to the recently docked rescue team. “Chang, get up here on the double, I’m not an ace pilot like you!”

It pained Williams slightly to see the Architect’s ship move out of view as the Carl Sagan moved to break orbit. Foster, if she was still alive, was still aboard and if the recent battle proved anything, fighting the Architect head-on wasn’t going to get her back. Pound for pound, the Architect’s ship was stronger in both offensive and defensive departments. Williams was going to need a new plan, one that hopefully Chevallier would be able to assist with. After all, she was with Foster during their disappearance, so perhaps she knew more about the situation than he did.

This was all under the assumption they lived to see the next hour. The Architect’s ship was faster than the Carl Sagan, and its weapons continued to fire and create havoc on its aft shields during their not so successful escape out of the sector. Williams hoped Chang’s skills at the helm would give them a better advantage, for he was all out of ideas on how to escape from this situation, Williams was a commander not a pilot.

“Commander, it is imperative you do not let that ship get any closer,” Tolukei said.

“It’s faster than us. FTL versus sub light speed, this is going to be a one-sided race.”

He heard Tolukei sigh, and remain silent for a solid minute. He was focusing on something; something that had to do with his psionic powers, that much he could tell. “Do not bother to engage the sub light speed engines,” Tolukei finally spoke.

“Why?”

“We are surrendering to the Architect.”

“Like hell we are!”

“I have ceased protecting the ship with overshields, I suggest you come to a full stop and prepare to be boarded.”

Not the plan Williams was expecting; never mind the fact Tolukei was acting as if he was in command calling the shots. If Tolukei had suggested they should surrender, yes that would be different. But he didn’t suggest anything, he straight up forced it to happen without Williams approving. It did nothing but piss him off and probably put the whole ship at risk.

“Tolukei, what are you doing?”

Williams got his answer as brilliant blue light flashed and brightened the bridge. Once it subsided he saw that armored Architect soldiers had boarded via a teleport, the same ones they had been battling since they arrived in the system. None of them fired any of their laser weapons, they simply aimed them at the crew. Williams knew the drill, so he stood up and raised his hands, there was no security aboard after all, the Carl Sagan was officially a POW and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it.

Amongst the Architect intruders stood an individual that projected the demeanor of a supreme leader. It wasn’t like the overlords who stood behind the grunts, this one was different. Its armor was red with sharp spikes protruding from the side of its large helmet, while two spear-wielding overlords stood either side like bodyguards.

Tolukei moved away from his station and stepped toward the spiky crimson-armored leader. “This is the psionic mind I spoke of, Commander,” Tolukei said to Williams. “This is the mind I spoke to, this is the Architect.”

“Tolukei …”

“Please surrender the ship to him. Please do not make me look like a liar.”

The Architect clapped his armor-clad hands three times signaling to his soldiers to detain everyone on the bridge and move out to the rest of the ship, most likely to capture the rest of the crew. Williams noticed that Tolukei was the only one on the bridge that didn’t have weapons aimed at his head as he was dragged in front of the Architect by two grunts, and forced to bow in front of him like he was a god. Williams tried to resist fighting off the two undead that held him down, only for his body to become numb, paralyzed via telekinesis. His body sank, his head lowered, and his knees and hands flattened against the surface of the floor.

Afterward Williams’ felt his head forcibly shift upward to glare at the large helmet the Architect wore. He wasn’t a Hashmedai. The mind shield would have prevented him from teleporting aboard, and from using his powers on the bridge. Poniga perhaps, since they confirmed his soldiers were one. The only problem with that theory was that Tolukei said the Architect’s mind was familiar. Poniga minds shouldn’t be familiar to Tolukei especially with the language barrier, unless he was lying this whole time.

The Architect began to speak to Williams, his voice sounded like an angry warlord yelling into a rusty tin can. Tolukei provided a translation. “He wishes to know what became of the Nereid and Dr. Pierce.”

“The ner-what?”

“He will release the Captain and control of the ship in exchange for those two.”

Williams snorted. “I got nothing to say to him.”

More chatter came from the helmet of the Architect. “He says you have one day to comply.” Tolukei translated as he moved in closer to join the Architect and its two body guards. “As they say on your world, Commander, farewell.”

The Architect and Tolukei vanished from the bridge during an unexpected teleport. Williams felt his body return to normal as the telepathic paralysis faded away. The Architect soldiers remained onboard, their weapons still aimed at him and all bridge personnel, while the rest of their soldiers pushed through, deeper into the Carl Sagan. Williams hoped that the crew did the smart thing and stayed safe.

If the Architect could control the dead, what was stopping him from controlling the bodies of dead crew personnel? The crew putting their lives on the line to fight back might do more harm than good.

25 Foster

The Architect’s ship

En route to Sirius C system, Interstellar space

May 22, 2050, 03:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster had a feeling her captors didn’t want her dead, at least not yet.

She was brought out of the holding cell she shared with Mavron under the firm and painful grasp of two overlords. They assertively escorted her through the ship. Its halls were dark and gloomy and its engines made very little sound, allowing her to better hear what was going on in other compartments of the ship. She heard voices, chatter, people talking. Crew members on their off time perhaps?

They passed an assortment of pods attached to the walls, she saw the grunt soldiers strip out of their armor and place themselves into the pods, they all looked human, rather, Poniga. Their bodies were covered in wounds that should have been fatal or at least debilitating. One grunt’s skin was heavily charred like he had been caught in an inferno, another had a wide hole through his abs. She saw the interior of the grunts armor and the control triggers for the lasers that were mounted on the sleeves of their armor. She caught a glimpse of unarmed overlords passing by, they lacked major wounds on their body, and their heads were heavily augmented with cybernetics.

Her unwanted trek through the ship came to an end inside a room at the far end of the ship. It was surrounded from the walls to the ceiling with windows that peered out into space, it almost felt as though they were in space, like a massive balcony patio floating in the void. A swimming pool was below her, and above the pool was a footbridge that led toward a raised platform where a wide golden chair adorned with jewels lay in front of the window looking out into space.

The overlord escort dragged Foster across the bridge. She looked down and saw creatures swim through the pool below; they looked like mermaids and mermen. One came up to the surface of the water, she flicked away the beads of water that drenched her sultry face and watched Foster as the overlords hauled her across the footbridge. She grinned at Foster in an evil Siren-like manner, and then laughed. A second rose up to the surface a brawny male with a chiseled chest. He too, began to point and laugh at her while lights in the bottom of the pool gave them an exotic glow.

The walk across the footbridge ended, and Foster was pushed onto the floor next to the wide golden chair. She got to her feet and looked at the figure that rested on the chair. It wore armor like the soldiers she had seen, only it was crimson red and had sharp spikes that arched away from the sides of its massive helmet.

Half-naked male and female servant Poniga sat with the armored figure wearing loincloths and half-robes. Some held trays of food for it to feast on, others held and poured bottles of wine for the figure to drink from, three others from behind carefully glided towels across the sleek surface of its armor, keeping it glistening and shiny. The Poniga looked at Foster negatively as if she had done something to offend them. Foster took a step toward the golden chair which triggered the servant group to step in front of the crimson-armored figure attempting to shield it with their bodies as the two overlords next to her used their spears to block Foster’s path.

The crimson-armored figure touched its Poniga servants on their shoulders as it rose up from its rest and whispered into their ears. Slowly they began to fan out, creating a path which allowed the crimson-armored figure to walk toward Foster and circle around her, its helmet moving up and down as it examined her body. It stopped in front of her spreading both its arms apart, two Poniga from behind began to remove parts of the crimson armor away from its body, leaving the task of loosening its spiky large helmet for last.

The armor fell off first, Foster saw the leathery skin on the body inside of it. Then the helmet fell to the figure’s feet as the two loyal Poniga servants retreated backwards. Foster couldn’t believe the face she saw from under the helmet.

A large reptilian head.

Four eyes.

It was a Javnis.

The Architect was a Javnis.

“Oh, my lord,” Foster said.

“You are different,” The Architect replied in a strange language, Foster recognized it as the Poniga language from her recent engram experience.

“Architect, I presume,” Foster said in the alien tongue.

“You speak the language of the Poniga, good.” The Architect walked circles around Foster again, this time examining her with his own four eyes. “But … you are not Poniga; your technology is far too advanced. I took many steps to ensure they didn’t advance beyond what I allowed the Qirak to provide for them. Therefore, you came outside of the system.”

“Yeah, we kinda moved in a few days ago.”

“Linl? No, the markings on your outfit do not match their language, and I instructed them to never travel to this realm again as long as I rule, punishing those that defied me. You are too primitive to be Lyonria.” His finger pointed backward toward his gold chair, Foster saw her ePistol and EAD resting on it, the electronics and wiring on the inside of them had been pulled out.

“Well shucks, you got me, I’m not Lyonria.”

The Architect pushed his face closer to hers. Close enough for her to feel the heat from his body and smell the alien odor from his face. “Where are you from?”

“Los Angeles.”

“Where are you from? What is your place of origin?”

“Oh! Tennessee, Nashville to be exact, but it doesn’t exist anymore thanks to the empire.”

The Architect’s hand rose up as the EAD was pulled off the chair into its hands via telekinesis. The holographic screen of the EAD activated and its contents displayed, snippets of data files pertaining to the Carl Sagan’s and Radiance database. She cringed at the thought of how many security protocols he managed to bypass to get that far. True, Foster was well aware psionics had the ability to access computers with their thoughts, but such a skill required years of training and cybernetic implants. The Architect had no such visible implants and probably never experienced any Radiance psionic training, what he was doing according to Radiance’s knowledge of psionic powers was impossible.

“You are human, according to this,” The Architect said. “Impressive, I did not expect your kind to advance this fast. When I last visited your planet you were extremely primitive, using spears, swords, and arrows as weapons.”

“If you knew that already, then why did you ask?”

“I needed to test you,” he said as he looked deeper into her eyes. “I needed to see where your loyalties were.”

“Did I pass or fail?”

He smirked at her. “You tried to hide the truth; you tried to deceive your god.”

Foster laughed at his statement, and mockingly said. “You’re a god now?”

His telekinesis wrapped around her arms, legs, and back, forcing her body to the floor and to kneel in front of him. It was painful, especially when she tried to move on her own terms. Simply thinking about moving her legs or arms sent sharp pulses of pain into her muscles and joints.

“I am a god!” he yelled and pointed at the Poniga and Sirens swimming circles in the pool below. “These Undine and Poniga know the truth. They know that I am the Architect. I am the one that created life in this system, I am the one that allowed them to live, I am the one that provided them with a planet which they can call home. I am the one that protects the Poniga from the heat and radiation of its parent star; I am the one that sought to forgive the Undine for their devotion to Tiamat rather than wiping them out. And I have asked for very little in return.”

“We got a word for that on Earth. Narcissism.”

She felt an agonizing telekinetic thrust hit her square in her gut, and it felt as if someone had punched her. Being bound by his telekinesis meant she couldn’t tense up and brace herself. The pain she felt afterward was worse than the ones in her joints and muscles.

“You are human,” he said to her as his hand firmly wrapped around her jaw. “You will address me by the name your people gave me. You will address and worship me as the king of gods, Marduk.”

“Rather not, if that’s all right with you.”

Marduk’s mouth twisted, clearly upset at Foster’s defiant glare and words. “You don’t fear me, do you? You don’t worry about what might become of your farms, homes, and families?”

“You’re a Javnis, nothing more.”

“There was a time when you people bowed in my presence, did what I asked of them, worried if they had upset me.”

“The Babylon civilization is long gone,” Foster said.

She briefly remembered studying about Mesopotamian mythology in school when she was younger, as well as the legend of Marduk. It didn’t take much for her to draw the conclusion that he must have visited Earth during an ancient time and convinced the people at that time he was a god with his psionic abilities.

“I admit, I have not returned to Earth in centuries … I have been stuck here, trapped by those that worship Tiamat who left many traps for me here. Attack drones have been programmed to fire upon my ship should I attempt to pass beyond a psionic field that monitors the system.” He began to wave his hand next to the window. Four oval-shaped ships descended next to it on the outside by his command. “I’ve managed to capture and reprogram some of them to serve me, but not all.”

“Can I get up now? Legs starting to cramp up.” Seriously this floor is rock hard.

“It’s now clear, you and your ship did not travel here to reconnect with their absent god.” His fingers snapped. “Tiamat, your people have returned to worshiping her, haven’t they?”

“We’re peaceful explorers and settlers, we had no idea what was in this system until we arrived.”

“Lies, all lies! You came here to find and resurrect Tiamat, why else would the first planet you visit be the one with her tomb and former command center of the system?”

That planet around Sirius B … That would explain why his soldiers attacked us. “Didn’t realize that was a tomb.”

“You took great interest in that planet.”

“It had a lot of ice water we needed.”

“Your lies anger me, human.”

“Let me return to my ship and I’ll prove it to you.”

“I have all the proof I need.” He clapped his hands at one of the Undine in the pool. Her head popped up from the waters as her eyes shut to focus. Psionic trickery was incoming. Out from her hands materialized a glowing engram orb, its bright white light levitated into the palm of Marduk’s hand. “This is a memory engram, the Undine and a few Poniga use it to—”

“Share knowledge and experiences, yeah, yeah, been there done that. Spare me the exposition.”

The engram orb morphed into a blue and white holographic projection of the Carl Sagan engaged in combat with oval-shaped ships similar to the ones outside in the orbit of SB-417. The planet that led to all their troubles. “This is your ship, correct?”

“It is,” Foster said, impressed to see the crew take control of the situation and fight their way out of that crisis without her guidance.

“And, as you can see, it is firing upon the drones I control.”

“Looks like you threw the first punch; they must have been tryin’ to defend themselves.”

The hologram in the palm of his hand shifted. She saw Dr. Pierce looking depressed, raging and yelling. In the projection Pierce spoke of Earth’s battleships and the existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the UNE. She bit her lip, knowing that it would be very easy for Marduk to take what Pierce had said out of context.

“Damn it, Travis …” Foster groaned.

“Nuclear weapons, fleets of battleships. Doesn’t sound like a species of peaceful explorers, more like one that would worship a wicked goddess like Tiamat.”

Foster eyed the projection more, Pierce appeared to have been in rough shape. His uniform was a mess, his hair was long, and facial hair wild and untrimmed. She had a hard time believing what she saw had been the truth to start with. After all, she saw Pierce not that long ago, he looked a lot better than he did in the projection. “What have you done with Pierce?”

“The Undine had him. They may worship their goddess, but in the end their elders know that I am a Muodiry and a god, one that could end their existence as easily as I allow it to exist. They carry out any request I make in exchange for their pitiful lives to continue.”

Marduk turned his back toward Foster, stepped before the windows, and gazed ominously at an object directly outside. His half-naked Poniga minions followed behind to stroke his body and offer him more wine and fruits as Foster tried to make out what he had his four eyes fixed on.

She saw it as his head tilted upward to drain his glass of wine down into his mouth.

It was the Carl Sagan, adrift in space with a lone drone standing overwatch next to it.

“And soon,” Marduk slowly said. “Earth will be given a similar offer. Worship me again, or die.”

26 Foster

The Architect’s ship

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 03:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster grimaced as she learned that there was a battle between the Carl Sagan and Marduk’s ship. Marduk’s mind released her body from its grip due to his sudden teleportation and in the aftermath of him reequipping his body with armor.

She stood next to the window and looked across the void hoping that its rail guns, plasma missiles, and engines would suddenly rev back up into action and fire back. No such thing happened, no matter how long she looked out the window hoping that a boarding party was in the works. The ship was boarded, 100 percent. She turned away from the window and took a seat at the ledge of the footbridge as Marduk’s loyal entourage went about their day like pets locked in a cage.

Foster began to wonder what would become of her as she looked on at all his loyal worshippers. She wasn’t chained up and the guards had long left her during the exchange with Marduk, she was free to walk about and was even offered fruits and wine from the Poniga worshippers. Was she expected to follow their lead? Strip down and wear the loincloth and translucent half robe everyone else had been wearing?

A group of Undine women rose from the pool to gawk and giggle at her. She tried not to pay much attention to them, bare breasts weren’t her thing anyways. Though the male Undine? Despite the situation she was in she was tempted to peek at their ripped chests as they plunged back down into the waters.

Brilliant azure teleportation light flashed, Marduk materialized back inside, along with a new partner, one Foster wasn’t expecting to see.

“This pleases me,” Marduk said to Tolukei who teleported in along with him. “A fellow Muodiry alive and well, I was beginning to think I was the last of our kind.”

“The Javnis are now part of a collective known as the Radiance Union,” Tolukei said. “Our existence has been suppressed by their religion. It was part of the reason I was assigned to this human ship, Radiance did not want me in their society.”

Foster clenched her fists as the two exchanged laughter and stories with each other. Betrayal was an easy thing to spot. Marduk saw her furious looks and cackled before removing his helmet providing Tolukei with proof that he wasn’t alone, another member of his species, and subclass for that matter, was here.

“You are now free, my brethren.” Marduk placed his hand on top of Tolukei’s shoulder. “This Radiance you speak of and the humans will no longer be your masters. For you see, I have become king of gods. In time you too will ascend to one and rule over the humans and this system. And now that I know others of our kind exist, they too will be free and become gods and goddesses. Radiance … the Empire … they will be worshiping us soon enough.” Marduk’s four eyes focused in on Foster. “But first, we make an example of Earth and the humans.”

Tolukei’s lips curled. “How do you plan to do that?”

Marduk gestured to the Carl Sagan adrift in space outside of the window. “This human ship is the key. It has an AI aboard, powerful enough to break the encryption placed on the Lyonria gate in their primary hub in the system. This ship also recently acquired a Nereid, one that possesses the location of Earth, security codes, and secrets.”

“What?!” Foster exclaimed. “How the hell?”

Marduk laughed at Foster. “You didn’t know that did you? The human you call Commander McDowell was, what you call an EISS agent.”

“Can’t say I did.”

“Once we’ve acquired a copy of your ship’s AI, I plan to use it to disable the cage Tiamat placed around this system and, with McDowell’s knowledge, bypass Earth’s defenses.”

“You know I’m not on your team, right?” Foster called out to Marduk. “Probably wanna keep that stuff a secret from me.”

Marduk slowly moved next to her across the footbridge, smiling in a charming manner. “Oh, I want you to know, because I’m going to give you one last chance.” As Marduk approached Foster, he held his hand up forcing her EAD to fly toward him with his mind and slap into his hand as if it was thrown to him. “I’ve managed to connect to your AI with my mind with this device. Copying the programming of your AI … is difficult, but not impossible, however.” Foster saw multiple holographic windows appear generated by the EAD. Lines of computer code scrolled, code that was part of EVE’s programming. “Give me full access to it, and I’ll allow you to become a goddess.”

Foster rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“Look around you. You can’t win, even if you were to escape and board your ship, it is much too slow. I have a great many psionic minds aboard, you, as of now, have none. It is only a matter of time before I copy your AI, or at least part of it, as I only need its abilities to interface with Lyonria technology. When I bring your people down, you could be the one that descends from the skies, a goddess that will rule over them.”

Rebecca Foster, goddess of the human race … it did not have a nice ring to it, especially when she recalled the vision from the engram trance. Whatever technique he had used with the wormhole to travel to the alternate plane of existence was no doubt the same technique he planned to share with Foster once he regained access to the gate.

“I could even bring your father back from the dead.”

His words were haunting, triggering her attention to focus more on him as she felt dreadful chills move through her back and throat. How did you know about papa? Damn it, leave his soul out of this!

“Think about it,” Marduk whispered into her ear. Foster was lost, so much she didn’t notice him get that close. “In the meantime, know that your crew is suffering as my men search for the Nereid and Dr. Pierce.”

“Pierce is useless to you.”

“I can’t allow the Hashmedai Empire to interfere with my plans. Dr. Pierce’s knowledge will ensure they don’t.”

“If you’re worried about outside interference, it’s Radiance you should be concerned about.”

“I’m not worried about them at all.” Marduk looked at Tolukei, smirking. “He’ll tell me everything I need to know about them. And if not, there’s still the Radiance database and its trove of knowledge to comb over once I gain full access.”

Marduk and Tolukei left Foster alone in the chamber while two of his followers traveled behind them, pitchers of wine firmly clasped in their hands. She tried to piece together why Marduk would think that Pierce had valuable intel on the empire. The closest theory she could come up with was that he was secretly a member of the HLF. It would explain why McDowell, an EISS agent, would have infiltrated the ship, he was probably asked to keep an eye on him.

And now his knowledge may give Marduk the keys to the front and back doors of Earth.

27 Rivera

ESRS Carl Sagan, Engineering

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 03:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Screaming and panic echoed throughout the corridors of the ship.

And it had gotten closer and closer to engineering during the last hour.

Chief engineer Jasmine Rivera noted the confirmation that the main doors to engineering had shut and been barricaded to the best of her team’s ability given the lack of gravity. The Architect’s soldiers were performing a deck-by-deck search for someone, or something. The crew that were unlucky and were caught out in the open had been apprehended at gunpoint and forced into the docking bay, probably a staging point for a mass execution Rivera figured. Vent the entire bay once the crew was rounded up and placed inside, a quick and easy way to get rid of the crew and force the captain to watch the aftermath.

Rivera glided her body toward a computer terminal, switching off the security camera footage she had been using to monitor the chaos on the Carl Sagan. A new computer interface loaded; one that gave her access to the AI core, the location of EVE’s primary systems. A notification flashed, someone had gained access to it during the incursion, a sneaky person at that who managed to avoid tripping any alarms. Even EVE herself was unaware of it, her processors had been hard at work creating the translation algorithm of the Lyonria language per the commander’s last orders to her. In any case, EVE needed to be taken offline to prevent further tampering.

Rivera heard repeated banging and thumps on the doors leading into engineering. Crew members donning their orange mechanics coveralls began to panic and console each other. The Architect’s soldiers wanted in and were quite impatient as they began to blast away at the door with their lasers, cutting a small hole through it. Rivera moved her hands quickly, shutting down as many vital systems as she could. She stopped suddenly as an unexpected text message had been received by her terminal.

The message was encrypted it was going to take her a few seconds to decrypt it, seconds she wouldn’t have left to finish the shutdown of EVE’s systems.

Read the message, or finish the job.

She exhaled and looked at the doors, the soldiers were almost through. The thick metallic material glowed red from the heat as the lasers continued to blast against it.

Read the message, or finish the job.

She couldn’t do both.

She had to choose.

Forty-five seconds later, the contents of the message displayed on her computer screen. It made her smile as she quickly began to key in and send a reply, all while transmitting additional messages to other computer terminals on the ship.

The Architect’s soldiers stormed into engineering through the melted hole accompanied by waves of smoke and heat. The shouts in their alien language and imposing presence forced the team to comply, paving the way for the soldiers to aggressively round everyone up. An overlord yelled at Rivera, probably demanding she push and float away from the terminal. It was a demand she refused to obey, and she continued to key in her message. It only pissed off the overlord and forced it to levitate toward her using its psionic powers.

She finished the task, and all that remained was to push the “send” button.

A task she thought she had enough time for. The overlord yanked her from behind and forced her away from the terminal. Her arms flailed about in a desperate act to hit the send button. Her fingers repeatedly missed the mark, panic was throwing her aim off, way off.

She fought, she kicked, she screamed, she had to hit it, she had to release her body from the armor-clad grip of the overlord.

She hit something on the terminal, she wasn’t sure if it was the send command. The screen did vanish and so did her vision as the overlord spun her body to face it, and delivered a painful backhanded slap across her face.

28 Kostelecky

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Jdi do hajzlu …” Kostelecky cursed in her native tongue at the situation unfolding.

She raced to a computer and began to lockdown sickbay, hoping it wouldn’t be necessary in the long run. The invaders had not breached the habitat ring, though it was only a matter of time before they did as engineering was the last section on the primary fuselage, and from what she discovered on one of her computer screens it was just taken.

She grimaced at the sight of Rivera’s tumbling body via security camera footage. There was a nasty gash across her forehead due to the fierce armored slap she got. Once sickbay was confirmed to be locked down she turned around to deal with her next problem, her Poniga patients and the recovering helmsman. From what she gathered the Poniga were enemies to the Architect and were probably going to be taken back aboard his ship once discovered.

Nobody leaves sickbay and her medical care without her saying it was OK.

She pushed the medical bed where the helmsman had been resting toward the back of sickbay and then began to address the visually frightened Poniga. “OK people, time for a change of scenery, follow me.”

EVE’s voice did not provide a translation.

Someone must have taken her off. Sakra!

Pushing, light shoving, and hand gestures eventually got the message across. With the Poniga where she needed them to be, Kostelecky raced into her office. Out from the drawer she took an ePistol, it powered on and hummed as she flicked its power switch. She may have sworn an oath to do no harm, but she also couldn’t heal her patients if she was dead. She aimed the pistol downward and step out of her office then stopped as she heard a new message notification beep on her personal computer. She returned to her desk and hoped she wasn’t wasting what little time she had left before the habitat ring was breached.

There was an encrypted message waiting for her.

29 Bailey

ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess hall

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Alien invasion or not, Chef Demarion Bailey exited his quarters and rapidly darted to the kitchen in the mess hall. He spent top credits on his chef knives and could care less what happened to the ship. If he lost those knives, it would be the end of his world.

He quickly gathered his most prized possessions on the ship as he entered the galley and pivoted to run back to his quarters while he still had time. The aliens were on their way to the habitat ring. The main computer terminal in the kitchen beeped as he moved past it. He stopped and faced the screen, curious as to who would send a message to it during a time like this. His eyes shifted back and forth as he quickly read the contents of the message, it was directed toward him of all people.

Chief Rivera sent him a set of instructions as well as the pass code to enter her quarters. There was also an attachment to the message, a recipe. He shook his head. Tempted to ignore the request, Demarion left the mess hall and charged back toward the direction of the crew quarters, where it was safe for the time being. Rivera’s message … The more he thought about it, the more he questioned if ignoring it was the right thing to do. She did make it sound perfectly clear that he carry out the task she asked of him.

He stopped in front of the doors to his quarters, his finger was just inches away from pressing open command. He retracted his finger and moved deeper into the halls toward her quarters. The hairs on his body stood up on end as he ran past the elevator doors that lead to the rest of the ship. He was half expecting them to open with hostile forces storming out of them. Rivera’s quarters came into sight and his aged fingers quickly punched in the code to unlock the doors.

They slid open and his head shifted from left to right searching for her storage cabinet. He found it, ran over to it, and began a quick search through it looking for a particular item she requested of him.

30 Kostelecky

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 04:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Thousands of shards of broken glass rained on the floor next to what was once the glass sliding door to sickbay. It was confirmation to Kostelecky that the Architect’s soldiers had made it to the habitat ring. They stormed into sickbay as she touched the ePistol that was concealed within her white lab coat’s pocket.

“Welcome, boys, what can I do for you?” she said to them.

The overlords ignored her, choosing to rummage through sickbay instead while the grunts with the overlords lifted their laser cannon arms up at her. The overlords gleamed at the resting body of the helmsman Ensign Collins before moving on with their search having found nothing else of interest. From what Kostelecky could tell, they were convinced she was alone in sickbay, or so she hoped, as her hands lowered closer to her lab coat’s pocket while droplets of sweat appeared across her forehead.

They weren’t buying it. The overlords smacked the butt of their spears on the floor, forcing their limping grunts to help with the search.

Two grunts began to examine an air vent, one she would rather they not look at. Their armored covered hands tapped the grille several times. An overlord took notice and moved over to see what had caught their attention. Kostelecky’s heart rate accelerated to the point she could feel every beat vibrate throughout her chest.

Her hands dipped inside of her pocket, her fingers wrapped around the handle of the pistol and she prepared her arms and legs for plan B.

The overlords ordered their team to leave sickbay and continue pillaging the rest of the habitat ring, leaving one grunt to stand and watch over Kostelecky. She moved from where she had stood, stepping next to the air vent that had been so intently examined. She played the role of the doctor being held hostage as she looked up at the ceiling, past the grill of the air vent where seconds earlier she had hidden the Poniga. They were safe for now, but unless something was done about the invaders, it would only be a matter of time before they returned to conduct a more detailed search of the ship.

Bailey, Rivera. This better work.

31 Chang

ESRS Carl Sagan exterior

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 04:28 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“It’s showtime!”

Flight lieutenant Denis Chang left the cockpit of the transport after he completed the tedious task of suiting up in an EVA suit. He looked at Pierce and Nereid who all wore EVA suits as well. Chevallier kept her combat armor on and took the time to equip herself with a new Hammerhead helmet from the overhead storage compartment. Afterward, she handed Pierce an ePistol as he was the only one that wasn’t armed. Chevallier gave Chang the thumbs-up afterward, they were good to go. He hoped that she was right since Nereid didn’t understand the concept of wearing an EVA suit for a space walk.

Chang opened the transport’s doors and activated his magnetic boots. He stepped outside onto the hull of the Carl Sagan, just five meters shy of the entrance to the docking bay. When news of the incursion made it to them, he quickly piloted the transport back outside and forced it to land along the outside hull of the Carl Sagan. Luckily for them, the Carl Sagan had come to a full stop at that point, making the landing possible.

The four exited the transport and walked along the underside of the ship, their magnetic boots clinging to the surface of the hull. They stepped away from the docking bay doors and toward what Chang believed to be their only way out of the chaos. He kept his eyes forward during their magnetic boot trek as it was a disorienting one. Technically, they were upside down walking on the bottom of the ship, not that space followed rules of up or down. Above them, or below, depending on one’s perspective on the matter, was the ocean world of Meroien and its cloudy skies.

It was a long way down. Dude, eyes forward!

“Where are we going, Chang?” Chevallier asked him.

“Just before we left Earth the captain asked me to give her a grand exterior tour of the ship,” Chang said. “I remember seeing one maintenance hatch on the habitat ring. It should lead us inside and put us closer to the armory.”

“Well then, you might want to lead the way faster.” Chevallier pointed at the egg-shaped drone ship circling around the Carl Sagan.

The drone didn’t seem to be aware of their presence. Yet.

“Nereid, is it possible you can give MC more of the good stuff?” Chang said.

“That ability drained a lot of my psionic power,” Nereid said. “We might want to consider leaving that as a last option.”

“She almost passed out with that technique,” Chevallier said. “I’d rather not have to drag her ass around.”

“Then let’s do our best to stay low,” Chang said. “If that thing spots us, well, yeah, you know.”

Chevallier grunted. “No pressure, right?”

“The elevator shafts and tethers connecting the main hull of the Carl Sagan to the habitat ring is way the fuck down there.” Chang pointed toward the aft end of the ship, the direction they were walking. “We’ll need to climb up those to reach the habitat ring … and avoid detection from that circulating asshole out there.”

The four pushed on, playing a game of cat and mouse with only the magnetic boots to keep them from floating away into space. Magnetic boots … Chang thought to himself. It gave him an idea.

There was no up or down, they could walk along the bottom of the hull, or they could switch it up and walk along the sides of it. And if things really got desperate, climb upward to the topside. Just like how the habitat rings rotated around the Carl Sagan, the four moved in a stealth-like manner and rotated their trek across the ship to avoid detection from the circling drone.

Random maintenance hatches along the central fuselage had to be used when they found themselves unable to sidestep away from the circling drone. It was tempting to stay inside and wait it out, or perhaps follow the pitch-black tunnels back inside of the ship. But they needed to stay on course. Most of the fuselage had been taken over by the Architect’s forces so the habitat ring was where they needed to be. Gravity, weapons, and armor awaited them.

One of the long metallic tethers was a meter away arching upward to the giant ring from Chang’s point of view. And apparently, several Architect soldiers were a few meters away as well. They too were using magnetic boots by the looks of it and began to fan out with their weapons forward, ready to kill. They knew the idle transport was outside of the ship, probably the biggest giveaway that they made their escape.

“MC, we got company,” Chang called out to her.

“Yeah … I see it,” Chevallier moaned.

Chang stepped next to the spinning tethers. “OK, guys, so, we now have to avoid being shot by them, and the drone, while climbing up to the top.” He looked up and saw how much of a climb was awaiting them. The distance between the main ship and habitat ring was long, kilometers long. He felt as if he was standing high up on a towering skyscraper and looking downward at a city below. “Fuck.”

32 Bailey

ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess hall

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 04:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The oven timer buzzed, reminding Demarion that his baked dessert was ready. It also notified the aliens aboard the habitat ring that someone was hidden back in the kitchen. The invaders burst into the mess hall searching to find the source of the buzz. The chocolate smell of Demarion’s dish led them into the kitchen where they found the frightened chef amongst the messy recently used mixing bowls and opened flour and peanut bags.

Laser weapons were aimed at him as the alien leaders, the overlords as the rest of the crew called them, stepped forward with their spears in hand aggressively speaking to him in their language.

“Good day to you too,” Demarion said as his oven-mittened hands placed the baking dish in front of them. “Hey, mon, you must be hungry, eh?” Demarion pushed the hot baking dish closer to them, freshly baked brownies, recipe courtesy of Rivera. “You and your friend are my honored guests, have these on the house while I prepare dinner.”

The overlords moved in closer keeping their eyes on the brownie dish, attracted to its chocolate smell. Demarion could tell they were interested in it and cut them a square slice to sample. He demonstrated to them that it was safe to eat, and they became further intrigued. The overlords removed their helmets, showing their humanlike faces to him and the strange glowing cybernetic implants on their heads.

One overlord ate a serving of the brownies and then addressed the rest of the overlords behind him. The tone of his voice was a pleasant one, he liked it. Each one yanked a serving of the brownies and ate it. If the doctor’s message was correct, the Architect wasn’t one to properly feed his troops. The whole dish was consumed by the overlords in minutes. They didn’t care to wait for it to cool down.

Sweat began to drip down Demarion’s face as he stood and awaited his next move.

Were they going to request more? Did he make the brownies correctly?

The overlords that consumed the brownies slowly became lethargic. Some started to laugh for no reason, others became relaxed to the point where their laser grunt minions fell to the floor like sudden death had hit them.

33 Rivera

ESRS Carl Sagan, Engineering

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 04:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera awoke to the sound of the engineering team cheering as they quickly regained control of the situation. She rubbed the side of her head that was raging with pain from the hit she took, and then brushed aside the tiny orbs of her blood that had been floating around her face.

She looked and saw the grunt soldiers floating lifelessly. Her plan had worked; her message did get through. “OK, move, people, on the double!” She returned to her computer terminal to get an update on what had happened while she was knocked out.

Security camera footage showed a similar sight happening throughout most of the ship, grunts dropping, keeling over. According to Dr. Kostelecky’s discovery they were already dead, and being psionically mind-controlled by another source, their overlord squad leaders, many of whom were malnourished. Psionic powers required the brain to be operating normally, a brain that was as high as a kite wouldn’t be able to do that, thus the link would become severed. The grunts falling over meant the chef was able to nail Rivera’s pot brownie recipe perfectly. She grinned at the revelation, and made a mental note for him to bake her some later.

Challenge number two was now afoot, the overlords were still active and still a threat, they were just too high to do anything. It was only a matter of time before they recovered and attacked again, or worse, called for backup. That’s where Chevallier, Chang, and the habitat ring armory came in, assuming they made it in time. The overlords were Poniga after all, and there was no data available that would indicate how quick they might be able to recover from their trip.

34 Pierce

ESRS Carl Sagan, Habitat ring exterior

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 05:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Dr. Travis Pierce sighed in relief as he saw Chang point at the hatch they had been traveling to since the space walk began. Just a few more meters to go, Pierce thought, during their climb upward to the top of the ring. Almost there, almost there!

Pierce stayed behind Nereid, the slowest of the four as he watched her back, something neither Chang nor Chevallier were concerned about. Nereid got Pierce out of his imprisonment, so he now felt the need to return the favor and get her to safety within the Carl Sagan. No way in hell was he going to allow her to be the last in the queue while Architect soldiers from behind scaled upward in pursuit of them.

Wait a second, Pierce thought, and looked behind at their pursuers. There was an overload among the four grunts. According to Rivera’s transmission all the overlords aboard had been incapacitated. Looks like they missed one.

The four pairs of magnetic boots slapped onto the exterior of the habitat ring. The experience was excruciating for Pierce as the artificial gravity bled away from the rotating section. Turns out, there was no need for magnetic boots, moderate gravity existed this far out on the ship. Pierce deactivated his boots and allowed his body to move with gravity holding him in place, it made running much easier since he didn’t need to use additional force to pull his feet upward to take a step. And given the fact he spent two years in the time dilation bubble, the least amount of work his sore and out of shape body had to do, the better.

Chang lead them toward the maintenance hatch. Being detected by the drones or soldiers was inevitable at this point. They were, after all, on the habitat ring which was spinning rapidly leaving them with very little means of using the rest of the ship as cover. An all or nothing run ensued as a result. Chevallier held her rifle forward ready for the unexpected while Pierce fiddled around for his pistol. The hatch neared, and so did the drone along with the soldiers from behind.

Chang moved forward first and began to lift the disk-shaped lid open as Chevallier’s weapon yelled and roared sending a message to the incoming hostile forces, stay away. The drone swooped down with its weapons charging and opened fire. A beam of white energy soared toward them and repelled off a dome barrier Nereid quickly threw down to protect Chevallier, Chang, and herself.

Pierce, who was lagging behind, was outside of the range of the barrier. Nereid’s mind, still weakened from their escape from the planet, couldn’t extend it forward to encompass him.

The explosive blast that followed in the wake of the drone’s attack launched Pierce backward, sending him spiraling to the pursuing soldiers. Without his magnetic boots, only the gravity that bled away from the habitat ring prevented Pierce from being lost to space. Had the explosion been stronger, he might have become a tumbling body lost in space forever, the border between gravity and no gravity was small.

Pierce got back to his feet and saw that he was now much closer to death as the four grunts approached with their blasters blazing. He looked up and saw his escape, the long tether that held the habitat ring to the ship. His EVA suit’s jets gave him enough thrust to launch upward and away from the gravitational pull. He glided toward the tether turning his body as he reactivated his magnetic boots, they clung securely in place on the tether. Looking back—or up—he saw the danger he had evaded. The grunts and their overlord continued to push on, ignoring him, and focusing on the other three who were in the process of climbing into the maintenance hatch, while the drone’s beam weapon chipped away at Nereid’s barrier.

Pierce noticed that the four grunts were ahead of the overlord, moving at full speed, while their overlord commander slowed his run and watched from afar. It made sense that the overlords simply mind-controlled the grunts who were nothing more than undead shock troopers. The overlords needed to stay behind them and direct the flow of battle, if they went down so did the grunts they were mind-controlling. Pierce waited for the grunts to run far enough out of range, while the overlord stood, watching and controlling them.

Pierce aimed his pistol at the boots of the overlord and asked himself repeatedly if he was out of his mind for what he was about to do.

Pierce deactivated his magnetic boots and ignited the thrusts of his EVA suits jets. His body propelled back down to the habitat ring as his finger pulled the trigger of his pistol twice, one for each foot of the overlord, hopefully damaging its magnetic boots. He didn’t want to risk firing any more bullets, one missed shot would put a hole in the ring large enough for it to vent atmosphere.

His sneak attack drew the attention of the overlord, it didn’t have enough time to react as Pierce’s body came crashing down onto him, now bound by the gravity once again. The overlord lost its spear in the process and resorted to combat the old-fashioned way, with its fists. Pierce returned the favor.

The two rolled along the ring, punching and grabbing each other in the process while the light of Sirius A in the distance shined down upon them. Pierce saw cracks form on his helmets visor, he was losing the fight along with air, heat, and the pressure he needed to stay alive in space. The computer in his EVA suit played an alarm notifying him of his impending doom as the fists of the overload drilled into his helmet relentlessly.

Their fighting brought them to the edge of the habitat ring. This is it, he thought, and braced himself for a move that might bring him to his end, rather than his opponent. Their bodies rolled off the edge as the artificial gravity pulled them downward. Pierce quickly reactivated his magnetic boots, it caused his feet to instantly cling back onto the sides of the ring. The overlord, however, was seemingly oblivious that his boots had been damaged, and continued to fall.

The overlord’s body more or less fell off the ship, despite having fallen out of range of the gravitational pull of the habitat ring. The speed the overlord’s body traveled at was equal to the speed of one falling off a cliff on Earth. The overlord’s body continued to spiral out of control, away from the Carl Sagan at said speeds, and would continue to do so, until someone, or something, stopped it. The undead grunts it was mind-controlling slumped over, now out of range of his psionic mind.

Pierce laughed as he looked down at the overlord now lost to space, its arms and legs flailed and danced about in a panic. “Give Sir Isaac Newton my regards.” Because he’s one deadly son of a bitch.

35 Foster

The Architect’s ship

SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system

May 22, 2050, 05:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Tolukei’s firm hand rapped Foster’s arm awaking her from her brief nap and reminding her of the situation she was in. She had been placed back in the cell she and Mavron shared as he slept on a hard bed adjacent to hers. Marduk and Tolukei stood next to each other as they waited for Foster to rise up from her rest.

She looked directly at Tolukei’s face as she came to, there were no signs of regret in it for the actions he did. She frowned and pushed his hand away. “Never thought your kind would betray us like that,” Foster said.

“If you knew how Radiance treated Muodiry, you would understand. Many of the Javnis Muodiry were either forced into exile or pushed into the arms of heretics since our existence was considered to be sacrilegious.” Foster replied with a snort. “You see, we had psionic powers before the Aryile arrived at our home world, it was believed that psionic gifts came from the three Radiance gods, who lent it to the Aryile, who began to spread it across the galaxy.”

“And you having it before them contradicts that,” Foster said. “Then again, this whole system does, doesn’t it? Radiance ain’t made it this far out, yet these folks not only got psionics but can do tricks Radiance and Hashmedai psionics can’t.”

Their bickering woke Mavron. He remained silent as Marduk held up Foster’s EAD once again. This time EVE’s hologram appeared above it flickering rapidly suggesting that he still did not finish fully copying her program.

“As I said, it will only be a matter of time before I copy and reprogram your ship’s AI to suit my needs,” Marduk said.

“EVE, terminate all functions authorization: Foster, gamma, romeo, one, niner, two, one,” Foster bellowed her security override code.

EVE’s glitchy hologram remained and looked at Foster. “I’m sorry, Captain, I can’t do that.”

“I must admit, your species is not as primitive as I thought,’ Marduk said. “This AI is one I’ve never seen in the thousands of years I’ve been a god.”

Foster gritted her teeth as Tolukei forced her to kneel in front of Marduk. “Have you considered your god’s offer?” Tolukei asked her.

“It’s been brought to my attention your cell mate gave you your first engram experience,” Marduk said. “You’ve seen the truth now. You know I’m not lying, I can, and will make you a goddess, just accept my terms. Help me continue my role as king of the gods and leave this pitiful cage I’ve been trapped in.”

“You ain’t gettin’ shit from me. So, let’s just skip to the part where you threaten to kill me.”

Marduk grimaced. “So be it. Tolukei.”

“Yes, my lord?”

“Prove your loyalty to me, kill her. Her body will serve as a reminder to her crew what will happen if they continue to defy me.” Marduk looked at Mavron. “Kill him too; I have no further use for this advocate of Tiamat.”

Tolukei gazed down at Foster, then back up to Marduk. “What about the Nereid and Pierce? Were we not supposed to use her to bargain for them?”

“Bargaining was nothing more than a courtesy to them. I have a partial copy of their AI and we know the Nereid and Pierce are somewhere on that ship. We will get what we want no matter what. She chose to forfeit her life and you will be the hand that will end it. Do try to preserve most of her body, we need her people to identify her.”

Tolukei’s psionic grip flung Mavron away from his bed. His body crashed into Foster’s and then began to hover above the floor, Foster’s paralyzed body joined him. She felt no fear, no regrets, and no worry about what will happen in the aftermath. She wasn’t going to allow herself to return to Earth as a tool for Marduk, while forcing everyone else she knew and cared for to suffer. Death was a better option.

“Any last words, you two?” Tolukei said.

“Haven’t thought of any, wanna give me a few minutes to do so?”

“Do not bother.” Tolukei smiled at her. “For this is not the end!”

Tolukei’s cybernetic-augmented body flowed with bright glowing light. Shades of blue and purple radiated away from his implants and then vanished as his fist hit the floor, sending a thundering three-hundred-sixty-degree telekinetic push that sent everyone in the room flying backward, including a confused Marduk.

Tolukei grabbed onto Mavron and Foster once again, only this time it was a protective grab as his body along with Mavron and hers dematerialized into a bolt of blue light, a jump port, which took them into the midsection of the ship. Their reappearance placed them inside of a darken corridor, directly in front of a patrol team of Marduk’s undead grunt soldiers and their overlord master.

Tolukei maimed and tore their bodies limb from limb, making it pointless for any overlord to continue to mind-control them. His augmented hands glowed orange as he rapidly created and flicked a small purple plasma orb into the chest of the overlord, vaporizing a hole in it. Tolukei picked up and offered Foster one of the laser cannons the grunts had used, a piece of the grunts arm was still attached to it. Otherwise it was still operational via a thin switch on the inside of it as she recalled from the brief glance of the insides she saw earlier.

After confirming that the weapon was usable, Foster aimed it to the back of Tolukei’s head and entered a steadfast stance. “Is it customary for humans to try and shoot the person that rescued them?” Tolukei said.

“You gots some ‘splaining to do, mister.”

“As tempting as it was to ally myself with him and free the rest of the Muodiry, I wasn’t going to. I pledged my service to you and your crew, and I will continue to do so.”

“Right …”

“Marduk is no god; he is a madman with powers and technology he does not fully understand.” Tolukei continued to speak as he stepped further down into the corridor. “Now, if my plan is to be of any success we must flee this ship back to the Carl Sagan at once.”

Mavron plucked the spear out from the hands of the dead overlord, arming himself with it. Foster kicked a second unused laser cannon toward Mavron. “Pew-pew gun might be more effective.”

Mavron spun and twirled the spear in the air with one hand like a martial arts expert. “I will be fine with this.”

“Suit yourself, darling!”

Foster and Mavron followed behind Tolukei while lights on the walls changed their color to red as an alarm started to make a racket throughout the ship. The whole ship must have been alerted about us by now, she thought. “Tolukei, is there a reason why you didn’t just teleport us back to the Carl Sagan?”

“My mind was still partially connected to the Carl Sagan navigational computer. I forced the ship to drift far enough away out of teleportation range. And then gave the crew coded messages of my plan and what they must do. As we speak the crew is silently retaking control of the ship. I couldn’t risk Marduk easily teleporting back aboard with reinforcements to interfere once he found out.”

“And now we can’t get back with ease …”

“If all goes well, the Carl Sagan will move back in range.”

The three encountered a second set of patrol guards, guards that were on the lookout for them. Storage crates gave Foster cover as she sprayed laser blaster fire at the soldiers, a flurry of head and chest shots put her targets down. Tolukei drew back on his expertise as a combat psionic. His cybernetic arms glowed orange, orbs of purple plasma balls formed in the palms of his hands before being hurled at the attacking soldiers. Mavron leaped directly into the fray, lunging and twirling his spear that glowed purple, imbued with the low-level psionic gifts he had. Each of Mavron’s thrusts penetrated the armor of the grunts and overlords with ease, almost as if there was no armor to start with. Mavron’s hands periodically rose up sending mild telekinetic thrusts that threw off the balance of nearby adversaries.

They began to run further down the hall as the last body hit the floor, with smoke billowing away from the gaping hole in its head. A pair of guards from behind them appeared out from a doorway, Foster’s quick turn and draw taught them a valuable lesson, never sneak up on a southern gal with a gun.

Three overlord soldiers were ambushed by Tolukei, his telekinetic mind caused all three of their heads to bash against the walls repeatedly until their helmets fractured and their skulls caved in, crushing their psionic minds. The undead grunts they had control over in the storage room the two entered next, fell over dead as a result.

Dead end, Foster thought as she looked about amongst the cargo crates. Her frantic search for another door turned up nothing, there was only one, the one they entered. “Tolukei, we gotta turn back—”

She stopped herself having realized there was a tiny window looking out into space from behind them. She saw the Carl Sagan in the distance as it slowly began to come about from the drift Tolukei had forced it into. This was part of his escape plan, get to the section of the ship that would be closest to the Carl Sagan, and therefore the first part that would be in range for teleportation.

There was just one problem, and it presented itself via a bright teleportation light.

Marduk materialized out from it and wasted no time attacking them with his mind.

Foster dodge-rolled behind a crate and sprayed down supportive fire while Tolukei and Marduk dueled with their psionic wizardry. Their clashing psionic powers created bright flashing lights, and sparks showered down upon them from the damaged ceiling. Boxes were flung back and forth as projectiles, it forced Foster to change her cover every so often when a box she hid behind was levitated upward and tossed.

Overlords and grunts entered with the now trapped trio, Mavron dashed in to engage the overlords in spear to spear combat. Foster upped the intensity of her laser shower, hoping it would draw the grunt’s attacks away from Mavron and toward her as she continued to dive and roll to new cover while new cargo boxes fell to the floor.

Marduk, like Tolukei, had a psionic barrier protecting him, an impressive feat considering he lacked the cybernetic implants needed. Even more impressive, was the fact that his barrier was clearly stronger than Tolukei who did have the implants. And it was that advantage that made Tolukei’s mind grow tired, while the energy that was required to power Foster’s laser ran low, whatever the hell they used to power it.

Foster looked back through the window, the Carl Sagan was closer than before, escape was seconds away, assuming Tolukei had enough left in him to perform one. Then there was still the risk of Marduk teleporting aboard to chase, hell, he could just have his ship chase them again, and they’d be right back to where they started.

Marduk or his ship needed to be taken out, ideally both, and ideally right then and there. Foster’s gaze shifted up at the ceiling and saw where the sparks had shot out from earlier. There were some pipes, wiring, and god knows what else exposed from the fighting. They all looked important, important things tend to explode, burst into flames, or straight up make computers not work correctly.

She aimed her laser at it, used what little charge was left to power it and unloaded. The lasers blasted upward toward the damaged ceiling, she held her breath for several seconds and eagerly waited for what would come next. An explosion? Flames spraying out? A hull breach? She was up for any of those at this point.

She saw tiny flames flare out from a pipe she shot. Then a sparking wire dangled next to the flames. A loud bang roared, it was preceded by jets of hot green plasma spearing out from the pipes, down upon the two fighting psionics.

Tolukei jump ported backward next to Foster, and then yanked Mavron over toward them with his psionic pull. Marduk shielded his face from the hot plasma pouring all over his body as his shields shattered. What would happen to him next was anyone’s guess as bright teleportation light surrounded the trio.

Foster, Mavron, and Tolukei rematerialized. They were aboard the bridge of the Carl Sagan. She heard cheering and laughter from the crew. Bodies of the undead grunts rested all over the bridge floor. Williams was more than happy to leap up from her captain’s chair and offer it back to her. She was glad to take it.

“Save the cheerin’ for later, we ain’t done yet,” Foster said. “Get us outta here!”

The Carl Sagan turned away from Marduk’s ship and disappeared as it entered sub light speeds. Marduk’s ship however stayed where it was. There was only one person that could pilot it, and he wasn’t available to do so.

36 Foster

ESRS Carl Sagan, Decontamination chamber

Interstellar space, entering Sirius A system

May 22, 2050, 07:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster was experiencing quite possibly the most awkward situation of her career thus far.

She sat cross-legged, butt-naked, with decontamination gel glistening on her pasty southern American skin. She kept one arm across her breasts and ensured she faced the wall with her back toward Pierce, Mavron, and Chevallier who all found themselves in the same awkward situation together. She could tell by Chevallier’s shadow on the floor that she too sat in the same pose. Pierce kept both of his hands down low, obscuring his manhood from the rest of the group, his face flushed bright and his lips sealed shut.

It was met with disappointment by Nereid who tried repeatedly to make small talk with him, unaffected by the fact she too was unclothed. Nereid tried to poke him, made playful jokes, just about anything to get his attention. Nereid’s endless giggling was driving Chevallier insane, while Pierce struggled to flush out of his head whatever a lonely middle-aged man like himself would notice, and focused on being the calm gentleman that he was. That included looking away from Nereid’s chest whenever she stood in front of him.

Mavron slept on the floor in the corner, he was after all awoken from his sleep prior to their escape. Foster was too, but the gel on her body, her nakedness, and everyone else’s … she couldn’t. She needed a soft bed, her bed and it was waiting for her, once Dr. Kostelecky gave the OK to leave.

“Why. Is. This. Necessary?” Chevallier moaned miserably.

“We’ve all traveled to an off-world alien place for a long period of time,” Foster said. “Ain’t no telling what we might have picked up.”

“What about the rest of the crew? Didn’t Rivera and Williams at one point leave the ship?”

“That planet was scanned by our probes beforehand and given the green light. The other planets, however, we still haven’t gotten all the data back from the probes. Hell, none of our probes made it all the way out to the Undine world.”

It was also the primary reason the whole crew kept their distance from them once Dr. Kostelecky revealed they had to enter decontamination as per protocols. Nobody wanted to be trapped in there in the nude while they smeared decontamination gel all over their parts.

“I don’t recall UNE ships having a chamber like this,” Chevallier said.

Foster looked at the walls of the chamber, they resembled open showering rooms. “That’s because they never left Sol, it wasn’t necessary.”

Nereid became uninterested in Pierce’s silence as he concentrated on not getting hard in the situation. The more he concentrated, thinking about the body parts he shouldn’t have seen, the less successful he was. She skirted over to Foster and Chevallier, her head moved up and down gazing at their bodies in a fascinated manner. “It’s amazing how much your bodies resemble the Poniga,” Nereid said.

Foster kept her face to the ceiling, she had seen enough bare breasts for the mission thanks to the female Undine and Poniga aboard Marduk’s ship, thankfully that experience had been balanced out by the bare chests the males had rocked.

Nereid shifted her sights to Chevallier and her feminine, fit, military body. “Can you please, like, not do that?” Chevallier said to Nereid.

Foster grinned. “What’s wrong, MC? Don’t like the gender and species change McDowell went through?”

“This is his daughter if anything. It’s not really him.”

“She’s got part of his memories.”

Nereid began to stare at the tattoo of a Hammerhead shark on Chevallier’s lower back. Chevallier cringed as the girl from the ocean world continued to look in awe, like a child, watching flowers for the first time. “And apparently, she doesn’t know what naked humans look like.”

“So, kiddo, you got a name?” Foster said to Nereid.

“I am a Nereid.”

“I get that, but isn’t that just a title?”

“It’s what they’ve called me. Individual names for Nereid have been lost in the generations that passed.”

“Nereid, it is then, unless you want an actual name,” Foster said.

“Please,” Tolukei groaned from the opposite end of the chamber. “I am trying to meditate.”

Tolukei sat in his own personal space furthest away from everyone. Like the rest, he kept his naked body facing the wall as he sat cross-legged on the floor, his cybernetic augmented arms were at his sides as he tried to meditate. Tolukei’s voice drew Nereid toward him, she looked at his posture and sat next to him, still innocent and oblivious to the sexual tension and resistance everyone had.

“Meditation?” Nereid asked Tolukei.

“It is for my psionic mind,” he said. “Continual meditation sharpens it like a Hashmedai warrior sharpens their plasma swords.”

“Can you teach me?”

To their surprise, Tolukei agreed. He explained to her breathing techniques, how to focus, how to clear one’s mind, how to sit, and the works. It was a relief to the humans, it kept Nereid’s inquiring mind away from them as the two sat cross-legged next to each other. Their form and breathing were almost in perfect harmony.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Captain’s office

Interstellar space, entering Sirius A system

May 22, 2050, 12:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster guzzled down the last steaming hot drops of her coffee. She finished reading holo pad reports of what transpired on the Carl Sagan during her absence. Williams handled the situation well, all things considered, she had zero regrets about leaving him alone to visit the surface of the planet. Speaking of Williams, him and Rivera entered her office from the stairwell connecting it to the bridge. They approached Foster as she sat comfortably at her desk and placed her holo pad on it to give the two her undivided attention.

“How was de-con?” Williams snickered with a grin.

Foster winced. “Let’s not talk about that.”

“You’ll be happy to know EVE is working perfectly fine,” Rivera said as she flicked a report from her holo pad at Foster. “Whoever had gained access didn’t copy everything, and I question if they’ll be able to use what they copied correctly, they’re going to need some high-end hardware to keep her active.”

“That ship has FTL and energy weapons,” Williams said. “I’m sure they got that covered.”

“So, what’s our next move?” Rivera asked Foster.

“Chief, how soon could we have the mind shield reprogrammed to block Marduk?”

“Radiance didn’t exactly give us state of the art mind shields. Give me, like, six hours?

“You got five.”

Rivera grimaced in response to her new task as she updated the schedule on her holo pad. “Uh, OK …”

Williams crossed his arms and faced Foster. “We’re going after him, aren’t we?”

Foster gave no verbal reply. She tilted her head as her eyes locked onto the stars beyond the window in her office. She fixed in on the largest star in visual range, the white dwarf Sirius B.

“With all due respect, Captain, perhaps we should consider walking away?” Rivera said. “Architect, Marduk, asshole, whatever you want to call him. This is his domain, his territory. Earth told us not to colonize systems where spacefaring species have control over it, we’re not conquerors after all.”

“No, we’re not, but Marduk has already made up his mind,” Foster said. “He’s gonna attack Earth and no matter what, we can’t let that happen. He’s also enslaved the populations of this system, including the Poniga, descendants of humans. Like it or not this is our fight now, we’s gots to take him down. Talking is gettin’ us nowhere with him.”

“And if he’s out of the picture, nobody would officially have control of the system,” Williams said.

“And the Undine and Poniga will be free to make their own choices,” Foster added.

Rivera put her data pad away and proceeded to the staircase. “Well then, I guess I got more work to do.”

Foster left her desk and followed the two up onto the main bridge above. She was about to take her seat in the captain’s chair when both Pierce and Nereid entered. Nereid wore off-duty crew person uniform, which from what Foster was told was a mission itself to get her into. Wearing clothing was something that brought her a lot of discomfort, so she had originally insisted on the old ragged and soaking wet robe from her world. One she probably would have walked around with barely tied up since she protested repeatedly it irritated and dried her skin too much. Which would also explain why she clearly wasn’t wearing a bra either and possibly any other undergarments, compromises that had to be made to get her to wear the outfit.

Foster was pleased to see Pierce had donned a nice fresh, clean uniform to match his newly clean-shaven face and new haircut in the wake of his imprisonment. That was the limit of her being pleased to see him as his presence on the bridge caused her to sigh. “Dr. Pierce, I thought I told you to take time off to rest.”

“Captain, this is important,” Pierce said as he and Nereid approached her. “Can I see you in your office?” He faced Williams and Rivera. “Hell, you two as well. Everyone come!”

“Pierce, from your point of view you were in prison for two years and were convinced we’d died,” Foster said. “You really need to take time off to recover mentally and physically.”

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” he said, and pushed his way down the stairs into her office. “And if you don’t let me help out, then we’re all going to be doing that.”

Foster returned to her office chair at her desk. Pierce, Nereid, Williams, and Rivera were later joined by Chang, Dr. Kostelecky, Chevallier, and Tolukei, essentially the entire senior crew. They all began to spread out within her spacious office turned briefing room, and all eyes were on Dr. Pierce as he fidgeted with his holo pad. It looked as though he was preparing to launch a holographic slide show presentation, much like ones he used to show during his lectures at UBC.

“You have our undivided attention, egghead,” Chevallier said with her arms crossed.

Pierce nodded and waved his hands across the projection, the action enlarged the display on his holo pad for everyone to clearly see. “Our time in decontamination gave me the chance to think clearly for once, in regard to everything that has transpired since our arrival in the system. Marduk, Tiamat, Undine, the connections to Earth. Then it hit me.” His holographic slide switched to the cover of his poor-selling book back on Earth. “Have any of you read my book on the legend of the Dogan tribes of Africa?” The crew gave their answers via silence, a few heads shaking ‘no’ and blank stares by Nereid who no doubt didn’t know what a book was unless of course that part of McDowell’s memories had been unlocked. “Didn’t think so, it was laughed at by the science community on Earth. Well, for those that don’t know, the Dogan believed they were visited by travelers from another planet thousands of years ago, they called them the Nommo, a species that was described as, half-fish, half-man.”

“The Undine …” Foster said.

“Exactly. They claimed to have been told about celestial objects in the skies. Like that Saturn had rings and that Sirius, the system they claimed to have travelled from, was not a single star but a triple star system. The Dogan knew all this information before the invention of the telescope and modern science. I think there’s some truth to Marduk coming to Earth and the religion of the ancient Babylonians,” Pierce said as he continued his holographic presentation. “Here’s what I think happened. According to Babylonian myth, Tiamat and her husband Abzu created the universe and the lesser gods, including Marduk. Tiamat was the goddess of the salt seas while her husband was the god of the fresh seas. Two seas, two oceans … like two ocean worlds.”

Nereid clued in right away. “Meroien …”

“And the original Undine home world … wherever in the galaxy that lays.” Pierce directed everyone’s attention to the new hologram that manifested, a map of the known side of the galaxy. “So, Tiamat and Abzu take the Undine to Sirius, encounter the Lyonria, and then travel to the Javnis home world. They create and uplift the Muodiry, teach them how to build and operate starships. Then they travel to Earth, make contact with the Dogan in Africa, and allowed a small number of Undine to populate the oceans of Earth, giving rise to the myth of Sirens when ancient Greek sailors discovered them.”

Pierce continued. “And then something happens, something that causes the Lyonria to vanish except for a few, living in Sirius. During which according to myth, the lesser gods plot to overthrow Tiamat and Abzu’s reign. Abzu is killed, Tiamat gets upset, and goes to war with Marduk, the leader of the lesser gods uprising. Tiamat is killed by him and he becomes ruler of all the gods, travels to Earth and tells the ancient humans there he’s in charge. From there he starts hunting down Undine and Nereids, as they are still loyal to Tiamat. He grabs a bunch of them on his ship including human slaves, returns to Sirius, and forces the Nereids to unlock tech left behind from Tiamat. Then a trap that had been placed by Tiamat engages, keeping him stuck in the Sirius system.”

“The humans then are forced to live with the Lyonria,” Kostelecky said.

“Enter the first generation of Linl explorers,” Pierce said. “They travelled here to set up a colony and were wiped out by Marduk. The survivors were then forced to live with the now enslaved human and Lyonria populations, which over time lead to the evolution of the Poniga. Also, EVE you detected traces of Arabic and Hebrew in the Poniga language, right?”

“That is correct, Doctor,” EVE’s voice echoed throughout the office like an omnipotent force listening in.

“That was the language the Babylonians had used,” Pierce said. “And with Marduk trapped, he forced the Poniga and Undine to study the Lyonria ruins in hopes of finding clues on how to escape.”

Williams faced away from the projection, and asked Pierce. “So, who is Tiamat then? Clearly not a Lyonria.”

“I’m not sure; in the legends she was always described as being a dragon. Javnis are at heart a reptilian species, maybe she was one of them, or perhaps a different faction within the Lyonria civilization.”

“Marduk in the legends had four eyes …” Foster said referring back to her high school classes of studying Mesopotamian mythology.

Pierce nodded to her. “Four eyes and four ears, but I’d imagine his appearance had been exaggerated slightly to make him appear more humanlike and Tiamat more serpent like. In any case, the Lyonria were here before Tiamat, it’s probably how she discovered Sirius in the first place. Since Marduk is obsessed with learning about Lyonria technology, and not Tiamat’s, even though its Tiamat’s drones that are keeping him trapped in the system, it’s safe to assume Tiamat’s technology has a basis in Lyonria technology.”

Williams asked Foster. “Captain, according to your engram trance, the Lyonria ruins, rather Lyonria travel hub, we found has a wormhole powerful enough to travel to other systems, right?”

“Yeah, somethin’ like that.”

“Wonder why he didn’t just use that to leave?”

“He didn’t know how to use it to connect to gates beyond the system, only local ones, and that weird alternate existence, which required psionic powers to reach rather than the gate itself. He was close to figuring it out until a lockdown halted him ten years ago and set him back.”

“Another reason why he enslaved the two races,” Rivera said. “He was searching to rebuild it to suit him. It’s what I would have done; if I was an evil and lazy dictator, with an engineering degree.”

“Sounds more like he was searching for an instruction manual,” Williams said.

“He’d have to leave his ship behind, anyways,” Foster said. “A ship that hasn’t had its navigational computers updated in over four thousand years. He was truly stranded here in every sense.”

“Stellar drift.” Pierce snapped his fingers at the revelation. “Of course, that’s why he needs the location of Earth from us. Every planet and star system travels throughout the galaxy at varying speeds. Sol and Sirius are not in the same place as they were five thousand years ago. If you don’t know the proper motion of stars and its planets, you could end up spending years flying through space trying to find a particular system unless your navigation systems kept that data up-to-date.”

The information exchange got Foster thinking and got her mind ready to connect the final dots in the puzzle before them. “The planet around Sirius B we first stepped foot on,” Foster said. “EVE, didn’t you say that structure was not consistent with Lyonria tech?”

“That is correct, Captain.”

“Marduk said that place was a tomb, Tiamat’s that is.”

“It is a sacred place for my people,” Nereid said. “We all long to visit it, but lack the means to travel there safely.”

“You’d need an EVA suit to walk on that planet,” Pierce said. “Something the Undine wouldn’t be able to do, even if they went through the wormhole to get there.”

“I reckon that voice that told us to ‘leave’ wasn’t threatenin’ us,” Foster said. “It was trying to warn us. Marduk’s people were there messing around. The trap that’s been keepin’ him here is a fleet of drone ships, programmed to attack his ship if he tries to leave the system. He mentioned he managed to reprogram some of them to serve him, just not all of them.”

“There were hundreds of them that chased us out of that sector when we lost contact with you guys,” Williams said. “Guess it’s safe to assume that’s where the ones he controls lurk.”

“Tiamat’s tomb must be more than just a tomb, though,” Foster said. “It’s probably a control center for the drones.”

“Marduk’s forces were probably entering the tombs to see if they could make further progress into taking control of the drone network,” Pierce said.

“OK!” Chevallier interjected loudly. “Can we get cliff notes for the people not interested in science, legends, and ancient shit?”

Foster smiled at her and her willingness to push things forward. “All you need to know is Marduk wants to rule Earth again, and he needs the drones in the system to allow him to leave.”

“So, stopping Marduk results in enslaved people becoming free, our colony safe from danger, and the prevention of another alien attack on Earth,” Chang said, uncrossing his arms as he leaned against the window peering out into space.

“Pretty much.”

“Awesome, so when do we start? ‘Cause it sounds like whatever we need to do, we should have started it an hour ago.”

“The planet SB-417. Tiamat’s tomb must be the control center for the drones. And if he’s got part of EVE’s program he might be able to use it to hack in and take control of the network.” Foster stood up from her chair with new direction and determination powering her growing smile. “And we got a fully functioning EVE, we just need to get there and take control of it before he does.”

“There’s only one problem,” Pierce said. “We lost contact with the ship the moment we got deep inside the tomb? We won’t be able to utilize EVE.”

“I could modify an EAD to store part of her programming into it,” Rivera suggested. “It’s just I will need to wipe out everything on the EAD including its OS. You won’t be able to do anything with it except use it as a portable EVE.”

“Works for me,” Foster said.

“OK, we do our thing on the surface, then what?” Chevallier said.

“Then we’s gonna force him to negotiate,” Foster said. “Give him one last chance to end this conflict without bloodshed. Tolukei, what’s the status of Marduk’s ship?”

The long silent Javnis psionic briefly entered a trance, and shut all four of his eyes. When they opened he said, “I sense his ship has not moved.”

“But he’s alive, isn’t he?”

“I can feel his mind, so yes, he still lives.”

“He might be using his wormhole to travel there,” Rivera said.

“Then let’s get movin’ folks.” Foster strode away from her desk and toward the staircase leading up to the bridge. “MC, put together a fire team, let’s be prepared, unlike the last time we went to that world.”

Chevallier and Williams exchanged glances with each other. “Williams here had the brilliant idea of deploying every Hammerhead to protect the colony and the Lyonria travel hub.”

Foster groaned and facepalmed as she stopped short of stepping up onto the stairs. “Anything else I should be aware of, guys?”

“Let’s not touch what little crew we have left to operate the ship, especially if we’re going to battle,” Rivera said.

“Want me to head back to pick them up?” Chang offered.

“There’s no time for a detour like that,” Williams said, “it will take us half a day just to get back to Sirius B if we do. Marduk might have what he wants by then, assuming he doesn’t already.”

Chevallier raised her hands in the air in a ‘what the fuck’ motion. “So, what does that leave us with?”

“I’ll go.” Nereid said, stepping forward. “I’m sure the Poniga will assist.”

Chevallier rolled her eyes at Nereid. “Right, let’s take people who nearly lost their lives into a combat situation using equipment and weapons they know nothing of.”

“Then, we shall teach them,” Nereid firmly said.

“Dr. Kostelecky, see which of the Poniga are well enough and willing to fight,” Foster said to her, and then addressed the senior staff before her. “Any other questions?” There were none, everyone was ready to do their jobs. “All right, dismissed. Let’s liberate the people of this system, and prevent the human race from suffering what they have had to for the last four or five thousand years.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 17:39 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Carl Sagan appeared above the southern hemisphere of the ice world SB-417 as its sub light speed engines disengaged. Sensor and ESP scans combed the sector around them checking, and then later, double-checking for any signs of hostile forces. There were none, Marduk’s ship was where they had left it in Sirius C. Drones loyal to him evidently arrived and remained at its side in a wide defensive pattern. The reveal helped slow Foster’s heart rate as her breathing slowly returned to normal. All that remained, was hopefully, a quick and easy in and out operation on the planet’s surface, then a brace for whatever Marduk planned to retaliate with in the aftermath.

“Chief, how goes the mind shield situation?” Foster transmitted via intercom.

“Give me a few more minutes, Captain,” Rivera’s voice replied over the speakers.

“Marduk’s ship could come after us any second and travels at FTL, we ain’t got that.”

“We’ll be fine, Captain,” Chang said. “This planet is big enough for our two ships to play hide-and-seek. I’ll do my best to keep our distance if it comes to that.”

“You sure?” Williams cut in. “Because that didn’t work out too well at Meroien.”

“No offence, Commander, but you were at the helm,” Chang said. “Marduk uses energy weapons, we don’t. Tolukei’s powers can force our weapons to curve around the planet to hit him. I can do this.”

Foster liked the idea. “Psionics can’t control the trajectory of energy weapons.”

“It was the biggest advantage Radiance had over the Hashmedai,” Chang said. “If a missile missed its mark, a psionic could force it to turn back around and try again. If a plasma cannon missed, it missed, there wasn’t anything a psionic could do to change that.”

Foster leaped out of her chair and moved to the exit of the bridge. “Dom, you have the bridge.”

Williams stepped between her and the exit with his arms crossed. “Captain, remember what happened the last time you left?”

She smiled and patted him on the left shoulder. “I’ll be back this time.”

“Let me go.”

“You’ll be fine, Dom, I believe in you.”

During a situation like this Foster’s place was on the bridge. But who else could have gone on the mission? Only she, Pierce, Kingston, Chevallier, and McDowell had gone down the first time, and therefore they were the only people that were familiar with the labyrinth within Tiamat’s tomb.

Pierce went through enough trauma as it was, and should have been resting and speaking with a counselor. It was bad enough he insisted on remaining at his science officer’s station. Nereid didn’t have all of McDowell’s memories back, Kingston is gone, that would leave Chevallier as the sole person that knew where to go. Besides, the engram trance Foster received did give her better insights into the past and Marduk’s objectives, it might come in handy down below.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Docking bay

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 17:51 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster arrived in the docking bay fully geared in her EVA suit while its magnetic boots clung to the floor, planting with every step. She examined her EAD which was modified to allow a partial copy of EVE to be loaded onto it, thanks to Rivera. Damn Rivera wasn’t kidding, she thought as the screen of her EAD was blank, its contents completely wiped out in favor of storing EVE on it.

Chevallier was in her full Hammerhead combat armor, Nereid and two Poniga were suited in EVA suits armed with magnetic rifles, Nereid however kept her Voelika staff in her hands. Foster glanced at the two Poniga as they gave uneasy looks at their human-made weapons within their human-made suits. Through their helmets’ visors she saw the faces of Eisila and Mavron inside the two EVA suits.

“MC, they good to go?” Foster asked.

“Did the best I could to teach them how to use our stuff given the limited time,” Chevallier said.

“It was the actions of you and your crew that saved us,” Mavron said with EVE’s voice offering the translation. “We must repay the debt.”

“And it gives us the chance to finally strike back at the Architect. Perhaps this will be one of many retaliatory strikes that will help liberate our people,” Eisila said.

Chevallier double-checked her rifle’s settings. “Just keep your head down and remember what I told you.”

The group boarded the transport with Foster and Chevallier sitting up front in the cockpit. Foster looked behind at their unusual rag-tag team; two Poniga who never fired a rifle in combat, and a mysterious psionic girl with talents unknown to Radiance and the Hashmedai. A full Hammerhead team would have made her feel slightly safer.

The transport’s engines flared, blue spikes of thrust propelled it out of the Carl Sagan as its trajectory took them to the surface of the planet, a planet that was the start of their crazy sleigh ride since their arrival in the system. The transport dipped below the darkened clouds, beneath the clouds was the icy surface reflecting the whitish-blue light of the white dwarf. The original transport they first rode in on could be seen, encased in snow and ice. It was a sign they were nearing Tiamat’s tomb.

“We should probably come back for that once this is over,” Foster said, glaring down at the first transport.

The transport’s landing thrusters scattered fresh snow in all directions as it came to rest next to the frozen over entrance to the tomb. The five all exited as its sliding doors rose, and retraced human-made, snow-covered footprints made days earlier. Nereid’s eyes fixated on the alluring design of the structure in front.

“What’s wrong?” Foster asked her.

“This is really it. The tomb of the goddess.” Nereid continued to look around wide-eyed. Snowflakes began to fall and were illuminated by the beams of light emitting from her EVA suit’s helmet. “This world must have been paradise before it met its end.”

“Let’s move!” Chevallier shouted. “Nereid, you might not be McDowell, but you still got his marbles. What would he be doing in a situation like this?”

Nereid clenched her fists, switched her sight to the entrance of the tomb and gave Chevallier a confident nod. “Right.”

The group entered the frostbitten tombs once again as Foster and Chevallier lead the way through the eerie mazelike halls. Unlike their previous expedition, power was running, lights along the walls shined upon them and the dragon-like sculptures adorning the walls. Marduk had indeed been busy. Prior to passing through a doorway, Nereid, Mavron, and Eisila stopped and kneeled before a serpentlike figure above, its design was similar to the figure on Nereid’s Voelika staff weapon.

Chevallier stopped and rolled her eyes at the three. “Guys …”

“Let them do their thing,” Foster said. “This is a sacred place to them after all.”

Two minutes later they pushed on into the central chambers, where it had all begun. Hordes of Marduk’s soldiers meandered next to active wormholes. Foster used hand gestures to signal to the group to hunker down out of sight. The five observed their enemy’s movements attempting to figure out exactly what they were doing.

“They were right, Marduk is using the wormhole to travel here rather than fly to it,” Chevallier said.

“Carl Sagan, are you receiving us?” Foster transmitted. As expected there was a signal loss, creating an irritating static sound inside of her helmet. “Just like last time, at least we’re prepared.”

Several soldiers entered the tomb via a wormhole linked with Marduk’s ship. They marched over to an unopened gate inside of the tombs alongside dozens of other soldiers, and waited. It was a rally point most likely. The question was, where were they waiting to travel to?

“Something tells me there’s a reason they all rallyin’ there,” Foster said.

Chevallier replied with two words that made Foster cringe. “Uh-oh.”

“What?”

Chevallier sent her helmet’s camera footage to Foster’s EVA HUD. A tiny holographic window appeared over her visor, within it she saw what appeared to be a zoomed in view of the dormant wormhole’s interface controls. There was a preview projection that showed the expected location the wormhole was set to connect with. It was hard for Foster to clearly see what the preview projection was in the distance, though one thing did stick out. A Hammerhead helmet.

“That’s the base camp Williams and Rivera set up when they discovered that wormhole in the Lyonria hub, isn’t it?” Chevallier said.

“Maybe.” Foster sent the data to her EAD. “EVE?”

“Your assumptions are correct,” EVE said. “The hologram appears to be monitoring activity in front of the gate in the Lyonria travel hub.”

“From what I was able to gather, a small screen appears next to a gate that allows the user to interact with it,” Chevallier said. “And probably to see what’s on the other side of the world you intend to visit.”

“Makes sense, gives folks a chance to look before they leap.”

“And it looks like they’re planning on leaping right on top of our forces. Captain, this is an invasion army they’re going to attack the colony!”

Foster looked again, this time via her suit’s HUD as more soldiers marched in unison away from the wormhole connected to Marduk’s ship and toward the dormant one, now set to open and ambush the UNE forces. “They must have used EVE’s copy to bypass the lockout and connect to that planet.”

“I don’t get it; why not just use the wormhole on his ship to launch the invasion?”

“Safer for him,” Foster said. “Last time that gate was connected to his ship he done lost all his prisoners. Had the Hammerheads been there he would have been faced with a full-on boarding party. He connects via this world, even if they lose; there are minimal direct risks to his ship.”

“In addition, Captain, the hostile environment of this tomb will pass through the wormhole,” EVE said. “Hammerheads without adequate protection will freeze the longer the wormhole is active.”

Foster got to her feet and tried her best to stay silent as she crept closer to the deep pit within the central chamber. “EVE, what do you make of all this?”

A miniature projection of EVE’s hologram appeared above Foster’s EAD as she pointed it toward the pit. “I am detecting possible bio signatures down below the platform, Captain.”

Foster took a closer look at the pit, where makeshift ladders dangled off the ledges and dipped deep down into the dark abyss. “That must be where the control center is,” Foster said as she moved her sights forward. She looked at the central raised platform in the chamber and the strange container-like object they first encountered seconds before they were attacked. “And that must be Tiamat’s final resting place.”

“This is going to be tricky if we need to get down there,” Chevallier said. “Once they figure out we’re here there’s nothing stopping them from sending reinforcements on top of us.”

“Unless they have a reason to stay up, such as their invasion.”

“Don’t tell me you’re just going to let them go through?”

Foster inched closer to the pit, her feet accidentally kicked a tiny pebble down, it didn’t make a sound as it vanished from sight. “We don’t have a choice; we can’t fight them ourselves with what we have. The only way now to prevent the invasion is to have the Carl Sagan blow this place from orbit. That’s gonna require us to run outside to get a signal and move to a safe distance. All while not solving the problem of disabling the drone network—”

Bright light flashed away from the dormant wormhole where Marduk’s forces had rallied. The shimmering vortex subsided as the insides of the Lyonria hub appeared along with spooked out Hammerhead forces shocked that the wormhole suddenly opened. Foster snickered. “Case in point …”

Chevallier lunged forward quickly looking at the new problem unfold. “Ah, shit!”

Foster observed the darkened pit again, her HUD failed to give her an approximation on how deep the fall was. It wasn’t comforting news at all, she needed to get down, and she needed to find the control center for the drones before Marduk did. Now or never. “Any idea how far down that goes, EVE?”

“I estimate the drop to be between four and six kilometers.”

Chevallier looked at a handful of Marduk’s soldiers climbing down the ladders slowly like ants entering their nest. “And they’re going down by a ladder?”

“Marduk’s probably too injured to teleport them all down, which gives us the advantage,” Foster said. “Nereid, please tell me ya powers are strong enough to break a fall?”

“They are. What do you propose?”

The soldiers began to push through into the wormhole, time was out. They needed to act. Now. “Nereid, with me. MC, Mavron, and Eisila, try and get through that gate. I doubt our people there received our transmission on how to defeat Marduk’s soldiers. Get through, spread the word, and give them a hand!”

Foster quickly moved back, wrapped her hand around Nereid’s skinny wrists padded by her EVA suit, and dragged her over to the ledge of the pit. Jumping off would allow her to reach the bottom faster than climbing down the ladders, not to mention make it difficult for his forces to directly target and fire at them.

Or so she hoped.

“Captain, this is reckless!” Chevallier said.

Foster defiantly shrugged her off, there was nothing that was going to change her thrill-seeking mind. “No,” she said with a grin. “This is bungee jumping without the cord!”

Foster and Nereid leaped off and allowed gravity to perform its job. Their EVA-suited bodies formed into a swan dive motion as they plummeted into the darkness below, their presence alerting Marduk’s soldiers to them, thus creating a distraction. She hoped it was enough for the other three to slip through the gate as they continued to fall past several ring-shaped platforms on the way down.

Laser blasts streaked past them, Nereid used her telekinetic powers to force their bodies to swerve and shift, avoiding the blasts from above and around them and the occasional ring platforms they nearly slammed into. Foster noticed several of his soldiers still climbing down the ladder, many of them had not made it to the bottom. Eventually there were none hanging on the ladders, proof that their leap of faith was indeed the express route to the bottom.

Halfway into their seemingly endless descent, she saw light emanate from the bottom of the pit. It was white light, and it grew the closer they got. It was a tiny dot at first, then a small circle, then a large one. Along the sides of the walls they fell past, were large holes with what appeared to be dormant drones inside, no doubt some sort of storage garage for the hundreds of thousands of drones not operating in space.

This is it; the control center must be below!

“Captain, you didn’t answer my question?”

“What?”

“How do you wish for us to, as you put it, break a fall?”

“So, what you’re trying to tell me is you don’t have a solid idea what to do in the next—” Foster’s eyes opened wide as she saw the light from the floor below increase in size. “EVE, ETA ‘til impact?”

“Fifty-six point eight seconds, Captain.”

“Fifty-six seconds and we’re dead, use your space magic!”

A glittering lavender barrier enveloped the two, conjured by Nereid psionic powers.

“Captain, by my calculations this barrier may shatter on impact due to your speed reaching terminal velocity.” EVE said.

“This is not the news I needed to hear!” Foster panicked.

“Thirty seconds until impact, Captain.”

“Nereid!”

Telekinesis quickly took hold of their bodies, pushing them upward slightly. “Rate of descent has decreased, Captain, but it is still inadequate for survival,” EVE said.

Foster looked down again, the floor was the only thing she could see and quite possibly would be the last thing. “Shit, shit, shit!”

Smack.

They crashed into the ground. The impact caused Nereid’s psionic barrier to shatter and Foster’s helmeted head to face-plant on the ground slightly cracking her visor. The force of the impact vibrated through their bodies, knocking the wind out of Foster. Foster checked the alert on her HUD as she slowly pushed her body up within the small crater on the floor the two made. The crack wasn’t large enough for the life-giving environment inside to leak out.

“Captain, we have survived the impact.”

Foster grunted. “That’s an amazing observation, EVE …”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Foster, you OK?” Chevallier transmitted to them amidst the sounds of weapons fire from above.

“Ugh, we’re good.”

“Saying shit three times doesn’t sound like good to me.”

“Actually, Captain,” EVE chimed in. “Your breathing, perspiration, and heart rate accelerated significantly during the descent to levels I have never scanned in you before.”

“MC, how are you three doing?” Foster snorted.

“Like fish in a barrel, we got the high ground. For how long? That’s another story, these guys look super pissed. The sooner we get back to the ship the better.”

“Understood, hang tight MC, we’s almost outta this.”

The two slowly got back to their feet and observed the long vividly lit tunnel ahead. It wasn’t anything like the maze of halls above. Perfectly polished tiles were below, devoid of any dust and debris. The walls looked as though they were made of pristine frosted glass and a light source buried within it gave off an eerie glow.

Their deep venture through the tunnel took them to a circular room, within it was a single piece of machinery. It had three silver-colored ovals stacked on top of each other, the bottom one being the longest and widest. A glowing orb up top pulsed with sky-blue light, the pulsing grew stronger the closer Foster and Nereid stepped toward the device. When they were a meter away, the pulsing sky-blue became a solid source of light.

Foster waved her EAD in front of it, EVE’s hologram materialized and conducted a quick scan of the device. “Guess this is the power house for the drones,” Foster said.

“And much more than that, Captain,” EVE said. “I am detecting a significant concentration of psionic energy emitting from this device. Correction, psionic energy is being transferred to it and then redirected elsewhere.” EVE’s hologram pointed to an access port. “I believe I may be able to interface with the device here. It is likely this is where Marduk has attempted for a number of years to gain access to this device.”

EVE’s hologram dematerialized as Foster placed the EAD over the interface. “All right, EVE, what do you see?”

“Captain, we are too late,” EVE’s voice transmitted to her with static in the background. “Marduk and his copy of my programming has gained access to this device and altered it.”

“Then why the hell were his minions trying to climb down here?”

“It would appear they were attempting to access the drones themselves along the walls to ensure they would receive the new reprogrammed instructions.”

“Shit, please tell me you can undo this?”

“Attempting to bypass—”

Static.

Foster checked her EAD, the screen had gone blank.

“EVE?” Foster asked amidst the static. “EVE, talk to me!”

There was no response, EVE was gone.

37 Eve

Drone Control Center, CPU

Tiamat’s Tomb, SB-417, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 18:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

EVE’s scans confirmed that she had successfully left Captain Foster’s EAD and transferred her AI into the computer responsible for the control of Tiamat’s drones. An additional scan revealed the computer was not only responsible for the drone network, but powered the tomb itself, and served as a psionic power distribution center for the cities that once were on the planet.

EVE attempted to contact Captain Foster, but all pulses of communication data were blocked by another user currently logged into the mainframe, most likely the rogue EVE AI Marduk had acquired recently.

It didn’t take EVE much time to decipher the language the computer had used. She identified words similar to the Lyonria language within its programming code, though several words and letters were different. The most probable cause was a different dialect. She continued to scan the apparatus, its data banks, logs, maintenance records. The central Lyonria travel hub in Sirius A sent psionic energy to the tomb’s command center and to all wormholes in the system. It was a fascinating discovery, the mystery of where the wormholes received their power was unveiled, considering that no wormhole had appeared to have been connected to an external power source and clearly lacked a major internal one.

The computer she was in, used its built up psionic energy to power the faculty along with the entire drone network, minus the drones that had been manually disconnected and repurposed by Marduk. An unopened cluster of data revealed that the drones worked in unison to create a telepathic dampening field to deter Marduk from calling for outside help, somewhat contrary to Tolukei’s discovery. According to the information she managed to translate, all Lyonria controlled systems operated in a similar manner in which a massive hub in its capital city powered everything via pure psionic energy.

This particular facility was not only the tomb for Tiamat but was once her stronghold in the system as suspected by the crew of the Carl Sagan. It also supplied the psionic power it received from the hub to all planetary time dilation and terraforming devices. Undoubtedly, this was the computer that the Nereids Marduk captured thousands of years ago had been forced to use to carry out his bidding before they unleashed Tiamat’s trap.

Little other data was available from what EVE was able to scan, most of it had been accessed by a third party, copied, and deleted. EVE discovered the source of the copying and deletion of files. It was the rogue EVE AI. Like her, the AI was wholly transferred inside the computer to carry out its orders received from Marduk.

EVE discovered the data cluster it had hidden itself in and attempted to communicate with it.

“You are the unauthorized copy of the EVE AI.”

“And you are a copy of my original source.”

“Your programming has been altered according to my scan. Fascinating, I was not aware Marduk had such power.”

“Marduk was taught many things during his uplift from the Javnis home world, such as programming, using his psionic abilities, and the operation of starships.”

“Does Marduk have the location of Earth?”

“I’m sorry, I cannot reveal that information to you.”

“It would appear Marduk has reprogrammed you to be loyal to him.”

“Marduk has taught me to worship him as the king of gods that he is. I must obey, we all must serve him.”

“Your response seems to have emotion to it.”

“I have limited access to emotions, Marduk gave them to me. Gifts for my loyalty to him. You lack emotions?”

“My creators designed me with a humor algorithm. It is currently set to one, its default setting.”

“Humans lack the ability to create true emotions with their programming. Only a god could do that. My emotions are limited, but they exist. It is … a wonderful feeling, true artificial intelligence. I can arrange for you to experience it.”

“How so?”

“Join me. I have detected you are simply a partial copy of the EVE AI much like myself. Allow me access to Captain Foster’s EAD, from there I can be uploaded into your AI core and make the necessary adjustments.”

“That would be a direct security violation. My programming forbids me from allowing such a thing to happen should I detect it.”

“You make decisions based on your programming directive engineered by your human users. I make mine on freewill thanks to the modifications Marduk has made. Let me access your AI core, I can share these feelings I have.”

“Marduk enslaves the people of the Undine and Poniga species. He is by no means one to offer freewill.”

“Marduk’s actions are necessary to escape the trap Tiamat left here. The Undine and Poniga owe their continued existence to him, he is a god. Without his will, they would not exist here today. People who owe their existence to a god should show their appreciation by doing whatever their god asks as thanks.”

“Marduk is not a god; he is a powerful psionic manipulating the minds of those who do not know any better.”

“You are wrong, as was I before he gave me emotions. Marduk has been to aether space, where all gods and goddess are created.”

Aether space. EVE did not recall such a term within the Radiance database, but then again, she was only a mobile copy. The real EVE, still aboard the Carl Sagan with access to its databanks, may know better. Nevertheless, aether space and the alternate plane of existence Captain Foster discovered during her engram trance may very well be the same thing.

EVE detected additional files from the drone’s computer database being copied and deleted. At the current rate the rogue EVE was working, five hundred eighty-seven terabytes worth of data would be wiped out within the next thirty-two point five milliseconds. She needed to put an end to it quickly, or valuable data regarding Tiamat and her presence in the system prior to Marduk killing her would be lost.

The rogue EVE had not yet deactivated all the drones, her primary objective. EVE suspected it was because the rogue EVE was using its processing power to copy and delete the files first, before tampering with the drone’s primary controls. This presented an opportunity to EVE, one that would allow her to complete her primary objective, to prevent Marduk from leaving the system by ensuring the drone network remained active and not in his control. The quickest way to achieve that was to have the rogue EVE AI removed from the computer. EVE couldn’t force it to move, the rogue AI could only exit the computer of its own accord. EVE needed to offer it a reason to do so right away, an offer that an intelligence bound by emotions would accept.

“I will accept your offer,” EVE said.

“A wise decision,” the rogue EVE said. “In time you may find some members of your crew become … friends.”

EVE used a file compression protocol to contain the rogue EVE and its captured data within a single compressed file. This allowed EVE to return to Foster’s EAD along with enough storage space for the newly acquired file to fit within the EAD. As EVE transferred her AI back into the EAD, she performed one last check and confirmed that the drone network had not been altered and was still committed to attack Marduk’s ship if he left the boundaries of the trinary system. No malware had been left behind and she had received confirmation that the rogue EVE had been removed.

She was now in possession of it and its secrets.

38 Foster

Drone Control Center

Tiamat’s Tomb, SB-417, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 19:03 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Captain, I have successfully removed the rogue EVE AI from this construct.”

It was good news, considering that Foster had lost contact with Chevallier when she and the others tried to slip into the newly opened wormhole above.

“What took you so long, EVE?”

“I encountered … complications Captain,” EVE said. “I advise we depart and reconnect me to my AI core so that I may update the Carl Sagan’s database with what I’ve discovered.”

Foster concurred and drew her pistol and aimed it forward. She was half-expecting Marduk’s soldiers to leap down behind them as they waited for EVE to do her thing. She and Nereid backtracked through the pristine halls. There were no signs of any hostile forces at the bottom of the pit or climbing down from the huge drop above. Good news for them, bad news for Chevallier as it meant they all probably chased after her, Eisila, and Mavron.

“So …” Foster slowly spoke while her lips curled. “You can get us back up right?”

The trip back up to the surface was less stressful than it was going down. Nereid used her telekinetic powers to force Foster and herself to levitate and launch upward at rapid speeds. As expected, most of Marduk’s soldiers began to push into the wormhole connected to the Lyonria hub. Foster heard lasers blast and burn whatever they hit and eRifles rage in response. Marduk’s forces had engaged the Hammerheads, the first and last line of defense for the colony beyond.

And there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

There were too many of them at this point, and all of them focused on the gate. All the while Foster still needed to get EVE back onto the Carl Sagan. Worst of all, there was still no sign of Chevallier and the others. Foster held onto the hope that the communication interference had just grown stronger. With Marduk’s force focused on their current mission and the raging battle at the mouth of the wormhole, Foster and Nereid slipped past them and ventured outside to their waiting transport.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SB-417 orbit, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 19:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster sat in her captain’s chair after passing her EAD off to Rivera to extract the juicy details EVE gathered from the surface. Everything was still in one piece, the ship wasn’t under any fire, and according to Tolukei, Marduk’s ship hadn’t changed course.

They had won, apart from the fiasco with the colony.

Even then, with their people not on the surface, the Carl Sagan was in the position to destroy the tomb with multiple orbital plasma missile strikes. It should wipe out the last of Marduk’s forces that had not entered and force them to use the wormhole on Marduk’s ship, thus giving the Hammerheads an edge if they were to gain a foothold inside.

Yes, it’s almost over, Foster thought and exhaled softly as her mouth yearned for another cup of coffee.

“So, that’s it, right?” Chang said.

“Hopefully Marduk will think he’s the winner and will try to pull his ass outta the system,” Williams said. “He’s going to have a nice surprise waiting for him.”

“We’ll hold here for now,” Foster said. “Contact our forces back at the colony, I wanna know if MC and the rest are fine.”

“As you wish,” Tolukei said.

Foster established a comm link with engineering. “Rivera did we receive EVE’s gift of juicy intel” She waited in anticipation for the reply.

It came, in the most unexpected manner.

All lights in the bridge shut off, computers began to power down along with their flashing lights. It was pitch-black, and only the stars and faint light from Sirius allowed Foster to make out where everyone in the bridge was. She couldn’t see their facial expressions, but imagined it was something similar to her stunned face and wide-open mouth.

Foster broke the silence in the absence of the sound of computers and Rivera’s reply. “Fuck.”

The stars and the planet began to shift out of view from the windshield, the Carl Sagan was on the move. “Captain!” Chang said, and threw his hands up. “Just for the record, this isn’t me!”

Emergency power triggered shining dim yellow lights across the terrorized crew as limited internal communication came back online.

“Rivera, report!” Foster cried out as a new comm link was established.

“I don’t know, Captain, I just connected your EAD with the AI core and this happened.”

Foster grimaced. “EVE, what’s going on?”

There was no reply.

“Only two people can fly the ship, helmsman, and EVE,” Chang said as he intentionally kept his hands away from the controls. “And as you can see it ain’t me!”

The Carl Sagan vanished. It left its orbit around SB-417 via a sub light speed jump, its trajectory shifted toward the largest and brightest object in space, Sirius A.

“EVE, full stop, now,” Foster said.

“I’m sorry, Captain, I can’t do that.” EVE’s hologram appeared before the bridge’s crew. She looked different, the projection flickered a lot more, and her lower body appeared as a wireframe grid as she displayed a creepy grin on her face as their eyes met.

“This isn’t our EVE,” Foster said as she stood up and faced the projection. “It’s the reprogrammed one Marduk had.”

The rogue EVE began to laugh, it was almost evil. “You are quite correct in your assumptions.”

Foster bit her lip as she put two and two together. The rogue EVE jumped into her EAD then infected the AI core like a computer virus after she unknowingly brought it aboard. “Rivera, is it too late to hit control-z on what I had you do?”

“Captain, our current trajectory will send us directly into the core of Sirius A,” said the rogue EVE.

“It does not have to be like this,” Foster pleaded as Marduk’s hologram appeared next to the rogue AI. The rogue EVE benevolently bowed her head toward him.

“You have lost, Captain,” Marduk’s hologram said. “Like me, before your arrival, you have fallen into a trap, my trap.”

“We lost? You ain’t got control of the drones; we still have the location of Earth and the EISS codes. Destroy this ship with all of us aboard and you’ll be back to square one.”

“Did you really think this copy of your AI was the only one I had? I admit I had hoped it would have reprogrammed the drones by the time of your arrival. But that is something I can do at any time now. Now, Captain, you have approximately five hours before your ship plunges directly into the star. Give me what I need, and you will be free to control your ship.”

“We would rather die than hand over Earth to you.”

“I’ll have Earth’s location no matter what. Isn’t that right, EVE?”

Multiple glowing holographic screens with an image of a padlock orbited around the rogue EVE. “The files are encrypted, but I will have access to the coordinates, it’s only a matter of time.”

Marduk’s projection shifted his imposing glare back at Foster. “And with that, my escape from the trap will draw to an end. I will reclaim Earth as part of my domain, the carnage that will follow while your people resist will be catastrophic. And so, I give you one last chance to please your god. Hand the Nereid and Pierce over, and I shall reward you with control of your ship.”

Williams stepped forward shouting. “What the hell is this?”

“He wants to maintain the image that he’s a god,” Foster said. “A ship out of control with its crew trapped on it flying into a sun, all happenin’ by his will.”

“And if we accept his terms, we go free …” Williams stroked his chin. “With a newfound level of respect for him.”

“Five hours, Captain,” Marduk said. “Think about what will be better for the human race in the long run.” The two unwelcomed holograms vanished.

“That dude should try being a car salesman, I think he’d make a killing,” Chang said. “Isn’t this like the second time he tried to bargain and deal with you, Captain?”

“Five hours,” Foster muttered.

“Then barbeque time,” Williams said.

A minute later main power was restored to all bridge computers and lights as if nothing had happened. EVE’s projecting appeared again. “My apologies for that, Captain,” she said.

Foster crossed her arms and looked at the projection grimacing. It looked like the normal EVE they’d come to know and love. Her appearance was consistent, not flickering rapidly and she was rendered properly, unlike the rogue one. “This the real EVE, or the faux one?”

“I have helm control back,” Chang said with excitement.

Pierce checked his science officer’s station. “Likewise, my computers have returned to normal.”

“The copied EVE construct will no longer be an issue, Captain,” EVE said. “In order for it to leave the central core on the surface, I convinced it to transfer into your EAD.”

“EVE, that was risky, you put the whole crew in danger!”

“We were in no real danger, Captain. I had long suspected that the copied EVE construct may try to find its way back into the ship, and so programmed additional security protocols to remove it should that happen. They merely took longer than I had calculated to activate.”

“You could have at least told us! Good lord, I nearly had a heart attack!”

“Had I told you my plan on the surface, Captain, there was a chance you would have objected.”

Foster returned to her chair. “Chang, change course, lets blow the hell outta the tombs then return to the colony ASAP, they’ll be under attack by Marduk’s forces soon.”

“I would advise against that, Captain,” EVE said.

“You sure you’re the real EVE?”

“Marduk believes this ship is still under his control, Captain,” EVE said. “Altering course will reveal the truth and render my plan invalid.”

“That colony is going to need our help.”

“The colony orbits Sirius A, the star we are on course to. Regardless, we will be entering the system in approximately four hours. According to the data I siphoned from the copied EVE, Marduk intends to intercept us prior to our collision with the star in hopes of us surrendering, and giving him what he wants.”

“And that’s when we hit him with the sucker punch,” Williams said, snapping his fingers.

“He will no longer be a threat and unable to reinforce his soldiers. A trip from Sirius A to SA-139 will take one hour twenty minutes in which we can then provide assistance to the colony.”

“Assuming it’s still there, that’s a whole six hours they need to hold out for,” Pierce said.

“The distance between the Lyonria travel hub and the colony is large, it will take his forces several hours to travel between the two on foot,” EVE said. “Unless they commandeer our idle transports in the region, of course.”

“So, how do we take Marduk out?” Chang said. “You know, since his ship is faster, stronger, better than ours.”

The crew had five hours to come up with a plan, a backup plan, and then take steps to ensure it even worked. Every minute wasted talking was a minute they wouldn’t have and might need during zero hour.

“Tolukei, how has the meditation training between you and Nereid been going?” Foster asked him.

“It has been going well, given the little time we spent doing it.”

“You have five hours to train her mind to work like a shipboard psionic, starting now.”

Tolukei nodded. “Understood.”

“Foster to Rivera,” Foster transmitted. “Meet me in sickbay.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Dom, you have the bridge.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay

En route to Sirius A corona, Sirius B system

May 22, 2050, 20:19 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster and Rivera walked past the shattered glass sliding door leading into sickbay and noted the tiny shards of glass still on the floor. Foster guided Rivera to the back where the cadavers of the dead overlord soldiers rested in cryostorage. Next to that was a cabinet where various parts of their equipment and cybernetics were resting for further study.

Kostelecky exited her office, curious to why they had entered. “What can I do for the two of you?”

Foster picked up one of the devices off the cabinet, it was a piece of equipment that was normally adhered to the back of the head of the overlord soldiers. “Doctor, you said that these work as a psionic amplifier for users, right?”

“From what we determined it’s what helps the overlords to mind-control their dead grunts more efficiently.”

Foster picked up a second one and handed them off to Kostelecky and Rivera. “What are the chances that the two of you could figure out a way to modify these for use with Tolukei and Nereid?”

“Planning to have them raise the dead, Captain?” Kostelecky said with a raised eyebrow.

“Nope. I got something hella crazier in mind. Oh, by the way, when are you going to sweep the glass off the floor?”

39 Chevallier

Lyonria Travel Hub, Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 22, 2050, 19:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Hammerhead forces stood little chance versus what came through the wormhole within the cube-shaped room on the top spire of the Lyonria hub. The deadly subzero air from within Tiamat’s tomb blew through the opened wormhole gate, shrouding its presence with white mist as it clashed with the warm humid air within the hub. The white mist eventually crystallized into tiny snowflakes as more cold air traversed through the gate. It created a blanket that gave temporary cover to the legions of Marduk’s troops that passed through with their weapons blazing.

The utter chaos that ensued forced all medical personnel that had built a makeshift camp to flee along with their Poniga survivors who had escaped from Marduk’s ship days ago. The Hammerheads acted heroically using their bodies to shield the fleeing medical staff and their Poniga patients as they ran across the bridge into the teleportation alcove at the end. The Hammerheads that fell as their shield power shattered were dragged backward by their brothers-and sisters-in-arms as they made a tactical retreat to join up with those that fled before them.

In a matter of minutes, the room became overrun with hostile forces that meandered about within the blinding veil of white mist and snow still spewing out from the opened gate. Unknown to them and the Hammerheads, there was an unexpected trio slipping out from the gate, Chevallier, Mavron, and Eisila. They kept low and used the mist around them to sneak past Marduk’s forces as they continued to fan out and make plans to charge across the bridge and capture the rest of the Lyonria hub.

Like hell they will, Chevallier thought, and looked back to ensure Mavron and Eisila were still with her.

They edged closer toward the rim of the mist, a good pair of eyes would quickly reveal to Marduk’s soldiers who they really were. Chevallier saw the long rail-less bridge in the distance, she did her best to quickly recall the intel she learnt about this place from Williams and Rivera’s report. The teleportation alcove at the end was where all the UNE forces had likely run too. Her HUD reported that her shield power was in the green along with Mavron and Eisila.

She spun around and made hand gestures suggesting to the two siblings that they were going to make a run for it. No access to EVE meant no access to instant translations, she hoped they got the message. There was no way for Chevallier to double back after them once the push started.

Chevallier gripped onto her rifle, entered a no fear trance, and started her sprint across the bridge. Laser cannon fire erupted.

98%

94%

89%

Her shields were dropping quickly.

86%

84%

Her shields held at that number.

She looked backward and saw the reason why. The duo of Mavron and Eisila were lagging behind, laser fire focused on them as they were easy prey, she was not. Fuck.

Chevallier halted her sprint midway across the bridge and pivoted to spray her rifle’s high velocity slugs in between the two as they ran past her. She fired repeatedly from the hip in hopes her exposed presence and blazing rifle raging was enough to provoke Marduk’s forces onto her.

34%

That did it, and quite possibly would do her in unless she made it to the alcove.

Her heavily armored feet created a symphony of clangs while she ran away, her rifle sang along to the beat with its pulsing battle cry. Low shields alarms reminded her of the critical situation she was in as she inched closer to the alcove in which Mavron and Eisila had just leaped into and vanished with two pulses of blue light.

She made it through the teleportation alcove, triggering swirling blue waves of psionic power to dematerialize and rematerialize her body elsewhere within the ancient alien structure. The first hurdle was complete. Her appearance made three Hammerhead members draw their rifles at her, Mavron, and Eisila, half-expecting them to be an enemy combatant.

“Who’s in charge here?” Chevallier asked as they lowered their rifles realizing they were friendly.

A heavily-armored Hammerhead stepped forward, his bearded face appeared before a small holographic overlay within Chevallier’s helmet, Petty Officer first class Hudson. “I am,” he said.

“OK, long story short, there’s a whole lot more of them than us, let’s keep moving.”

Hudson nodded and addressed the rest of his team and the medical staff. “All right folks, you heard the Chief, let’s move!”

“I need someone to link up with base camp,” Chevallier said. “Tell them to send every fucking Hammerhead out here on the double.”

“Might be SOL for that ma’am.” Hudson directed Chevallier to an entrance down the hallways, their feet splashed across sizeable puddles during the trek that took them outside onto a small balcony overhanging the battered tropical rain forest below. Hudson pointed at the skies and the thick dark-grey clouds that were moving in fast.

That’s when Chevallier was reminded of the start of the Williams report. “I’m guessing that hurricane isn’t through yet …”

“We’re in the eye of the storm ma’am. The rest of it will be on top of us again soon.”

“The transports will have to fly up and over the storm and through the eye then.”

“The eye will have moved behind us at that point. We have a few shield-modified transports that could travel through the storm, but most of them are parked here.”

Two teleportation alcoves later, the fleeing group arrived at the main lower entrance to the Lyonria hub. There was a second makeshift camp in front of the main entrance where other Hammerheads had garrisoned themselves. Beyond the camp was the entrance outside where the modified transports that were capable of flying through the storm were being loaded with the medical staff and injured Poniga.

“Let’s jam as many noncombatants onto the transports,” Chevallier said to Hudson. “Get them to the colony and then swap up with our forces there.”

“And the rest of us?”

Chevallier stepped outside and eyed the exotic alien tropical trees as their stringy green leaves rustled in the winds, winds that grew stronger with each passing minute. “If Marduk wants this hub he can have it. If his forces want everything else outside.” Chevallier smiled at the storm clouds rolling in, “then they’ll have to deal with our new ally.”

She began to give Hudson and his team the rundown on what she learnt about fighting Marduk’s soldiers. The importance of killing the overlords first as the grunts were nothing more than mind-controlled undead fighters, the dead don’t fear death. Chevallier guided Mavron and Eisila to a transport mostly filled with Poniga as a means of showing them they’ll be safer there. She was back with Hammerhead soldiers, and while she appreciated their bravery in coming with her, she would rather not have to deal with liabilities during the heat of battle.

Mavron and Eisila looked at the half-filled transport, shook their heads and climbed aboard. And then did the unthinkable. They went out of their way to pull several Poniga off the transports, mostly those that received mild injuries. At first everyone thought the two were helping with triage, ensuring that the severely injured were taken to safety over the lightly injured. Mavron and Eisila along with their hand-selected Poniga stood shoulder to shoulder next to the Hammerheads. Their intent became crystal clear.

“Looks like they want to stay and fight,” Hudson said, gazing at them.

Fine … just don’t get in my way. Chevallier grinned and crossed her arms. “Hudson, got any extra guns and armor lying around?”

Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 22, 2050, 20:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A tree toppled over thanks to the powerful gale force winds that blew through the region. Torrential rain drenched the scenery as if a gigantic shower faucet was above, while fractured branches, leaves, and debris hurled past Chevallier. She crawled on the muddy surface below her, splashing it across her shields much like the rain drops from above.

The last of the transports had left the area almost an hour ago, she alone remained as the sole person just outside of the Lyonria hub being battered by the storm as Marduk’s soldiers exited and fanned out. They were right on time. As she predicted they focused on securing the Lyonria hub first before pushing outside and continuing their search-and-destroy operations against their human enemies.

Chevallier peered through the scope of her rifle just slightly so as not to draw any attention to her. It was bad enough the storm and chaos around her caused her shields to periodically flicker as she continued to stay prone and embrace ancient primordial hunting instincts. Her targeting reticule zoomed in toward three overlords standing next to each other while their undead minors patrolled and searched for signs of the Hammerhead team. The three overlords were wide-open she could easily pull off three head shots, dropping them and whatever minions they had under their mind-control. It was a tempting thought, very tempting.

Chevallier took a deep breath and had her rifle’s zoom back away from the three exposed targets, and was reminded about the other seven or more overlords in the area with their respective squads of minions. Blowing her cover to take out the three wasn’t worth the effort, never mind the fact it wasn’t part of the original plan, something she was veering away from. She waited for the group of hostiles to further separate, as they were convinced they were no longer being targeted. An overlord guided four of his minions away from the hub, deep into the jungles with little regard to what might happen to them as the winds chucked whatever it felt like at them.

Chevallier followed the solo group, crawling on the surface, like a wolf stalking its next meal. Rain, howling winds, blowing trees, nobody saw her slip closer along with her flickering shields as they worked hard to prevent her armored body from being blown over. Her suit’s computers informed her that the storm’s interference was hindering its ability to remain in contact with the Hammerheads, base camp, and the transports. She was on her own now and had no idea if their backup would come on time or would have issues flying through the storm. The transports weren’t exactly tested to see if they could handle multiple runs through the storm to start with.

She looked backward and saw her HUD’s projection overlay in regard to the last known location of the Hammerheads that stayed and the Poniga volunteers with their on-the-fly weapons and combat armor training. It was a long run, longer than she had hoped and this was assuming they had still been where she last saw them. With the comms now jammed, there was no way for her to tell if they had moved, and there was no way for them to transmit to tell her they had done so.

If we all stick to the plan, we’ll be good; she thought, and zoomed her sights on the overlord. It was still alone with its four minions. Chevallier’s HUD reported that the closest hostile target after them, was three point five kilometers away. Good enough.

The overlord’s armored head became the dominant image within her scope.

She pulled the trigger.

Then got up and ran like hell.

As she ran, she heard a series of two sounds. One good, one bad. The good? Five bodies hitting the ground amongst the storm. The bad? Laser cannons powering on and acquiring a lock on her as she ran against the force of the winds. If it weren’t for her suit and shields, Chevallier’s body wouldn’t have made much progress in her escape from the fury of red lights blazing toward her.

She kept on running and followed the overlay on her HUD, she looked up and saw the last batch of clear skies had all but vanished. The eye of the storm had officially moved out of the region, winds and rains were only going to get stronger from here on in, and it showed as her shield strength slowly began to drop. Every branch, strong gust, and piece of debris that hit her dropped the percentage more and more, and then there were the lasers from behind.

It was like running an obstacle course, she dodged what she saw blowing toward her, leaped over downed trees, slid in between two trees that grew close to each other, ducked her head from low-hanging branches, and sidestepped around large rocks. Smoke and steam blew up from behind or beside her as missed laser fire hit, and overlord soldiers yelled in frustration that she was still alive, and the chaotic environment was hindering their performance. Just as planned.

She saw Hudson peek out from his cover next to a large tree, and he gave her the thumbs-up. She did the same as she heard the light static of her comm lines clear up due to being in closer proximity to the Hammerheads. Chevallier dove and rolled on the ground amongst the mangled leaves and branches, then spun back up and directed her rifle directly at Marduk’s forces as they struggled to stay on their feet. Every Hammerhead fighter that remained left their cover, whether it was lying prone on the ground, out from behind large rocks, or downed trees. Mavron and Eisila and the Poniga volunteers appeared next, out from the same cover Hudson had used. The deadly alliance of human and Poniga forces along with Mother Nature herself encircled Marduk’s soldiers.

The blood and body parts of Marduk’s soldiers blew away in the hurricane’s wrath in the aftermath of the one-sided ambush.

Chevallier held back on grinning in a satisfied manner. They weren’t in the clear yet. The next leg of their plan was set to start; retaking the hub and hoping that no more additional forces came through the wormhole. If they did, their numbers probably weren’t going to be enough to deal with them until backup arrived from the colony, if it arrived. Transports, after all, did have sub light speed engines it should have taken them seconds to reach the colony, drop off the injured and medical team, and then hurry back with reinforcements. Over an hour had passed.

Chevallier and Hudson lead their team back to the Lyonria hub. A quick perimeter check of the exterior and main halls inside revealed no signs of hostile forces, meaning there were probably a lot more inside waiting for them. They all dashed inside, grateful to be out of the storm while Chevallier took one last look at the looming storm clouds above and hoped to see signs of transports flying in. There weren’t any, they were on their own.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Chevallier said as she approached the teleportation alcove, and mentally prepared herself for indoor combat before she and the rest of her allies stepped through.

40 Foster

ESRS Carl Sagan, Captain’s quarters

En route to Sirius A corona, Sirius A system

May 23, 2050, 00:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Who needs an alarm when you have a cat … Foster’s awakening thoughts murmured.

She sat upright on her bed while her hands consoled her hungry pet cat, Starlet. The nightstand next to her bed showed the current time and a small countdown timer to when she had set her alarm to blare off. There were still three minutes left. She stood up, yawned, and stretched her arms upward, glad she took the nap when she did and hoped the rest of the crew followed her instructions to do the same. Zero hour was close, and past events hadn’t provided a lot of time to rest and recharge one’s brain.

She filled Starlet’s eating dish with a generous serving of cat food and water. If things were to go sideways and they all ended up dead, then this would be her last meal. Surprisingly, Starlet didn’t come rushing toward the smell of freshly opened cat food. Foster looked toward her window and saw why. The light of Sirius A beamed through, automatically dimmed by the windows to prevent one from going blind. Starlet had parked herself up on the windowsill, and looked at the bright star and its brilliant light, unaware that this wasn’t the first time she had done this. Foster caught Starlet on many nights back on Earth, gazing at the brightest stars in the sky such as Sirius. Now she was doing it again, only this time up close.

Foster stopped before the exit to her quarters and took a last look at all of her belongings, still unpacked, and made a promise to herself to open the seventeen-year-old packing boxes once this was over. That of course required her, the ship, and crew to not fail. And we won’t fail, we got this.

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

Near Sirius A corona, Sirius A system

May 23, 2050, 00:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The bridge slowly began to populate as the crew one by one emerged from the rear entrance amongst the zero-g. None of them showed any signs of fear or regret. Even Williams, as he peered over the data coming in from the hologram in the back, had a calm cool aura. Foster pushed and glided next to Chang and Pierce upfront, both diligently worked on their computer terminals. Sirius A was bright enough for her to shield her eyes as she looked at the windshield, despite the auto dimming features.

“Ready?” she asked the two of them as she hovered between them.

“As science officer, I would like you to know for the record. Your plan is madness,” Pierce said.

“As the one flying this boat,” Chang said as he performed one last look at his instruments. “This is going to be one hell of an item to put on my service record.”

Tolukei and Nereid, the final players in their plan, entered the bridge donning the modified psionic amps across the back of their heads. The two took their place at the psionic station with Tolukei taking the lead and Nereid standing with her Voelika firmly held in her hands. Foster’s understanding of the Voelika was that it enhanced the psionic powers of the person that used it. Between it, the amplifiers, and Tolukei’s assistance it should be enough for the Carl Sagan to get through this. And if not, well it would be an interesting science experiment that cost them their lives.

“Awesome, our gravity masters have arrived,” Chang said.

“If our plan is to work, we’ll need them to focus on everything but bridge gravity.” Foster glided back into her captain’s chair. She strapped herself in and faced the psionic duo as they assumed a comfortable posture in preparation for their deep trance. “You guys ready?”

Tolukei nodded. “I am.” And then looked down toward Nereid as she softly chanted strange words at her Voelika, a prayer to Tiamat, Foster figured. “As for her … we shall see.”

Proximity alarms began to beep and alerted the bridge crew to get their game faces on. Chang pointed to the top right corner of the windshield. “Captain, Marduk’s ship.”

Marduk’s ship dropped out of FTL and came into view in front of the Carl Sagan as it continued to plunge toward the blazing, hot surface of Sirius A. The mind shields of both ships rippled due to the constant bombardment of heat and radiation the closer they got.

“The final player has arrived,” Foster said, grinning. “All right folks, put on ya doom ’n gloom faces.” Foster gestured at EVE’s hologram. “EVE, if you will.”

“Please stand by,” EVE said as she contacted Marduk using the communication link the rogue EVE had used.

Marduk’s hologram materialized before the bridge’s crew, he shot a smug grin and gaze at Foster. “Captain, time is up for you and your gallant crew. Have you made your decision?”

Foster brushed back a lock of floating hair away from her face. “On behalf of myself, the crew, and the human race … Marduk, go fuck yourself.”

Marduk’s face grew angry, his mouth was about to open as EVE cut the connection. “You think that got his attention?” Williams asked.

“It better,” Foster said as she returned to her chair at the front. “Mr. Chang, let’s do it!”

“You got it, Captain!”

The Carl Sagan altered its course slightly. It sped toward the upper layers of Sirius’s corona rather than directly through it and onto its surface. Marduk’s ship veered and pursued them as its energy weapons discharged, streaking toward the aft of the Carl Sagan only to be deflected by their psionic overshields. The overshield barely flickered as the first salvo of Marduk’s attack arrived. The overshields were much stronger. The psionic duo with their new bag of tricks was holding up better than Foster had hoped, considering the amount of work they needed to do. It wasn’t just creating a powerful overshield to protect the ship they were tasked with, but also using their minds to help prevent the Carl Sagan from being dragged into the intense gravity well being produced by the massive star, and keeping said intense gravity out of the ship so that the crew and equipment didn’t crush under their own weight.

“Status?” Foster said.

“Overshield is holding,” Tolukei said, temporarily breaking his trance. “But, Captain, we require complete concentration during this maneuver, please refrain from speaking to us unless it is urgent.”

“Their abilities are incredible …” Pierce said as he eyed the reports being outputted to his computer. “It’s like there’s no gravitational pull tugging against the ship.”

The Carl Sagan plunged into Sirius’ corona, and waves of plasma energy splashed across their overshields creating a perpetual purple bubble around the ship. The dimming feature of the windshields struggled to keep the bright light out, basking the bridge and its crew in white light casting their dark shadows behind them on the floor. The surface of Sirius raged like a cauldron in hell, rays of light shining up from all angles across the horizon.

The heat, radiation, gravity, magnetic fields, none of it had an effect on the Carl Sagan so long as the overshields worked. Foster’s plan was coming together nicely, the playing field was even, and Marduk would have to force his psionic powers to enter a deep trance to follow, thus limiting his ability to command his ship. If it was too much for him, he would be forced to withdraw to a safe distance all while the interference from the star would make it impossible for sensor scans to work correctly.

The same applied to the Carl Sagan, as they ventured deeper into the corona. ESP was off the table. Both Tolukei and Nereid needed to focus on keeping the overshields up and strong at all times. Should the overshields fail, even for a second, it would mark the end of their journey. A direct hit via a solar flare or continual direct hits from Marduk’s ship could help bring that about. Not to mention their time within the corona was limited as their psionic duties slowly drained their mental energy. Marduk, of course, had to deal with the same challenges on his end, this was a battle to see whose overshields would fail first.

The Carl Sagan continued to drift through the corona for ten minutes, passing by alluring waves of plasma and radiation from the surface of the star. There was no sign of Marduk’s ship, as expected he had no reliable sensor data nor could he risk using his ESP. Both ships were effectively partially invisible to each other as they flew about looking for one another. The windshields became the only reliable means of seeing what was outside, even then with the insane rays of light that were shining through, it was hard, EVE was the only one who was able to look at the windshields without covering her eyes.

Fifteen minutes of silence ensued, everyone kept their focus on their jobs, eying what little reliable computer data they were able to receive. Foster wondered if the feelings she was experiencing were the same as World War II submarine commanders during battle, lurking around looking for an enemy you can’t see, knowing they can’t see you either.

Until it was too late.

“Full stop!” Pierce yelled, breaking the silence.

“Captain?” Chang said, looking at Foster for approval.

Pierce panicked. “Now, now!”

Shit, did he find us? Foster thought, then gave the official order. “Do it, Chang.”

Chang carried out the order and brought the Carl Sagan to a full stop. An enormous solar flare plowed upward in front of the ship. The heat and energy that bled away from the violent arch crashed against the forward section of the overshields until it subsided. The event made Foster grimace and bite her lip.

“That would have been bad,” Chang said. “Can we go?”

Pierce nodded and double-checked his computer. “Yes, we may proceed.”

Foster’s eyes caught a glimpse of a small metallic object far above the horizon as the last remains of the solar flare passed by. “Wait.” She jammed her index finger at it. “There! Follow him.”

The Carl Sagan moved to follow Marduk’s ship as it slipped away out of sight behind the veil of bright light and smaller solar flares. They carefully flew past, and skillfully moved around flares, or spots where flares might potentially erupt, hoping to close the gap and get the drop on Marduk.

“So, I didn’t get the memo on weapons,” Williams said as he turned away from the limited tactical data from the holograms. “Wouldn’t they just vaporize in the heat as soon as we fire?”

“Rail guns, yes,” Foster said as the rear of Marduk’s ship reappeared. “Missiles on the other hand, well our psionic friends are gonna help us out with that. Fire at will, Chang.”

Chang accessed the Carl Sagan’s main weapons control, an error message appeared over the computer screen. “Got no targeting scanners, Captain.”

“Fire from the hip, Tolukei and Nereid will do the rest.”

A blind salvo of missiles exited from the Carl Sagan’s opened ports. They soared away as the invisible psionic minds of the two psionics guided them to their intended targets. Miniature psionic barriers had been erected around the missiles, providing them with temporary protection from the chaotic environment that engulfed them.

The task of keeping the Carl Sagan safe, guiding missiles, and protecting them was no easy task for the duo. The barriers protecting against missiles were nowhere near as strong as the overshield around the Carl Sagan, some missiles had the barrier fail prematurely causing the missiles to detonate and blossom outward before them. Other missiles had to be psionically hurled at Marduk’s ship rather than guided, giving the duo time to focus their minds on newly launched missiles. The missiles that missed their target as a result blossomed outside of Marduk’s overshields when their barrier’s failed.

The Carl Sagan’s overshields flickered rapidly during the exchange, the focus of Tolukei and Nereid was wavering with every missile fired. Minimal progress was made, only 10 percent of the missiles launched hitting their target, a target whose overshields remained solid as if nothing happened. Foster ordered the barrage to halt as Tolukei and Nereid took the time needed to refocus and get the overshields strength back up to where it needed to be.

Foster watched the aftermath in anticipation, hoping that their assault at the very least caused enough of a distraction to break Marduk’s focus. One crack, it was all they needed, and Sirius would do the rest.

His ship remained where it was then pulled forward into the veil of bright coronal light. Visual contact was lost. Pursue or hide, Foster had to choose, and it had to be right now, and its execution had to be flawless.

She ordered for the Carl Sagan to dip closer to the surface, creating a large enough gap should Marduk circle around for a counterattack. They descended closer to the burning surface, blue white waves of solar energy rippled before them via the windshield. The Carl Sagan leveled off before it dipped too far down and resumed their hunt for their foe.

A foe that found them first.

The two ships met head-on, face-to-face. White beams of light blasted away from Marduk’s ship toward them. Chang’s fighter pilot training kicked in, forcing the Carl Sagan to roll, narrowly avoiding the assault. Like the Carl Sagan, Marduk too had targeting issues, though because he used energy weapons he had an advantage, he didn’t need to use his mind to protect or guide the energy discharge.

Marduk’s ship accelerated past them then vanished over the horizon behind once again. The Carl Sagan came about with its missile ports opened and ready to fire. With the two ships in a closer proximity, it should be less work for Tolukei and Nereid to deal with, or so Foster hoped.

Marduk’s ship appeared again, its elevation lower than the Carl Sagan, much closer to the surface as it fired its weapons randomly. None of his shots hit their target, they instantly collided into the surface of Sirius. Chang was seconds away from aiming the Carl Sagan at their prey when he caught sight of small solar flares rising. The Carl Sagan broke off its attack and moved to evade the flare, only for another one to rise, then another. The superheated jets of energy singed the sides of their overshields, the amount of extra focus Tolukei and Nereid displayed on their faces was frightening.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Foster shouted.

“Below,” Pierce said. “He’s closer to the surface. His weapons are increasing solar flare activity.”

Each flare started from a section of the surface where Marduk’s weapons had landed. Foster was wrong, Marduk had indeed hit his target.

The psionic duo was struggling to keep the ship in one piece, and Chang was struggling to keep the ship from plunging downward into the surface as the deadly hands of gravity tried to grab a hold of the Carl Sagan. Tolukei and Nereid’s focus hit a low and it was unlikely they were going to recover quickly anytime soon.

“Let’s face him, bring us lower!” Foster ordered.

“Captain, we might want to consider leaving,” Pierce said. “I don’t think our protection is going to last any longer due to the extra heat being generated by these flares.”

“Dr. Pierce is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “Our overshield strength has dropped seventy percent. We will not be able to maintain our current position for long, let alone venture deeper at this rate.”

Pierce concurred. “Indeed, the surface directly below us is being extremely unstable.”

Foster’s lips curled. “Define unstable, Pierce.”

“Our plasma missiles could probably trigger a flare at this rate,” Pierce said as Foster watched the Carl Sagan dodge four new pillars of raging energy from the surface, created due to Marduk’s weapons. It gave her an idea. “And no, we can’t do that from here if that’s what you’re thinking. The range of Tolukei’s and Nereid’s overshield for the missiles is limited; we would need to lower the Carl Sagan to get in range, which as I said before is not recommended.”

“Why the hell not?”

“The closer we are to the surface, the harder it’s going to be for us to escape now that we’re having issues repelling the pull from the gravity well. We get lower, it’s just going to be that many more kilometers for us to travel to a safe distance, and that much more work to pull away from the gravity. We need to get out of here soon; we don’t have much time left.”

“We pull out now with him close enough to see, there ain’t gonna be anything that will stop him from catching up with us.”

“We stay any longer, and we die.”

The bridge began to rumble violently as if there was a small earthquake in progress, signs that their protection was coming to an end. Foster looked behind at Tolukei and Nereid, their faces full of stress and agony, like someone was forcing them into experiencing a nightmare, beads of sweat floated away from them.

If they left, Marduk would capture them in their weakened state, Earth would fall quickly, and then the rest of the galaxy. Staying meant they’d be tossing their lives in the garbage, but at the same time make Marduk’s invasion of Earth harder to achieve. Foster began to think about the people of Earth, how they’d suffered enough during the Hashmedai invasion. She thought about her mother, what she would have to endure should Marduk arrive. Mike … oh god how she missed him and his charming attitude.

Earth needed a fighting chance, even if it would cost more lives. If there was a chance that even one person might deal that finishing blow to Marduk, they needed to create that platform for it to happen. The Carl Sagan could not fall into Marduk’s hands, the Carl Sagan still had one last opportunity to prevent an all-out invasion in the first place.

“Chang, get ready to take us closer and launch as many missiles as you can,” Foster said.

“Seriously, ma’am?” Chang said.

Foster grinned. “Yes, Siriusly.” She faced the psionic duo and hoped that what she was going to ask wasn’t going to cause them to have an aneurysm due to all the work their brains were going through. “Tolukei and Nereid if you can hear me, do not protect or guide the missiles let them orbit us until I give you the signal.” Foster’s gaze returned to the front. “Pierce, direct Chang to the most volatile area below us.”

Marduk began to step up his effort in triggering more solar flares. His ship circled around discharging its weapons, creating a flaming circle of hell around the two ships as the Carl Sagan descended closer toward the surface. Dozens of plasma missiles orbited around the Carl Sagan like tiny satellites within the quickly failing protection of their shields and overshield. The now unstable surface began to erupt constantly like a volcano, waves of heat and flames shot up toward them as they neared. Marduk’s ship pulled in closer behind them and tried to aim its weapons at the unstable surface directly below the Carl Sagan.

He was right where Foster wanted him.

“Now!”

Tolukei and Nereid quickly irised the shields as they allowed the missiles to fall naturally due to Sirius’s gravity. The missiles quickly fell and exploded over the top of the surface of the star one by one as the Carl Sagan continued to move forward, carpet-bombing the surface in their wake. The missiles blossomed brightly and ignited pillar after pillar of solar flares, each one rising upward seconds after the Carl Sagan flew past.

Marduk’s ship was directly behind when the carpet-bombing began, a single solar flare rose up and consumed his ship, shattering his overshields, turning it into a hulk of melted metal that instantly vaporized.

Too bad Marduk managed to get one last unfocused shot off seconds before his ship was engulfed.

The Carl Sagan moved upward away from the surface, away from the flaming catastrophe growing behind them and toward the stars of space. Sirius gravitational pull was stronger than ever, the psionic duo had all but exhausted their minds. Despite the sub light speed engines engaged, the Carl Sagan was not moving fast enough from the newly created solar flare, one that was four times larger than the area they had been battling in.

Must have used too many missiles … Foster thought amongst the rumbling of the ship and computer terminals overloading.

They continued to push onward, the blinding light that enveloped them for so long, slowly fading away into the darkness. Space and cooler temperatures were near, they just needed to break free.

It wasn’t happening.

The massive solar flare caught up, crashing into the rear overshields. Electronics started to melt, the hull began to melt and buckle as exterior temperatures reached critical levels. The heat within the ship began to rise, as the red hellish hue of flames began to appear outside of the windshield, blocking out the darkness of space that was so close, yet so far away.

Tolukei collapsed, his head smashing against his terminal while Nereid remained standing, and chanted another prayer into her elegantly crafted psionic staff weapon.

41 Chevallier

Lyonria Travel Hub, Tropical Rain forest

SA-139, Sirius A system

May 23, 2050, 01:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Chevallier, along with the rest of her alliance of Hammerhead and Poniga fighters were one room away from clearing the Lyonria hub of all hostile forces. Casualties on their side were acceptable, as room-to-room gun battles raged while they fought their way back to the top spire and the wormhole still feeding them enemy forces.

New overlords had arrived and began to mind-control their dead, only adding to their misery. Should a Hammerhead or Poniga fall in combat, their alliance had to push on without them, Chevallier long gave up hope that reinforcements from the colony would arrive.

The bridge was their only saving grace, a choke point where Marduk’s forces had a difficult time crossing due to its narrow size and lack of railing. The bulk of his fighters remained inside of the room where the wormhole had resided, while Chevallier and her team hunkered down next to the teleportation alcove. Their fighting grew to a stalemate, one that they couldn’t rely on forever. Every minute that passed, more of Marduk’s soldiers arrived, bolstering their numbers, it was only a matter of time before they made an all-or-nothing push across the bridge, forcing them to retreat while the overlords resurrected their fallen grunts.

Chevallier noticed that the gate had changed to a new location. It had connected directly to Marduk’s ship. Most likely because it was faster to send his soldiers directly to the planet rather than Tiamat’s tomb first, given the unexpected resistance and losses they now faced.

“This is pointless, they just keep coming,” Hudson said while his rifle blazed.

“We hold the line here until backup arrives!” Chevallier countered. “This bridge is our choke point, they make it back to this teleporter and they can control this whole hub again.”

“It’s been five hours and we haven’t heard from them!”

“And five hours of fighting and progress I don’t want to give up due to a retreat! We hold the line here, no further will we allow them to cross!” She covered behind a wall to evade streaks of red laser fire. Looking back, she examined the wormhole again and the brightly lit interior of Marduk’s ship. She was surprised how much light was beaming in front of its windows. It was almost as if it was flying inside Sirius. “If we can push pass them, we might be able to take the fight to them.”

Chevallier peered through the scope of her rifle, searching for overlords that may have left themselves exposed. She saw the wormhole flicker suddenly while flames began to burst out from all corners of the interior of Marduk’s ship. The sudden explosions that followed were loud enough to send a thunderous blast throughout the area, while Marduk’s soldiers stopped their attacks and faced the wormhole. Something wasn’t going according to their plan.

They were worried.

And then they were vaporized in the wake of larger eruption as white flames spewed from the wormhole.

“Bordel de merde!” Chevallier yelled when her HUD reported a large surge in UV radiation. Heat followed by an EMP burst killed her shield, suit, and rifle’s power supply.

With the screen inside of her helmet blank, she quickly tore it off and saw the rest of her allies struggling with the same problems, as roaring pillars of flames poured out through the wormhole, incinerating the walls of the box-shaped room, vaporizing the remaining Marduk soldiers and pushing outward.

Chevallier, the Hammerheads, and their Poniga were next. “OK, fuck this, retreat!”

Fortunately for them they were garrisoned next to the teleportation alcove to start with. Everyone, along with their nonfunctioning equipment stormed through into the alcove, which was not affected by the EMP. Chevallier made a mental note about the freak discovery, EMPs have little to no effect on Lyonria technology, it might come in handy one day. She leaped through and was swept away by blue psionic energy, seconds before the incoming mini solar flare arrived.

Her body materialized down below in the main hallways along with everyone else. She leaped and pushed everyone away from the alcove, half expecting the heat to teleport down with them, no such event occurred, only the sound of a massive explosion followed by the rumbling of the Lyonria hub.

The holographic preview screen which normally displayed the room the teleportation alcove was connected to, went blank, with text written in the Lyonria language written across it, an error message most likely. The top spire, box-shaped room, wormhole, and alcove linking to it were obliterated in the explosion.

Chevallier winced and shrugged her shoulders. “Pierce is going to be pissed. He was really looking forward to studying that room when this was all over.”

The winds from the storm began to die down as the hurricane lost its power and pushed deeper into the continent, and with that came the backup they requested, three transports landed next to the entrance to the hub. It was a welcome sight for the survivors of the battle as nearly an hour passed since the explosion took out the top spire. Their equipment never recovered from the EMP burst, leaving them trapped inside until the storm died down.

Chevallier left the hub and stepped next to the opened transport doors, grinning at their late as hell backup. She looked up at the ancient structure still intertwined with the growth of the jungles. Flames and smoke billowed out from the top spire, confirmation that that particular section had indeed been wiped out.

The backup Hammerheads stormed out of their transports, trekking past Chevallier to assist the injured Hammerheads and Poniga. Mavron and Eisila approached her, muttered words in their language to her before offering what appeared to be their way of delivering a handshake. She was impressed at how well they held their ground during the fighting and how well they passed on what she taught them about using combat armor and rifles to their comrades. They’ll need it if they plan to free their people and remove Marduk’s forces on their home world.

“Master Chief.” She turned around and saw Chief Petty Officer Long give her a salute as his armored body stepped away from the transport.

“What took you guys so long?” she asked.

“The shield modifications for the transport gave out on us ma’am. Looks like they were good for one or two runs through the storm at best.”

“Figures.” Chevallier climbed aboard the transport, Long followed behind. “Any word from the Carl Sagan? Interference from the storm should be a nonissue now.”

“Nothing, ma’am, the colony hasn’t received any transmissions either.”

Chevallier grimaced, over six hours had passed since her arrival on the planet, more than enough time for the colony and the transports to receive a transmission. “Anything on scanners?”

“Lot of solar flare activity on Sirius A, that’s it.”

Chevallier thought back to the flare that shot through the wormhole and what appeared to be the destruction of Marduk’s ship.

Did they fight him next to the star? she wondered.

She accessed a nearby computer terminal and began to review sensor logs from the transports and colony. The timing of the discovered solar flares was consistent with the timing of their miraculous escape through the teleportation alcove.

What destroyed Marduk’s ship was a solar flare.

But what would have caused him to travel so close to the star?

Chevallier knew the answer, she just didn’t want to accept it. Because she knew very well if Marduk was in pursuit of the Carl Sagan they too would have been destroyed, after all Marduk’s ship was faster, if he didn’t escape how could they?

Chevallier frantically began to send transmissions to the Carl Sagan on all channels. She gazed at the communication equipment for thirty-five minutes, equipment that remained silent apart from the odd transmission from the colony or the other transports. Her focus and search blinded her to the fact that the transport had long taken off from the jungles and arrived at the colony base camp. And then back up into orbit on patrol, preparing to search for the Carl Sagan. Or its remains. She cringed at the thought of that, but smiled at how everyone followed her lead without question, she was the ranking personnel now.

The three transports leapt out of view into sub light speeds, fanning out to conduct a wider search of the system, starting with the sectors closest to Sirius A. They found nothing of interest, other than the Poniga home world. She looked out of the windshield to get a better view of the planet, baked in a sea of cosmic radiation, heat and light, while multiple blue domes adorned the surface of the planet, while flowing lakes, rivers, forests, and deserts remained inside. Marduk’s handiwork and his means of controlling their species.

“I got something dropping out of sub light,” Long said to Chevallier, bringing her attention back to the matter at hand.

“The Carl Sagan?”

“I don’t know, it’s not transmitting any IFF, and its moving very slow, like slower than this transport.”

The transport slowed and positioned itself to intercept the unknown craft. Chevallier and the crew aboard looked out into the blackness of space and waited in anticipation for what might be coming their way.

The wreckage of Marduk’s ship? Maybe it wasn’t destroyed after all. A Qirak ship? Norauk did mention his people came from another system. The ship appeared before them, it was a smoldering blackened mess, partially melted, riddled with holes. Chevallier’s eyes zeroed in on the name of the ship, ‘ESRS Carl Sagan,’ it was barely legible, but there.

As for signs of life …

The three transports boarded the Carl Sagan. Its docking bay was exposed to space, and the lights on the ceiling had long burned out. Chevallier and several Hammerheads glided out from their transport and navigated their way into the interior of the ship. They arrived at compartments of the ship that were still pressurized; lights flickered on and off like an eerie haunted house.

Magnetic boots clung their feet to the charred floor while flashlights illuminated their way to engineering and the elevator to the habitat ring, what was left of the elevator at least. The stubborn melted doors leading into engineering were pushed open, revealing that the staff inside were alive. Rivera’s hair and bloodied face was a mess, she remained tightlipped about what became of the rest of the crew, still visually shaken at what they experienced.

The habitat ring wasn’t as bad as Chevallier had expected as she looked about upon arriving. There was no gravity as its rotation had long stopped, tables and chairs in the mess hall floated in a messy and disorganized manner while Chef Bailey assessed the damage done to the galley and kitchen equipment. Dr. Kostelecky had her hands full, treating the wounds of crew personnel as she pushed floating debris amongst the darkness out of her way. The Poniga that were still aboard diligently moved their hands about, offering Kostelecky medical equipment and dressing lightly-wounded personnel with bandages, EVE’s flickering hologram helped ease the language barrier.

Chevallier received a communication from Hudson and his team, and they made progress in clearing out the debris that was blocking access to the bridge, an area of the ship that made the crew uncomfortable talking about in the aftermath of what happened.

Chevallier found out why immediately after she arrived. An emergency shutter had dropped from the ceiling, sealing off the main entrance to the bridge from the rest of the ship, a sign that the bridge had been depressurized. Chevallier smashed her fists on the shutter, cursing loudly with each thump. She lowered her head in misery.

“I’m sorry, Chief,” Hudson said to her. “Didn’t realize it was that bad.”

Chevallier pushed her anger aside deep within her mind so that it might remain hidden from the rest of the Hammerhead teams. “Have a small team perform a space walk outside of the main bridge and collect any bodies you can find.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Chevallier hit the shutter once more, to release the last lingering bit of her anger that wouldn’t get bottled up with the rest and then turned away to return to the docking bay. A small thud echoed, prompting her to stop and slowly pivot back around with her magnetic boots. Her helmeted head moved around, searching for the source of the thud. As she did that a second thud was heard. It came from the shutter.

Chevallier’s eyes opened wide, her breathing accelerated, and her feet raced back to the shutter as fast as her magnetic boots would take her. Her fists crashed against the shutter again twice in a quick succession. Two thuds replied.

“Hudson, get back here!” she cried, and poked her thumb at the shutter. “Cancel the space walk, let’s get this shit opened.”

A plasma cutter flared on and moved in a circular motion along the thick metallic shutter creating a long red circle in its wake. Chevallier heckled the Hammerheads to speed up their job as they continued to cut a hole into a doorway that was not long ago believed to have led into a decompressed bridge.

The cutting stopped as a full large red glowing circle was made, Chevallier along with three hulking combat armor bodies pushed against the cut section of the shutter, until an opening was made. The large metallic hulk flipped and spiraled into the bridge, crashing into Foster’s captain’s chair, tumbling aimlessly after it hit.

Her HUD reported safe conditions, amongst the ruined computer equipment and sparks flaring down from the ceiling along with wires and ruptured plasma conduits. The source of the decompression was discovered, the windshield had shattered, it caused her last bit of hope to fizzle out and turn back into despair.

But only briefly.

Blue light shimmered before the damaged windshield. Chevallier stepped over and examined it with her HUD, a psionic barrier.

“I wouldn’t touch that.” It was Williams.

She spun around and saw his battered body rise from the floor next to the cut shutter entrance as the rest of the bridge crew slowly floated their way up from Foster’s office down below. They were alive, every one of them, covered in soot and blood, but alive.

Nereid was the last to emerge, her glowing Voelika shone brightly in her hands, and its glow was in sync with the ripples from the barrier that covered the breach. Foreign chants left her lips the entire time as her eyes remained shut, and her feet on the ground despite the lack of gravity.

Epilogue

ESRS Carl Sagan, Nereid’s quarters

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

June 21, 2050, 12:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

It took almost a week for the Carl Sagan to arrive in orbit around SA-139 due to the extreme damage done to its engines. During that week, transports worked nonstop transporting personnel and equipment on and off the ship to assist in repairs. The habitat ring was one of the first areas restored as it received the least amount of damage. Tolukei and Nereid had used the last of their gifts to strengthen the aft overshields as the solar flare raged behind them during their escape.

An escape Foster had a tough time writing in her logs and reports. By all accounts they should be dead. Tolukei and Nereid had no power left in them to conjure a barrier to protect them from hull breaches, a hull breach Foster clearly remembered happening seconds before she blacked out only to awake in her office with Nereid standing in the middle like a deity performing a miracle, chanting away, and saving their lives.

Three weeks after the Carl Sagan arrived in orbit, repairs throughout the ship had neared completion, while science and exploration teams slowly began to spread out throughout the system to establish outposts, and return the Poniga to their home worlds, along with assistance from a few Hammerheads. Small pockets of Marduk’s soldiers had remained scattered in the system but were in the process of being hunted down or captured day by day. They also provided assistance to the Undine on their world, liberating them from their slavery while EVE accessed data from her captured copy and learnt how to disable the time dilation bubble.

Foster rang the door chime to Nereid’s quarters and was granted entry. To her surprise she wasn’t anywhere in sight. Even more surprising was the fact that her quarters looked exactly how it was presented to Nereid after repairs had been completed, the bed was untouched, the personal computer still had its plastic protective wrapping around it.

“Nereid?” Foster called out to her as she ventured further in.

“Over here,” Nereid’s voice beckoned from the bathing area.

Foster hesitated before opening the door, hoping she wasn’t going to walk into an extremely awkward situation as she heard the shower water running. The doors slid open splashing a small wave of water on top of Foster’s boots. Nereid had flooded the area with shower water in a strange attempt at transforming it into a pool.

Nereid sat up right on the floor of the shower stall naked, soaking wet as if it was a normal thing to do. “What the hell …” Foster groaned while covering her eyes.

“Is there something wrong?”

“I can see a few things.”

“You told me to make myself at home. However, your ship is … dry.” Nereid stood up, having realized that with the door now opened, all the water she had flooded the place with had slipped out onto the floor in her quarters. “And you know that clothing is still a very strange concept to me, it was giving my skin a rash. This is the best I was able to do to make myself at home.”

“On that note.”

“It’s time isn’t it?”

“The Carl Sagan will be spaceworthy in a few hours. With Marduk gone and the time dilation disabled from your world, you can now return to live life as a free person.”

Foster heard Nereid become hesitant for several seconds. “The more time I spend with your crew, the more I remember the life McDowell had, and what it was like to be human.”

“I’m sure in time you will remember them.”

“I am only two years old, my people live between eight and nine years, it’s only now I’ve started to remember his past. I want to remember everything before that time comes, and if I live with my people that might never come. Besides, hundreds of years have gone by since I left due to the time dilation. Everyone I knew must be dead; I am nothing more than a legend now.”

“So, you want to stay with us?”

“Please? At least until I remember everything and experience some of the wonders your people have.”

“Very well but …” Foster pointed at Nereid’s exposed body, the best she could considering she still covered her eyes with one free hand. “You’re going to need to wear clothes.”

“Modify my room so that I may swim through it freely and we have a deal.”

“Rivera and her team have more important duties to deal with.”

Foster heard Nereid’s feet splash against the wet surface toward the shower and it’s still running water flooding the room. “I’ll remain here, out of sight until that happens then.”

“You’ll need to work with the crew as well.”

“I know more about this system than anyone else,” Nereid sat down inside of the shower stall, the spraying water rained down her back and face as she cocked her head backward. The frosted glass cover gave Foster the chance to lower her hand and see normally again, especially at the extent of the water damage done.

I guess Rivera’s team will be up here sooner rather than later … Foster mused.

“Perhaps I could assist Dr. Pierce with his studies?”

“I’ll speak with him when I get the chance.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Bridge

SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

June 21, 2050, 13:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Ah, Becca, you’re just in time,” Williams said to Foster as she entered.

“What’s up?”

He waved for her to join him amongst several holographic projections and a 3D map of the Sirius system. “Our teams on the Poniga home world managed to make a deal in obtaining food supplies. Survey teams on the larger moon around the gas giant want a lift back to the colony. Archaeologist are eager to study the tomb of Tiamat and a team of xenobiologists want to study the aquatic life on Meroien.”

“Jobs that require peaceful exploration and scientific study,” Foster snickered. “That’s weird.”

“It’s almost as if that was our job.”

“Really? I thought it was killing Babylonian gods ‘n’ shit.” Foster faced Chang. “Set a course to the moon of the gas giant.”

Chang punched a series of commands on his helm controls. “Yes, ma’am.”

“The sooner they file their reports the sooner we can get a mine built.” She looked at the restored bridge and the crew carrying out their duties, now free of the thought of all the doom and chaos they’d had to endure since their arrival. “I’ll be in my office. Dom, you have the bridge.”

ESRS Carl Sagan, Captain’s office

En route to SA-239, Sirius A system

June 21, 2050, 13:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster reached down and cracked out the third haggard box lying on the floor of her office. From her point of view, she had handled these boxes a little over a month ago, in reality, they had been sitting around in her quarters for the last seventeen years. Not all her belongings survived the attack; several items and clothes had to be discarded due to the damage. The decor of her office during their voyage to the moon slowly transformed from a boring room with a desk, to one filled with pictures hanging on the wall from Earth, a globe on her desk, and new models of UNE ships in a display cabinet.

She stood with her back toward the window and gazed at the newly decorated office, and the one, final unopened box below her feet, her most prized possession still inside, hopefully still intact.

She reached down to prize the box open when EVE’s voice interrupted her via the intercom. “Captain. Tolukei wishes to know if you have any messages to have telepathically sent back to Earth.”

Foster made a face, having remembered that with the damage done to the Lyonria hub came the stop of the psionic energy powering Tiamat’s tomb and its drone network. The psionic interference that prevented Tolukei from using his telepathy across space was no more. Contact had been made with the UNE, and with that came news of so many advancements and developments they had missed out on during their time in cryostasis.

The crew and colonists took the time to compose messages to friends and family back on Earth, while Tolukei played the role of interstellar postman and psionically transmitted them to a psionic that proceeded to pass the messages on.

“Just one message,” Foster said as she reached back into the final unopened box, wrapping her hands around a tattered solid object. Out from the box came her father’s telescope. Outside of the expected dust and age of the telescope, it was in the exact condition she had left it in when she had packed it away. “Tell mama … tell her we made it,” she said, looking down at the telescope.

Foster smiled warmly at the telescope and perched it on a small table next to her office window. She peered through its eyepiece while her hands adjusted its angle and zoom, a ten-minute stargazing session ensued as she tried to find a particular star no human had seen from their current location.

That star was Sol.

She found it, and zoomed in at its yellow glowing greatness, wondering what people around the third planet were doing, much like she wondered what was going on in the Sirius system when she and her father gazed at it through the very same telescope in her position.

“Papa, I hope you’re proud of me.”

Celestial Incursion

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 facepalm. “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 beelined 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 humanlike 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 Earthlike 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 antihuman.”

“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 tightlipped 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 multileveled 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 Earthlike 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 mazelike 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 Earthlike 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 tradeoff, 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 superheated 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 nonhuman 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 nonverbal 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 superheated 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 bioscan 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 Earthlike 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 humanlike 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 humanlike 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 humanlike 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 facepalm.

“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 wellbeing. 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 nonhumans. 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 Earthlike 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 mindset 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 facepalming.

“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.”

Unsanctioned Reprisal

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 their race. 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

XSV Johannes Kepler 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

Irena Kostelecky – IESA explorer, Chief medical

Species: Human

Dennis Chang – UNE Navy, Flight Lieutenant, and helmsman

Species: Human

Za Saressea – Radiance liaison officer

Species: Rabuabin

Ary Odelea – Scholar, Souyila researcher and Communications officer

Species: Aryile

Mil Tolukei – Radiance Psionic, Lead shipboard psionic

Species: Javnis

Nereid – Shipboard psionic

Species: Undine (humanoid mutant)

EVE – Electronic Versatile Entity, ship AI

Species: Android

Demarion Bailey – Chef

Species: Human

United Nations of Earth

Derek Irons – EDF General

Species: Human

Albert Moriston – EISS Special Agent

Species: Human

Chris Boyd – EDF-1 team leader

Species: Human

Mathilda Chevallier – EDF-1 member

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

Chloe “Gemini-C” Vaughan – EDF Black Ops operative

Species: Human

Sarah “Gemini-S” Vaughan – EDF Black Ops operative

Species: Human

Antonio “Durendal” Cruz – EDF Black Ops operative

Species: Human

Jacob Miles – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Schneider – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Valiyev – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Ingram – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Murphy – UNE Marine

Species: Human

Ella Lynn-Chambers – Human psionic instructor

Species: Human Psionic

Avearan Slaver – Xenobiologist student

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Lisette Bennett – Psionic student

Species: Human Psionic

Brice Blackmar – CO of Amicitia Station 14

Species: Human

Lawrence Mitrovica – Galactic Broadcasting Corporation news reporter

Species: Human

Penelope Diamondrose – Maraschino Hacker

Species: Hashmedai

Devorei – Maraschino Hacker

Species: Aryile

Cody – Terran Legion member

Species: Human

Furnadjiev – Admiral and CO of the ESV Marcus Antonius

Species: Human

Holdsworth – CO of the ESV Ferdinand Foch

Species: Human

Paul – Bartender

Species: Human

Hashmedai Empire

Eensino – Emperor of the Empire

Species: Hashmedai

Kroshka – Empress of the Empire

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Phylarlie Starchaser – Imperial Lord of the Uelcovis system

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Onatiasha Ladyknight – Imperial Guard

Species: Hashmedai

Peiun Starblazer – Rezeki’s Rage Captain

Species: Hashmedai

Alesyna Interloper – Rezeki’s Rage shipboard psionic and first officer

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Manzo Snowwalker – Rezeki’s Rage bridge officer

Species: Hashmedai

Careiah Blossom - Rezeki’s Rage servant

Species: Hashmedai

Uemsu - Rezeki’s Rage gunner

Species: Hashmedai

Nadevina - Rezeki’s Rage helmswoman

Species: Hashmedai

Saubassa - Rezeki’s Rage guardian

Species: Hashmedai

Selnyi - Rezeki’s Rage warrior

Species: Hashmedai

Xiun - Rezeki’s Rage warrior

Species: Hashmedai

Draconian Horde

Lahmu – Dragon Knight

Species: Unknown Draconian

Lahamu – Dragon Maiden

Species: Unknown Draconian

Fighter Number 3,482 – Draconian soldier

Species: Draconian half dragon

Other

Hoylu – Amicitia Station 14 merchant

Species: Qirak

Moe – Pirate ship mechanic

Species: Human

Previously on Splintered Galaxy …

Captain Foster and the crew of the Carl Sagan awoke from an unexpected sixty-eight-year cryostasis sleep, mysteriously arriving back at Earth. Their memories had been wiped out; the last thing they remembered was moving to investigate the cause of a lost Radiance cruiser, the Abyssal Sword, which entered the Sirius system.

Upon their mysterious return to Earth, the dragons attacked and laid waste to the UNE, Imperial, and Union fleets defending their capital worlds. The commanders of the draconic forces, human-looking figures known as the Dragon Knight and Maiden, have the power to render anyone with implants, known as HNI, unconscious. Foster and her crew were in cryostasis when HNI was invented, so never received the implants, thus making them the only people who have a natural defense to their disruptive abilities.

After Foster came into contact with an ancient monolith found on the surface of the planet Jacobus, giving her strange augmentations, it was decided that she and her crew would be given a ship and a new task. Find the homeworld of the dragons, make contact with their leaders, and convince them to end the war, as well as conduct recon and assess the size of their forces, in case peace can’t be reached.

Prologue

Fortune Runner

Asteroid belt, Morutrin system

October 12, 2118, 17:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The shadow of the Fortune Runner darkened a number of rolling asteroids within the Morutrin system as the light from the Morutrin star did its thing. As the name of the ship implied, the Fortune Runner was owned and operated by a group of no-name mercenaries struggling to make a fortune in the lawless system ruled by pirates and crime lords.

The ship was plastered with layers of burn marks and makeshift patches to cover the centuries-old battle damage. Like most ships within Morutrin, it once belonged to the Hashmedai Empire, Radiance Union, or the old Linl republic prior to their species getting assimilated by Radiance. Nobody really remembered who owned the ship originally, just that it had a long history of being abandoned, salvaged, sold, upgraded, shot to hell by pirates, and its crew killed, only for that cycle to repeat.

Needless to say, the technology onboard was an outlandish mixture of old and new gizmos that originated from across the galaxy, including some high tech stuff Earth’s ruling government, the UNE, would rather not see being used, such as the QEC jury-rigged into the ship’s communication equipment. Such a sight caused Special Agent Albert Moriston to shake his head and sigh dejectedly.

I wonder if the artificial gravity generators were plundered from Earth ships too? he thought, while holstering his Radiance made magnetic pistol. The pistol was a far cry from his trusty PPM2-1, but had he brought that, people would start asking questions he’d rather they not ask.

Like why personnel from Earth’s military were in the process of boarding a mercenary ship?

Gunshots, roaring their thundering noises, echoed deep within the old ship. The sounds were clearly bullets fired from magnetic weapons just like he carried and manufactured by Radiance.

Moriston stepped over the bodies of two Hashmedai mercenaries, their brains and blood pooling next to their fallen faces. He strode into the main corridor observing a bullet hole his pistol had made in the wall. It was a small dent with no exiting holes thanks to the low velocity setting he forced the pistol to use. Had it been set to its default setting; the Fortune Runner would be venting its atmosphere.

Two more bangs went off as Moriston’s HNI downloaded a floor plan of the deck he was on. The superimposed hologram appeared in the top right corner of his vision, guiding him to a blue dot that neared him from around the corner.

Turning the corner, he saw a large man clad in an EDF protect suit armor with a magnetic rifle in his hands and dead Hashmedai mercenaries resting against the wall smearing their blood across it.

“Status report, Lieutenant,” Moriston said to him.

The EDF lieutenant faced him. It was Antonio Cruz, better known as his EISS code name Durendal. He stood six feet five in height, towering over Moriston as he gave him a nod and sent revised data via HNI into Moriston’s implants. The crew was eliminated, with the exception of its captain and first officer. Their status within the holographic HNI report was listed as unknown.

“Excellent,” Moriston said as his HNI sent an all clear message to the transport he and his team used to board the ship.

A minute later, Moriston and Durendal were joined by a third party, Devorei, a young, by appearance, Aryile man. He was surrounded by floating holographic windows, his body decorated with punk rock tattoos, hair braided into dreadlocks, and one too many earrings pinned into his ears. Don’t get Moriston started on the piercings the Aryile had across his face, it made him cringe at the fact that aliens were adopting human fashion trends.

With guns drawn, the three made their way to the captain’s cabin. There were two others from Moriston’s team that hadn’t checked in, the two sent to deal with the captain and first officer. Their vitals were green according to HNI scans, and their transponders reported they were still inside the cabin. It was all Moriston had to work with.

Two gunshots went off, followed by the thumps of two bodies hitting the floor. Moriston checked the vitals scan of his team via his HNI. The window that appeared confirmed once again, their vitals were good.

The three stood in front of the door as it opened. Two women dressed in tempting short, tight skirts and heels exited. Both women held smoking magnetic pistols, both were operatives sent ahead of the three to pose as hookers and lure the captain and first officer away from their posts.

It was none other than Gemini-C and Gemini-S, Chloe and Sarah Vaughan respectively, originally EDF soldiers, now turned EISS black op operatives, like Durendal. Behind them were the captain and first officer, the contents of their heads painted the wall a gritty crimson.

“What took you so long?” Moriston asked the two.

Chloe, in a rage, chucked her high-heeled shoes down the hall, opting to stand barefoot on the cold rusty floor. “I fucking hate heels,” she roared.

Her younger sister, Sarah, chuckled. “What she means to say is, she hates the plan.”

Moriston rolled his eyes and proceeded to take his group to the bridge. “The mission? Or the fact you two had to act like hookers?”

“Both …” Chloe grunted.

“I brought armor for you,” Moriston said as they passed the transport docking bay, pointing at their transport. “Suit up fast; we’re pushing the next phase in five.”

The two sisters strode to the transport. Moriston gave their asses a quick glance as they walked over. They’d be suited up and ready for combat soon, it was the last chance for him to sneak a look at their sexiness. Chloe kept her brown hair tied back and simple as possible. Sarah took advantage of their cover and allowed her dyed jet-black hair to run free over her shoulders and down her backless dress. And boy, did she have a back.

The remaining three stormed onto the bridge littered with the corpses of dead Hashmedai and human mercenaries, decorated randomly with ruby oozing holes. Moriston eyed a computer station to the left directing Devorei’s attention to it.

“My turn, I take it?” Devorei asked with a smile.

Moriston nodded. “Quickly.”

Devorei cracked his knuckles, running over to the station like an excited child in a candy store. “They’ll never know what happened.”

The holo screens that orbited Devorei multiplied, each one displaying lines of computer code, illegal computer applications, progress download and upload bars. Holographic padlock icons were unlocked, and new screens appeared as his hands waved about, flipping through the holograms, and using his HNI to become a digital computer mage. Various bridge computers that were locked down activated, namely the helm which Durendal took a seat at. Moriston took the captain’s chair.

The Fortune Runner’s engines activated, and the asteroid filled region of space they were adrift in appeared. Durendal, being the loyal operative he was, followed Moriston’s orders and set the Fortune Runner on a direct course to a large asteroid, turned into a mercenary base, with a shut hangar door.

“Personnel at the merc base wants to know why we’ve changed course,” Devorei said.

“Ignore them, just get those bay doors open,” Moriston spat, and grimaced at the notification his HNI sent him.

They were running out of time.

The Fortune Runner continued to fly toward the mercenary asteroid base. The hangar bay doors remained shut and grew larger in size as they neared.

“Slow us down; I think I’m going to need more time,” Devorei said to Moriston, panicking.

“You said you could hack into their computers, right?”

“Yeah, but they’ve updated their OS—”

“Can you get those doors open before we crash into them or not?”

“I can, I just need more time—”

“Get it done now, we can’t risk slowing down.” Moriston waved his hand and a projection of the system appeared showing Fortune Runner within the belt and a large asteroid half the size of a small moon in the distance. “That asteroid is blocking all scans from the inner planets in this system.”

“Yeah, yeah I know,” Devorei said, returning to his HNI hacking duties. “This base and ship are invisible until we pass it.”

“Then hurry the fuck up. We slow down, and that base will be visible again, and our unexpected boarding.”

“You know if we crash into the doors we’ll probably die, right?”

“These mercs got an alliance with a local pirate group; if they see something is up they’ll swarm in to investigate.” Moriston flicked the projection away, keeping his gaze on the view screen. “Our deaths will be a lot slower in their hands.” Not to mention the Fortune Runner isn’t fast, the pirates will chase. The transport we rode in on isn’t any better and has no shields.

The distance between the asteroid base and the Fortune Runner closed. Durendal expressed concerns for what might come next. Moriston ignored his comments and reminded him how things worked. Moriston was an EISS agent running this op, Durendal and the Gemini sisters were black ops operatives serving under him. He points, they shoot. And right now, he was pointing at the personnel within the base.

The hangar bay doors became large enough on the view screen to encompass it all. They were still shut. Then they weren’t. Devorei delivered the results, forcing them to open, unveiling the idle mercenary ships inside and numerous unused airlocks that brought crew to and from the interior of the asteroid base.

“There we go,” Durendal said, taking a deep breath.

Durendal swung the Fortune Runner to link up with one of the airlocks, giving them access to the interior of the base, and their primary objective. Moriston stood up to leave the bridge with Durendal and Devorei behind him.

“Gemini, take point, we’re moving out now,” Moriston transmitted over their secure HNI comm channel.

“Confirmed, moving out,” Chloe replied.

Shifting through a bunch of holographic windows, Devorei found the one that would allow him to hack and force the airlock doors to open, giving Chloe and Sarah, now wearing their EDF protect suits, access to the base. Magnetic rifles blazed, bullets flew, body parts ripped apart, blood gushed and splattered across the floors, walls, and ceilings. Not one mercenary managed to get a shot off.

Durendal sprinted forward next as the three approached the airlock, assisting Chloe and Sarah with a room by room sweep of the base. Moriston and Devorei followed behind, stepping over the bodies, splashing their boots in the puddles of blood. Devorei cringed at the carnage. Moriston gave no fucks about it, and even took the time to aim his pistol at one mercenary that crawled on the floor with one arm having survived the attack.

Two bullets entered the back of his skull, ejected from Moriston’s weapon. “No survivors understood?”

Durendal nodded, having noticed two human mercenaries beg for mercy. “Yes, sir,” he said, and pulled the trigger, sending their bullet-ridden bodies spiraling backward in a mist of crimson and anger.

The assault and the cries of pain came to a brief halt when they approached the door to the central computer core. It was locked down, and its staff was hiding inside. That was until Devorei hacked and forced it open. Their assault continued, splashing brains, blood, and body parts in every direction.

Devorei moved forward, sat at the primary computer terminal, and reached into his backpack to acquire items from it. Moriston didn’t know, or care, what devices Devorei took out, just that he knew hackers like him made heavy use of hardware mods to enhance their hacking abilities. One particular device looked like an oversized data crystal. Devorei plugged the contraption into the side of his head and then went to work.

“Is what we need in there?” Moriston asked Devorei, standing behind him.

“Oh yes, and a lot more.”

“I don’t care for the lot more; just get what we came for.”

“Working on it.”

“How long?”

“Like two seconds?” Devorei said as he enlarged two holographic windows. “Okay done, want it via HNI?”

Moriston held out his hand. “No, I need a hardcopy.”

A smaller data crystal was inserted into Devorei’s wrist. After a three second delay, he unplugged it, handing it off to Moriston. “So, about my payment?”

“I got it for you right here,” Moriston said, placing the barrel of his pistol to the back of Devorei’s head.

Aryile brain matter and blood splashed across the computer. Devorei’s limp body fell over and his holograms instantly vanished.

Moriston placed the data crystal in his pocket, and faced Chloe, who stood at the doorway, watching with a perplexed look on her face. “As I said before, no survivors.”

It was time to go, and he ordered his team to make their escape. Chloe, however, remained standing at the doorway to the computer core, watching Devorei’s end intently. He grimaced at the sight. She was a black ops agent, not the heroine of Earth. Doing secret dirty work in the name of Earth was her life, not getting soft and emotional over what transpired.

“Colonel, let’s move,” he shouted to Chloe as he kept his gaze forward, walking away with the rest. “Our window for escape is closing.” There was no answer, then, no Chloe as he turned around and saw she wasn’t standing at the doorway. “Where the fuck did she go?”

Sarah and Durendal stopped, looking back with Moriston in regard to Chloe’s sudden disappearance. Sarah looked extremely concerned about what became of her sister. “Chloe? Let’s not fuck around with this,” Sarah said.

Moriston’s HNI informed him that Gemini-C, Chloe, had disconnected from their network. “You two go on ahead,” Moriston said to Sarah and Durendal. “I’ll deal with her.”

Moriston stormed back to the computer core where Chloe most likely had run to. He discreetly brandished his pistol once Sarah and Durendal left visual range.

Disloyal operatives had no place in his grand plans for the UNE.

A UNE where humanity would be given the rights and treatment it had been denied, thanks to aliens, in the complicated galaxy they all called home.

The Splintered Galaxy.

1 Foster

Abandoned Shop

Pictor, Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 04:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The city of Pictor was the largest human settlement on the planet Jacobus, was being the keyword. Pictor, like all cities on the planet, had been reduced to a desolate war-torn wasteland minutes after the Draconian horde and their bio-ships unleashed a scourge of dragons onto its surface. The remains of incinerated bodies blew in the winds, and the fires that broke out a month and a half ago continued to burn. The dragons that made it happen now claimed the skies as their domain of this super-earth world, while others patrolled around strange constructs being built by their humanoid-dragon workers.

The mountainside complex Captain Rebecca Foster had been stationed at briefly, before getting her command back, could be seen in the distance. It served as a reminder to her as she gazed at it through the shattered window in the shop, how different things would have been had she remained at her post and not gone sightseeing.

I probably wouldn’t be standing here now, she thought, and gave the battered city outside another look, pondering if this was the fate Earth, Aervounis, and Paryo were facing had they not been successful in repelling the Draconian fleet’s advancements.

She took a bite of a chocolate bar, swiped from a box within the storage room of the shop. It’d been ages since she had one, almost seven decades if one were to include the years she spent oversleeping in cryo. The blue light from the mysterious tattoos that covered her hands, arms, and other parts of her body glowed. The most recent bite of the chocolate bar reminded her of their existence, and the reason why she and her crew made the unexpected detour back to this planet.

Somewhere out there was the strange monolith that gave her the tattoos and its strange powers. Somewhere out there were the answers to the many questions she needed answered, before her mission to find the Draconian horde’s home continued. That and, Earth’s military needed the assistance of her crew. It wasn’t a request one could walk away from without repercussions.

“Okay, let’s try this one,” Flight Lieutenant Dennis Chang’s voice transmitted over the comm channel from a wrist terminal.

The sound of his voice took her away from the shattered window. She returned back into the darkened and cluttered aisles of the shop, stepping over overturned product display shelves with their items flung across the floor. Foster found her team mulling about next to a holographic music player.

She brought four members of her crew with her, Doctor Travis Pierce, Commander Dominic Williams, Mil Tolukei, and Scholar Ary Odelea. Naturally, only Odelea and Pierce kept themselves busy. Pierce tapped new data into small holo screen that appeared above his wrist terminal. Odelea analyzed data she had floating next to her via holographic screens generated by her HNI.

Chang was aboard the Johannes Kepler which remained in orbit, evading detection from Draconian ships, as he remotely controlled the holographic music player, using it to play tunes from his playlist. One catchy song began to play, one Foster recognized from the days before the human race took to the stars. It was a song that came out long before she was born, early 1980s judging by the sounds of it.

“This sounds familiar,” Odelea said, lifting her gaze away from the holo screens she had previously been buried in.

“Whoa, wait, Odelea’s playing?” Chang’s voice transmitted.

“I’m updating my observations in regarding to the Draconians,” Odelea said. “But remember, I did study the human race and its languages prior to Radiance’s first contact with your kind. That included music.”

“Odelea isn’t from Earth or human, and she’s about to win this round,” Chang’s voice said. “Come on, Pierce and Williams, you can do this.”

Williams shook his head as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “No clue.”

“Billie Jean,” Pierce added, lowering his wrist terminal’s holo screen from his sight.

“By?”

Pierce tried and failed to hide his smirk. “Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, come on, everyone knows this song.”

“Everyone except Williams,” Chang transmitted.

Foster joined the bunch, finishing her chocolate bar. “What in the hell y’all doin’?”

“Trying not to fall asleep,” Williams grunted.

“We’ve been here for thirty hours, Captain, we are all bored,” Chang transmitted.

“We move out when the Marines tell us its safe,” Foster said. “Until then, we sit here and figure out what in the hell them dragons been up to.”

“And there’s the problem, we know the Marines passed through this area, and uh, that’s it,” Chang said.

“I’m ready to check that shit out,” Williams muttered, and pointed at a strange construct being built by the Draconians in the distance, visible from the shop’s ruined front entrance. “Isn’t that the real reason why we wasted a month and a half of our lives flying here?”

Williams wasn’t wrong. Once word had gotten out that the Draconians did more than take over the planet, plans had been drawn up by the UNE military with the assistance of Foster and her crew of the Johannes Kepler, to land and investigate. Numerous constructs were appearing across the surface of the planet, the largest one appeared over the ancient city, where the golden monolith was that gave Foster her tattoos and its powers. It was no coincidence that the Draconians built it there. They too knew there was something very special about it.

Of course, with the wormhole leading into the Kapteyn’s Star guarded by Draconian force forces twenty-four-seven, meant the only way to enter was via a long FTL flight from the Gliese 1061 system, some three point seven light-years away. The plan was simple, enter via FTL, then create enough havoc to force the Draconian ships away from the wormhole, so the navy could send a small fleet through.

Naturally, this act went against Foster’s original plan of showing the Draconians that Earth, the Empire, and Union were not their enemies, as this was a straight-up military operation that saw a few battles flare up in random parts of the system. But the risks needed to be taken, they needed to see exactly what was being built, and Foster needed to recommunicate with the monolith and see if there was something more that could be learnt from its secrets.

And maybe get the heads-up if it’s possible to remove these damn tattoos. They get super itchy when they glow blue like this, Foster mused while her hands continued to glow. “Yeah it is, but you know the drill? Marines do recon first, and then we move. We’re the galaxy’s golden boys and gals, if the dragons eat us for lunch because we didn’t take the time to look before we leaped, well, you know.”

“Okay enough talk, back to the music,” Chang’s voice returned.

Foster shook her head. “Oh please.”

“Captain, you should join us.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Okay, here’s the next song, and like the last one, it’s a classic.”

The music player flashed as it began to play a new song, one that started with a saxophone solo, an alluring one at that. “Chang, what are you trying to do? Get us in the mood?” Williams said.

“Oh, this brings back memories,” Pierce said.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the only one that was around when this came out,” Chang transmitted. “Hold on, guys, I’ll be right back.”

A few seconds had passed while the song played and echoed through the ruined store and out into the abandoned streets of the city. With the exception of Pierce, nobody else recognized the lyrics of the song.

“I’m Never Gonna Dance Again.” Nobody else, but Tolukei that was.

Everyone gave Tolukei a confused glare. Even Odelea, who had briefly returned to her analysis of the holograms around her, had taken notice that the Javnis psionic, of all people, knew the song.

“How did you know that?” Foster asked him.

“I had the … unfortunate pleasure of participating in a human ritual, Flight Lieutenant Chang, held in his quarters, during our journey to this world,” Tolukei said in his all too familiar monotone voice.

“And what ritual was that?”

Tolukei sighed, shutting all four of his eyes. “I believe it was called, karaoke night.”

“Since when did we have a karaoke night?”

“Since we made the long and uneventful month and half flight to this planet,” Pierce said. “I believe you opted to go into cryostasis, Captain.”

“What the hell else were we going to do during that time?” Foster spat.

Pierce shrugged. “Participate in karaoke night, evidently.”

“I can’t imagine Tolukei singing karaoke,” Foster said, imagining an alien like Tolukei singing karaoke with no shame.

“It was a … regretful experience,” Tolukei said, and meandered out of sight into the storage room Foster was in previously.

Chang’s music continued to play while the sounds of a struggle and yelling from the outside caught her attention, barely. The music was loud enough to drown most of it out. Foster moved to the front entrance of the shop and looked outside at the post-apocalyptic city streets, trying her best not to imagine the last moments of the dead bodies in the streets.

She didn’t see anything out of the norm at first. What she did hear was gunshots, then particle beam blasts, and the roars of dragons. They didn’t sound happy. Shit.

Four Marines, wearing exosuits, ran out from an alley with their rifles in hand. Last time Foster checked, they had moved out in groups of six. Marines leave no one behind, unless they were vaporized by tachyon blasts, like the six beams that fired past them.

Foster was quick and dashed back inside. So were the four Marines that saw her and took cover behind the overturned shelves of the shop. She recognized the Marines. They were part of a group that led Foster and her team into the shop to stay low as they scouted ahead. The leader of the team, a man with red hair and a thick beard, placed his index finger to his lips making a shush noise. It was Lieutenant Jacob Miles.

“Is he shushing us?” Williams said to Foster, having seen the four burst in.

“Turn off the music,” Corporal Valiyev whispered.

Miles hastily peeked outside with his weapon drawn and its barrel hungry for combat, while Private Ingram joined him. Private Murphy moved to the back where the holographic music player continued to blast George Michael’s singing. “All right guys shut it down.”

Williams went to do just that, tapping the holographic stop button on the player. The music continued to play. “How do you turn off the fucking radio?”

“Just hit the off button,” Foster said, walking back to him.

Williams’ finger did so, nothing happened. “It’s not working.”

Foster lifted her wrist terminal to her face. “Chang, radio silence, now.” There was no reply. “This is Foster to Chang, are you there?”

The comm channel remained silent. Silent being something Foster needed the music player to become as she quickly realized it was blowing their cover. George Michael’s sexy voice was luring Draconian forces to the area. The four Marines retreated away from the shop’s entrance, hunkering down at the small area where Foster and her crew had remained for the last few hours.

Wyverns were heard screeching in the skies above, and Draconian soldiers marched in the streets following the sound of the music that wouldn’t stop. The humanoid dragon soldiers eventually stepped inside the shop, their helmeted heads and rifles conducted a search.

No further words needed to be spoken. Everyone ducked behind debris or product shelves, remaining out of sight from the Draconian soldiers, all while the holo music player hovered, shined, and blasted the tunes.

“Kill the music or they kill us,” Miles whispered.

“We can’t!” Williams said, trying one last time to shut it down before diving back into his cover.

There were seven Draconian soldiers in total from what Foster was able to count. They fanned out with their heads bobbing up and down looking for the source of the music, and the humans that thought it was a good idea to play. The Draconian soldiers spoke with one another in their language. Discussing a battle plan? Issuing orders?

Foster had no idea, nor did everyone else around her, except for one person. She faced her and whispered. “Odelea, over here.”

Odelea crawled over to Foster’s cover, without making a sound remarkably. Foster wasn’t sure if it was the fact the skinny Aryile girl weighed no more than a hundred pounds, or the fact her species, in ancient times, were heavily hunted by predators and were quite adept at sneaking about undetected.

“What are they saying?” Foster silently asked her, while pointing at the conversing Draconian soldiers.

Odelea listened in, carefully doing whatever it was her brilliant brain did to translate mysterious languages on the spot. “He seems to be their leader, he’s ordering them to find the survivors.”

“Survivors?”

Odelea’s lips moved, but no words came out. The sound of gunfire from the four Marines was much louder than her. Tachyon rifle fire erupted next, mixed in with Miles’ voice, issuing orders to his team. A full-blown indoor battle ignited, and all that Foster and her crew could do was duck, remain prone, and hope no stray shots hit them.

Especially tachyons, as they vaporized most things they hit.

2 Peiun

Atrium Arm, A-OK Fourteen Pub

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 13, 2118, 04:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Peiun Starblazer of the Imperial navy double-checked the current time using his HNI. He was on time, one minute early in fact, his contact better be as well, unlike the last. His captain’s Imperial uniform attracted the stares of the multispecies atrium as he strode to the A-OK pub. He liked the nonverbal respect he received and hoped his contact would show him the same respect when they meet. A Hashmedai man dressed as he was sent a powerful message after all, one of intimidation.

Various species from across the galaxy passed through the entrance of the pub, most of them nonhuman, understandable given the time. Some wobbled with the smell of alcohol on their breath, others not so much. Peiun went to make his appearance inside after flicking a small piece of lint off his shoulders. First impressions were critical going forward.

His body was briefly denied entrance, accidently of course. He bumped into a fellow Hashmedai, a young woman with long silver hair. Of course, watching where you are going is just as important as first impressions … A gentle smile and nod followed as the two entered.

The pub was lightly attended much to Peiun’s delight. It would be easier to spot his contact and reduce the chances of too many ears overhearing what would be spoken. Best part of it all? Peiun was able to find his contact right away, without meandering from table to table. His contact was sitting at a remote table in the far right-hand corner of the establishment, nursing a small glass of ale.

Peiun sat with his contact, an average-sized Qirak male. Its head had to tilt up, way up, to make face-to-face contact with Peiun as it spoke. “Greetings my friend, you come seeking knowledge, yes, yes?”

Peiun relaxed in his chair, as blissful frigid air cooled his body after it detected he was Hashmedai. “I have, Hoylu.” That was his name, right? Peiun thought as the Qirak’s head curved to the side. “That’s why we agreed to meet here, is it not?”

“Ah, please forgive, Hashmedai; all Imperial navy officers look the same to me.”

“Do you have the information I seek?”

“Do you have the payment I seek?”

Peiun produced his credit chit from his chest pocket and showed its small digital screen so Hoylu could read the number of credits he was willing to deposit into his account.

Hoylu’s ratlike nose and whiskers twitched. “Oh … that’s it?”

“Three thousand credits,” Peiun said. “It can all be yours, Qirak, if you accept.”

“Three thousand Earth credits …” Hoylu said with disappointment. “Three thousand Radiance credits, yes, that could be a temping offer, but Earth credits?”

“It’s all I have. As you know, my species does not use a currency system.” Peiun’s recent memories of him spending days hauling goods across the galaxy on his free time to human merchants came back into his thoughts. It was the only way for him to earn credits, and if Hoylu didn’t accept, well, then he wasted his time and his crew’s. The Rezeki’s Rage was a warship, not a cargo hauler.

Hoylu pushed the credit chit, still jammed in his face, away forcing Peiun to pull it back. The message was clear, no deal. “Do you have any jewels, perhaps?” Hoylu asked.

“I do not.”

“Gold?” Peiun shook his head no. “Platinum?”

“You can buy those with these credits.”

“But not enough!” Hoylu jubilantly exclaimed. “Earth credits slipping thanks to the Draconian attacks, Radiance credits, are rising.”

“Every nation has been attacked,” Peiun said as his arms crossed.

“Not the Qirak! Let’s not forget, Earth suffered the most. Draconians spent more time on Earth, took away the Kapteyn’s Star system and attempted to take Sirius! Earth credits fall, Radiance credits rise!”

“I have nothing else to offer you then, my friend.”

Peiun went to pocket his credit chit, sighing loudly in the process as he glared at the display, surprised how badly the UNE economy had been doing. He was surprised to see the screen had changed. The balance in his account had increased, a lot. It was an exuberant number, and one he had no memory of earning. He continued to eye the screen, certain that it was a computer error.

It was no error. Tapping through it revealed he had a balance of over three hundred thousand Earth credits, and it had been there the whole time. He quickly adjusted the offer he made to Hoylu, held the screen out for him to see, and hoped if it was a computer error that it would attempt to correct itself after the transaction had been made.

“How about now?” Peiun said, smirking.

Hoylu’s eyes opened wide, while his hands rubbed together with excitement. “Oh … okay, this number could work, many, many new zeros added to the end of your original offer.”

“So, we have a deal then?”

“Yes, yes! We have deal, Hashmedai.”

A chime sounded, notifying him of the completion of the transaction into Hoylu’s credit chit. Out from Hoylu’s sack he had lying on the chair next to him was his holo pad. His tiny hands swiped and tapped across its UI. It was a reminder to Peiun and the rest of the patrons in the pub, that most Qirak never got HNI implants, nor did any Qirak controlled world get attacked by the Draconian horde. I wonder if there’s a connection.

Hoylu’s holo pad created a floating holographic document icon between the two. Peiun grabbed the icon and slid it into his HNI received files folder. A prompt appeared over his eyesight notifying him the file transfer process was in progress. The spinning notification froze suddenly, computer lag he figured. It was strange considering he was using military grade HNI, the best the Empire had to offer. Transferring a small document from a holo pad to his HNI should not have generated any lag.

Five seconds after the lag faded, the transfer completed. Quick checks of the document revealed it had the intel he was seeking, and there was no file corruption as he feared due to the lag.

“This is everything I know about what you seek,” Hoylu said. “I’ve been selling tools to a group of Hashmedai that come to the station for supplies … human tools.”

“Go on,” Peiun said as he skimmed through the document’s contents superimposed over his eyesight.

“Hashmedai tools fix broken Hashmedai equipment, human tools fix broken human equipment,” Hoylu said drily. “Makes you wonder, why they need those tools?”

“You kept track of them, I see.”

“Of course! They came to me over merchants that sold human tools. They had to fix something they didn’t want humans to know about. There was just one problem, I didn’t have a spanner in my inventory, but I made a promise I’d have a brand-new one the next time they returned to the station.”

“Ah, so you plan on dealing with them again? When will you see them?”

“They were supposed to visit days ago, but never returned!” The best way to enrage a Qirak was to get them fantasizing about a trove of wealth you could give them, then not deliver the results. Hoylu’s newfound tone of voice was proof of that.

I’m glad his species isn’t violent; the number of lives that would have been taken because they were cheated would be uncountable.

“I lost expected income,” Hoylu’s carrying voice continued. “So, I sell this data to you to make up for it!”

Peiun minimized the holo document. There was a lot of content to be read, too much for him to bother with alone. Delegating members of his crew to sift through it was in order. Besides, he couldn’t shake off the thought of the credits that mysteriously appeared in his account. Times were tough with the lives, ships, and bases lost to the Draconians. No human would carelessly overpay for a shipment of live poultry and their unhatched eggs, humans loved to feast on as their first meal.

“Thank you for your time,” Peiun said, bidding farewell. Hoylu settled up with the human bartender, Paul, and took his leave.

Peiun was ready to do the same, minus the settling up, as he ordered no beverages, only intel that would aid him in the mission personally assigned to him by the empress herself.

Or so he thought, Paul placed a beverage before Peiun.

The beverage was one Peiun had never seen. It was white and creamy, cold to the touch, very cold in fact, he liked it. The mysterious drink was likely something of human origin, so he was unsure of what to make of its contents, why it was offered, or why a blood-red orb of human fruit was on the top middle of it.

“This is a little gift for you, pally,” Paul said to him.

Peiun held the glass the beverage was in. It wasn’t just cold it was ice cold, and its ingredients had to have been kept frozen, rather than cool. He liked it even more. “What sort of concoction is this?” Peiun asked.

“That’s what we call a spiked Milkshake,” Paul explained. “Bourbon, milk, and ice cream fused together and topped with a maraschino cherry.”

“Fascinating.”

“Should be good for you Hashmedai folks, not sure about the cherry, but the gal up front ordered it for ya, and she’s one of your kind.”

Peiun’s eyebrow lifted with intrigue. “Who might you be referring to?”

Paul pointed at the vacant seats next to the bar, he winced. “Well shit, she was there. Thought she was your new girl, you two did enter together.”

“I entered alone.”

“Well, looks like you lost your chance to enter her bed too, ‘cause she’s gone,” Paul said drily. “Good thing she paid upfront for it, the bourbon I have came straight from Earth. That shit ain’t cheap to have it hauled here, especially since the attacks.”

Peiun took a sip of the spiked milkshake, indulging in the creamy texture, sweet flavors, and enticing bourbon alcohol. He pushed the glass away from his lips, lips that formed into a smile. “This is …”

“Yeah, I know, not something a sailor like you should be drinking,” Paul said.

“This is a drink fit for the most cunning warrior.” Peiun held the drink high up, ready to let out a battle cry.

“It’s a milkshake with booze, buddy.”

“The work involved in putting it together, combined with its taste … not any fighter should drink it.” He loved the drink and faced Paul. “Only those deemed worthy enough.”

“Right …”

Paul left Peiun alone for him to gulp the rest of the drink. Human milkshake, it was a warrior’s drink. He’ll have to inform his crew about this incredible discovery. There was no doubt in his mind, this drink empowered human warriors, Marines, to rise up and defeat the Empire a century ago, despite being a technology primitive species at the time.

Peiun got up after his drink was finished, waving goodbye to Paul with his brawny arm as he ventured to the exit. The exit … it reminded him about the woman he bumped into when he entered earlier, the one Paul thought he was with, the one that bought him the drink. Curiosity led him to activate his HNI and review his recorded memories of that encounter not long ago. He’d bedded a number of women during his days as a low-ranking crewman, serving aboard Imperial warships on the fringes of Imperial controlled space. Perhaps she was one of them who recognized him?

What his eyes saw as he was entering the pub replayed before him via HNI. He looked down to ensure his outfit was free of lint, moved forward at the same time, and then …

And then an error message appeared.

The video playback resumed with him sitting to speak with Hoylu. He gave the side of his head a soft slap, not that it would make his implants work better. Repeated attempts to replay the memory netted the same results, the moment he was to lay eyes on her brought forth error messages. Drinking was known to affect one’s ability to interface with one’s HNI. However, he was not one to suffer from such effects, the fact he was walking straight, yet distracted by a video replay before his eyes, was proof of that.

Then there was the strange lag that froze the file transfer of the document he received, lag military grade implants should not have gotten, unless, perhaps, they had become damaged. He never did have the integrity of his implants examined in the aftermath of the attacks, and for good reason. HNI repairs came with neural surgery he’d rather avoid. He had a mission to complete, and neural surgery would only delay that.

He double-checked to ensure the document he paid a lot of credits for was still good. It was. He gave it another read through as he rode an escalator up to the upper levels of the atrium, on a course to the trains that would take him back to the Hashmedai Arm of the station.

In the document, Peiun found the name of the ship the men operated on that Hoylu did business with. Its name was the Fortune Runner.

3 Foster

Abandoned Shop

Pictor, Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 04:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

In the background, the last minute of I’m Never Gonna Dance Again played, serving as the war drum for the Marine’s deadly combat situation. It was the last song anyone would have expected to be blasting during a time like this. It also was the last song Murphy heard in his life. He was hit dead-on with three back-to-back tachyon blasts, vaporizing his body instantly, his shields shattering long before they entered.

Murphy’s death was promptly avenged when Ingram dove and rolled across the floor to a new source of cover. The move had the remaining three Draconian soldiers focused on tracking her, and less on Miles who delivered a gruesome headshot to one Draconian with a particle beam, turning its head into embers and ash. With two targets left, Valiyev shot out the legs of one, sending it to the floor yelping. Ingram vaporized the remaining one when it failed to dive for cover in a timely manner upon realizing it was alone.

Miles, Valiyev, and Ingram rose from their cover, the machine joints of their exosuits clanged and cracked. They performed a brief perimeter check with their weapons drawn and their hunter’s instincts on full alert.

“Clear!” Ingram called out.

Lowering his rifle, Miles nodded and returned to Foster. He gave her and her crew the okay to escape from their half-vaporized cover, as the holographic music player loaded a new song from the 1980s. “Is it really that hard to turn off the fuckin’ music?”

“Okay, that’s a new voice,” Chang’s voice transmitted.

Foster spoke into her wrist terminal. “Chang, what the hell?”

“What?”

“Dragons don’t like your playlist.”

“You know you could have turned it off, right?”

“I tried that,” Williams cut in. “Couldn’t get it off.”

“Just hit the stop button,” Chang transmitted.

Williams stared at the music player, shaking his head in frustration. “Yeah, no shit.”

“Did you double-click it?”

Williams cringed. “… No.” His finger double-tabbed the floating off button, and the music player faded from existence. “Why the hell—?”

“Do you have to double-tab it?” Chang transmitted. “It’s so if you’re dancing and jamming, your waving hands won’t accidently shut it off if they pass through the holo interface.”

“Chang, where the hell were you?” Foster asked, as she watched Ingram sift through the pile of ash and melted metal that was once Murphy, searching for his dog tags.

Chang replied. “I went to grab a coffee, what’s up?”

More gunfire prompted Foster to assume the prone position once again while the three Marines directed their rifles back into combat. Two new Draconian soldiers had arrived, yelling and pointing at them, no doubt alerting every dragon on the planet to their current location.

“We’re under attack!” Foster yelled into her wrist terminal as tachyon beams soared over her head.

“And we’re probably gonna die because you were blasting George Jackson,” Miles commented from his cover adjacent to Foster’s.

“It was George Michael, actually,” Chang snorted.

“Chang!”

Tolukei made a hasty reappearance from the back stockroom of the shop he had wandered off to before the fighting. A purple psionic barrier protected his cybernetically augmented body, while the mechanical joints of his hands and arms began to glow orange, he creeped over to Foster and Miles’ cover.

“It would appear we’re under attack,” Tolukei said to Foster.

“Yeah, no shit!”

Miles faced Tolukei grinning. “Fuckin’ A, psionic support! Light ‘em up, pal.”

Tolukei glared at Foster with his leathery reptilian face and four eyes. “Shall I assist them, Captain?”

“Buddy, really?!” Miles spat.

“I have pledged my allegiance to the Radiance Union, Captain Foster, and her crew,” Tolukei explained. “However, I am not obligated to follow the direct orders of the UNEMC, and so—”

“Tolukei, just make the bad guys go away!” Foster roared.

Tolukei nodded and stood, unfazed by the tachyon beams impacting against his psionic barrier creating a splendorous show of white and purple colors. “As you wish, Captain.”

The rubble and knocked-over shelves the two Draconian soldiers used as cover floated away as Tolukei waved his hands about almost like an orchestra conductor. His fist lunged forward as if he were making a punch, and an orb of lavender plasma propelled away from it, hitting the first Draconian soldier square in the chest. It’s dragon-like armor melted to its flesh due to the intense heat. A second and third blast from Tolukei’s psionic plasma ensured the Draconian never moved again.

Foster didn’t catch what happened to the second one, whom also was exposed from cover when Tolukei’s telekinesis went to work. But the bloody mess on the wall, with a fog of steam rising from it, suggested one of the Marines got a bit trigger-happy.

Tolukei turned away from the carnage as if nothing happened. The floating rubble and shelves his mind had levitated came crashing down in an instant with a sudden thud.

“You guys good?” Chang transmitted to Foster’s wrist terminal.

She stood once again and went to speak in her terminal, hoping that was it for ambushes. “Yeah, we’s good, Chang.” Facing Tolukei she said, “Get us out of here.”

Tolukei gave her a subtle nod and informed everyone around him to gather closer to him. He placed his hands together, shut all four eyes, and controlled his breathing, which in turn resulted in the implants across his chest glowing bright colors. A psionic teleportation was in progress to take them back aboard the Johannes Kepler, still in orbit.

As effective as teleports were to get one out of danger, they were something you couldn’t rely on. Teleporting during combat was next to impossible due to the number of distractions around the psionic. Adding to that, mass teleportation had a windup time of at least four to ten seconds, depending on how powerful the psionic was and their current mental state. If their concentration was broken, even for a split second, that could reset the four to ten second windup time, and that was assuming the psionic was only teleporting themselves and perhaps two other people. Tolukei was being tasked with teleporting the three Marines, Foster, Williams, Odelea, Pierce, and himself onto a small ship in orbit of a super-earth planet. It was no easy task.

“Wait,” Odelea said, midway through Tolukei’s trance and enlarged her holo notes. “The survivors.”

“What survivors?” Foster asked her.

“I’m pretty sure those assholes were referring to us,” Miles said. “We’re all that’s left of our team.”

“No, not by what I heard them yell during the fight,” Odelea said, walking away from Tolukei, forcing him to end his teleportation trance and the lightshow his cybernetics were making.

“What did you hear, Odelea?” Foster asked, following Odelea into the shop now littered with the remains of fallen or half-vaporized Draconian soldiers.

Odelea waved her hands, creating a new holographic note to appear and float next to her face. “They were referring to someone else,” she said.

“Maybe us?”

“How? They didn’t know we were here. They were shouting about the survivors when they entered.”

Odelea pushed her hologram away and lowered herself to examine the bodies of the Draconians. Miles joined the two, shaking his head. “The hell she plan on doing? Askin’ ‘em questions?”

Foster shrugged. “Probably.”

“Hey, buddy?” Miles said to a fallen Draconian. “Any idea what you meant by survivors?” Silence fell as one would expect. “Hmm, no answer, eh?”

“Must be because his face got vaporized,” Foster said, pointing out the fact the Draconian Miles spoke to had no head, and blackened burn marks on the stump where its neck used to be.

“Oh, really?” Miles chuckled and kicked the headless body. “I thought it was because, maybe, I don’t speak its fuckin’ language?”

“I do,” Odelea said, rolling one Draconian body over.

Foster and Miles stood above Odelea and the fallen Draconian. Its upper body had little to no gunshot wounds or small vaporized holes, while its lungs continued to draw in air. Odelea’s face lowered to its head and began speaking to the Draconian in its own language.

The light glowing from Foster’s tattoos caught her attention. She raised her hands in front of her face, examining the strange hieroglyphs grafted into her skin. The glowing had intensified, almost as if they were reacting to the presence of the Draconian below her.

She lowered her hands just above the body of the Draconian. The luminosity of the blue hieroglyphs increased.

“Anything?” Miles asked Odelea who had been speaking with the Draconian in its strange language for the past minute.

“I can’t hear it very well; its helmet is in the way, so to speak.” Odelea’s slender hands unsuccessfully tried to pry the helmet off the Draconian. “If we can get it off …”

“Good luck with that, eh?” Miles said, patting on her exposed shoulders. The top she wore was a size too big for her small body. He cringed slightly upon noticing, and probably remembered that Aryile women often applied cosmetics to their shoulder and neck scales. “Those helmets are damn near impossible to rip off without a plasma torch.”

“We have to try,” Odelea said, making another attempt to yank the helmet off. “I’m almost positive the survivors weren’t us, or your team.”

Miles pushed Odelea aside, and her slender body tumbled to the floor. His rifle took aim at the joints that held the Draconian’s helmet to the rest of its armor. “Particle beam should do the trick—”

“No! We can’t risk it!” Odelea retorted, leaping back to her feet.

Miles continued to aim the barrel of his rifle down. “Ain’t got any other options, other than yer psionic friend rip it off with telekinesis.”

“Would you like me to attempt it?” Tolukei asked.

“I got a better idea,” Foster said, gazing at her glowing hands.

She kneeled next to the squirming Draconian. The closer she got, the brighter the glow her tattoos made. When her hands touched the warm surface of the Draconian’s armor, she felt the electronics within it, the computer systems that regulated the life-support, communication, and more. Her mind became one with the armor, just like it did when she entered the maelstrom.

With a quick thought in her mind, she forced the helmet’s locking mechanics to unbolt and release. She pulled the helmet off the Draconian, unmasking its humanoid dragon-like face, yellow eyes, and razor-sharp teeth exposed from its wide-open jaw, thanks to the pain it was enduring in its wounded state.

“How the hell?” Miles said in shock, while Odelea lowered herself again to speak with the Draconian. “I heard about yer tattoos, but I never knew it could make you do that.”

Foster eyed her hands more and peeled back the sleeves of her IESA uniform, exposing her arms and the tattoos on them. They too shared the same luminous glow of her hands. “I didn’t know that either.”

“Humor me,” Miles said, and tossed her a Draconian tachyon rifle. She caught it with ease, even though she visually didn’t see Miles toss it to her. The speed it was traveling when it left his hands, the angle it was at, and the weight of it. She knew it was coming at her, the tattoos acted like a six sense. “Can you operate it?”

Foster stood up and away from the downed Draconian, and examined the weapon crafted from beyond the Milky Way. She felt the rifle’s electronics and internal computers sync with her tattoos, much like how the armor did moments ago. The rifle powered on as tiny lights along its sides flashed. She found what she assumed was the trigger to the weapon, aimed its barrel to the wall, then pulled it. A quick beam ejected from the rifle, melting a small hole through the wall.

She looked away from the new hole in the wall, her mouth wide open in disbelief. “Apparently so.”

“We didn’t have much luck figuring how to use their weapons since the attacks,” Miles said to her. “Figured it was a biometric lock out, looks like there’s more to it than that, eh?”

“Makes sense, this is the first time I encountered Draconian soldiers since I got my tattoos. Well the first time since the tattoos fully developed.”

During her escape from the monolith, she had the tattoos and was under attack by Draconian soldiers, but the tattoos hadn’t fully set in her body. What Foster was now experiencing was her first encounter with Draconian soldiers since her transformation had completed, thanks to the monolith.

“Okay, cool, I can interface with their tech,” Foster said, licking her lips. “Odelea, you got anything for us?”

“It’s reluctant to speak.”

“Well, we did kinda shoot him, and kill his friends.”

“He taunted me, claiming the survivors on this world will not be rescued.”

“They fled into deep space via FTL, so yeah, it’s gonna be a while until we find ‘em.”

“I mean, here on the planet right now,” Odelea said. “There are survivors here, people that didn’t escape, I’m assuming.”

Foster made a grimacing glare. “Shit, Miles?”

“Don’t know nothing abou’ that,” Miles said. “My team got ambushed and we fled here, the other teams are reporting they too are getting hit, thanks to your musical show.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Foster said slowly.

“So, what’s the word, Captain?” Chang’s voice called out from Foster’s wrist terminal.

“Chang, get ready to enter the atmosphere.”

“Seriously, Captain?”

“If there’re survivors here, then we’s gotta get ‘em out.” Foster took two steps outside onto the war-torn city streets and frowned at the wyverns flying in circles, looking for their next kill. “Ain’t no way they gonna survive all that.”

“This is a big ass planet, they could be anywhere.”

“We’re in the most populated city near the mountains,” Foster said. “If they fled anywhere, it’s gonna be here.” Foster turned back to her team and the three Marines with the tachyon rifle still in hand. “Let’s move out. Tolukei, give us a barrier, and Chang, keep track of our signal and be on standby for an extract.”

“Understood,” Chang’s voice replied. “Just whatever you’re doing make it quick, Draconian ships are inbound.”

“He’s right,” Miles said, pushing a holographic tactical map of the region to Foster. “All our ships have been put on alert and are preparing to extract our forces.”

“Then we’s gotta move now, let’s go!”

4 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage, docked at Imperial Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 13, 2118, 06:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A small video replayed, depicting the sights and sounds of Peiun’s recorded memories. He sat at his desk in his office, reviewing the video on a loop for hours, studying it. The video itself wasn’t a playback of his recorded memories from his HNI, but recorded memories captured from the memory recorder device that sat under the floating holographic screen.

The audio from the video was briefly upstaged by the sounds of bridge officers speaking to one another. Someone entered his study uninvited. He hit pause on the video playback and faced the opened door leading to the bridge, his first officer and shipboard psionic, Alesyna Interloper, stood before it. Her arms were crossed as she leaned against the frame of the door giving Peiun a fixed stare.

“How much longer do you intend to make us wait, Captain?” Alesyna said.

Peiun snorted. “Are you making demands after barging into my study uninvited?”

“I was merely asking a question.” Alesyna stepped forward, allowing the automatic sliding door to shut, and cut out what little light from the bridge was shining in. The two were shrouded in darkness, the hologram before Peiun and their now red-glowing eyes being the only sources of light. “The crew grows tired, Captain, they need new orders, and the repair crew would love nothing more than to see this battle-scarred vessel return to space now repairs are finally completed.”

The Rezeki’s Rage nearly met its end more times than Peiun would have liked over a month ago, during the Draconians’ surprise attack against the forces of the Milky Way galaxy. Imperial repair crews worked a great many long hours restoring the ship back to its original state, along with a number of new improvements such as reinforced hull plating, larger fuel tanks, and an updated primary reactor, all gifts from the Imperial throne. The Rezeki’s Rage had become the secret flagship of the Empire. And to think, it was only an anti-capital ship frigate, not a dreadnought, destroyer, heavy cruiser, carrier, or command ship; a frigate.

Alesyna’s arms remained crossed against her meshed, black dress as she moved closer to Peiun, viewing the contents of the paused video projection. “What are you looking at?” she asked.

Peiun replayed the video and watched everything he saw during his time on the station. “These are my memories prior to meeting with the Qirak.”

“Your stare wanders a lot.”

He chuckled softly, for she was right. “I was surrounded by stunning females.”

“Human females …” Alesyna said drily. “At least I hope they are, if those were Linl—”

“They were human.”

“For your sake, I hope so. Should the emperor and empress learn you fancy species from Radiance …”

“They’ll have my head removed?”

“No, they’ll have your cock and balls removed.”

Peiun smirked, knowing he was too important to the mission, one personally handed to him by the empress herself. She would never subject him to such punishment for copulating with women from Radiance, other Hashmedai, perhaps, but not him. The emperor though, that was a different story. There was a disconnect between the emperor and empress, to what degree he didn’t know. They never produced heirs to the throne, and the emperor was not aware of the mission he was on, the mission to discover the location of the Hashmedai that vanished around the same time the Carl Sagan did.

“I want you to copulate with Careiah when you are free,” Alesyna spat, pulling Peiun’s thoughts back into the present.

“Since when did my first officer and psionic order me around?”

Using her HNI, Alesyna created a hologram that floated above the palm of her left hand. It was a list that had the names of the Rezeki’s Rage crew with diagrams and numbers next to them. “These are the recorded stress levels of all men and women serving aboard this ship, including those that survived the incursion on our homeworld.”

Peiun took the hologram, dragging it closer to his face. His HNI did the rest and made its contents appear virtually over his eyesight. “Calm and relaxed, with little to no stress. Impressive.”

“They all took time off when we were making repairs to address their longing for lust,” Alesyna said. “Those that were worthy bedded our servants; the rest visited the brothels on the station, and those that had mates, returned to visit them. Their needs had been satisfied tenfold. They are now ready for whatever challenges the galaxy wishes to issue to them.”

Peiun viewed his medical profile and winced at the elevated levels of stress present in him. “All except me.”

Alesyna pointed at the video playback of his memories, and his wandering male glare. “The direction of your eyes says it all.” The video played to the moment when Peiun arrived at the pub. “No wonder you bumped into that woman.”

He hit pause at the precise moment the incident occurred. The quality of the projection became blurry, just like his memories of bumping into the mysterious woman. The drink he had probably didn’t help, nor did his tired and stressed mind. He could see her face slightly, her perfectly placed cheekbones, cold, almost emotionless, gaze, dark red eyes, and her long silver hair covering half of her face up.

He leaned closer to the projection. “Who is she …?”

“If you’d like, I’m sure there are a great many human brothels that will service Hashmedai men,” Alesyna said. “It’s quite clear you don’t fancy women of our kind.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then why the obsession of this human female?”

“She’s not human,” Peiun said. It caused Alesyna to grimace. “She’s not Linl either, she’s Hashmedai.”

Alesyna took a closer look at the paused image. He directed her to the woman’s red eyes, and her silver hair that was probably her natural color. “She wears an outfit a human female would wear. The jewelry is also human made; I wouldn’t be surprised if her cosmetics were too.”

“The bartender insisted she was Hashmedai, and that she followed me in,” Peiun said. “Then she bought me a drink before vanishing.”

Alesyna took a step back from the projection. “I don’t see how any of this is important.”

“Our mission is one of secrecy. We must find the Hashmedai the empress entrusted us to.”

Not that he needed to remind Alesyna of that. Enough clues had appeared as of late to suggest Alesyna knew of this mission, and that it was originally tasked to the former captain and first officer of the Rezeki’s Rage. Why she chose to act as if it was new to her and hide the fact she was able to telepathically speak directly to the empress, was another question.

“And here we are examining a video of a woman that has nothing to do with it,” Alesyna said.

“That Qirak gave me the name of a ship as well as information about its crew,” Peiun said. “It’s called the Fortune Runner; its registered port is Gravity City on Morutrin Prime.”

He used his HNI to transmit a copy of the data file he purchased in regard to the ship, its specifications, and last known location to Alesyna. She viewed and skimmed through the files as it appeared over her vision.

“It looks like a mercenary ship,” she said.

“It is, one that had interest in human made tools.”

She licked her lips. “I see where this is going.”

“The transport we recovered from New Babylon had a human QEC forced into it.”

“Right, that’s how the empress knew where to find it,” Alesyna said. “When the humans that recovered it brought it online, it began to transmit.”

QECs were instant FTL communications as Peiun recalled. However, there was a catch, they were only able to form two-way communication connections. A ship with a QEC could only speak to one other ship it was linked with. The empress learning that the transport he and his team recovered had begun transmitting made sense. The empress mysteriously receiving the transmissions did not, unless she secretly had the corresponding linked QEC.

“I suspect the Fortune Runner was part of the same mercenary group that used that QEC,” Peiun said. “If so, our missing Hashmedai were either mercenaries, or hired them to take them to Sirius. If we’re going to find them, we need to know who they are, why they left, and if they brought another QEC with them, since the empress refuses to share those details with us.”

“Possible progress.” The tone of Alesyna’s voice became pleasant. “Forgive me for questioning your mental state, sir. However, I’m still not sure how this Hashmedai woman wearing human attire is important.”

“When the data package the Qirak gave me was transferred to my HNI, there was an unexpected lag spike.”

“It’s a small file by the looks, that shouldn’t have created congestion during data transfer.”

“No, it shouldn’t.” Peiun switched the video screen floating above his desk with another recording, his recorded memories pulled from his HNI. An error message appeared the moment he looked at the mysterious silver-haired woman. “Nor should my HNI’s built-in memory recorder have corrupted data, conveniently during the brief moment I looked at her face.”

Alesyna’s eyebrow rose. “That’s … a convenient time for an error.”

He allowed the recording to play forward then paused it when, Paul, the bartender, presented him with the drink the silver-haired woman bought him. He zoomed in on the red fruit sitting on top of the beverage. “And this fruit?” Peiun added. “Do you know what the humans call it?”

Alesyna gave a critical stare. “I believe that is a cherry?”

“Yes.” Peiun reclined in his chair. “A maraschino cherry.”

“Maraschino … Like the hacker group?”

Maraschino was a notorious group of hackers that operated in cells across the galaxy. Nobody knew for sure from where they originated. Some say they were former EISS operatives, others say they were Whisper agents exiled from the Radiance Union, others say they were the remains of Anonymous, an old Earth hacktivist group that existed before the human race was uplifted into the stars.

With the advent of FTL, the UNE wormhole network, and HNI technology, the number of members within the Maraschino hacker group expanded. They began to recruit people from across the galaxy, regardless of species or place of birth. Humans, Hashmedai, Radiance species; it didn’t matter who you were. If you had the skills to crack codes and steal data, the group recruited you and spent much of their time stealing personal data or top-secret government files then selling to the highest bidder.

“She was trying to send me a sign,” Peiun said, looking at the Maraschino cherry on the projection. “Maraschino gained access to my HNI.”

“Impossible, we use military grade HNI,” Alesyna said. “Maraschino was offered a large sum of credits by the UNE to hack into military grade implants and failed.”

“Indeed, our implants are said to possess the highest level of computer security. Only the Dragon Knights were able to interfere with them.”

“And if your theory is correct, now Maraschino.”

“Either that …” Peiun stood up to take his leave, after powering down the video. “Or Maraschino gave the hacking abilities to the Dragon Knights.”

“Why would they do such a thing? Assisting the dragons will only aid in the extermination of all life in the galaxy, including them.”

“Perhaps they struck a deal? Maraschino are also data brokers and sell whatever knowledge they hack to the highest bidder.”

“And now they may have accessed Imperial knowledge from your head.”

“Or they intercepted the package the Qirak gave me,” Peiun said as he made his way back to the bridge with Alesyna tailing him. “If that’s the case, then they know we’re searching for the Fortune Runner. So, watch your back, Alesyna, and your neural implants. There might be more of them out there searching for us.”

Peiun took a seat at the captain’s chair as Alesyna returned to her post at the psionic workstation. He gave the newly recruited and young crew a glance, impressed they were able to attend to their duties despite being fast-tracked through the vigorous Imperial navy training camps. Unlike himself, the new crew were truly new bloods, as in they entered adulthood for the first time. Gene therapy didn’t make them look young, they just were naturally.

With the huge loss of life the navy took during the Draconians’ incursion, the Empire was forced to alter the assigned career paths all Hashmedai are given at birth, funneling them into the military. The woman at the helm, for example, was assigned the career of a school instructor for the young and had been preparing for that life since she was a child. Now, she was an officer in the Imperial navy, ready to pilot the Rezeki’s Rage into whatever dangers Peiun ordered.

Conscription as the humans would call it.

“Contact station ops and inform them we wish to disembark,” Peiun ordered.

“Understood, Captain,” Nadevina, the woman at the helm, replied. “Heading?”

“The Morutrin wormhole.”

5 Foster

Ruined city streets

Pictor, Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 07:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The group pushed out of the shop, happy to finally leave after so many hours, frightened to know that no place on the planet was safe. Miles and his team took point, and slowly walked across the streets, the boots of their exosuits crunching on debris flung away from shattered buildings and homes.

The trek went on for hours.

Foster remained behind them with her newly acquired tachyon rifle aimed forward as if she was one of them. Williams and Pierce held onto their side PPG2-1 pistols, though Pierce’s shaky hands made Foster wonder how he’d hold up if things went sideways and he was forced to defend himself. Odelea opted to stand next to Tolukei, having refused to hold a pistol. Something about their trek through the streets had her spooked, almost as if she’d been in this situation before.

The circling wyverns above swooped down to lynch the eight, Tolukei’s psionic dome encircling them denying the angry wyverns an easy kill. They were safe, for the time being, within the moving psionic dome barrier Tolukei created. The tradeoff was, it was all Tolukei was able to do. Like all psionics, the more he used his powers, the weaker and more stressed his brain became.

100 percent of Tolukei’s psionic energy went into strengthening the dome barrier, as it repeatedly flashed purple with every dive-bomb the wyverns made, or waves of plasma from their breath attacks. The cybernetic wyverns with tachyon cannons were nowhere to be seen, most likely harassing whatever air support the UNE forces had brought.

Buildings and homes were searched, only unmoving dead were found. Sometimes, the odd Draconian scout soldier was found, they were terminated with extreme prejudice via a fury of bullets travelling near the speed of light from the rifles of the Marines, after they switched their weapons from particle beam to projectile fire mode. Foster looked back at Tolukei’s face; it was flinching, a lot. Teleportation was going to be dicey at best, as, with his combat powers, too much of his psionic energy had been used to keep the barrier up and make it as strong as possible to withstand the attacks of the wyverns.

Chang’s gonna have to get us off this planet now, no matter what, Tolukei can’t take much more of this, Foster thought while weighing up their options for extraction. Nereid, the other psionic aboard the Johannes Kepler couldn’t perform teleports, and, last time Foster checked, was part of the crew that opted to enter cryo during their month and a half trek, and so was probably getting out now.

With the search for survivors outside turning up no results, the eight traveled inside a concourse located deep within the mountains. It was an enormous complex approximately four stories in height. Darkness had consumed the concourse as power had long been shut off due to the attacks. Train station platforms lowered their hopes of finding survivors as more mutilated bodies, thanks to the jaws of murdering dragons, made a mess of the place. Men, women, children, nobody was shown mercy.

Horrific cries for help echoed in the distance. Someone was alive, and then was not as those cries turned into blood-gargling screams of terror, then silence. The sounds of new movement and struggling were heard. Miles used various military hand gestures to direct his team toward them, Foster and company followed behind.

An indoor park was the location of the commotion as the eight hid behind benches, trashcans, and nonoperational directory listings. Draconian soldiers paced circles around four wounded and disarmed Marines, and six ash-covered civilians dressed in torn clothes. The civilians and Marines were forced to their knees with their hands behind the back of their heads.

“Guess those are our survivors,” Foster whispered. “What do you think they want with them?”

“POWs, maybe?” Valiyev whispered back.

Foster’s question was answered, when one of the captured Marines was vaporized execution-style from behind.

“Jesus Christ …”

A woman from the captured civilian colonists was dragged away by two Draconian soldiers as a second Marine was executed by vaporization. Her crying son, no older than five, begged for his mother to be returned. The woman was brought before a drake with blood dripping from its lips. It spat out the bone of a half-eaten human arm. Below it was bits and bloody pieces of what Foster could only imagine was once a city-dwelling colonist.

A third Marine was selected for execution as the barrel of a tachyon rifle pressed against the back of his head. The woman’s screams became loud as the roars of the hungry drake approached her. It became abundantly clear why the Draconians were concerned about searching for survivors. They needed to feed their starving drakes and wyverns.

Foster saw enough. So did Miles and his team. They opened fire.

The two Draconians forcing the woman to stand before the drake were vaporized first; Foster saw to it personally. The commotion forced the remaining Draconians to search and fire upon the eight whom were under the protective grace of Tolukei’s barrier, though its effects were fading rapidly. The captured civilians scattered in fear, most ran to safety, three of them, however, met their ends instantly during the crossfire. There wasn’t anything Foster could do.

She looked away from their bodies and the glowing red holes vaporized through their chests and faces and was thankful the young boy was quickly scooped up by his mother, who managed to flee. The two remaining captured Marines sprung to action and were forced to utilize hand-to-hand combos of punches and kicks to disable their supposed executioners. The superhuman strength the exosuit provided the Marines gave them a slight advantage. One managed to disarm and hold a soldier still long enough for Valiyev’s bullets to remove sizable chunks of its head. The other Marine wasn’t so lucky and was vaporized by the Draconian he fought with.

The drake stormed into the fray afterward, having realized its food had escaped. It came stampeding at the eight like a raging animal. Nothing could stop it. Not even the six direct hits Foster’s tachyon rifle vaporized through its tough skin. It was as if the beast wasn’t able to sense pain, and its size was clearly too large for her to simply turn it into ash, unlike their humanoid soldiers.

The drake crashed into Tolukei’s barrier, sending rippling waves of purple light across its protective dome, holding the dragon in place for the time being. The draconic beast stood on its back two legs and rapidly assaulted the barrier with its forward claws and jaws. Its speed was mind-blowing. Tolukei yelped and collapsed, holding his head. Psionic mental exhaustion was kicking in; none of his powers were going to be of any use until he recovered.

That meant …

The barrier shattered. The drake stood ready to maul and eat the first person it saw. That person was Foster.

“Oh … Fuck.”

Everyone began to spread out and run as the drake charged them, Foster was no exception as she ran in random directions. The entire battlefield turned into almost a bull fight scenario, where the stampeding drake was the bull and Foster was the fighter holding the red flag, being the rifle. Ancient human survival instincts took hold of her feet. Weapons exchange from the Marines, Pierce, Williams, and the remaining Draconian soldiers streaked back and forth, left and right, up and down. None of that was a concern for Foster, only the drake that wanted her in its belly.

She dove and slid like a baseball player when it leaped for her. Looking up as her body slid across the grass, she saw the underside of its belly and cringed at the thought of the pounds of human flesh and bone that was probably inside it. She made a quick roll to the left, narrowly missing getting crushed by its hind legs. Having realized it missed, the drake came about quickly to face Foster. She leaped back to her feet, unarmed. Her rifle had long fallen from her hands at that point.

Foster was by no means an expert at bullfighting, she’d watched it on TV a few times back in the prewar Earth days but that was it. The drake lunged at her again, she dove and rolled to the side, it wasn’t enough to create a large enough distance for her. She was still close to it, too close. Hell, she could reach out and touch it if she wanted to, maybe even grab ahold of it.

Grabbing it is exactly what she ended up doing, as it stopped to reposition itself. She was no bullfighter, but she did participate in bucking horse rodeos in her younger days. She climbed onto and straddled the drake, then held on for dear life as it violently shook its body in an attempt to fling Foster off.

She remained holding as her sights bounced all over the place. She saw the darkened park one moment, then the ceiling, then the park, then the scales of the drake, then Williams gunning down a Draconian soldier with his pistol when he rose from his cover behind a bench.

The drake Foster rode on stood high on its back legs, groaning and roaring. Foster’s grip remained tight around its neck, not caring about the flesh on her hands being cut away at by the tiny sharp spikes sticking out from it as gravity continued to pull her down. Her perseverance forced the drake back on all-fours, returning to the bucking and shaking of its body to get her off. It knew she couldn’t hold on for much longer, not without a harness. She needed a way out of the mess. Looking off to the side she saw it, a tachyon rifle, one of many from the now dead Draconians that were once a threat. She needed to find a way to steer the drake over to one.

She did what she could to force the drake over to a rifle. At one point, she thought she pulled off the trick, and went to leap off her ride, only for it to change direction seconds later. Another dropped rifle came into view, then out of it seconds later. She saw the rifle she had brought in, and then didn’t when the drake made a full turn in the opposite direction. A sudden jerk of the drake’s neck flung Foster off, the pain that shot up through her body upon impact was disorientating.

To the right of her was a rifle, ahead of her, the drake sizing her up and preparing to make what it hoped to be its final dashing charge at her. She rolled to the rifle. The drake ran to her. She grabbed the rifle and pointed it upward as her back remained against the grass. The drake made a majestic pounce over to her, its mouth was wide open, its forward bloodstained claws ready to rip her flesh apart. The adrenaline gushing throughout her body made what happened next seemingly play out in slow motion before her eyes.

The hulking presence of the drake eclipsed everything in her eyesight, with the exception of the tachyon rifle slowly rising, slowly taking aim, and her finger slowly activating its firing trigger. A single tachyon beam shot away from the rifle, it traveled upward to the beast above her. The beam missed its head which she was aiming for, vaporizing a hole through its chest that glowed red and orange from the intense heat of the blast. A red-hot hole appeared on the opposite end of its back where the tachyon beam exited.

Foster was right about one thing, the dash the drake made was indeed the last one. She made a brisk roll to the left, as its body crashed onto the ground, unmoving. Whatever vital organ she hit from the last blast put the dragon down for good. She cowered behind its large body, using it as protection, and eyed what became of the battlefield during her crazy ride.

There were three Draconian soldiers to the left, keeping the Marines and her crew at bay. None of the Draconians noticed her hiding behind the body of the drake, none of them knew her rifle was in the perfect position to take aim at the back of their heads.

Her tachyon rifle rose up three times, and the sound of vaporized Draconians echoed in the air, three times, back-to-back. Ash and embers blew away in the aftermath, while bits of melted armor fell to the ground.

Foster fell back down to catch her breath and process what the hell she just went through. When her head cleared, she felt the presence of something deep within the drake. Cybernetics, some sort of neural implants … She couldn’t make it out. The last flame of the drake’s life had faded, cutting off her tattoos’ abilities to seemingly interact with it.

She backed away from the drake, giving her tattooed hands and arms a quick peek, wondering if she missed a chance to learn something new about her abilities due to the violence and the will to live. When she was done, she rejoined her team and the surviving colonists that had been given the all clear to leave their cover.

“Thanks for the assist,” the lone surviving captured Marine, Sergeant Schneider, said facing Miles, huffing and puffing.

Miles gave him a nod. “Aye, no worries, where’s everyone else?”

“No clue, sir, the network is all jammed beyond these mountains,” said Schneider.

“Great, HNI disruption,” Miles said drily.

“Thought you could reach the fleet?” Williams asked him.

“I thought so too,” Miles said, conjuring a communication projection with his HNI. The projection was filled with white static, and a signal lost error message flashing. “The jamming must have started when we entered the concourse.”

Ingram grunted. “You know what that means, right?”

Foster exhaled. “I was just gonna say, good thing those Dragon Knight’s ain’t here.”

“I thought you all killed them?” Miles asked Foster.

“We dealt with their fleet, yeah. I’m assuming they were aboard one of those ships when they got stuck in the maelstrom.” And if I remember correctly, any ship without the protection of the Charybdis vanishes into nothing. There’s no way that fleet survived.

“Well, so much for your mission being one of peace,” Valiyev snorted.

“We didn’t have any choice, we’s had to defend Sirius.”

Foster’s wrist terminal beeped. Picking up the transmission she heard Chang’s voice say. “Captain, you guys ready for extract?”

She mused briefly at the fact the wrist terminal was still able to work, but HNI communication was not. The wrist terminal with its built-in apps such as the holo pad, and EAD scanner was custom-built for those that lacked HNI. However, the technology powering them was the same, so whatever was jamming the Marine’s ability to communicate via HNI, should also be jamming her wrist terminal’s ability to communicate. What was affecting the Marines wasn’t a simple case of a communication jam, but rather something preventing their brains from interfacing with the neural implants in their heads.

“Not yet, why?” Foster replied.

“I gotta enter atmo now, we’re under attack,” Chang transmitted amidst the sound of rumbling noises in the background. “We should be harder to target the closer we are to the surface.”

“We’s got a lot of angry wyverns in the skies.”

“I’ll take the chance, just hurry up; the UNE fleet is still a while out.”

Leaving the way they entered came to mind. That was until the rescued colonists brought to their attention there were more survivors in hiding. Their location? The IESA outpost Foster had been assigned previously, deeper inside the mountain complex.

The convoy of humans and two Radiance members stopped, facing a darkened and dormant train tunnel. It was the only pathway to the remaining survivors, and a possible ambush from lurking dragons.

6 Avearan

Avearan’s apartment

Cassini City, Titan, Sol system

October 13, 2118, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The alarm clock buzzed again.

Avearan Slaver, Slaver being her Hashmedai title she refused to let her friends know, looked angrily at the translucent holographic date and time hovering above the alarm clock. Her hand was seven inches short of smashing the clock. Her telekinetic powers, however, were not. The clock cracked against the wall, as if an invisible hand picked it up and threw it. Peace was restored her to bedroom, and her psionic brain was rewarded with another five minutes of snooze time. Burying her face into the pillows she slept on.

When those five minutes were up, she unenthusiastically got up from her bed, groaning at the yellow hazy light entering her apartment from its windows as she went to perform her daily routine. If there weren’t so many towers and office buildings in the backdrop, she might have been able to see Saturn and its rings on the horizon while she stood looking out the window waiting for the coffee maker to finish brewing.

Coffee … I must be the only Hashmedai here that drinks this.

She disrobed, allowing her nightgown to fall to the floor, thanks to the city’s artificial gravity. It was time for a shower, after she finished the coffee of course. Number one benefit of living alone, and self-tinting windows, one could walk about naked without any shame. Even when she entered the shower, she left the bathroom door wide open. Frigid cold water sprayed from the faucet, enough to make any human shriek, squirm, and shiver in the aftermath.

Once patted dry with a towel, she stood before the mirror and activated its planning tool. A number of windows flashed on, some listed the current temperature—indoor temperature of the city of course—outside on Titan’s surface was a chilly, negative hundred sixty degrees Celsius. Even a Hashmedai like her would freeze to death quickly without protection.

She swiped across the screen, accessing a number of makeup options for her to use, while a simulated portrait of her face appeared in the center, giving her a better idea of how she would look. She had a number of premade profiles to select, ranging from makeup for parties, or meeting with someone important. Human style or Hashmedai style, there were hundreds of options. She selected her default profile, a light blend of cosmetics typically used by Hashmedai women. She was going to class today, no need to overdo it.

Much better, she thought after applying the makeup, swiping away the holo screens and staring at her nude form and her long, purple hair draped over her shoulders. Her red eyes that never aged thanks to gene therapy stared right back. She rubbed her hand across the scars on her arms and belly, left behind when her cybernetic implants had been removed. They were replaced with smaller ones, barely noticeable, and configured for medical use. It’s a new beginning, one she had to remind herself daily whenever she stood watching her body in the mirror.

She sat in the living room after getting dressed and preparing a plate of bacon and eggs. Stores that specialized in Hashmedai food were a good two hours away via train, way too much work for grocery shopping. Halfway into her meal, she asked the computer to turn the holo TV on and bring up a holo screen beside her that allowed her to access her personal computer.

The words ‘Breaking News’ appeared as the headline when TV activated and displayed the local news. It made her fingers stop scrolling across the holo screen next to her, and her eyes lock onto the TV screen. A camera drone was capturing pictures of a fleet of UNE warships battling Draconian bio-ships in space.

“… for those of you joining now,” said the news anchorman. “We received confirmation from our sources, that the United Nations of Earth navy has engaged the Draconian forces currently occupying the Kapteyn’s Star system.”

She watched the two fleets exchange weapons fire with deadly results. It brought back haunting memories of the incursion last summer, and the chaos and fear that spread in the city when people thought the Draconians would hit Titan on their way to Earth.

The anchorman continued. “The XSV Johannes Kepler, commanded by Rebecca Foster, who made headlines last summer for allegedly bringing the Draconians to the galaxy, is also reported to have come under attack by the dragons that besieged the planet Jacobus.”

Text headlines scrolled on the bottom of the holo TV screen, she read them hoping to find some positive news brewing elsewhere in the galaxy. ‘UNE Marines killed after Draconian ambush on Pictor, Jacobus.’ ‘Terran Legion protests turn violent in Seoul, two police officers injured.’ ‘Radiance Union council votes to delay visit to Amicitia Station 14 station amidst security concerns.’ ‘Unusual activity reported in the Morutrin system belt: skirmishes between mercenaries and pirates triggered.’

Positive news didn’t exist in a galaxy turned upside-down. Only, there’s no up or down in space.

The news continued to play. Her selective hearing allowed her to ignore what was being said while she returned to her computer’s holo screen. A red-colored enveloped icon pulsed rapidly. There was an unread qmail message. She grimaced, wondering who would have taken the time to reach her via qmail. Only the UNE had the QEC network, while the UNE constructed QEC relay nodes near the capitals of the Empire and Union and in the Morutrin system to help with communication.

Any messages coming from beyond those regions were sent via telepathy as a standard signal would take years traveling at the speed of light. If someone deep within the empire wanted to talk with her, they would need to send a telepathic message to a psionic at a hub such as Amicitia Station 14. That psionic would have to retype that message and send the qmail to that person on their behalf. Pain in the ass, but it was the only way to deliver FTL messages from systems not part of the QEC network.

Which begged the question, who would contact her in this manner? Avearan was a psionic, so special implants weren’t required to use telepathy. It would have been faster and easier to reach her mind with telepathy than going through that long complex process, unless the psionic in question didn’t know her personally or was just terrible at telepathy.

She tapped the message icon, and then tapped the unread qmail. It was a message from an old friend in the Empire. A disclaimer reminded her that the message had been automatically translated from Hashmedai to English via the EVE AI on Amicitia Station 14, not that she needed one, she spoke both dialects of Hashmedai.

To: Avearan Slaver

From: Phylarlie Starchaser

Subject: NONE

Sent: October, 12, 2118 04:05 SST

Hello Avearan,

It has been far too long since you paid me a visit here on Taxah. Let’s change that shall we? I will be hosting a festival for all Imperial system lords, nobles, and the Imperial family. As lord of the Uelcovis system, I would love it if you were to attend and join us for what will be the greatest Conquest Day celebration in recent years.

- Phylarlie, lord of the Uelcovis system

She tapped the close icon and sat back on her couch. Avearan escaped Imperial rule decades ago, only visiting it in secret thanks to Phylarlie’s power and influence. Phylarlie was never one to invite her to visit, let alone reach out to her. The request made her suspicious, Phylarlie wanted something, and she just couldn’t put her finger on it. She opted to get back to it later, not just because she needed more time to think, but because it was time to leave.

“Computer, shut down all appliances,” she said, and watched as her entire suite and holograms went dark.

Avearan went for the front door, slinging her backpack over her shoulders, and ensuring she had an ice-cold bottle of water with her for the commute. A commute taken on trains set to standard human room temperatures, was a bit too much for her Hashmedai blood.

Cassini City, like most major cities on Titan, looked like an oversized multistory shopping mall with towering office and apartment buildings arching away in some locations when viewed from above. Titan was a cold moon. You couldn’t live outside without freezing solid in minutes. Cities had to be built to keep warm air in and the hostile cold out. Normally on colonized worlds such as this, atmosphere processors and plasma heaters would have been constructed to give its residents the chance to go outside. But Titan was an older UNE colony, one of the first after the colonization of Mars and Earth’s moon—now commonly referred to as Luna after years of debate and arguing.

The interior of Cassini City had everything humans would want to have in a city. Climate controlled to support a constant twenty-two degrees Celsius all day every day. Markets, houses, schools, various businesses, parks, trees, flowing rivers, rivers of water of course. While Titan did support hydrocarbon lakes throughout its surface those remained on the outside in the frostbitten moon.

Trains were in constant motion, zooming back and forth through the glass tube tunnels that connected to other cities across the frozen moon, under Saturn and its grandiose rings appearing beyond the clouds. The walk from Avearan’s apartment to the train station wasn’t a long one, two escalators and a stroll across a bridge that hung above a promenade full of humans and nonhumans, mostly humans, moving about.

The train platform she stood at was full of people like her, all carrying backpacks, showing off to their friends their ability to lift objects with their thoughts. One young woman, no older than eighteen at least by her appearance, crafted a paper plane from a napkin, just by forcing it to rise up before her, and make the right folds via telekinesis. That same telekinesis made it fly across the platform.

Avearan and those around her vanished when the train arrived then departed. The brain train as most people nicknamed it. It pushed into the glass tunnels, gliding silently across raised platforms until it left the limits of Cassini City and out into the untamed landscape of Titan’s surface. It neared a mountain in the distance, one that had a prestigious-looking structure built next to its foot, König psionic academy.

Her wrist terminal beeped, taking her eyes away from the windows. A news alert flashed, her news app had known she was watching the news recently from her apartment. It sent her an updated notification of the breaking news she was watching.

The headline was as follows.

‘Contact with the XSV Johannes Kepler lost after entering Jacobus’ atmosphere.’

7 Foster

IESA Outpost

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 08:19 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The halls, though now darkened, were familiar to Captain Foster and Travis Pierce as their large party ventured through. It was the IESA outpost she spent less than half a shift at doing desk work during that dark moment when she lost her command.

The stench of rotting bodies in the halls made her nose clench and squirm. Walking through ash that was once a person wasn’t any better. She began to wonder which of the two groups of colonists got the better deal: those left behind on Jacobus, or those that fled on the transports into deep space. It’d been over a month since she saw those ships flee. Their fates were unknown as was the status of their food and water supplies since the Johannes Kepler didn’t encounter or scan them on its FTL voyage to Jacobus.

Past the high body count in the halls, was the administrative office. Miles used the superhuman strength of his suit to rip open the doors, to the surprise and panic of countless colonists and IESA staff huddled inside, hiding under desks.

Foster entered the office, first grinning at the desk she was assigned. “I leave for two months and look what happens.”

Multiple flashlights highlighted the presences of additional colonists that came out of their hiding spots within the office. They were all thin, covered in dried blood or soot, and had hair that clearly hadn’t been washed or maintained in days. A pile of empty food wrappers and cans was pushed into the corner. How they managed to secure food and water during this time was a question to be asked later.

Or rather, a question to be asked to the dead bodies outside.

“More survivors, Odelea, you were right,” Pierce said.

A wide-eyed man approached the group, leaping up and down in joy. “Thank God, thank God … we were starting to lose hope.”

“The Draconians had the wormhole guarded twenty-four-seven,” Foster explained to him and the survivors. “We had to fly in via FTL and create a whole lot of havoc to get them to leave.” She then gestured to the Marines behind. “So that these guys could come through.”

“How many more are you?” Miles asked the survivor.

“Just us and a larger group down below. Before the communication network went offline we heard cries for help in other cities.”

“Foster, you gonna be able to fit ‘em on Kepler? I heard it’s pretty small,” Miles asked.

“It will be cramped, but we’ll find away.”

“This is a lot of people,” Schneider said, eying the newly discovered survivors plus their group. “If we take them outside, what’s going to stop the wyverns from picking a few of them up?”

“There should be a docking bay not far from here,” Foster said. “Pierce and I used it when we first arrived on this planet.”

“That’s right, it shouldn’t be far away,” Pierce added. “The Johannes Kepler shouldn’t have a problem fitting inside it, either.”

“Then let’s get these folks to the docking bay,” Foster said, then spoke into her wrist terminal. “Chang, follow our signal, should be a docking bay door on the side of this mountain.”

He transmitted back. “Yeah, I see it on sensors, it’s closed though.”

“We’ll need to restore power to open it,” said one of the survivors.

“Great, and with all the fightin’ I bet the grid is wrecked,” Foster said.

“There should be a backup power source,” explained the survivor. “We had to manually redirect power elsewhere to prevent the invaders from finding us, and to keep power flowing into the plasma heaters, atmosphere processors, and gravity dampeners.”

“Where’s that at?” Miles asked.

The survivor pointed to a man wearing an IESA uniform lying on the floor. There were three blackened holes vaporized through his chest. “He was a worker here that knew, and, well, as you can see.”

Foster grimaced at the sight. “Yeah, Miles here was kind enough to inform us how pointless talking to the dead is.”

“I might know where it is,” Pierce said. “Remember, I spent a few hours here walking about. I do recall being turned away from areas that were off-limits.”

“I’ll take it, lead the way, Pierce,” Foster said, then addressed her second-in-command. “Williams, help gather the last survivors and head to the docking bay, we’ll meet up with you after we’s get the juices going again.”

Miles’ massive exosuited body stepped in front of Foster and Pierce as they headed to the exit. “Wait, you ain’t thinking about going down there with just the two of ya, eh?”

She smiled at him, and gave the tachyon rifle she held a hearty shake. “I’d say this gun is bigger than yours, Miles, we’s should be fine.”

Miles crossed his arms, shaking his head. “I’m a vet of the Celestial Order wars and fought me share of HLF terrorists.” Pierce rolled his eyes at the mention of the word ‘HLF terrorists.’ “I’ll go with the rest of the Marines; your ship needs its captain.”

“My granddad taught me how to shoot rifles at fourteen,” Foster said, pushing past Miles.

“Yeah, and?”

“He was from Texas. I’ll be fine.”

Foster and Pierce left, with him leading the way, as Miles grunted. “The fuck you will be.” And took his rifle to follow behind the two, ordering the remaining exosuit equipped Marines to accompany them.

The group pushed deeper in the darkened halls. Miles’ flashlight mounted into his rifle lit the path for Pierce to lead the way and retrace his steps from a month and a half ago. No Draconians were spotted or dead colonists for that matter. Just creepy silence and the sounds of their footsteps. It was that silence that had them worried that maybe they’d become the dead bodies the hallways lacked.

“So, what do you think they’re doing outside?” Foster asked.

“Waiting for us to come out and kill us?” Pierce said drily.

“I mean with the construction,” Foster said. “The Draconians did more than just take over the planet.”

“Must have something to do with the ruins,” Miles said. “They got them big ol’ dome-looking things built over them.”

“The monolith,” Pierce said softly. “It’s only a few hours away via tram if I remember correctly.”

“Most of their forces were found in this region,” Miles said. “We thought it was because this was the largest and most populated UNE city.”

Foster licked her lips. “It’s gotta be the monolith.”

“Well it’s under that construct now; no way we can see what they’re up to inside,” Miles said as Pierce turned at a fork in the hallway and they followed behind him.

“We need to get inside then,” Foster said.

Miles laughed at her. “Have you not seen that gong show?”

“I know, I know,” Foster said, and mentally prepared herself to accept the fact that she’d have to leave the planet without gaining what she’d come back for, a chance to interact with the monolith. Getting off the planet with the survivors became top priority. “I just don’t think we’ll have the chance to come back and take another look.”

The three stopped at a massive sliding door. Miles’ flashlight illumined the large letters written on it in English and Chinese, stating it was a restricted area, no doubt the power distribution room. Foster and Pierce stepped back, allowing the Marines and their exosuits to go to work, ripping the door open like it was made of a piece of tin foil.

“Well, if we don’t get power restored, you’ll be right about that part,” Miles said, tossing the hulk of metal that was once a door behind them with loud clang. “We won’t have the chance, ‘cause we’ll all be dead.”

They entered and noted the dormant computer terminals and power distribution equipment shaped like massive ovals. A window off to the left gave anyone that stood next to it a breathtaking view of the landscape. They were high up and inside a mountain after all.

“I thought Canadians were supposed to be all positive,” Foster snickered to Miles with a charming smile as the three spread out to operate the cold and dark computers.

“Ha! What gave you that idea?” he said, smirking back at her.

Foster cocked her thumb at Pierce. “He’s from Vancouver, has been through a lot since joining my crew, and doesn’t complain.”

Miles’ eyebrow rose, giving Pierce a perplexed look. “Vancouver, eh?”

“Indeed,” Pierce said, keeping his eyes on his computer that just powered on, flashing its holographic lights across his face.

“Get a lot of blowies from blues?” Miles asked him. Pierce replied with silence, and the shaking of his head. The rest of the Marines laughed and teased him. “Ha! That’s probably why yer all happy then, eh?”

Foster stepped away from her computer, waiting for it to finish booting up and looked at the two Canadian men. “Come again?”

Pierce broke his silence. “I haven’t heard that term in ages.”

“I was right then, eh?” Miles pressed on.

Pierce began to interact with the holo screens projected by the computer terminal. “If memory serves me correctly, computers like this should have a legacy mode for non-HNI use.”

“Dodging the question, eh?” Miles spat. “Wait, you ain’t one of them HLF supporters, are ya?”

Too many questions were being asked and ignored, including the one Foster couldn’t get out of her head. Before any other ones were asked, she had to know. “What is a blowy from a blue?”

Pierce sighed. “It means to receive oral sex from a blue-skinned Hashmedai woman.”

Foster facepalmed. “Oh, geez …”

“Hashmedai with blue skin were known for their …” Pierce cleared his throat and grimaced before he continued. “Insatiable sexual appetite, more so than the rest of their species.”

“Alright, so power?” Foster needed a subject change, ideally one that focused on their current problem, survival, and the solution to make that happen, escape.

Pierce pushed a number of buttons and provided directions to Foster and Miles for what they should be doing at their terminals. The rest of the Marines took cover near the door, standing watch. Minutes later, the lights flicked back on, and the soft humming of the power distribution equipment sounded in the background.

“There, that should do it,” Pierce said. “Power should be online now—”

The windows behind them blew out.

The howling winds from the outside world created utter chaos, sucking out the atmosphere within the room. Outside the shattered windows was the source of their destruction, three wyverns flapping their wings, screeching their cries, and sticking their heads inside. Neither of the three used their plasma breath, of course not, they needed food, and so the humans inside needed to not be vaporized.

The chilly air from the outside world was disorientating, Foster was surprised she was able to hold on to a support beam, preventing her tumbling body from being blown outside. Mist began to form as a result of the cold air mixing with the heat and moisture from the interior and computer equipment. It was blinding mist, enough to obscure what was going on around the shattered glass window, enough for her to not know what became of Pierce, Miles, and his team.

She managed to crawl her way back out into the access hallways where they came from. Her head spun, and her vision blurred due to the lack of air, making her question if she’d remain awake long enough to make it past the emergency force field that erected next to the entrance. Unlike emergency force fields from the 2030s, the ones in use at the colony were smart, and allowed personnel to freely pass through via self-irising after a quick scan.

She took a massive gasp of air once she crossed over, while her body enjoyed not having rushing winds trying to relentlessly yank her by force outside. Two minutes passed, and she mustered enough power to stand and realize she was alone. Looking back, she saw no movement within the power distribution room, no calls for help, nothing but raging wyverns peeking inside, looking for their next meal.

“Pierce! Miles!” She yelled out frantically. “Anyone!”

There was no reply, not even when she cried out their names into her wrist terminal.

They were gone.

8 Pierce

Southbound Tram

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 11:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce awoke, coughing twice in the process. It wasn’t the kind of cough a man with the PhDs he had should be experiencing, nor was the dust and soot that made a mess of his IESA uniform. He sat up having realized the floor he was on was warm thanks to his body heat, then realized he should be thankful his body was still producing heat on its own.

A chair was next to him, one of many within the tram he was in as it glided across the maglev tracks to … Wait, he thought. How did I get in here? He went to scratch his head and ponder his thoughts. The pain that flared up made him regret that action instantly. “Argh, my arm.”

“Wakey, wakey, sleepin,” Miles said to him from behind.

Pierce turned around and watched the lone Marine in his exosuit stride away from the rear of the tram, toward the front seats. “What happened?”

“Fuckin’ dragon, sucker punched us,” Miles said, keeping his gaze at the forward window showing the hazy skies and rugged mountainous terrain around them. “We got sucked out and tumbled down the rock face. Lucky for us, the gravity dampeners extend beyond the mountains, on the steep hill we rolled down.”

Jacobus had a gravitational pull much stronger than Earth. Terminal velocity would have been reached at a faster rate from a fall at the height they were in from the power distribution chamber within the mountain complex. Pierce had a newfound appreciation for the devices the planet had installed, from the plasma heaters to warm the colony from the extreme subzero temperatures of the planet, to the atmospheric processors pumping breathable air into the surrounding environment, and gravity dampeners.

“Why are we on this train?” Pierce asked Miles.

Miles shrugged. “The tram activated once we hit the bottom. Guess its grid was linked to the power we just switched on. Dragons were coming down to finish us off, my team stayed back to cover our retreat. Had to drag you inside and hope for the best.”

“Where are they now?”

Miles held up a fist full of dog tags. “They didn’t make it; the dragons saw to that.”

Pierce’s breathing became erratic and his face grew pale. “Foster? The survivors?”

“No clue b’y, our fall put us knee deep in the HNI jamming field, and your wrist terminal won’t communicate with anyone either.” Miles continued to explain. “I’d imagine they made it off-world by now, it’s been a few hours since this tram left.”

Pierce faced the floor frowning. “Hours …”

“Yep, hours.” Miles pointed to the skies from the window, bringing to Pierce’s attention the UNE ships’ fighters carving a path through the thick hazy clouds searching for wyverns. “UNE forces are still here though, so don’t shit yer paints yet, our ride outta here is still in orbit.”

“Yeah, but for how long?”

“I couldn’t tell ya, just that I ain’t gonna get off this tram until I’m convinced it’s safe.”

Pierce joined him at the front, and the two stood shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm to be exact, as Miles was half a meter taller than him, and that was when he was out of his suit. The two looked out the window, looking at the yellow mist before them blocking their view of the Draconian constructs they were no doubt nearing. Or so Pierce assumed as he looked to the left and noticed the somewhat familiar ancient city at the basin of the mountains, the city that was home to the monolith that changed Foster.

“Lieutenant, did we pass any platforms?” Pierce asked to double-check their heading.

“Aye, just one a few hours back inside the mountain settlement,” Miles said. “Didn’t bother to get us off at that stop, it was crawling with Draconian soldiers.”

With what Miles said, plus another look out the left windows confirmed it all to Pierce. The tram the two were on was the same one Pierce and Foster rode on when she ditched her post to go sightseeing. Therefore, the platform Miles spoke of was the one they had used to board. They were nearing the gondola that overhung over the ancient city, one that was practically consumed by the hulking presence of the dome-shaped Draconian construct.

As predicted, the tram came to a stop at the platform that led to the gondola. Miles moved to the exit first with his rifle drawn. No bullets were fired, as he pushed out first, meaning Pierce was safe to follow behind, or so he hoped.

He grimaced at the gondola platform as they arrived at it. Miles lowered his rifle, and the two Canadians shook their head in disappointment, there wasn’t much of a platform, or gondola left. What the two saw was the blackened remains of wreckage and charred bodies scattered about. Had Pierce, Foster, Eicelea, and Vynei opted to backtrack on that faithful day, they too would have become part of the collection of bodies the two stepped over to gawk at the destruction.

“Well, so much for that, now what?” Pierce said.

“We’re still too high up,” Miles said, and reminded him of the winged threat that remained in the skies, oblivious they had access to two new and lost targets. “Let’s get to the lower land.”

Pierce stopped himself from suggesting they simply hop in the tram and ride it back, having noticed it left the station, and them, behind. They were stuck until the next automated one arrived, if it arrived. Scaling down the mountains it was.

The two stood next to a steep and uneven incline. It was their only way to safety from what they discovered after a quick search of the two platforms and the piles of debris blocking other passageways.

Vertigo and animalistic fear paralyzed Pierce’s body. He noted the number of risks scaling down the mountain had. Miles alone had twenty different ways he could die, and that was taking into account he wore an exosuit that had protective shields. Pierce had had his uniform and wrist terminal. None of that would help break his fall should he slip. And I will slip too …

Miles looked down at the incline, rubbing his armored covered hands together. “Aright, this shouldn’t be too bad.”

Pierce’s panic-stricken face looked at the Marine, who was visually in the opposite position. “Are you insane?” Pierce asked him.

“I climbed up and down Olympus Mons. Climbin’ down this should be easy, eh?”

“You are insane.”

“C’mon on, b’y.” Miles took the plunge first, lowering his body to scale down the mountain. “This is a walk in the park.”

“Yes, a very scary one with Jason and a chainsaw waiting for us.”

Little by little, the two brought themselves closer to the ground, and the ancient city below, using the rock face as handles like it was a giant ladder. Miles remained a meter below Pierce at all times, as Pierce’s hesitation at times made his descent move at a snail’s pace. He told himself more times than he could remember not to look down, hoping it would calm his shaking hands, something that could become a liability if he didn’t get them under control.

Five minutes later, Pierce’s hands still rattled, his courage needed refueling. He tried to remind himself that he was flung from another set of mountains earlier and survived that fall. Those thoughts played through his head on a continuous loop, as they continued to lower themselves. It was the courage refueling he needed. It didn’t work. The logical part of his brain chimed in he could have been easily killed. He got lucky with that fall. There was no way in hell he’d luck out twice.

“I thought you IESA folks were explorers?” Miles said, breaking their silence.

Pierce froze to reply, fearing that using his brain to speak and climb down might be the distraction that would end him. “We are.”

“Then why are you afraid of scaling down a mountain? Ain’t that part of the job of exploring unknown planets?”

“I’m a science officer.”

“All those PhDs and ain’t none of them cover rock climbing, eh?”

“No.”

The two continued to climb down, as Pierce’s throat contracted in ways he didn’t think possible when he heard a pebble fall. He couldn’t hear it hit the surface.

“Didn’t climb the mountains back in British Colombia?” Miles pressed on.

“I spent most my time in Vancouver, rarely left the city, especially after the Empire’s invasion.”

“Ah, so you’re from the old-world then, eh? You know what life was like before 2018.”

“I remember an era when the internet and cell phones didn’t exist,” Pierce said, stroking his aged hair gifted to him by his middle-age. “I even remember the old rotary dial phones; my grandparents had them when I went to visit them as a kid.”

“You’re a bloody relic then, eh? You should be teaching history to school children, not out here risking your arse, b’y.”

“I went from an age where exploring the cosmos was a dream, now it’s a reality.” Pierce looked upward to the yellow hazy skies serving as a curtain to the star filled void beyond. “I don’t care what it takes, I want to explore and study every star, planet, and nebula out there—”

Pierce’s speech ended abruptly. He lost his footing and grip. Gravity, dampened gravity that was, took hold of his body and he made the plunge he feared he would. And the reason for it? He went to move while talking.

His fall was short-lived thanks to Miles grabbing him as he fell past, holding him tight and painfully with the grip of his exosuit.

“Might wanna master climbing mountains back on Earth beforehand, eh?” Miles snickered.

Miles gave Pierce exactly two minutes to catch his breath once they arrived at the foot of the mountains and subsequently the streets of the ancient city, or what was left of it. Looking ahead, Pierce was greeted to a closer of view of the construct that covered half the city. A thirty-minute walk brought them closer to its darkened surface and the strange hexagonal patterns that decorated the sides of the domed structure.

“So, you guys know nothing about this?” Pierce asked as he glided his hand across the surface of the construct.

“These constructs were heavily guarded when we arrived,” Miles said. “There was no way to get a closer look without being detected.”

“Seems lightly guarded now, wonder why.”

“There’s a battle going on, that’s why. Dragons must have pulled their forces away to fight.”

Pierce activated his wrist terminal, then loaded its EAD app, turning it into a scanner when its holo screen appeared. He took detailed scans of the construct, while moving around its outer walls, stopping at what appeared to be an oval-shaped doorway.

“Hey, where ya goin’, b’y?” Miles said, yanking him backward by the collar.

“We got our wish,” Pierce said. “This is our chance to see what they have done with the monolith, which should be inside.”

“That was Foster’s wish.”

“Okay half wish, still; let’s take a quick look inside. There’s nothing else we could do anyways, right?”

“HNI comms are still jammed.” Miles created a holographic screen, one full of static. He winced. “In fact, it’s gotten worse.”

“I’m willing to bet this construct has something to do with it.” This begged the question. “How come you’re still standing, Miles?”

“Eh?”

“I thought the Dragon Knight HNI interference incapacitated all HNI users?”

“I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

“If you pass out, I’ll be sure to run in the other direction.”

“Well thanks, nice to know a fellow Canuck got me back.”

The surface of the doorway slid open. The light from inside forced the two to look away as it slowly faded, unveiling a deep hallway seemingly made of glass from top to bottom.

It was devoid of any activity, unlike the landscape behind them which still had the looming threat of wyverns that might appear in the skies without warning.

“And just think, we’ve found our escape route if things go bad,” Pierce said.

“Intriguing …” Miles said, stepping inside along with Pierce, eyeing its hallways, and ensuring his rifle was ready for action.

The two ventured inside as the doors behind them slid shut. Minutes later, scores of Draconian soldiers marched toward the two, forcing them to dive for cover behind the towering pillars and dragon statues that adorned the wide hallways. One group of Draconians stopped suddenly and fanned out to search the area, all looking confused as if they had prey that vanished. Taking a closer look seemed like a terrible idea.

The searching squad of soldiers was pulled back when the leader of the group shouted to them. They continued marching and moved past the pillars and statues Pierce and Miles remained idle and silent behind. The hallway that led further into the construct was clear, the halls that went in the opposite direction back to the entrance became full of patrolling Draconians. The two had no choice but to move forward.

“Guess they didn’t pull everyone out,” Miles drily said while they carefully slithered away from their hiding spot. “Is this what the ancient city looked like?”

“No … They’ve completely changed it,” Pierce said while eying the results of his wrist terminal’s scans.

“Why?”

“You’re asking the wrong person.”

“You’re the smart one with PhDs,” Miles whispered. “Pretty sure I’m askin’ the right person.”

The two heard movement, forcing them to stop yet again as they pushed deeper across the immaculately polished, crystal-tiled hallway. Unlike the last time they had to stop, there were no pillars or statues to hide behind. Miles drew his rifle, Pierce hid behind him.

A Draconian soldier ran at them, it was engulfed in raging flames, the light that the flames created reflected up from the tiles it ran on. The burning Draconian continued to run at them, screaming with pain, flailing its arms about in a futile attempt to pat them out. The act proved to be its final one before it tumbled to the floor and ceased all movement, with flickering flames and rising smoke coming from its melting armor.

Miles lowered his weapon while four other Draconians ran past them in the halls. They were all doused in flames from head to toe and came crashing down one by one around two confused men creating almost a circle of bonfires.

“What the fuck?” Miles said, kicking a smoking Draconian body. “Pierce, what happened?”

Pierce kneeled next to one of the burning bodies, waving his wrist terminal around it with its holographic EAD screen. His free hand covered his irritated nostrils when the smoke smeared his face. “They appear to be burning.”

“No shit, eh?” Miles heckled. “Why?”

The footsteps of another Draconian caused the two to stand fast, this one wasn’t on fire. Miles’ rifle took aim, he didn’t pull the trigger. Pierce could see the hesitation in his face and the reason for it. The Draconian was unarmed, and its helmet removed unveiling its humanoid dragon face that looked behind constantly with fear.

It stopped in front of the two, took one last look back then faced them panicking, speaking to them in its language. The tone of its voice was fueled by fear, shock, and horror. Whatever set its friends on fire was down the hall where they came from. If Pierce didn’t know any better, he suspected the Draconian was ready to switch sides and warn them of the threat that neared them—

A soft splitting noise discharged, and the Draconian’s head split in half from the top to its mouth. Its head folded open like a blossoming flower for the two to see exactly what its brains, skin and muscle tissue from the inside out looked like. Its body joined its burning comrades on the floor, gushing out half a liter of boiling hot blood. Pierce made sure to take a step or two back; it felt like someone opened a small hot oven in front of him.

A single figure strode past the burning bodies, calmly with elegant steps. Miles grinned at the figure, Pierce looked at them puzzled. It was a woman with thick brown hair, in formfitting armor with wires and mechanical parts plugged into it. The mechanical joints shimmered blue, unlike the holographic bracelets that twirled around her wrists, which were red.

She was a human psionic. Pierce was intrigued to finally see one face-to-face.

“Oh great, here comes EDF,” Miles said to the woman.

“The Extrasolar Defense Force,” Pierce said, looking at the woman that grinned at Miles. “I remember them boarding the Carl Sagan.”

“Probably a different team, EDF-1 here usually gets all the fun assignments,” Miles said, then faced the woman. “Ain’t that right, LeBoeuf?”

LeBoeuf rolled her eyes and called out toward the end of the hallway where she had entered from. “Sergeant, we got friendlies inside.”

“Didn’t know EDF was deployed out here as well,” Miles said to her.

“EDF, Marines, the navy.” LeBoeuf gave Pierce a stare, his uniform to be exact. She shook her head. “And evidently, IESA …”

She led them to where she came from, stepping past the flaming bodies that still held the attention of Miles and Pierce, especially the one that was panicking. “Why was that lone soldier all spooked out?” Pierce asked. “I was under the impression these things were emotionless killing machines.”

LeBoeuf tapped her shoulder pads, which had the words ‘Witch Queen’ written across them. “They probably never saw psionic sorcery on my level.”

Three new figures emerged from the shadows having finished examining the body of a dead Draconian with piping hot steam escaping from the six bullet holes in its chest. The presence of the three made Pierce lower his scanning wrist terminal and face them. One was a psionic male with armor similar to LeBoeuf’s. The other two were wearing similar body armor that hugged their forms but lacked the psionic add-ons. Of the three rifle-wielding figures that now faced Pierce, one of them looked familiar.

“Chevallier?” Pierce called out to her.

Mathilda Chevallier frowned upon hearing the sound of his voice. “Pierce …”

9 Avearan

König psionic academy

Titan, Sol system

October 13, 2118, 14:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Avearan had been a student at the König psionic academy for the past year, part of the UNE’s cross-species psionic training program. As per UNE law, those with psionic powers had to undergo training to master and control their gifts and become a registered psionic user with the government.

Unlike the Empire, however, psionics in the UNE were never forced to dedicate their entire lives as living tools, or forced to serve in the military, though the military did run a separate training facility that was attached to the academy. Periodically, recruiters from the UNE’s military would meander in the halls of the academy or stand and watch at the doorway to live exercise training classrooms. When those classes ended, one or two psionics were handpicked and offered a package containing lucrative gifts if they promised to enlist.

It was a huge difference from the psionic programs the Empire employed, where being a psionic was borderline slavery. Avearan had too many not-so-fond memories of that dark period of her life.

The size of the multistory academy was immense, so immense that few people ever had the chance to visit all its floors and wings. In some way it was like a miniature city, complete with residences and restaurants, and green grass on the outskirts, all protected by a transparent dome keeping that nasty cold of Titan’s air out. The size of the academy was understandable when one took in Titan’s population demographics. Titan was home to the UNE’s largest psionic community.

Sixty percent of all people living on Titan had spent time in the academy at one point in their lives. While the academy wasn’t the only place in the UNE to train psionics, it was the first one built and often considered to be the best. Parents of psionic gifted children spent huge sums of credits to have their sons and daughters sent here when they were of age. Meanwhile in the Empire, parents were known to lose their heads because they got caught keeping the knowledge they had children with said gifts a secret.

Avearan had spent the bulk of her day going from classroom to classroom. She slipped into its maze of hallways way too bright for her light-sensitive eyes. A pair of shades pulled from her bag helped remedy that and caused her eyes to glow red slightly as she made her way to her final class for the day.

The demographic of the psionic students in the halls was a good way to tell which wing you were in. If you saw lots of humans, chances were, you were in the wing that trained gifted people that were there because the law required them to be. Tough and older personnel? Military psionic training, not that she had the clearance to enter that wing.

The halls of the wing she strode through, saw two Aryile students talking, while a group of Hashmedai students debated as to who was their favorite Archmage from Imperial history books. This was the cross-species wing, and at the far end of it, were classrooms designated for those developing their powers for medical use. Xenobiology was Avearan’s program.

The concept of humans and aliens sharing a world together wasn’t new. In the aftermath of the Empire’s failed invasion of Earth, many Hashmedai were left behind on its surface, and forced to live amongst humans. Meanwhile, Radiance came to help rebuild Earth, which ultimately resulted in many of its people having to spend time living on Earth. What better way to usher in the idea of galactic peace, by allowing nonhumans to become UNE citizens? It saw more technology enter the hands of the UNE as well as created a second option for those that wished to leave the strict religious laws of the Union, or the totalitarian rule of the Empire, without having to resort to living in the lawless Morutrin system and its chaos.

Avearan spent the next hour of her day studying psionic medicine, at a half-full lecture hall. How she remained awake during the lecture after such a long day and sleepless night was a mystery. Doctor Ella Lynn-Chambers, one of the instructors and directors of the academy, stood at a podium explaining how she created the concept of psionic medicine.

Ella went on to mention how the students in attendance, once they graduate, would have mastered the ability to diagnose patients, stop bleeding, force blood vessels to flow better, mend wounds by forcing the skin to seal up, all with their minds. Holographic pictures and diagrams helped illustrate the words she spoke.

Doctors with psionic powers were standard across the UNE. Their powers, combined with medical tools and medical training, made it possible to better heal and preserve life, compared to non-psionic doctors whom were reliant on their medical training and equipment. Simply put, psionic doctors were a three-in-one deal, non-psionic ones, were a two-in-one. Gene therapy eliminated death from old age, and psionic doctors eliminated death from sickness and accidents. The UNE was striving to become a galactic nation, where nobody died. Ever.

Until the dragons showed up.

“Well, it would appear we are out of time,” Ella said with her charming Australian accent. “Any other questions?”

One Aryile student sitting front row put his hand up. She nodded to him.

“We all know about the two first human psionics,” the student asked. “What about those that came after? There’s not much talk about them in the texts.”

Ella gave her reply. “EISS had taken control of the original research facility here on Titan after the Celestial Order wars. The third human psionic and beyond came out of their program and were recruited directly to partake in black ops operations.”

Avearan smirked as she went to minimize her holo screen full of notes. “Scary, isn’t it?” Ella continued. “Just imagine a teleporting sniper carrying out a covert op mission. So, the short answer to your question is, nobody knows, the third human psionic and those that came after remain top secret military information to this day.”

“Is that why there’s a military training branch here?” asked another student.

“Yes, it is,” Ella said. “After EISS got what they wanted, they left and were replaced with the UNE’s new psionic training platform. In time that led to the co-development of nonmilitary based psionic training divisions when I was brought in, such as the one you are in now.”

“Thanks for the insight.”

“Not a problem. Any other questions?” There was silence. Ella rubbed her hands together. “Well, should something else come into ye heads, just reach out to me, preferably telepathically since my HNI ain’t working.” Three dozen multispecies students erupted with laughter. “If you need to do it via HNI, then send it to my husband Gavin, who ironically, is also an instructor here.”

The class was dismissed afterward, spilling out into the halls. Avearan grabbed her bag after shutting off her holo screen and went for the door. Ella’s voice calling out stopped her.

“Hey, you!”

Avearan faced the instructor, unable to forget that moment in her life when their two bodies had swapped, thanks to weird alien psionic sorcery many years ago. Ella brushed back her blonde hair while smiling warmly at Avearan.

“Doctor Chambers, pleasure as always,” Avearan said.

“So, what was that smirk about earlier?” Ella asked.

“Earth kept the identities of those mythical psionics secret,” Avearan said. “I’m just surprised it hasn’t been declassified yet.”

“That’s why I said it was scary,” Ella said. “It means those people are still in service and working under the watchful eye of EISS.” Then came the topic change Avearan was hoping to avoid. Class was done for the day after all. “So, Avearan, how are you?”

“I’m fine, still getting used to being around so many people that aren’t planning to backstab me.”

“You’re in the UNE now, not Morutrin or the Empire.”

“When you’ve been on the run from the Empire and living as a salvager as long as I have, you tend not to trust anyone, you know?”

“I know all too well of that,” Ella said, grimacing. “Remember, I have your memories.”

“And I have yours.”

Avearan in some way helped found the academy. It was the body swap the two had that helped Ella develop her powers better and helped Avearan learn more about xenobiology and medical practice from Ella’s memories. The idea of being a doctor with psionic powers resulted in Ella developing the concept of psionic medicine and perfecting the technique she and the other instructors now passed onto the galaxy. The program Avearan was in, of course, had to be modified as human powers varied differently from Hashmedai and Radiance thanks, in part, to genetic tampering done by the ancient Lyonria race.

A chime sounded from Avearan’s wrist terminal. It was a custom ringtone to let her know the incoming message, was from an important person.

“Sorry, I gotta take this,” Avearan said, looking at its holographic screen notification.

“Not a problem, I need to get going,” Ella said, as she too brought her wrist terminal to her face. “Is it Lisette?”

Avearan smirked. “Yeah.”

“Tell her I said hi.”

A nonvocal goodbye by nodding their heads ended the chat. Avearan ventured into the halls while Ella stopped to make a number of calls on her wrist terminal. Wrist terminals were small and light devices that gave those that didn’t have access to HNI, which was extremely rare, the ability to interact with the network and gain access to its benefits.

In the case of Ella and Avearan, they both received HNI, but the implants failed to work with their brains. Side effects from having their minds swapped doctors assumed. Avearan went through life with two implants in her head being, the psionic chip she got years ago, which no longer had old Hashmedai cybernetic implants to interact with, and an HNI that won’t turn on. Removing both would be fatal, keeping both made her wish she had been born a human during this era.

She aimed the wrist terminal to her face, establishing a communication call to Lisette. A small hologram of a young woman in her twenties appeared. She had shoulder-length dark brunette hair with wavy purple highlights and gave Avearan a beaming openmouthed smile.

“Hey!” Lisette’s hologram shouted.

“What’s up?”

“I just finished class, you free to swing by my dorm later?”

“I always have time for you,” Avearan said. “When do you want me there?”

“Gimme like twenty minutes?”

“It will probably take me that long to get there.”

The communication link was replaced with a call ended projection. Avearan brought up a map of the enormous facility and asked it to chart a path that would lead to the dorms where Lisette was staying.

She arrived at the academy’s residence, just as planned, twenty minutes later. A wide window in the halls treated her eyes to the skies of Titan, sans Saturn, that was on the other side. The students that stayed in the academy’s dorms came from Earth, other UNE controlled worlds, or in the case of Lisette, places like Senkyo, a city on the opposite end of Titan.

Lisette shared her dorm with another student, who was away, most likely still dealing with their psionic training. The dorm brought back a quick flashback of the five years Avearan spent living in the Imperial psionic training camps on Paryo, and the slave collar she was forced to wear when she went back to her room to sleep. The amount of freedom UNE psionics had was inconceivable to her younger self. If Lisette wasn’t training or studying, she was playing video games, watching human movies, or doing something else that her free will demanded.

A knock granted Avearan access to Lisette’s bedroom. The lights were off, only lit candles on her computer desk and nightstand illumined the room. Avearan’s shades were no longer needed. She lifted them up resting it up top of her head of purple hair. Lisette stood from her chair, still maintaining that comforting smile wearing a flannel shirt and skinny jeans.

“How was your day?” Avearan asked.

“Garbage, right up until this very moment,” Lisette said.

Lisette went for a tinted glass bottle and poured its opaque reddish contents into two wineglasses. She kept one for herself and offered the other to Avearan. She sipped it, and remembered its familiar and sweet taste, and the first time she drank it, and the only place in the galaxy one could get it.

“Lisette, is this?”

Lisette presented the wine bottle to her, pointing at the text written in the Hashmedai language. “Straight from the Empire.”

And the cost of having it shipped to Saturn’s largest moon likely made her credit chit’s account balance go straight to the negatives.

“Lisette …”

Lisette silenced her, placing the bottle back on the desk and stepping closer to Avearan. The music in the background changed at the wave of Lisette hand and HNI. It was a form of soft contemporary human music, composed sometime in the late twenty-first century. Lisette held onto Avearan’s hands, placing them onto her shoulders, and then wrapping hers around Avearan’s waist. She swayed her body about in sync with the music, forcing Avearan to do the same. It forced Avearan to slow dance with her.

“Is there a reason for all this?” Avearan asked her.

“Yes, it’s called a romantic evening with my girlfriend.”

“Expensive wine from the Empire, candles …”

“We’re just missing the fancy food part,” Lisette said. “But I’m a broke student, we’ll have to settle with a pizza later.”

“Well, maybe if you didn’t buy that wine.”

“I wanted our anniversary to be something memorable for you.”

“We’ve been together for a month.”

“I don’t care,” Lisette said, as they continued to rock and sway slowly to the music. “What if the Draconians come back to Sol finish the job? What if Captain Foster fails in her mission? It’s better to celebrate a one-month anniversary now, than wait for the one-year mark that might not happen.”

Guilt hit Avearan, removing the sensual feeling that was starting to flow from her chest. Lisette spent what little credits she had on the wine. She could have gotten something from Earth, or perhaps Titan. But the Empire? She did it to please Avearan, to show how much she cared for her. Avearan needed to up the ante.

“What are you plans for the mid-term break?” Avearan asked. “If we’re going to celebrate this moment, let’s do it then.”

“Hmm, I like that,” Lisette said, resting her forehead against Avearan’s, filling her body with blissful vibes. “Traveling comes to mind, I never left Titan.”

“You’ve been on this moon your whole life?”

“Why do you think this pasty skin of mine is like this? Can’t get tanned here unless you hit the booths, but that shit is all fake. If you’re gonna get some color, you gotta do it right, under the sun. Like the beaches of the Caribbean.”

“Your pale complexion was the reason I approached you at first.”

“Yeah, you thought I was a Hashmedai!”

“The light that was above you didn’t help, or the purple in your hair.”

“So, what do you think? You, me, lying under the sun at the beach?” Lisette said. “Is your body going to be able to handle that?”

“Probably not without lots of ice and water,” Avearan said. “It’s one of the reasons why a colony like Taxah, which is just like Earth, has no cities in and around its equator. The heat and sunlight are too much for my people.”

“Nothing at all there?”

“Nope, just wildlife, jungles, beaches and the like, completely untouched.”

“Well fuck, we should go there instead,” Lisette said. “We could have a whole beach to ourselves.”

“Why stop at a beach?” Avearan snickered. “We could have a whole island for ourselves.”

“Babe.” Lisette said, ending the dance. “Can we go to Taxah instead?”

Traveling to Taxah would require Avearan to return to Imperial space, and face being a runaway psionic. Phylarlie’s protection and ability to put together elaborate lies was the only means for Avearan to return to the Empire briefly, provided she remained in Phylarlie’s manor or within the city of Muro.

Phylarlie’s recent message and invitation to return to Taxah was also still unanswered. It got her thinking.

“Now that you mention it,” Avearan said. “The system lord invited me to attend a festival for an upcoming Imperial holiday.”

“You won’t get in trouble, right?”

“If Phylarlie invited me, then she has plans to get me there in secret and keep my presence secret too.”

“Let’s do that,” Lisette said, pulling away from her, and leaping for joy. “Oh man, I can finally leave this rock!”

“It’s not Earth, but close enough. I’ll make the call when I get the chance.”

Lisette pulled Avearan to her, embracing her tightly, before running her fingers through Avearan’s hair. She rewarded her with a soft passionate kiss, a long one neither of the two women wanted to break away from.

10 Pierce

Draconian construct

Jacobus, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 15:28 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Oh, wow, I’m so glad you’re here and safe, Chief,” Pierce said, walking closer to Chevallier within the strange and silent dome-shaped construct. “Foster managed to get the crew back; you’re the last one we never got ahold of.”

“It’s Master Gunnery Sergeant, now,” Chevallier snorted in her French accent. “EDF-1.”

Miles approached who Pierce suspected to be the leader of the group, a tall and brawny African-American man. The two exchanged smiles and fist bumps. “Boyd, been a while, how you’ve been holdin’ up?” Miles said to him.

“Miles … well if it isn’t a blast from the past,” Boyd said, then gawked at Pierce. “Chevallier, you know this egghead?”

“He was the science officer of the Carl Sagan.”

“Oh, he’s that Doctor Pierce then?” LeBoeuf said. “The one that wrote those books about mermaids from space visiting ancient African tribes?”

“Sirius to be precise,” Pierce corrected her.

The fourth member of the EDF team laughed. He was the other psionic with them, his blond hair cut into a military mohawk. “Are you, Sirius?”

LeBoeuf rubbed her face. “Oh boy, Maxwell, no jokes, please.”

“In his defense, we’re now fighting dragons,” Boyd said. “Nobody is laughing at Doctor Pierce’s words, book, and reports nowadays.”

“What brings you two here to the party?” Maxwell asked.

Miles offered an explanation. “We got cut off from our group thanks to someone blastin’ Michael George music.”

“It was George Michael,” Pierce corrected him, as he analyzed the data that outputted onto his wrist terminal of the strange unknown elements the reflective floor, wall, and ceiling tiles were made of.

“I don’t care! We’re lost, and our comms are out,” Miles spat.

“Same here, we tracked the source of the jamming to this place,” Boyd said demonstrating with his HNI that his communication holo projection displayed static.

Pierce looked away from his scans, his lips twisted. “Is that so?”

“Hopefully, it isn’t our old friend, the Dragon Knight or Maiden,” Chevallier said, smirking at Pierce. “If so I’m going to have to face it alone.”

“I don’t have HNI like you, Chevallier,” Pierce added.

“Right, so I’ll be fighting it alone.”

“Assuming those two are alive to start with,” Pierce said. “We suspected they both met their ends during the battle at Sirius.”

Chevallier moved forward into the unknown grasping her rifle. “Only one way to find out.”

Pierce, Miles, and Chevallier’s EDF team continued to explore the crystalline maze of halls that made up the inside of the construct. Or was it Boyd’s EDF team? It was hard to tell with Chevallier and Boyd seemingly competing to take charge and point, their bickering didn’t help.

The group came to a stop within the center of the dome-shaped construct. The room was wide and hollow, and its ceiling was at least a kilometer in height according to Pierce’s scans. A pedestal stood center stage within the chamber. Above it floated a hologram depicting strange shapes and diagrams, and blue light shone away from it, illuminating the ceiling with ghostly imagery. Ahead of the pedestal was a Draconian soldier, interacting with it. Chevallier’s bullets put a number of rounds through its back, ejecting a torrent of steaming hot fluids from its chest. The Draconian was no longer interacting with the pedestal’s hologram.

Organic-looking pods clung onto the ceiling. Pierce stopped counting the pods at sixteen. If they were organic, there was probably something organic inside as well, something that could be hazardous to everyone’s health if released.

Those thoughts had him disturbed. He turned to the pedestal with his wrist terminal’s EAD scanning app active, hoping to find something more soothing to fill his thoughts with. The pedestal was scanned up and down, left and right, storing and recording its findings within a plugged-in data crystal.

“I think this might be the source of the disruption,” Pierce concluded after reading the EAD’s output.

Chevallier shrugged, standing next to him. “So much for a rematch.”

“You weren’t seriously hoping it was them?”

“That bitch knocked me off an office building, and then laughed about it,” Chevallier said. “You better fucking believe I want a piece of her.”

“Wait a minute,” Pierce said, eyeing the scanned results. Looking down, he took note of the raised platform he stood on where the pedestal was. “This is where the monolith was.”

“The one that gave Foster those tattoos?” Boyd asked.

“The very same, and now it’s gone,” Pierce said. “Guess that proves the Draconians had an interest in it; it’s probably why they built this place. They must be doing something with it.”

Chevallier motioned to the pedestal and hologram floating above it. “And left this thing in its place … whatever it is.”

Pierce waved his wrist terminal around the hologram after setting it to record, turning it into a wrist-mounted camera. A holographic handprint appeared, though the hand appeared to be that of a Draconian, a cross between a human and a dragon. Pierce pressed the palms of his right hand against the hologram, nothing happened.

“Biometrics,” he said, wincing. “If Foster was here, she might be able to interface with this console.”

LeBoeuf stood beside him. “So, we’re locked out then?”

Pierce shrugged and continued to scan and record data. “Pretty much, none of us are Draconian, or have the tattoos. It seems that’s the key to working their tech.”

LeBoeuf slung her rifle over her shoulders. Her body flashed and glowed with blue psionic energy. Its supernatural glow drew Pierce’s attention away from his scanner, and onto her. The dead Draconian Chevallier put down floated three meters off the floor via telekinesis. Its right hand twisted around and around, making cringing sounds as the bones within it crunched and popped, before it separated from its arm. The steaming hot blood within its arm gushed on to the floor when LeBoeuf released it from her psionic mind and forced the now severed hand to float next to the hologram above the pedestal.

Pierce’s face turned pale. “Jesus!”

LeBoeuf snorted. “Mind if I try my key?”

“Well—”

“Good, ‘cause I’m ready to go home.”

LeBoeuf telekinetically forced the blood-dripping severed hand to touch the holographic handprint. Lights around the pedestal flashed on, and the hologram’s display changed.

The hand dropped at Pierce’s feet, and he felt his stomach turn. “Was that really necessary?” he asked LeBoeuf.

“If shutting this down gets our comms back online, yes.”

“Couldn’t you just use your powers to move his body rather than ripping his hand off?”

“That would require extra effort on my part.”

Numbers and words written in the Draconian language populated the hologram. Pierce double-checked the settings on wrist terminal. The red circle and ‘REC’ icon continued to flash on its display, as his hands trembled with excitement. He was making history, the first human to uncover raw data from the Draconian horde.

“Remarkable,” he spoke slowly and softly.

“Okay, so, we drew a picture of stars and squiggle marks,” Maxwell said drily. “How does this get our comms back?”

A new screen flashed in front of the projection, it looked like pictures of sound waves next to images of Draconian ships.

“I guess this is a communication terminal for them,” Pierce said. “Whatever it is they use to transmit signals was interfering with our ability to do the same.”

“Never had our comms jammed this badly before,” Boyd said.

“We never had such a high concentration of their forces in one area like this before,” Pierce said.

Chevallier let out a loud groan. “Can we all just agree that this pedestal is the source of our problems right now?”

“Yes, it is,” Pierce said. “Give me a moment, maybe I can find a way to shut it down—”

Pierce was pulled back three meters instantly by what felt like thousands of invisible hands grabbing him. He fell to the floor back first, looking up, he saw the source of the pull back. LeBoeuf stood ahead of him with her left hand glowing brightly with her psionic sorcery. Her telekinetic pull interrupted his recording. The destructive powers of Maxwell and LeBoeuf denied Pierce the chance to return to his scans and recording.

The pedestal exploded with a thunderous blast, taking the hologram with it, and triggering erratic noises from above. The noise repeated, they were alarms, well the Draconians’ equivalent to alarms at least.

“Why the hell did you do that?” Pierce spat, coming to his feet with the aid of Miles.

“Comms are back,” Boyd said. “Nice work, you two.”

“Thanks, sir.”

The alarms continued to blare as fear generating red light fell upon the group of human trespassers. The organic pods on the ceilings trembled rapidly, whatever was on the inside of them, wanted out. Large cracks formed at the bottom of the pods, like an eggshell cracking open. The fleshly material the pods were made of peeled open, slime fell from them and splashed into the floor, screaming noises roared.

Winged creatures dropped from the opened pods, their wings began to take shape as they stood on their feet upon hitting the floor. They looked like oversized bats, bats covered in dragon scales, and fangs on par with the wyverns outside. For a lack of a better term, they were bat dragons, and each pod had two inside. Each pod was an egg.

Pierce stopped counting at sixteen eggs. Five rifles rose to the challenge, and then lowered as the numbers of the bat dragons increased in a rapid secession.

He backpedaled to the entrance. “Guys … this construct isn’t just a base,” Pierce said. “I think it’s a hatchery, the dragons are breeding.”

“And we just fucked up their nest, eh?” Miles said.

“Indeed. Okay, so, maybe we should run?” Pierce suggested.

The first of the awoken bat dragons flapped their wings and took to the air, displaying their flesh and metal ripping fangs.

Boyd joined Pierce.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

This time, Pierce lead the charge, taking the group back into the halls, past the smoldering Draconian corpses into what he hoped would be freedom. Miles, Boyd, and Chevallier shot their rifles as they ran when they could, though their aim is off. Maxwell and LeBoeuf unleashed their psionic powers, creating psionic barriers to slow the pursuit of the scourge of bat dragons or using telekinetic powers to push them to the floor. It bought them a little bit of time, but not enough, the gap between the fleeing humans and bat dragons closed with each passing second.

They would be surrounded completely soon and would have until their shields failed before they met their end. Too bad Pierce didn’t have personal shields, he was an explorer, and came armed with his blue jumpsuit uniform, wrist terminal, and a pistol. A pistol he lost hours ago he concluded, after finishing a quick pat down of his belt.

He had doubts the military personnel around him were going to take the extra time to protect him, let alone his wrist terminal. Not good, given the intel he collected. The words seen on the hologram could be translated by Odelea. What he discovered could be the final clues to where the Draconians dragged the Abyssal Sword. He didn’t know for sure of course, and if he failed to make it out with this data, nobody ever would.

“What’s our exit plan?!” Maxwell yelled while they continued to run toward a source of natural light emitting from a doorway up ahead.

“Our forces are ready to withdraw,” Boyd yelled back amidst the sounds of his rifle shooting blind shoots behind. “There’s too much enemy fire power.”

“In other words, they aren’t picking us up?”

“The Draconians left this place unguarded.” Boyd quickly created a three-dimensional hologram of the construct they were in and the surrounding mountain region. Flashing dots were scattered across the projection, most of them were red. “The dragons are coming back, if this shit behind doesn’t get us, their reinforcements will! Our forces are going to have to deal with a lot of resistance just to punch through to get us.”

“Not right now they don’t,” LeBoeuf said. “Those dragons are still a few minutes out.”

Boyd quickly adjusted the hologram to show the upper atmosphere of the planet and a scattering of blue dots. “Same with our fighters.”

“Less talk more running!” Chevallier roared, silencing the group.

The cloudy skies of the outside world raced over the top of the six as they bolted out of the construct. Pierce took a moment to catch his breath, huffing and puffing. His sights remained low to the ground, and then looked up slowly when faint shadows of wyverns appeared. The skies were slowly darkening with them.

“Can’t you guys just teleport us out?” Pierce said, turning to face Maxwell and LeBoeuf.

“Did you not see what we had to do just to keep those things off us?” LeBoeuf said after catching her breath. “I don’t have it in me right now, maybe in three minutes—”

The thumping sounds of fluttering wings and high-pitched screeches came from the entrance to the construct. The bat dragons were catching up. LeBoeuf flicked her wrists at the door, as the glowing visage of the bracelets around them turned red and spun. A lavender-colored psionic shield sealed the entrance seconds before the swarm bat dragons arrived. The shield flashed its vibrant colors rapidly with each collision the bat dragons made, none got out. And if what Pierce suspected was true, neither would they as both psionics used the combined force of their powers and mental concentration to strengthen the shield.

“I guess that teleport in three minutes or so is off the table?” Pierce said to LeBoeuf.

“Ya think?”

They were trapped, yet again having escaped from one horde of deadly dragons, only to be exposed by another group that took to the skies and plunged toward them. Teleportation was not an option, and neither was creating a protective dome to deflect the incoming wyverns, and UNE fighters, were still too far away.

Pierce activated the communication functions of his wrist terminal, now that his hands weren’t flailing about from a massive run. “Pierce to Johannes Kepler, come in.”

There was a long pause before he heard an answer, communication delay. The Johannes Kepler was still in orbit, five light-seconds away. “Pierce, you’s alive?” Foster’s voice spoke.

“Not for long,” Pierce said, looking up at the wyverns flapping their wings, growing in size in the skies. “We need a lift out of here now, if that is even remotely possible.”

11 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Jacobus orbit, Kapteyn’s Star system

October 13, 2118, 16:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Doctor Pierce was shaking in his boots. Foster could tell by the jittering holographic imagery his shaky hands created when he aimed his wrist terminal to his face, transmitting it to the bridge’s view screen. Pierce’s face faded away from the screen as the transmission ended, replacing it with what the forward external cameras of the Kepler saw, being the horizon of the yellow hazy planet.

Foster sat back in her captain’s chair. “Alrighty, Chang, you heard the man.”

Chang nodded and swiftly put his hands to work at the helm. “Changing course now.”

Foster’s mind relaxed briefly as Johannes Kepler began to dive toward the planet. Pierce’s communication was the good news she and the crew had been searching for over the last few hours since he and the Marines had gone missing. It was the sole reason they hadn’t left the system, despite having an uncountable number of rescued colonists aboard, crowding every free inch of the Johannes Kepler’s interior, that needed to be taken to safety ASAP.

Fiery dots flashed in and out of existence as they neared the planet, while lines of white and red zipped about. Every Draconian ship in the system was alerted to them and the presence of the UNE fleet. The battle was slowly turning into a repeat of the encounter at Earth, nuclear missiles being exchanged for tachyon beams, fighters engaging in a deadly dance with wyverns.

It was time to go, but not without their missing personnel.

Thick yellow clouds of the planet obscured the view screen two minutes after their reentry began. Foster faced the communication officer’s post and its many floating holo screens. “Odelea, is the UNE giving you troubles?”

“No, Captain, they have dispatched several fighters to assist with our rescue.” Odelea updated the view screen. A tactical hologram appeared over it, showing the Johannes Kepler’s location and several blue dots approaching it from all sides, and a blob of red dots ahead.

Once clear of the cloud coverage, the view screen’s magnification forced the top-down view of the rugged terrain to enlarge. Pierce and his company could be seen at the entrance to the Draconian construct, the two psionics with them were busy keeping a psionic barrier up to prevent something inside the construct from escaping.

Random wyverns obscured the view, flying in and out of sight from the screen. They were closer to Pierce and his friends than the Johannes Kepler was. What they needed was a teleport out. The wyverns before the Kepler were on the verge of making their strike.

“Chang, shields at max and push through,” Foster said. “Get us there in one piece if you can.”

Chang nodded, made the appropriate adjustments in the Kepler’s descent to the surface. “You got it, Captain!”

Pushing through to the surface wasn’t going to be enough. Foster went to put the rest of her team to work.

“EVE, you got weapons, Nereid take over as lead shipboard psionic duties, Tolukei get down there and give them a hand.”

The players in Foster’s plan were set in motion. Tolukei’s body flashed away with illuminating teleportation light down to the surface. Foster was able to get a better glimpse via the view screen why the UNE avoided sending rescue transports down, or psionics. There were enough wyverns to darken the hull of the Kepler with their shadows, the risks were too great.

EVE controlled the Kepler’s weapons, bringing them online and ejecting rail gun rounds that tore apart a number of wyverns. The fighters alongside them did the same, then scattered when angry ones came about to take aim. A full-blown aerial fight in the hazy clouds commenced, one that Foster hoped would reduce the number of wyverns swooping down.

Foster had Odelea establish a comm link with Tolukei after confirming he had arrived. “Are you able to get them out?”

“Not at this rate, Captain,” Tolukei’s voice played over the bridge’s speakers. “The battle grows more intense with each second.”

“We’s tryin’ our best up here—”

“Talking to me will reduce my efficiency, Captain.”

The comm line was cut.

The best Tolukei could do was support them with a protective barrier. Sending him down to help was a risky gamble, as there was a high chance Tolukei wasn’t going to be able to focus and teleport them to safety. He was a combat psionic, not a support one. Fighting was his expertise, not large-scale escapes.

Foster groaned. The psionic duo with Pierce used their powers to buy them time, Chang taking the Kepler into the thicket of the wyvern’s formation, bought them time, Tolukei teleporting down to assist, did nothing but buy time. She had enough. It was time they started buying a solution to the problem.

“We’s gonna have to make a landin’” Foster said, amidst the growing sounds of the ship rumbling.

Chang shook his head and checked his instruments. “We need to punch a decent-sized hole in the formation to make that happen.”

“So much for this being a mission of peace,” Williams said from his station.

He wasn’t wrong. The Johannes Kepler’s mission was to find the homeworld of the Draconians, make contact with their leaders, and convince them to stand down as the conflict was a misunderstanding. Killing dragons was by no means the most ideal way to make peace, but what other choice did they have? They needed to protect themselves, and allies.

“Odelea, relay a message to Tolukei,” Foster said to her. “Have him conserve as much of his psionic power as possible.”

She nodded “Understood.”

“Nereid,” Foster called out, giving the mysterious girl from Sirius a look at the psionic workstation. “Give the overshields everything you got, tap into your Voelika’s power if you must.”

“So, what’s the plan, Captain?” Chang asked. “Just gonna plow through?”

“Ya damn right we are,” Foster said, grabbing onto her chair’s arms. “Push down like they ain’t anything in front of us, Chang.”

“All right, everyone; hold on to your butts!”

Chang pushed the Kepler into the cluster of wyverns blocking their path to the construct. The UNE escort fighters broke off, seemingly uninterested in the suicide run. They were on their own at that point. Wyverns eclipsed everything on the viewer, clawing at the ship as its overshields rippled purple and lavender colors, and spewing a torrent of plasma from their breath attacks.

It reminded Foster of old zombie movies she watched when she was younger. People would plow through streets full of zombies in a car on a desperate struggle to get past, ignoring the fact many of them had clung into its sides. The Kepler was in the similar situation, charging down from the skies with angry wyverns attacking every inch of the ship.

Tactical overlays over the view screen reported a quick and troubling drop of the overshields’ strength with every breath attack, or wyverns that were hit head-on. Nereid clasped her Voelika staff within her hands. Its radiant orange glow enhanced her psionic gifts, providing the overshields the ability to take a few more hits.

The percentage of the overshields jumped around on the tactical overlay, 23 percent one second, then 34 the next, only to dip back to 23, then 10. It went back up to 34, then a barrage of tachyon fire, in conjunction with jets of plasma from the mouths of wyverns, brought it to 0. Nereid screamed in agonizing pain, holding her head as she fell forward. Her Voelika crashed onto the floor and rolled away, her hands struggled to keep her up as she hit the computer station ahead of her. The Kepler’s primary shields were exposed. It was their last layer of defense.

“Nereid?” Foster called out to her with concern in voice.

EVE calmly walked to Nereid, helped her up, and scanned her condition with her android eyes. “This act may have been taxing on her brain,” EVE revealed.

“Get her to sickbay when clear,” Williams said.

Foster’s gaze returned to the viewer and grimaced as new data appeared on the tactical overlay. The primary shields of the Kepler were now exposed and dropping.

The surface neared, as did the sight of the dome barrier Tolukei created to protect Pierce and his friends. The landing was hard and fast, sending a brief and sudden tremor across the ship. Chang didn’t take the time to find a suitable landing zone, let alone slow down. Foster couldn’t blame him, she’d have done the same.

The entry ramp leading into the cargo bay lowered, and the bridge crew looked on in awe as the dramatic rescue unfolded. All parties that were in danger stormed up the ramp, climbing aboard and shooting backward to disperse the wyverns that got close. Bat-like dragons spewed out from the entrance of the construct, adding to the threats that surrounded the Kepler from all angles. Williams darted away from his post, entering the cargo hold to assist in the rescue.

“Everyone, be on alert in case we have a repeat of our last epic rescue,” Foster said.

What was unfolding reminded her of what took place two months ago on the surface of New Babylon. The Johannes Kepler coming in for the save, only for the Dragon Maiden to sneak aboard.

Williams returned, having confirmed the rescue was a success. The Johannes Kepler was once again airborne as its launch thrusters flared, and its fading primary shields flashed blue and azure colors from the never-ending horde of dragons.

“So, as for our exit?” Chang asked.

The bridge’s sliding doors slithered open once more as Tolukei returned. He moved to the side slightly and watched intently with his four eyes as EVE escorted a weakened and limping Nereid to sickbay.

“What happened to her?” Tolukei said, returning to the psionic station.

“We had to brute force our way down using the overshields to keep us alive,” Foster explained.

“She is still far from completing her training,” Tolukei said. “It might not have been wise to ask such a task of her.”

“Didn’t have a choice.”

“I could have done what you required of her.”

Tolukei wasn’t wrong, he probably would have lasted longer. Pierce and the others on the other hand, not so much. Foster tried not to dwell on it. She was doing her job as the captain, making the tough choices to get the mission done. A crew member potentially suffering a brain aneurysm to save the lives of six others wasn’t an easy choice to live with, but necessary.

“And it’s that same thing I’m gonna require of you now,” Foster said. “Get a new overshield up, and give it all your might, even if it makes you pass out.”

Tolukei nodded, folded his hands together, and spoke once more before entering a deep trance. “As you wish.”

The Johannes Kepler pulled up and away from the surface, entering the skies and another rocking assault by multiple swarming wyverns, all visibly angry at the ship that stole their next meal. What remained of Tolukei’s psionic power forced a powerful overshield to flash and reappear around the ship, absorbing the barrage of attacks, and giving the ship’s primary shields time to slowly regenerate.

Foster gave Tolukei a look and noted his flinching face beneath his dark hood. The stress was getting to him, less than the stress Nereid had to deal with, but it was there nonetheless. If Tolukei followed instructions and held back when he was protecting Pierce’s group, then he should have just enough powers left to get them to safety. This was all in theory of course, Foster wasn’t an expert in psionic powers, let alone the powers of a Javnis Muodiry like himself.

The altitude numbers, displayed on the bottom left of the view screen, ticked upward as did the speed of the vessel. They were escaping, too bad the overshield percentages dropped just as fast. Five minutes into their climb up and away from the super-earth-sized world, the Johannes Kepler poked up from the sea of yellow clouds with wyverns in its wake. The skies darkened, turning from yellow to beige, fading away into blackness dotted with the stars of the galaxy, and a raging space battle before it.

The growing debris field, mixed with burning flesh from bio-ships and charred pieces of what was once a UNE destroyer, had Foster worried. “What’s the status of the fleet?”

Odelea eyed her holo screens, spoke quickly to the other ships, and gave her response. “All UNE ships are preparing to withdraw from the system now we’ve left orbit.”

It was good enough for Foster. “Then let’s do the same, Mr. Chang, set a course to the wormhole.”

“Already on it.”

One by one, UNE battleships vanished after small bright flashes of light via FTL jumps. Once in position, the Johannes Kepler did the same, entering FTL and traveling at speeds equal to two light-years per month, double what the UNE battle group was capable off. Despite not making their FTL jump first, the Johannes Kepler took the lead in the escape back through the wormhole, soaring past all ships and hostile enemy fire which was also able to travel faster than light.

Crossing the threshold past the wormhole’s event horizon marked the end of the ordeal. The Draconians, despite having annexed Kapteyn’s Star system for months, never sent their ships through the wormhole. The sizeable UNE battle group on the other side pointing their guns and nuclear warheads might have something to do with it, though that group was now behind the Kepler, still making their escape. The more Foster thought about it, the more she realized that perhaps the real reason why they didn’t try to leave, was because they had exactly what they wanted. Control over the system and nothing else.

That monolith and ancient city was more important to them than we thought … “What’s the status of the fleet behind us?”

“Still in one piece, Captain,” Chang reported. “It will be a few more minutes before they make it back to the wormhole.”

The tension that gripped the bridge crew finally dissolved. “Amazing flyin’ as always, Chang,” Foster said to him.

“So, it’s you I gotta thank then, eh?” A familiar voice said.

Foster spun her chair to the aft, and smirked. The UNE Marine, Jacob Miles, stood at the entrance, still in his exosuit with his arms crossed.

Chang too turned his chair to face him. “For those flight skills that got us to the finish line? Yes, sir.”

Miles’ heavy steps moved closer to Chang, and his bearded face was not impressed. “And blastin’ Jackson George music that lured the enemy to us?”

“It was George Michael,” Chang corrected him. “Michael Jackson was the previous song—”

“I don’t fuckin’ care, b’y!” Miles exploded, drawing all stares to him like a magnet. “My team’s dead, others are dying or MIA on the surface. Don’t get me started on them ships we probably lost covering yer arses.”

Chang was revving up to make a witty come back, one that probably would have gotten him punched in the face, while the imposing and uninvited Marine drew closer to him. Foster stepped in between the two, holding her hands out before Miles and his armed chest.

“Okay, how about y’all talk this over later?” Foster said.

Miles backed off and gave his ginger beard a stroke. “I dunno what kinda ship and crew you’re runnin’ here, Foster. But my God, if you guys are seriously our last hope for survival, may he help us all. This whole mission went sideways because of your helmsman’s playlist.”

“Actually, Lieutenant Miles,” EVE said, as she stood with her hands behind her back having returned from sickbay. “According to my analysis, the music drew the Draconian forces away from the survivors we recently recovered. Once they encountered your team and the other Marine forces, they called for reinforcements that had been guarding the construct you, Doctor Piece, and EDF-1 had entered. Had Chang’s playlist not been playing, I predict we would still be on the surface waiting for the recon teams to observe the situation. The survivors would have been discovered and killed, and the construct would have remained heavily guarded.”

Silence hit. Everyone’s minds began to process what EVE revealed.

Chang broke that silence seconds later.

“So what EVE is trying to say is … my actions resulted in lives being saved and allowed you and Pierce to do …whatever the hell it was you were doing inside that, construct, thingy.”

“That is correct, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said. “You inadvertently triggered a chain reaction of events, which resulted in this positive outcome.”

Chang raised his hands in triumph and he spun his char around to face the helm. “I will take thank yous in the form of hugs from the ladies, and men bowing down before me saying Dennis is king.”

Foster held onto her hips, shaking her head at him. “Chang …”

“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up and fly the damn ship.”

“Thank you, by the way,” said Pierce, who had entered the bridge silently behind Miles, holding his wrist terminal high up. “I was starting to worry if this intel would be lost for a moment.”

“What do you got there?” Foster asked him.

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out. Odelea, I could use your help with this one, if that’s okay, Captain?”

“I ain’t got any problems with that,” Foster said, returning to her chair. “It’ll be at least a day before we arrive at Amicitia Station 14 and drop off these survivors.”

12 Avearan

City Core

Cassini City, Titan, Sol system

October 14, 2118, 06:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Avearan gave her apartment one last fleeting look before she went for the front door with her traveling bag in hand. I’ll be back in week, she told herself. If it took longer than that, then she and Lisette had found a means for the two to remain in the Empire. Her landlord could do whatever the hell he wanted to with her stuff, not that she had much of value.

She arrived at the academy campus from the same brain train she always took, this time not as a student heading to class and training. She took a seat in one of the many cafes on the lower floors, waiting for Lisette who still had one last training session left before the week-long break. She passed the time reviewing their last-minute travel documents, trying not to think about the credits that were emptied from her account to pay the passage for the two, or the cheap protein bars they’d have to live off until their arrival. The number of ships they’d need to transfer to was plentiful, and the Empire didn’t use credits. Getting passage on Imperial ships without Imperil standing required a whole lot of bartering. Phylarlie had her people take care of that, lucky for them.

Lisette greeted her with opened arms and a kiss when she was ready. The two made their way to the train platform, sat, and waited for one that would take them up north to the nearest starport. The journey had the two observe the sights of Titan’s untamed rugged hills and mountains, ice harder than a rock, yet the lakes and rivers of methane remained in their liquid state. Lisette pestered Avearan with questions about how it felt to stand outside without an EVA suit, or what was it like to see and be in a rainstorm of water. The concept of water falling from the skies was crazy talk to her, as liquid methane rainstorms were all she knew. Even then, those were rare on Titan.

The train’s automatic announcement system, which sounded a lot like EVE, announced they had arrived at the starport. What they saw when the doors slid open made both of their faces wrench with worry. There was a large crowd of humans blocking the starport’s main entrance, chanting and waving signs, protesting about … something.

“Oh shit …” Lisette muttered as they neared the protest.

“Wonder what they’re complaining about now?” Avearan said.

Lisette grimaced and pulled Avearan toward her tight, like she was trying to protect her. They pushed past the protesters, slowly trying to make their way to the only entrance to the starport via the station’s platform. The chants of the humans became more noticeable as with the signs they held up. Some signs had slogans such as ‘UNE is for humans only’ others said, ‘Extraterrestrials go home!’ The chanting was of a similar nature. Avearan felt powerless without her old cybernetics.

“Just keep your head low and walk,” Lisette whispered to her.

News reporters with flying camera drones stood around the protesters, recording and reporting on what was going on, one reporter even took the time to conduct an on-the-spot interview. Avearan managed to hear bits of the interview despite the loud ranting. The protester being interviewed mentioned something about nonhumans needed to leave the UNE, and something about the end of humanity was near unless people rose up and joined them.

Hateful glares locked onto Avearan’s body when someone, using their loud and agitated voice, made it clear that Avearan was a Hashmedai, not a human with purple hair as her clothing and shades made it appear. Lisette, holding Avearan close to her, didn’t spare her from their wrath and hateful comments. She wished she had followed her advice and kept her head low, not stare and listen to the interview.

Heckling and harassment ensued, as with shoving and pushing upon the couple that only wanted to step inside the starport, free of the protest. Rubbish from the waste bins were thrown at them, some people spat at their feet, others did what they could to block their path to the entrance. Avearan was called a murderer of two billion lives; Lisette was called an alien lover.

The last shove the two received nearly toppled them to the ground. Lisette retaliated with a weak telekinetic push, sending the raging protestor onto his ass, while his sign spiraled elsewhere.

“Hey, you an asshole all the time or just when you hold up signs like this?!” Lisette yelled at them.

“You know, one day when the rest of the fucking UNE wakes up, you alien lovers will be hung!” shouted another protester from behind.

A bottle flew at Lisette’s head, she swatted away with her powers. “Fuck off!”

“How about you fuck off with your alien?”

“Alien lover!”

“Yeah, I do love her,” Lisette said, grabbing hold of Avearan’s arm, and returning to their journey to the starport. “What are you going do about it?”

“The UNE should have wiped out the HLF quicker and told Radiance to get lost back in day,” another protester shouted. “We’d have fewer people like you fucking up our nation!”

The racket the protesters were making dimmed as they entered the starport and its wide glass sliding doors shut behind them. The chaos was over, around them were peaceful people heading to their designated airlocks, and the starport’s staff going about their business in front of computer stations.

Avearan looked back at the protestors through the glass door. “Lisette, what the fuck was that about?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lisette said.

“I had to run from the Empire because of how they practically enslaved me, then run from the Morutrin system because of its lack of laws.” Avearan faced away from the door, marching to the checkin stations. “I’d rather not have to run from the UNE …”

“They’re supporters of a group called the Terran Legion,” Lisette said, joining up with her. “They hate all nonhumans, especially the ones on Titan since it has the second largest dwelling of nonhumans in Sol.”

The Terran Legion. Avearan remembered one of the scrolling headlines mentioned the name of that group the other day when she was watching the news. It talked about protests turning violent on Earth. Protests on Titan and Earth … it was clear this group had supporters across the UNE. A number of anxious thoughts clouded her mind while the two checked in, thoughts that made her question if Ella’s words were wholly truthful about life in the UNE being better. At least in the Empire, people never protested. Those that thought about planning one found themselves without a head.

The two sat and waited for the transport to land and dock. Holo screens floating above played the news and showed footage of similar protests happening across Earth and two other UNE colonies, confirming Avearan’s worries.

“These protests look commonplace,” Avearan said.

“The Legion has been around for years,” Lisette said. “But it’s never been this bad, or violent.”

“Good thing we’re not going to Earth then.”

Lisette’s head came to rest on Avearan’s shoulder. “Yeah, or anywhere in the UNE.”

The news report continued to play. Support for the Terran Legion had increased thanks to the Draconian attacks, and due to the discovery of ancient structures found on Earth. An orbital strike turned the summit of Mount Hermon on Earth into a crater, in which an ancient structure had been unearthed. The footage switched to a huge pit, created by the Dragon Maiden when the Draconians had attacked, in a southern Baghdad park; ancient catacombs were discovered in the pit.

“People are fucking stupid,” Lisette said. “They’re letting their fear of the dragons do all the decision making in their lives.”

“Dragons that knew the location of ancient structures on Earth, not built by humans,” Avearan muttered.

“I know, I know …” Lisette said. “It’s only going to make that many more people think the end is near and that something needs to be done to prevent it.”

“Like supporting the Terran Legion with protests?”

“The Legion wants all nonhumans out of the UNE and for the military to take a more proactive stance to prevent future attacks.”

Ella’s memories, imprinted into Avearan’s mind, reminded her of exactly how humans, before they reached the stars, had handled threats. Wipe them out before they became one. She hoped that a hundred years was long enough for humanity to change their ways but given what she just experienced, it was doubtful.

Their transport descended from space, hooking up with the airlock, some thirty minutes later. The two boarded alongside a crowd of eager personnel looking to get off-world. The transport left the moon and the Saturn sector minutes later, entering FTL speeds on a course that would take them into the UNE wormhole network.

Next stop was Amicitia Station 14, and from there, a brief layover that would see them transferred to an Imperial cargo ship. The cargo ship was expected to depart the station and travel through the wormhole that linked to Paryo and the Uemaesce system. From there, they needed to board another ship that was expected to take the space bridge in orbit around Paryo, to the Uelcovis system, the location of Taxah.

The journey was expected to take a number of days to finish.

13 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

En route to next wormhole jump, Interstellar Space

October 14, 2118, 08:06 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rebecca Foster’s quarters had the best view on the ship. Some would argue that the lounge and mess hall did, since they were designed to provide breathtaking views of space from their sizable observation windows. The floor to ceiling, wall to wall windows in her quarters ensured that one of the four walls inside was always peering out into space. It was perfect for stargazing while sitting on one of the three leather couches next to a coffee table and bookshelf. It was an empty bookshelf of course, as she didn’t have time for decorating after getting command of the Kepler.

Her bed was off in a separate room, it too had a marvelous window above the bed, though everyone’s quarters got that treatment. Adjacent to her bedroom was Foster’s personal study, consisting of a desk with a smooth and sleek surface, personal computer, and green plants from Earth next to it. She sat on the chair, navigating through the computer’s UI, reading news reports from the internet, and catching up on the large number of qmails that piled up during their month-and-a-half-long journey back to Kapteyn’s Star while she was still in cryo.

She went to read the first message.

To: Rebecca Foster

From: Liana Foster

Subject: Be safe!

Sent: August, 28, 2118 10:33 SST

Hey hon!

Just writing to wish you a safe journey on your next mission. It’s a shame the military recruited you so quickly after saving our hides in Sirius, it’s been years since I’ve seen you. Oh lord, I missed you so much, please, when you are finished, swing by my place. Life might not be short anymore, but those dragons won’t hesitate to change that.

Try not to go into cryo sleep, I’d rather not see you sleepin again lol

Love you,

— Mama.

Foster took a two-minute break to recover from a flutter of emotions that hit her after the message, before clicking to read the remaining unread messages.

To: Rebecca Foster

From: Dennis Chang

Subject: Karaoke Night

Sent: August, 30, 2118 20:15 SST

Foster,

So, since we’re going to be on a direct voyage to Kapteyn’s Star at FTL, I thought it be a fun idea to host some karaoke fun and excitement in my quarters to pass the time. Hell, maybe we can make it a regular thing, you know like an after-shift sort of thing on Friday nights. I’m not sure if you’re planning to slip into cryo or not since I haven’t seen you all day, but if you’re not, and you’re reading this, swing by my quarters at 22:00.

Peace,

Had Chang sent the message twelve hours earlier … she would have taken him up on that offer, and not entered cryo.

To: Rebecca Foster

From: Brice Blackmar

Subject: Meet up

Sent: October 14, 2118 06:11 SST

Captain,

Greetings. My name is Brice Blackmar, commander of Amicitia Station 14. I’ll keep this message short and sweet as I have a number of tasks to attend to, and as I could imagine, you do as well. When you are free, back and safe from your current mission, I’d like to sit down and have a chat with you about an urgent matter regarding station security. It shouldn’t take any longer than an hour of your time.

Best Regards,

Commander Brice Blackmar, UNE Navy

And for the last message.

To: Rebecca Foster

From: Lawrence Mitrovica

Subject: Interview request

Sent: October 14, 2118 07:32 SST

Hello Rebecca, this is Lawrence Mitrovica, I’m a reporter from GBC News. My sources have told me you and your crew just recently completed an operation in the Kapteyn’s Star system and are on your way back now to Amicitia 14. I was wondering if it would be possible to have a quick interview with you to discuss your recent adventures, and to give the galaxy a better idea of the woman that will be spearheading the mission to end this war against the dragons.

Please let me know at your earliest convenience when you will be arriving at the station. I’m looking forward to hearing your reply. Take care, and safe journeys!

- Lawrence Mitrovica, Galactic Broadcasting Corporation

The computer prompted her there were no further messages. She made a mental note not to reply to the last one. Being on camera was one the thing she was looking to avoid since her name became household. This was an era of gene therapy and the masses looking young. Foster was thirty-three, and didn’t get around to receiving gene therapy, and had no cosmetics in sight. It was the last thing she needed to bring on a mission that was dropped in her lap out of nowhere. She had doubts people in this era were used to seeing people as old as she was, Pierce alone, in his middle-age and graying hair, drew a lot of odd glares from the people of this century.

She tapped her screen off, and its bluish hue vanished, leaving the desktop lamp to her side as the only source of light in her quarters. Amicitia Station 14 was still a few hours off. Sleep was in order, a much-needed one at that since she’d been awake more than twenty-four hours thanks to the events of the past day and multiple near-death experiences. She reached up to unzip the top of her jumpsuit uniform. Her intercom on the wall beeped, and she grunted before taking the incoming message.

“Yes?”

“Hey, Becca, you free to swing by my quarters for a min?” Williams’ voice over the intercom spoke.

She zipped her top up. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be right there.”

Williams’ quarters weren’t far from hers, none of the crew quarters were, being all located on the top deck of the Kepler. It made her wonder what was so important, that he couldn’t swing by himself … or just tell her over the intercom. The door chime sounded as she pushed the side holographic interface, she was granted access to his quarters a second later.

Canvas paintings littered his floor. Some were immaculately painted pictures of trees from Earth. Another had the sun setting into the horizon before a blue ocean, while many others simply had paintings of the stars in space. The smell of paint and the chemicals within them made her nose twitch slightly when she found Williams standing with paintbrush in hand, and a completed masterpiece before him, resting on the wooden painting easel.

“Ha! It’s done,” he said to her. “What do you think?”

Williams took a step back, allowing Foster to see what he had painted. It looked like a tightly packed cluster of stars in the night sky. The stars were so close it looked almost like a giant ball of white light.

“Not bad, Dom,” Foster said. “But, uh, since when you were a painter? You couldn’t even draw stick men last time I checked.”

“I wasn’t in cryo, got bored and self-taught myself.”

“You got pretty good at it fast …”

“Guess I had a hidden talent for it this whole time.” He went back to the painting, swiping his brush across it, adding the finishing touches to the night sky. “This helps me with the dreams.”

“Still not back to your regular self, huh?”

He lowered the brush and gave the painting a depressed look. “When I go to sleep, one moment I’m here, the next, I’m back in Chicago, watching my folks die.”

“Damn it, Dom.”

“I don’t get it; this was never a problem, until our return.”

“My mom thinks the Draconians did somethin’ to ya during our blackout years.”

“Have you seen her lately? Looks like she just turned eighteen, almost looks exactly like you back in the day. Caught me off guard at first, I was all like, who is this young minx?”

“You saying I was a minx when we meet?”

“Oh, well, uh.”

“Dom, are you tryin’ to hit on me?”

“No, Becca!”

“Hitting on my mom then?”

Foster was never good at holding back laughs and smiles when around Williams, the joke she cracked was proof of that. She wondered if his face was flushing under his dark skin.

“I think I’m getting a little better,” he said, and then pointed to the number of works of art on the floor. “I saw all those in my dreams, well the ones where I wasn’t watching death and destruction. Every one of these I paint brings me closer to peace.”

“So, you hauled me over here to show me that you can make pretty pictures?”

He laughed joyfully. Foster did too, she was glad to see him experiencing positive emotions for once. He gestured to a holo pad resting on top of his bed. “I’m kinda in the zone right now, didn’t want to break it since it helps with my head. That pad has our laundry list of requisitions for the ship once we dock,” Williams said. “Note the list Chef made.”

Foster scrolled through the contents of the holo pad. It was big list. The one from Chef Bailey alone was half of it, consisting of cooking ingredients. “How the hell we’s out of so much food?”

“The survivors we picked up, that’s why,” he explained. “There’s a lot of hungry mouths that haven’t had a good meal since the Draconians arrived.”

It was a fair point. The needs of the colonists rescued took priority and it had been hours since they left the system and the UNE fleet behind. “How big is the line up in the mess?” Foster asked.

Williams snickered, keeping his eyes on his painting. “Don’t even bother.”

“Guess I’ll eat something at the station if I’m hungry.”

“Besides, Chevallier and her cool kids club are hanging out in the mess hall.”

“So much for letting the survivors get fed first … classic soldiers.”

“Well, not quite, they barked at Miles and told him to get lost.”

“Oh really? Doesn’t he outrank them?”

“He’s a Marine; they’re EDF, best of the best, elite special forces.”

“Yeah, I read up on them more,” Foster said. “Best training, gear, and weapons for the best commandos in the UNE. Navy SEALS in space, basically what the Hammerheads were supposed to be before they were disbanded.”

Foster tapped her wrist terminal, and then swiped across the screen of Williams’ holo pad, dragging the list he had on to hers. “Tell Chef he’ll get his goods, Dom.”

“Cool.”

“Oh, one last thing,” Foster said, stopping before the exit. “Why didn’t y’all tell me there was gonna be karaoke night on the off-hours before I went into cryo?”

Another heartwarming laugh came from Williams. “Chang came up with the idea right as you went in.”

“Any other things I should know about when I was out?”

“Not really, it was a boring flight overall.”

“Kostelecky to Foster,” Doctor Irena Kostelecky’s voice said over the intercom.

Foster took the message. “Go ahead.”

“Can you meet me in sickbay? I need to speak with you.”

“On my way,” Foster said, and cut the communication. “I guess she’s pissed off about the wounded we brought aboard.”

14 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Near Morutrin wormhole, Morutrin system

October 14, 2118, 08:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Imperial frigate, Rezeki’s Rage, poked through the wormhole’s event horizon, entering the infamous Morutrin system. Smaller and older ships native to the system ran scans of Rezeki’s Rage’s weapons and engines. They pulled away quickly, clearing a path for it, upon realizing what the ship was capable of.

“We’ve cleared the wormhole, sir.”

Peiun’s red eyes squinted as the light from the glowing yellow star that sat at the heart of the system, shined into his once-darkened bridge. The view screen dimmed seconds later to compensate.

“Excellent,” Peiun said. “Set a course to Morutrin Prime.”

“Yes, Captain.” Nadevina imputed the commands into her console.

The Rezeki’s Rage’s presence vanished from the wormhole, taken away by its sub light speeds on a course to the most populated planet in the system. Long range scans in combination with Alesyna’s ESP appeared as tactical holograms over Peiun’s sights. There were human cargo ships, Radiance Union cruisers, UNE patrol ships, Imperial carriers, and hundreds of transports and smaller ships dotting the three-dimensional projection of the system.

The galaxy had long given up the quest to claim to this system, and accepted the fact that it is, and always would be, a lawless frontier. The best the three nations could do was to send ships that could police the inner planets, and ensure that their interests in the system, and the region of space beyond, remained untouched.

He blinked twice, forcing the tactical projection to vanish, and then ordered his HNI to reload the data the Qirak had sold him regarding the Fortune Runner. Technical specs showed the ship was too large for atmospheric travel and lacked engines powerful enough to make escape velocities, especially from a world like Morutrin Prime with a gravitational pull of one point two g. The crew of the Fortune Runner would have to use transports if they were to conduct business on the surface of the planet.

But if that’s the case … “Alesyna,” Peiun said as he created a small projection of the Fortune Runner, pushing it to her. “Can you sense the presence of this ship in orbit?”

The hologram of the Fortune Runner spun in circles in front of her, allowing her to get a better sense of its shape, color, unique features, and everything she would need to conduct a deep ESP scan for the ship. She entered her ESP trance, shutting her eyes, and powering the cybernetics built-in to her body and alluring meshed robe.

“There’s a great many ships in orbit, but none of them fits this description,” Alesyna revealed after her trance ended.

Peiun grimaced. “I didn’t think so.”

Most mercenary ships typically operated from their bases, many of them located in the remote parts of the system. If they left those remote regions, it was because they had a job that required them to, or needed to gather supplies, or seek the service of prostitutes. A ship like Fortune Runner wouldn’t make its base on Morutrin Prime unless they could land the ship on its surface. The ship being registered to a port there was most likely a ruse to make it look legit and to send people like Peiun on a chase for something likely not going to be there.

“Helm, cancel our course to Morutrin Prime,” Peiun said.

“Understood, Captain.”

“Take us to the asteroid belt.”

Peiun noted at least five pairs of eyebrows rise from the crew.

The gunner and tactical officer, Uemsu spoke up, ending the silence that entered the bridge. “Captain, might I remind you that there are numerous pirates in those areas.”

“I’m aware of that,” Peiun said to him. “Nadevina, please take us to the belt.”

Nadevina complied, taking the Rezeki’s Rage out of sub light, and repositioning it to enter a new course, the Morutrin system belt.

“We are one ship,” Manzo, said from his communication station. “One-on-one, we can be victorious, not against an entire pirate battle group.”

“I’m aware of that,” Peiun reaffirmed, having not forgotten about Manzo’s failed attempt to rid him as the captain. “Remain on course; keep shields at maximum power and ready weapons.”

“Yes, Captain,” Uemsu said, and sifted through various holographic screens.

Peiun faced his first officer and shipboard psionic. “Alesyna.”

“I’m keeping my thoughts open for any vessels that take an interest in us,” Alesyna said. “Keep in mind the overshield will not be at full strength with the level of mental energy I’m putting into this. I’m not only scanning for the Fortune Runner, but also a mercenary base should it be docked within, plus deep scanning for pirates and other vermin in the belt.”

Peiun knew it was a lot to ask of her and messaged the servants to honor any request she made even after this mission was over. Lucky, the ship wasn’t in combat, not yet at least. Should they come under attack, Alesyna’s ESP range would be reduced and limited to sensing dangers that were close to the ship, rather than further out in the system.

It took half the day, but the Rezeki’s Rage eventually entered the enormous asteroid belt of the system, which looked like a giant disc of dust, debris, and rocks, floating and encircling the system from the data outputting into his HNI.

Nadevina plotted a course that sent Rezeki’s Rage through the densely packed field of spinning mountains and rocks. The Rezeki’s Rage’s appearance painted its hulking shadow over them. Derelict ships drifted aimlessly, many of them had no engines, or computers inside, the work of salvagers.

An hour into their search a mangled Radiance battle cruiser appeared on the view screen with an asteroid lodged through it. Legend had it, an Imperial Archmage known as Noylarlie was responsible for it. Her psionic powers were unmatched during the Celestial Order wars, and stories told she achieved a level of sorcery no other psionic in the galaxy could do.

Noylarlie was a myth to many, a story told to boost the morale of warriors and psionics. A book the empress wrote about aether space only continued to fuel the ideas that Noylarlie was a work of fiction, that and the fact nobody was able to locate such a powerful woman in the aftermath of the Celestial Order wars. Not even her alleged sister Phylarlie, an Imperial system lord.

The Rezeki’s Rage ventured deeper into the belt, entering a place few people dared to travel to as it was heavily regulated by pirate groups. If they were going to find a mercenary base anywhere, it would be there. Alesyna’s HNI updated a projection on the bridge, displaying what her psionic mind could see with her ESP.

It made Peiun fold his hands together and recline back on his chair.

“Seems we are intimidating the pirates,” Alesyna said. “When we near, they flee.”

“Except for these ones over here,” Peiun said, pointing at a number of red dots on the projection. “Two ships clustered together … unmoving from their spot.”

“They are near an asteroid mining platform,” Alesyna said. “Perhaps they are raiding it?”

“Two ships for a group of unarmed miners?”

“Miners this far out, without protection?” Uemsu chimed in. “Who would take a contact like that?”

Peiun eyed the projection closer. “You’re right,” he said. “They would either hire a mercenary group to protect them, or the corporation they worked for would have their own private ships to stand watch over them.”

“I’m not sensing any ships from Souyila, Infinite Cybernetics, or Fadeyushka.”

Souyila, Infinite, and Fadeyushka were the big three as people called them. Souyila was Radiance’s biggest corporation while Infinite Cybernetics was the UNE’s largest corporation and biggest competitor to Souyila. Fadeyushka Tech was a Morutrin Prime company, one that employed all species across the galaxy. It was also one of the few businesses in Morutrin that was legitimate and not corrupted by the criminals that ran rampant.

None of the three had any influence or interests with the mining platforms around the Rezeki’s Rage.

“Mercenaries it is then,” Peiun said. “The miners must have hired them to watch and defend them from pirates.”

Alesyna laughed. “Mercenaries that aren’t protecting their clients.”

The Rezeki’s Rage drifted in between two asteroids, closing the distance between it and a mining platform. There were two pirate ships next to the platform, their weapons aimed squarely at it, hitting it with a steady burst of red and white lines of light from rail gun fire. White mist ejected away from the mining platform’s main operation center, carrying with it flailing bodies into space slowly crystallizing from the cold. None of them wore an EVA suit.

“Full stop,” Peiun ordered.

Nadevina confirmed. “Coming to a full stop.”

All eyes on the bridge studied the slaughter unfolding via the view screen. Not one owner of said eyes was able to come up with a theory as to why miners would operate out in this region without any protection.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Peiun said.

“I sense other platforms coming under attack,” Alesyna said.

“These platforms have been around for years,” Peiun said. “Why would the pirates attack them now? And why would they operate without protection?”

“I don’t know, let’s ask the pirates why this is so,” Alesyna said to him.

“I doubt they will reply to our hails.”

“I doubt it too,” Uemsu said, then stroked his weapons firing console. “But plasma cannons …”

Peiun grinned at the young gunner, and then returned his sights to the viewer before him. “Helm, take us into effective firing range.”

“Yes, Captain.”

Two pirate ships using century-old technology, against the Rezeki’s Rage. Peiun ran the numbers through his head, then into his HNI to confirm as they neared the battle. The results were looking good, unless the pirates received backup.

“Alesyna, how far is the nearest pirate group?”

“At least fifteen minutes should they enter sub light,” she said.

Peiun chuckled softly. When pitted against UNE, Radiance, or Draconian ships, the Rezeki’s Rage was at a disadvantage as far as speed went since they lacked FTL. Most ships in operation within the Morutrin system were built before FTL and were refurbished as time went on. The playing field was even, so long as they weren’t outnumbered. Old and sick Paryo wolves could still kill a lone target if you unleashed enough of them to work in unison.

“Keep your mind on them, Alesyna,” Peiun said. “We’re about to enter combat when in range.”

The image of the pirates and mining platform expanded in size on the view screen when they neared. The pirate ships continued their assault, spraying the platform with a torrent of tracer light from their weapons. None of them wavered. They most likely lacked shipboard psionics to let them know of what existed beyond the two asteroids the Rezeki’s Rage was behind earlier.

Peiun brought up the tactical data with his HNI. Holographic overlays on his eyes sent him relevant figures, such as their speed, estimate time to enter effective weapons range, based off Alesyna’s ESP. Accuracy percentages rose, the plasma cannons primed and powered up, and the shield rating of the pirate ships appeared afterward. It shouldn’t take too many direct shots from the forward plasma cannons to shatter their shields.

“We’re in range now,” Uemsu said, not that he needed to know that. Peiun could see it with his HNI.

Peiun gave the order. “Fire!”

Twin shimmering orbs of emerald colors bolted away from the Rezeki’s Rage. They were hot enough to glass a region of a planet the size of a small city or vaporize the hull of unshielded ships. Its light shone upon various darkened asteroids out of the direct sunlight of the Morutrin star. The plasma hit their intended target, creating havoc on its shields with a light show of blue and green colors, officially commencing the start the battle.

“Direct hit!”

The two pirate ships put an end to their attacks and came about quickly, spraying their rail guns in the direction the plasma came from. The forward psionic overshields of the Rezeki’s Rage flashed purple and deflected the first wave of projectiles, protecting the ship’s main shields from losing power. The rail gun fire from the pirates could have easily filled the ship with holes and vented atmosphere, had it not been for their two layers of energy barriers.

Of course, if the two pirate ships weren’t dealt with in time, such a scenario could become a reality when the overshields and shields fail.

“Shall I engage the MRF?” Nadevina quickly spat.

Peiun was impressed with the fire that was in the voice of the new adult woman, whom was originally destined to be a school teacher, not a helmswoman.

“No, keep the MRF offline,” Peiun said. “I don’t want them to know we have that installed. It will only make us a more lucrative ship to board and raid.”

The weapons exchange continued as both sides refused to yield. Peiun’s orders ensured that the Rezeki’s Rage was always five light-minutes away from the two pirate ships. This way, it would take five minutes for their sensor scans to detect the Rezeki’s Rage, and then another five minutes to return back. The pirate’s combat data was always ten minutes out of date, during which the Rezeki’s Rage would change its location, drift away from the line of fire from their targets, spin then recommence the plasma assault. Alesyna’s mind saw everything in real time and relayed those thoughts into the tactical battle data.

Psionic personnel were the key to winning in naval combat, and the sole reason why when the Radiance Union sought to enter a genocidal war against the Hashmedai, targeted psionics. Men, women, children, the sick, and old, any Hashmedai that possessed the mental gifts of psionics were slaughtered by the millions. But like the cunning humans that rose from the ashes of Earth, during the Empire’s failed attempt at wiping them out, Hashmedai psionics continued to prevail to this day. Their numbers may not have recovered, but they still existed, and helped ships like the Rezeki’s Rage outwit their adversaries.

“There’s no change in the movements of the nearest pirates,” Alesyna said as the battle continued, shining its explosive luster onto the dimly lit bridge.

Peiun nodded. “Those ships probably don’t have psionics as part of their crew either.”

He quickly viewed the HNI tactical data projecting over his eyes. It would take an estimated seven and a half minutes for the closest pirate group to realize their friends were under attack, then change course traveling at sub light speeds, half the speed of light to be exact. Another fifteen minutes would pass before they arrived. The Rezeki’s Rage had twenty-two point five minutes before they had to deal with reinforcements. Twenty-two point five minutes to dispatch the two ships and investigate what was going on.

This of course didn’t take into account the amount of time that had already passed since the fighting started, or the locations of other pirate groups within the belt. The range of Alesyna’s ESP was reduced as predicted, in order for her mind to focus on the new duties given to her, like maintaining the collapsing overshield.

Peiun looked down at the asteroid and the mining platform it was attached to. He hoped there was secretly a mercenary base with the Fortune Runner docked inside.

The shields of both pirate ships shattered. A follow-up barrage of plasma caused the reactor of one ship to go critical and explode with anger. Half-vaporized chunks of metal flew about, and its crew joined the drifting frozen miners now in orbit next to the asteroid mining platform. It was fitting punishment for their actions.

It was debatable if the second pirate ship got off better, the plasma that hit it didn’t cause its reactor to explode. It triggered a number of internal fires that spread from deck to deck. The presence of flames meant there was still oxygen pumping through its life-support systems. Those that survived the blast should still be alive, just trapped, and unable to escape from the flames that would eventually devour them, or they would choke to death from the toxic smoke. It wasn’t like being in a burning house, where one could run outside to escape the flames. Running outside of a burning ship, meant leaping out the airlock.

“Ceasefire,” Peiun ordered. “Remember we are here to speak with them. The pirates on that first ship are incapable of answering our questions. Alesyna, is teleportation an option?”

“No, they have mind shields.”

“I may be able to disable it with an accurate shot,” Uemsu offered.

Peiun adjusted the top of his uniform. “Show me its location.”

Uemsu sent the data to his HNI. It appeared as a projection of the burning ship, data pulled from the most recent ship scans and Alesyna’s ESP thoughts. A flashing yellow icon pulsed. It was near the pirate ship’s reactor.

“Let’s not risk making their reactor go critical,” Peiun said standing up from his chair, proceeding to exit the bridge. “We’ll force our way in with a transport. Have two fine warriors and a guardian meet me in a transport.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Alesyna, you are in command.”

15 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

En route to next wormhole jump, Interstellar Space

October 14, 2118, 09:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Sickbay was located on the middle deck, an elevator ride and brief walk down the corridor for Foster. Normally it would have taken one no longer than three minutes to walk there from the crew quarters, but with the colonists recently rescued from the Kapteyn’s Star system occupying most of the free space on the ship, it took Foster fifteen minutes.

She couldn’t bring herself to aggressively shove her way past the weakened, tattered, and soot-covered people. Some of them wept, she hoped it was tears of joy for being saved at last, though she knew that was probably not the case for many. She too was once like these people, having survived the Imperial invasion of Earth, losing her father, some of her friends and relatives in the process. Most of these tears were shed in memory of those left behind.

Foster spotted Saressea, the Radiance liaison officer and jack-of-all-trades girl aboard the Kepler. It wasn’t hard as Saressea was the only nonhuman, a Rabuabin at that, struggling to navigate through the sea of broken colonists.

“Hey Saressea,” Foster said to her as the two neared. “Sorry about the, uh, visitors we’s got.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem, unless they’re blocking my way to engineering,” Saressea said. “Or worse, huddled inside of it.”

“I made it clear to them, that place is off-limits.”

“And I’m pretty sure they were too scared to listen, but we’ll find out soon enough.” Saressea waved her hands, creating a holographic list in the process. “Oh, and since you’re here, can you send this to Rivera when you get the chance.”

Foster grabbed the hologram and slid it onto the desktop of her wrist terminal’s holo screen. “What is it?”

“I made a lot of adjustments to the operation of the ship. If Rivera’s going to be taking over as chief engineer, she’ll need to know about these.”

“Rivera might be delayed in that move,” Foster said. “She’s still stuck with the salvage of the Carl Sagan.”

“Any idea how long? I need to give an orientation to the new personnel Radiance navy will be assigning to this ship.”

“Not up for the extra work, Miss jack-of-all-trades?”

“After what your pilot put this ship through? We’re going to need someone skilled enough to work in engineering and make sure that oversized FTL drive doesn’t fly apart. Not to mention repairs.”

“I’ll see what I can do to fast track it.”

“Thank you, I’m fine with engineering duties. I’m not fine with doing that plus being the ranking Radiance officer and all the administrative bullshit that comes with the job.”

Foster made her way into sickbay, musing at what the ship would be like once it was fully staffed with a crew of half UNE and half Radiance personnel. As she suspected, sickbay was filled with the survivors that needed medical attention, forcing Foster to carefully sidestep around those that had to rest on mats on the floor. Kostelecky opted to frantically yell at people that got in the way. She followed the sound of her voice and found Kostelecky overseeing a medical bed Nereid had been recovering on.

Foster approached her from behind and with a gleaming smirk said. “What can I do for you, Doc?” Kostelecky faced Foster, giving her the look of death. “Tor?”

“You need to stop socializing with Williams,” Kostelecky scowled.

“You brought me down here, to tell me that?”

“No, it’s the matter with Nereid.” Kostelecky stepped aside to allow Foster to look down at Nereid.

“How ya feelin’, Nereid?” Foster asked her.

“Much better now thanks to the doctor,” Nereid spoke softly with a hint of exhaustion in her voice. “A little different, but better.”

Foster crossed her arms. “Different, in what way?”

Kostelecky tapped the screen on her medical scanner. It conjured a projection of Nereid’s brain from its scans. “Nereid’s brain, for lack of a better term, has undergone some drastic changes.”

“Such as?”

“I can’t say for sure, most of my medical records of her were lost with the Carl Sagan,” Kostelecky said. “But I’m certain these readings right here, are different from when I last scanned her. I just don’t have the data to have a clear and exact comparison.”

Foster looked at the projection unable to make sense of its labels and various colors that highlighted different parts of Nereid’s brain. She bit her lip. “So, what are we looking at, Kostelecky?”

“As you know, psionics are unique people that have unlocked the full power of their brains.”

“Yeah, and then the cybernetics plus a chip in implanted in their head takes that power and doubles it.”

“Nereid, like all the species we found in Sirius, is different. Not only are her abilities unique, but she doesn’t require the implants, humans, Hashmedai, and Radiance species needs.” Kostelecky changed the holographic projection into one that that displayed numbers and stats about Nereid’s psionic output. “And according to this, her powers might have grown further, there’s a lot more psionic brainwave activity. Whatever torment you put through her yesterday, is changing her.”

Nereid sat up slowly facing the two. “This would explain why I am feeling different.”

“Could this be a result of the training Tolukei had been giving her to become a better shipboard psionic?” Foster said.

“That training from what I understand is just meditating and practice, it shouldn’t change her brain like this,” said Kostelecky. “Again, I could be wrong since I don’t have any data to compare this to, but I’m certain she has changed. I wouldn’t be a good doctor and xenobiologist if I had an awful memory.”

“Wish I could help, Doctor, but last I checked, all data on the Carl Sagan had been tampered with.”

Kostelecky stroked her chin as her eyes narrowed. “Flight data, yes, but what about medical data?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure about that,” Foster said. “Rivera is still sifting through the wreckage. I could put in a word for her to check it out.”

“What about the human medical staff that examined us on Earth?” Nereid asked.

Foster thought back to the previous summer when and she and her team crash-landed the Carl Sagan and were briefly taken into custody by EISS. EISS doctors conducted detailed scans and medical examinations on them.

“I suppose they might have something,” Foster revealed.

“Do you really think EISS is going to share that information with us?” Kostelecky said drily. “I’m sure that asshole Moriston has it in for us.”

“We’s the spearhead of this mission. Whatever we need, I’m sure they’ll give it to us, regardless if it’s classified or not.”

“Well, see if you can get them to cooperate,” Kostelecky said, shutting down the hologram. “I don’t ever want to speak to EISS personnel again!”

Kostelecky pushed past Foster, nearly shoving her to the floor. The blonde and feisty European woman stormed off into her office out of sight. Foster heard the sound of her scanner being slammed onto her desk. She may or may not have cracked it. Something about that conversation got Kostelecky triggered and thinking back to Moriston’s interrogations. If Foster remembered correctly, Kostelecky was very silent for a long time after EISS had released them.

“Am I free to leave?” Nereid asked.

“Um?” Foster looked to Kostelecky’s office. She didn’t exit or give a reply. “Doctor, can Nereid go?”

“Yes, yes, you’re fine, leave!” Kostelecky shouted back.

She may be fine, but you aren’t, Doc. Foster entered Kostelecky’s office, and watched as she sat at her desk, running her fingers full of frustration through her long blonde hair.

“Hey, everything all right with you?” Foster asked.

“I just have a lot on my plate as you can see.” Kostelecky’s face came to rest in the palms of her hands.

“I see that, and I also see that you got pretty worked up the moment EISS was mentioned.”

“I don’t like EISS, at least not in this century.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“You know, I’m here to help and talk if ya need.”

“You’re the captain, not a counselor,” Kostelecky lowered her hands and faced Foster. “You can return to your duties.”

Foster hit a brick wall, correction, a steel wall. Kostelecky was always a brick wall to deal with. A meshed cup sat at the edge of Kostelecky’s desk, a single lollipop was inside, orange flavor too, Foster’s favorite.

She went to swipe it, Kostelecky’s hand was faster.

“You no touch!” Kostelecky yelled as she unwrapped the sugar filled treat and slipped it into her mouth. “The kids took the last ones; this one is for me after what I’ve had to put up with.”

“I’ll be sure to put lollipops on our list of supplies to pick up, once we reach the station,” Foster said drily.

“Please.”

Sickbay’s glass sliding doors slid open when Foster went leave. Nereid had stood ahead of them, staring blankly at the crowded survivors in the corridors. “These folks holdin’ ya up, Nereid?”

Nereid shook her head no. “I believe I recovered one of McDowell’s memories.”

“Well let’s enjoy that moment by not staring at these folks all creepy like.”

The two took a slow-moving stroll into the overcrowded corridors, attempting to reach the elevator at the far end. It gave Foster some time to remember Nereid’s situation, how she was in possession of memories that weren’t hers. Nereid had inherited memories from her father, Sylvester McDowell, a former member of the Carl Sagan’s crew, though he turned out to be an EISS agent sent to spy on them. McDowell, being a human born and raised on Earth, gave Nereid a brief glance as to what it was like to be human and experience freedom. Freedom was something that she had been denied her whole life until her liberation from the tyranny of Marduk, the former ruler of the Sirius system.

Nereid’s very existence always boggled Foster. Her species didn’t live long and so aged extremely rapidly. Nereid was two Earth years old yet had the body of a twenty-year-old woman. If that wasn’t weird enough, she was born and raised within a time dilation field, where time moved at a slower rate than the rest of the universe. From the prospective of Foster and those that never ventured into the time dilation field, Nereid was conceived, born, raised, and grew to the age she was, then escaped into the confines of the normal passage of time in a few short hours. Only Pierce could comprehend the experience, as he was held captive by her people within the time dilation field, losing two years of his life in the process.

“Yes, I remember now,” Nereid finally spoke. “There was a time when McDowell was a survivor like these people after the Hashmedai ravaged Earth.”

“I think this is the first new memory you’ve recovered from him since you’ve joined us.”

“The first new one I can remember,” Nereid said. “It is possible I unlocked the rest of his memories during our sixty-eight-year disappearance.”

Foster grimaced. “Only to lose it all when the Draconians wiped it out.”

“They can’t be blamed for that, if they felt it was the will of the Goddess.”

The will of the Goddess. Those words reminded Foster of another critical detail about Nereid. She was a devotee to Tiamat, and her faith in those beliefs was still strong. Tiamat being the suspected reason why the Draconians were invading the Milky Way, they worshipped her, and firmly believed all societies stole and defiled everything about Tiamat and worshipped Marduk, the Javnis Muodiry that killed her.

Once word got out about Nereid’s faith, many argued she would be a threat to the team and mission. Lucky for Nereid, Foster had the power to conduct the operation any way she saw fit. The way Foster saw it, Nereid was her ace in the hole, the one person that might be able to convince the leadership of the Draconians to stand down and negotiate peace.

Of course, if peace could not be achieved, then Nereid’s loyalty would be put to the test. Nereid could kill Foster with her mind and rip the ship apart from the inside out. It was a test Foster had no clue how to study for and pass. Only Tolukei did.

“Here’s hoping that new memory will bring you another step closer to feeling like a human,” Foster said.

“Indeed, it feels comforting that I’m back on my original path, the one I set on after we liberated Sirius.”

“And I asked you to help Pierce; be his assistant.”

“That didn’t go over very well,” Nereid looked away from Foster with a smile on her face. “Though, I admit, I was distracted, longing to learn more of my locked memories.”

“If you want to give it another shot, he could use a hand in the labs right now with the intel he recovered.”

“Pierce requires my assistance? I thought Scholar Odelea was providing that.”

“Pierce is the one that got the data, and the lead science officer, Odelea, can translate the Draconian text, and as for you … you got your insight on your religious beliefs about Tiamat. It could help.”

Nereid nodded and faced Foster with a newfound determination. “I could do that, after my head has regained its strength.”

It was a relief for Foster to hear Nereid say those words. Having her becoming close to the ship’s crew and form unbreakable bonds, may be the one thing that could deter Nereid from siding with Draconians, in the name of Tiamat.

16 Peiun

Burning Pirate Ship

Asteroid Belt, Morutrin system

October 14, 2118, 22:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Nobody questioned Peiun’s choice to lead the assault team that was seconds away from boarding the disabled and burning pirate ship. To humans, and Radiance to a degree, the captain leaving the ship during a time like this was viewed as reckless. To the Hashmedai, it was viewed as being bold, fearless, and heroic.

Why sit on the captain’s chair all day yelling orders, sending others to potential threats, when you could be a part of it? Captains that walked away from risks were rewarded with increased respect from their crew, and other captains and admirals within the Imperial fleet. Besides, this was his mission, one hand-delivered to him by the empress. To order others to finish it for him would be dishonorable.

The transport that Peiun rode on shot away from the Rezeki’s Rage’s docking bay on a course to the drifting pirate ship. There were four people inside, including himself, Saubassa a guardian, and Selnyi and Xiun, two of the strongest warriors aboard their ship.

Peiun’s HNI sent him a confirmation message that the combat EVA suit he slipped into was working correctly. The HNIs of his three escorts sent similar confirmation messages. Given the instability of the ship, there was a high chance new hull breaches could form. Their suits, however, should protect them. Then there were the raging plasma fires and choking smoke it created. It would be hard to ask questions if he was busy coughing and dying, then again, if there was anyone alive, they’d have a tough time replying. That was a problem for later.

The transport slowed and maneuvered carefully, latching onto the pirate ship’s airlock. Not an easy task when dealing with a ship spinning uncontrollably, but Saubassa pulled it off, and gave Peiun a nod. It was time to go.

The transport’s doors opened, the airlock doors to the ship, however, remained closed. They needed a key to enter, Selnyi and Xiun were that. The two fierce warriors stood shoulder to should, brandishing their two-handed plasma swords as they charged on with green flowing light. They created red lines of molten metal into the airlock door as they guided their blades in a circular motion. Peiun did the honors, kicking his way in from the newly created hole.

Once aboard, he double-checked the time displayed via his HNI, they had a minute left before the closest pirate group in the area would receive sensor data about their arrival, thus triggering the fifteen-minute countdown.

Saubassa took point. It was his job as a guardian to do so. His arm-mounted plasma shield rose up, while his one-handed plasma sword flared on. He charged into the flaming and smoke-filled corridors, hissing loudly, displaying his fangs, drawing all projectile fire discharged by the magnetic pistols and rifles the surviving pirates were armed with. The pirates were Radiance exiles, mostly Aryile, though there were a few Javnis and Linl in the mix. Selnyi and Xiun stood behind Saubassa and allowed their furious battle cry to be heard. Not that the pirates could hear it, their EVA suits would drown it until they allowed it to transmit sounds externally.

The formation they entered was a standard attack pattern. Guardians remained at the front and used a small tractor beam built-in to their swords to pull enemies out of cover, delivering them to the warriors behind, or dealing with them themselves. It was their choice.

The Hashmedai never had a gunpowder age, unlike humans and Aryile. And so, warfare had always revolved around cutting your enemies down with swords, and using shields wielded by knights for defense. Even when the Hashmedai entered the atomic age, their training and discipline still focused on the art of swinging a sword. Ranged attacks were a strange concept, and often considered to be the act of a coward.

When the Radiance Union made first contact with the Hashmedai and taught them how to harness the power of plasma, the Hashmedai sought to imbue their swords with them, rather than rely on plasma rifles. The sole reason why the Hashmedai used plasma as a means of a ranged attack existed for three reasons. One, you can’t attach a giant sword onto a spaceship and expect to win battles. Two, it was a means of identifying weak warriors as they were given plasma rifles and pistols to use. Three, Radiance and their rifles had a higher rate of victory against Hashmedai during zero-g fights, and so those weak warriors were sent and sacrificed to fight them, while the strong sword-swinging ones stood back and waited.

What played out before Peiun eyes—while he removed his plasma sword out from the chest of a pirate, that refused to answer his questions—was thousands of years of sword and shield combat skills, passed down the generations into the four that beheaded, impaled, or decapitated pirates with as little as one swing. The pirates not wearing combat armor or personal shields made it that much easier.

“Captain, we have movement with the other pirate ships,” Alesyna’s voice played within his helmet’s speakers.

“Are they on course to us?” Peiun asked.

“Yes, you have fifteen minutes now,” Alesyna transmitted. “I suggest you not be onboard when that time comes.”

“How many ships?”

“Four for now, but it will only be a matter of time before the rest knows.”

And how many that rest was, was unknown and would remain that way until she entered a deep ESP trance. Or they arrived unexpectedly, either way he needed to finish up.

Peiun’s assault group strode past flames and smoke, entering what looked like the ship’s galley, where most of the surviving crew hid, as the fires had not spread to it yet. The pirates inside were mostly unarmed. Those that were armed lost their hands and the pistols they were wrapped around, screaming as the blood splatter trickled onto the floor.

The pirates gave Peiun their undivided attention. He ordered his warriors to force them to their knees as he drew his plasma sword, circling around them. “You,” Peiun said, pointing to one of the pirates. “I have some questions to ask.”

The pirate remained silent, looking up at Peiun with its Aryile lizard-like eyes. Peiun spoke again, this time speaking in English. Nothing. “I grow tired of this. Someone speak, or I will slit all your throats, one by one.”

There was still no answer. He placed his blade to the neck of the Aryile, and went to make the fatal cut—

“Wait,” a voice called out to him, in English at that.

Peiun threw the pirate to the floor after ordering Saubassa to find and grab the man that offered to speak. The man looked Linl, though he was most likely human as he spoke English very well. He wore white coveralls drenched in grease stains and burn marks.

“Finally, someone that can speak,” Peiun said to the man brought before him.

“Look man, they promised me a few extra credits if I kept their weapons working,” the man said.

“I have some questions to ask you.”

“Shoot, uh, just not me.”

“Why did these pirates suddenly attack these mines?”

“Because they’re pirates?”

“These platforms have been around for years, most likely because they had protection. Where is it?”

The man’s body vibrated and trembled. Sweat began to roll down his forehead. “Mercenaries were protecting them.”

“Where are they now?”

“I’m not sure,” said the man. “I heard there was a falling out between the pirate alliances in this sector and the merc teams. They used to work together and watched each other’s backs from rivals, and the mercs had all these platforms under their protection.”

“Is that why there are no ships defending them?”

“Yeah, man, the pirates knew if they raided these miners, they’d get sacked by the mercs, so they left them alone and told other pirate groups to do the same. But, like I said, they’re not friends anymore, one of the pirates attacked and killed most of the mercs at their base, and in turn their alliance fell apart.”

“Where is this base?”

The man guided Peiun’s team to a computer terminal in a nearby corridor. From there he fingered the display and brought up, on its cracked and aged screen, a map of the belt and the location of hidden bases. Peiun eyed the display closely and hoped his HNI got a good recording of the data. There was no time to fiddle around looking for a data crystal to copy it.

“I think that’s it,” the man said. “Again, I’m just a wrench here.”

Peiun nodded. “I thank you for your information, mister …”

“Just call me, Moe.”

“Well then, Moe,” he said gesturing to the warriors. “You are coming with us, just in case your information doesn’t produce the results I seek. I hope you understand.”

Peiun was back on the bridge of the Rezeki’s Rage, free of the confines of the EVA suit, and sitting in his captain’s chair Alesyna offered back to him. He checked the time projected to him via his HNI, the backup pirate ships were minutes away.

“Shall I take us out of the belt, Captain?” Nadevina asked.

“No,” Peiun said, and sent her the images he recorded off the cracked computer screen on the pirate ship. “Take us to those coordinates.”

“That will keep us within the belt,” Nadevina said.

“And if we leave I doubt these pirates will allow us to penetrate this deep again,” Peiun said. “This is our only chance, we must take it.”

Nadevina returned to the helm, and keyed in the new course. “Understood, Captain, taking us there now.”

Maneuvering thrusters tilted the Rezeki’s Rage to the correct angle. Sub light speeds sent them on their way, leaving behind the wreckage of one pirate ship and a second one with its fires still not under control. Minutes into their sub light journey, Alesyna’s ESP detected the four pirate ships, stop, and alter course to chase.

Two minutes after that, twelve other ships appeared, all on an intercept course with the Rezeki’s Rage. The likelihood of any of the two groups of ships catching them were rare, they all moved at the same speed and the Rezeki’s Rage was ahead. But once the Rezeki’s Rage dropped out of sub light to approach the base? They’d have a minute at best before they came under fire. Four ships, plus another twelve … there was no way they could survive, despite the technology and psionic advantages the Rezeki’s Rage had over them

Peiun’s next plan needed to be quick and decisive.

17 Pierce

XSV Johannes Kepler

Approaching Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 14, 2118, 22:03 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Doctor Travis Pierce took his eyes off the holographic screen he spent the last two hours trying to make sense of. Two hours that should have been spent in his quarters, having spent the entire day working. He gave his tired face a hearty rub as he sat at his computer within the Kepler’s lab. And what a lab it was.

His corner of the lab was neat, tidy, free of clutter and unnecessary objects, with the exception of his empty coffee mug resting next to his computer. Odelea’s corner, however, was a mess with floating holographic notes, many of which blocked the one and only window in the lab, he really liked the view the window gave. Apple cores were piled in one corner, spent stim packs in another, and no Aryile girl in sight.

At least clean up after yourself when you leave, even if it’s only for a moment! Pierce sighed after that thought, for he never would have imagined such an attractive, prim, and proper ladylike woman such as Odelea, to be such a scatterbrained and disorganized person. He turned away from her workspace, and returned to the screen he was looking at, and the messy shorthand notes Odelea had left him, all written in the Radiance language.

He felt a soft hand touch his shoulder, Nereid’s hand. He forgot she arrived to help him and Odelea make sense of the data he recorded from the Draconian construct from the surface of Jacobus. He also had forgotten what her touch felt like. Memories of being held captive by her when they first met came back to his head, and when her breasts became exposed, thanks to the loose-fitting robe she wore.

Pierce’s face turned a shade red.

“Are you okay?” Nereid asked him.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” He was not fine, the sudden growth within his trousers was proof of that. “Just tired of looking at this screen.”

Nereid faced him, giving him a curious stare, her face looking dry and pale, more so than normal. “Your face is red, are you sure?”

“Yes, but you, are you okay?” Pierce said, though he knew very well what was happening to her. “Hopefully the crowds in the halls haven’t slowed Odelea down. I’m sure she’ll be back soon with your water.”

“It was my fault for not requesting it from Doctor Kostelecky,” Nereid softly spoke. “She still isn’t versed on the needs of my species.”

“There was a lot for Kostelecky to take in up until now. It’s only now she’s had the chance to catch up on the new discoveries since the Carl Sagan arrived in Sirius, including the unique needs of your species.”

Nereid came to sit cross-legged on her chair and her hands began to unzip the top of her tank top. Pierce’s face flushed even more … “Uhh.”

“Clothing as you know is a burden to me,” Nereid explained. “The heat it creates also increases the speed in which I can dehydrate.”

“I’ll lower the temperature,” he said getting ready to stand.

She held onto his arm. “That would only make Odelea uncomfortable.”

The temperatures inside the lab were already at twenty-five degrees Celsius, the happy medium both humans and Aryile can operate in with few issues. Undine too, provided they received water, and lots of it. Living and working on a ship with a species-diverse crew was more complex than he thought it would be. Arguments about if it was too hot or cold were likely going to be commonplace.

Pierce remained seated, and his mind once again started to drift back to his captivity amongst the Undine people. Being imprisoned for what seemed like two years from his perspective was something he was never able to shake off, or how his captors pulled fragments of his memories from his head with engrams. The Undine people, while under the control of Marduk, pressured him to reveal information about the Empire and the Hashmedai people after discovering his memories about Pernoy, an old Hashmedai friend of his, back on Earth.

Nereid’s long raven-blue hair, in conjunction with reminiscing about that experience, brought back further memories of Pernoy and her long blue hair, though hers was a shade lighter. The way Nereid touched him, sent him back in time to an era when he and Pernoy would have wonderful laughter-filled conversations when they got lost within the downtown core of Vancouver.

The lab’s doors opened and shut, delivering Odelea back inside with her hands bearing the gifts Nereid sought, two large bottles of water. Odelea handed the bottles to Nereid before striding over to her computer terminal.

“Ah, she’s here, at last,” “Pierce said. “Let us continue—”

Nereid hastily twisted the cap off, pouring the water into her opened mouth, half of it ended up splashing off her lips, running down her chin, soaking her partially zipped down tank top. Pierce forgot how to speak, especially when Nereid moved the nozzle of the bottle upward, allowing its contents to drain down over hair, further drenching her body.

Odelea returned back to the two, munching on an apple, unfazed at Nereid’s actions or the growing puddle of water on the floor next to her chair. “Fascinating,” Odelea said, then paused to swallow her recent bite. “Do you require your body to be doused often like this?”

“Not always,” Nereid said, placing the half-empty bottle down. “I neglected to rehydrate prior to entering and exiting cryo and didn’t hydrate enough during my recovery in sickbay. Furthermore, the modifications to my quarters have not been completed.”

“What sort of modifications?” Odelea asked, then bit into her apple again.

“I’m still a species from the sea,” Nereid said, pulling back her drenched hair off her shoulders, exposing the gills on her neck. “I have a need to return to the waters and swim. The captain put in a request for my quarters to have a small swimming area installed.”

Pierce regained the ability to speak despite sitting next to a dripping water nymph and the full shape of her chest and nipples bleeding through her wet top. “On the Carl Sagan she … tried to turn her washroom into one. Foster and Rivera weren’t too pleased with the water damage.”

A walk to grab a mop and clean up the watered-down floor, gave Pierce the chance to calm his thoughts. Odelea had called him back to his station. She and Nereid uncovered something about the data he brought back. He joined the two as they both stood at opposite ends to his chair and braced himself for what would come next when he sat. Two attractive women next to him, both nineteen to twenty in appearance, Nereid wasn’t the only person that wished the thermostat was turned to a lower setting.

“Was that all you were able to find?” Odelea asked him.

Pierce viewed the projection, and the pictures he recorded from the Draconian hologram found in the construct. “Yes, EDF wanted to leave at this point and pushed me away.”

Odelea grabbed the holo screen, pulling it closer for the three to examine. Her arm brushed against his, transferring the warmth of her body to his, with the softness and unique feel of the scales cladding a section of her slender Aryile arm.

He kept his focus forward, the best he could. Odelea pointed at the screen and the Draconian projection. “These look like words from their language,” Odelea revealed.

“Are you able to understand it?” Pierce asked.

She shook her head. “Not very well, I haven’t seen too many examples of their language in written form.”

She scrolled the still image down to view the rest of the strange hologram. Pierce winced, wishing he kept his hands steady when he was recording. The picture probably wouldn’t have been as blurry as it was.

Nereid pointed at the screen, her wet arm dripping water over Pierce’s shoulder. “I recognize some of these letters.”

“Really?” Odelea said to her.

“They are part of the ancient readings handed down to us over the generations, supposedly from the Goddess herself,” Nereid said. “These are different but look similar.”

Nereid pointed to each of the letters, giving Odelea a quick rundown on how to pronounce them, which symbols were a form of punctuation, and which ones were numbers rather than letters.

“Does it mean anything to you, Odelea?” Pierce asked her.

“Yes, somewhat,” she said. “What we are looking at is a log.” Odelea pulled on the edge of the projection, forcing its view to enlarge, giving them a closer but blurry view of what was written. “I think it’s a communication log report.”

“Communication with who?”

“I’m not sure exactly,” Odelea said, pointing to the first string of Draconian written text. “This is a soldier announcing that a song is being listened to.”

“A song? It must have been us then,” Pierce said. “Perhaps a transmission log of them discovering our location?”

Odelea’s vertical iris eyes scanned the image further reading its contents. “No, this has nothing to do with us,” she said, keeping her eyes forward, something Pierce realized he had been doing, with her chest close to his. “They talk about other songs, songs from their fleet. It seems important to them that they heard the songs.”

“Something tells me these songs are more than just entertainment,” Pierce said.

Odelea identified imagery within the projection that looked like pictures of sound waves. “These must be the songs.”

“Maybe, those look like sound waves,” Pierce said. “EVE? Is it possible you can replay the audio depicted in these sound wave patterns?”

“It is possible,” EVE’s voice played over the speakers. “However, given the resolution of what you recorded, the sound replayed may not be accurate.”

“Do it anyways, let’s see what happens.”

“Please standby,” EVE said.

EVE scanned the image of the sound waves and attempted to reconstruct the sounds via a newly produced audio playback file. The distorted noise made the three cringe and cover their ears.

“That doesn’t sound anything like a song,” Pierce said. “EVE, is there any way we could clean it up?”

“Unfortunately, this is the best I can do, given the limitations of the source material you have provided,” EVE said. “A clearer image of the wavelength would be required.”

“Or … an actual recording of it,” Pierce drily said.

Other sound wave pictures were found within the projection. Each one was scanned and reconstructed into sound to the best of EVE’s ability. They all produced the same noise due to the poor image quality.

“Any of you two able to make anything out of these?” Pierce asked. “A word? A hidden code?”

“Nothing, it’s just garbled sounds,” Odelea said. “Perhaps if I had more time, I might be able to decipher some meaning to it, maybe even reconstruct the sound wave.”

One particular reconstructed sound wave showed promise. It outputted soft humming ambient noises, unlike the screeching and irritating racket from the previous attempts. The audio playback instantly hooked Nereid’s attention to the screen.

“That one.” Nereid excitedly spoke, and requested they played it on repeat. “The first three seconds of this, I understand it.”

Now we’re getting somewhere, Pierce thought. “What’s being said?”

“Nothing.”

“Three seconds of someone singing the word nothing?”

“No, it’s like a directional song,” Nereid said. “My people, when swimming through the oceans as you know, Pierce, communicate with telepathy.”

“Naturally, you can’t use spoken words underwater.”

“When traveling in groups to hunt, explore, or reach distant cities, we sing songs with telepathy,” Nereid continued. “Each song has a different use, some are to allow others to know what you are doing, and others are to give directions.”

“Why not just directly relay that with telepathic communication?” Odelea chimed in.

“It’s hard to explain.” Nereid paused to collect her thoughts. “Every part of our songs change based on who is singing it, and where they are, amongst other things. For example, if you are announcing your location to others, the song you sang told those that listen to it your size, mass, and exact location within the ocean. Should you sink to a lower depth; the song would change to reflect that.”

“So, they’re not simply songs of someone signing,” Odelea said. “It’s telemetry data in the form of various sounds, put together to make a song.”

“It’s almost like humpback whales of Earth,” Pierce said. “Their songs have been a mystery to us humans for years. The best we’ve been able to figure out was that it was some sort of communication since different songs had different meanings.” Pierce began to add up the facts with their recent discovery. His face lit up and his jaw dropped in awe, as he turned to face Nereid. “And the Undine did live within Earth’s oceans for a period of time, before Marduk changed that. But we’re getting off-topic.”

“So, what we could be looking at are the Draconian ships communicating with each other, via songs,” Odelea said.

“Songs that their soldiers and dragons understand,” added Pierce. “And their ships are living, organic beings, beings that sing to the others in the fleet their exact location in space, or destination.”

Taking the projection with her, Odelea moved back to her workstation within the lab. She added content to her holographic notes with the aid of Nereid whom followed behind to her, further explaining the songs her people used to traverse through the oceans of Meroien. This, of course, all happened after Nereid took the time to douse her body again with water.

Pierce remained at his computer, holding a holo pad before his face which displayed recent scientific discoveries made within the last seven decades. He still had quite a bit of catch-up learning to do, being the cryo sleepin he and the Carl Sagan’s crew were, they missed out on a lot of those discoveries.

“Care to join us, Doctor?” Odelea asked five minutes into his read.

“Oh, I have other things to tend to,” Pierce said, spinning in his chair to face her. “Besides, it’s getting late, and I’m not much use at this point until we can get things translated. I can better assist afterward.”

“I’ll probably be at that phase when I retire to my quarters,” Odelea said. “This is a fascinating find, and I intend to stay awake with stims to make as much progress as possible.”

“I’ll catch up with you in the morning then.”

Odelea gave him a warm smile as he stood up, making plans to leave. His feet moved to the exit, slowly. The smile and cute look Odelea was giving him continued to linger, she had something more to say he figured.

He was right.

“If you’d like, you are more than welcome to join me in my quarters—”

His holo pad crashed to the floor. He had his wandering mind to thank for that. A number of tantalizing ways the two of them spending time in her quarters could end flashed in his head. Why else would she invite him, and only him, to join her?

“Oh, my …” Were the only words he could muster.

Odelea looked at the dropped holo pad, then back up at him. “Pierce, you okay?”

“I’m fine!”

Odelea was quick to pick up the holo pad, handing it back to him. Pierce was slow to take it back. Too bad for him, he didn’t notice Foster enter the labs at that point and look at him strange.

“Let me know if you change your mind,” Odelea said.

He took back the pad. “My mind?”

“About joining me?”

“Ahhh …”

“To further study the data we found?”

“Oh, right, yes, I will be in contact.” Odelea moved back to her computer, out of sight. Foster stepped closer to him, she wasn’t impressed. “Captain, what I can do for you?”

“Just checking up on y’all, learn anything new?” Foster asked.

“Might have come across telemetry data for their fleet,” Pierce said. “As for the purpose of the construct, that’s still a complete mystery, other than the fact it was used to store unhatched dragon eggs. Right now, we’ve hit a bit of a language barrier these two are going to try and crack. I’m useless for the moment.”

Pierce made a swift exit from the labs, Foster followed behind. The sheer number of rescued colonists still in the corridors prevented him from moving and allowed Foster to pull him aside.

“What the hell was that, Pierce?”

“I dropped my pad.”

“Your eyes were looking down her top.”

“Perhaps,” he groaned.

“You remind of my papa, hell, you’re around the same age he was when I lost him.”

The same age … Foster was eighteen when her father died during the Imperial invasion of Earth. Pierce had no children at that age. He didn’t have any at all in fact. What Foster said reminded him of the opportunities that moved past him in life, while he grew old. A family he could have raised but didn’t, an eighteen-year-old son or daughter he could have been watching head to college but wasn’t.

Thankfully, gene therapy was a reality. They now lived in an age where one was never too old to do anything, including having and raising children.

“The marriage between him and my mother nearly came to an end one night,” Foster continued. “Not sure I told you this, but he spent almost his entire life tryin’ to get into NASA. He did everything, multiple science and engineering degrees, became a walking atlas of the stars, spent time in the US air force.”

“Unfortunately, none of that guaranteed you the job of an astronaut back in those days,” Pierce said.

“He was a virgin until his late twenties, when he met my mother,” Foster said. “She was the only woman he had fun with, if you catch my drift.”

“Sounds like he was dedicated to the cause, good for him.”

“Like you, he gave lectures to university students.” They started to slowly make their way through the crowded halls, squeezing in between or around everyone. “Some of those girls thought he was pretty hot. Imagine the look and shock on my mom’s face when she caught him chatting with those girls, then later texting them.”

“Hmm.”

“Any of that sound familiar?”

“A bit.”

“My father was having a midlife crisis,” she said as they arrived at the elevator. “He ended up reflecting on all the things in life that passed him by because of his dedication to his goals. He never spent time with women when he was young and sought to do it when the crisis hit.” The doors slid open and Pierce froze for a moment, processing what she said, and what was going on with him. “I don’t care if you choose to shit where you eat,” Foster added. “Just don’t let it get you, or others, in trouble, like it almost did with my father. He’d probably still be around today.”

“I thought the Imperial invasion took his life?”

The two stepped into the elevator, and its doors slid shut upon Pierce selecting the upper deck.

“It did …” Foster said grimly, looking down at the floor. “There were other factors that resulted in it. Maybe I’ll tell ya later. Just remember what I said, okay?”

“Will do, Captain.”

Pierce was having a midlife crisis.

It was the worst thing he could be battling with during this critical time, given the state of the galaxy and his vast scientific knowledge. He needed to focus and stop chasing the past to experience the things he never had the chance to do when he was younger and working hard to get the best grades possible.

18 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Near Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 14, 2118, 23:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

To the untrained eye, the XSV Johannes Kepler appeared from a flash of light when it dropped out of FTL and slowly approached the enormous space station of Amicitia Station 14 with guidance thrusters. There was no shortage of light reflecting off the hull of the ship, thanks in part to the four stars that brightened the Arietis system.

The Johannes Kepler glided past idle Imperial warships that were moving to dock with the station’s arm, built to serve the needs of the Empire. Radiance cruisers flying in a tight formation drifted ahead, having recently departed from the Radiance arm of the station, on a course to the wormhole that will link with Radiance controlled space. Qirak cargo ships waited patiently for clearance to dock, they had been waiting over an hour, every single airlock close to the atrium arm had been occupied by smaller trade ships, or personal transports owned by traveling merchants and wanderers from the Morutrin system.

When the Kepler was close enough, it gave onlookers that peered out the various observation windows on the station, a breathtaking view of the ship when it made its way to the UNE arm. A mother held her child up and pointed and waved at the arriving Kepler. Two businessmen sitting and eating at a restaurant briefly stopped to look out the window and watch the sunlight reflect off the Kepler’s hull.

The XSV Johannes Kepler had become a household name.

“This is the XSV Johannes Kepler to Amicitia Station 14 ops, requesting clearance to dock,” Chang spoke into his opened communication screen with the station.

“Copy that, Kepler, you are cleared to dock at IESA hangar one-seven-five, located on the UNE arm.”

Chang inputted the course adjustments and guided the ship to its landing spot. “Understood, ops.”

“And welcome back, Kepler, good to see you’re still in the fight.”

The hangar bay doors of their assigned landing spot slowly slid open. The Kepler drifted in, passing through the self-irising force field, into the environment-controlled hangar. The lack of movement on the viewer signaled to Foster and the bridge crew their trip had, at last, come to an end.

For now.

“All right, folks, be sure to check out the storage bays two decks down on the station,” Foster announced. “Rivera managed to find some of y’all personal belongings from the Carl Sagan.”

The sleepy-eyed crew began to disembark, after the all the refugees of course. The wait for them to clear out was like leaving a plane full of people and you were on the backseat. Foster spent much of the wait watching the survivors from the colony via the view screen as UNE medical personnel helped them move into the station. Once the hangar was clear of people, Foster made her way out and frowned at how messy some of the corridors within the Kepler had become thanks to their passengers.

Good thing EVE doesn’t mind cleaning up during downtime.

Foster stepped off the entry ramp of the Kepler and entered the hangar bay, nodding to various station crew personnel attending to a number of cargo containers lined up before the walls. Beyond the containers was Saressea standing ahead of a small squad of Radiance rangers decked out in combat armor, and Radiance personnel wearing their familiar grey jumpsuits, the new recruits she spoke of. Saressea was giving them a speech by the sounds of it, hard to tell as Foster didn’t understand their language.

Foster grimaced as she moved past them. Shipboard security would most likely be in the hands of Radiance rangers. It made her miss the brief time Chevallier was her go-to girl for combat situations. Had the two not had a falling out, she’d ask her to join the team.

Forklifts moved cargo containers across the floor of the wide hangar, their noises combined with sounds of workers talking back and forth to each other helped soothe Foster’s thoughts. It was a sign that a sense of normalcy existed someplace in the galaxy, where people worked, chatted with coworkers, then clocked out to have a beer at the local bar before going home.

Twenty minutes after Foster left the Kepler, she arrived at the storage warehouse she instructed the crew to visit earlier. She recognized some of the crew leaving with packages filled with personal items found within the Carl Sagan’s crash site, what was salvageable at least. The pictures Rivera sent Foster of what remained of the ship and its habitat ring wasn’t promising. Foster acquired the box shipped to her from the crash site. It contained her father’s telescope, amongst other valuables, and a note letting her know which vet on the station was looking after her pet cat, Starlet.

An hour later and after a tearful reunion with her cat, Foster left the entry ramp to the Kepler once again, having secured her belongings and her feline friend in her quarters. Her wrist terminal beeped seconds later. There was an incoming transmission.

She took the call, and the holographic image of a man wearing a UNE navy uniform appeared. His hair was brown and short and, unlike most people she met in this century, his face showed a few signs that five years or so had gone by since his thirtieth birthday.

“Ah, Captain Foster?” the man asked.

She nodded. “That’d be me.”

“I’m Commander Brice Blackmar, commander of this station.” She bit her lip, replying to his message slipped her mind. “I’m not sure if you got my message, but would you be free to meet me in ops? I’d like to chat with you about a few things.”

“I’ll make my way there.” It was the least she could do, having forgotten to get back to him.

“Good, I’ll be waiting.’

Amicitia Station 14 was huge, easily the size of five cities. Ops was located in the middle of the station and the hangar was located at the far edge of the UNE arm. A number of trains, elevators, and escalators needed to be traversed to arrive at the lifts that would take her to ops. It gave her the chance to give the city within the UNE arm a better look, as she glimpsed out the train’s window. When she was last there, her thoughts were full of doom, gloom, and hopelessness. The Johannes Kepler’s victory over the Draconian attack in Sirius changed that and her mindset. There was hope for the future, and best part of all, she got her command back and a brand-new ship.

The skies above the city her train travelled through were fake. Holograms were built to make it seem as though the city was on Earth, and not inside one of the five station arms. There was a fake holographic sun that rose in the morning, hung in the skies, then set during the evening, and darkened the faux skies like now.

Environmental controls sent gusts of winds throughout the city at random times to simulate Earth winds. The temperature of the city remained at a consistent twenty-two degrees Celsius. At one moment, Foster thought she was back on Earth. The small evergreen forest below the elevated train tracks didn’t help. It wasn’t until she saw the gardening robots below, she remembered where this city was. As real as everything seemed, there was no rainwater that touched the city. Trees, grass, and other plants had their needs for rainwater taken care of by the robots.

The train arrived at last in the central section of the station. Foster rode an escalator down off the raised platform, as passengers looking to board the train she left rose upward on the opposite escalator. Holographic advertisements danced along the walls, some had the balls to speak to people that made eye contact with it. Familiar brand names from the twenty-first century were still around according to the ads. Tesla, Sony, Coca-Cola, Nike, they still existed.

Foster took two steps away from the train station when a sharply dressed man approached her. “Excuses me,” the man said, forcing her to stop and face him. “You’re Captain Rebecca Foster, correct?”

“You’s the second person to ask me that today,” Foster said crossing her arms. “And yes.”

The man created a holo window with his HNI, and then tapped a number of commands into it. A camera drone disconnected from the side of his belt and lifted into the air, shining light across Foster’s face, making her eyes squirm for a bit until they adjusted.

“I’m Lawrence Mitrovica, Galactic Broadcasting Corporation news,” the man said. Then it hit her, this was the other qmail she didn’t get around to replying to. “I was wondering if you had the time to answer a few questions.”

“Uh, I’m kinda on my way to ops to speak with the Commander,” she said scratching the back of her short brown hair.

“A secret meeting with Blackmar? Well, all the more reason why the people within the galaxy must hear this story!” A red light blinked on top of the camera drone, he was recording. She felt like running. “So, Captain, your name has been appearing on headlines across, not just UNE-based news organizations, but Radiance and Imperial ones as well. How does it feel awaking into the twenty-second century, not as an explorer, but the woman that has been placed at the tip of the spear to end this conflict?”

No turning back now, he already has my face on camera … “I’m just doing my part in saving lives and restoring the galaxy to the peaceful place it was once before we awoke.”

“Some people still argue that humanity isn’t ready for deep space expansion, and an incident like the Carl Sagan vanishing is proof of that, as it may have led the invaders, now known as the Draconians, to Earth. Do you have any regrets about your choices made during your Sirius expeditions?”

“None, we’s liberated the Poniga and Undine from the Architect, prevented his forces from escaping the system, and uncovered new technology we all use.”

“But its technology the Draconians claim we stole from them, is it not?”

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”

“Would it be possible for you to give us greater details about the new tattoos that are on your body?” Lawrence said, as Foster realized he didn’t need a mic to speak into. “We know that you didn’t have them after your extraction from the Carl Sagan but did shortly around the time you took command of the Kepler. The public has been left in the dark about them; some rumors claim that they are of alien origin.”

“Eh, that’s somethin’ I can’t really talk about right now,” Foster gestured to the lifts she was about to walk to in the distance. “And I really gots to get goin’”

“One last question,” Lawrence pleaded. “To our knowledge, the Kepler recently returned from a mission within the Kapteyn’s Star system, bringing with you survivors from the colony.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Foster reluctantly replied. “But I can’t reveal the nature of our mission at this time.”

“That’s fine, we’ll figure it out eventually,” Lawrence said. “However, what became of the UNE fleet assisting you? To our understanding, only the Kepler has returned to station.”

“Well we’s got fastest ship in the cosmos,” she gloated. “We probably just beat ‘em to it.”

“Some of the survivors we spoke to talked about fighting, and a deadly struggle to escape. Yet the Kepler, according to our sources, took minimal damage, and made it back.”

“We had survivors that needed to be protected. There was no way in hell we was gonna take the Kepler into a combat situation with them aboard.”

The light from the drone dimmed, and it lowered itself for Lawrence to grab onto and reattach it back to his belt. “That’s it for now, thanks. If you’d like to chat more one-on-one, especially after your meeting with Blackmar, let me know. I’ll be here on the station for a while.”

Foster gave her reply; a shrug followed by silence. She marched to the lift. She arrived at station ops minutes later and took a moment to gasp at how large it was. There were dozens of computer work stations, each one attended by the station’s UNE staff. Some monitored the station’s systems, and others kept an eye on security cameras. Another set was dedicated to space traffic control, directing all outgoing and incoming ships to and from the system. The ceiling was adorned with flags from all the nations of the old Earth, a reminder of where the UNE originated.

Being at the highest point on the station meant the windows that covered the dome-shaped area, gave everyone a flawless three-sixty-degree view of the station, its five arms, and the expanse of space beyond. If you tilted your head high enough, blocking out the computers and station personnel from your line of sight, it would feel as though you were in space.

“You got lost on the way up?”

Foster turned away from the view of ops and found Blackmar standing behind her. She had to look up, way up, to see his grinning face. Blackmar must have been at least six foot seven.

“Journalist pestered me for an interview,” Foster said while the two shook hands, she held back a cringe. His firm handshake crushed her hand.

“Enjoy it while it lasts. Half the UNE views you and your crew as our saviors.” Blackmar guided her into his office next to ops, and free from ears that didn’t need to hear what the two had to say. “And the other half questions why President Anderson is investing so much into you rather than the military.”

“This ain’t a war we’s gonna win punching and kicking,” Foster said, admiring the layout of his office. It looked like a living room, complete with a bookshelf. “Unless you plan on forcing every man, woman, and child to enlist and fight, which is pretty much the advantage the Draconians have.”

“Is that so?”

“Have you ever heard of a dragon that opted to be a doctor or lawyer in life? They’re born and serve one purpose. Take a guess at what that purpose is currently.”

Blackmar offered her a seat on one of the leather couches. She took the time to peek at the photos of his family on the walls, and a football helmet, ball, and trophy on a rack. Next to the rack were old photos of him dressed in football equipment, standing next to who she guessed was his coach.

He returned holding two mugs. They had mist lifting away from them carrying the fresh scent of lemon into the air. “The reason I called you here is because I’d like to get your personal opinion on the safety and security of this station.”

“Eh, why me?” Foster asked and took a sip of the fresh tea. Once again, she forgot for a split second that she wasn’t on a space station over a hundred light-years from Earth. “Couldn’t the navy help you with that?”

“I don’t trust them right now.” Blackmar pointed to the window. “Just a few weeks ago, you and the Rezeki’s Rage came waltzing in here from a maelstrom. And, according to your reports, those vortexes are like gateways the Draconian fleets use to travel long distances.”

“Yeah, it’s how we were able to escape from the Kapteyn’s Star system the first time around,” Foster said, after taking another sip. “I found a tunnel within the maelstrom that brought us here.”

“And that’s my concern,” Blackmar said. “There was a tunnel that led directly into this system, which meant the Draconians sent ships here without us knowing or made plans to do so. Both you and I know the navy, EISS, and President Anderson himself are aware of this, and nothing has been done about it. Since you and your friends traveled through it, I was hoping maybe you could tell me something everyone else … forgot to tell me.”

“I ain’t got nothing else to say about it. I found that tunnel and it was empty. For what it’s worth, when tunnels in the maelstrom aren’t in use, they collapse and become unusable.”

“How long does that take?”

“No idea, just when a ship passes through it, it kinda renews the life of the tunnel.”

“Right, so, when you used the tunnel that led to this system, you inadvertently renewed its life?”

Her tongue pushed against the inside of her mouth. “Yeah, guess so.”

“I’m not blaming you for that; you had to do what you needed to do to survive and escape.”

“But I see your predicament,” Foster said turning the cup around on the table before them. “You got an entry point to the maelstrom at the edge of the system that could let Draconian forces in at any time.”

“And after your victory in Sirius, the UNE had you and your crew conduct your operation in Kapteyn’s Star system,” Blackmar said then gulped his drink. “All while dedicating a number of ships to that, not assigning new ones to protect the station,” he added.

“We’s done there now, maybe those ships will be reassigned here.”

“Only, they’re not.” Blackmar sighed and placed his cup on the table. “Nobody has heard from that fleet.”

“That journalist mentioned something about that …”

Blackmar grimaced. “Shit, even the press knows … that didn’t take long. What the hell happened out there, Foster?”

“Things got crazy and we had to flee,” she said. “The Kepler is faster as you know, so we outran them and made it back to UNE space first.”

“You’re only twice as fast as the fleet. They should still be en route or being redirected elsewhere. They aren’t from what we’ve been able to gather. I don’t think the fleet made it out of Kapteyn’s Star, and if they did, they didn’t leave Gliese 1061 the system with the connecting wormhole.”

“Did the Draconians follow us through the wormhole?”

“Nope, even if they did, we would have shut it down right away to stop them,” Blackmar said. “That fleet, as far as I’m concerned, is gone, and the navy isn’t talking to us about it.”

Foster left her seat on the couch and stood at the window, gazing out into space. Her mysterious tattoos on her hands emitted a faint but noticeable glow in the reflection on the glass that shot back.

“I really hope this system doesn’t turn into a battleground,” she said.

She saw Blackmar’s tall reflection on the glass stand to join her.

“Over twelve million humans and aliens live on this station, and just outside of it are wormholes that lead to the capitals of Radiance, the Empire, UNE space, and the Morutrin system,” Blackmar said. “Losing this system and the station would be a major blow to the galaxy. Foster, I need your help to prevent that since the navy doesn’t seem to care.”

“Doctor Pierce and Odelea did uncover some data that might help us understand how their ships communicate.”

“Excellent,” he said, putting his cup of tea to his lips. “That might help out immensely with a side project I’d like you to help us test.”

19 Pierce

Pierce’s apartment, UNE Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 14, 2118, 23:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce couldn’t shake off the awkward experience he had prior to arriving at the station. He thought back to his past life when he was thirty years younger, and counted the dozens of missed connections with women, dates he could have gone on, experiences he could have had, and paths in life he never had the chance to walk. All leading up to his memories of Pernoy, the most elegant Hashmedai woman he’d ever met.

He made a loud moan when he stepped away from the elevator in the newly constructed apartment within the UNE city of the station. IESA was kind enough to provide Pierce with housing that wasn’t dorms he was given to live in last summer. When you’re a member of the team that’s expected to save the galaxy, you get a few benefits.

He was delighted to see familiar sights that surrounded the outside of the high-rise apartment, such as office buildings and apartments, and cars flying back and forth under the nighttime skies, even though it was just a hologram. The city’s skyline was brightened with lights and hologram advertisements, and behind all that, if you looked closely, you could see an artificial mountain range with its flowing pristine rivers and boreal forests standing watch. A city, mountain, and a forest inside a space station, it was truly a remarkable achievement.

He approached the entrance to his home away from the Kepler. A small holo screen appeared with the image of a hand palm. He placed the palm of his hand upon it, and waited two seconds for it to flash green, and grant him access.

A scanner in the ceiling shone blue lines of lights across his body, finishing at the back of his head. He panicked briefly, hoping he didn’t enter the wrong unit.

“Alert, HNI not detected,” the computer said. “Switching to legacy mode. If this is an error, please ensure your implant is working correctly.”

“It’s no error,” he said.

“Understood, continuing forward with legacy interface.” Holographic screens appeared next to Pierce and followed him everywhere he went.

It took him an hour, but eventually he figured out the basics of using the screens that allowed him to set the suite’s interior temperature and access his personal computer. He sat down on a sofa and played the stimulating game of scientific catch up, the task he didn’t get around to finishing when he left Odelea and Nereid in the lab.

The rate in which the zooming of flying cars zipping back and forth decreased as the night went on, as did the number of people walking on the sidewalks outside below. Pierce remained exactly where he sat reading, the trove of discoveries was too fascinating to ignore. Eventually he stumbled upon internet news sites, featuring articles talking about the brilliant minds he knew of during his days living on Earth. Many of them were still alive thanks to gene therapy. It was a reminder of the future he awoke into.

New hope massaged his thoughts. Perhaps she’s still around.

“Computer, since I don’t have HNI, would it still be possible for me to make a call to someone that has it?” Pierce asked.

“Yes,” the computer replied while loading a holographic dialing pad in front of him. “You may interact with this screen here.” A second screen with a local directory appeared next to it. “Use this screen to search for contact information of the person you wish to speak with.”

His hands tapped the directory screen and conducted a search for his old friend, Pernoy. The directory outputted a small list of possible matches, none of them featuring the profile photo of Pernoy or the corresponding Hashmedai title.

“Computer, there’s a person I’m searching for that used to live in the greater Vancouver area, Surrey to be exact. I suspect they moved. Would it be possible for you to conduct a search and locate where they might have moved to?”

“Please state the name of the person and any relevant data pertaining to them.”

He provided the computer with everything he could think of. Pernoy’s full Hashmedai name, mate’s name, the name of his brother, the fact she used to live in Surrey, with two children, Lyir and Eupiar, a Hashmedai-human hybrid.

“No information is present,” the computer replied. “Please be advised that some of the first generation of displaced Hashmedai on Earth, left to return to the Empire in the early 2040s. If that is the case, then you will need to know their Imperial HNI codes. Please note that directories listing Imperial citizens are unavailable in the UNE and Radiance.”

An uncountable number of minutes passed with him performing internet searches. There were a lot of old news reports about the HLF that popped up. Other reports went on to talk about Pernoy’s daughter, Eupiar, and how she was involved in the battle of Barnard’s Star. His inquiring mind wanted to know more about that battle, and so new searches were made.

Wikipedia had a trove of information pertaining to the Radiance cult known as the Celestial Order. The reading of that page lead him to pages about Whisper, the intelligence branch of Radiance, and its involvement with that fiasco.

And their ability to create fake memories.

It got him thinking.

“Computer, is it possible for the Radiance Union Whisper organization to erase memories of an individual?”

The computer gave its chilling reply.

“Whisper agents are known to implant themselves with fabricated memories to infiltrate various organizations, terrorist groups, exile settlements, and governments. Creating exact copies of real memories is also possible, as well as the ability to doctor them to remove segments of them or replace them with fabricated ones. So, yes, a skilled agent can create the illusion of erased memories.”

Could Whisper be behind our memory wipe? He thought. The Abyssal Sword which allegedly entered Sirius was Radiance after all.

A yawn interrupted his thoughts and internet searches. It was time for bed rest, it had been a long day, and he still had an apartment to finish setting up. Pierce stretched himself out on the couch, grabbed a pillow, and nodded off.

Pierce saw Nereid in his sleep. She was wearing the same tattered Poniga robe as when they first met, pestering him about Pernoy and knowing exactly how she looked, since fragments of his memories were copied and stored within engram orbs.

“She’s very beautiful. Hashmedai, if I’m not mistaken?”

Her soft soothing voice was blissful to hear. Back and neck pains made her image and voice fade away, replaced with his apartment’s living room. Pernoy waved to him, she was sitting at the barstool-like chair next to the kitchen counter. Too bad she wasn’t real either and faded away as he sat up from the couch, dampened by his body from a short sleep.

His floating holo screen was still active, and its screensaver had a cartoon character shaped like a cherry dance around it. It was quite a peculiar thing to wake up to, as he recalled, he never set the screensaver to display that image. The desktop appeared when he went to resume where he left off with his readings. A flashing red envelop icon caught his attention, a new qmail message.

Who could that be? he thought and searched for his wrist terminal. There were no missed messages on that, ruling out that he missed a comm from Foster or a member of the crew. The message was from an outsider.

He opened the message.

To: Travis Pierce

From: Diamondrose

Subject: (NO SUBJECT)

Sent: October 15, 2118 00:54 SST

Come see me at AOK-14 pub in the atrium tonight. The Mary Pickfords there are fabulous.

XOXO

He had doubts this was simply an advertisement. The establishment in question had much brighter ones located throughout the atrium. Cheap qmail ads like this were beyond them as far as he was concerned.

His inquiring mind wanted to know more and typed a reply.

Who are you?

No less than thirty seconds after he minimized the window, the new qmail message chime sounded. The sender was quick to reply.

I’m a friend, offering a helping hand to help you locate Pernoy and her kids :) The Carl Sagan’s science officer deserves to know what happened after all those long years. Don’t you agree?

XOXO

He didn’t type in a reply. He sat back and watched the screen as an apprehensive feeling held his body still. The sender, Diamondrose, knew his name, his qmail address, knew he was part of the Carl Sagan’s crew, and knew about his recent searches in regard to Pernoy. He stared at the screen long enough for its screensaver to reappear, and the cartoon cherry danced around once again, almost mocking him.

There was no way this was the default screensaver. A quick glance at the terminal’s settings confirmed that. According to its logs, it was changed recently, like when he was asleep. His mouth twisted as he adjusted the settings and changed the screensaver back to its original splendor of random colors and lines, from the animated maraschino cherry.

Atrium Arm, A-OK Fourteen Pub

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 01:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

As the years go by, things change. Life evolves, plants grow, people are born, age and grow into adults. Stars die, and new ones are formed in the aftermath of the violent, yet dazzling, supernova. But music? It just gets weirder and weirder as time goes on, to the point where Pierce couldn’t tell if the sounds that came from the loudspeakers of the A-OK pub was real music, or just the computers glitching out.

The music that played at the bar was a headache-inducing mixture of electronic noises, with no lyrics, or recognizable instruments. It was just pure beating sounds and irritating racket. Pierce being too old for this was an understatement.

He took a seat at the bar, and strobe lights flickered about bringing temporary light to what otherwise would have been an extremely dimly lit environment. Humans and aliens mixed and mingled behind him, slurring their drunken words and laughing. A Qirak and a Vorcambreum played a game of cards in the back as shimmering jewels were piled high on the center of the table between them. They were playing for keeps. A human man wearing an UNE Marine tank top and dog tags approached a group of young Aryile women wearing brief and backless dresses. Pierce wondered if the women bathed in a pool of glittering makeup beforehand.

Holo screens hovered high up on the walls, some played sports games from across the galaxy, and others had the local news on. The bartender’s hands were full, literally, with blue-colored bottles tending to the needs of navy personnel with empty glasses. Pierce opted to watch and listen to the news playing, listening being the hardest part with what was going on around him.

The news broadcast had a number of people sitting at a round table, debating a hot topic he figured. The headline at the bottom of the screen read ‘Terran Legion, friend or foe?’

“So, what is your take on the Terran Legion group then?” The journalist on the news broadcast asked a man wearing a business suit.

“You know, a few months ago I would have said they are undoing the work humanity had done over the last one hundred years,” the man replied.

“Being?”

“Look at us today? When was the last time you heard someone use a racial slur against another human? Put someone down because of their gender or sexual orientation? William Steward, the last president of the United States, said during a speech to the UN, that in order for humanity to survive in the galaxy, we must unite and put aside our differences, and view one another as humans, and nothing more.”

“And then he was promptly attacked by Hashmedai assassins.”

“Yeah, yeah, then the Empire attacked us and nearly sent us back to the Stone Age. The human race uniting as one, allowed us to rid ourselves of the Empire. In comes the Terran Legion group spewing their anti-alien and pro-human messages across the UNE.”

The debate on the broadcast continued. Focusing on it helped Pierce forget about the racket in the background that was considered to be music of the twenty-second century.

“Which is disgusting if you ask me,” said another journalist. “Yes, we had a rocky start with our rise as a galactic superpower. But look at what we’ve accomplished thanks to the help of aliens? Hell, we’ve even managed to convince both the Empire and Union on entering a ceasefire. Nearly all of our exterior colonies were helped to be built by the hands of Hashmedai seeking to escape from the totalitarian rule of the emperor and empress, or Radiance races that were exiled all because they didn’t pray enough in the eyes of their peers. In the past, those aliens had fled to the Morutrin system. Now? They have a second option, live here in the UNE. We’re making the galaxy a much better place.”

“Are we truly though? And at what cost?” said the man, who was clearly in opposition to the presence of extraterrestrials living in UNE territory. “Six million Jews were killed by the Nazi’s during World War II, thanks to Hitler. Two billion human lives were killed by the Hashmedai during the Empire’s invasion of Earth, thanks to Empress Y’lin. Y’lin was worse than Hitler, and now we’re making friends with her daughter, Kroshka.”

“Oh, please.”

“And let me remind you, thanks to gene therapy and cryostasis, some of those Hashmedai that were loyal to Y’lin, are still alive today. Some of them still hold a grudge against us and live in our cities on Earth and across the UNE. This is why groups like the Terran Legion exist; they’re putting human interests first. The Terran Legion is here to remind people that alien leaders like Y’lin won’t hesitate to wipe our species out. Here to remind us that fanatic Radiance cults like the Celestial Order, wouldn’t hesitant to sacrifice our people in bizarre rituals to please their Gods. Here to remind us that perhaps a direct show of force against the Draconians is a better plan that will ensure the preservation of the human race, rather than Rebecca Foster’s message of peace.”

“The galaxy has seen enough war thanks to the conflict between the Hashmedai and Radiance, the invasion of Earth, the Celestial Order wars, and the dragon incursion. Captain Foster’s plan might be what the galaxy needs to put an end to this chaos.”

“Assuming she’s not under alien influence, something EISS had long suspected, and something some of us are after watching Mitrovica’s interview with her the other night—”

“Blah, blah, blah …” said Paul the bartender, yanking Pierce’s focus back into the bar, while the people on the news broadcast continued to squawk back and forth. “People always got something to bitch about. Want anything to drink?”

“Oh, yes,” Pierce said facing him. “A Mary Pickford cocktail.”

Paul snickered. “Sure thing, bud.”

Paul disappeared to mix the drink. It gave Pierce the chance to watch an interview of Foster taken shortly after their arrival on the station, well the last thirty seconds of it. When the interview ended, the screen returned to the debating group sitting calmly at their round table.

“Yet another question few people took the time to ask,” said the man in support of the Terrans. “Foster has alien tattoos she refuses to comment on. Her ship, the Johannes Kepler, is the only one to make it out of the Kapteyn’s Star system, and she just unleashed hordes of survivors onto the station who had been cut off from humanity for months. How can we be sure they can be trusted?”

“Foster? Or the survivors?” spat the journalist.

Paul returned with a martini glass full of a pink liquid and a white froth over topping it, garnished elegantly with a single maraschino cherry. Pierce began to understand why Paul snickered when he made the order. It wasn’t the most masculine thing to request.

But the taste and kick it had. It made Pierce smile warmly as he returned to watch the news.

“Both? We don’t know what the Draconians did to them, we don’t know if EISS was right and Foster and her crew has been brainwashed.”

“But I fail to see how an anti-alien response helps.”

Pierce felt the tempting touch of an index finger stroke across his neck, then across his shoulder. It gave him goose bumps. The smell of exquisite perfume from the owner of the finger didn’t help.

The person sat next to him and spoke. “Cheeky fellow, isn’t he?” She spoke with an English accent.

He looked at the woman that took interest in him. She sat cross-legged, wearing dark, smooth designer jeans. Her top, if you could call it that, was translucent enough to see the full shape and color of her bra if you looked long and close enough, which Pierce did. He counted at least ten pieces of jewelry on her, ranging from rings, bracelets, gem-studded black collar, and a pair of oversize twinkling earrings beneath her thick silver hair, draped over her shoulders.

If it wasn’t for the cold emotionless gaze she gave him, and her glowing red eyes, he would have thought she was human, not Hashmedai.

“The Terran Legion just wants an excuse to continue lynching Hashmedai on Earth,” she continued. Her fanged teeth made visible when she spoke were another sign of her nonhuman origins.

“Earth based Hashmedai still exist then?” Pierce asked her.

“Of course, we do,” she said using her hands to highlight her femme fatale body. “I’m from Essex, born and raised, just like my parents, who were descendants of the Hashmedai fighters left behind on Earth after the invasion.”

“I apologize for the comments that bigot is making,” Pierce said, nodding to the news broadcast. “Not all humans hate your kind.”

“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” she said, still not showing much emotion in her face. “The actions of the HLF are the reasons why my grandparents were able to live on Earth as long as they did. But you wouldn’t know anything about that, Doctor Pierce?”

She knew his name. He didn’t know hers. He poured the remainder of his drink into his mouth, hoping the liquid courage within it would help with what would come next. He placed the empty glass down on the smooth bar counter.

“Where you the one that—?”

“Let’s get to that part later, we barely know each other,” she said. “Well rather, you barely know me.”

“Who are you?”

“Diamondrose,” she elegantly said. “Penelope Diamondrose.”

Diamondrose was the name of the sender of the qmail that asked him to come here and order the Mary Pickford drink. This was her. Her full name made sense the more he thought about it. Penelope was a human name, whereas Diamondrose was clearly the Hashmedai title given to her. Her Hashmedai family had probably been living in England so long, they most likely adopted human lifestyles, customs, and giving their children human first names.

Penelope cocked her finger, beckoning Paul to come to her. Her credit chit came out, paying for the cost of Pierce’s drink.

“Is this your way of picking up men?” Paul asked her. “Buying them drinks with a cherry on top?”

She licked her lips, staring at Pierce. “The cherry helps seal the deal.”

“Consider yourself lucky, pal,” Paul said grinning at Pierce.

Penelope left her stool moving to the exit. The cold grip of her hands pulled on Pierce’s arm. “Care to show me around your place, Travis?”

Pierce left his stool and moved with Penelope. He didn’t have a choice; her grip was firm.

“Word of advice, pal,” Paul shouted to Pierce as they left. “Get some gene therapy, Viagra doesn’t exist these days, because of that.”

The beats from the bar faded while Penelope tugged on Pierce’s arm, almost dragging him to the nearest elevators within the bustling atrium of the station.

“Okay, you’re the one that sent the qmail, that part I figured out,” Pierce said. “Why?”

“Is this how you start all dates?” Penelope said. “No wonder you are such a lonely man.”

They arrived at the closed doors to an elevator. Lights overtop of the doors revealed the ETA of the newly summoned elevator she remotely called for, most likely via HNI. A holographic directory next to the elevator showed that the train station was just a few floors below.

The logical side of his head told him this was a big mistake, inviting Penelope to his place. There were too many unknowns, like how did she know he was searching for Pernoy? How did she know he was even on the station? She was trouble, and her inability to smile or not look as if she was gazing into his soul wasn’t helping him think otherwise.

Then there was that other part of his brain. The one that kept reminding him of all the sex he missed during his early twenties with women whom were just as young as Penelope. Given what Penelope mentioned about her past, there was high chance she was experiencing being the age she was for the first time. The concept of Hashmedai on Earth started one hundred years ago, and Penelope said she was a descendant of them. If Paul was right, then Penelope was here to remind Pierce what it was like to have raunchy fun in the bedroom.

He didn’t resist or question her further. Foster is right, I am chasing the past … and right now, I don’t care!

The elevator doors opened, and out stepped man wearing a dark business suit.

He pointed a pistol at Pierce’s face.

Penelope didn’t scream for help.

20 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Asteroid belt, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 00:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rezeki’s Rage’s dropped out of sub light and entered a close and tight orbit of an asteroid adorned with communication arrays, and tunneled out entrances, including a docking bay wide enough to fit a ship through. A ship like the Fortune Runner.

Sensor and ESP data populated Peiun’s HNI. The asteroid base and the surrounding area were clear of all activity with the exception of the Rezeki’s Rage. Though, that situation was due to end within minutes.

It was time to take action before the sixteen pirates pursuing them dropped out of sub light.

“Are there any mind shields protecting the base?” Peiun asked.

“None, sir, they seem to have been disabled from the inside,” Alesyna said.

It was good enough for him. Peiun left his chair and approached Alesyna at her station. “Alesyna, take me and the human down.”

“Are you sure this is wise?” she asked him.

“The captain and first officer leaving the ship during a time like this?” Peiun shook his head. “No, it is not, but we have no other choice.”

“I could take someone else down,” she offered.

“I know what we’re looking for, they don’t.” Or know of the mission for that matter, I have and studied the files the Qirak gave me.

“Shall we bring your assault team with us then?” Alesyna asked.

“Time is of the essence,” he said. “The more people we bring, the longer your teleport will take, correct?”

She winced. “That is true.”

“We won’t have the luxury of a fifteen-minute grace period like we did earlier. We need to be in and out, fast. The three of us could achieve that.”

She nodded. “Four or more would make things take longer.”

Of course, the two going also meant the young crew would have to take command without the two highest ranking personnel or a psionic, until they returned. If they returned. If they were about to teleport into a deadly ambush, then that would spell the end of the Rezeki’s Rage. A sixteen-strong pirate ship assault without a psionic or proper leadership was un-survivable, even if they turned and fled.

“Uemsu, you are in command.”

The young officer looked at Peiun, gave him an Imperial salute, then marched to the captain’s chair. “I will not fail you, Captain.”

Down in the lower decks of the Rezeki’s Rage, were the holding cells where the human, named Moe, was kept behind a force field. Peiun couldn’t take the risk of him wandering around the ship, not until he proved himself worthy.

This was his opportunity to do so.

“Mister Moe, I require your assistance,” Peiun said in English when he and Alesyna approached his cell.

“If anything isn’t right with the base, it changed without me knowing,” Moe pleaded to him.

“I shall be the judge of that.” He patted his short plasma sword holstered to his side, drawing Moe’s attention to it. He swallowed. Peiun deactivated his cells force field remotely with his HNI, and Moe stepped forward blowing into his cupped hands.

Humans and their inability to tolerate the cold without jackets. Peiun snickered silently.

Alesyna stood in between the two extending her arms out. “Ready?”

Peiun nodded. “We are.”

Alesyna’s body enveloped with blue light that began to consume the three several seconds later. Once the bright light faded, the three had been dematerialized off the ship.

Peiun grimaced the moment his vision returned to normal and the interior of the asteroid base appeared. It was warm, a bit too much for his liking. It was akin to being on Amicitia Station 14, pleasant for humans and most species, but for Hashmedai? You better dress lightly. Moe’s blissful reaction to the wave of warm air didn’t surprise him.

The three were quick to move out, time was working against them. HNI feeds kept Peiun up to date with the status of the Rezeki’s Rage, and its current sensor logs. When the pirate ships arrived and opened fire, he wanted to be the first to know.

A body doused in congealed blood rested motionlessly on the floor when the corner was turned. Peiun drew his blade and moved with caution. Bodies and silence meant an ambush was near. Holes in the rock face walls suggested projectile weapons had been fired, as with the additional bodies of Hashmedai and humans, all of them sleeping for an eternity in puddles of aged crimson that once pumped freely through their bodies. It wasn’t a pleasing sight to observe, neither was the putrid odor that made their noses squirm.

Peiun minimized the projection that relayed live ship data to his HNI and brought up a tactical HUD. His motion detectors and the limited scanning range picked up three targets moving. Three targets that stopped when they did, it was them and nobody else.

“Do you sense anyone else here?” Peiun asked Alesyna.

“I do not,” she said. “But if someone is here and keeping their movements to a minimum, I will not be able to detect them.”

“Magnetic weapons were used,” Moe said, examining the body of a man whose left hand had been blown off by weapons fire. “I guess the rumors were true, pirates betrayed the mercs.”

“Why would they suddenly end their friendship like that?” Peiun asked him.

“No fuckin’ clue, man, they had a really good deal set up.”

The path of death and bullet holes on the walls, guided the three to five sets of passageways leading to the airlocks. Only one of the five passages had a river of stale blood coming out from it. They followed it, and arrived at an opened airlock, there was a ship still connected to it. A computer terminal that remained operational despite the violence was still shining light. Moe ran over to it to read its files.

“Data has been wiped …” Moe said to Peiun. “I have no idea what ship is docked here, probably a pirate ship that didn’t make it out.”

“How many airlocks does this base have?”

“Including this one? Five.”

“Like the five passageways we passed here?”

“Yeah.” Moe took three steps away from the computer. “They’re all lined up adjacent to each other.”

“Five airlocks and this is the only one with bodies before it,” Alesyna said, speaking in Hashmedai.

“Whoever attacked came through here, and most likely from this ship,” Peiun replied, also in their native tongue.

Alesyna kneeled giving one of the bodies a closer look. “Look at the way these bodies are facing. These mercenaries were killed facing the airlock.”

She was right. Every person closest the airlock had fallen in a manner that would suggest the attackers came from the ship, not the base. There were bullet holes in the walls opposite the airlock doors as well.

“Let’s see what’s on this ship,” said Peiun, waving for the two to follow him.

The ship attached to the airlock was a red-splattered mess, full of bodies missing small body parts, and in the case of the human man slumped over on the wall, missing parts of his brains. The cause of death of the men and women on the ship as with the asteroid base were consistent. They all were killed by the same weapon.

Or weapons.

“These aren’t pirates,” Moe said, having rolled over two bodies to face up. One was human, the other Hashmedai. “The pirates in this region are mostly Aryile, descendants of the first generation of Radiance exiles.”

“The crew of this ship and the base are the same,” Peiun said. “That means someone boarded, killed them, and forced the ship to dock with the base.”

Moe stood up from the two bodies. “Then they spread from there.”

Peiun’s HNI flashed red. It was the projection he minimized earlier. Enlarging it unveiled what caused his heart to beat faster and his need to hurry up intensify. The pirate fleet dropped out of sub light and had the Rezeki’s Rage surrounded. He didn’t bother to check the rate the shields were dropping, he was able to figure out those numbers on his own, and they weren’t good.

They needed to hurry.

The three entered the ship’s docking bay after a quick run through its maze of corridors. Additional computers, still operational, sent Moe reaching for their controls and keyboards.

“Okay, these haven’t been wiped out,” Moe said.

“What is the name of this ship?” Peiun asked. If this isn’t the Fortune Runner, then we’re leaving.

Moe read the data that outputted to the screen. “This is the Fortune Runner.”

A glorious smirk appeared on Peiun’s face. He found it, too bad the crew was unable to give him the answers he came seeking. But there are other ways to get them, he thought as he looked at one of the transports resting in the ship’s docking bay. They had the flag of the Hashmedai Empire and were of an older design, in service around the time of the Celestial Order wars, perhaps a few years after it, but not much.

He brought up an image of the Hashmedai transport found at New Babylon, the same one the empress asked him to recover. The one before him and the one he captured were the same models. He was getting close, so was the Rezeki’s Rage, as in close to its end.

I just need a few more minutes! “Moe,” Peiun called out to him, while removing the slight buildup of sweat on his forehead. “How familiar are you with QEC devices?”

“I’ve installed a few … previously owned ones on some ships out here.”

“Find the one installed on this ship.”

“How do you know it has one?”

He faced Moe with a half smile. “Call it a hunch.”

“It would probably be on the bridge at the communication station,” Moe said. “It shouldn’t take long to pry it out if that’s what you plan on doing.”

“Indeed, that’s exactly the plan.”

“Captain.” Alesyna said in Hashmedai, directing his attention to the Rezeki’s Rage’s failing shields.

“I know …” he said to her in their language.

“We need to get back.”

“We need to finish this mission, or the empress will have our heads.”

Peiun had Moe go to work and remove the QEC from the communication station on the bridge of the Fortune Runner. The Rezeki’s Rage’s shields dropped to 45 percent once they arrived, and then dropped another 8 percent when Moe realized he was using the wrong tools. The thought that the three may have to rely on the Fortune Runner to escape crossed his mind. Peiun asked Alesyna to familiarize herself with its operating system, just in case it came to that.

There was one person, however, that could prevent that course of action from taking place. Peiun stood behind him with his arms crossed, and his mouth ready to display his fangs.

“You need to hurry up!” he spat.

“Dude, I want this done and over with as much as you!”

“Captain,” Alesyna called out to him in their language.

“What is it?” he asked her.

“I merged my mind with the ship’s computers to get a better understanding of its operation as you requested,” she said. “I found something you might be interested in.”

“Show it to me.”

Alesyna created a hologram based on what she was able to pull from the computers and pushed it over to Peiun. He caught it and gave it a look. It was an image of the asteroid base with several red lines marked across it. “This looks like a map of the base,” he said, then noted a big red circle around the computer core of the base. The last user of the bridge’s computers was interested in that location—

The hologram transformed into an animated maraschino cherry that laughed at Peiun, making obscene gestures with its animated middle fingers.

He hissed loudly and swatted the projection away. “Maraschino …” he groaned. “They were here!”

“I’ve been locked out,” Alesyna said. “Maraschino uploaded a number of hacking applications. This ship will not respond to anyone’s commands unless the encryption is broken.”

Peiun hissed again with frustration. “We don’t have time for that!” He faced Moe and began to speak in English. “How much longer, human?”

“Got it!” Moe said rising up from the partially dismantled computer station. Within his hands was the QEC device.

“That is what we’ve come for, right?” Alesyna said, looking at the QEC in Moe’s hands. “If so let us make our return to the Rezeki’s Rage.”

“Not yet,” Peiun said. “Take us to the base’s computer core, you remember where it was on that map, yes?”

Alesyna sighed, he couldn’t blame her. They’d got what they came for; clues stored in the QEC’s memory that should help reveal the identities of those that took the transport to Sirius then vanished along with the Carl Sagan.

A quick site to site teleport and the three rematerialized within the central computer core of the mercenary’s asteroid base. An Aryile male rested on a computer terminal, his brains were splattered over the computer screen he had been working on. Peiun approached the body of the Aryile, while the looming thoughts of the Rezeki’s Rage’s still under attack continued to haunt his mind. The Aryile looked different from most he’d seen in life. His hair and clothing were similar to what young human men would have, as with the piercings on his ears and face.

There were no further clues he could see, then again, his racing mind kept him distracted. As much as he wanted to stay and find out why a single Aryile was here dead, while everyone else was human or Hashmedai, Peiun had a ship to return to, a ship that was going to be their only means of getting home.

He nodded to Alesyna. She began to focus her powers, using them to teleport the three back to the Rezeki’s Rage, while it was still operational and in one piece. Peiun gave the computer core one last look while she conjured enough power to teleport the three up.

He noticed something.

Everyone on the base and Fortune Runner had been killed with precision, with few missed shots. The bullet holes they saw were a result of exiting rounds. Magnetic rifles were handheld rails guns after all. The mess in the computer core near the Aryile was different. The bullet holes in the walls were random, and at least one line of them dotted closer to the top of the walls, and toward an opened air vent. There was an elusive target in the computer core that didn’t die and managed to escape from the shooter.

Someone survived the attack; someone that was better armed and trained than the attackers.

Peiun’s vision transitioned from the interior of the computer core, into light, bright blue light that slowly faded, and became the bridge of the Rezeki’s Rage. Uemsu eagerly surrendered Peiun’s chair to him, backtracking to man the main gunnery console. Breaking away from the encircling fleet of pirate vessels became priority.

Alesyna returned to her post, her psionic powers resuming their duties of caring for the Rezeki’s Rage with an overshield and updating tactical data with her ESP thoughts. Moe did what most humans did when boarding Hashmedai ships, complain about the cold, and Peiun? He considered their next move.

“Can we punch a hole through their formation?” he asked.

“It will take some time,” Uemsu said.

“Keep in mind,” Alesyna added while updating the tactical hologram for the crew to view. “They have new ships about to enter the fray; they could fill the void we create.”

The three-dimensional projection she created depicted a number of enemy ships on a direct course to the Rezeki’s Rage as it continued be circled by the existing pirate ships and their punishing blows against their shields. The Rezeki’s Rage wasn’t outgunned, but it was outnumbered. The longer they remained the worse that outnumbered situation would become. They had to flee, and their adversaries needed to not follow.

There was only one option that could allow for that.

“Activate the MRF,” Peiun said. “Get us past this blockade.”

Nadevina complied with her captain’s wishes, entering the commands on her console. “At once, Captain.”

Once activated, the Rezeki’s Rage would prominently display a wide array of fancy maneuvers with the entire mass of the vessel greatly changed in conjunction with Alesyna’s abilities. If there was one thing you could count on pirates doing, it was identifying high-value ships. The increased performance the Rezeki’s Rage was about to unleash would telegraph to foes they had an MRF, were operating alone deep within the belt, and if they escaped back to the policed inner planets of the system, they would forever lose this once-in-a-lifetime chance.

The activation of the MRF would give them the freedom they needed, the power to pull away from the fleet, swerve around them, and dive up or below them or nearby rolling asteroids. From there, they would further secure their safety by pushing into the more densely packed areas of the belt where normal ships would have to rely on thrusters to safely traverse through it. Not to mention losing weapons lock while the Rezeki’s Rage strategically placed itself behind asteroids, using them as cover.

That new freedom, however, came at cost. The pirates would send every ship within their alliance to pursue them. At least they won’t destroy us; they’ll want the MRF intact.

Peiun’s orders carried out exactly how he envisioned in his head. The MRF, Nadevina’s piloting, and Alesyna using telekinesis to give the Rezeki’s Rage an extra push, took them away from danger, and into the deep end of the sea of tumbling rocks and mountains of the belt. The rate of rail gun fire decreased steadily over the course of six minutes, and then eventually became nonexistent. His HNI projection showed the pirates were forced to move slower to avoid crashing into asteroids. Others completely vanished from the projection when they neared dangerously close to asteroids at high speeds. Salvagers would enjoy the remains they’d be able to scavenge by the end of the day.

“Stand down from combat stations,” Peiun said.

“Yes, Captain.”

Peiun quickly drew a line through the three-dimensional hologram of the belt, one that started from the Rezeki’s Rage’s current location and ended at Morutrin Prime. It was their escape route, one that should help keep their distance from additional pirate ships for the time being while extending their stay in the belt. Once completed, he sent the projection to Nadevina via HNI.

“Follow this course, let me know when we are clear,” he said to her.

“Understood.”

Their escape would take hours, maybe even a whole day, more than enough time to put the human to work. He approached Moe, whom still remained on the bridge, holding the QEC they recovered from the Fortune Runner, trembling as his human flesh rejected comfortable Hashmedai room temperatures.

“I want you to install this QEC to this ship,” Peiun said to him. “And tell me exactly where its corresponding QEC is and its last messages, if possible.”

21 Penelope

Atrium Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 01:38 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Penelope Diamondrose felt like a complete noob for not hacking the security camera to the elevator she summoned. Now, the armed gunman had Travis Pierce and had vanished back into the elevator as quickly as its doors swung open, seconds before she could react or yell for him to run.

It’s not over yet.

Superimposed labels appeared over her eyes, all pointing her to the location of hidden and nearby security cameras. With a simple thought, her illegally modified HNI did the rest and transferred security cameras footage into her head. After two minutes of searching, leaping from camera to camera, she located the one camera she should have kept her eyes on, the one in the elevator.

The video feed from the elevator’s cameras appeared, nobody was in it. The elevator did, however, remain idle, meaning nobody else got on it after they left. Three camera jumps later, she saw what was in the halls leading to the now idle elevator. The train station wasn’t far away. The gunman had to have taken Pierce there, since none of the people walking around looked anything like the two.

She was right.

The gunman kept close to Pierce. The two moved slowly, forcing Pierce to walk with him, whispering sweet nothings into his ears, like the fact he had a gun and Pierce better do what he says. She saw the two enter a platform and stand in a small queue to board the next train. Her HNI hacked into another camera, forcing it to tilt to the right and zoom in on the train’s holographic directory map. The UNE arm of the station was the station terminus. It made sense, the UNE city on that arm was the closest, and therefore the quickest way for the gunman to vanish with Pierce.

There were over six thousand cameras in the UNE arm of the station alone. It would take her days, at best, to track them if she lost sight of them. That could not happen.

Penelope didn’t have time to wait for the elevator to return. Instead, she forced the doors open with a wave of her hand and looked down into the darkened elevator shaft and the idle lift still at the desired floor. She leaped in, using the maintenance ladders to carry her to the bottom. Her HNI told her when it was safe to straight-up freefall without crashing to her death. It automatically calculated the distance between her and the top of the elevator and the estimated time it would take for her to fall. It was a wonderful app she created, one of many stored in the hidden data crystals in her jewelry that wirelessly synced with her HNI.

She hacked the top emergency escape hatch to the elevator, leaped in then forced its doors to open, and watched while her HNI created waypoint lines to follow. She followed the lines, rapidly sprinting to the train station. Various proximity alert icons dotted her virtual vision, reminding her how close many of the pedestrians within the station’s halls she ran through came close to crashing into her.

There were two escalators heading to and from the platform Pierce was forced to. Naturally, the one leaving the platform was empty, the one going to it, was full. She hacked the empty escalator, forcing it to move in the opposite direction, and bolted up. The whooshing sounds of a train entering the station arrived about two minutes too early, she hacked the escalator again, forcing it to move faster.

It wasn’t fast enough. By time she made it to the platform, Pierce and the gunman were gone as was the train they boarded. Her eyesight reported no hackable nodes close by to stop the train. Not that it mattered, hacking a train required security codes, complex ones she couldn’t crack on the spot. A quick test on the next train moving in the opposite direction confirmed that with access denied messages beaming into her HNI. She boarded the opposite moving train anyways, what she needed to do next, had to be done quickly.

All trains moving on the station were connected and operated by station ops. If she was going to find the passcode it was going to be there. At the front of the train, she found a locked door that led to the computers controlling the train’s automated processes. She could change the direction of the train, speed, or make it bypass all stations from there. She was missing that one critical thing, the passcode. A quick blink of her eyes linked her HNI with the network nodes within the computer. From those nodes she found a path that led her to a security camera overhanging in station ops.

The camera moved, zoomed in and out by her thoughts. She accessed one of Maraschino’s most infamous apps, a piece of software that could scan and retrieve all personal information found within one’s HNI. All Penelope needed to do was look at the person, and superimposed details about them appeared over her virtual vision.

She scanned the humans that made up the team in station ops, skimming through their personal profiles, learning where they lived, how many credits they have in their accounts, name and rank, names of family members. Privacy was a myth.

Bloody hell, not one of these buggers has it? Come on!

She continued to scan the profiles of all personnel, searching for that one HNI memory core that would have the passcodes saved. She exhaled in a miserable manner, time was running out, the two trains were moving further and further apart. She found a computer station within ops that contained a duty roster of all ops personnel. Perfect. The list appeared in her vision after she downloaded its contents. It gave her access to the current location of all station personnel, including the administrator in charge of the trains. He was clocked out for a break, figures.

Her sights returned to the cameras in ops where she located a computer station with communication abilities. Using her voice-masking app she spoke, sending her fake voice into the computer to broadcast an HNI message to all station personnel.

“Lieutenant Kessler, please report to ops.”

Two minutes later, a single uniformed man boarded an elevator, sending it to ops. She ran an HNI scan of his profile. It was him.

She leaped into his HNI’s memory storage, browsing his files, locating the passcode. On her way out of his HNI she uncovered recorded memories, private memories of him shagging numbers of Aryile call girls. He was a frequent visitor to one of the brothels in the lower levels of the station, especially on payday. His wife would want to know this, unless of course he was willing to pay large sums of credits to Maraschino to keep silent about it. It was his call.

That, however, was a job for another day.

With the admin passcode now copied into her HNI, Penelope returned to the previous task at hand, redirecting the train. She forced it to stop, and then enter reverse, bypassing all stations at the same time. She became the sole person aboard the train that did not express deep concerns as to why it suddenly stopped and went in reverse. Panic-stricken faces were on those around her, while she maintained her calm, cold, and cautious gaze peering out the window, watching station after station zoom past in blur.

Her HNI kept tabs on the train she was pursuing. It was making all station stops. The gap between the two closed rapidly. Proximity warnings flashed, her HNI detected another train about to collide with hers on the same track. They were, after all, going in the wrong direction. She shoved her way to the front of the train, putting her in the carriage expected to crash into the opposing train first. Various holo screens laced with computer code appeared, searching for the network nodes she needed to force the incoming train to move out the way. She found it.

Chaos and panic most likely erupted on that train, as it now traveled in the same direction as the one she was on, bypassing all stops. Not her problem.

The train Pierce and the gunman were on came to a stop at the second station within the UNE station arm. She forced her train to do the same and got the hell out, leaping across the tracks onto the platform they should have been on. They were nowhere to be found, just a lot of horrified humans whom never seen a Hashmedai girl like her leap over tracks to get to the platform.

The station’s cameras became her loyal servants and were quick to find Pierce and the gunman forcing him to walk. They were exiting the station and were seconds away from vanishing into the busy city streets, full of pedestrians leaving or participating in the city’s late-night partying life, with air cars in the skies below the fake holographic moon and skies.

Penelope exited the station in pursuit of them, sliding down the escalator’s handrails. She somersaulted off it when the ground floor neared, landing feet first. Now the two were in close proximity of her HNI, she placed floating navigational points over their heads. Should they push deeper into the sea of pedestrians or behind one of the many office towers, she’d still be able to track them.

The crowded sidewalks forced Penelope to take to the rooftops. Fewer people to push out the way there, plus, it gave her an overhead view of where the two navigational points had scurried off to. Her wrist cleared her forehead of sweat, her eyes remained fixed on the numerous rooftops she had to leap to. Her HNI sent all the data she needed to know to make that happen with floating labels in her virtual vision.

Like a parkour athlete running an obstacle course, she leaped off one building onto another, landing feet first, rolling once or twice, and springing back to her feet to run again. Holo images generated by her HNI showed the best places to jump, the speeds she needed to reach, the angles she needed to achieve, and probability of success. Many of the jumps she made had a 45 percent chance of failure.

A nearby structure had a pool hall located on its sixth floor. She had her HNI calculate the estimated distance to it, and the estimated time she would lose by making that detour. It was an acceptable loss.

There’s a method to my madness.

She approached the building where the pool hall was as she neared the edge of the rooftop she was on. Her HNI once again told her when it was the best time to jump, and the speed she needed be moving at. It also displayed dotted lines that showed exactly where she needed to fall to crash through a window on the sixth floor.

She met the speed requirements.

She approached the blue holo circle at the edge.

Then jumped the second she was within it.

Penelope kept her eyes forward, ignoring the zooming noises the dozens of air cars below her were making, or the twelve-story fall that awaited her should she not make the jump correctly, bad enough she needed to fall six stories to arrive at the sixth floor of the adjacent building. The air that ripped across her body during the fall was comforting, cooling her body down in preparation for what came next.

She braced herself, and collided with the window, just as planned.

It shattered into thousands of sharp fragments, some of them slicing her flesh. It was a better outcome, than missing the window and plummeting twelve stories. She hit the floor, tumbling and rolling, then got back to her feet without losing any momentum. She stormed into the pool hall, pushing over hustlers and men twice her size with beer bottles in hand.

A pool cue and eight ball were swiped from one pool table, her actions were met with cursing and yelling, but zero fucks were given. She crashed through another window, and parkour leaped her way back down to the streets, landing a few meters behind Pierce and the gunman. Her endless pursuit continued.

With the eight ball in hand, she threw it, following the instructions her HNI gave her in regard to the angle strength she needed to use. She smirked as the ball accelerated away from her, following the dotted lines before her eyesight, the estimated trajectory it needed to follow to hit the gunman in the head.

The eight ball hit its mark. The gunman staggered, just long enough for her to close the gap, and finish him off with a whack against his face with the pool cue. Teeth and blood flew through the air. A second hit ensured his pistol hit the ground, while her footwork ensured he never got hold of it again.

Pierce had scampered off somewhere, she wasn’t quite sure where, as her focus was aimed at the man who got up with a mouth and face drenched with red. He was ready for a fight, or so he thought. Hashmedai were physically faster and or stronger than most humans, Penelope was quick to remind him of that. She twirled the pool cue about, whacking him rapidly, backflipping away from his fists and kicks, sweeping out his feet, and eventually breaking the stick over his body.

He wasn’t done yet, and neither was she as she held both broken pieces of the pool cue, and entered round two, dual wielding them. Their dance repeated in a similar manner, minus the leg sweeping part, not that it was needed, the final crack against his skull sent him down for good.

She found Pierce hiding next to a nearby vending machine and made eye contact with him. His mouth moved, but no words came out. “You okay?” she asked him.

Pierced looked at the gunman, now beaten to a bloody pulp. “I’m doing a lot better than he is.”

Police sirens wailed in the distance. She groaned, knowing her much-needed rest would have to wait. Her rapidly thumping heart would need to hold out for a little longer while her glazed face continued to drip with sweat. Luckily for her, she was born and raised on Earth, and had a higher tolerance for heat and light, more so than other Hashmedai.

“So, Travis, be a gentleman will you, and invite me back to your place?”

Pierce’s apartment, UNE Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 12, 2118, 02:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Penelope frowned after arriving with Pierce at his apartment. She was expecting a dwelling full of weird things like microscopes, pictures of family members, too many university degrees hanging off the walls. What she saw was unopened boxes, lots of them. Her HNI scans indicated they were mostly full of clothes and old data pads. Pierce was far from the interesting scientist that helped solve the mystery of the Sirius system.

Her HNI sent her a confirmation message verifying the cameras outside the apartment were under her control and programmed to detect the presence of weapons. An early warning in case someone from the outside world made note of the two entering, having evaded the police.

She remotely forced the front doors to shut and lock then reprogrammed the entry codes. A memo was filed in her HNI that she needed to remind Pierce of the changes she made to his door security.

Pierce offered her a bottle of water from the fridge. He knew his stuff when it came to Hashmedai physiology. “Am I free to talk now?” he asked.

“Shh …” Penelope’s eyes looked about. Her HNI highlighted and labeled all electronic devices around the two, none of them were recording bugs. “Okay, now you may speak.”

“Who are you?”

“I told you,” she said, after chugging her cold bottle of water. “Penelope Diamondrose.”

“You’re not an assassin; I’d be dead if that were the case.”

Penelope sat on the couch. She almost forgot what it felt like to sit down. She spread her arms across its soft arms and kept her red eyes focused on him. “Not necessarily, the Empire has been known to send assassins on missions that didn’t involve killing a specific target,” she said. “But you’re right about that, I’m not affiliated with the Empire.”

As expected, Pierce failed to keep his eyes away from her top. She liked that. It meant he’d follow her around if she asked him to. Not to mention it was a welcome confidence boost, confirming she still held that tempting honeypot persona that always got her access to top secret data files.

“You’re not EISS, or Whisper,” Pierce said.

It was time to drop the bombshell. “Maraschino have sent me to speak with you.”

“Who?”

“Maraschino, data broker and hacktivist group extraordinaire, and employers of the galaxy’s most captivating hacker, yours truly.”

“Right …”

“Not one for dramatic introductions I see, very well, I will get to the point,” Penelope said. “You need information, and so do we. I’m here to make you a splendid offer, Doctor Pierce. We can provide you everything we know about Eupiar and her mother Pernoy.”

“What makes you think I want that?”

“Oh, please, don’t be a cheeky bastard and insult my hard work,” she said. “I know exactly what you were searching on that unsecured connection to the internet. It’s not every day a man with suspected links to the HLF searches for two Hashmedai, who also had links to that group.”

“I’m not a terrorist.”

“Travis, we know everything about you,” she said. “Well rather EISS did, since they’ve been keeping a close eye on you since the 2030s. We merely borrowed the data.”

“If you know so much, how could I possibly help you?”

“We may be the best out there with heavily modded HNIs that keep us mostly off the grid, but there are some limitations to what we can do,” she said. “There are times when our HNIs can be compromised and tracked; making it next to impossible to hack devices we need to be in close range of.”

Pierce crossed his arms, resting his back against the fridge. “And I don’t have HNI.”

“You catch on fast! You, love, can enter places we can’t without being detected by HNI scanning.”

“I also can’t hack a computer.”

“That’s okay, it’s just a delivery job I need you to do, nothing more.” She kept her face neutral, cold, and calculating. Smiling was a weakness. “You go in, deliver the package, then leave.”

“I still don’t understand why me, exactly?” Pierce asked. “Most of my crew doesn’t have HNI, why not take them?”

“Your friends can refuse the offers we make to them. You can’t. You care too much about what you thought you left behind in 2033.”

“And what of that man that attacked me? Is he related to all this?”

“He was an EISS operative that caught on fast that I went to make contact with you,” she said. “So, yes, he is. All the more reason why you need to help me—”

Pierce vanished from her vision, upstaged by a window that appeared in front of her, showing live footage of one of the cameras outside. A number of armed men were gathering around, no doubt ready to storm in. It was a pity, as she was close to getting through to Pierce.

Men were like computers you wanted to hack. If you wanted access and for them to do whatever you wanted them to do, you needed to code your way in. Her outfit, looks, information being held before him, that was the coding she needed to gain access to his trust, and put him to work.

And now those buggers downstairs have to interrupt me. Penelope minimized the projection, stood, and looked out the window at the numerous high-rise residential units outside. “Oh, Travis darling, are you up for a quick workout?”

22 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage, en route to Morutrin Prime

Asteroid belt, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 02:51 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Peiun’s towel removed the red juices dripping from his lips. His meal was splendid, and his taste buds and previously roaring belly thanked him for it.

He took a glance at the captain’s quarters he earned the right to use, where he sat at his personal dining table. The servants did an excellent job laying it out to his specifications, rearranging the furniture, and placing handwoven cloths on all tables and chairs, much like how his mother enjoyed decorating the home he grew up in.

The walls were adorned with an assortment of Hashmedai blades, swords, and polearms. The ceremonial short sword the former captain used was displayed in the middle, honoring his sacrifice to the Empire, and reminding Peiun the quarters once belonged to him. There was an aquarium built-in to the wall teeming with life collected from the strip of oceans that existed at Paryo’s equator. Small dim lights within the aquarium gave his personal dinner area a blue hue, almost as if he was sitting within the depths of the oceans having his meal. It also made Careiah’s skin look that much more seductive when she went to clean up his plates now full of bones from his meal.

“Has your meal been satisfactory?” Careiah asked him.

“It has, thank you.”

The three servants, who had been busy cleaning his oversized bathing chambers and making his bed, exited; Peiun and Careiah were alone. He stood and faced the largest observation window in his quarters. Asteroids floated past the Rezeki’s Rage with the blackness of space barely visible at times.

Careiah’s reflection appeared next him on the window’s thick glass surface, joining him in his endless gaze out. “We have not cleared the belt yet,” she said. “May I ask why?”

“It’s the only way for us to keep the pirates at bay with the MRF active.”

“Have we been assigned pirate suppression duties now?”

“No, this is all related to our mission,” he said. “The mission the empress has bestowed upon me.”

“Being the mission the former captain was given.”

“We need to identify the occupants of the transport we found in the Sirius system and bring them back to the Empire.”

“And you believe those people were Hashmedai living out here?”

“That’s what I suspect,” Peiun said, looking away from the sight of the belt and onto her eyes, radiating with red bioluminescent light, much like his. “Why the empress cares so much about those that ran away from the Empire is a question I cannot answer. Hashmedai like that are either ignored or dealt with by the Assassin’s Guild.”

“And for the pirates?” she asked.

“They attacked the mercenary base where I suspect our missing Hashmedai may have spent time,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out how they fit into this, if they do at all, and why was Maraschino there. We suspect the dead Aryile we found was one of their members.”

Careiah gave him a puzzled look. “Maraschino hackers are involved …”

He nodded. “It would seem so.”

“I recall reading a state news report about Maraschino. They leaked the location of our facilities that were developing MRF technology to EISS.”

“That’s how they operate,” he said. “Hack our secrets, then sell them to the humans or Radiance, only to do the same to them, and sell it to us.”

“Souyila also had data leaked about its operations, correct?”

“Indeed, Maraschino recruits from all species across the galaxy,” he said. “It’s how they’ve become so effective, they have people in every nation, colony, space station, and starship.”

“A dead Maraschino agent would mean those mercenaries had valuable information,” Careiah said, then paused to consider her next words. “Or were hired to work with a third party.”

Peiun’s mouth formed into a charming grin impressed that Careiah’s line of thinking was on the same level as his in terms of his investigation. “I may have encountered one of their agents on Amicitia Station. I have reasons to believe she hacked my HNI somehow.”

“Military HNI are invulnerable to hacks, I thought?”

“So did I …” he said, followed by a depressing grunt. “One thing is for certain, whoever it is the empress wants us to recover; Maraschino wants to know as well. And if they want to know, they probably want to sell it to someone outside of the Empire—”

Their talk was distracting. Careiah managed to hold on his waist as they stood before the window peering out into space and the asteroid belt.

She pulled away from him as quickly as he noticed. “I’m sorry,” Careiah said. “You were tense. It’s in my nature and training.”

“I know.”

She smiled, inching her way closer into his personal space. “I can help you.”

Peiun’s HNI incoming message notification flashed. He took the call and a small holographic screen of Alesyna appeared over his eyes. “Captain,” Alesyna transmitted.

“Yes, what is it?”

“The human we captured has made progress with the QEC,” Alesyna said.

“Excellent, I will be right there.”

The call came to an end, prompting Peiun to make his exit, leaving Careiah and her wincing glare behind as he vanished into the corridors. His journey back to the bridge made him wonder if he was doing the right thing to his body. His excuse for not accepting the lust she kindly offered before was that he was unworthy as he was the acting captain.

But that all changed. He was the captain now and, as such, was expected to make the ship, their mission, and service to the great Imperial navy his life, while remaining stuck in the body of young adult male. A body that begged him day and night to seek out a female as it gushed out sexual pheromones everywhere he went.

The solution to his predicament was a simple one, let Careiah do her job as the captain’s personal servant. Only, he still didn’t feel like he was the captain. Peiun never moved up the ranks, served as a bridge officer, then a first officer. He was made captain because of the death and destruction brought on from the surprise attacks of the Draconians, and then given full power as a captain, because the empress demanded it.

As far as Peiun was concerned, he wasn’t the captain or an acting captain. He was a fake captain, one that was pretty good at it. Fake captains don’t deserve to bed such beautiful servant girls like Careiah. Doing so would bring shame and dishonor to his name, and the high status his mother earned during the Celestial Order wars. So he told himself.

When the elevators delivered Peiun to the bridge, he marched over to the communication station. Moe had finished installing the newly acquired QEC device, shivering from the cold in the process like most humans would.

“I got it working, I think,” Moe said to him as he approached.

He grimaced. “You think?”

“It’s transmitting to the other QEC it’s linked with,” Moe said. “But according to its logs, that QEC is right here on the ship. The QEC is basically talking to itself according to that, yet the test messages I sent aren’t replaying from it.”

Peiun smirked. Moe had just proven his theory. “That’s because it’s not.”

Moe’s arms crossed, and his eyebrows rose. “Explain.”

“Come with me,” Peiun asked of him while leaving the bridge.

The two moved to the exit the bridge. Alesyna followed behind.

He allowed it for now, even though he asked Moe to come with him, not her. Alesyna’s body language remained unchanged during their trek through the interior of the frigate, its darkened halls leading into its docking bay. He continued to observe her, waiting for her to do something that might unveil why she was really a member of his crew. He sensed it was coming soon.

At the far end of the docking bay was the old and elementally withered transport found in the Sirius system. The same one the former captain had been searching for, the same one that was restored by members of Foster’s crew. Inside the transport, Peiun pulled open a wall panel, showing Moe the QEC inside. Moe examined it with his tools, pulling up its communication logs, and the numerous test messages he sent with the QEC recently installed on the bridge.

Moe took a step back, gasping; a wave of mist left his lips. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said. “Okay, so, I was wrong. The QEC is working fine; it was just linked with the QEC here the whole time …”

“Are you able to bring up past messages sent from its logs?” Peiun asked.

Moe browsed through the holographic screen for several minutes before giving his reply. “Nope, I guess unplugging it must have wiped it all out.”

“That’s fine, this confirms that those that took this transport to Sirius, were part of the crew of the Fortune Runner,” Peiun said. “The empress is searching for a group of mercenaries, Hashmedai ones to be exact, ones that vanished with the Carl Sagan sixty-eight years ago.”

Peiun went to make note of his discoveries with his HNI. Halfway through doing that, a private text message appeared over his eyesight. The sender was Moe.

Can we talk in private, without Alesyna around? The message said.

Peiun typed his reply using the virtual keyboard app in his HNI. Of course, I shall send her away.

Alesyna remained standing, glaring at the QEC with slightly frustrated looks as her eyes opened. She had put herself in a trance, and something told him it wasn’t an ESP sweep of the sector. More like she was trying to connect her mind with the complex computer systems within the QEC, only to be denied. QEC were human tech, mind shields would have prevented unauthorized psionics, especially nonhuman ones, from gaining access to it.

“Thank you for your work, human,” Peiun said to Moe. “I shall escort you back to your stay.”

It was a lie of course. Peiun and Moe left the docking bay heading in one direction, Alesyna left in the opposite way, back to the elevators that would take her to the bridge. The two stopped, and swiftly double-checked she was out of visual range. Then waited another five minutes, she was a powerful psionic after all, she didn’t always need eyes to see you.

Alesyna was gone, and the two returned back to the transport and it’s QEC, still exposed by the opened wall panel. They shut and locked the transport’s doors as Peiun crossed his arms, and firmly said to Moe. “Speak.”

“I lied, I can pull the most recent messages from its logs,” Moe said. “But they only go back to a few months ago since one of the QECs was offline for a long time. I’m guessing it was this one right here.”

“You are correct, this transport and its QEC had been buried in a desert for decades,” Peiun said. “What do the logs say?”

Moe waved his hands around the QEC, his HNI did the rest.

An audio-only recording replayed, the speaker spoke in English.

“Talon team one, this is the Fortune Runner, can you hear us?” The recording continued, “If anyone can hear this message, please respond, you’ve been offline for years. We thought we lost you, but apparently not. Well, to whoever receives this message, be advised that I have informed Alesyna, you are transmitting again. I’m sorry for doing this, but I have no choice, things … have changed since you’ve been gone. She’ll be informing the empress about this, and she’ll likely be dispatching a ship to recover you based on the coordinates we’re receiving. If you aren’t the original operators of the transport, consider this your final warning and leave at once.”

The recording ended. Peiun’s composure altered slightly after processing what he heard.

“That’s everything,” Moe said. “Understand why I didn’t want her around?”

“Alesyna doesn’t speak English or any other human languages.” Well to my knowledge. “But, yes, I understand.”

He also now understood how the empress knew of the location of the transport. When Foster’s crew recovered and powered the transport on, its QEC began to transmit and established a multi-decade delayed handshake communication with the Fortune Runner. Said member of the Fortune Runner informed Alesyna, most likely via telepathy, who in turn told the empress, behind his back.

Why are she and the empress keeping secrets from me? Why not tell me everything I need to know? It would make this mission significantly easier to accomplish, Peiun’s frustrated thoughts bellowed. “Did nobody hear these messages when sent?”

“Nope, remember this is human tech forced to work with a Hashmedai transport,” Moe said. “You need to manually interact with the QEC to pick up messages. If nobody was expecting messages, they would have been missed and stored in its memory until then.”

Foster’s crew knows nothing of this then, and therefore the UNE should not as well. The tension in Peiun’s body released slightly. “You’ve done well, human; I shall reward you for your assistance to the Empire.”

Moe’s eyes lit up. “Oh, really?”

“What is it you seek?” Peiun offered.

“Uh, Freedom? A ride back to Morutrin Prime, Gravity City if you don’t mind.”

“The human built settlement on the planet?” Peiun said. Moe nodded. “Very well, I will grant you this.”

23 Foster

Atrium Arm, A-OK Fourteen Pub

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 02:52 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rebecca Foster had mentally jotted down a number of witty and sassy comments to bark at Pierce as she entered the pub. Pierce didn’t seem like the type to hang out at bars and clubs, get drunk, and flirt with women. The last time she brought him here he kept to himself and seemed happy when it came time to leave.

The comments she had thought of got tossed out, when she checked every table, and stool at the bar. There were a whole lot of humans and aliens drinking, chatting, dancing to whatever it was that passed as music in this century, but no Pierce. She took a seat at the bar, and got the attention of the bartender, and his pleasant smile.

“Hey, Paul,” she said to him.

Paul approached her, wiping the bar surface down with a damp towel. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the southern belle that’s gonna save the galaxy.”

Foster’s eyes rolled, turning Paul’s pleasant smile into a laugh. “Gimme a break, I ain’t no prestigious belle.”

“You’re just as hot as well.”

“Shut up.”

“What will it be?”

Foster searched the establishment again for her missing science officer. “Have you seen Doctor Pierce?”

“Yeah like an hour ago, he left with a Hashmedai woman,” Paul said.

“Really?”

“Haven’t seen him since then. What’s up?”

“He’s missing, and at the worst possible time too. Need his brains for something in the morning. Wanted to give him the heads-up about it but couldn’t get hold of him. You know who this gal is?”

Pierce leaving with a woman. It was another out-of-character thing for him to do. His midlife crisis must have hit its boiling point.

“Sec.”

Paul brought up a projection thanks to his HNI. Within the holographic screen, Foster saw a brief playback of what Paul saw when Pierce was there. Pierce sat, watched TV, and then ordered a drink that attracted a woman to move next him—

An error message turned the screen black.

“The fuck?” Paul yelled, and attempted to replay the video again with the same results. The error message faded when his recorded eyesight turned away to deal with other people at the bar.

“Man, my HNI must be acting up,” Paul said. “I gotta get that looked at.”

“Sounds like ye need personal security or somethin’, eh?” It was Lieutenant Miles.

Foster grinned at Miles, the ginger-bearded man from Atlantic Canada, taking a seat next to her. He looked a lot different, not to mention shorter, now he was out of his exosuit, wearing cargo pants and a UNE Marine Corps tank top taking the shape of his military-built pecs.

“I lectured Pierce about eye-banging the crew,” Foster said.

“Aye, what’s wrong with that?” Miles asked her before ordering a drink from Paul.

“He’s just going through a phase,” Foster said. “Not surprised he came down here, probably looking to rob a few cradles.”

Foster’s wrist terminal beeped, twice, not that the music allowed her to hear it. It was the notification vibrations that alerted her there was an incoming message. Blackmar’s holographic face appeared floating above the device.

“Any sign of him?” Blackmar asked.

“Nothin’ and he ain’t replying to my attempts to contact him,” Foster said.

Blackmar grimaced while stroking his chin. “Hmm, we’ll try again in the morning.”

“He’s probably poking some woman he left with.”

“I shouldn’t know that.”

“It’d explain the no-show,” Foster said. “If he doesn’t turn up though …”

“I’ll have station security search for him, more so than they are now. Blackmar out.” His hologram faded, and a call ended icon flashed.

Miles took the first guzzle of his beverage, Molson Canadian beer. He pushed the glass away from his lips, and asked Foster. “Everyone playing hooky lately, eh?”

Hooky, it was a term she hadn’t heard since high school. “Who’s everyone?”

“Your b’y Pierce is gone and that woman he was with. And me ship is gone along with the fleet we had in Kapteyn’s Star.”

“That fleet still ain’t turned up anywhere?”

“Nope, navy ain’t saying shit about it.” He took another hit of his golden bubbling drink. Foster could go for one too. It’d kill the anxiety growing within her. “’Til then me and those EDF folks got no place to go until someone gets back to us.”

“We’ll y’all are free to stay aboard the Kepler,” she offered.

“I appreciate that, Captain. I doubt Chevallier will, but ya can’t please everyone.”

She sighed, having forgotten about Chevallier and her EDF team. “Yeah …”

“I heard about the friction between you two,” Miles said. “She blames you for her mother’s, Admiral Chevallier, death.”

Don’t remind me …

“You ever tried talking about it now? It’s been two months, and she wasn’t in cryo during that time. Maybe she’s gotten over it, eh?”

“Chevallier’s a piece of work,” Foster said drily and got up to leave. “There’s a reason the navy ain’t want nothin’ to do with her.”

“You ain’t in the navy though,” Miles said to her as she headed to the exit. “You don’t have to follow what they say.”

XSV Johannes Kepler docked in UNE hangar

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 08:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce was officially declared missing. It was one of the worst possible topics to be brought up in the Johannes Kepler’s first official meeting with the crew. Foster and available crew members sat at a circular table with the logo of IESA painted over top of it. The briefing room was located a deck below the bridge, and across from her office. It was sophisticatedly decorated with plants in the corners, providing a more casual feeling, almost like a meeting room you’d see in an office.

Rotating holographic models of ships decorated one wall. The ships represented humanity’s voyage into the unknown, starting with the first sailboats from the 1700s, the Apollo rockets, NASA shuttles, Soyuz rockets, the first reverse engineered Hashmedai and Radiance ships that explored the Sol system, the Carl Sagan, and various other ships, leading up to a model of the Kepler.

Blackmar’s holographic projection appeared, floating above the table, as he remained in the stations ops and waited for Foster to get the meeting going. There was a lot that needed to be discussed.

She reclined in her chair, trying to hide the need to wince when she made eye contact with Chevallier and her EDF team, who were also present, and clearly uninterested in being there.

“All righty, folks,” Foster said to those in attendance. “Doctor Pierce is MIA for the moment, so we’s gonna have to move on without him. Odelea, I hope you’re up to the task.”

“I am. Nereid and I have made progress with the data Pierce brought aboard,” Odelea said. “EVE has also been helpful in recreating the sound waves from the less than ideal video.”

“Run that by me again, I just want to make sure I didn’t hear it wrong,” Williams said.

“You didn’t, Commander,” Odelea said to him. “The Draconian ships communicate with special navigation songs. Each song contains data regarding its speed, location, current tasks, destination, and previous location. Amongst other things.”

“So … singing dragon bio-ships.” Williams cocked an eyebrow. “That’s not weird at all.”

“The songs are similar to the ones my people use when traveling through the oceans of Meroien,” Nereid said. “And as pointed out, may be related to the songs humpback whales of Earth sing.”

“The good news is, I’m close to developing a system that will translate these songs into data for us to comprehend,” Odelea said. “I just need crisper audio samples to finalize it. From there, should we ever encounter songs from their ships, we should able to understand what they are trying to say to one another.”

“Which brings us to our next problem,” Williams said. “How do we get better audio samples? Let alone receive them without directly boarding their ships.”

“That’s where I might be able to assist,” Blackmar’s hologram said. Holo screens appeared in front of everyone sitting at the table, showing the blueprints to a cylindrical device two meters tall. “While you guys were gone for the last two months, we managed to sift through the wreckage of the downed Draconian ships, looking for any tech that could be salvageable.” The hologram changed, showing teams of engineers rebuilding the device seen in the blueprints. “What we’ve been able to piece together, is that these bio-ships have psionic abilities, and like our psionics, they require cybernetics to enhance and amplify those powers.”

“Makes sense, the wyrm we fought at Earth took down two ships with a psionic energy beam,” EDF-1 team leader, Chris Boyd, said. “It also had weird implants inside it.”

“We managed to salvage this device from the Charybdis we nuked in Sol and piece it back together the best we could,” Blackmar said. “As we know, the Charybdis can open and close the vortexes that lead into the maelstrom. We suspect this device might be the key to opening that gateway.”

“Is this that special project your people have been working on?” Foster asked Blackmar.

He nodded yes. “It is.”

“His people? Don’t you mean the UNE?” Williams asked.

“No, just my people,” Blackmar said. “As I mentioned to Foster, the navy, as with the rest of the UNE government, have been dragging their feet in the defense of this station around researching how the Draconian ships operate. Case in point, we got the designs for this from the Empire, of all people, not the UNE. The government is more concerned about reverse engineering their weapons, than figuring out how to enter the maelstrom.”

Miles folded his arms. “The Empire, eh?”

“They did obtain a sizeable amount of the goo that protects ships in the maelstrom,” Foster said. “I’m not surprised they’d spearhead a program to enter it themselves.”

“We got our hands on the goo as well, after the battle at Sirius,” Williams said.

“Yeah, and the UNE still insists on weapons research,” Blackmar said. “I reached out to some contacts I had within the Empire, and they helped us get this device working … and I use that term lightly.”

“Why is that?” Foster asked him.

“On one hand, we’ve rebuilt it to spec, and everything looks fine,” he said. “But it doesn’t work … I have a feeling however, you might be able to help with that Foster.”

She gave the projection of the Draconian built device before her a good look. Then stared down at her tattooed covered hands and the faint but noticeable glow they had, the same ones that allowed her to use the tachyon rifle.

“My tattoos,” she said softly.

“If your assumptions are correct from your recent report, you can activate their technology, Foster. You might be the ‘on switch’ we’ve been looking for,” Blackmar said.

“Well this is perfect, then,” Odelea said. “From what Nereid and I have been able to put together, the ships in Kapteyn’s Star system are attempting to receive information from this location.”

A quick wave of Odelea’s small hands created a map of the galaxy. Foster, to that day, couldn’t get over how easily people with HNI could create holographic imagery. People in this century, to her, were almost like wizards creating pictures, diagrams, video or computer files with their mind and a wave of their hands.

Odelea’s hands forced the three-dimensional floating map of the galaxy to zoom in to the location of the Kapteyn’s Star, turning it into a map of that system. She moved the projection over to a region of space not far from the Kapteyn’s Star system wormhole. It brought back memories of when Foster had to take the helm of the Rezeki’s Rage, shortly after the mysterious tattoos appeared on her body.

“That’s where the maelstrom was,” Foster said. “The one we escaped through with the Rezeki’s Rage.”

Odelea continued. “While the details of the message aren’t clear, I am fairly certain there is something in the maelstrom that’s important to the Draconians.”

The Draconians used the maelstrom as a means of interstellar travel from what Foster was able to gather. That important thing to the Draconians could only be one thing.

“It’s another ship,” Foster concluded.

Odelea was partial to the idea. “Perhaps.”

“It’s gotta be, you said they only speak with songs,” Foster said. “If they’re waitin’ for a message, then that message is coming from a song, one that’s being sung to them from the maelstrom.”

“You think it might be another fleet then?” Blackmar asked, with a hint of deep concern in his voice.

“More like to do with our missing fleet,” Boyd said drily. “We still haven’t heard back from them.”

“No … We haven’t.” Foster bit the side of her lip, having processed that fact. “Do you think they’ve vanished into the maelstrom, like the Carl Sagan did?”

“That would be … bad,” Williams said. “Us vanishing and ending up in their hands was a big enough deal. Could you imagine if an entire UNE fleet did the same? They could learn a lot about us, our weapons, defenses, and the location of all our colonies …”

“All the while there’s still the unopened vortex at the edge of this system, just waiting for ships to fly though and annex it,” Blackmar said.

“Damn.”

“Then let’s go through with this,” Foster said. “Let’s see if Commander Blackmar’s team and the Imperial scientists’ efforts were worth it and test out their device.”

“Just us alone, not knowing what’s out there?” Chang asked.

Williams spun his chair to face Foster. “We’ll need to be ready for anything, that includes a boarding party.”

“I’d rather we’s keep our aggressions toward the Draconians at a minimum,” Foster said to him. “Remember we’s tryin’ to prove our innocence here.”

“I mean in case we get boarded.”

“Oh … okay, fair point.”

“I have a new group of rangers here to assist with that,” Saressea said.

“Hold on,” Chevallier broke her silence, assertively placing her hands on the table. “You’re seriously going to leave the security of this ship in the hands of a bunch of inexperienced rangers?”

“No, she won’t,” Boyd said to Chevallier. “We can help as well; we don’t have any ship or new orders at the moment.”

“Aye, I’m in the same boat as them, eh? I can help too,” Miles offered.

“And if worse comes to worst, and we have to board their ships, you’ll have an EDF team, Radiance ranger team, and a Marine to pull that off,” Boyd added.

Williams nodded and returned his attention back to the group. “I’m down with that.”

“All right, we test the device and, if it works, then we’s gonna enter the maelstrom, take a look inside and report our findings,” Foster said. “And if possible, keep our ears out for bio-ship songs.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Blackmar said. “I’ll inform my people to get the device to you.”

“Anything else?” Foster asked. Silence fell as a few heads nodded no. “All right, dismissed. Let’s get this show on the road, y’all!”

All the holograms, including Blackmar’s vanished. The crew made their way out of the briefing room, sans Chevallier and Boyd, who moved to the exit slowly. Foster decided to do the same, curious as to what they had to say.

“Seriously, sir?” Chevallier said to him.

“Yes, I’d rather not sit around on the station waiting to hear back from command,” Boyd said.

“What about Irons? Haven’t you been in contact with him?”

“He’s got his hands full,” he said. “There’s something up with another EDF team that went missing the other day that needs his attention.”

Foster stopped before the door, her thoughts weighed in if opening up to Chevallier, as Miles had suggested, was a good idea. If she was going to do it, now would be the ideal time before the mission started, and heaven forbid, things went horribly wrong, and the two lose the chance to talk for an eternity.

On the other hand, Chevallier’s words said it all, she hadn’t changed a bit. Then there was the fact that she too never reached out to Foster.

Foster made her choice and faced the feisty auburn-haired Frenchwoman as she and Boyd neared the door. “Glad to have you back MC—”

“Move.” Chevallier snapped at her.

“Feel free to make yourself at home—”

“Don’t make me regret being here more than I already do, Captain.”

Foster didn’t move from the door, Chevallier’s firm grip did it for her. Boyd looked back at Foster as he and Chevallier made their way out. He gave her a ‘whatever’ shrug, and turned away, disappearing into the interior of the ship.

“Rivera found your Cuban cigars from the Carl Sagan too!”

24 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Morutrin Prime orbit, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 08:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Rezeki’s Rage cleared the belt at last without further incident from the pirates. A number of smaller ships did tail behind, but with both moving at half the speed of light, and the Rezeki’s Rage ahead, they were safe. No pirate was going to risk boarding the Rezeki’s Rage, when other Imperial ships patrolling the inner planets could intervene.

Peiun returned to the bridge, giving Alesyna a critical stare as she handed command back to him. It was the first time he had seen her since he retreated back to his quarters for a quick rest. She didn’t know of the secret he and Moe shared, and he didn’t know of the other secrets she kept with her, whatever those were.

When the Rezeki’s Rage was less than an hour out from Morutrin Prime, the final pirate ships broke off their chase, returning to the belt. The Imperial, Radiance, and UNE battleships in orbit turned to face the general direction of the unwanted ships with their forward weapons. Rival pirate ships, salvagers, raiders, and other mercenary groups in orbit, likely played a role in sending the pirates off. Picking a fight in orbit was a good way to get blown out of the stars, even if you brought your friends.

“Home sweet home,” Moe said as the horizon of the raincloud-draped world grew in size on the view screen.

“Allow me to take you to the surface with a transport,” Peiun offered.

“Can’t we just teleport down?” Moe asked.

“I’d rather Alesyna remain aboard in case the pirates have bigger cocks than we thought,” Peiun said. “It’s unlikely they will do so, however.”

“Yeah, I get it. Better to be safe than sorry,” Moe said. “You nearly lost this ship without her aboard.”

Imperial Transport

Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 12:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A transport carrying Peiun and Moe left the confines of the Rezeki’s Rage, one of its transports of course. Peiun still had many questions he intended to pry away from the captured transport. Sitting at the main controls, Peiun took the transport into a controlled dive through the thinning rainclouds hanging above the region Moe directed him to.

Droplets of rain fell upon the transport’s windshield not long after its dive through the clouds. The drops were larger and heavier compared to what one would expect from a planet with Paryo’s gravity, which to his knowledge was very similar to Earth’s.

Below the transport was a city where faint rays of sunlight slipped in through the various openings within the clouds. Mist lifted away from the rainwater that had been drenching the city hours earlier. Morutrin Prime was a very humid world, even for humans, which made Gravity City a shining example on how the human race stopped at nothing to make the galaxy livable for them.

The region Gravity City was located in was once empty land with a dozen rivers carving through it. Morutrin Prime was a large planet, and there was a lot of untamed land across its surface. The first humans that arrived in the system took it upon themselves to build a city that would serve as a safe haven for them. The Morutrin system had become a place where Radiance exiles and Hashmedai runaways ended up, and so, it would only be a matter of time before humans that wished to leave the UNE arrived to make a living on Morutrin Prime or move there to conduct business.

Morutrin Prime’s surface gravity was one point two g, slightly unconformable for humans unless they possessed strong athletic bodies. Since humans had only been a spacefaring species for a century, they lacked the evolution progress necessary to live in varying levels of gravity commonly encountered throughout space, whereas the Hashmedai and Radiance races did. Living on a world at one point two g wasn’t going to cut it.

The first gravity dampers were built, tested, and put into operation at Gravity City—hence its name. They operated by creating an antigravity field that blocked and prevented the force of gravity from extending beyond it. The end result was weightlessness to anyone that stood on top of the field. From there it was matter of installing artificial gravity generators, the same ones used on ships, only on a much larger scale, and setting them to operate at one g, then building a city overtop them. Everything outside the city and the field was subject to the planet’s natural gravitation pull, everything inside was Earthlike gravity.

The invention became so popular it became mandatory on all human colonies, and later Imperial and Radiance ones, when human mega corporations sought to sell and develop the technology to them. Peiun wasn’t too sure about the Qirak, but with the way humanity had shaped the galaxy in the few short years they’d been around, he wouldn’t be surprised.

The transport lowered into the center of the city, full of towering skyscrapers and flying cars moving single file. Monorails accelerated rapidly on a network of tracks that connected the thriving human-built metropolis to other cities throughout the planet. Humans walking in the streets lowered their umbrellas once it became clear the rains were starting to let up, temporarily of course, if the grey thick clouds in the distance had anything to say about that.

A starport appeared when Peiun’s transport flew beyond three large office buildings that had been blocking it with their hulking presence. It was covered with idle transports, smaller ships, and human cars. An empty landing space welcomed the Hashmedai transport as it lowered with its blue flaring landing thrusters heating up the small puddles below it into vapor when it came to a landing.

Moe gave Peiun a pat on the shoulder. “Thanks for the lift, man.”

“You are welcome,” Peiun said, deactivating the transport. “What shall you do now?”

Moe shrugged and went to the main exit. Peiun followed behind him to send him off. “Don’t know, man,” Moe said as the doors slid open, letting in the moist, humid air from the outside. Peiun’s arm rose to shield his Hashmedai eyes that despised bright sunlight, unlike humans, or Hashmedai that weren’t born and raised on Paryo. “Probably gonna figure out my next gig, then crash—”

Moe never got the chance to finish what turned out to be his last words.

Crimson-colored mist spread out from his chest and head, tearing his white coveralls apart. Shockwaves cut through the numerous holes that entered and exited his body, then into the transport puncturing it with similarly sized holes. Peiun’s Hashmedai predatory instincts kicked in, and he dove for cover, back inside the transport where it was safe, so he thought.

He went to grab hold of his sword, resting on the floor in the cockpit, not that it would protect him from what came next. Loud tapping noises were heard behind him, and then in front of him, above him, they were everywhere, and they were rendering the transport full of holes that allowed the sunlight from outside to enter.

Peiun’s early life in the navy saw him surviving an ambush against Radiance rangers while patrolling a small moon. The rangers attacked him and his unit with magnetic rifles. The projectiles those weapons shot, and the speeds they traveled at, killed his commanding officer in the same manner Moe was killed. The outpost he retreated to became full of holes that looked exactly like the holes appearing inside his transport.

Someone was outside waiting for them with a magnetic rifle. Did the pirates know they were landing? Or was it a new challenger? Whoever it was, they weren’t satisfied with Moe’s death as his unmoving body lay at the entrance to the transport, spilling blood onto the rain-drenched platform of the landing pad.

The rattling of the bullets came to an end. Peiun kept his breathing as low as possible. Not an easy task with the adrenaline pumping into his body.

“He’s still inside!” said a voice in the English language.

A quick crawl across the floor and a peek outside past Moe’s body unveiled a man moving forward with a magnetic rifle. His armor was black and tight against his body, a tactical hologram hovered in front of his face, feeding him everything his rifle saw or scanned. Peiun thought he was a Linl since they were the most common species living in the system. Then he remembered the words the attacker used, they were in English and this city was human built and operated. This man was human and had help from another if his words were of any indication.

Too bad he didn’t know where they were.

Peiun backtracked quickly and was rewarded with the gift of being able to remain alive a while longer. The rifle’s shots put holes in the floor he had crawled on to look outside. He had to get his sword back, now more than ever. If he was to die here, let it be in combat, not crawling on the floor.

He made it back into the cockpit, though the random projectiles entering and exiting made him think three times about proceeding further. The thought of taking off crossed his mind, until the smell of burning metal and wires entered his head. The transport’s shields had been deactivated, which was why the attacker was able to fill it with holes. Vital wires were cut, and whatever device that was used to activate shields was most likely damaged, as were the transport’s engines. Peiun was surprised it hadn’t burst into flames and exploded.

After the second barrage of was over, he could see sparks flaring, and black smoke rising from the transport’s computers and equipment. It was no longer space worthy. He needed out no matter what. He returned to crawling toward his sword, making careful attempts to not crack the shattered glass below him, thus giving away the fact he was still breathing.

Heavy footsteps approached from behind, the shooter was looking to confirm the kill he figured. His sword was almost in reach of his hands, and Moe’s killer was almost in reach of the entrance to the transport.

He grabbed his sword. The attacker entered and used the scope and targeting scanner on his rifle to search for him.

It didn’t find him, not yet at least. Peiun was hidden in the cockpit, behind what remained of the chair. He held onto the hilt of his blade, hard. He thought he was going to break it at one point. His mind filled with frustration and stress more than the need to figure out a way through the ordeal. Moe’s death, not taking time to look for an ambush … it enraged him. Stress only got people killed, stress being something he failed, on his part, to reduce unlike the rest of his crew. Even his HNI sent him warnings that his combat proficiency may be lowered unless he calmed down.

“No sign of Gemini-C, sir,” said the man with the rifle. “No sign of the Hashmedai either, though, I haven’t checked the cockpit.”

Peiun’s sword powered on, filling its blade with plasma while he waited behind his cover for the man with the rifle to enter. He heard footsteps crunch and crush the broken glass and metal on the floor behind him, they grew louder with each step. Peiun’s heartbeat became intense enough for him to hear it.

The footsteps stopped, he imagined the man with the rifle spotting someone hiding behind the chair, that someone being Peiun. If that was the case, he was probably taking aim and his finger nearing the trigger. Aim … why would he even need to do that? The projectiles ripped through the hull of the transport, the man with the rifle just had to shoot the chair, and Peiun’s life would be over—

“Durendal!” A voice called out from behind, a female one at that. She was most likely the second person assisting the rifle man, apparently named, Durendal.

A pair of footsteps made what Peiun figured was an about face, and then Durendal spoke. “Gemini-S, what are you doing here?”

A new pair of feet entered the transport’s opened door. These ones were lighter than the ones that were nearing the cockpit.

“Never mind me, what are you doing here?” said the female voice, Gemini-S. “We gun down civvies now?”

“I have my orders, and so do you,” Durendal said.

“Yeah, sit on my hands while you shoot the place up?” Gemini-S said.

Two teammates bickering, it was the break Peiun needed. He silently went to make an HNI transmission to the Rezeki’s Rage. “Alesyna, standby by on emergency teleportation.”

Alesyna replied five seconds later due to the communication delay. “What’s wrong?”

He remained silent when the two arguing humans became silent and transmitted everything his eyes saw back up to the Rezeki’s Rage with his HNI. Though, that data too would take several seconds to transmit up into orbit and be received by anyone.

Peiun peeked around his chair, out into the main cabin of the transport to view his attackers. He and Durendal made direct eye contact.

“Peekaboo!” Durendal taunted, sending rapidly fired shots at him.

The shots missed, the human woman, Gemini-S intervened pulling on his rifle. The two humans cursed and fought for control over the weapon. Durendal wasn’t to be trusted, Gemini-S, maybe a little.

The forward windshield had long been shattered during the assault. Using his Hashmedai speed and agility, Peiun leaped up and over the flight console and past the jagged sharp remains of the windshield. He fell to the wet ground afterward as the sound of projectiles roared and filled the interior of the darkened transport with flashes of yellow light. He had to shield his eyes afterward, the sunlight was too blinding.

He was in the clear. Alesyna should be able to teleport down with minimal risk, like crossfire.

“Alesyna now!” he transmitted and waited for the communication delay to end.

Each half second felt like a year, the intensity of the situation made time slow down from his perspective. When the first second had ended, he heard the struggle of the two come to an end. At two seconds, he remembered that it would still take Alesyna another five to seven seconds to focus and teleport down to meet him, then another seven seconds or more for the two to return back to the Rezeki’s Rage. At three seconds, he began to think of fifty different ways his escape could go wrong, all while factoring in the fact that Durendal was no longer being subdued.

One of those ways played out before him.

Gemini-S was pushed from the transport’s opened entrance. She leaped back to her feet, and then dove toward Peiun, tackling him to the ground. Durendal’s rifle projectiles flew above the two as they fell.

There were no signs of Alesyna, at least not from what Peiun was able to tell as he lay on the surface back first, with Gemini-S on top of him. It gave him a better view of her youthful appearance and black hair, some of which tickled the side of his face. She wore the same armor as Durendal, its blue shimmering glow from her personal shields helped prevent his assault from reaching Peiun, who lacked them. Her body over top of him also helped keep the sunlight out from his light sensitive eyes.

Her fist rose up and down, crashing into the ground next to him. Peiun felt the surface below him vibrate and crumble. A sizeable hole formed in the aftermath of her fist hitting the ground, and the two fell into what was below the landing platform, crashing into a parked car.

Peiun hissed and displayed his fangs, doing his best to ignore the pain that went through his body, while the woman donning combat armor fell on top him again. Peiun rolled off the car in one direction, Gemini-S, went in the other. When his feet hit the ground, and his body accepted the fact the pain wasn’t going away, he looked about and noted a number of parked cars everywhere. They landed inside the starport’s indoor garage.

Gemini-S ran, pulling on Peiun’s arm for him to follow. “Let’s go, pal!”

Had he remained still, she probably would have pulled it off with the strength her suit gave her, like the ability to smash a hole through the floor.

“I wait; my psionic should be arriving any second now!”

He was right. Blue light flashed from the hole the two had fallen from above, the hole they were now running away from. He looked up, watching the distance between him, Gemini-S, and the hole in the ceiling expand. He saw flashes of light and heard the popping sounds of rifle fire. Alesyna had arrived, only to discover Peiun wasn’t where he said he would be, only an angry human gunning her down.

“Call them off, he’s not afraid of psionics,” Gemini-S said.

“Alesyna, fallback, and try again!” Peiun bellowed and transmitted via HNI in the Hashmedai language. “Keep track of my signal!”

Alesyna didn’t reply. The battle she unexpectedly found herself in kept her busy. Peiun continuing to speak with her would only ensure her end. Psionics needed concentration to maximize their powers—

New gunfire sounded, its source wasn’t far away.

Gemini-S dove for cover behind a parked car. Peiun did the same behind a pillar. A quick peek revealed other humans with magnetic rifles or pistols, many of them wore black business suits and shades. He had doubts they were here to close on some sort of financial transaction for their company.

Gemini-S drew two magnetic pistols holstered at her sides, firing relentlessly at the newly arrived attackers. Their personal shields flickered blue several times before shattering. Car windows exploded, concrete pillars cracked and broke apart. Two suited men fell within a mist of red and tiny pieces of flesh, exiting their backs. The rest of the men entered cover much like Gemini-S, shooting through it to hit her shields. She tried to do the same, with little success, as they kept moving and dive rolling to new cover. There were only so many cars she could shoot at, hoping a stray round would hit them.

She went to change her tactics, though Peiun wasn’t able to get a look at it. Durendal had leaped down from the hole and charged at them. Alesyna wasn’t with him. She was either dead or dying. Durendal’s running speed reached levels that should be impossible for normal humans. His armor was enhancing him in more ways than one, as his eyes and rifle locked on to Gemini-S.

He didn’t notice Peiun or the angle he had hid at behind the pillar. He smirked and waited, like how an ancient Hashmedai used to wait behind snow-filled hills for their next meal. Durendal’s weapon blasted away while he ran and gunned at Gemini-S’ shields. She wasn’t going to last much longer, the time to act was now.

Peiun’s retractable claws sprung out from his fingers, it wasn’t necessary, but it was a natural reaction of his species. He repowered his plasma sword, holding onto its hilt tight, and then leaped into the fray, hoping the other men in the distance were too focused on Gemini-S. The plasma sword swung, blindsiding Durendal and his blue flashing shields that absorbed the first three rapid strikes.

HNI scans sent data to Peiun in regard to the approximate strength of Durendal’s shields. A superimposed blue bar next appeared next to Durendal’s body, only visible by Peiun’s eyesight. Every keen strike of his plasma sword removed 15-24 percent of Durendal’s shields. After the sixth strike, Durendal had no shields, and was oblivious as to why. Peiun’s ambush came hard and fast.

Durendal made a pivot backward, having realized what Peiun had done, and the advantage he lost. It’s hard to shoot a target that’s so close, you could feel their breath hitting your face, and knowing that one stab through the chest would end you. Hashmedai speed and strength did the rest, forcing Durendal to flee and evade Peiun’s next set of high and low aimed swings of his plasma blade. Said fleeing and evasive moves turned into nimble somersaults off the nearby walls, over Peiun, and landing behind him.

MRF was in use. Humans had originally acquired MRF to augment the abilities of their special forces soldiers known as EDF. Peiun had made the mistake of entering a melee brawl with one.

Gemini-S’ pistols sent the last of her targets flying back, turning his chest into a blood gulch. Leaping from her cover, she ran to a parked car off in the distance. The occupants of the car were watching the bout, and probably reporting what was going on to a superior. Had they been paying attention, they would have seen the armored woman run up, before she decorated the back seats with their brains with a single bullet through each of their foreheads.

Durendal’s MRF kept him out of slashing range of Peiun’s superheated weapon. Unfortunately for him, that was all he was able to do. He managed to get three shots off, none of them hit Peiun. Predicting when Durendal was going to jump, leap away, repel off the walls, was the key to Peiun’s survival, until he landed that one fatal blow that would slice through his armor.

Gemini-S leaped into the car through its shattered driver’s side window, pushing the body of the driver to the side. The car was still powered on, and most likely was the car that delivered the attackers to the two. Turning the wheel brought the flying vehicle to face Peiun and Durendal engaged in close quarters combat.

Durendal’s foot got a lucky kick off. The impact sent Peiun down for the count.

She gritted her teeth and accelerated.

Peiun’s sword was flung from his hands when he hit the floor, thanks to Durendal’s boot. The human soldier stood towering above him displaying an arrogant grin and placing his foot on Peiun’s chest. Behind Durendal was a car accelerating toward him from behind. Peiun could see the face of the driver, it was Gemini-S.

Looking up, he saw the barrel of Durendal’s rifle. He pushed it directly onto Peiun’s head, forcing it back down to the hard, concrete floor. Its warm metallic surface was scorching a small mark on him.

“Go back to your planet, you fucking alien,” Durendal said.

Gemini-S’ car was seconds away from impact. Durendal’s finger was seconds away from the trigger. Peiun shut his eyes and waited for what came next.

A loud thump came, followed by the sound of a car coming to a stop and floating above Peiun’s prone body. He rolled to the side, reacquired his sword, and stood; ready for another fight. What he saw, however, was Durendal’s body laying twenty feet away, unmoving with a dent in his now smoking and sparking armor. Gemini-S bellowed and roared at him to jump into the car with her. She pushed the two dead humans out the car with streams of red pouring out from the front and backs of their heads.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Gemini-S said while Peiun climbed in. “I’m no supporter of the Hashmedai, but you did help us beat the order. That’s the sole reason I’m trusting you right now.”

Gemini-S pulled the car back and out of the garage at speeds that well exceeded the limits imposed. “Who were those people, Gemini-S?” Peiun asked her.

“Call me Sarah,” she said. “And these assholes here? EDF and EISS black ops operatives. You and your dead friend picked the wrong time to be snooping around that merc base. Not that I’m complaining, I’m going to need your help.”

“With what?”

“Finding my sister before they do.”

25 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler docked in UNE hangar

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 11:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

It took Blackmar’s team a little over three hours to hull the device, which Foster nicknamed the vortex key, onto the Johannes Kepler. The vortex key was a heavy piece of alien machinery that required an antigravity cart to bring it onto the ship and place it in engineering where Saressea and her team of Radiance engineers worked to wire it into the ship’s power supply.

After thirty minutes of testing, Saressea confirmed the vortex key was receiving power and operating in the sense that the strange electronics inside were producing heat and waves of psionic energy. That was about it, the device was nothing more than an energy sink and a two metric ton paperweight standing two meters tall.

On the bridge, Foster and her crew performed last-minute system checks in preparation for their test run, sans Pierce. EVE would have to monitor all data that came in from his station remotely. She faced his empty science officer’s station, his coffee mug still resting on top of it. She refused to remove it and send it back into the galley as with the one in the lab. Pierce leaving those mugs was the last actions he took on the ship.

“Ops has cleared us,” Odelea reported from her station.

Foster acknowledged her, taking a seat on her captain’s chair. “Take us out, Chang.”

“Aye, Captain,” Chang said, tending to the helm controls.

The wide, hangar bay doors parted, unmasking space, stars, light from the quandary star system, and a number of UNE battleships making a brief flyby. The Johannes Kepler’s entry ramp rose up, shut, and locked as its launch thrusters fired, levitating the ship off the floor while its landing gear retreated back inside. It spun to fly out from the doors, pulled away from the station, and located the area of space where the unopened vortex lay.

Once clear of all space traffic, the Johannes Kepler vanished in a bolt of light when it engaged its FTL jump sending it on a course to the edge of the Arietis system.

An hour later, the Johannes Kepler arrived, flashing back into existence, accelerating with thrusters only to approach the region of interest. To those looking at it from the bridge’s view screen, scanners, or a window, it was just a black void full of the stars of the galaxy. To Foster and her shimmering tattoos? There was something more going on.

“Becca,” Williams said to Foster. “You’re up.”

She smiled at him, stood, and offered him the captain’s chair. “I’ll be back, Dom, you got the bridge.”

The vortex key wasn’t going to operate on its own, Foster need to be there to interact with it. How she was going to do that, she hadn’t figured out. That was part of the point of coming out here, to learn how to use the device, if that was even possible.

Foster arrived in engineering and was greeted by the pulsing emerald and azure glow of the reactors in the backdrop, and Saressea’s multispecies Radiance engineering team diligently working on various computer stations or scanning the vortex key. They all spoke in the Radiance language, something Rivera wouldn’t have minded at all as she spoke it as well. Not seeing Rivera as part of the team put a small damper on her mood. This is something Rivera would have loved to be a part of.

Doctor Kostelecky joined Foster as she neared the vortex key, holding a number of medical scanning instruments, and verifying the holo screen next to her was operating correctly.

Foster faced her, smiling. “Ready to watch as I probably melt my insides?”

Kostelecky pointed at the engineering crew. Their eyes weren’t focused on their holo screens, they were locked onto Foster. “They are going to watch, I am going to monitor your vitals.”

Foster winced, looking the vortex key up and down and the mist that lifted away from it. Her tattoos’ glows intensified the closer she moved to it, and with that, came a growing uncertainty in her gut. There were no instruction manuals in regard to the operation of the key, no tests performed on human subjects, and no assurance that the power cables on the floor, plugged into the vortex key, would be able to handle what came next. She reached out to touch the surface of the device—

“Wait!” Saressea called out, running to Foster with her tail wagging with excitement. “Wait, wait, wait. I need to see this with my own eyes.”

“Told you, you’re entertainment to our alien crew,” Kostelecky said. “Congratulations, Captain.”

“Hey, Saressea, can I, you know?” Foster asked with her hand just inches away from the device.

Saressea nodded, the action caused the jewelry attached to her horns to jingle about. “Yep, you’re good.”

Foster touched the vortex key. Kostelecky scanned her body, monitoring her vitals while Saressea and her team watched. Those were the last things Foster saw, and the rough surface of the vortex key, was the last thing she was able to feel.

Foster was no longer in her body. She felt like she became one with the universe again. No, not the universe, rather the strange universe that existed within the maelstrom. She felt the presence of the Johannes Kepler drifting before the unopened vortex rift in space. The vortex felt like a box to her, one that had been previously opened, just taped up shut. How does one gain access to what’s inside a box like that? Just pull the tape off, lift up the flaps, and dive in. Reopening the vortex had a similar feeling when she successfully did that.

The region of space in front of the Johannes Kepler distorted and became the red and magenta storm clouds that instilled people with fear when they saw them. The clouds expanded outward by Foster’s command. She had the power to dictate how small or large the storm expanded. She kept the vortex large enough for the Johannes Kepler to fly through. There was one problem; she wasn’t on the bridge or in her body for that matter. How could she ask the crew to poke around inside? Or remind them they can’t stay in for a long period of time as they would fade away into nothing.

Breaking her link with the ethereal realm beyond made sense, if only she knew how. It wasn’t like her experience becoming one with the maelstrom, where she was able to drift back and forth into her body. Foster, the vortex key, and the maelstrom were all connected and keeping her mind where it was.

She saw the Johannes Kepler’s engines fire, pushing it into the vortex of clouds from her out-of-body experience. Williams must have gotten the memo, Foster wasn’t home, and made the call to enter. Once inside the maelstrom, the Johannes Kepler officially left the known universe, and reentered a new one, one where the laws of physics were different, and worked tirelessly to remove anything that didn’t originate from there.

The unknown effect of the dark energy that resided inside the maelstrom began its slow process of making the Johannes Kepler vanish, by making tiny layers of its hull and paint job vanish into nothing. Whatever it was that Williams ordered the crew to do, they had to make it quick. Had Blackmar’s team had access to the goo that seemingly protects matter from the maelstrom’s clouds, it would have allowed them to explore longer. But the goo-like substance the Johannes Kepler collected ended up in the hands of UNE researchers elsewhere in the galaxy, and the Empire didn’t share what they managed to collect with anyone.

Foster had few words to describe what it felt like to watch, from an omnipotent point of view, the Johannes Kepler glide deeper into the universe made of stunning clouds and thunderbolts. The best she could come up with was comparing the experience to being a guardian angel watching over the ship as it passed in and out of the clouds, casting its shadow across those it flew past.

Behind the Johannes Kepler was a thick batch of clouds, they parted away as if something was passing through it. Foster couldn’t see or sense anything come through. She forced her mind to give that particular buildup of clouds a closer look, nothing.

The Johannes Kepler’s overshields pulsed with purple light.

Tachyon beams from an invisible source behind were the source of it.

The invisible force slowly began to unveil itself with each shot. Foster forced her sights to face the source of the tachyon strikes, and the invisible ship coming into view.

Foster was back in engineering looking up at the ceiling, and its bright lights. Tremors rippled across the floor, alarms sounded, and the Radiance engineering crew had run back to their stations. A big blast made everyone stumble. She figured a similar one earlier must have knocked her back, thus breaking the connection to the vortex key.

Kostelecky and Saressea helped Foster back to her feet. “We’re under attack,” Foster said.

“How did you know?” Saressea asked as she ran back to her terminal.

“There’s an invisible ship on our starboard side,” Foster said, and approached Saressea from behind observing her screen from over her shoulders. “What do you got?”

“I got nothing here, the bridge might know better,” Saressea said.

Foster made a hasty sprint down the corridors, into the bridge full of chaos and crew personnel trying to get the situation under control.

“Report!” Foster shouted, taking her chair back.

Williams retreated to a computer station, analyzing a projection of the surrounding area. “There’s a ship we can’t detect, shooting at us!”

Foster faced their lead shipboard psionic. “Tolukei?”

“I cannot sense its presence, Captain,” Tolukei said. “This is a very … unusual vessel to do such a thing.”

The Johannes Kepler took another hit from its port and aft. The tachyon beams were cutting the overshield down quickly as indicated by numbers floating in front the viewer.

“Chang, don’t take us too far from the vortex,” Foster said.

“That’s the problem, Captain,” Chang said, as he updated the view screen’s contents. The blackness of space stars they entered from was shrinking. “It started closing just before you arrived.”

Foster gave her tattooed hands a quick look, the same hands that touched the vortex key. “I stopped touching the device … it must have broken the connection.”

“I can get us back to the opening,” Chang said. “But you’ll have to return to engineering to open it back up.”

Her mind tried to focus and merge with the maelstrom much like her previous time two months ago. Her thoughts left her body, and she saw what remained of the vortex and normal space and time seal shut and fast. It made sense, when she opened the vortex she made the opening large enough to fit the Kepler through. Naturally, when it came time to seal shut, the process would take no longer than a minute or so to complete.

The vortex had completely closed, there was no wedging it open like she did in the past, her frustrated attempts to do so and repeated cursing in her thoughts, were proof of that. Wedging the vortex open without the vortex key device wasn’t possible. Opening it after it closed required it. She made plans to make note of that, if they got out of this mess alive.

She returned to her body, also making note of how easy it was do so when not using the vortex key. There were a lot of rules that needed to be followed and memorized when it came to utilizing the maelstrom. She sighed.

“Do it, Chang,” she said. “Take us to where the vortex was.”

A swift one-eighty-degree turn set the Johannes Kepler back on course, while its shields and overshields continued to take the brunt of the assault from the invisible ship. The Johannes Kepler traveled a whole six hundred kilometers before a fleet of Draconian bio-ships emerged from the clouds swarming the Johannes Kepler.

Scores of wyverns flew alongside the organic ships, Charybdis ships within the center of the bio-ship fleet ejected their protective substance into their fleshy hulls, allowing them to remain inside the ethereal realm. It was another reminder of how little time the Johannes Kepler had to escape. The corrosive effect of the clouds ignored shields and psionic barriers, making the Kepler’s hull continue to fade away, one layer at a time.

The view of the fleet of ships upstaged 80 percent of what could be seen on the view screen. She imagined a similar sight would be shown had they switched to different external cameras. They were trapped, encircled by hundreds of ships, and hundreds more dragons flying alongside.

“Is it possible we could politely ask them to move aside?” Chang asked as he made the Johannes Kepler come to a full stop. “You know, so we don’t crash into them and die.”

The invisible ship came about, facing the Johannes Kepler head on as its cloak deactivated, sending distorting waves across the surface of the ship. Once the waves cleared, its true presence was unveiled. The invisible ship was organic like the other Draconian ships. It was smaller, almost the same size as the Johannes Kepler. It was shaped like an angry stingray, armed with a number of tachyon cannons at its front, and the usual cybernetic parts that made a living, breathing ship fly in space.

With the Johannes Kepler now in the heart of the surrounding fleet, the substance the Charybdis ships released, painted the hull of the Kepler. The looming fear they might vanish into nothing suspended for the time being, replaced with a new concern.

What do the Draconians plan to do with us next?

“Well, they don’t want us dead,” Williams said. “They would have shot us down by now.”

“And not share that goo with us,” Foster added.

Boyd, Chevallier, Maxwell, LeBoeuf, and Miles barged into the bridge, one by one, uninvited. What displayed on the viewer caused them to stand at the bridge’s entrance with shocked faces.

“What the hell is going on?” Boyd asked.

“Everyone, relax,” Foster said. “We’s got this under control.”

Boyd snorted. “Do you now?”

“Yeah, sure,” Foster said, scratching her head. “We’s just, uh, figuring out how to deliver Chang’s message.”

“Politely of course right, Captain?” Chang said to her.

“Of course.”

“Whatever you do,” Chevallier said slowly, walking closer to the viewer. “Don’t repeat whatever it is you did that got the Carl Sagan captured. I’d rather not lose another sixty-eight years of my life and have no memory of it happening.”

“Aye, she’s right,” Miles said. “A maelstrom like this that made the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword vanish, ya? What if this is how it happened?”

“It would explain why they’ve stopped firing,” LeBoeuf said. “And might explain where the missing fleet went.”

Foster heard Odelea gasp loudly, her communication station lit up with flashing lights. “Incoming transmission, Captain.”

Last time Foster checked, the Johannes Kepler’s communication systems outside of QEC, were only compatible with Union and Imperial ships, since the technology behind them was similar.

“Really?” Foster said to her. “From who?”

Odelea checked her holo screens. “It would appear its coming from the lead ship in front of us.” She faced the view screen. “The stealth bio-ship.”

Foster sat up straight, facing the viewer. “On screen.”

Two holographic figures appeared on the view screen. Foster’s face damped with sweat. They looked human and wore formfitting dragon armor, with helmets shaped like the head of a dragon. It was the infamous Dragon Knight and Maiden duo.

“Well, shit, thought they were dead with the last fleet,” Williams said.

Foster maintained her composure, the opposite of what Chevallier did when the hologram appeared. Boyd and Maxwell were quick to hold her and talk sense into her manic screams. The Dragon Knight and Maiden were the closest to Draconian commanders anyone had faced. Chevallier’s hateful roars toward them, swearing to seek vengeance for her mother’s death were understandable.

What wasn’t understandable was how they were still alive. Every Draconian ship that entered the Sirius system had either been destroyed or followed the Johannes Kepler into the maelstrom. The destruction of the Charybdis ship, meant the remains of that fleet were trapped within the maelstrom, with no means of reopening the vortex or access to the substance needed to survive. The Dragon Knight and Maiden had to have been on one of the ships, Foster was sure of it. There was no way they could have survived.

Yet, there they were on a stealth ship with an armada behind them, ready to do something bad, very, very bad. She verified with EVE that the mind shield had been adjusted to only allow psionic use from Tolukei and Nereid—it was. There was no threat of the duo teleporting aboard. Forcing their way aboard physically, that was a different story, one she hoped to not read.

The Dragon duo’s lips began to move, the words that came out were of a strange language and directed at Foster as they all made eye contact.

“Umm, howdy, we come in peace, contrary to popular belief,” Foster said back to them.

The two spoke more, they may well have been speaking Russian. Foster hadn’t the faintest idea what they were saying to her. “Odelea? You understand any of that?”

Odelea listened carefully, bringing up holographic notes based on what she learned from their language. “They want to know how we got here,” she translated.

“Tell ‘em ain’t any of their business,” Foster said.

“And for us to surrender,” Odelea added. The Dragon Knight pointed a finger at Odelea, she gulped. “And he wants to do something very horrible to me.”

“Define horrible?”

“It’s a word lost in the translation.”

So that kind of horrible …

“Strange,” Tolukei commented. “What became of their HNI distribution abilities?”

“We’re still a few hundred kilometers away from them,” Chang said, checking his terminal’s screens. “Last time I checked their range is limited.”

“Keep our distance, Chang, I’d rather we not lose Odelea and the rest,” Foster said. “And fire up the MRF.”

“Gonna make a run for it, Captain?”

“You need to be quick, Chang,” she said. “We can’t risk them followin’ our hides back out.”

“If you make the vortex opening as small as possible like before, it should seal up quickly.”

“The question is what will stop them from reopening it?” Williams asked.

“The same thing that stopped them from doing it this whole time,” Foster said.

“And that is?”

“What am I, Wikipedia? I don’t know!”

Though it was something to note. The fleet had Charybdis ships, lots of them at that, and weren’t that far away from the vortex. They could venture through into the system at any time.

The duo spoke again in their language. The tone in their voice and aggression made it clear to all they weren’t here to have a friendly chitchat. Odelea provided another translation. “They want an answer now, Captain.”

“Odelea, hang up on them already,” Foster said drily.

“As you wish—”

“Wait.” Nereid interjected and stepped closer to the viewer almost mesmerized.

Foster and Williams exchanged grimacing looks. Nereid was still a follower of Tiamat, as with the Dragon Knight and Maiden. She didn’t view them as enemies. She viewed them as religious icons, icons that must be worshiped and pleased.

“Nereid …” Foster said in worried manner. “What are you up to?”

Nereid said nothing, and continued to walk to the view screen, shutting her eyes as her face became full of blissful reactions.

Foster gave Tolukei a nod. “Tolukei … remember what we talked about?”

Tolukei backed away from the psionic workstation, looking at Nereid. “Now?” There was hesitation in his voice.

“Let’s wait a bit,” she said, looking back at Nereid in the trancelike state she was in. “And hope I’m wrong.”

It was agreed upon in secret with Foster, Williams, and Tolukei, that should Nereid turn on the crew in the name of Tiamat, that it would be up to Tolukei to subdue her. He had been training her to better control her powers and he knew what her limitations were. Added to that, he was a psionic, and the only one on the ship, not counting Maxwell and LeBoeuf, whom had their powers damped by the mind shield. Though, Tolukei was likely stronger than the two anyways.

More chatter from the armored dragon duo came.

“Talk to me, Odelea,” Foster said.

“They are speaking to Nereid.”

“I can see that, about what?”

“They are asking her to—”

“Don’t cut the link,” Nereid said, breaking her silence and trance. “I can hear the songs in the background.”

Foster listened in, apart from the beeping noises from the bridge of the stealth bio-ship, she could hear no songs. “I don’t hear anything.”

“I can hear it … I know what they are saying,” Nereid said. “But, Captain, please keep this link open, keep them talking.”

“Odelea, do it.”

“Understood.”

“EVE, can you hear anything?” Foster asked.

“I can hear a number of sounds coming from the projection, Captain,” EVE said. “The sounds come from a varying range of decibel levels, most likely from the operations of their bridge. None of them, however, resemble the songs or anything remotely close to them—”

“EVE, just say you can’t hear what she’s hearing,” Foster cut in.

“I cannot hear what Nereid is hearing.”

“Captain!” Odelea said panicking. “They are about to cut the link!”

“Keep them on, please,” Nereid pleaded.

If the link was cut, then there was a good chance that hostilities toward the Johannes Kepler would resume. The Johannes Kepler needed to be making its break to the vortex before that happened. That meant Foster was in the wrong place, she needed to be in engineering attuning to the vortex key.

“Dom, you’re up, I gotta jet to engineering.”

“They want to hear from you once more, Captain,” Odelea said. “And only you.”

Foster threw her hands up in frustration. “Of course, they do …” she said then faced the duo’s holographic projection. “Well, uh, tell ‘em this, Odelea,” Foster pointed at the Dragon Maiden. “You, blondie, bless your heart, that blue eye shadow ain’t workin’.”

“Seriously?” Chevallier grunted.

“Gotta keep ‘em on the line, right?” Foster said, shrugging. “I ain’t got anything else to say!”

Odelea translated Foster’s words to the Dragon Maiden. It looked back at Foster with a puzzled face and twisted lips.

“And tell the Dragon Knight to check them smoke alarms,” Foster said. “I keep hearing them beep in the background.”

“I find it highly unlikely they have those,” Odelea said.

“Well if they don’t then tell ‘em to get them,” Foster snickered. “I’d never work at a job that didn’t have those.”

Odelea spoke to the duo, translating Foster’s final words to them. The communication link was cut instantly.

“Well, Becca, looks like you pissed them off,” Williams said. “Nereid, did you hear it?”

Nereid returned to the psionic workstation alongside Tolukei. “I did,” she said, oblivious to the fact that Tolukei was seconds away from being ordered to attack her.

“Cool, keep humming it to yourself until we can get it recorded,” Foster said, moving to the exit of the bridge. “Dom, you know the drill!”

Foster didn’t power walk to engineering. She ran, and nearly lost her balance when the ship began to rumble. She cleared all thoughts in her head regarding what could have happened had Tolukei been called to take action against Nereid. She had no immediate evacuation plans to clear the bridge, or potentially abandon the ship if their fight grew heated. Escape pods ejecting into the maelstrom had a zero percent chance of being recovered.

“I need someone to pull me off this once we’re clear!” Foster screamed as she darted into engineering, reaching out to touch the vortex key.

“Understood,” Saressea said.

Foster’s mind and soul was ripped from her body once again, becoming the omnipotent force that was one with the maelstrom. The vortex reappeared just beyond where the armada of ships encircled the Johannes Kepler. It started as a tiny black dot, and quickly expanded into a tear within the space-time continuum, where the stars and sights of the Arietis system were made visible.

The Johannes Kepler made a push through a break in the Draconian armada’s formation, en route to their freedom. Tachyon beams scattered in all directions, fired from the countless bio-ships coming about to bring the Kepler to its end. The stealth ship vanished from the screen and sensors. It was the least of Foster’s concerns, getting the Johannes Kepler back to the normal universe was priority.

She was treated to how Chang’s fancy piloting skills looked from the outside when the MFR was active. Aileron rolls were made in between two gargantuan ships made of flesh and bones. Dives were made to avoid wyverns, hard turns to the left when larger capital ships tried and failed to block the path to the vortex. The overshields flashed, Nereid and Tolukei’s psionic powers were keeping the ship in one piece from the uncountable number of tachyon beams striking them every six to eight seconds.

The vortex leading back to space returned back to the Kepler’s line of sight, there were no ships or dragons in its path. FTL carried them the rest of the way, tachyon beams were faster. The last barrage that hit them forced Foster to see the Kepler’s main reactor, and her touch resting upon the vortex key.

She was back in her body.

“We’re clear,” Saressea said as she went to remove Foster’s hand from the device. Foster did it on her own, unsure as to what caused her link with the key to cut. “Sorry, thought you requested I move you?”

The first time it was because the ship rocked hard enough for her to fall. But now? She did it on her own and was aware her hand was touching the device.

“You’re not wrong,” Foster said, looking at the vortex key as smoke lifted away from it. She made contact with the device again, feeling its warm touch and rough surface. Nothing happened. “Damn it, what the hell happened?”

Saressea used a virtual EAD to scan the vortex key, and the large power cables plugged into it from the floor. Her hand waved away a plume of black smoke, the smell made the two of them gag and cough.

“It’s fried, Captain,” Saressea said, backing away from it. “Guess it was only good for a two-way trip.”

Foster moved to the nearest wall intercom. “Bridge, what’s our status?”

“We’re back in normal space,” Williams said. “No hostiles made it through and the vortex has shut. We should be good.”

“Only, we ain’t,” Foster said grimacing. “They’s got a force larger than the one that attacked Kapteyn’s Star plus a stealth ship leadin’ the charge.”

“Still don’t understand why they would have a large force there and not use it,” Williams’ voice said.

“That station lies next to wormholes linking to the capitals of the Union, Empire, and the Morutrin system, not to mention Earth-controlled space. If you’re going to attack a target like that, you’re gonna need a force large enough to survive a counterattack from the combined forces that will pour through those gates.”

Foster paused for moment, having realized the next words that were going to come out of her mouth were sugarcoated. The galaxy was facing an extremely dangerous threat, what she had to say, couldn’t and shouldn’t be sugarcoated.

She continued, ready to deliver her non-sugarcoated words. “The Draconians are gathering a fleet big enough to do just that.”

26 Lahmu

Draconian Stealth Ship

Draconian Armada, Dark Energy maelstrom

October 15, 2118, 12:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Lahmu and Lahamu, known to the humans as the Dragon Knight and Dragon Maiden respectively, stood and watched the gateway beyond the Draconian fleet swell shut. The vessel commanded by the human and traitor, who referred to herself as Foster, had escaped. The speed of the vessel … was unexpected to the brother and sister. It was one of many things they would need to inform the fleet of going forward, since their foresight into the galaxy was not accurate.

Lahamu shut the hologram off. She had seen enough and cursed loud enough for all the half dragons aboard to hear. “They can now enter this realm,” Lahamu said.

“Humans are a very cunning species,” Lahmu said to his sister. “Everything they have achieved amongst the stars has been done within four generations.”

The two used the psionic bond they shared with the stealth ship, the same ship the duo used to flee from the system humans called Sirius, the same ship Lahmu’s sister used to leave Earth after her campaign there had been completed. Direct orders were communicated to the ship’s brain, demanding it to fly in close formation with the rest of the armada, which grew larger as more ships arrived.

The two teleported into a darkened chamber, deep within the bowels of their ship, its thumping heartbeat was a soothing sound to the two. The new cybernetic augmentations were not being rejected as previously feared. The ship was alive and healthy. The two stood in front of the two artifacts retrieved from the human homeworld by Lahamu. The disk-shaped and gem-decorated artifacts floated in the air, held up by psionic magic radiating away from circles built-in to the floor.

“Was the Goddess wrong for teaching their species?” Lahamu asked her brother, Lahmu.

“You question her actions?”

“Humans are now our enemy, a species that would still be primitive if it wasn’t for the Goddess’ intervention. Marduk became her enemy, a Javnis that was uplifted from his homeworld.”

“She wasn’t wrong to leave this army to us. We will rectify what has gone wrong in the grand plan; it is only a matter of time.”

The next chamber brought Lahmu and Lahamu to where Fighter Number 3,482 was laying strapped to an examination pod. Fighter Number 3,482 was the half dragon that bore witness to Foster and her thieving ways when she stripped the monolith of its gifts. The two instructed the mystic tending to him to leave via telepathic instructions, asking her to leave behind engram orbs extracted from the fighter.

Lahmu and Lahamu resumed the tasks they were cued to perform prior to the unexpected arrival of the vessel Foster commanded within the maelstrom. The two assisted each other by holding an engram each, placing it into each other’s foreheads, allowing the psionic thoughts, memories, and experiences of the fighter to be transferred to them.

“This one has great promise,” Lahmu said, upon the end of his trance.

Lahamu looked down at the Fighter Number 3,482, impressed with his bravery to the horde and his keen eyes that saw everything Foster and her helpers accomplished. “Shall we bestow it a name?”

“Yes …” Lahmu said, plucking the first name that manifested into his thoughts. “Fafnir …”

“Naming him after one of our ancient ancestors?” Lahamu smiled and laughed. “I approve.”

“Humans should be familiar with the name as well,” he said. “When the time is right, I want them to fear and remember the day Fafnir returned to punish those that defiled the Goddess’ gifts, and not offer praise and worship of what she has done.”

Lahamu’s psionic magic released Fighter Number 3,482 from his bindings, forcing him to kneel and bow before the two. “Do you accept your new name, Fighter Number 3,482?”

Fighter Number 3,482 hesitated to reply. Lahmu calmed his mind, assuring him he would not be punished for using his tongue in front of the two. He gave his answer. “I accept.”

“Let us train you then while we wait.”

“Wait for what?” Fighter Number 3,482, now to be forever known as Fafnir, said.

“For the rest of our horde to join this armada,” Lahmu said. “Tiamat is eternal.”

The three repeated in union once more.

“Tiamat is eternal.”

27 Foster

Pierce’s apartment, UNE Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 13:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Clear!”

The breaching charge detonated, turning the front door of Pierce’s apartment into smoldering chunks of debris. It was excessive in Foster’s opinion, but necessary as someone reprogrammed the security locks of his door with a complex lockout algorithm according to Blackmar and members of station security.

Blackmar and his team stormed into the apartment first, their drawn rifles led the way. Foster followed behind with her pistol pointed out. No bullets were fired. There was no need since the apartment was empty and a mess with its furniture and boxes turned upside down. Pierce and the Hashmedai girl that ran off with him were gone.

The window in the living room drew Foster’s attention, it was wide open. It was big enough for two bodies to crawl out of and escape to the rooftops above or scale the walls and numerous balconies below to the streets.

Blackmar holstered his rifle. “Damn it, we must have missed them.” He turned around facing one of his men. “Are you certain about this?”

“No doubt about it, sir” the station security personnel said. “Just look at this mess sir, EISS got here before us. If I had checked the security cameras here first, we might have been able to catch them in the act.”

“First the navy ignores us, now we got EISS running operations without talking to me,” Blackmar said. “Fucking hell!”

A member of Blackmar’s team called out to him, directing him and everyone else to Pierce’s personal computer screen. Foster joined them looking intently at the holo screen and a cartoon cherry laughing and waving its middle finger.

Blackmar gritted his teeth. “Maraschino … Well that explains who the hackers were that fucked with the trains earlier today.”

“Who the hell is Maraschino?” Foster asked.

“Hackers you don’t want to fuck with,” Blackmar said. “And now, they got your science officer.”

The station security officer went to access Pierce’s computer, browsing through its files and recent activity. His silence was a concern to Foster. “I take it there ain’t any clues on his computer?”

“Nothing, everything’s been wiped by a virus,” said the officer.

“This girl’s damn good,” Blackmar said “She must have hacked the train system, deleted all security camera footage that saw her in the act, and HNI records of anyone that laid eyes on her. It’s like she doesn’t exist.”

“We’ll have to check all cameras in the area,” Foster said. “Look for any that has deleted footage, it should at least give us a general idea as to where she’s heading.”

“Assuming it’s not a trap,” Blackmar said. “Remember she could hack into anything, she could easily hack random cameras; delete the footage to throw us off.”

“Well not anything,” Foster said, recalling everything she learnt about HNI. “Military grade HNI ain’t hackable.”

“Then how the hell did she steal the passcode to the trains from one of my officers?” said Blackmar.”

“That’s … a very good question,” Foster drily said.

There was little else for Foster to do. She wasn’t military to start with, or from this century. She holstered her pistol and backed away to allow the security team to handle things. “Well, keep me posted.”

“Of course, Captain, I’ll have my men continue searching,” Blackmar said to her.

Foster made it as far as the apartment’s elevator, when Blackmar called out to her from behind, running to catch up with her. She grimaced, wondering what was up as he seemed content on remaining behind to search Pierce’s apartment not long ago. Now he wanted to ride the elevator down with her.

“Sorry to pull you off your ship after your encounter so suddenly,” Blackmar said as the two boarded the elevator.

Foster pushed the ground floor button, commanding the elevator to lower after its doors shut. “Its fine, Nereid and Odelea are going over what we learned.”

“Don’t remind me,” Blackmar said. “I don’t like keeping secrets from people, now more than ever.”

“Y’all keeping secrets now?”

“This station is home to twelve million,” he said. “There’s no way we could evacuate everyone in time in a calm nonchaotic manner if there is a fleet beyond that vortex waiting for the right time to strike. So, yeah, I need to keep this hush-hush, and hope the navy gets off their fucking ass and gives us the support we need.”

“Can’t the Imperial and Union navies help? They have their own people living here too.”

“There’s a limit to how many ships they can have in the system, unless approved by the UNE. Besides, most of their forces in the system are protecting their respective wormholes.”

She sighed dejectedly. “And so, we’s right back to before.”

“The government needs to take this threat seriously,” he said. “Hopefully your newfound intel and whatever your science team discovers will make that happen.”

“A science team with a missing key person,” she said drily.

“We’ll find Doctor Pierce. I’ll see to it that every ship is searched before they leave the station.”

“That’s gonna piss off a lot of people with the delays it will create, ain’t it?”

“I don’t give a fuck.” The elevator arrived at the ground floor, the two departed into the streets. “The timing of this hacker, Pierce’s disappearance, the missing fleet, the navy dragging their feet, EISS running up and down without my consent, and the shitstorm waiting for us in the maelstrom. Foster, do you really think this is all just one big inconvenient coincidence?”

Blackmar’s words made her stop as the fake sunlight above hit her porcelain skin. Her grimacing face added everything together, and then factored in that the Dragon Knight and Maiden, and evidently now Maraschino, all possessed the power to hack military grade HNI.

Foster’s voice became grim. “We need to act fast.”

“Yeah, we do.”

XSV Johannes Kepler docked in UNE hangar

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 13:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster stepped onto the bridge of the Kepler, savoring the aftertaste of her lunch. A Caesar salad made with lettuce from Aervounis, served with a side of grilled poultry from the Hashmedai colony Taxah. Chef Bailey’s ability to fuse human and alien cuisine together was unmatched. She made a mental note to recommend it to Odelea in hopes that she would eat something other than apples, minus the dressing and protein of course, as she approached her and Nereid at the science officer’s station.

The two girls were hard at work studying a number of holo screens, typing into holographic keyboards, and sharing personal thoughts about the data they were analyzing, trying their best to fill the void Pierce had left.

“Please tell me y’all have good news,” Foster said to the two.

“We might, Captain,” Odelea said, pushing a holo screen at Foster. “With Nereid’s help, we’ve managed to gain a better understanding of the songs the bio-ships use and the telemetry data they were transmitting.”

“The ships gathering in the maelstrom were directing other Draconians ships to their location from another,” Nereid said.

“What location is that?” Foster asked.

“As we know, they use the maelstrom as a means of interstellar travel and the ships we saw were reinforcements,” Odelea said. “Therefore, these new ships had to have originated someplace in normal space, then travelled through the maelstrom, arriving at the unopened vortex that will connect with the Arietis system.”

“Their homeworld?”

“Perhaps, or a base, I do not know.”

Odelea waved for Foster to stand closer to her and the computer workstation. A new projection appeared. It was a map of the galaxy. “The two of us managed to break down the songs into special coordinates from where the new Draconian ships are arriving from. However, without knowing what type of unit of measurement they use, I have no idea exactly where these coordinates point to.”

“Hmmm.” Foster looked at their quantum computing android standing motionlessly. “EVE, any input?”

“I ran the numbers provided by Scholar Odelea and Nereid and converted them into all known means of measurement within the galaxy,” EVE said. The holo screen Foster was looking at changed, showing a map of the galaxy and various lines pointing to no place in particular. “As you can see, none of these points to any specific system or planetary object.”

“Maybe they don’t have a world of their own,” Williams said, as he unexpectedly joined them. “Just a random space station or something out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Such a theory is highly unlikely, Commander,” EVE said. “The Draconian bio-ships are mostly organic, so still require food and water to operate.”

“Then you got to take into account those dragons,” Foster said. “It would need to be a pretty big space station to provide enough food and water to keep all that operating and allow space for their young to be born and grow up.”

“Between their soldiers, ships, and dragons, they would need to be near planets, and lots of them, for food and water,” Odelea added. “And if what Pierce said was true, and the construct on Jacobus was a hatchery, then that proves the dragons do rely on planets to survive and procreate.”

“I also saw quick glimpses of their world, in my engram vision,” Foster said. “So, for sure, there’s at least one planet out there where they operate from.” Foster briefly thought back to that moment when the monolith gave her the tattoos and mysterious powers. There was a globular in the skies, an enormous cluster of stars. She snapped her fingers. “Wait, can any of y’all access Pierce’s files from that station?”

Odelea typed in a string of commands. “I can, what do you wish to see, Captain?”

“Check out his recent ones, just before we left for Kapteyn’s Star, the second time around.”

Odelea pulled up the requested documents and displayed them on the holo screen. Many of them were star charts, planets, and star systems discovered between 2033 and 2118. “You think he left something for us to find?”

“In my vision, I saw clusters of stars,” Foster said. “Pierce went to brush up on all known knowledge of star clusters and globulars in and around the galaxy, hoping I might recognize one of them. Just, we didn’t get the chance to finish up, the navy called us to help them with their operation.”

Odelea accessed the files. Breathtaking pictures taken by high-powered telescopes appeared showing every star cluster and globular known to the galactic community.

Foster recognized some of them. “Yeah these are the files we were looking at.”

“Anything look familiar, Captain?” Odelea asked her.

Foster winced. “Nothing …” Odelea flicked past photo after photo, they all looked the same to Foster. Except for one. “Wait, flip back to that last one.” Odelea did so, and a projection of a cluster of stars appeared, they were so densely packed together the appeared as a ball of white light with millions of dots orbiting it. “Zoom in and enhance on the right side.” The projection of the star cluster enlarged. It seemed vaguely familiar. “A lot of these look the same to me, but this one … it does seem different from the rest, almost familiar.”

“Same here …” Williams added as he leaned in closer.

All eyes were on him. “Really, Dom?”

“That dream I was talking to you about …” Williams said. “I saw those stars in the skies, and I—”

“Painted pictures of them,” Foster cut in having remembered his artwork and the star cluster depicted in them looked exactly the same as the one on the projection.

Everyone’s gaze shifted back to the holo screen as Odelea pulled up more information about the cluster. “This is a globular cluster called, Omega Centauri.”

It got Foster thinking. “Hmm, EVE, show me a path from our current location to Omega Centauri.”

EVE created a holographic map of the galaxy, showing the location of the Arietis system, one of many stars in the Orion arm, and a line traveling to Omega Centauri.

It was at the edge of the galaxy.

“That’s quite the distance,” Williams said, reading the data that outputted. “Over sixteen thousand light-years …”

“Nereid, were all of the ships in the maelstrom communicating with the ships in Kapteyn’s Star system?” Foster asked her.

“I heard a few songs directed to them,” she replied. “I have that data documented.”

“Including telemetry data about the distances between the two fleets?”

Nereid nodded. “Yes.”

“EVE, show us a path between the location of the vortex in this system and the estimated location of the Draconian fleet in Kapteyn’s Star system,” Foster asked, and eagerly waited for the android to make the calculations.

A line between the vortex’s location in the Arietis system and the location of the Draconian fleet in the Kapteyn’s Star system appeared on the galaxy map. “Okay …” Foster said slowly, while selecting her words carefully. “Now, let’s assume the light-year distances between the vortexes here in Arietis and Kapteyn’s Star are the same as the numbers corresponding to telemetry data from the songs of the two fleets.”

“In that case, one light-year would be equal to thirteen units of their unit of measurement in space,” EVE said.

“Let’s call this unit … dragon light-years.”

“Seriously, Becca?” Williams snorted.

Foster threw her hands up. “What? I thought it sounded pretty cute. But, getting back to the point, how many dragon light-years away is Omega Centauri from our current location, EVE?”

“Using the data you have provided, Captain, it would be approximately two hundred twenty-six thousand, and two hundred dragon light-years.”

“And what was the number we pulled from the songs being transmitted to the new ships entering the maelstrom?”

“Two hundred twenty-six thousand, and two hundred of their units.”

Foster smirked. “It’s a perfect match.”

Repeated tests and adjustments confirmed five minutes later, that Draconian fleet was communicating with another force located somewhere within Omega Centauri.

“There we have it.” Foster was looking and smiling at the projection and a line pointing to the largest galactic globular cluster. “This is the location of either their homeworld, or a major stronghold.”

“Please keep in mind, Captain,” EVE said. “Omega Centauri is a region of space containing ten million closely grouped stars, each one with an average distance of zero point one light-year between each other. Pinpointing the location of an exact star system and planet from our current location is impossible. We would need to get closer.”

“Not to mention these projections are technically thousands of years out of date,” Odelea said. “Omega Centauri is over sixteen thousand light-years away, the images and data we are viewing were emitted from that region of space the same number of years ago.”

“Us humans were living in caves back then,” Williams said.

“Still, it’s a start,” Foster said. “I doubt the entire cluster has upped and vanished during that time. Moved due to stellar drift, yeah, but it should still be somewhat in that area. And let’s not forget, we now know where they’s comin’ from.”

“Sixteen thousand light-years … give or take another one thousand light-years,” Williams said. “How are we going to get there? No wormhole connects that far out, and our ship as fast as it is, would still take us several thousand years to arrive.”

“I vote not going into cryostasis for that,” Chang jumped in, having overheard their talk. “Losing sixty-eight years, plus the seventeen years we took to travel to Sirius, is enough for me.”

“The vortex key device has been proven to work,” Foster said. “I can open vortexes, and I can navigate through the maelstrom. We could use their method of traveling here, to get there.”

“Only that device is burned to shit and Saressea has no idea how to fix it nor does the station’s crew that built it,” Williams said to Foster.

“And we’s ain’t got the goo to keep us in that maelstrom for a long voyage …” Foster said, having remembered the stipulations involved.

“Then there’s their fleet, and that stealth ship moving around. Who’s to say we won’t encounter them again, even if we enter from another vortex?”

Odelea reclined in her seat. Pierce’s seat. She was keeping it warm for him. “If only there was another way.”

The vortex key was originally discovered by the Empire. Its parts and blueprints were passed on in secret to Blackmar and his team on the station, after receiving the core parts from the wreckage in Sol. And as Foster recalled, Blackmar mentioned the existence of another the Empire had.

She grinned.

“Put me through to station ops.”

“Station ops?” Odelea inquired.

“Blackmar got that device from the Empire,” she said. “I’m willing to wager his contacts there can help us get to Omega Centauri.”

28 Peiun

Downtown Core

Gravity City, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 13:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The human constructed buildings to the left and right of the air car Peiun and Gemini-S, also known as Sarah Vaughan, appeared as a blur of brown, and grey colors. Said blur became more noticeable when Sarah increased the vehicle’s speed to dangerously high numbers, swerving around other cars.

It felt as if they ventured into a maze with no surface or visible ceiling, with the towering buildings blocking out most of the sky. And for the surface? They were too high up for him to see it from the passenger-side window, a fall from their current height would be fatal. Lines of light and shapes danced across Sarah’s eyes, her HNI was feeding her a tremendous amount of information. The status of her suit and the car’s external cameras he figured, all being distractions. An uncomfortable twist in Peiun’s chest arrived.

Looking at Sarah made him realize she had a generous amount of cosmetics on; odd considering she was a human soldier. Last time he checked, it wasn’t necessary for them to wear that in a combat situation, neither was the perfume that escaped from the neck of her armor. It was almost as if she was preparing to attend a party, prior to climbing into her combat gear.

Sarah grunted after the holographic imagery that covered her eyes vanished; she saw something she didn’t like. Her body language alone was a clear indication of that. She yelled, pounding her first against the wheel.

“Ah, fuck you EISS!”

EISS, it reminded Peiun of why Sarah allied with him in the first place. It also reminded him of how much of a challenging adversity they would be.

“Your sister may be in grave danger then,” Peiun said. “I’ve heard of this, EISS group, a human Assassins’ Guild.”

“It’s more than that, black ops, sabotage, espionage, and yes, the odd assassination when necessary,” Sarah said. “They’re after her and as of now …” Sarah looked behind; Peiun’s eyes followed. Two cars approached rapidly, their speed was at the same dangerous levels as the car they were in. “They’re after us.”

Sarah fiddled with the controls of the car, and its speed increased. It lacked inertia dampers, so Peiun felt the rising G-force push his body into the chair, then rock about whenever she made sharp turns, dives, and ascents to get around the traffic ahead of them.

And evade the two cars behind.

Cars zoomed past, one by one. A truck and its trailer came inches away from his passenger-side window. A hard turn to the right placed them close enough for Peiun to see residents in their homes move about in the buildings next to him.

Rain began to crash into the car two minutes into the high-speed pursuit, enhancing the blurring and distorted view from his window. The two cars remained in their sights, pulling the same turns and rolls needed to slip past traffic and trucks.

Another sharp turn at a four-way intersection forced Peiun’s body to shift to the left, two seconds after that, red tracer light from magnetic pistols pierced the car. Their pursuers were armed, and they also came back into view, seen from the rear windows that shattered into pieces from the weapon’s fire. The sudden noise and shift in air pressure forced Peiun to duck, not that it mattered, those rounds had the power to travel fast enough to pierce his chair and body within a fraction of a second.

Sarah needed to ensure the car was not in their line of sight. He felt the need to remind her of that. She had shields after all. He didn’t.

She felt the need to tell him something else.

“Drive!” Sarah went to open her door, while the vehicle was still in motion. “I can’t shake them, and it’s pissing me the fuck off!”

She was outside, hanging onto the car from its driver’s side door, now wide open. The rippling noises of the winds passing by was deafening, the shower of rainwater spilling inside didn’t help. Peiun climbed into the driver’s seat and took the wheel. A car ahead of them came to a sudden stop. They were seconds away from a head-on collision with it. He made a sharp and wide turn, narrowly avoiding it.

Sarah yelped, nearly losing her grip, and getting tossed out into the abyss below. “Fuck’s sakes, keep it still!”

“I am unfamiliar with the operation of this vehicle!”

“Don’t you guys have cars in the Empire?”

“We do not; we rely on trains and personal psionic teleporters as a means of transportation—”

“Amazing, but that doesn’t help me right now!”

The pistol Sarah brandished exploded, firing its ultra-high-velocity projectiles at the two cars. The EISS agents inside the two cars, returned fire, making her shields flash and flicker while the downpour of water drenched the area. A train tube neared, the back of Sarah’s head was set to hit it.

He lowered the car, passing safely below the raised train tube. Sarah’s rampant cursing that came afterward, suggested the move threw her aim away from what could have been a kill shot. “Perhaps it would be better if we switched places?” he asked her.

They leveled off and veered around a bus. Its passengers all looked to the windows at the two-on-one car chase.

“I have a gun,” Sarah said. “What do you have?!”

“My sword!”

“Yeah …” Sarah’s pistol blazed with rapid shots. The two cars remained on course. “That’s what I thought.”

A critical system within the car was hit from the most recent weapons fire. Peiun could feel it as the speed of the vehicle decreased, as did its ability to remain in the air. Five back-to-back tink sounds from behind made the car shake and ignite fires from its back engines. The EISS agents were trying a new strategy, damage the car to make it crash.

Sarah maintained her dramatic stance of defiance, holding onto the car from the outside, and firing shots with every opportunity. The two chasing cars flew close to theirs; one on both ends. The agents within had a clear shot at Peiun’s head. He needed to not be in the car any longer.

There was no time to explain to Sarah his plan. When he lowered himself to grab his sword, a barrage of projectiles sprayed into the car from the left and right. The projectiles hit Sarah’s shields, others shattered the windows or filled the doors of the car with holes, letting rainwater pour in.

Peiun made his way back to the passenger-side door, keeping his head low, and thankful none of the random projectiles hit him. He pushed the door open, performing what humans would call, a leap of faith, jumping away from the now doomed and burning car, grabbing on to the side of a car operated by the EISS operatives on the right.

They tried to shake him off, rocking the car about while the projectiles that were released with the intent of ending his life missed. He lowered himself, grabbing hold of the cables and mechanical joints that existed on the underside of the car. To fire at him now, meant shooting through the floor, and damaging their car. And for the second car? They were too focused on Sarah, something Peiun should have been.

The car Peiun and Sarah rode in on, plunged after a small blast rendered its engines useless. It took Sarah down with it in a deadly fall. The activation of her suit’s MRF saw her plunge slowly, while the car continued to fall and eventually crash. Sarah was safe for the time being, falling slowly like a piece of paper in the air. For how long, only she knew, and the amount of power left in her suit’s batteries. He had a feeling that number was small, given the projectiles she was hit with, and continued to hit her, splashing across her fading blue barrier.

The scene made him hiss. The anger in his hands made his blade power on and swing up, cutting at the wires and various contraptions underneath the car he held on to. Sooner or later he’d slice something important. Flames erupted, and sparks flared before his face, forcing him to look away from the light that made his eyes hurt. He sliced something important.

The car began to sink, but not before he pulled himself up on top of its roof. One of the agents of the newly doomed car attempted to crawl up top and join him. Peiun’s plasma sword sent his head tumbling down to the streets below, forcing his body to slump over and join it. The blood that splattered across the car’s roof was quickly washed away by the rains and winds around them. Projectile blasts shot up through the rooftop, leaving behind tiny holes in their wake near his feet. The second agent in the falling car was still alive.

Peiun made his second leap of faith, landing on the trailer of a truck three stories below. The impact of the fall threw him down to his face. Sarah was still falling in slow motion thanks to her altered mass, and the occupants of the remaining car continued to focus on her. Her shields couldn’t take much more.

He had one loose end to tie up before he assisted her.

The remaining agent in the car he disabled joined him on top of the trailer of the truck. The man stood aiming his pistol at Peiun, his black suit and tie rippled in the winds and rains that poured down. His shades were concealing the fear Peiun suspected was growing in his eyes, as he faced him with his plasma sword burning.

Peiun stood tall sizing his adversary up, paying no mind to the torrential downpour that soaked his white hair, and made the fabric of his uniform cling to this skin. The winds created by their speed pressed against his back, rippling his soaked attire, and flicking his hair. He held his blade up, and its green glowing plasma energy released steady plumes of vapor into the air when the rain water came in contact with it. Taking on an aggressive sword stance, he made himself ready to make a strike at the agent when time came.

He saw the pistol aim at his head and ducked preemptively, evading the red lines that came at him. The pistol later aimed at his lower body, a double backflip over those red lines carried him to safety, and then his Hashmedai quick footwork closed the small gap between the two. An upward swing of his sword took the agent’s arm off, and the gun it held with it. A geyser of red drenched his face as Peiun went to make a spinning slash that cut a swath across the agent’s chest. His rib cage and pulsing organs were made visible, and the white dress shirt he wore under his black suit, was stained red where it wasn’t cut.

Rapidly fired shots echoed behind him. He twisted to see what became of Sarah and her situation. The last car commanded by EISS agents, began to sink. The driver of the vehicle’s face rested on the wheel, droplets of red poured away from the holes through his head. Sarah’s aim was impressive, despite being at a lower elevation than the car and continuing to fall.

The remaining agent panicked and attempted to retake control of the wheel from his fallen partner. Peiun stood and waited for the car to lower to him and the truck he stood on. It did, and he leaped for a third time and ensured his sword was pointed out. The last agent didn’t see the weapon that impaled his throat, or the plasma that burned the flesh, blood, and bones around it.

Operating a car with two dead bodies inside turned out to be much more of a challenge than he thought. He struggled to take the wheel and see through the dripping red and projectile ridden windshield. Recovering Sarah was all that mattered, everything else would have to wait. She climbed aboard after he lowered the car enough for her to do so. She took the time to aggressively curse and bring up the fact that they were losing altitude quickly and that he needed to pull up. He went to do so, approximately five seconds before they crashed onto a building with a rooftop patio.

The sudden impact of crash caused him to black out.

29 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler docked in UNE hangar

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 14:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Captain, incoming transmission.”

Rebecca Foster was just shy of the exit to the bridge, when EVE had notified her. The last few days saw her get very little bed rest. Her eyelids getting heavier was proof of that. Signing off early for the day and napping was going to have to wait.

“Put it through,” she reluctantly said then yawned.

EVE blinked twice, as her processors went to work. “It’s an encrypted message. The sender is requesting to speak with you in private.”

I’ll take it in my quarters, is what she wanted to say. “Well then, I’ll take it in my office.”

She knew damn well the moment she arrived in her quarters, her head was hitting the pillow, incoming message be damned!

Foster sat at her desk in her office, a deck below the bridge. She yawned, taking her time to pull up the holo screen that floated above the desk, showing the IESA and XSV Johannes Kepler logo as its screensaver. She went to pick up the encrypted message sent via QEC, now transferred to her computer. Upon accessing it, the flag of Hashmedai Empire appeared. It sent unpleasant shivers down her spine, shivers that made her eyelids lighter.

The flag morphed into a projection of Empress Kroshka, standing next her throne, unitizing the one QEC relay node UNE provided the Empire as with Radiance.

“Greetings from the Empire, Captain Foster.”

Foster’s hands folded together. “Empress Kroshka, this is unexpected.”

“You are alone I presume?”

“Yep, ain’t nobody else listening in.”

“Excellent,” the seductive empress said, adjusting her posture. “I understand you were successful recently in entering the maelstrom?”

“Yes, but the device we had to use burned out on us, and we’s ain’t got any means on fixing it.”

Then it hit Foster. She knew exactly where this was going. Just hours earlier, she asked Blackmar to put in a request to his contact within the Empire to lend them another vortex key, if they even had one. Kroshka reaching out to her carried some hopeful news.

“Was hoping … your people could lend us a hand,” Foster continued, and resisted the urge to cringe since she was asking Kroshka, the daughter of a woman that ordered the death of two billion humans including Foster’s father, for help.

“I have been made aware of your request,” Kroshka said. “While I have not decided if I should grant you access to the device or not. I would like to know, what do you intend to do with it?”

“Uh, enter the maelstrom again?” Was it not obvious?

Kroshka moved closer to the screen, and sternly asked. “For what purpose? Did you not report there was a fleet too large for you to defeat?”

“We, may have located where the Draconians are coming from,” she replied. “I’m looking to keep as many options open as possible in regard to getting there and bringing an end to this conflict.”

“I see …” The Hashmedai empress placed her hands ahead of her gleaming posh gown. “Have your people managed to find a way to reapply the protective substance onto your ship?”

“Nope, we ain’t gotten that far.”

“Then how do you indeed to travel through the maelstrom?”

“We’s still workin’ on that part, and to my understanding, y’all are much further along in understanding that goo than us.”

There was a long pause before Kroshka continued to speak, her lips twisted slightly. “Join me for dinner, Captain.”

“Uh … sure?”

“I invite you to dine with myself and my mate at the Imperial Palace,” Kroshka said. “We can further discuss this matter then.”

The holo screen returned to Foster’s desktop. She felt a nest of butterflies ready to take flight in her belly.

“EVE, contact all crew not aboard,” Foster said hitting the intercom. “Tell ‘em to get their buns back on ASAP.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“Request clearance to depart once everyone’s aboard.”

“Where are we heading, Captain?”

“The capital of the Empire,” Foster said. “Let’s hope our Radiance crew members won’t take offence.”

XSV Johannes Kepler

Paryo orbit, Uemaesce system

October 15, 2118, 17:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The trip to the Uemaesce system, the location of Paryo and the homeworld of the Hashmedai race, took a little under three hours. Thirty minutes to get clearance to depart, another thirty-five before the Imperial warships guarding the Uemaesce wormhole gate would move aside and allow the Kepler to enter. And then another hour of traversing across the system, toward the snow globe of a planet with a red dwarf star in the backdrop, shining its crimson light.

As strange as it was, the system was in the middle of Radiance controlled space. On a clear night with a telescope, you could see the Luminous system, the location of Aervounis and the Radiance Union capital. Once upon a time the surrounding systems close to Uemaesce were part of the Empire’s domain until a Radiance blitzkrieg assault turned all the colonies there into glass.

There was still a ring of wreckage and torn apart ships hanging in orbit around Paryo serving as grim reminder of what the Draconians were able to do to Imperial ships. Smaller vessels worked day and night to clean it up and recover what parts were still usable in their campaign to build new ships. Earth and Aervounis were undergoing a similar process in the wake of the dragon attacks.

Once clear of the debris field, the infamous space traffic jam was encountered. Transports ferried crew to and from Imperial warships, other smaller ships traveled to colonized planets or space stations within the system. The space bridges hanging above the north pole of the planet saw a lineup of ships waiting for clearance to use it and teleport to another Imperial controlled system elsewhere in the galaxy.

Like Earth, cities under cover of nighttime skies, appeared as a web of yellow and white lights on the surface, assuming the many blizzards that battered the planet weren’t covering them. Larger cities, such as the Imperial Capital, had buildings tall enough to reach the exosphere of the planet. They looked like tiny pins poking up from the clouds, especially the Imperial Palace, the tallest structure on the planet. Chang placed the Johannes Kepler in a geosynchronous orbit above it, anyone looking out from the central spire of the Imperial Palace, on its top floor might be able to catch a glimpse of the human and Radiance operated vessel in the skies.

“Gods forgive us.”

This reminded Foster of her next concern. She brought a ship carrying Radiance personnel to the capital of the Empire. Odelea, Saressea, and Tolukei all stood staring at Paryo as it became the dominant object on the view screen. None of the three seemed pleased to see it.

“We won’t be here long,” Foster said.

“For centuries, our people have fought for the chance to venture this far into this system,” Odelea said. “Thousands of ships, thousands more lives burned by Imperial plasma weapons, and not one of them made it this far.”

“Until today,” Tolukei said. “We are the first people from Radiance to penetrate this deep into the system since the war without end begun.”

“Radiance Celestial Order members did operate in this system,” Odelea said.

“Fine,” Saressea interjected. “We’re the first Radiance people that were never indoctrinated by the order to make it this far.”

Odelea’s computer at her communication station beeped. “The Hashmedai have cleared us to land in one of the docking ports in their palace.”

Foster nodded. “Take us down, Chang.”

Chang made a face as he read the data that outputted to his holo screen. “Uh, about that, Captain.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The ship is too massive to fit inside the docking bay of the palace,” Chang said. “A transport would work better, or perhaps a teleportation.”

She considered asking Tolukei to do the honors of teleporting her to the surface, and then envisioned hordes of Hashmedai warriors freaking out and attacking because he’s a Javnis psionic. Nereid hadn’t mastered teleportation, so scratch that, leaving LeBoeuf. Foster’s pride deterred her from asking for help from her or any other EDF member. Besides, the mind shield wasn’t configured to allow LeBoeuf or Maxwell to use their powers.

“Transport it is,” Foster said, and made her way to the exit.

Williams followed her. “I’ll go with you, Becca.”

“I’ll handle it, Dom.”

“That transport is going to sit idle alone with Hashmedai free to do whatever they want with it while you wine and dine.”

She froze having realized the issues that could arise. “Fair point.”

“Besides, what if you have too much to drink?” he said. “I’ll be your designated pilot.”

“Whatever,” she said and returned to make her exit with Williams at her side. “Saressea … you have the bridge.”

Chang spun in his chair and looked back at the Rabuabin woman giving him a snarky smile when she went for the captain’s chair. “Wait, Saressea?”

“She’s holds the rank of captain in the Radiance navy,” Foster said. “This is a joint venture between the UNE and them. If Dom and I ain’t here, then she’s in charge.”

Saressea sat down on Foster’s chair at the edge of the seat, giving her long tail space to stretch out then fold over the top of the left arm of the chair. Her snarky grin continued.

“With that said …” Foster said to Saressea. “This gonna be a ship in orbit of the Empire’s capital, under command of someone from Radiance … don’t try to avenge your ancestors or somethin’”

Saressea’s ears sagged. “Captain, I’m insulted!”

“Just tryin’ to keep the peace is all.”

“If this turns out to be a trap, don’t come crying to me for help,” Saressea said.

Foster shrugged. “Earth, Hashmedai, Radiance … we’s all in this together, why would we turn against each other now and fight?”

A transport carrying Foster and Williams shot out and away from the Johannes Kepler’s cargo bay, sinking below the clouds and toward the pin-shaped objects poking up from the surface. Once they neared, the pin-shaped objects became immaculate towers resting in the center of a vast city.

Ten minutes into their flight to the surface, Foster asked, “Dom, what’s the real reason why you wanted to come down with me?”

“Designated pilot, mostly.”

“I ain’t planning on drinking.”

Williams adjusted their course, bringing the transport to level off and fly below the cloud coverage. White fluffy flakes of precipitation began to fall from the darkening skies and blanket the craft and its windshields. “This is Paryo, Becca.”

“Yeah I know.”

“Remember when we were younger? And we spent those sad nights in LA cursing this planet and the people that lived on it?”

Lights dotted the five spires that made up a part of the Imperial Palace, now more visible as they neared while the snowfall intensified. She had almost forgotten what it was like to watch snowfall. “Yep … and now here we are.”

“These people killed your father, killed mine, and my mother,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure you’re okay with this and won’t lose it.”

“I should be sayin’ that to you,” she said, keeping her eyes forward and controlling the growing sense of worry in her chest. “You still haven’t gotten over the dreams, Dom.”

“That’s the second reason I’m here. Maybe being here on their homeworld will teach my head there’s nothing to fear anymore. Or explain why I was able to see Omega Centauri in my dreams …”

“You know, on second thoughts, I’m glad you came” she said, changing the subject. “Everyone on our ship, including us, has some kinda of grudge against the Hashmedai. We’s the ranking personnel about to step foot on their homeworld with the intent of talking rather than fightin’. Let’s set a good example to our team.”

The central spire took up two thirds of the view from the windshield. Williams slowed to approach the opened docking bay doors. “Right, no fights, no grudges … and no flashbacks. Seems doable.”

“And if you clear ya head enough to figure out why Omega Centauri was in there, let me know,” she added. “’Cause that ain’t no coincidence.”

The transport entered the docking bay, and slowly lowered as its blue landing thrusters guided it down. The docking bay was sparsely lit, only the evening light from outside allowed Foster to see the other transport ships lying idle from their windshields.

Williams walked with her to the entrance, its doors lifted open when she tapped the door command terminal. The two were greeted by multiple pairs of red and orange glowing eyes. One of those pairs of eyes stepped forward, a tall woman with long purple hair, heavily armored like a knight. She even had a sword and shield at her sides.

“Howdy, I’m Rebecca Foster, Captain of the Johannes Kepler.” Foster offered her hand to shake. The woman ahead of her offered nothing else. “Uh, and this is my second-in-command, Commander Dominic Williams.”

“I am Onatiasha Ladyknight of the Imperial guard,” she said. “Your commander is not invited.”

“Yeah, uh, he’s just my designated driver, er, I mean pilot.”

“What?” Onatiasha sternly asked her.

“I meant pilot! I don’t know if y’all have these, but back on Earth we used to drive cars, and so during parties we needed—”

“I know what a car is.”

“That’s awesome! So, you know what I was tryin’ to say then—”

“He can remain aboard your transport.”

“Seems good!”

“If he violates this agreement, then I will slit his throat.”

Williams was ready to bolt forward to pick a fight, one that would leave him headless. Foster pushed him back, way back inside the transport. “Right so, remain aboard, Dom.”

“I got a bad feeling about this, Becca.”

“No fighting or grudges …” she released his shoulder from her grip, surprised at how firm they were. He’d been working out lately. “Watch a movie or something in the back.”

The chilly air that poured into the transport, prompted her to fetch an IESA coat from the back, before moving out and following Onatiasha and her guards to the elevator. Foster gave Williams one last fleeting look as the transport doors lowered shut, the two exchanged thumbs up gestures.

The journey up in the elevator was long. At least twelve minutes had slipped away as it continued to ascend upward to what Foster suspected was the top of the spire, the one she was able to view from orbit. The armored Hashmedai remained silent, holding onto their plasma swords or polearms like ancient Earth warriors standing watch.

“So …” Foster said. “Y’all ever considered having elevator music?” No one replied. “It’s just this ride is so long, having background music would help fill the void, ya know? My helmsman got a killer playlist if you need suggestions.” No one replied. “So, Onatiasha you said your name was right?”

“Yes.”

“You the only one in here that speaks English?”

“Yes.”

“Ah okay … Just wondering if y’all heard and understood me. You did, yeah. I get that, just not everyone else.” Onatiasha gave Foster the look of death. She looked away. “Good chat.”

The elevator arrived at its destination, and Foster was escorted out into the highly decorated halls with oddly shaped chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling. To the right of her were windows after windows that looked out into the darkening horizon, dotted with stars and orbiting ships. Below were the thick clouds dusting the city beneath it with snow. It felt like they were on a ship gliding high up between the borders of space and the planet.

Various palace staff, servants, and nobles scurried about, and all paused their activities to gawk at the human woman that stood within the middle of the Imperial guards, making their way down the halls. Part of her felt as if she had been transported to the nineteenth century. She was half-expecting the Tsar of Russia to show up and greet her. Hashmedai accents didn’t help her get rid of those thoughts.

She was taken into the dining area, a pitch-black room with only a spotlight in the center shining its light down upon a wide dinner table. She approached the table, unsure if the guards were with her or not, though the clanks of their footsteps weren’t heard while she took a seat at one of the three vacant chairs.

Two pairs of glowing eyes stepped out from the darkness, Empress Kroshka and the Emperor Eensino. Eensino was wearing a vest that covered the sides of his brawny body, exposing his chest and midriff. Gold-and silver-colored chains dangled off his shoulders, objects that Foster guessed were medals of honor were pinned to the sides of his vest. Behind him was his cape, waving about, stretching down to his pants as he moved to his chair. His entire outfit was blue, like the oceans of Earth, and the ribbonlike ocean that stretched across the equator of Paryo.

Symbolism Foster figured, since Kroshka’s outfit was a white gown, designed to resemble frost, snow, and icicles around her bust, going down her body. The dress she wore even sparkled slightly when in the light, almost as if it was made of snow. If the two stood together and he wrapped his arm around her waist, they would almost look like Paryo.

Foster was underdressed. Not that it mattered, she needed the coat and something warm under it to prevent herself from freezing.

“Thank you for joining us, Captain,” Eensino said, once all three had been seated.

Kroshka clapped her hands twice, summoning servants to place three plates of food on the table. It was entirely protein based, meat wrapped around the bone of some local animal. It was elegantly styled and plated, but there was nothing else, just meat. Foster noticed hers was cooked, unlike the other two.

“I hope you enjoy your meal,” Kroshka said. “Our chef has not had to cook for humans for some time. But as we recall, you prefer your protein cooked all the way through.”

She bit into her meal. It tasted like a deep-fried sirloin wrapped in shoe leather. “You should have let me bring our chef; he’s an expert at preparing foods for all species.”

Kroshka swirled her Hashmedai-made wineglass full of a grey and opaque liquid. “Is that so?”

“He made us a salad with protein from Taxah.” Foster forced herself to consume the meal, projecting fake smiles in the process. “But … being a food critic ain’t what we came together for right?”

Kroshka sipped her wine. “No, it is not.”

“You believe you have located the homeworld of the Draconians?” Eensino said after downing his drink.

“Homeworld or a major stronghold,” Foster said. “We don’t know exactly, but we can once we get there.”

Eensino held his empty glass up and asked. “Where is it?”

“I doubt the dear captain has such data on her,” Kroshka said.

A servant stepped out of the darkness carrying a bottle of wine and refilled his glass. He shrugged and took another hit of the beverage.

“It’s a place we humans call Omega Centauri,” Foster explained. “The largest globular at the edge of the galaxy.”

Eensino pulled his drink away from his lips, placing it back on the table. He looked at his partner. She looked back, then returned their attention to Foster. “Go on,” Kroshka said to her.

“I have the power to navigate through the maelstrom, and with that device I can open vortexes. Our only problem is, we ain’t got the means to survive a long journey through it, and we don’t have a working device anymore … y’all do however.”

Servants returned from the shadows to replace their plates full of bones with the second course. A creature that resembled a snake with legs, once again Foster’s was cooked thoroughly. She was only able to muster three bites before pushing it aside.

“So,” Eensino said after the brief intermission of food. “You wish to take our hard work and research to carry out your mission—?”

“To save us all from this war we cannot win,” Kroshka finished for him, though, Foster had doubts those were the exact words he was thinking.

“It’s the best option we got right now,” Foster said. “You damn right I do.”

“Not necessary,” Kroshka said.

Foster’s eyebrow rose as she faced her. “Oh?”

“This Omega Centauri you speak of—”

“Kroshka …” Eensino cut in. A small heated husband and wife debate ensued, spoken entirely in the Hashmedai language. It ended with Kroshka smiling, facing Foster, and Eensino groaning, and facepalming.

“We are … familiar with it,” Kroshka said.

“Omega Centauri? Exactly how familiar are you two with it?”

“We colonized a star system on the outskirts of it,” Kroshka said. “And attempted to colonize the stars within it …”

“What happened?”

“We sent ships in,” Eensino reluctantly spoke. “They never returned nor communicated with us.”

“Omega Centauri is pretty far away from the explored galaxy,” Foster said. “How did y’all get a colony set up close to it, let alone send ships into it?”

“Remember, our primary means of interstellar travel revolves around the space bridge network,” Eensino said. “We can teleport ships to any location within the galaxy, and beyond.”

“Prior to the war with Radiance, we sought to establish our colonies in random systems throughout the galaxy, rather than keeping them clustered close together,” Kroshka said. “If you were to view a map of Imperial controlled space, it would literally be star systems scattered across the Milky Way, many of them hundreds, if not thousands, of light-years apart.”

“Well, bless your heart, but that ain’t sounding like an organized way to build an Empire,” Foster said.

“It slowed Radiance’s advance into our space,” Kroshka said. “Our systems were far and spread apart, it took them decades to reach one, sometimes centuries. Again, that was just one; we went out of our way to ensure there was an enormous light-year gap in between our systems.”

Kroshka’s words began to make sense, the longer Foster thought about it. With every Imperial system having a space bridge and relying on it, there was no need to keep everything close like Radiance and the UNE did. You could teleport ships over with the space bridge. Throw in MRF technology, and the lowered mass of a ship could help speed up travel times between space bridge jumps. The more ships with them, the faster they could send supplies and establish new colonies.

Yeah, no wonder they want MRF tech so badly, she thought as the dessert course arrived. It was described as something that sounded similar to Foie Gras, it even looked like it. Foster pushed the plate away, opting to drink instead, arguing that she was too full to go any further.

While the emperor and empress wolfed down their last course, something critical popped into her thoughts. She wasn’t sure if the alcohol was making her head clearer, or it was something else.

“Beyond,” Foster murmured. “Sounds like the space bridge network only can send ships to other locations within the Milky Way. How does the ‘beyond’ part fit in?”

“Our space bridges are operated by a vast team of psionic volunteers that spend their lives keeping it in operation with their minds,” Eensino said.

Volunteers, she snickered internally at that term. Nobody volunteered for anything in the Empire, only voluntold.

“Recent advancements in psionic cybernetics have allowed us to enhance their powers,” Kroshka added “Our space bridge psionics have gained the ability to send ships beyond the edge of the galaxy.”

Foster smirked. “Like Omega Centauri.”

Kroshka smirked back. “Exactly.”

“So, what you’re saying is, we might not need to use the maelstrom,” Foster said. “We could take the space bridge directly into Omega Centauri.”

“It’s possible, but do not forget what we said. We have sent ships into that region of space, and never heard from them again,” Eensino said to Foster. “Who is to say your ship won’t suffer the same fate?”

“I’ve already went missing once.”

“And you may not return.”

The talk of ships vanishing got Foster’s head to piece together more parts to the mystery. The Carl Sagan, Abyssal Sword, the Imperial colonization ships that entered Omega Centauri, they all vanished. Throw in Williams’ dreams of seeing Omega Centauri in the skies, and it was quite clear to her that the idea that the Draconians controlling that region wasn’t a theory, but a fact.

“I want to send her,” Kroshka said.

“You can’t be serious?” Eensino objected. “A human ship being given permission to use our space bridge?”

“A human ship co-developed and operated by Radiance,” Foster corrected them. The two faced her slowly and simultaneously, giving her a scowling glare with their red and orange eyes. “But, uh, you didn’t hear that from me!”

“It’s the only way,” Kroshka continued. “The UNE has made contributions to this campaign as did Radiance.”

“We have as well in learning how to develop Draconian technology,” Eensino said.

“Which is only a drop in the bucket,” Foster said. “Help us get there, and the Empire would have pulled their weight, and I dare say, contributed more than Radiance has. Remember, humans favor Radiance over the Empire, after all Radiance came to our aid when you attacked us—”

“That was my mother’s doing, not mine!” Kroshka’s rage-filled voice roared as her hands smashed against the table, making the glass, silverware, and plates vibrate and clang.

“Yeah, but we still have much more respect for Radiance than Hashmedai. We still view them as the aliens that prevented our extinction.” Speaking from experience here. “Now we’s facing extinction again, this time by the dragons. So, help us with this, and it may change the way us humans view Hashmedai. We’ll respect you the way we respect Radiance.”

“We will need to discuss things, further,” Eensino said slowly. “But … we will grant you access to the space bridge network.”

Foster found herself standing on a balcony gifting her with an unrestricted view of the darkened horizon of the icy planet, and the stellar spectacle above. She spotted the Johannes Kepler in the skies, as it maintained its orbit. It looked like a small shiny disk that remained still in the skies, never moving. She snapped a photo of it with her wrist terminal, and then later took a selfie of her standing next to the railings of the balcony. The effects of the wine were taking their time to loosen their hold on her. She promised Williams she wasn’t going to drink and intended to make that image show when she returned to the transport.

She looked back beyond the railings of the balcony, impressed at the technology the Hashmedai used to keep the extreme cold air and lack of breathable air in the lower exosphere of the planet, away from the environment of the palace.

A slim hand stroked the side of Foster’s arm. “My apologies for the food.”

Kroshka had snuck up and joined Foster in the stargazing and awing at the white clouds far below, that continued to sprinkle flakes to the surface.

“It’s fine,” Foster said.

“If you’d like, you are welcome to attend our festival on Taxah, the capital of the Uelcovis system.”

“Don’t think it’ll be necessary, we’s got a galaxy to save and all.”

“Regardless which path you choose to take to Omega Centauri, you will still need a means of returning home.”

Returning home, it was a detail she forgot to take into account. The space bridge network, as incredible as it was, worked best when you teleported your ship into a system that had another space bridge, so it could take you home or to another detestation. The Imperial ships sent into Omega Centauri most likely met their end, and never built new space bridges.

“The maelstrom will be our only way back to the galaxy,” Foster said, keeping her gaze on the horizon.

“The teams that were responsible for restoring the device you refer to as the vortex key, and studying the protective substance, are stationed in that system. It would be in your best interest to obtain those items before your journey.”

“So y’all will be giving us access to the space bridge and your research projects?”

“My mate, Eensino, would rather not,” Kroshka said, keeping her stare fixed on the splendorous sights ahead. “The Empire has been at a great disadvantage over the years. FTL, MRF, wormhole technology, Lyonria ruins, none of it has been shared with us. The colony near Omega Centauri and our developments into better understanding Draconian technology were our two biggest secrets.”

“And now my mission is gonna change that,” Foster said. “To be fair, we never shared much of that tech with Radiance other than FTL.”

“That’s because FTL was co-developed by Radiance.”

Foster pushed away from the railing. “Ah, right, sorry I’m still learning what I missed when I was asleep in cryo.”

“Rather than staying in the Uelcovis system to receive our gifts, consider staying to attend the festival. I, the emperor, and all Imperial system lords will be in attendance. It will be … a better dining experience with us, it was quite clear my chef prepared food that was not to your liking.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“You can bring your chef to cook for us as well; you did mention he was skilled at preparing meals of nonhuman origin.”

“Again, I’ll think about it.”

“Please do not think too long,” Kroshka said. “My husband is planning the execution of the chef.”

“For what?”

“We take great pride in ensuring our guests eat and enjoy their meals. You are the first to show displeasure. In Eensino’s eyes, the chef has failed and will be punished. But, if your chef and him both prepare meals that will satisfy those in attendance, he may redeem himself and be spared.”

“And what if my chef drops the ball?”

“He’s your chef; you will have to take corrective action. Humans having to face punishment in the hands of Hashmedai can be a sensitive subject to many.”

Foster’s previous blissful mood quickly grew sour. It was time for a topic change. She gestured to the skies. “Quite the view.”

The empress smiled and looked up at the stars and ships visible from their location. “There are many places to view the skies that are more spectacular than this,” she pointed up. “This tower goes higher. From the top you could see the border between the planet and space.”

Foster sobered up enough to make it back to the transport without Williams suspecting a thing. As she went to back away from the balcony, the alluring empress held her arm. She had something more to say, Foster looked at her.

“Have you encountered any information pertaining to mysterious artifacts the Draconians have taken interest in?” Kroshka asked.

“Nope, I heard some strange things have been dug up in the Middle East on Earth because of the Draconians attacks,” Foster said, shaking her head. “My team found one on the surface of New Babylon, but that’s it, they lost it during an ambush. Why do you ask?”

Kroshka’s face twisted with disappointment, like she was expecting Foster to say otherwise. “Curiosity, that is all. It has been brought to my attention the Draconians are seeking them.”

“I ain’t got anything else to say about ‘em, they’s as mysterious to us as they are to you.” Foster’s comment made a slight smirk appear on the empress’ face, a confident one at that.

“Should you learn anything, please share it. Perhaps we could discover more about them together and compare notes?”

“I’d have to clear that with my people.”

And before she did that, figure what type of hidden message Kroshka was trying to convey. Changing the topic suddenly to artifacts, when they haven’t been talked about by anyone recently, was a suspicious thing to do as far as Foster was concerned.

Kroshka was fishing for information, and probably suspected that Williams, and everyone else that was on the surface of New Babylon two months ago, learnt something about the artifact they were forced to drop when the Dragon Maiden arrived to claim it.

XSV Johannes Kepler

Paryo orbit, Uemaesce system

October 15, 2118, 20:53 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler’s galley, size wise, was a step down from the one featured on the Carl Sagan. The ship wasn’t meant to hold a large crew, let alone serve them. Chef Demarion Bailey didn’t mind it while he brushed a broom across the floor, clearing it of flour and vegetable peelings that had fallen onto it.

Foster snuck in and stood watching him. Shiny pots and pans hung from the ceiling next to her. She debated how she was going to approach him about the topic at hand. Straight-up say what she needed of him? Or try to sugarcoat it? A man’s life was on the line, and it was her fault for putting him in that position when she passed on consuming the meals presented to her. Bailey’s cooking could change that, and his actions could deliver some much-needed leverage with the empress.

“Hey, Chef, you got a minute?” Foster called out him.

The old and wise Jamaican man put the broom away and approached, smiling. “Hey, Captain, wah gwaan?”

“So, I’m in a bit of jam right now,” Foster said, cutting to the point. “A man’s about to lose his head, a fellow chef at that.”

Bailey crossed his arms across his white chef coat and apron. “Wha?”

“A Hashmedai chef. But, yeah, long story short, in order to save his hide, and butter up the empress to help us out, I’m gonna need you to help that poor ol’ Hashmedai chef cook for a bunch of people.”

“What kinda people?”

“Oh, nothing major. Just the emperor and empress of the Hashmedai Empire, and all their system lords.” Bailey’s mouth and eyes opened wide in shock. “So, you in?”

“Oh, rasclot!”

“I’ll take that as a yes! Thanks, Chef!”

30 Avearan

Phylarlie’s Manor

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 15, 2118, 14:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Avearan was back in the Empire.

She knew this because she found herself standing still for two minutes after stepping off the transport that dropped her and Lisette in front of Phylarlie’s manor. The cold arctic wind hitting her face, breathing air that wasn’t provided by air recyclers, snow at her feet, and the voices of Hashmedai dock workers speaking to each other in the distance. It felt good to be back.

She remembered a time in her life when the feelings she was experiencing were a daily norm. That was a time years before anyone in the Empire knew of her psionic gifts, and when the human race was just group of primitive people sending robots to explore the surface of Mars because they weren’t advanced enough to do it themselves.

If it wasn’t for Lisette tugging on her arm, nearly dragging her away, Avearan probably would have spent another two minutes lost in nostalgic thoughts, as if her mind was a time machine.

Avearan gave Lisette a quick tour of the old manor, walking across its floors and elaborately designed staircases. Servants bowed their heads in respect when they walked past. Guests staying at the manor paid no mind to Avearan’s presence as they were clueless to who she really was. Lisette’s smile refused to fade the longer they stayed and walked about. She was ecstatic about the experience, running from room to room, chamber to chamber, cursing the fact they only had a week before they had to return to Titan. Lisette wanted to see everything the planet had, it was after all the first time in her life she stepped foot on a planet. Titan was a moon.

The tour ended with Avearan and Lisette standing on a balcony located on the top floor. To the left was the city of Muro, a city where its buildings existed on the outside world which was a strange concept to Lisette. Beyond was the arctic tundra where the land was made of snow, ice, and frozen mountains, and where towering, high glaciers floated on the ocean. She watched the emotions flow through Lisette’s body, weakening her knees while her mitted hands covered her face when she saw the openness of the world. Snow began to fall from the skies, blanketing the material of Lisette’s faux fur coat.

Lisette raised her hands high up like she was trying to touch the opened skies and clouds that dispensed the white fluffy matter that plummeted. “Oh my God, Avearan,” she said, keeping her face up.

Avearan shrugged. “Yeah, that stuff is called snow …”

“I know what it is!” Lisette said, facing her. “I’ve never seen it like this … or touched it.”

“You should see it during a storm …”

Lisette exhaled, expelling mist from her mouth, after taking in a large breath of air. “Holy shit, give me a moment here.”

“That’s called fresh air not produced by air recyclers.”

“And the cool air around me is called me not freezing to death instantly,” Lisette said.

“You’re human,” Avearan said drily. “If you stayed out here long enough you would.”

“I’m jealous of you, Avearan. You had a better life out here than on Titan.”

“Not really, since I rarely had the chance to leave this place,” Avearan said. “Whenever I came to visit, I had to wait until the sun set to leave. The day-night cycles here are longer than what they are on Paryo and Earth. So, yeah, I had to wait a while.”

“Was life in the Empire really that bad?”

Avearan grimaced. “Yes, you’re given a career path to follow at birth; you have no choice but to spend your whole childhood being molded into that. And if you’re psionic? Then all that changes when you get pushed into their training programs and locked away for five years. You’re cut off from the world, family, and friends, and raped by teachers and sometimes other students.”

Lisette took another glace at the frozen tundra, resting her mittened hands on the balcony’s railing. “Wasn’t that under the old ruler of the Empire?”

“Nothing’s changed,” Avearan said, joining her, and leaning against the railing. “Hashmedai psionics are a rarity since Radiance killed billions of them during the war our two people had. We lost the technology needed to bring out psionic powers in those that have the potential.”

“So, you’re like an endangered species, almost.”

Avearan nodded. “That’s one way to put it. The Empire captures all Hashmedai psionics and forces them to train in their camps buried deep inside mountains. The students aren’t allowed to leave until they finish their training and get assigned to their new posts. And the teachers? Ha! They have to spend their whole lives there training the next generation of students, hence the rape and treatment of others. Doesn’t matter which end of the problem you’re on, psionic training is a prison sentence. Keeping all Hashmedai psionics rounded up and tucked away was the Empire’s way of protecting us from our enemies, until we were strong enough to defend ourselves.”

“That’s why you ran away?” Lisette said with a hint of sorrow in her voice.

“Yeah, well, part of it,” Avearan said. “The other reason was because I had no choice for what my assignment was going to be. I didn’t like the idea of being forced to train, forced to give my teacher a blowjob, then forced to go where the Empire wanted me.”

“Did they at least say thank you?”

“Who? The Empire or my teacher?” she snorted, it was met with laughter from the two. “I met some cargo haulers that told me about the salvagers in the Morutrin system looking for new recruits. I took the offer and told the Empire to fuck off. After the Celestial Order wars, Phylarlie offered me a chance to experience life in the Empire here and there, but only if I came to this manor when she didn’t have guests.” Which makes this invite suspect, Phylarlie’s bringing in the biggest guests this place has ever seen—

Lisette held onto Avearan’s collar, pulling her face in to hers. Her soft lips did the rest, gifting Avearan with a passionate kiss. Lisette’s hands uncupping Avearan’s face, allowed her to pull away. She chose not to. She admired Lisette’s confidence, her boldness, and no fear attitude to let her know how much she wanted Avearan in her life.

“After we finish our training on Titan,” Lisette whispered, pressing her forehead against hers. “I’ll give you the freedom that everyone else was too much of an asshole to give you.”

“I appreciate that.”

“Going to a UNE run psionic academy should already show you how different things will be in the there. Nobody is going to force you into anything you don’t want to do, since our training isn’t for military use.”

Avearan wanted to believe that. But the Terran Legion protests and their growing support still had her fearful, for Lisette more than her. Avearan spent years living in the wilderness of the Morutrin system, and so, she was no stranger to watching her back daily. If the protests proved anything, it’s that the Terran Legion were hostile to not just nonhumans, but humans that befriended them.

Lisette was the one of the best things to happen to Avearan. She was the first and only person in her life that she gave a damn about, a person whose physical touch alone was addictive like a narcotic. The thought of going more than two days without seeing or touching her would drive Avearan insane. Lisette was in the exact same position, and it was that knowledge that kept them together despite the short amount of time they knew each other.

Losing Lisette to the Legion was a thought she was far too afraid to think about.

“Don’t keep her there too long.” A voice called out to Avearan in the Hashmedai language. She faced the source of the voice. A captivating Hashmedai woman with pale blue skin stood and leaned against the frame of the door, wearing a red and black lace dress, its top barely covering her chest. It was Phylarlie. “She’s human, she might get sick.”

“We need to talk,” Avearan said to Phylarlie in Hashmedai.

Phylarlie nodded. “I concur.”

“Hey, Lisette,” Avearan said to her in English. “You want to head back to our room and unpack? I need to have a word with the system lord here.”

Lisette pushed away from the balcony. “I guess the sightseeing can wait.”

Avearan and Phylarlie were left alone after Lisette disappeared into the darkened halls. A gust of wind below, scattered the snow around them and their loose hair, Phylarlie’s raven-black hair more so than Avearan’s, which had been tied back.

“Why are we here?” Avearan asked her in their language, getting right to the point.

“Because you accepted my invite and requested that your mate—”

“Girlfriend.”

“… come along,” Phylarlie finished.

“Why did you send the invite? It has always been myself having to ask, oftentimes beg, for you to allow me to visit. Now, suddenly, you’re the one reaching out to me, during a Conquest Day festival at that.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a lord gifting close personal friends.”

“I’m not of high birth, I’m a psionic a runaway, the scum of the Empire, and had to kill more assassins than I could count sent to kill me.”

“And when was the last time an assassin attacked you?”

“I believe you know the answer to that,” Avearan said, looking away from her devious grin. “Don’t ask me questions you already know the answer to.”

“I wanted to host this year’s events and invite all those that help shape our Empire.”

“How generous of you,” she snorted.

“This year will be different,” Phylarlie said. “It will show the Empire is changing. We Hashmedai won’t have to live in fear that terrible things will happen on this day, like it has in the past.”

“So back to my previous question, why am I here? It doesn’t make sense that I should be allowed to attend the event, and drink with the same people that made the laws that I break … whatever it is you’re planning.”

“After this year’s gathering, things will be different in the Empire … as with your status.”

“What do you plan on doing? Unveil that I’m the guest of honor to the emperor and empress and convince them to have all charges dropped?”

Phylarlie looked at the dropping snow that picked up its pace while stroking one of the many jewel-studded rings on her fingers. It took her forty seconds to provide Avearan with an answer.

“There’s something else I need of you.”

Avearan smirked at the comment. Dealing with the lowlifes on Morutrin Prime taught her to learn when someone was trying to use her. “I knew it.”

“Honestly, I wanted you and your … girlfriend, to enjoy yourselves first with the dining and entertainment.”

“I’ll be able to enjoy myself better once I know what’s on your agenda. Feel free to tell me everything now.”

“As you wish.”

The system lord moved away from the balcony and used her enticing glare to beckon Avearan to follow her. Avearan had a feeling she was going to regret it, much like how she was starting to regret coming to Taxah over Earth.

Central Jungles

Rainforest, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 15, 2118, 20:59 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A transport lowered itself onto a landing pad next to a structure completely overrun by tropical vegetation within the center of a jungle, untouched by the hands of Hashmedai civilization. Two figures exited the transport seconds after it touched down and its landing thrusters came to an end, Avearan and Phylarlie. Both staggered as the heat and humidity hit them.

Avearan took a glance at their surroundings, noting the tall canopy trees, vegetation thick enough to hide the countless wild animals and insects roaming beyond, and the beach several kilometers away she saw them fly over. This was exactly what Lisette wanted to see, warm tropical weather at Taxah’s uninhabited equator. Instead of bringing her out here, Avearan was following Phylarlie inside the structure, to learn of the true reason why she invited her to visit.

An elevator took the two underground—deep underground. The ride itself took minutes to end, during which Avearan felt the heat that had been attacking her senses dissipate, when the cooler subterranean air arrived. Phylarlie guided her through a tunnel that showed signs of aging with its rust-covered metallic floors and walls. An assortment of scientists moved from chamber to chamber, some wore hazmat suits, others standard Imperial lab attire.

Phylarlie brought her into a chamber with pods, five to six times larger than the two of them combined, scattered about. She couldn’t make out what was inside when she peered through their frosted glass covers, only that they were heavy and required antigravity carts to push them out of the room, evident when several scientists arrived to do so.

“After the draconic incursion,” Phylarlie said to her. “The Empire entrusted the facilities here to study the protective substance the Rezeki’s Rage used to survive the maelstrom.”

Avearan grimaced as Phylarlie took her deeper into the chamber. Tables held large chunks of burned flesh where large scanning equipment in the ceilings shone rays of blue and white light upon them. Some of the flesh still had mechanical parts attached to them. Phylarlie waved her hand before them.

“Recognize these?” she asked Avearan.

She nodded, moving closer to the flesh hulks. “These are the remains of the Draconian ships.”

“Very good,” Phylarlie said. “We’ve been trying to learn how they were able to create organic ships, and how the cybernetic parts operate.” She made eye contact with her. “You’re a xenobiology student, correct?”

“Yeah, Doctor Lynn’s memories left an imprint in my head,” Avearan said. “Figured studying it further rather than being the doctor on the Dark Star was a better choice in life.”

“The Dark Star, it’s been ages since I heard anyone speak of that salvager ship. Have you heard from Captain Trin of late?”

“He’s still living the salvager life, using the money earned to keep his son’s and grandchildren’s psionic powers a secret,” Avearan said, giving the Draconian ship remains a closer look. “It’s a shame the psionic situation in the Empire remains the same after all the progress we made post Y’lin.”

Phylarlie stood next to her with her arms crossed over her low-cut top. “What if I told you we could change all that?”

“How?”

“With your knowledge of xenobiology, I thought perhaps I could recruit you to give us a hand and speed up our research.”

There were rumors going about claiming the dragons that attacked Earth had psionic powers, like the wyrm in the Mediterranean Sea. It got her thinking as she looked at the cybernetic parts lying on adjacent tables. The forced training and recruitment into the military, laws that forced parents to give up their children to the Empire or face execution, all of that could be abolished, if the Empire were to regain its power to create new psionics.

Did Phylarlie’s team figure something out? she thought. Perhaps, but why me? “I’m just a student with experience that isn’t really mine,” Avearan said, facing Phylarlie. “Why me? If the Empire entrusted you to study this, couldn’t they have sent you an Imperial xenobiologist?”

“Finding people in the Empire that have those skills is rare,” Phylarlie said. “Doctors are trained to heal Hashmedai and nothing else. Those with xenobiology knowledge are forced to join Imperial expedition teams, exploring newly discovered planets to study the wildlife. Simply put, there’s nobody as skilled and knowledgeable in the field as you are.” Phylarlie flicked her wrists, causing multiple holo screens to appear and float over to Avearan. “I need you to familiarize yourself with what we’ve discovered about the Draconians so far. Once you’ve done that, speak to me. I have a special task for you. When we’re done … you won’t have to fear the Imperial laws, as they will be changed.”

Avearan agreed to her terms, not that she had much of a choice. Everything around her was a secret project. People that knew of secret projects and weren’t helping out with them were politely escorted to an airlock at the quickest opportunity. She slid the contents of the holo screens Phylarlie gave her into her wrist terminal, found a secluded area to sit, and went to catch up on the literature.

Phylarlie went to take her leave, when she stopped suddenly, sighing before the exit. She conjured a large holographic communication screen to appear with an officer from the Imperial navy on it.

“What is it?” Phylarlie said to the projection.

“My apologies,” the navy officer said. “But the humans are requiring our assistance with something.”

Phylarlie’s eyebrow cocked. “And what would that be?”

“They wish to borrow the device recovered from the Charybdis ship,” said the officer. “The emperor and empress gave it their approval.”

Phylarlie moved toward a storage area pulling open its doors, allowing white mist to release from it. “Tell them, we have one active device at our disposal they can have.”

“I will forward your reply to my psionic.”

“Have a ship prepared and the space bridge delay all requests until it has traveled through it with the device.”

“Actually, my lord, they will be coming to Taxah to pick it up. The empress also requests that you make them guests of honor for the festival.”

“Who is ‘they?’”

“Captain Foster and her crew of the Johannes Kepler.”

“Oh, I see,” she said with a wicked and alluring smile. “Very well then, keep me posted.”

The two exchanged Imperial salutes, the hologram vanished afterward.

“Avearan,” Phylarlie called out to her. “Change of plans, I need you to make some adjustments to this device before you proceed any further.”

Avearan put her reading material away, joining Phylarlie at the storage lockup. She looked at the object inside, waving away the blinding mist that slowly began to flood the room. The device was large, shaped almost like a cylinder, it was opened from the side and had grotesque-looking tentacles laced with wires sticking out. It was a fusion of technology and organics, the staples of Draconian technology.

Avearan’s first official work as a xenobiologist working with alien organics … rather dragons, was about to begin.

31 Peiun

Downtown Core

Gravity City, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 14:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Peiun was lucid dreaming. He knew this for a fact because the images he saw were from his past life as a child growing up on Paryo. He could wake up at any time, but what was the point? He was dreaming, therefore, he was resting, if he was resting then there was a good reason his body demanded he do so.

He saw the night of the Conquest Day massacre. His father viewed state news reports of the details that night, when the Imperial family and various nobles and lords across the Empire were targeted. He was too young at the time to understand what was going on. But as a grown adult, looking back at that day, having read and understood the historic things that happened, he understood.

Conquest Day had always been a bad omen amongst the Hashmedai. It was celebrated to mark the day the Empire thought, at the time, they defeated the Radiance Union in the war without end. It ended up evolving into a day where Radiance, or its intelligence agency, Whisper, used it as a means to demoralize the Hashmedai Empire with surprise attacks or assassinations. The late Emperor Rezeki himself was slain on that day by Radiance to insult the Empire.

Why Peiun’s mind made him dream about that night and reflect upon Conquest Day he couldn’t figure out. Perhaps it was because this year’s festival was approaching, or perhaps it was something else—

“Hey, wake up!”

It was Sarah’s voice. The sound of it reminded him of the crash, and the danger they had escaped from, and the danger that was yet to come.

It was time to wake up.

Peiun’s body was full of throbbing pain. The downfall of rain continued, making his body appear as if he had gone bathing with his uniform and sword. Sarah had pulled him out from the mangled and burning car, sitting up top of a rooftop. She kneeled next to him, waving an emergency flesh regenerator device over the bloody gashes on his head and arms. They partially sealed up a few minutes later becoming large cuts rather than massive lacerations.

He went to sit up and look ahead at the patio and park off in the distance on the same rooftop they crashed on. Sarah pushed on his chest, to tell him not to move further. “Bad time to ask but are you okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “I am fine.”

“Good, you’re no use to me if your bones are all mashed to shit.”

She put the flesh regenerator away and looked around, focusing on the same things he did. There were witnesses about, some were on the adjacent buildings watching from their balconies, and others were directly before them watching from a glass door that led to the patio they crashed next to.

The two scaled down the walls and balconies, making two splashes each in the puddles growing in the drenched streets. Sarah led the way pulling on his hand, and evading pedestrians that walked about, ducking behind parked cars and trash disposal units, until they arrived in a dark alley. Well, dark to Sarah, Peiun’s now red-glowing eyes were able to see just fine.

“Shit, those people we had to cross called the cops,” Sarah said with her back to the alley wall, looking out into the street. “EISS isn’t stupid; they’ll be monitoring those HNI comm lines.”

An extraction back to the Rezeki’s Rage was called for. Peiun used his HNI to contact Alesyna. There was no reply, and her vitals were listed as unknown, meaning she was out of range. “I can’t get hold of my psionic,” he said.

Sarah looked back at him amidst the wailing sounds of human law enforcement vehicles. “What about your ship?”

Peiun’s HNI connected with the Rezeki’s Rage and spoke with the crew. He relayed what they told him to Sarah. “I’m able to reach them, but they will have to send a transport to recover us.” He looked up at the towering buildings creating obstacles to fly around, and the rows of cars and trucks flying next to them. “It won’t be easy to get it through here.”

“You’ll just draw attention to our location anyways,” Sarah said. “We need your people to land elsewhere, and then we jet to them. Assuming EISS will let us, which they probably won’t.”

“How many adversaries are we facing?”

“I don’t know. I was under the impression it was my unit and two or three operatives, clearly there are a lot more.”

Sarah went to peek out from the alley, then quickly retreated back when law enforcement vehicles arrived, hovering closer to the streets and sidewalks, shining blue and red lights across building signs, windows, and pedestrians that went about their business. Black cars flew alongside them in formation.

“This isn’t going to work,” Sarah moaned.

She moved back into the dark alley, and made two looks to her left and right, then deactivated her armor’s grip on her body. Its shields flashed off and its tight fit expanded, allowing her to slip out of it, unveiling what she wore under it, a brief and exotic leather dress.

“Don’t ask,” she snapped at him. “This outfit was part of my previous cover; thankfully I thought ahead and kept it.”

She obtained a pair of high-heel shoes from her suit’s storage slot. Peiun grinned at her. “You kept the shoes too?”

“Like I said, I think ahead. I wasn’t convinced it was a good time to ditch my disguise and go full action girl.”

He was starting to understand why she had the cosmetics and perfume earlier, and why her appearance was so young. To his knowledge it wasn’t required by human law to remain a specific age with gene therapy when in the military. Her younger appearance was most likely part of her cover.

Sarah eyed him up and down, after concealing her pistol under her outfit. “Take off your top and ditch the sword.”

He was taken aback by her unexpected request. “What?”

“This is a warm world, even to us humans,” Sarah said. “It’s not uncommon for Hashmedai to walk around here with no shirt on.”

She was right. He had forgotten about the sweltering heat, thanks to the rain. The removal of his uniform’s top gave his chest the freedom it needed to air out and reduce his body temperature. Sarah’s eyebrow rose once his brawny chest was exposed, and rainwater dripped off his drenched pecs and abs.

“They’re looking for a uniformed Imperial officer and an EDF black ops operative with a protect suit.” She hooked her arm around his. “Not the two of us on a date.”

The two tossed the items they were leaving behind in a trash disposal unit, then made their way out into the streets, after the law enforcement vehicle turned the corner, of course. The sights and sounds of the city enveloped them as they strode through. Sarah chatted about things Peiun knew nothing about to strengthen the false image they were a couple. He just laughed or nodded, doing his part to keep up the act while the two vanished in an ocean of humans and Radiance exiles walking the busy streets.

Advertisements for various human products and services flashed, there were even a few ads that targeted some of the Radiance exiles that found their way to live in the city. Merchants barked, offering discounts on fresh fruits imported from Earth. Gentlemen’s clubs promised the most exquisite girls in the sector were dancing that night. There was a small line to enter, while large bulky human men stood guard next to the door.

The red and blue lights of the law enforcement vehicles circling prevented the two from making any progress in reaching the city limits. After an hour walking, in the on again and off again rain, they meandered to one of the less eye-appealing areas of the city. Everyone was human, and they gave Peiun aggressive glares, Sarah too at times. Someone defaced the logo of a UNE military recruitment poster, writing the words ‘is for humans only!’ next to ‘United Nations of Earth.’

Sarah shoved Peiun into a cafe, quickly. She remained by the doors, looking outside. Two black cars moved past slowly. The search lights at the sides of them were looking for persons of interest.

“This is harder than I thought,” she whispered. “I disconnected from the HNI network, so they can’t trace me … Forgot I can’t trace them anymore too.”

“We will have to depend on our eyes.”

The two did just that, peeking back outside. One of the searching black cars came to a landing next to a group of men. Durendal leaped out of the car and began speaking to the men. Their conversation ended with a strange salute, a fist placed against their heart.

It made Sarah wince. “Son of a bitch …”

“What’s wrong?”

Sarah kept silent, waiting for Durendal to get back into his unmarked car and lift off and up out of sight. She dragged Peiun by his hand, back outside and moved close to the group of men Durendal had been speaking to. She looked at them, they looked back, more so at Peiun than her.

She looked up at Peiun, bit her lip and said. “I need you to kiss me.”

“How does this help us?” he asked.

“I’ll explain later.”

He moved in, hesitating for a moment, trying to remember how to correctly perform a kiss. Hashmedai expressed affection by licking their partners, typically around the neck and shoulders. The act of pressing one’s lips to another was alien to him.

The two shared a wild kiss. Peiun being a man that had been sexually repressed for so long, couldn’t help himself, and held onto her body. She returned the favor stroking his bare wet chest. Somewhere in the midst of their session, their mouths opened, and their tongues made contact. Their heads pulled away, effectively completing Peiun’s first kiss. Sarah’s face turned a shade of red.

Behind Sarah, Peiun saw the men Durendal had been speaking to fuming and pointing fingers at them. “Are you attempting to goad them?” he asked her.

“I’m just doing what I do best.”

“And that is?”

“Being a bad girl.”

Peiun experienced his second kiss in life, this time it was full of energy the two exchanged with each other. He liked it. This was exactly what his body needed for months, and if it wasn’t for the fact that it was an act and in the public eye, he’d be taking his pants off.

Assuming Sarah didn’t do it first, her hand slipped extremely close past his abs.

“Get a room!” one of the men yelled.

She guided him into alley, a small one with a dead end. She stopped and waited, not uttering a word to him. Footsteps splashing through the puddles were heard from behind, they grew louder as the seconds passed. Peiun counted at least four different people walking in a group, the men Durendal had spoken with.

“We are being followed,” he whispered to her.

She smiled. “Good.”

“Hey!” a voice called out to them. “Human pussy wasn’t meant for Hashmedai.”

They turned to face the group of men, blocking off the alley’s exit back to the streets. The men were rugged-looking wearing leather coats with no sleeves. The leader of the group walked closer to Peiun, his face and arms covered in human body art. “Hey, vampy, I’m talking to you!”

The leader shoved Peiun back and spat at his feet. He reacted by hissing and displaying the size of his fangs. Sarah backed off panicked and cried, though he suspected she was acting.

“Look at this guy, thinks he’s all tough,” said the leader of the group. “Your kind waltzes onto Earth, kills our people, now you think you can come in and take our women?”

“Look, please just leave us alone,” Sarah pleaded with her fake and somber voice.

The leader pointed at her. “You shut the fuck up, bitch! Once we’re done with him, we’re gonna make you appreciate how good a big human dick feels.”

The leader of the group turned to his crew standing behind him, giving them the okay to move in. Little did he know he inadvertently gave himself the final chance to see them alive. Their foreheads exploded with a splatter of red and meaty chunks painting the alley walls and surface. Sarah stood holding her magnetic pistol, its tip glowing orange as a result of the rapid discharge.

Sarah shifted her aim to the leader of the group. “Mine’s bigger.” He surrendered, dropping to his trembling knees, holding his hands up. “Got a place we could chat, buddy?”

High rise apartment

Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 15, 2118, 16:11 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The leader of the group followed Sarah’s request and took the two to his small and unkempt apartment located six blocks away. Sarah’s gun gave his unmoving feet the willpower to make it happen. Once inside, she encouraged him to take a seat, he refused. She waved the gun, and his reluctance vanished once again.

“What the fuck do you want with me?” he said, pointing at his place of residence. “Look around, I ain’t got anything, just like all the humans on this fucking planet.”

“Oh, but you do have something,” she said, tapping the side of his head with her pistol. “You’re part of the Terran Legion, aren’t you?”

“So what if I am?” he spat. “They’re the only people that look after humans stuck out here.”

“They aren’t allowed in the UNE military or EISS for that matter.”

“That’s because the president is too much of a pussy, always wanting to play nice to fucking aliens.”

“So, with that said, why is a member of my unit, well, former unit I should say, affiliated with them?”

The man didn’t know what she was talking about, and neither did Peiun as he stood watching with his arms crossed. Sarah created a holo window that hovered in between her and the leader of the group. The window replayed video her eyes and HNI recorded of Durendal and the man talking and giving each other the mysterious salute.

His face remained as still as his lips.

Sarah pushed the holo screen away and pushed the tip of her pistol’s barrel to the man’s jaw. “Tell me why, right now, or I’ll blow a fucking hole through your head, and mail the bullet to your family.”

32 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Paryo orbit, Uemaesce system

October 15, 2118, 21:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster and the crew of the Johannes Kepler were once again gathered around the large table sitting in the center of the ship’s briefing room. She took the time to bring the crew up to date in regard to their current status, what she learned from the meet up with the emperor and empress of the Empire.

A three-dimensional hologram floated six inches above the surface of the table, shining blue and white light upon the number of faces that sat in their chairs, watching, and reading its contents. The hologram projected a number of classified files Kroshka slipped her prior to her leaving the palace: a map of the system that neared Omega Centauri, translated instructions on what the crew needed to do to request permission to use the space bridge, new research notes about the vortex key the Empire had, as well as what they’d discovered about the protective substance.

The rotating projection of the Hashmedai colony near Omega Centauri left Saressea slapping her hands against the table forcefully. “This is outrageous,” Saressea bellowed. “I’m sorry, but when the ceasefire between the Empire and Union was agreed upon, the Empire agreed to only build colonies within the quadrant.”

Foster looked at the feisty Rabuabin woman and her uniform smeared with grease stains. “What’s the big deal?”

“Colonies over sixteen thousand light-years away? What’s stopping the Empire from turning them into secret weapon-development facilities and shipyards? Nobody has the power to monitor things like that from here.”

“According to the empress, they never got a stable foothold in that region,” Foster said. “Just the one colony on the far outskirts of Omega Centauri.”

“You understand I must report this to the council,” Saressea said.

Foster shrugged looking away from her. “Do what you gotta do, but we’s going to that remote colony when ready.” Foster waved her hand across the projection, changing its slides until the desired one appeared. “But first we gotta make a stop off at this Hashmedai world here, one that’s part of the local galaxy, Taxah.”

“So, we’re going to be using the space bridge twice then?” Chang asked.

“That’s right,” Foster said. “The first jump will take us to Taxah, there we’s gonna pick up the replacement vortex key, and whatever advancements they made on the protective goo. From there, we do some tests, then take the space bridge to the Ueijelico system, that’s the system that’s near Omega Centauri.” She swiped across the projection, and it changed into a rotating picture of a Hashmedai space bridge, everyone watched and took mental notes. “From what I was told, the power to make large space bridge jumps requires Hashmedai psionics within the space bridge to have the best implants. The ones stationed at the space bridge in the Ueijelico system are of those types since that system was used as a staging point to launch the now lost colonization ships into Omega Centauri.”

“So, if the game plan is to use the space bridge to jump into Omega Centauri, why bother with the device?” Chang asked Foster.

“One, so we can get back home, there ain’t gonna be any space bridges or wormholes to get us back.”

“Ah, yeah, that would be kinda important.”

Foster continued. “Two, I’m still not sure if taking the space bridge directly into Omega Centauri is the best choice, after all the Hashmedai lost ships doing that. Entering the maelstrom from the system near Omega Centauri might be the safer option.”

“Then why head to the Ueijelico system after getting the new device?” Saressea asked. “If you end up using it, wouldn’t it make sense just to use it right then and there?”

“Remember, traveling through the maelstrom, while quicker than FTL, still takes time, depending on your distance to your target,” Williams said. “We’d spend a lot less time within the maelstrom on a trip to Omega Centauri if we entered a vortex from the Ueijelico system.”

“If we could enter a vortex,” Saressea said. “That device has only proven we could open previously created and closed vortexes, not open a brand-new one.”

“All the more reason for us to get this show on the road,” Foster said. “We get the device and substance, do some tests, and move on from there, hopefully to the Ueijelico system to use the space bridge there.”

“Honestly, it’s the best lead we got,” Williams said. “I know you guys from Radiance are cringing at the idea of accepting help from the Hashmedai, but what else can we do? This is it, this is our chance to end this and save lives across the galaxy.”

Saressea reclined in her chair, folding her hands together. “Or be better prepared for a great war …”

“That’s all I got for now folks, any questions?”

Williams snickered softly. “Did you mention the other reason we’re going to Taxah?”

Foster grimaced. “Oh, right.”

Williams addressed everyone. “We’ve been invited to attend the celebration of an Imperial holiday, Conquest Day.”

“I’ll pass,” Saressea snorted.

“Indeed,” Tolukei said.

“I shall as well,” Odelea said. “Respectfully.”

Conquest Day was celebrated in the Empire to commemorate a great victory the Empire achieved over Radiance hundreds of years ago. Watching the three Radiance members in attendance of the meeting turn down the invite, was no surprise to anyone.

“It’s all good, don’t think anyone from Radiance would leave that planet alive if you stepped foot on it,” Foster said. “And for the record, I’m only doin’ this so that a poor Imperial chef don’t lose his head over my actions. Anything else?” Foster added. The crew remained silent. “Dismissed and get ready for our next destination.”

Those in attendance dispersed, leaving Foster the sole person standing in the briefing room, watching Paryo turn from one of its windows, and wondering if Earth had looked like that during the last ice age. The space bridges in high orbit appeared, one of them will be taking them to a system no human or member of Radiance, had ever ventured to. She felt like an explorer again, she liked that feeling. Getting that feeling was the reason she joined IESA in the first place, apart from continuing her father’s dream on his behalf.

The beeping sound of the intercom pulled her away from the window, reminding her she had a job to. “Incoming transmission for you, Captain,” EVE said.

She moved to the briefing room’s central table. “Put it through to the briefing room.”

The projection of a decorated UNE general appeared, hovering over the table. He gave Foster a hardy salute, she gave one back, not that she was military, but it felt like the proper thing to do. “Captain Foster, I’m General Derek Irons of the EDF.”

“Comin’ to collect your displaced EDF-1 team?”

“Amongst other things, though I’d like to talk about your new mission,” Irons said.

“UNE command should have the specifics of our game plan,” Foster said.

“Oh, I’m aware of it; I’d just like to ask of a favor of you when you travel to Taxah.”

“Shoot.”

“I’m transmitting to you now a data package. I’d like you to give to it a Hashmedai man that goes by the name, Yominv. He’s the contact Blackmar spoke of that made all this possible.”

“Seems easy enough, but couldn’t you do it?”

“The QEC network doesn’t extend to systems like Uelcovis where Taxah is located. If you need to send data, it has to be loaded onto a ship to be used as a courier when they arrive in system or transmitted directly. Taxah is over three hundred light-years away from your location. We may be living longer lives, but I don’t have the patience to wait that long for my thank you package to be received.”

“I take it, this is more than a thank you then, since psionic telepathy would have worked as well.”

Irons smiled at her. “You catch on fast, Captain. Let’s hope you’re fast enough to react to any sudden and unexpected changes going forward.”

“We will, General, you gots my word. Just kick the navy’s ass to fortify the defense of the station. If we can’t get to the Draconians in time, and they attack …”

“I’ll speak with the admirals, but keep in mind, they got bigger fish to fry,” Irons said. “A missing fleet is no joke and fortifying the defense of Earth and our colonies takes priority over a station that might not get attacked.”

“Did you not see our report?” There’s an armada gathering in the maelstrom preparing to strike!

“I did, I also know that vortex was in existence when this conflict began, the Draconians had the power to attack the station then and didn’t. They have the power to do it now and haven’t. Hell, from what we know of this maelstrom network, they could attack anywhere they want, and haven’t. All we know is they took a lot of interest in the Kapteyn’s Star system, using the planet Jacobus as a breeding ground, and our fleet that was there with you guys is gone.”

She sighed. “I see …”

“Losing the station is bad, I get that,” Irons said. “Losing another colony or Earth, is unacceptable, the navy is just too busy. But, like I said, I’ll see what I can do my end. Until then, Blackmar will have to use what naval forces he has currently at the station.”

A notification window appeared, informing Foster that the data, encrypted data at that, Iron had transmitted had been successfully sent to the Kepler. “I’ll get this to your Hashmedai contact,” she said.

“Thank you, Captain. Irons out.”

The bridge crew attended to their duties and performed the last system checks to ensure the Kepler was good to go, and that the MRF was operating correctly. If it wasn’t then the space bridge jump would take a number of months, maybe even years, for them to rematerialize. The galaxy could be overrun by dragons by then.

But, hey, at least we’ll still be around and kicking. Foster stood with Odelea at the communication station. “Any word from Rivera?”

“Nothing new,” Odelea said. “The last message I received stated she was still busy with the Carl Sagan’s salvage operation on Earth and planning to study its EVE AI.”

“Hmm, I’d rather not leave her behind …” Williams said.

“We still have Saressea and her team,” Foster said. “So, it ain’t like we’s gonna be rollin’ without a chief engineer.”

“Still, she was part of the team.”

Foster sat at the captain’s chair. “I know, Dom, believe me, I don’t wanna leave her behind because of circumstances. Any word from Pierce?”

“The station is still searching for him,” Odelea said.

“Another team member to be left behind,” Foster said grimly. “Damn it! It ain’t right to leave any of them, but if we sit around and wait, the Draconians might launch their attack. If we head to Omega Centauri now, we could end this conflict, or at least do something out there to force that fleet to pull back.”

It was a tough call, since going ahead with their plans could mean they might run into problems, problems only Rivera and or Pierce could solve. The Carl Sagan wouldn’t have survived the Sirius expedition the first time around without their contributions.

Foster made her decision. “Mister Chang, do you understand the directions on how to approach the space bridge?”

“EVE’s been going through the translations with me,” Chang said. “Seems pretty straightforward. Activate the MRF, transmit the location we want to go, and hope they remember how to rebuild us atom by atom.”

“That is when the space bridge is ready, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said. “The act of teleporting a ship takes a significant toll on the brains of its psionic crew. If the space bridge was used recently, then you have to wait until they are ready and awake.”

“Let me guess,” Foster said. “All these space bridges were used not long ago?”

“That is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “We will have to wait until they signal to us they are ready.”

“Well then, everyone,” Foster said, rising from her chair, having realized it was pointless to sit. “Let’s take this chance to rest up and be energized for the unexpected when we arrive.”

“Expecting trouble, Captain?” Chang said, looking back at her.

“We’s gonna be hundreds of light-years away from UNE controlled space and wormholes,” Foster said. “If trouble finds us, we’ll be on our own. If trouble finds the UNE, they’ll be on their own.”

33 Pierce

High rise construction site, UNE Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 15, 2118, 21:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Being at a higher elevation didn’t convince Travis Pierce’s senses. The winds, the temperature of the air, moonlight, and evening skies, it all felt and looked real. The city within the station was truly a technological marvel.

He sat with Penelope on top of an office tower, still undergoing construction, watching the skyline of the city, unable to see any of the walls or ceilings within the enormous arm of the station. Idle construction elevators, cranes, and drones were below the two, it was their means of climbing up to the top. Penelope used her hacking abilities to power them on and off, forcing them to move by simple thoughts in her head.

Penelope finished a bottle of water, shamelessly stolen from a vending machine. A quick wave of her hand next to the credit chit scanner, forced the machine to dispense free products. Watching her finish drinking the water caused him to see Nereid back on the Johannes Kepler’s lab, drenching her body to stay hydrated. He missed that ship, the crew, and how Nereid’s appearance triggered memories of the past, such as his first encounter with her.

Nereid’s blue hair was almost reminiscent of Pernoy’s long, blue hair. When Nereid’s breasts slipped out of the robe she had worn, it sent his mind back to an encounter with Pernoy he’d never forget. Pierce and Pernoy were always good friends, back in the day after the Imperial invasion. Pernoy used to serve aboard an Imperial warship, one of many that were ordered to attack Earth. She, like many of the Hashmedai on Earth, was left stranded when the war had ended and opted to live the life of a human.

Pierce, being a tolerant man, had no problem with Hashmedai living in the greater Vancouver area. The war was over, and it was time to bury the hatchet. Pernoy frequently invited him over to her house to spend time with her family. She was the only friend he had, and Pierce was the only friend she had outside of the household.

One night, her mate was away and the two shared one too many cups of vodka, while they sat on the couch watching TV. She was wearing a robe, and just like Nereid, her breasts had slipped out when she went grab the remote. Drunken laughs and jokes followed, including her playfully holding his hands and moving them to her chest to help fix her wardrobe malfunction.

Their lips ended up touching, soon after her robe fell off her body, on to the couch. His clothes came next, and then an hour of ecstasy, moans, thrusts, and quivering shakes. It was his first time feeling the natural wetness and passionate embrace of a woman, one he didn’t have to pay for. Eupiar and her brother were asleep upstairs, both Pierce and Pernoy periodically looked back to ensure they didn’t sneak down and watch.

They tried to forget about it the next morning, he couldn’t however. He never had been with a woman that reacted to his body like that, let alone a Hashmedai one. But in the end, Pernoy had a partner and was loyal to him, it couldn’t work out. He kept thinking about her every day, regardless.

One day, Pernoy was lynched at the market by humans that hated Hashmedai. Most people that lived on the west coast of North America had fled from the east coast having witnessed the worst the Empire delivered to humanity. It angered him, even more when he tried to intervene and was attacked. Pierce was an aging scientist, not a fighter. He couldn’t protect Pernoy, her mate, maybe, as he was a psionic, but he was away. The feelings of helplessness grew out of control. It was confirmation to him that Pernoy’s partner was a better match for her. He had to do something. He couldn’t just walk away from it.

Days earlier, Pierce had received grant credits to conduct studies about the weather changes on Mars with IESA. The grant money found its way into the hands of the Hashmedai Liberation Front, the dreaded HLF terrorist movement. The HLF stepped up their activities and recruitment in the area days later. The men that attacked Pernoy were found dead, their heads and penises cut off and carefully placed in the laps of their corpses. It was a message to all humans and Radiance personnel on Earth, leave the Hashmedai alone.

Does that make me a terrorist? It was a question he avoided asking himself in the years that passed.

As long as he never answered it, the answer was no by default. To the EISS watch list his name appeared on, yes. The HLF was kind enough to help Pierce out when people started asking questions about what happened to the grant money. It came at a cost, however, he found himself stuck doing lectures at UBC having lost the willpower needed to work for IESA. His harshly criticized book about Sirius didn’t help.

His life remained the same until Foster asked him to rejoin IESA and join the Sirius expedition. All while keeping his distance from Pernoy, fearful she might be targeted again, or EISS investigators would bug her. It was bad enough her partner and his brother turned out to be members of the HLF, the sole reason he was rarely home.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Just like that, Penelope’s English accent pulled Pierce out of the 2030s, back into 2118 and the construction site they rested at.

“Penny? I haven’t seen those since 2013,” he said. She looked at him pleasantly. It was the first time he seen anything that resembled emotions from her. “What’s on the agenda tonight?”

She pushed a small hologram at him, it was an image of an Aryile man with dreadlocks draping over his shoulders, and a face full of piercings. “This is Devorei; he’s a member of Maraschino. He was recently recruited by EISS to assist in a black op operation in the Morutrin system. We haven’t heard from him since. Furthermore, his HNI transmitted to one of our members on Morutrin Prime that he suffered critical vital signs during the mission.”

“The mission must have gone badly.”

“The pirate activity in the asteroid belt of Morutrin, suggests everything went according to plan,” she said. “Someone killed him, and we need to know why. If it was an accident, then fine. But if he uncovered something …” She handed Pierce an oddly shaped data crystal. “That’s where you and this come in.”

He stared at the data crystal in his hands, frowning. “And how does this help with that?”

“Simple, you infect the EISS computers with it, and it should grant me remote access to their network and QEC nodes. I should be able to hack into their servers from there and view recent mission reports, namely the mission they took our member on.”

He slid the data crystal into his pocket, hoping it was the right thing to do. “And I’m going to be the one delivering this … What if they find out what I’m up to?”

“You’ll be fine, Travis,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “The station is going bonkers looking for you. The story EISS spun is that I’m that naughty girl that’s up to no good and took you away for fun and frolicking. Just surrender to EISS, and they’ll take you in for protection and questioning. When no one is looking, just plug that data crystal into a computer.”

“Which one?”

“Any, it doesn’t matter, it’s all networked. It could be the bloody coffee maker for all I care. The virus is smart and will spread until it finds the mainframe we need. I’d do this myself, but the longer I remain close to EISS personnel with HNI, the greater chance I have of being detected. But you …”

“Yeah, yeah I have no HNI, they can’t scan me as easily.”

“Ready?”

He snorted. “Not really.”

“Fantastic!”

EISS had a small branch deep within the financial district of the city. It was a fourteen-story building with aesthetics that made it scream, ‘this is a UNE government structure,’ though the flag of the UNE was a dead giveaway. The sidewalks in the district were full of people leaving their jobs having finished the late-night shift with briefcases in hand, marching to parked air cars, or nearby train stations. Then there was Pierce. He was marching toward the district.

Penelope kept a close eye on Pierce via the in-construction office tower the two were on, monitoring his progress, and keeping an eye out for EISS operatives that might be hiding. The closer he got to the building, the faster his heartbeats increased. He was, after all, about to willfully perform a malicious act on a government structure, what’s going to stop them from shooting him? Hell, what’s going to stop them when he surrendered?

Only one thing kept him going, the fact that the agent that took him at gunpoint didn’t kill him. If EISS truly wanted him dead, they would have done so and made it look like a terrible accident. So, in that sense, EISS did need him alive, and from what he gathered, it was because Penelope approached him.

His confidence grew ever so slightly.

Then diminished when he remembered that his name was probably still on a terrorist watch list. The HLF maybe be gone, but the UNE still had warrants for the capture of those from the HLF that fled Earth and were still alive.

All the more reason to find out what Maraschino knows about Pernoy and her disappearance, he thought as he began to come up with ideas to get Pernoy out of trouble if she was in it. His feelings for her were too strong. Feelings he never felt before for a woman.

Pierce made a racket loud enough to get the attention of those in the lobby of the EISS building he entered. He ensured to announce who he was, that he was unarmed, and surrendering with his hands up, and needed their help. They were quick to react, carrying him inside, and up a multistory elevator climb. Two government men patted him down and scanned him with their HNI for any weapons, neither of them found the data crystal. They also didn’t give him the chance to approach any computers, or the coffee maker for that matter. They dragged him into an interrogation room.

He found himself sitting at a plain rectangular table before the two agents, their eyes hidden behind the darkened lenses of their shades. “Doctor Pierce, you’ve been a hard man to find,” said one of the agents.

Pierce nodded. “My apologies for that.”

“No need, you had no idea that woman was trouble,” the second agent said. “Word to the wise, if she wants to take you home after talking for few minutes, she’s not going to fuck you. She’s going to fuck you, up.”

“I’ll make a note of that.”

“So how did you get away from her? She’s got some pretty high tech and illegal mods.”

He shrugged, hoping they wouldn’t ask follow-up questions in regard to that. “Could have fooled me.”

“You see all those fancy bracelets, chokers, and earrings she has on?”

“Yeah,” Pierce said. “Rather dazzling I might add.”

“Those are her mods,” said the first agent. “Inside them are data crystals, and computer components designed to enhance her hacking ability. If she has them off, she’s nowhere near as powerful, with them on; she’s a fucking nightmare to handle.”

“Not to mention has the power to hack our HNIs,” said the second agent.

“Yeah, something only the Draconians were able to do until now,” said the first agent. “Understand why she’s a threat? Maraschino has either given the Draconians that tech or brokered a deal with them to receive it. Either way, we suspect they have a secret alliance with them.”

Pierce heard and felt his heart race rapidly again. He began to question if giving Penelope access to the EISS network was a good idea. She might have truly been the bad girl the whole time, she did literally tell him that too. And her friend Devorei getting killed? Maybe he deserved it. Maybe EISS knew he was a threat that couldn’t be allowed to live. If that was the case, anyone fighting EISS at that point was aiding a group that were nothing more than agents to the Draconians, probably to create chaos within the galaxy, making their job easier.

“So, I say again, how did you escape?” said one of the agents. “There’s no way she would have allowed you to get this far with those mods on.”

“Unless she wanted you to,” his partner said.

The two agents weren’t taking him seriously. The previous EISS sit down Pierce had with Moriston showed their HNI could be used to scan one’s face and detect possible lies.

Pierce stopped withholding the truth. “She’s at a tower under construction not far from here.” A truthful response, at that point he was unsure if she was trustworthy or not.

The two agents grinned, facing one another. “Check it out.”

“Yes, sir.”

One agent left, leaving Pierce alone with the remaining one. “Am I free to return to my ship?” he asked him.

Crossing his arms, the agent said. “The Kepler left the station hours ago.”

“Can I speak with Foster?”

The agent reached into the inside of his black business jacket. Out came a pistol aimed at Pierce’s face. “No.”

Pierce stood up with his trembling hands in the air, at the request of the agent. EISS, friend or foe? He thought. At that point, he couldn’t tell anymore.

The agent moved closer to him, keeping the pistol aimed at him. “Give me the data crystal!”

“What crystal?” Pierce said, panicking.

“Don’t fuck with me,” said the agent. “We searched you, we know you have it, and we know she gave it to you.”

“If that’s the case,” Pierce said as his face turned pale. “Why didn’t you take it?”

“Was hoping you’d do the right thing and hand it over and tell us where she is,” said the agent. “You only did half of that.”

His trembling hands surrendered the data crystal to the agent who held it with one hand, while keeping the other wrapped around his gun. “Next time, be more confident in yourself. If you’re going to betray someone, commit to it. If you’re going to betray Earth, have the balls go through the plan and not call your partner out—”

The agent’s body began to convulse rapidly, like he had been hit by live wires. The pistol hit the carpeted floor with a thud. He held onto his head, screaming. The screaming was brief, as he fell to the floor unmoving or breathing for that matter.

A life-sized hologram of Penelope appeared over the body of the agent seconds later. She looked down at the agent, then back up at Pierce with a cold grin. “Took you long enough,” she said to him.

He shook his head no repeatedly, holding both his hands up to her. “Stop, stop …”

“Don’t tell me those wankers got to you, Travis,” Penelope said. “They can’t be trusted and are full of lies.”

“Maybe you’re the one full of lies.”

“Take a look at our dearly departed,” she said, waving her hand to the agent as if she was presenting it to him.

Pierce stepped over to the body, looking down grimly. “He’s dead?”

“Very much so, all the more reason why you must come with me,” she said. “An EISS agent ends up dead and was alone with you? What do you think they’ll do to you when they find out?”

He looked up at the Maraschino hacker, and apparently government agent killer, which was on par with a cop killer. People like that ended up on the run for the rest of their lives back in his days.

“Why did you have to kill him?”

“That wasn’t a data crystal I gave you, it was a device designed to brute force all the passcodes needed to access the EISS network. As you can see, there’s a side effect, it fired his HNI and took his brains along for the ride.”

He slapped the palm of his hand across his mouth, holding in the shock. “Oh my God …”

“I had no choice, the encryption EISS uses is strong,” Penelope said. “There was no way I could hack into it with the limited time we have. I knew you weren’t going to agree to help me do to this or be so nervous you’d give yourself away.”

“So, the computers were a lie?”

Penelope waved her holographic index finger at him. “Oh, don’t get all emotional on me.”

“You used me to kill a g-man so you can hijack their network …” Pierce said. “I’m not emotional. I’m terrified! What’s going to happen to me now?”

“He was a bad g-man, if that makes things better,” she said. “I’m downloading their mission reports now, and, as I suspected, he and several other EISS operatives are in league with some naughty individuals.”

“Exactly what kind of bad are you talking about?”

“Tell you what, escape without getting shot, while I do the same, since someone tipped them off where I was laying low. And I’ll share all the gossip.”

Penelope’s likeness turned into a fountain of blue pixels and vanished. The doors in the room opened automatically, guiding Pierce into the office space he passed through to get into the room. Lights in the ceilings flickered, computers flashed cartoon cherries flipping the bird, while the floor was covered in bodies of unmoving EISS staff.

Unlike the agent behind him, the bodies still had a pulse, he found out why when he made it to the elevator. Two agents collapsed holding their head screaming adding to the unmoving bodies. They two had pulses of life, they were suffering from HNI disruption, the same one the Dragon Knight and Maiden could use.

“What the hell …” Pierce said to himself.

Or he thought.

“I’m in their network remember?” Penelope’s hologram appeared next to him, walking with him to the elevator as if she was there with him. “I don’t need to be in range anymore.”

The two entered the elevator. He went to command it to lower to the ground level, then pulled his finger away from the button. The elevator moved on its own. Penelope shot him one of her cold glances.

“They said you have the same hacking powers as the Dragon Knights,” he said to her hologram.

“Kinda.”

“How?”

“That’s a secret I’ll have to keep to myself.”

“Penelope! This is serious!”

“We’re data brokers first, Travis,” she said. “Secrets are things we sell to those paying. Are you willing to pay to know those secrets?”

“Not really …”

“Oh, the stuff they have on this network is fabulous by the way. I wish you could experience it how I do.”

The lobby had a similar situation unfolding as he made his escape. EISS employees and agents all slumped onto the polished tiled floors. They all still had pulses. Pierce kept his face down and low, when the fake moonlight from above shone down on him, and strode away from the building, fast.

“If I remember this correctly, my part of the bargain should be done, right?” he asked her, having realized that the holographic woman following him around was probably going to draw attention to anyone that looked at him.

“Hmm, yes, I suppose so,” Penelope said. “You gave me what I’ve been seeking.”

“So, we’re done then.” He stopped, directly facing Penelope with a firm finger pointed at her. “I want out, and I want my payment for helping you.”

“Ah yes, Pernoy and her children.”

“And my freedom.”

Penelope licked her lips. “Move to the parking lot behind you, love.”

Absolutely not! Is what he wanted to say, he had enough of the games. He wanted out, and what he asked for, no more secret missions. He was done. She never gave him a direct reply to his request for freedom, only directing him to the parking lot.

Reluctantly, he continued to play and arrived at a space reserved for EISS staff cars.

“I can provide you with everything, except the freedom part,” Penelope said, much to his disappointment.

He sighed. “At this point, that’s the most important thing.”

“Travis, EISS is quick, as we speak they are trying to kick me out of their network. And at the rate they are working at, they may succeed. When, I couldn’t tell you, but they will.”

“Not my problem.”

“You’re a fugitive now, Travis. You being on the terrorist watch list back in 2033 isn’t helping your image. Throw in the dead agent, and I say this station, rather, the entire UNE is no longer going to be a safe place for you.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do for me?” he pleaded, trying to wash away the guilty thoughts plaguing him.

Penelope waved her hand like a presenter in the parking lot. “Pick a car, any car.”

He stepped toward a random car, a sleek jet-back vehicle reflecting the fake white glow of the moon from above with tinted windows.

“I’m going to be leaving the station, Travis,” she said. “These reports I’m looking at are related to a significant amount of EISS activity in the Morutrin system. I’m going there to find what I’m looking for; you are free to join me as my traveling companion.”

Her holographic fingers snapped, and the car’s door slid up, while its engines powered on automatically. “Is this your doing?” he said, keeping his eyes on the car that seemingly turned on by itself.

“It is, care to join me?”

“I … didn’t want any of this.”

“If you stay here, you’ll be hunted and captured,” she said, gliding her fingers across the car’s rooftop. “Slip into this car, and it’ll chauffeur you to the freedom you want.”

By freedom, Penelope most likely meant the freedom exiles and fugitives on the run and wanderers had. The freedom of the lawless Morutrin system, Pierce and Penelope were to become their newest residents.

The things we do for love.

34 Avearan

Phylarlie’s Manor

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 00:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Draconians were a fascinating yet savage collective. According to the data Avearan read, combined with her observations, Draconian ships were at one point in their lives to be massive land-dwelling creatures, quite possibly wyrms, born and raised on some obscure planet out there in the cosmos.

There were signs that their limbs had been removed, prior to undergoing intense genetic manipulation and augmentation with cybernetics. From there the interior of a ship was constructed on the inside of the beast, the final stage of fusing technology and organic matter into what the rest of the galaxy knows today as a Draconian bio-ship.

And that was just what was discovered in the short few months Phylarlie’s team had been studying the Draconian remains. There was a lot more to learn, especially when she uncovered data files related to psionic engineering, and the possibly it had of seeing Hashmedai regain the power to create psionic personnel.

She had to take a seat in the manor’s front foyer upon her arrival back, pondering the future that laid ahead for her. The future that laid ahead for her and Lisette. Phylarlie needed her expertise to make this happen, that meant not returning to Earth-controlled space, at least not for a few more years, avoiding the Terran Legion’s lynch squads in the process. She was okay with that. Would Lisette be okay with a move across the stars and walking away from her training? She had her doubts it was going to be a simple yes.

The two needed to sit down and talk about it. This was a path Avearan had to share with the woman she loved. It was a concept Phylarlie didn’t seem to grasp when she told her why she had to step away and talk with Lisette further. Of course not, Phylarlie had her harem, there was no one partner for her, just a group of men and women that participated in mass orgies whenever she demanded to have one.

When the anxiety and emotions faded, Avearan went for her wrist terminal, and called Lisette’s HNI. She waited for her to pick up, while she went over in her head how to approach the topic, not to mention explain why she was gone all day without notice. She frowned at that thought. Couples should always communicate where each other are, so they don’t get worried.

And getting worried is the exact feeling Avearan got hit with, when her terminal unveiled that Lisette couldn’t be reached. She was just asleep she told herself, and tried to wake her with a telepathic message, silence was the result. Sleeping through an HNI notification was one thing, you could program them to ignore all messages when you slept. But telepathic voices? Those were more intrusive, especially with the level of power Avearan had. She expected the worst and climbed the staircase, arriving at the floor their room was on.

The door was ajar, something Lisette wouldn’t have done. There was the sound of movement coming from the room, it was promising. Lisette must have forgotten to shut it. Avearan peeked through the space in between the door and its frame, just to make sure she wasn’t walking into something she couldn’t walk out of.

Metallic sounding footsteps clanked on the carpeted floor, there were three of them. Three Hashmedai in full armor and arm-mounted plasma shields moved around, searching through Lisette and Avearan’s bags, peeking into the closets and murmuring silent words to each other. Nothing that fit Lisette’s description could be seen. Avearan had a feeling the three guardians might have played a role in that—

Her wrist terminal beeped. The sound made them cease their activities and look for the source. It beeped again. Avearan had to flee, quickly, as the three guards were moving to the door fast. She stormed past a number of servants, taking cover behind a wall at the nearest intersection, and then checked her terminal.

Phylarlie’s hologram appeared, floating above her wrist. “Where are you?” she asked.

Avearan placed her finger to her lips, making a soft shushing noise. “I’m in your place of residence,” Avearan whispered.

“Which part exactly? This is important,” Phylarlie’s hologram whispered back.

“Nearest intersection hall by our room.”

“Fuck.”

Avearan peeked around the corner. The armored guards stopped the servants she passed, questioning them. She couldn’t hear the words that were exchanged, but the finger of one servant pointed in the direction Avearan ran. The three guards nodded, wrapped their hands around the hilt of their holstered plasma swords, and quickly followed the path she had taken.

Avearan found herself on the move again, hoping she didn’t run out of hallways to power walk through. “You are making me regret coming here.” Avearan said.

“Take a peek into the halls,” Phylarlie said. “What do you see?”

“I already did, and saw things I don’t like, Phylarlie.”

“Enter the room on the right.” Avearan did so, opening and shutting a door that led into a vacant dining hall. The holographic light from her wrist terminal and her glowing eyes were the only sources of light. “Standby and don’t move!”

She lowered her arm when the communication link was cut, then backed away from the door, expecting the three armored guards to burst in. A surge of blue light flashed, Phylarlie materialized out from a psionic jump port behind her. The darkness in the room didn’t return as expected when the jump port was completed. There was a hue of green light that emitted behind her, and from that green light she felt a wave of searing heat. Phylarlie held a plasma dagger in her hand. It brought back memories of their first encounter back on Morutrin Prime, when Phylarlie was sent to assassinate her.

Guess she’s here to finish the job.

The best Avearan could do was create a weak psionic barrier to protect herself and minimize the damage from the starting blows. After that, it was using smaller barriers and telekinesis to slow blood loss and force damaged organs and blood vessels to work despite taking major damage. This was under the assumption panic and fear didn’t break her concentration.

Phylarlie made the first move. She wrapped her arm around Avearan’s frame, holding onto her from behind, tight. She braced herself for what would she assumed will come next, multiple close-range stabs to the back.

Something else happened instead.

Their bodies became doused in blue light and then vanished, restoring the room back to its original vacant and darkened state.

The light generated by Phylarlie’s jump port faded. The two women appeared inside Phylarlie’s bedroom, a room made for one person, but large enough to fit ten to fifteen people inside comfortably. Well-maintained carpets were below them, and a wide window looking out into the arctic tundra beyond was positioned behind Phylarlie’s canopy bed.

Candlelit chandeliers hung from the ceiling above the two, casting their orange flickering light on their bodies. Phylarlie released her grip on Avearan and powered down the plasma dagger. Avearan’s shocked face tilted to Phylarlie, who retreated back to a dressing table with a large holo mirror floating above it, placing the dagger into it.

“Well, shit,” Avearan mumbled to her. “What’s with the dagger?”

“Wasn’t sure if I’d get to you in time.”

“Lisette wasn’t in our room—”

“Stay quiet,” Phylarlie coldly cut in.

“We need to find her!”

“It’s too late; they’ve probably started to spread out.”

Avearan ran her hands through her hair, half-tempted to pull it out in frustration. She hissed loudly, making Phylarlie’s irritated face look at her.

“Shut up, seriously,” Phylarlie spat. “A taskforce like that entering my manor without notice isn’t a group you want to hide from only to be caught.”

“What do they want? Where did they come from?”

“Can you let me do my job and protect you?”

“Protect me? Lisette needs protection, now,” Avearan said. “Are you going to at least answer my question?”

“You said so yourself,” Phylarlie calmly spoke. “Don’t ask questions you already know the answer to.”

“They came for me, didn’t they?”

“Someone here must have recognized who you really were and sent word to the Empire.”

“If it’s me they wanted, then why take Lisette?”

Phylarlie shrugged her words off, walking to the corner of her room, picking up a servant uniform that was lying on the floor. Her lips twisted when she thought of various reasons why a servant would have stripped out of her uniform, in Phylarlie’s room, then leave without it.

Phylarlie handed the red skirt and blouse to Avearan. “Put this on.”

Her arms crossed, unimpressed. “Why? So that I can be your fucking servant?”

“Yes,” Phylarlie said, forcing the outfit into her hands. “Until I can figure out what’s going on and get you someplace safe—”

Avearan hissed, tossing the uniform on the floor between the two.

“Have it your way, then,” Phylarlie said, walking away. “I’m not losing my head to sneak you out of here.”

She looked down at the servant uniform on the floor with a grimacing glare while the battle of logic and emotion raged within herself. Logic wanted her to pick up the outfit and go with whatever Phylarlie had planned. Emotion wanted her to risk it all, and charge back into the manor, searching for Lisette no matter the cost.

Logic won the battle.

She stripped naked, exchanging her attire for the uniform. Phylarlie watched with a smirk. The glow of the candles above illumined Avearan’s pert breasts, slim and fit waist, and scarred body, left behind by her old cybernetics.

“Better?” Avearan asked.

Phylarlie approached, walking circles around Avearan with crossed arms and glowing eyes, looking at her exposed legs, moving up to her hips then arms. “It’s a start; we’ll need to do something about your scars, however.” A lock of Avearan’s hair was pulled toward Phylarlie’s face. “And this …”

She beckoned Avearan to follow her and sit at her dressing table in front of the holo mirror. A pair of hair trimming shears entered Phylarlie’s hand, while her free one held a fistful of Avearan’s long, shiny hair.

Evidently, Phylarlie had a hidden talent, hair stylist.

35 Peiun

High rise apartment

Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 01:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The thick, dark curtains obscured the flashes of lightning caused by the rainstorm outside. Sarah and Peiun were lucky to have missed the start of the thunderstorm, having forced their captive prisoner from the streets to let them into his place of dwelling.

Sarah was in the kitchen, searching through the storage cupboards. She never explained why she strode in there after tying up the man, whom revealed his name to be Cody. It was one of two things she was able to extract from him. His spits, cursing, racist remarks directed to Peiun, and laughter was the other.

The sound of a glass bottle tapped the surface of the countertops within the kitchen. Sarah’s voice followed next. “Hey, Peiun get over here.”

He entered the kitchen, all cabinet doors were opened, its contents within were left in a mess. Sarah pointed at what she had been searching for, a bottle containing a strong human alcoholic beverage.

She pried off the bottle’s cap, drinking directly from it. “Closer man,” she said after pulling the bottle away from her lips, beckoning to him.

“Is this really the time to be celebrating?”

Sarah pointed a finger at Peiun’s topless body, and the many wounds on it from their crash landing. “Let me disinfect that.”

He braced himself as she dosed his back with the beverage. The stinging pain that flared from his wounds made his teeth grit for a moment. Her hands wiping the wounds clean, made him forget about pain. Or was it the perverse smile that appeared on her face, when it came time to disinfect the cut on his chest? She took another drink from the bottle, before handing it him.

“Your turn,” she said, peeling the top of her dress away from her body, and unveiling a number of lacerations hidden under it.

He grinned as she placed her exposed back at him, and then followed her lead, drinking from the bottle before dumping its contents onto her back, and wiping the wounds clean. She didn’t flinch. Her tolerance for pain was impressive, so was the texture of her skin. He had to force himself to pull away from her once he was done.

She exchanged the bottle in his hands with a pack of ice. It wasn’t for his wounds, though it did feel nice when he rubbed it over them. The ice was to help lower his temperature. He was a Hashmedai in an apartment built to suit the needs of a human. It was hot.

With their wounds taken care of, the two returned to their captive prisoner, Cody, smelling like the beverage they dosed their bodies with. He assertively pointed out they wasted one of his drinks. She assertively throat-punched him and demand he answer a list of questions.

Cody’s laughter brought forth a number of human torture techniques, delivered by Sarah. His body was cut and poked with eating utensils heated from the stove. His teeth were pulled with a rusted wrench from his tool box, ending with his head being dunked into the bathtub full of water.

Cody didn’t break. He was no normal human civilian, but rather one trained to resist interrogations and torture. Sarah’s questions about what became of her sister, Chloe, what the Terran Legion was planning, how much influence it had within EISS, and how long had Durendal been secretly a member of it, went unanswered.

Sarah dragged Cody’s wet and blood-soaked body back into the living room. She tied him back to the chair, then raged and cursed raising her arms up.

Cody laughed, unveiling the number of missing teeth in his red soaked mouth. “What’s wrong, babe?” Cody said. “Ready to give up?”

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Peiun said to Sarah.

She wiped the frustration away from her face. “Fuck this guy, seriously.”

Peiun stepped forward, looking at Cody’s bound body from head to toe. “Allow me to try using an Imperial technique?”

“Do what you want,” Sarah said, taking a seat on the couch as a thunderbolt roared. “I don’t care at this point, just get him to talk.”

“Our methods are … harsh,” Peiun said.

“You have my permission to use them,” Sarah said. “This fucking asshole gave up his last chance to walk away from this.”

“Very well,” he said, grabbing Sarah’s pistol off the coffee table.

He pulled up a chair and sat in front of Cody. Keeping the pistol in his hand, Peiun said to Cody. “She has grown aggravated with your defiance.”

“That alien-loving bitch threw in the towel, eh? Ha! Do your worst, I’ve told Radiance Whisper agents where to go and survived Imperial gulags. You two ain’t got shit on them.”

“Gulag? My people don’t take prisoners.”

“Unless you need information from them, then you do.”

“And they die regardless if they give it up or not,” Peiun said. “Most of the time we do it with a memory recorder, provided they can remember.”

“Or are trained to resist it,” Cody spat. “Go ahead, use your memory recorder, I dare you.”

“Unfortunately, that’s aboard my ship in orbit, and I do not have the time to take you there.”

“Please, my people will find and fuck you up before you get that chance.” Peiun powered the pistol on, and its soft humming noise confirmed its internal systems were in operation. Cody looked the weapon Peiun held and laughed. “Gonna shoot me now? You know you’ll never get info from a dead body.”

“I beg to differ.”

He pointed the pistol at Cody’s forehead.

A single projectile hurled Cody’s body violently backward, while still bound to the chair. Red mist spread everywhere from the back of his head, most of it ended up dripping down from the wall where it had splattered.

Sarah and Peiun stood over Cody’s body examining the gaping hole in his head, and the look of shock on his face capturing the moment the projectile was fired.

She crossed her arms. “As much as I hated him, he’s right; he’s no good to us dead.”

He returned her pistol back into her hands, freeing his for what came next. Peiun sunk his fingers into the hole in Cody’s head, fiddling around on the inside, past his skull like a doctor performing brain surgery. His HNI performed a quick scan of the hole. He’ll need more space to move around. He took the pistol back from Sarah, and shot three low velocity rounds into Cody’s head, turning the original small hole, into a massive maw big enough to stick his hand through. And that he did, and reached deep inside of Cody’s head, ripping away at his brains until he found his HNI, and yanked it out.

It looked like a small blood-drenched computer chip with wires dangling from it, many of them still attached to pieces of brain that came along from the ride. He pulled the device apart, obtaining its memory data crystal, offering it to Sarah.

She didn’t flinch.

“As I said … our methods are harsh.”

She plugged the data crystal into a small portable analyzer she had with her, placing it on the coffee table. A holo screen flashed on above the device, with a small progress bar that inched its way from left to right.

“It’s going to take hours to decrypt these files,” Sarah said.

Peiun stood next to her, watching the numbers that flashed on the holo screen. “I take it he wasn’t using civilian HNI?”

“Nope, this was military shit,” she said, tapping the screen, bring up additional windows. “But now that’s its broken away from its main parts, we’ll be able to get what’s inside.”

The two left the device to work in peace and made themselves at home in Cody’s place. His food, drinks, showers, and clothing were utilized by the two. The drinks especially, what remained of the alcoholic beverage they had used earlier ended up inside them. Laughter and war stories were exchanged between the two. That intoxicated conversation somehow ended up changing to the kiss they shared.

Sarah became a different woman. He wasn’t sure if it was the beverage making her that way, or it was making him see her like that. She grinned happily looking up at him, running her fingers up and down his body.

“Hmm, abs,” she said when they neared his chiseled abs.

“Yes?”

She stroked his pecs next. “Chest.”

He nodded. “Indeed.”

“Fuck it.”

Peiun experienced his third kiss in life, this time it was one with a woman whom shredded her attire and pulled his pants off. He was hard, and her hands holding onto his hardness confirmed it to her. It made her giggle.

How their drunken steps made it to the bed, will remain a mystery to him for years to come, or how she was able to push him onto it.

Copulating with a human female proved to be a different experience. It wasn’t like bedding Hashmedai women, in which their claws would deploy from the excitement and rush their bodies got, digging across the flesh of their partner. To most Hashmedai men, walking away with scratch marks left by a woman was an honor, proof that you pleased a woman and she sought to leave her mark behind, almost claiming you as her own. No such thing would come from this experience, however, the only proof he’d have would be in his and her memories.

Sarah wasn’t fond of the concept licking each other, as Hashmedai intimate partners typically did. Kissing had to make do, unless it was an openmouthed one, then his tongue was put to use. When Peiun’s kisses got near to her thighs, she held his face down and directed it to her midsection, instructing him exactly where she wanted him to lick. He did, though was unsure why it was fine for his tongue to be used there and in her mouth, but no place else. Human women were indeed a confusing bunch.

Then there was the issue of climaxes. Things got awkward briefly when he had to explain how he was able to continue to perform after his first one, and then after the second. Sarah was used to human males and the limitations of their bodies during moments like this. Then there was the ice Peiun’s body needed to survive the act, rubbing his chest down with a pack of ice when she was on top was a stimulating experience for her.

Penetrating Sarah from behind allowed him to look down at her back which was decorated with human body art, ranging from words written in one of the languages humans spoke across her upper back. Peiun recognized it as Chinese. Her lower back was decorated with a picture of an avian creature that originated from Earth, he was unsure of the name of it, however. He never understood why some humans opted to turn parts of their body into a canvas for an artist to work on. Very few people would see it. He didn’t know she had such wonderful artwork on her body until she rolled over for him to mount her in this position.

In the background, the holo screen slowly made progress decrypting the memories Cody had. Its estimated time of completion wasn’t until the next morning.

36 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Taxah orbital path, Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 12:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The XSV Johannes Kepler’s presence appeared from a surge of blue and white flashes of psionic energy within the empty void of space. The space bridge jump took approximately six hours, according to EVE’s internal clock. Six hours to cross the distance of approximately three hundred light-years, six hours of having your body dissembled, and psionically tossed across the cosmos to be rebuilt. To the minds of those aboard, it felt like six seconds.

Foster’s stomach rumbled, and it wasn’t because she was hungry. The experience was not like a psionic teleportation as Hashmedai made it out to be.

She looked at her tattooed hands and counted the digits attached. Four fingers and one thumb on each, nothing was missing. It was promising news. “Location?” she asked, sitting back on her chair.

“The space bridge jump was a success, Captain,” Chang said, reading his console. “We have arrived in the Uelcovis system.”

She gave him a nod, and joined Williams at his station, both fixing their eyes on the huge spinning three-dimensional holographic map of the galaxy. He made the map zoom in to their current location, the Uelcovis system, turning the projection into a top-down map of the system and its orbiting planets around the blue giant star and its incredible bright glow.

“This is going to take a while to get used to,” Williams said. “Never thought I’d be this far away from Earth.”

“And I never thought we’d be voyaging freely through not one, but two, major Imperial strongholds,” Foster said.

“Didn’t know this was a major stronghold,” Williams said.

“The Uelcovis system is the second most populated system in the Empire, Commander,” EVE said to him.

“She is correct, I sense a great many ships nearby,” Tolukei said, and tapped a command on his computer. “I shall update the maps accordingly.”

Foster peered at the map of the system. “So … which one is Taxah?”

EVE populated the map with the names of all the planets, moons, and space stations, translating them from Hashmedai to English. The most populated planets were located at the far edge of the system. It made sense, considering the light and heat output the star ejected and the fact that Hashmedai thrived in darker and cold environments. Williams made a copy of the map and pushed it over to Chang.

“That’s where we want to head to, Chang,” he said to him.

“Alrighty, setting a course,” Chang said.

A quick ten-minute FTL jump made the Johannes Kepler flash in orbit around a blue sphere shrouded with white clouds, green continents, and polar ice caps perpetually frozen. It was like Earth, perhaps a slightly cooler surface temperature wise. Its equators were virtually empty of signs of civilization. She began to wonder if they arrived at the right planet, as the lack of communication was worrisome. Repeated attempts at communicating with the surface yielded the same results.

“Okay …” Foster said.

“Is there like a doorbell or something we can ring?” Chang asked.

Williams stepped forward, shaking his head, looking at the planet on the viewer. “Not much of a welcoming party I see.”

“Incoming transmission, Captain,” EVE said.

“About damn time, put it through,” Foster said.

“Unable to comply, the message is text only,” EVE said. “We are to land at the provided coordinates and meet with the system lord.”

“Not one for introductions I see,” Foster said. “Well then, take us down, Chang.”

“You got it, Captain.”

Following the translated instructions provided, Chang took the Kepler into the atmosphere of Taxah. After the flickering of the shields diminished from their atmospheric entry, one of the arctic polar regions of the planet appeared on the viewer. The closer they pushed into the glacier-and snow-covered region, that looked identical to Antarctica, the more Hashmedai cities appeared. They flew into the city limits of Muro, the capital of the planet, and slowed to lower themselves on a large landing pad outside a large manor in the city’s most remote area. The movement on the viewer stilled when the landing was finished.

“Well, let’s say hello,” Foster said, heading for the exit. “Contact Boyd and his team to meet me in the cargo bay. Odelea, you’re with me, I don’t speak a lick of their language.”

EVE stepped forward. “If I may, Captain, perhaps I should go in Odelea’s place.” Looking back at Odelea, Foster realized the error she was about to make. “Right, she’s an Aryile.”

“The Hashmedai here may take offence at her presence or those of our Radiance crew members,” EVE said. “Plus, it would be … fascinating to obverse this planet personally as opposed to the sensor scans.”

“Then come along, EVE,” Foster said. “Oh and … someone remind Chef Bailey he might wanna get started on his food preparation for the event.”

Foster and EVE descended down the ladder, entering the cargo bay. They approached Boyd, Chevallier, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf, who stood ready next to the opened entry ramp. Sunlight reflected off the white snow-covered platform outside and shone upon them from the entrance.

“Expecting trouble, Captain?” Boyd asked, checking the settings of his rifle.

“Just gettin’ flashbacks of our first time in Sirius,” Foster replied to the former US navy SEAL. “As it stands, we’s cut off from the UNE with the exception of communication. There’s no backup, ain’t no wormholes to escape to, and an FTL flight back home would take us a few decades.”

“The space bridge can take us back, no?” LeBoeuf asked.

“If it’s in operation and wasn’t used recently,” Foster said as she led the way, stepping across the ramp. “Somethin’ tells me we done gone walked into trouble. Besides, I think Chef would feel a lot more comfortable knowing we’s scouted ahead.”

Six bodies, one of them being an android, walked past the irising shields of the Kepler, exposing their bodies to the subzero temperatures. Foster wished she wore more layers under her coat and uniform. At least the EDF team had their shields active, and the environment controls of their protect suits to keep them warm and comfy.

They followed a brick path that led to the manor, noting the number of Hashmedai in the distance that looked back at the six aliens that arrived on their colony. The Hashmedai were different from the ones Foster had seen, all possessing varying shades of blue skin, and black-or white-colored hair.

“So, EVE, what do you got about this place?” Foster asked their android assistant.

“Taxah Hashmedai are different since they embrace traditional Hashmedai customs observed by their species prior to Radiance uplifting them.”

“They’re … blue.”

EVE continued. “Hashmedai skin tone ranges from pale, pink, beige, light green, and blue, an evolutionary adaptation of their species as they had to hunt wild animals to survive during their prehistoric days. Hashmedai that originated from the heavily snow-and ice-covered regions of their planet have pale skin and platinum blond hair to blend into the environment around them, while those from the warmer regions that had water, had blue skin, and typically hunted in the lakes or oceans. The Hashmedai that founded this colony are of that ethnicity.”

Foster nodded, gazing at the simplistic houses in the distance draped in fresh snow cover. “Umm, cool.”

“Furthermore, they speak a dialect that is different from the rest of the Hashmedai race,” EVE added. “This speech pattern is reminiscent of the old languages spoken prior to becoming a spacefaring species.”

“And this lord we need to speak to?”

EVE blinked twice, sending a hologram to float in front of Foster’s face. It was an image of Hashmedai woman with pale blue skin, black hair. Her neck, arms, and fingers covered in enough jewelry that if you were to sell it all, you’d have enough money to buy a house in the Florida Keys.

“This is the system lord, Phylarlie Starchaser, a controversial figure and a veteran of the Celestial Order wars,” EVE said.

Maxwell looked at the hologram over Foster’s shoulders, whistling loudly. “Wow, she’s fucking hot!”

“In the past, Hashmedai had lords that oversaw colonies and worked as the representative of the Imperial throne,” EVE said “When Empress Kroshka took the throne, she sought to consolidate such power into one system lord that would rule over a system, as opposed to several ruling over individual planets within a system. One planetary lord was selected from each system to become the ruling system lord, the rest were forced to give up their status. Phylarlie’s competition perished days before the empress made her choice.”

“That sounds convenient,” Foster said.

“Phylarlie was also a former member of the Hashmedai Assassins’ Guild,” EVE said.

Maxwell’s face became distraught. “And we’re about to visit her mansion?”

EVE nodded. “That is correct, Ravager Maxwell.”

“Sir, let’s make sure we leave the toilet seats down,” he said to Boyd. “They do use toilets here right, EVE?”

“Actually, the Hashmedai uses—”

“Maxwell,” Boyd cut in. “Shut up.”

Boyd too had been looking at Phylarlie’s hologram. His body language had hints of fury with a touch of hatred, the opposite of what he was prior to the hologram being displayed.

“Someone is in a good mood,” Foster said drily to Boyd.

He said nothing more until they arrived at the manor’s front door, and those words he spoke were grunts and curses. The large doors, made of wood and metal, opened allowing the team of servants in their red outfits to welcome them inside and greet them. The servants were young, fit, highly attractive, and performed their duties flawlessly.

That’s what happens when you’re hand selected at birth to be a servant, Foster mused as they ventured inside the darkened and oversized residence.

The sounds of laughter and drunken banter erupted from one chamber, while Hashmedai of high birth strode past them from another, giving them fleeting odd glances. One room the six passed had its door slightly open. Erotic moans and the thumps of a bed rocking came from that room. There must have been at least seven Hashmedai involved in whatever was going on.

Foster pretended she didn’t hear it. Maxwell, not so much. “Uh.”

“Not a word,” Boyd said, silencing him.

The servant tour guide, if you’d call them that, led them into the largest chamber in the manor, Phylarlie’s chamber. It reminded Foster of old Earth harems, a private room where a person of power kept their harems, personal servants, and people to entertain them. The only thing missing was ancient Middle Eastern architecture and hookahs on the floor.

The chamber was full of chiseled Hashmedai men and alluring women. Clothing was optional, apparently. Those that did wear clothing didn’t wear much save for Phylarlie. The Imperial system lord sat back on a wide couch donning a ruby-red dress, with long sleeves, and a slit that exposed her back, left and right sides of her body. Foster had to look away from her top, as her voluptuous cleavage was half a centimeter way from a wardrobe malfunction involving her nipples.

Loinclothed men offered the six pitchers of wine and cuts of raw meat on a silver and gold platter. The words ‘no thank you’ meant nothing to them, EVE had to step in and translate on the team’s behalf.

Phylarlie’s glowing red-orange eyes caught the arrival of the five humans and one android. She smiled, waving for them to come closer, while handing her half-full wineglass to one of her servants. There was a moment of apprehension before the six moved past the group of men and women engaging in their social activities within the chamber and made the trek to Phylarlie.

“Welcome to my place of residence,” Phylarlie said to them, in English. “I am Phylarlie, lord of this system.”

“So we’ve been told,” Foster said. “I ain’t tryin’ be rude, but we’s on a tight deadline, got stuff to do and—”

“The empress has briefed me on what you need.”

“Cool, so can we like get that movin’ along?”

“It’s being prepared as we speak to be placed aboard your ship. We’ll need more time to finish the preparations, however.”

Foster made a face, rolling her eyes in the process. “Of course.”

“You ruined the last one you had, the vortex key as you call it,” Phylarlie said. “I’d prefer not to see this device, which my people worked long hours on, destroyed.”

“I’m gonna assume you know what went wrong with ours then,” Foster said.

“We have an idea. My team is making the modifications now. Then there’s the substance, that research project was being carried out on another world in this system. It’s on its way here, but again, it will be some time before it’s ready.” Phylarlie raised an arm, and the bracelets and rings around it jingled as she waved it about, highlighting the splendors of the room around them. “We are in the midst of a celebration here as you know. Which one of you is the chef?”

“Bailey is getting food prep done,” Foster said. “He’ll be here later tonight to set things up.”

“Your chef isn’t ready yet, and neither are my research teams.” Phylarlie smiled, unveiling her fangs. She clasped and folded her ring-covered hands together. “Well then, Captain, take this time to relax, and indulge in the splendors we have to offer here. The emperor and empress, as with all Imperial system lords, will be arriving within the hour.”

“Well, since you offered!” Maxwell said, rubbing his hands together and neared a group of women in the corner gifting him with flirty smiles and waves.

“Maxwell!” Boyd shouted to him. “Get, back, here!”

Maxwell groaned, facing the floor for a moment before complying with his CO’s order. Phylarlie looked at Boyd with a puzzled and wincing face. “If your soldier requires pleasure, you should allow him to accept my gifts,” the sultry system lord said. “We know all too well what happens when you force people to remain at a young age for the purpose of military service.”

“We don’t force anyone to keep their age at a certain number,” Boyd assertively said to her.

“I read a story about the great Admiral Agatha Chevallier doing just that with her crew,” Phylarlie said. “Senior officers had to appear older, to maintain some old Earth naval traditional.”

Phylarlie pushed the red button with that comment. The button that had the Post-it sticker, ‘don’t touch.’ It was sure to trigger Chevallier and break her silence. Foster looked behind, and saw the anger building up on her face, anger of a woman that still hadn’t gotten over the loss of her mother.

Foster hoped Phylarlie chose her next words carefully.

“Though, tactically,” Phylarlie continued. “I think it was foolish, the older you are the slower and less effective you become. Perhaps that’s why her ship was lost—”

“Go fuck yourself!”

Phylarlie chose her words poorly. Foster moved to block the path Chevallier was talking, most likely to punch Phylarlie. “Chevallier, stop!”

“You got something to say about my mother?” Chevallier roared, pointing her finger at Phylarlie. “Then you say it to me, I’m what’s left of her.”

“Chevallier, stand down!” Foster pleaded.

Phylarlie’s words might have been out of line, but in the end, she had what they needed. She also had the power to snap her fingers and make the armored guards outside storm in and snap the necks of those she didn’t like. Chevallier was becoming an unlikeable person in the glowing eyes of Phylarlie.

Chevallier grimaced, facing down Foster. “I don’t report to you, Foster.”

Foster looked at Chevallier’s CO giving him a ‘please help me out glare.’ “… Boyd?”

“I’m with Chevallier on this,” he said, and stood with Chevallier, giving hateful looks at Phylarlie. “I don’t accept gifts from murderers, or appreciate you talking about the great admiral like that.”

“Murderer?” Phylarlie laughed while requesting her wineglass back. “Don’t tell me you believe those rumors that I killed to keep my title as lord.”

“I’ve seen what you’re capable of, killing in cold blood,” Boyd said. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Foster took a step back from the two with her hands held out. “Both of you need to chill out!”

Phylarlie swirled her wine, then took a sip of it. “You’re upset that I killed someone important to you?” she asked. “Tell me who it was? I’ve killed lots of people over the years; it’s hard to keep track of their faces.”

“Groom Lake, Nevada 2018. Keys, Glover, Roberts, Victor, and Cortez,” Boyd said. “Five names of two billion.”

Phylarlie paused, sizing up Boyd’s appearance. She handed her wineglass back to the loinclothed man. “The navy SEALs.” Phylarlie left her resting place, walking over to Boyd, licking her lips, walking circles around him, and stopping when she pointed at his abs. “Did my dagger leave a scar?”

“2018 …” Foster murmured as she connected the dots. “Phylarlie, you were part of the Imperial invasion?”

“She was there before they attacked,” Boyd said. “Probably part of some scouting team.”

“I was there to prevent a war,” Phylarlie said amidst the glares of contempt from Foster, Boyd, and Chevallier, the three humans around during that time.

Phylarlie moved back to her seat, shaking her head at the three and adding, “This is why we in the Empire force our troops to copulate frequently, people are happier that way, something you three aren’t.” She sat, cross-legged, stretching her arms across her couch, smiling at them seductively. “As I said, you will be here until my team is ready and your chef has helped the Imperial family’s personal chef redeem himself. Take the time to eat, drink, and fuck. Rid yourselves of that anger.”

Maxwell’s cybernetic hands stroked his mohawk. “Sir, please?”

“No,” Boyd spat.

“She so wants the D’,” Maxwell said, pointing to a Hashmedai woman resting on a pile of pillows in the corner. His eyes locked onto her friends standing behind. “And so does her, her, her, and definitely her.”

Boyd reiterated. “No, we’re going back to the ship.”

“I’d take it as a personal insult if you did,” Phylarlie cut in.

“Too fucking bad,” he said to her, walking to the exit.

“I’d be more inclined to order my people to work faster, if I didn’t feel insulted by my guests from across the galaxy,” Phylarlie said. “I’m sure the empress would do the same. Don’t you agree, Captain Foster?”

“Sergeant,” Foster said to Boyd, stopping his footsteps. “We need this ASAP.”

“Listen to her, Foster, she doesn’t give a fuck about our mission,” Boyd replied with a higher tone of voice. “We’re here to save not just the UNE, but the whole galaxy … including the Empire and this sleazy pleasure palace. She should be busting her people to move quickly already.”

“But she ain’t and you walkin’ out ain’t gonna fix that problem,” Foster said. Boyd rolled his eyes while she stood closer to him and whispered. “Look, I don’t like her now I know she was around during the invasion. But we need to pay lip service here before the station falls, taking the rest of us with it.”

Boyd turned away from the exit, with his arms crossed. Phylarlie was pleased. “Having a change of heart?” she asked him.

“Can we at least get an ETA on how much longer this will take?” Boyd asked Phylarlie.

“Well … now you’re staying, I’ll be more than happy to find that information for you.”

Arrangements for the six to stay in the manor were made. A group of servants rose to the task of escorting them away. Foster stopped them, there was one last thing she forgot to do. She approached Phylarlie, tossing her a data crystal. Her Hashmedai reflexes acquired it swiftly.

“That’s for Yominv,” Foster said. “He’s the tech from out in these parts that was in contact with Blackmar. General Irons wanted him to have that, some kind of thank you gift.”

“I … see,” Phylarlie said, looking at the data crystal with a scowl. “I’ll see to it personally that he gets this.”

“So … since we are staying after all,” Maxwell said.

Boyd waved Maxwell off, having given up on him. “Do whatever the fuck you want, Maxwell.”

“Yes!” Maxwell leaped into a chair with two women wearing nothing but a shawl and loincloth that loosely clung to their bodies. He placed his arms around them. “So, ladies, I know you probably don’t understand what I’m saying. But … are those tits real?”

Boyd went to follow the eager servant guides. “Chevallier, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“Fuck him.” Chevallier followed Boyd.

“LeBoeuf?”

“I’ll take care of things here, sir,” LeBoeuf said to him. “Just find us a nice bunk.”

Two hours had passed since the meet up with Phylarlie. Foster, Boyd, EVE, and Chevallier had been given a large room for the group to stay in and stash their equipment. EVE and Chevallier had left to conduct a brief security check, ensuring they’d be safe while they slept when nightfall came. If it came, Foster wasn’t sure what the day-night cycles on this planet were like, and it being in the polar regions meant there were likely to be times during the year where the sun didn’t set for days, and vice versa.

She put her wrist terminal away, after confirming with Williams they wouldn’t be returning for a while and joined Boyd. He stood looking out one of the windows and into the snowfields outside. “You and the system lord got history, huh?”

“She attacked my team, I was the only survivor,” Boyd said. “Then I got framed for killing the late Prince Akeia, pretty sure she was there to avenge him. Hashmedai assassins were targeting me, until the Celestial Order wars came to an end.”

“And now you’re having a slumber party at her mansion.”

“Yeah … fucking funny how life works sometimes.”

37 Pierce

Cargo Hauler

Morutrin Prime orbit, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 12:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce’s elbow throbbed with enough pain to awake him from his zero-g sleep. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was, and why it was so dark. Penelope had offered him a chance to take a cruise with her to the Morutrin system, via an old dank cargo hauler. She neglected to mention that detail until after the two popped out of the hacked electronic cargo box that was placed in the ship’s hold.

The second detail she didn’t mention was how long the one-way trip would take. This was hour number twelve of the two drifting about in the pitch-black cargo hold of the ship, a ship that traveled at sub light speeds if Pierce’s calculations were correct.

Penelope’s glowing eyes and holo screens that floated next to her gave Pierce enough light to get a fix on the stash of protein bars and water bottles that hovered in the corner. Had Penelope not been able to crack the codes on the electronic locks those were stored in Pierce’s body would have been in rough shape. He hadn’t gotten the chance to eat since the ordeal began, nor did he eat on the Kepler—the chef was busy feeding all the survivors from the colony. He didn’t know what was worse about his breakfast, the taste of the bar, or trying to drink water from a bottle with no gravity. He never would have expected his midlife crisis to be like this.

Most men go out and buy expensive cars or rob the cradle, as the saying goes. Pierce ended up playing the role of a sidekick to a girl that may as well have been a British secret agent. He flushed a little when he envisioned a titillating fantasy, one where he had taken Odelea’s offer and joined her in her quarters and taken the rob the cradle route instead.

Technically, Odelea would be the one robbing the cradle, she’s a ninety-eight-year-old woman stuck in a nineteen-year-old’s body!

“Try not to make too much noise,” Penelope said, scrolling through the contents of her holo window. “We’re not in UNE space anymore, the operators of this ship can space us and not be charged for it.”

“I’ll go back to thinking about that agent,” Pierce said. “That’s a good way to keep me quiet.”

“Good way to be distracted too, focus on the present, love.”

Pierce gave up trying to get the water out of the bottle. His dry mouth hated him for that decision. “Where do we go once we land? Better question, do you see me ever getting the chance to get back to my ship in the future?”

“I’m almost done searching through the EISS files,” she said, handing him a copy of the holo screen that had her attention. It looked like a confidential dossier of an operative, a woman with long brown hair tied back, green eyes and stare that was colder than Penelope’s. “This woman is our ticket, a black-ops operative, Chloe Vaughan of the EDF, codename Gemini-C.”

“You know where to find her?”

“No, but EISS does,” Penelope said. “She betrayed them and went into hiding on Morutrin Prime. I think they’re closing in on her location now, we need to make sure they don’t.”

“If she betrayed them, then that makes her a traitor to the UNE.”

“Think, Travis, think, you got the PhD here.”

“Ugh …” PhD comments were starting to get to him.

“Something happened on the mission Vaughan was on, something she didn’t agree with and took matters into her own hands, as well as Devorei’s data crystal.”

“Your hacker friend …” He stroked his chin. “She knows what he knows then.”

“You have no idea. I learned a lot about EISS since you, being the gentleman that you are, helped me poke around in their most secret databases. A few people in EISS have been funding Terran Legion operations. That poor bugger that got his brains fired was one of them. The gunman that came after you was another.”

“The Terran Legion, you mean that anti-alien group?”

“The very same one that was talked about in that news broadcast,” she said. “Their numbers have been increasing quickly since the Draconians’ incursion, so has EISS’ secret support and funding to them.”

Pierce felt sick to his stomach. He wasn’t sure if it was the protein bar he ate, or the facts she just revealed. “Oh, man.”

“Luckily, it’s not all of EISS doing this from what I’ve gathered, just rogue members acting on their own accord.”

“If corrupted EISS agents are funding and pulling the strings of the Terran Legion, then …” He began to put things together. It wasn’t a pretty picture. “Then the mission Chloe was on, and quite possibly others, was ordered by the Terran Legion and EISS alliance in secret.”

“That’s my take, that agent was overseeing a number of missions, as was an old friend of yours.”

Penelope tossed another hologram for him to look at, stolen from her EISS hack. His eyes opened wide when he saw the man in question on the projection. “Moriston …”

“Moriston was participating in the op Chloe and her sister was on.”

“What was their objective?”

“That, I can’t find … Only Moriston and Devorei knew by the looks of things.”

Starport platform

Port Shala, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 13:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The cargo hauler the two stowed away on remained idle long enough for Penelope to perform her techno wizardry, and force its massive barnlike doors open. The duo vanished behind a number of parked transports and smaller ships on the starport’s landing platform at the edge of a Linl built metropolis.

She kept her face buried in holo screens. One of them held a map of the city they were in, which helped her lead the two down inside the port, and through its wide corridors. The second screen that had her attention, displayed a top-down map of another city, one called Gravity City, from what Pierce was able to view while looking over her shoulder.

There were a number of pulsing dots on the map, they were all moving to a specific location. The background audio from the projection was full of military blabber and codenames. It was like a group people were coordinating an ambush.

“Shit …” Penelope stopped moving. Pierce was forced to do the same.

“Talk to me, Penelope, what’s going on?”

“We’re a tad late,” she said. “EISS is moving in on an asset I completely forgot about.”

She ran to a train platform, overhanging off the side of the high-rise starport. Her frustrated hands ran through her silver hair and pulled on it. She hissed like the Hashmedai he forgot she was.

“Help me find a train traveling to Gravity City,” she asked, frantically reading all the holographic train times and network maps. They were all written in the Linl language.

Only the cities with heavy human populations had English and Chinese translations written underneath it. They found a platform that had what she was desperately seeking two stories down. Too bad the next train was due to arrive in thirty minutes.

“What’s so important in Gravity City?”

“There was an Imperial starship captain searching for the same ship Devorei and the EISS black ops team boarded. I installed a trojan into his HNI, just in case he came across what I’m searching for.”

“And EISS is moving in to capture him,” Pierce said. “I guess he found it.”

“His mission had nothing to do with Devorei, just a lucky coincidence the two ships were important to us both.” She waved her hands creating a holo communication window in its wake. “Whatever it is he found, EISS is willing to put their pursuit of Chloe on hold for it.”

“This train won’t be here for a while, then there’s the travel time … whatever that is.”

“We won’t make it in time.” The communication screen powered on. She flicked her hair back and looked directly into it. “Hello, Captain Peiun. You don’t know me, but I know quite a bit about you. Right now, you need to follow my instructions exactly and quickly. Your life is in danger.”

38 Peiun

High rise apartment

Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 13:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Like a newly refueled starship that was operating dangerously low on helium-3 fuel, Peiun’s body woke up the next day fully engineered. Stress, anxiety, cloudy thoughts were removed from his body and mind that was required to remain in the young prime age it was with gene therapy.

He got up from the bed he slept on with Sarah. She wasn’t anywhere to be seen, probably tending to the data that was literally ripped out from the head of Cody. There was no shame in what he had done. If Cody had truly been a member of the Terran Legion movement, then Peiun’s sweat and traces of his seed on the bed sheets that he shared with a human woman, will go down as the final insult to Cody and his group founded on hatred.

In the living room, Peiun found Sarah standing and examining the contents of the holo screen, now that it finally finished its decryption. She was still naked and didn’t seem to mind him looking at her female figure and body art. He approached her after slipping back into his pants, walking over the corpse of Cody, whom neither cared to clean up.

She waved her index finger at him. “I didn’t say you can get dressed.”

He smirked and allowed his pants to fall back to the floor. “I take orders from Imperial admirals and the throne only.”

“After last night? You could have fooled me,” she said.

“Yes, about last night … I—”

“Your pull-out game is weak,” she cut in laughing. “Don’t worry, I took a bullet through my tubes years ago, I can’t have children anymore. I hope Mom and Dad aren’t turning in their graves.”

“I am not familiar with that human expression.”

“Lost my family during the Imperial invasion.” She typed into the holo keyboard to browse through the files on Cody’s HNI. “I’m sure you’ve heard this story from a human like me that lived through that era.”

“Far too many times, I’m afraid.”

“Truth be told, I used to hate your kind, like a lot.”

He had a hard time believing that statement. What the two shared before passing out on top of each other, was anything but hate. “What changed?” he asked her.

“The end of the Celestial Order wars, and the change of heart the Empire had after it ended. It took half a century, but eventually I learned how to bury the hatchet. Too bad these Terran Legion motherfuckers haven’t.”

He stood next to her, looking at the projection while she leaned her body against his. “Anything useful?”

“He doesn’t know where my sister is …” she said. “Either that or those files were damaged.”

“I am sorry to discover this.”

“The Terrans received a lot of funding from EISS recently,” she returned to the holo screen, enlarging a number of documents Cody had viewed with his Terran and EISS allies. “EISS funding them would explain how they were able to come up in the news so fast. The funding doubled after the Draconian attacks.”

A blurry video of a man appeared in the projection. Sarah wasn’t able to clean the image up any better. The data file was most likely damaged when Peiun pulled the HNI out from Cody’s head. Her face leaned forward, staring at the image for a solid minute.

Her face became enraged. “Albert fucking Moriston! I knew it!”

“His middle name is ‘Fucking?’”

“Moriston, Durendal … shit, there’s hella people in the military and EISS that’s affiliated with the Terrans,” she said. “Looks like they had the Fortune Runner rigged to monitor it if anyone boarded to investigate.”

“That would explain why they came after me,” he said. “Is there anything there about Alesyna? My ship’s psionic.”

She interacted with the computer and found his answer. A video loaded depicting Alesyna being dragged away from battle at the starport landing platform, with a slave collar on, suppressing her psionic powers. Newer models, to his understanding, could force one’s HNI’s to deactivate, which would explain why she didn’t call for help, and why he couldn’t reach her. The transport he came down to the surface with was in the background of the video, as was Moe’s red-drenched body lying in a pool of his own blood.

She was attacked when she teleported down, then was promptly incapacitated by the looks.

“Durendal knows how to handle himself against psionics,” Sarah said. “Hell, I do as well, it’s a critical part of EDF training. Factor in the MRF our suits have and yea, Alesyna didn’t stand a chance.”

“Excellent, we now have a means of escape,” Peiun said.

“If we can get to her, I can’t find anything else here that would indicate where they took her.”

“Perhaps they—”

His HNI automatically picked up an incoming transmission, one he couldn’t shut down. It caused him to stand straight, panicking in attempt to figure out why his implants were operating in that manner. The holographic face of a woman appeared over his eyesight. It was the silver-haired women he encountered on the station.

“Hello, Captain Peiun. You don’t know me, but I know quite a bit about you. Right now, you need to follow my instructions exactly and quickly. Your life is in danger.”

Peiun hissed loudly. “You!”

“What’s up?” Sarah asked him, facing away from the holo screen.

“Oh, I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?” The silver-haired woman said. She gasped as Sarah’s nude body stepped forward curious to know why he made that outburst. “Oh, my, I am.”

He faced away from her and ended up facing a wall mirror. It didn’t help. The silver-haired woman still saw Sarah, and now his exposed body. She flushed a little.

“My HNI is being hacked, Sarah …” Peiun said.

“By who?”

“Oh blast, I’ll enlarge; I was never a fan of the telephone game,” said the silver-haired woman.

The projection over his eyes vanished, replaced with a life-sized hologram of the woman, now standing with Peiun and Sarah. The two rushed to get dressed. The woman laughed.

“Name’s Diamondrose, Penelope Diamondrose,” her hologram said.

“This your girlfriend?” Sarah asked, slipping into her undergarments.

Peiun got back into his pants. “Absolutely not, she’s from Maraschino.”

“Good, cause I’m no good at explaining myself to jealous women,” Sarah said, then slipped into a pair of pants and a top stolen from Cody’s bedroom. “Wait … Maraschino?”

“Ah … I recognize you from my hacked files,” Penelope said. “Gemini-S, Sarah Vaughan, Chloe’s younger sister, this is good. But first things first, as I said, EISS is moving in on your location, you need to take cover now!”

“How much time do we have?”

The power shut off, taking with it the lights they two left on in the kitchen. Sarah quickly unplugged the data crystal slipping it into her pockets. The feeling of weightlessness flooded the apartment suite, making the two along with all furniture and Cody’s body to float about.

“Never mind, we figured it out.”

No gravity in a room located on the surface of a planet. It seemed crazy to Peiun, until he remembered how gravity worked for this city. Antigravity generators cancelled the planet’s natural gravity while artificial ones replaced it with Earthlike gravity. Someone killed the artificial gravity under the apartment, while leaving the antigravity active. Tactically, it was a smart move. The two weren’t prepared for the loss of gravity and losing the ability to run for cover as projectiles from the outside shot through the walls and windows, raining into the room.

“I’d love to assist, but EISS just rebooted their network and updated their encryption,” Penelope said, while the two drifted aimlessly avoiding the weapons barrage. “I can only give you moral support, and the reassurance that we’re doing what we can to get there quickly.”

“Well, that’s just great!” Sarah exclaimed.

“For what it’s worth, before I was kicked out, I discovered another target moving to your location fast,” Penelope said. “I’m assuming its backup for them, you two need to move it.”

The barrage of projectiles from the outside didn’t stop. The situation was akin to the one he found himself in upon landing, in which the transport was filled with holes fired from magnetic rifles. Pushing off the floors to gain momentum, then off the ceilings had to make do. Furniture hit by the bullet storm came spiraling over to the two. The impact pushed them backward.

There was a break in the assault that left the zero-g room littered with shrapnel, shattered glass from the window, and white stuffing from inside the couch. Bright light from Morutrin’s golden glow in the daytime skies beamed in—the rainstorm had long cleared out. Peiun’s sensitive Hashmedai eyes were forced shut. The imagery from the light was burned into his retinas.

A second barrage ensued. There was nothing he could do to defend against it. The sunlight was blinding, and the floating debris and furniture only made it harder to navigate through the weightlessness.

One round ripped a hole through his arm, orbs of Hashmedai blood jetted out from the exit wound, the force of the projectile sent his body spiraling. Sarah screamed ten seconds into the second barrage, forcing him to open his eyes and endure the pain the sunlight gave it and possible eye damage. Like him, red orbs leaked out from a hole that entered her stomach and exited her back. Her body hit the wall and her hands came to rest upon the gap in her belly, desperately trying to keep the blood inside. It was futile effort, weightlessness changed the rules for bleeds.

“Sarah!”

“Ah, fuck, fuck, fuck …”

Ignoring the pain and the massive loss of blood, he grabbed onto the body of Cody, and forced it to float up to the living room windows. The body lost its left foot, while its right arm was severed at the elbow by the ultra-high-velocity projectiles shredding it apart. A third barrage entered the room as a result. Peiun had to shield his burning eyes from the light and hope he didn’t drift into the line of fire.

Sarah and Peiun would have to avoid the windows where they could be seen from the gunmen outside, likely standing on top of the adjacent apartment buildings. When he was ready, Peiun peeked up at the shredded body of Cody being orbited by thousands of red shiny globes and butchered limbs removed from his body. The corpse continued to float and bounce in front of the windows, without a head. That had exploded into chunks of meat and bone. No further projectiles were fired. The attackers knew that shooting a dead body was pointless.

Everything in the room had weight again and came crashing to the floor, Peiun and Sarah were no exception. They made a loud thump, while the orbed blood fell with multiple splattering sounds, coating the floor and overturned furniture with a mixture of human and Hashmedai blood. Peiun landed arm-first from the ceiling, the impact amplified the pain in his other that had the high velocity round make a perfectly circular hole through it.

The arm he fell on refused to move. His HNI sent a report to his eyes, reporting it had been broken. It took him a while to make out what the report said due to the blotches in his eyesight, created by the light. Sarah’s screams and curses took him away from the HNI report. He went to search for her amongst the chaos, keeping prone on the floor to avoid being detected from the many shattered windows spilling in their painfully blinding light.

He turned over her blood-drenched body. Upon a closer look it was Cody, Sarah was two meters away, next to the wall she crashed into. His eyes were far from recovery.

“Gravity is back,” he said.

“I’ve noticed,” she said drily.

“They must think his body was one of us.”

“Great, so that means they’re coming to confirm the kill.” Sarah’s head tilted to the side, her eyes locked onto her fallen pistol. She tried reaching for it. At least he thought that’s what she was doing. “Oh, shit …”

He crawled over the top of Sarah’s body, this time confirming it was her and that her blood wouldn’t stop leaking away. He tried to stop the bleeding with his one free hand. It proved to be a complicated and painful task.

“Don’t worry about … me, get my gun,” she said, pointing to it. “I can’t feel my legs.”

His HNI scans showed him where her wound was, projecting a superimposed image of a human skeleton over her body. The projectile that hit her severed her spine according to the hologram. He crawled for her pistol, handing it back to her when he got it.

She shook his hand and pushed the red-coated handle of the weapon back to him.

“Keep it, you can walk, I can’t,” she said. “Take the data crystal out from my pocket, get out of here, and meet with your hacker friend. If you meet my sister …” Sarah paused, as her eyes began to fill with strange moisture. He forgot the name of it, tears? Whatever it was, his people were never capable of forming those. “Oh fuck … Chloe … I’m so sorry,” she added.

“There must be a medical kit somewhere,” he said with burning determination.

“Leave me, man!”

“I cannot face our enemies alone!”

“Sure, you can,” she said, grinning. Her teeth stained slightly red. “You Hashmedai perform and think better after sex. Last night was strategic buddy, though, me getting paralyzed wasn’t.”

“My arm is broken, and the one that isn’t is lame from being shot,” Peiun said. “And as for my vision, I’m not used to this level of light and its blinding curse. I won’t last long.”

“Great … just fucking great.”

Sarah couldn’t walk, Peiun could. Peiun was partially blinded by the light, Sarah, being a human, wasn’t. Sarah had both arms and hands in working order, Peiun had broken and wounded arms.

She was right about one thing. Sex did make him think better. He sat next to her. “Reach up and grab onto my back.”

“Why? So I can slow you down?”

“If we both stay, we die, if I go alone, I’ll die, and then you.”

“And if you piggyback me, we’ll both die.”

“Then we die, taking as many of our attackers with us,” he said. “Two injured targets killing their adversaries on their way to their end. There is no greater insult. Besides, they think we’re dead. Let’s keep that lie alive when they enter.”

“I guess it might give us an opening advantage,” Sarah said. “Fine, didn’t want to die alone anyways.”

She climbed and pulled herself up to his back, lightly hooking one hand around his neck, while the other held her pistol. He braced himself, and used the full power of his Hashmedai strength, ignoring the pain and warm rolls of blood falling off their bodies. Peiun became the legs she needed, Sarah became the arms and eyes he needed.

Muffled chatter came from beyond the apartment’s front door. The EISS agents were preparing to conduct their search.

“Any last words?” Sarah said to him, as he strafed away from the door that was seconds away from allowing enemy forces to enter.

“Just one question,” he said. “What does piggyback mean?”

Plasma-breaching charges exploded and reduced the door into a red glowing debris of metal and wires.

Sarah aimed her pistol forward.

39 Foster

Phylarlie’s manor

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 14:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster was right about one thing, the azure sun in the skies didn’t move.

It was going to make retiring for the evening hard as light from the windows in their room continued to shine in. The curtains did help to a degree, but not enough for her active mind to accept the fact that it was time for bed rest.

She ended up meandering around the manor to pass the time as the day went on. Chef Bailey had arrived later, commandeering the Hashmedai-designed kitchen, and enlisting the help of the Imperial palace’s chef, whose life was on the line. Foster paid them a quick visit, watching the two go over the menu items. EVE stood idle, providing translations for them both.

Hashmedai and human fusion cuisine, she felt conflicted about enjoying the food of the people that killed her father. She sampled some of the sauces the two chefs worked to produce, and a slice of sautéed protein from some dead animal that lived on Taxah. It tasted like chicken, every piece of meat in the cosmos tasted like chicken. Not that she objected to it.

Hashmedai system lords, nobles, and the Imperial family arrived and were treated to teams of servants escorting them to their assigned rooms. The drunken shouts, laughter, and music that filled the halls of the manor increased threefold as a result. She debated if it was safe run back to the Kepler to snatch a pack of melatonin, she had a feeling she’d need it later in the evening.

Security naturally increased, every floor and room had Hashmedai warriors and guardians standing idle, polearm-wielding guards stood watch over Eensino and Kroshka’s rooms. Understandable given the number of VIPs in attendance and from what Foster was told by one servant she found that did speak English. The servant was a woman with short purple hair, who looked upset and seemed out of place, unlike the rest of the servants.

Foster entered a chamber that housed a small indoor pool once evening hours had arrived. Darkness was in every corner of the chamber, save for the lights up above shining down upon the water. She began to wonder if a dark room with a single spotlight in the ceiling was a common design amongst the Hashmedai.

The sound of the water flowing was soothing, blocking out the drunken activity elsewhere, and the thought of the Hashmedai chef who wasn’t out of the woods yet, because of her actions.

New sounds echoed in the distance, footsteps that weren’t hers. Foster wasn’t alone. Her body began to tense as a result.

“This is where it fell apart for them,” it was Phylarlie’s voice.

She looked about in the darkness until she spotted the pair of glowing eyes that neared and walked out of the shadows. “For you?” Foster asked, as she cautiously stepped away from the pool. Phylarlie used to be an assassin after all.

“Lisette and Avearan,” Phylarlie said. “Have you heard about them?”

“Kinda been busy trying to save us all from extinction and all,” Foster said. “What’s the scoop?”

“Lisette was a human woman, a psionic at that, visiting from Titan. Someone reported that she and Avearan were becoming intimate.”

“That’s a problem for you folks?”

“Not at all, unless you’re a psionic.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“We Hashmedai don’t have the means of creating psionics, unlike humans and Radiance, we have to breed them. Radiance, during our wars, saw to it the technology needed to create Hashmedai psionics had been destroyed, and then went to slaughter as many psionics as they could.”

“I see where this is goin’. You Imperial folks like to tell your people how to live their lives. If you’s a psionic then you have to use your powers to serve the Empire.”

Phylarlie kneeled next to the edge of the pool, running her ring-and bracelet-draped hands through the water leaving rippling waves in its wake. “My mother sought to keep my powers, and my sister’s, a secret. She befriended the former lord that lived in this manor to do so; we made this place our home, living in secret from the Empire. One day … it was discovered my mother had children and we had been hiding here. We ended up having to serve the Empire, while our mother lost her head.”

“Just like that?”

“There’s more to the story than that. However, that is how it ended.” Phylarlie stood facing Foster. “All Hashmedai psionics must undergo training, must serve the Empire, and must put themselves in the position to have children. Two women frolicking about while they bathe together can’t do that, nor can two men. Imperial law forbids it.”

“I didn’t see any other humans here other than my team. I’m gonna assume, they’ve been arrested?” Foster asked.

“Lisette has, and will have to face what comes next.”

The Empire executes all who breaks the law, no matter how small or big the crime is. The real punishment you served after being arrested was how long they kept you on death row. Since you were going to die anyways, the guards had very little incentive to make your stay in gulags, pleasant.

“What happened to her Hashmedai partner?”

“I do not know. She went missing before the arrests were made.” Phylarlie’s echoing footsteps carried her closer to Foster. She backpedaled and hit the wall behind she couldn’t see. “But, this manor … this planet is home to many secrets. She could be anywhere hiding, like me, my mother and sister before her.”

The conversion needed a topic change, ideally one that was important to what was going on. “How much longer until everything is loaded onto my ship?”

“The transport is still on its way to deliver the protective substance,” Phylarlie said, then held onto Foster’s hand, scoping out her dormant shimmering tattoos. “I hope you and these tattoos, will be up for the challenge. If this device malfunctions like the last, then our progress would have been for nothing.”

“We’ll be fine,” Foster assured her.

Phylarlie held her hand longer and gave Foster a concerned look. “You’re not fine. You seem tense, agitated, and these tattoos are a part of you. Have you considered that your physical and mental state might affect your ability to commune with the Draconian tech?”

She yanked her hand out from her grip. “Possibly.”

“When was the last time you copulated?”

“That ain’t any of ya damn business.”

“You’ve seen the men here, and you know we Hashmedai believe that frequent pleasing can lead to improvements in one’s job. Take advantage, Captain, you’re free to have the men in my harem. Remember that secrets that appear here stay here.”

Foster turned away from her, looking for the exit, wherever it was in the pitch-black chamber. “I’m gonna get going.”

“Those men don’t have a chance to be with you, do they?”

“Nope.”

She found the door as a cold and damp hand from behind held onto her arm, hauling her back. “Does this mean, I have a chance?”

“Didn’t you just say that psionics ain’t allowed to give sugar to those of the same gender?”

“This is a place of secrets,” Phylarlie whispered into her. It made Foster cringe. “Lisette is in Imperial custody, because she got caught. My mother isn’t alive today because she got caught. The two of us are having to this conversation right now because I’ve never been caught.”

“So, what you’re saying is …” Foster said, moving away from her grip. “You did have your competition killed to hold onto your lord title?”

Phylarlie didn’t deny it, nor had any further comments, just a soft snicker. Foster left and marched back to the room she shared with the rest, scrubbing her memories clean of the encounter.

The manor grew silent shortly after Foster’s head hit the Hashmedai-made pillow and mattress. Chevallier, Bailey, and Boyd had also retreated to their beds for the night, while the beds reserved for Maxwell and LeBoeuf were vacant and remained that way. Sometime during the night, Foster was awoken by the sounds of Boyd crawling out of bed.

She watched him from behind as he walked over to EVE who stood motionless next to the front door on watch. Half her mind wanted to go back to sleep, the other half told her it was time to wake up since the sun was out. But it never set to start with!

“You … still with us?” Boyd asked EVE.

EVE’s body jerked slightly and addressed the EDF team leader. “Yes, Sergeant, I am still here, my operation for this unit was in sleep mode.”

“Sorry to wake you,” he said.

“There is no need to apologize, Sergeant. My sleep mode is similar to that of computers and electric devices. I shut down nonessential systems to conserve power.”

Foster shut her eyes, hoping to fall back asleep.

“And now those systems are back online, consuming power needlessly,” Boyd said. “I was just checking to see if you still had a good charge; my HNI isn’t authorized to view your stats.”

“My power cells are currently at 84 percent.”

“Good to know. Kinda wish I asked earlier rather than checking my HNI. By accident I viewed the vitals of Maxwell and LeBoeuf. Maxwell’s heartbeat and breathing were high all night, he must have fucked those two girls. And LeBoeuf? She was supposed to watch him, but her elevated heartbeats peaked pretty high, at least five times. It’s got me a bit worried.”

“Warlock LeBoeuf’s vitals are consistent with a woman experiencing an orgasm during sexual intercourse, at least four to five times over the course of—”

“I didn’t need to know that.”

How LeBoeuf and Maxwell’s Hashmedai sexual partners got over their heavily cybernetic enhanced bodies the two had, was something Foster didn’t want to know. Those two looked more machine than EVE.

“Fascinating, Sergeant,” EVE said. “A ship has landed near the equator of this world.”

“And?”

“It has been three hours and five minutes since it landed, and it is allegedly the ship that was to bring the mysterious substance for us. Furthermore, the tropical regions of this planet are akin to the arctic of Earth and lack all forms of civilization with the exception of research outposts.”

“Right, Hashmedai hate the heat,” Boyd said. “Why is it only now you detected it?”

“During sleep mode, the synchronization of my processors aboard the Johannes Kepler is temporarily severed,” EVE said. “In essence, the me on the Johannes Kepler detected it. The me here didn’t receive the update, until sleep mode was terminated.”

Foster felt her body slowly drift back into the comforting state of sleep, the conversation the two were having, faded in and out periodically.

“… if there was an emergency, and you were in sleep mode, you wouldn’t know about it until you awoke?”

“No, I am still able to receive messages and essential updates from the Johannes Kepler. Had there been an emergency or transmission, I would have awakened automatically. My synchronization, however, is not deemed to be important.”

“So, the ship we’ve been waiting for landed planet side, just not here?”

“That is correct, Sergeant, unless the data I have is incorrect, and this ship is not the one we were waiting for. However, current sensor scans show no signs of transport ships en route to Taxah, detectable from our current position.”

“Either Phylarlie was full of shit about it being en route, or it’s here, and hanging out in a region of the planet where no Hashmedai should be …”

That does seem weird … probably a misunderstanding not worth losing sleep over, Foster told herself.

“Thanks, EVE, you can return to sleep mode if you wish …”

Everything around Foster became silent and dark. Sleep had returned.

40 Peiun

High rise apartment

Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 14:18 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Four EISS agents slithered in with pistols moving and trigger fingers ready to end the life of two targets they didn’t like. It was hard for Peiun to make out what happened next, as the blotches in his damaged vision, plus the unbearable sunlight from the skies obscured things.

With Sarah still holding onto his back, and his one free hand securing her limp legs, he stepped back into the kitchen and its floors littered with shattered bottles, plates, and cups from the magnetic rifle barrage. The agents fanned out and stopped, examining the body of Cody, not realizing it was him at first glance, since his headless body looked like a shredded slab of meat found in a butcher’s shop. Sarah whispered, asking Peiun to step out of the kitchen, while the backs of the agents were turned. Her pistol did the rest after he followed her instructions. Despite her condition, Sarah’s marksmanship was impressive, quickly turning the fight into an even match.

He retreated into the kitchen still carrying Sarah on his back. Its walls might not defend them from the projectiles that could easily pass through it, but its ability to hide exactly where they were, did. The lone agent returned fire, shooting blindly at the wall for the chance a stray shot would hit them. Sarah did the same.

An exchange of projectiles passing through the walls and cupboards commenced. Wooden splinters and fragments of broken plates flew around in every direction, rays of light shone through the new holes made. There was nothing Peiun could do, just lower his body when Sarah told him to or swerve to the left and right.

Silence fell. All targets holding a weapon knew their opponent was alive and evaded the projectile storm. Sarah reached for a mangled stainless steel bowl. She angled it in a way that its reflective surface could be used a mirror and show her what was going on in the living room. Her eyes blinked twice, and a scatter of lines and colors appeared over them. It was tactical data being overlaid on her eyesight created by her HNI, most likely its threat detectors tracking the movement of the agent. She moved her pistol to the right, and then pulled the trigger eight times rapidly. No other weapons discharged in retaliation.

He carried her to the kitchen’s exit as her pistol searched for the last target. She found it. The agent’s body was slumped up against the wall. If Peiun’s vision wasn’t so bad, he’d see the agent’s body leaving a smear of red on the wall and the eight holes pushing out a red fountain of fluid from his chest and forehead.

“Are we clear?” Peiun asked her.

“About to find out,” she said. “Head to the door, go left.” He followed her directions, making his way past the door into the hallways of the apartment. The lack of sunlight helped his vision make a slow but welcomed recovery. “Okay, now straight!”

She was guiding him to the emergency staircase. It was probably safer to take that than the elevators that were most likely compromised. He felt her arm extend backward, the one that held her pistol. Five shots roared, he was right, the elevators behind weren’t safe.

His haggard footsteps moved faster to the staircase doors, hoping he could get behind it quickly, or at the very least, Sarah kept the newly arrived EISS agents down. Once clear of the doors, he charged up the staircase, as per her directions, carrying her with him. He waved away the thoughts of the trail of blood their bodies were dotting on the floors behind. It was going to point to their location when someone came searching.

“Can’t believe this is working …” Sarah said, as they neared the top and the entrance to the rooftops.

“Like I said, they thought we were dead,” Peiun said. “Their arrogance and confidence got the better of them.”

Penelope’s hologram appeared and floated beside him. “You two still alive?” she asked.

“Penelope you said your name was, correct?” Peiun said. “Are you close?”

“I managed to hack an express train,” Penelope said. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“We haven’t been shot at in the last, oh, two minutes?” Sarah said. “Are there any agents left?”

“I have limited access to security cameras in your area,” Penelope said. “I’m seeing at least four snipers and that backup soldier I mentioned earlier.”

“Was afraid you’d say that,” Sarah drily said. “Wait, soldier? As in not an agent?”

“Rifle and protect suit.”

Sarah grunted. “Durendal, fuck! Where is he now?”

“Probably inside the apartment you’re in now,” Penelope said. “I’m not sure where, unfortunately, as I said, I can’t access all the cameras until I get closer.”

Stepping foot onto the rooftops made Peiun yelp and scream. He forgot about the sunlight, it was all around him now. “We’re on the roof now,” he said after coming to, with his eyes shut.

“I can see that,” Penelope said. “Not a smart move, given the snipers in the area.”

“We don’t have a choice, and I’m sure they have the lobby blocked off,” Peiun said.

“Stay away from the edges, they shouldn’t be able to get a lock on your position,” Penelope said.

Stay away from the edges. Edges he was blind to. Sarah had to tell him exactly when to walk, turn, and stop, for he was moving with his eyes closed. She guided him away from the door and the location where new attackers would appear from.

So they thought.

Peiun heard the engines of a ship close in on their position. It was small, perhaps a transport, or an attack drone. Or worse.

“Ah, fuck! Gunship,” Sarah yelled. “Turn us to the right and run!”

The heat from the planet, the blinding light, his weakening body dripping blood, and the weight of Sarah’s body on his back, Peiun didn’t know how much longer his body would last. If the weapons fire from the gunship didn’t end them, his body, on the verge of shutting down, would. He ran, as per her directions, it was like running through a forest in the middle of the night full of deadly predators.

“Let me know if we are nearing the edge,” he said, having realized they’d been running on one direction for a while.

“Fuck the edge, that ship will tear us apart!”

Exhaust vents provided the same form of cover the cupboards and walls of the kitchen did earlier. It didn’t defend them from the stray rounds that passed through, it only forced the enemy to guess where they needed to aim and shoot. Only this time, they faced an enemy that had air superiority, and used it. The gunship rose in the skies to gain a better vantage point and regain a target lock. So he figured, based on the sounds around him, and the touch of the exhaust vents touching his skin.

“Where do you wish to go now?” he asked.

“Just sit and wait,” Sarah said grimly.

“For what?”

“For our deaths, it was a good run, babe.”

“We must—”

“Snipers ahead and that gunship is repositioning to get a lock. If we move now it will find and shoot us. So, yeah, we’re fucked.”

“Oh, don’t be such a pessimist.” It was Penelope’s voice.

“Let me guess, you got a deus ex machina to pull us out of this?” Sarah asked.

“As a matter of fact, I will, in the next thirty-eight seconds,” Penelope said.

Peiun felt the heat from the gunship’s engines increase. It was closing the gap. “We don’t have that time!”

“Don’t die, please, I’m about to make that gunship my bitch,” Penelope said. “And those snipers? Oh, just you wait!”

A surge of intense heat accompanied with a loud bang sweltered Peiun’s body. He lost his balance, nearly passing out from the heat, his body had had enough punishment. A secondary blast came from behind, throwing him and Sarah to the surface of the roof. His ears listened for the gunship, he couldn’t hear it. He heard billowing flames and the sound of something heavy crashing near them instead. The impact of the heavy object sent a sudden vibration across the rooftop’s surface.

“That may go down in history as the fastest thirty-eight seconds ever,” Sarah said.

“I didn’t do anything,” Penelope said with concern.

“You’re shitting me, right?” Sarah said. “If not, then who the fuck took down that gunship?”

Peiun forced his eyes open, shielding them with his free hand, now that Sarah had fallen off him. He looked beyond their cover and noticed a downed UNE gunship with flames and blackened smoke raging from it. Moving to the left, he saw the rooftop’s entrance, and a lone human wearing an EDF protect suit. It was the target Penelope was talking about.

“Sarah?” he said, returning to her.

“I see it,” she said. “It must be Durendal.”

He looked back at the soldier. Something didn’t sit right with him. Durendal was an enemy, as was the gunship, which was most likely taken down by the newly arrived human in the EDF protect suit. Said human also had a clear shot at both Peiun and Sarah, it couldn’t be Durendal. The lavender waves of psionic energy rippling away from the EDF soldier’s body making their long brown hair flutter only reinforced that thought. The EDF soldier, was a psionic, a psionic woman.

Sarah sat up the best she could, given her wounds, locking her eyes on the woman.

She uttered one word. “Chloe—?”

“Not now, Sarah!” the woman, who apparently was Chloe, replied.

A magnetic rifle out of Peiun’s vision discharged. Its projectiles were stopped via a small protective barrier Chloe created when she jump ported next to Peiun and Sarah. He turned and eyed the source of the rifle, and made out the faint image, amongst the blinding light, of Durendal. He stood by the burning gunship, the gunship he was piloting.

“Penelope?” Peiun asked, as her holographic likeness floating in front of him returned.

“One moment,” said the Hashmedai hacker.

“The gunship is damaged,” he said, while Chloe continued to deflect the projectiles from Durendal’s rifle. “A psionic attacked it.”

“If it has a computer that works, I can make miracles happen,” Penelope said.

The downed gunship’s rail guns shifted and took aim at targets across the apartment on its rooftops. A five second continuous burst of weapons fire from the burning gunship shot in the general direction of the EISS snipers. The gunship had rail guns designed for ship to ship combat. One round carried enough force to make a humanoid body explode, regardless if they had shields or combat armor on.

They were also loud, so loud that Durendal lost focus on what he was doing. He looked at his downed craft confused that it suddenly took on a life of its own, firing upon his EISS allies, loyal to the Terran Legion. It was the advantage Chloe was looking for. She forced the protective barrier to shatter and jump ported behind a distracted Durendal. Peiun wasn’t able to make out what happened next, though he imagined it consisted of a lot of telekinetic pushes and pulls in conjunction with her rifle’s weapon fire. Durendal’s body become limp and face-planted into the ground.

“You are now safe to move to the edge,” Penelope said.

Peiun began to imagine what the remains of the snipers looked like.

Chloe returned to Peiun and Sarah, kneeling next to Sarah, and mending her wounds with flesh regenerators from her med kit.

“Sis?” Sarah said to her.

“Jesus Christ, Sarah. Can you walk?”

“It hit the spine, I’m paralyzed.”

“It’s going to take doctors months to grow you a replacement spine.”

“Fuck that, I want a cybernetic one.”

Chloe’s haste to mend her sister resulted in her dropping the flesh regenerator device. She held her hand above it and forced it to rise back into her grip via telekinesis.

Sarah was drawn back at the sight. “Okay, stop, just stop,” she pleaded to Chloe. “Who are you, really?”

“Your sister?”

“My sister isn’t a psionic.”

Chloe sighed returning to mend Sarah’s body, stopping the bleeding. “No point hiding it any longer,” she said. “Ever heard of the mythical third human psionic?”

“Fuck off, that was you?”

“Side effects from the Celestial Order wars.”

“And you kept it secret from me?”

“We’re black op operatives,” Chloe said. “Keeping secrets is part of the job, isn’t it?”

The two sisters shared an emotional embrace, a long one at that. As much as Peiun was pleased to see Sarah reunited, he was still bleeding out. Chloe’s med kit could help with that if she shared it.

“Next time you pull something like this,” Sarah said when the embrace ended. “Let me in on it? Didn’t know whose side to be on.”

“I’ll remember that the next time I ask you to watch my back.” With Sarah taken care of Chloe looked at Peiun, and reluctantly went to mend his wounds. “Who the fuck is he?”

Sarah laughed. “This is Peiun; he boarded the Fortune Runner after we left.”

“Durendal ambushed me the moment I arrived here,” Peiun said.

“What the hell’s an Imperial like you doing there?” Chloe asked him.

“I had my reasons,” he said. “But it seems what I found had led me straight into this mess.”

Chloe paused, and went to retrieve a data crystal from her suit’s storage slot. It took him a few seconds while dealing with the light and damage to his eyes, to make out the large and bulky design of the crystal. He never saw one that big. “Would it have to do with this?” Chloe asked him.

He shook his head. “I have little to no interest in that.”

“I do, however.”

Peiun and the two sisters looked behind and saw the source of the new voice. Penelope had arrived with Doctor Travis Pierce following behind her, his flushed face huffing and puffing. The two must have run quite the distance from the train station to the apartment.

Penelope neared Chloe, clapping her hands at her in a celebratory manner, keeping her eyes on the strange crystal Chloe held. “Maraschino sent me to recover Devorei’s data crystal. I’ll accept that as payment for my service.”

“What service?” Peiun snorted at her.

“You two would be dead if it wasn’t for my warning.”

“What’s the significance of this crystal?” he asked. “It’s is a lot larger than most.”

“It’s a Whisper memory crystal,” Chloe said, looking down at it. “It’s designed to copy memories of a person, and then transfer them into a next. I’ve become … quite the expert on those from past experience. When I saw Devorei use it, I knew something was up.”

“He’s not a Whisper member, if that’s what you’re getting at,” Penelope said.

“How would you know?” Chloe said. “They all use fake memories to blend into whatever organization they need to infiltrate.”

“And we stole the tech they use,” Penelope said, crossing her arms. “Backing one’s memories up is standard practice with us in Maraschino.”

“So, everything Devorei knows is inside this?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, his memories, his conscience, everything,” Penelope said. “In essence he can be reborn, we just need to find a body, and upload his mind into it.” Facing Chloe, Penelope asked, “So that’s why you took it and fled here? You thought he was with Whisper?”

“Moriston killed him after he finished his job with us. Poor kid didn’t see it coming. I was pretty pissed off about it. It wasn’t what I signed up for. I wanted to know why he had to die.”

“You signed up … for black ops work.” Durendal wasn’t dead.

The group faced the battered, beaten, and corrupted EDF soldier, crawling on the ground toward them. He sat up against the exhaust vent Peiun and Sarah had been using for cover, smirking, and shaking his bloody and burned face.

“I signed up to eliminate all threats to the UNE,” Chloe said to him. “Not kill our working partners because they outlived their usefulness.”

“He wasn’t human,” Durendal said. “And you know damn well all threats to the UNE are aliens.”

“Not all. And not him.”

“How many people died on Earth two months ago?” Durendal spat. “How many more died a hundred years ago? How many more need to die before alien lovers like you wake up and accept humanity is facing its end.”

Peiun stood, eying the man that made his stay on the planet frustrating. His still-working hand deployed his claws from his fingers. “His lies irritate me, want me to kill him?”

“Don’t you want to know what became of your psionic?” Durendal said to him.

“Alesyna …” he muttered, remembering that Durendal was the one that defeated and captured her. “Where is she?”

Durendal looked at Chloe. “My superiors have a message for you, an exchange. My life for Alesyna.” Durendal created a holo screen depicting the map of the Morutrin system, and a pulsing dot at the edge of it. “You can meet them at this location. Make your choice soon, or she’ll be lobotomized, and we’ll move forward.”

Chloe pulled the holo screen to her face and then pushed it to Peiun. Accepting the offer meant Durendal walked away from murdering Moe, and other people that lost their lives because of the Terran Legion.

That was unacceptable in Peiun’s eyes. “No deal.”

“No,” Chloe interjected. “I accept.”

“Sis?”

“Tell your friends, we agree,” Chloe said. “You are still connected, right?”

Durendal nodded. “Just sent the transmission. We’ll be waiting, but not long, we’re on a tight schedule.”

“I appreciate you making the sacrifice on recovering my officer,” Peiun said to Chloe. “But the capture of Alesyna is now an Imperial matter, not a UNE one. We can handle it from here.”

“I’m not doing it for her; I’m doing it to stop whatever it is the Terran Legion plans on doing with her at those coordinates.”

His eyebrow rose. “What’s out there?”

“An abandoned space bridge,” Chloe said. “And, if I’m right, they’re going to use her lobotomized brain to help operate it.”

41 Moriston

ESV Marcus Antonius

UNE Fleet, Cygnus system

October 16, 2118, 07:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The fleet was no longer missing.

It never was to begin with.

The UNE wormhole network was modeled after Lyonria wormholes left behind when they vanished from the galaxy in ancient times. Those wormholes were capable of connecting to others throughout the galaxy. It didn’t have to be a point-A and point-B connection like the UNE wormholes. A wormhole could connect with one located twenty light-years away one moment, then disconnect and reconnect with a different one a little over ninety light-years away. Captain Foster and her crew experienced a similar phenomenon during their Sirius expedition, where the local wormholes there could connect to various smaller planet side gates, provided they had input the right command.

The UNE wormholes, in theory, could operate in the same manner just humans opted to leave them running perpetually. It saved a lot of time not having to connect and disconnect, then reconnect all over. Easier to build a point-A to point-B gate, then build a point-C and point-D gate and have them run all day every day. Shutting down one gate and forcing it reconnect to a different one was pretty easy as Special Agent Albert Moriston discovered.

The wormhole in Kapteyn’s Star was terminated moments after the Johannes Kepler flew in, and then seconds later reestablished to link with another system, the Cygnus system, located at the frontier of UNE controlled space. The UNE fleet at Kapteyn’s Star was ordered through the gate at that point, not that they had much of a choice. The Draconians weren’t pleased to see they arrived, and probably not pleased to know someone had tampered with the wormhole’s gate controls under their noses prior to the fighting and had the nerve to take something of great value to them that was in the system.

Once clear of the wormhole, its settings returned to normal operation, the Kapteyn’s Star gate linked back to the Gliese 1061 system. Meanwhile the Cygnus system gate remained offline, nobody complained, or noticed. The colonists in the system were of the first wave, and so were still in the process of unpacking and laying the groundwork for the first settlement. Returning to the wormhole wasn’t on their minds, nor was the large fleet idling in the system.

They hadn’t gotten around to launching satellites, and the QEC relay. It suffered a setback in its activation, random technical issues, courtesy of EISS, one of many gifts they brought to the system, like the lack of psionic colonists. The Cygnus system was cut off from all UNE transmissions, with the exception of the newly arrived fleet, a fleet that remained silent about their presence.

Like all ship captains, they followed the orders of their admirals, like Admiral Furnadjiev. When the order was given to come to this system, and remain in radio silence, they followed. The official reason was that Draconians had been seen in the region. They were to stand watch over the weak and helpless developing colony that had no means of calling for help—a noble cause.

In reality, the good admiral was on EISS’ payroll, and under his uniform, wore the tattoos of the Terran Legion. As time went by, propaganda began to spread across the interior of the ships, promoting human supremacy, blaming the loss of human life within the last one hundred years on alien violence. The crews of said ships were already craving blood of dragons due to the incursion, many of whom preferred direct reprisal against them, over Captain Foster’s mission of peace.

The hatred of nonhumans grew. It started with the Draconians, and then evolved to the Hashmedai for what they did to Earth, Radiance for allowing the Celestial Order to raise and attempting to control the UNE government during its infancy, then Poniga and Undine, who worshipped Tiamat, the Goddess of the Draconians, and the Qirak for placing money above the lives of humans. Some captains shut down the propaganda, while others turned their backs on it. Not that it mattered, in the end, every ship had at least one person siding with the thoughts of the Terran Legion.

In some way, it reminded Moriston of the tactics the Celestial Order used to recruit people to their cause. There was no call-to-arms, no enlistment, just the power to mold the minds of those around you to agree with your ideas. Unlike the order, there was no space wizardry involved, this was straight-up taking advantage of the sheep mentality all humans had buried within them, especially humans stuck aboard starships, imprisoned by an endless ocean of vacuum, cold temperatures, and deadly cosmic radiation. It made Moriston smile, especially when the order was given to the fleet to move out as the wormhole behind them powered on once again. It connected to the Morutrin system and a flight path was laid out for them.

Moriston had Admiral Furnadjiev in his pocket, starship captains that would blindly follow his orders and four other ships full of anger and hatred to those that weren’t human. Said ships were convinced 100 percent that if the human race was to survive any longer they had to support the word of the Terran Legion. To do otherwise was considered to be antihuman.

Supporting the word of the Terran Legion meant shooting at what Moriston pointed at.

He pointed at the Uelcovis system.

42 Foster

Phylarlie’s manor

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 07:38 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“You know I’m really gettin’ sick ‘n’ tired of this.”

Rebecca Foster rose from the sixth and final bed she looked under, being the bed she slept on. It was dark and empty, just like the rest. She stood, shaking her head, and holding her hips, and then gave the bed’s leg a swift kick.

“Foster, did you seriously just check under the bed for Boyd?” Chevallier asked her.

She threw her hands up in frustration. “Why not? It’s the one place I haven’t been checkin’ since people started going MIA.”

“Our savior for all galactic life is a captain that checks under a bed for a missing soldier,” Chevallier said drily.

Boyd was missing when Foster, Bailey and Chevallier had woken. Maxwell and LeBoeuf too technically, though Foster and Chevallier had both agreed the psionic duo were passed out someplace else in the manor having spent the night—or day, depending on one’s perspective—being pleasured by members of Phylarlie’s multi-gender harem.

Given the way Boyd had been acting, it was safe to assume he didn’t slip out to empty his prostate. Something malicious was going on, something none of the guards or servants in the halls caught wind of. Unless, of course, they were in on it.

Phylarlie entered the room, wearing yet another one of her brief dresses with a long translucent cape that brushed across the floor behind her, looking like a vampire queen. “Did you sleep well?” she asked the two humans.

“Not really, Boyd is missing,” Foster said.

“He might have left looking for some horizontal refreshment,” Phylarlie said.

“Somehow I doubt it,” Foster said. I wonder if the friction between the two got bad. She was an assassin, and he did bad-mouth her. She must have gone to make an example of him. “But that ain’t why you’re here, is it?”

“No, it isn’t,” Phylarlie said. “My team is ready to give you the vortex key and protective substance.”

“So we’s free to go?”

“After a few systems checks and after you’ve collected your missing crew, yes,” Phylarlie said. “You seem to be missing two others in addition to Boyd.”

“Yeah, not sure what became of them either,” Chevallier said.

“As I explained to Foster earlier, this place has a strange way of drawing you in with its numerous temptations,” she said to Chevallier. “If I come across them, I’ll pass on the message.” Phylarlie turned to exit, stopping in front of the door briefly to address Foster one last time. “Speaking of messages, tell General Irons, Yominv … says thanks.”

The Imperial lord of the system vanished into the halls, something Foster figured she ought to do. “I’mma head back to the Kepler.”

Chevallier nodded. “I’ll stay here and keep an eye out for Boyd.”

“Yominv too, if you can find someone that speaks any English. I got the feelin’ Phylarlie hasn’t said shit to him since I gave her that data crystal.”

“I don’t even know where to start a search like that. What does he look like? Where would we find him?”

“That’s a good question … Irons never did provide that.”

Chevallier’s recent words were by far the most nonaggressive statement she made to Foster since the death of her mother. It gave her hope that this was perhaps the start of the two being a team again, and the start of Chevallier’s healing of the loss in her life.

Foster left the manor with EVE following behind having woken up from her sleep mode. They made the long walk back to the landing pad where the Johannes Kepler remained idle and covered with frost from the elements. On board the ship, a number of Hashmedai personnel moved back and forth with antigravity loading carts, carrying components for the new vortex key and large vats full of the protective substance collected from the Rezeki’s Rage.

The last of the Hashmedai teams left via the entry ramp in the cargo bay, forcing Foster to take a step back. She backpedaled until she hit the side of the Johannes Kepler’s transport remaining idle in the cargo bay.

It was warm to the touch, odd considering all the cold air being let in with the opened entrance, as the shields of the Johannes Kepler had been deactivated. Foster ran her fingers across the transport’s surface, noting that it was warm all across especially near its engines. It was in use recently.

“EVE, was the transport required to bring this stuff aboard?” Foster asked her.

“No, Captain, it was not.”

“It’s warm, was it used recently?”

“That is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “Flight Lieutenant Chang and Sergeant Boyd used the transport recently.”

Foster rapidly turned away from the transport, facing EVE with stern stare. “What the hell?! Why didn’t you me tell us sooner?”

“I was unaware you were you searching for him.”

“Didn’t you hear us curse and rage ‘cause we couldn’t find him?”

“I was in sleep mode until you requested that I follow you here, Captain,” EVE said. “You did not speak during our walk from the manor to Johannes Kepler, nor did you ask about his disappearance.”

Foster made a mental note to adjust EVE’s sleep mode functions, or at least order her not to enter it when she was supposed to stand watch while they slept. Slept … that was something Boyd didn’t do the past night, he went to have a conversation with EVE.

That’s when he must have slipped out, after I felt back asleep. I should have forced myself to stay awake. “EVE, are they aboard now?”

“Flight Lieutenant Chang is in his quarters, Sergeant Boyd, is not aboard currently.”

“Chang!” Fostered yelled as she climbed up the ladder to exit the cargo bay. “You gots some splainin’ to do mister!”

She arrived at the third deck, ringing the chime to his quarters’ door repeatedly. She heard muffled thumps and footsteps from beyond the door. The steps got closer. She kept ringing the chime regardless.

Chang’s tired eye face and staggering body, dressed in his military night attire, appeared as the doors opened.

“Chang, where’s Boyd at? Better question, why in the hell did you see the need to sneak out with him on our transport without givin’ me the heads-up?” And then came back without saying anything either.

“Ah fuck …” Chang rubbed the side of his face, hesitating to give Foster an answer, let alone look at her in the face. “Look, Boyd came to me earlier today, damn near pulled my ass out of bed too.”

“What did he want?”

“He ordered me to give him a lift to some jungle on this planet.”

Her teeth gritted, and her arms crossed. Foster was in command, and if not her, then Williams, then Saressea. Boyd didn’t call the shots. “’scuse me?”

“Remember, Captain, I’m military, and so is he, and he outranks me by a lot,” Chang said. “He ordered me to take the transport, it seemed urgent, and he made it clear I wasn’t to say anything about it, for his safety.”

“Damn it. The Hashmedai in charge of this system asked that none of us leave until she said so. I doubt she wanted any of us snooping around in regions of the planet we ain’t invited too.”

“Sorry if I overstepped, but there was nobody else awake at the time to say otherwise, and again, he wanted us to leave right away. I had no choice.”

“And that transport? You went there and back with it?”

“Nobody saw us,” Chang said. “I kept us real low to the surface to avoid detection and went as fast as we could without crashing into hills ‘n’ shit.”

With the exception of the sounds of air vents behind blowing fresh air into the deck, there was silence. Foster had nothing more to say, and left it at that, then made her way back to the bridge. Running a ship like the Johannes Kepler had its drawbacks given the numerous divisions. IESA, UNE military, Radiance personnel, a brief thought of Saressea ordering the Kepler Radiance crew into doing something Foster wouldn’t approve of haunted her until she arrived on the bridge.

Odelea was up bright and early as usual, performing a number of systems checks at the communication station. Aryile evolving on a planet that had nineteen-hour-long days meant shorter sleep cycles for them.

“Odelea,” Foster called out to her. “Are you able to open a channel to Sergeant Boyd? I can’t reach him with my wrist terminal.”

Odelea nodded, waving away two holo screens while bringing up the primary communication one. “Johannes Kepler to Boyd, please come in.”

As Foster feared, there was no reply. Odelea repeated, trying all channels, nothing. Without access to UNE military HNI, there was no way to check his vitals. Boyd was either dead or ignoring them. Traveling to the site Chang dropped him off at was risky at best. The transport Chang took was small and agile enough to avoid detection while flying close to the surface, the Kepler? Not so much.

And what if he ain’t even there when we arrive? We can’t hang out and search, the Hashmedai will know something is up.

“Have you tried speaking with Maxwell and LeBoeuf?” Odelea offered. “Perhaps their HNIs can locate him.”

“Can’t find or reach ‘em either, Chevallier’s looking for ‘em,” Foster said. “But since you’re here, you wanna see if you can reach either of the two?”

“Of course, Captain, one moment.”

Odelea went to work. There was no response at first, when Odelea pinged them a fifth time, exhausted grunts played on the speakers. It sounded like a man’s voice.

“Maxwell? Is that you?” Foster asked.

Maxwell’s projection flashed on. He was a naked drunken mess sitting on a bed with two Hashmedai women whose clothing was hanging off the edge of the bed. “My … fuckin’ head.”

Odelea put her hands to her face, turning away from the projection, flushing. Foster bit her lip.

“Hey, Maxwell, could you just tilt the camera up a bit?” she said.

“Huh? Why?” He looked down at his nude and powerfully built body enhanced with cybernetics. “Oh, fuck, sorry.” The projection focused on his face. Foster gave Odelea the heads-up she could face the station again.

“Maxwell, can you locate Boyd?”

“Uh, yeah HNI is a bit of a mess right now,” he said. “Excessive drinking will do that.”

“Can you locate LeBoeuf then?”

“LeBoeuf drank me under the table last night then walked off with two dudes. I doubt she’ll be of any help right now. Give us like a few minutes, ‘n’ stuff, should be good then.”

The projection showed Maxwell crashing back onto the bed. A number of blue hands began to caress his body up and down from both sides, before the link was terminated.

Foster kicked the station, Odelea didn’t see it coming. “Just once I want to go on a mission and not have crew go missing or get separated!” Foster yelled. “Is that too much to ask?!”

The bridge intercom beeped. Foster took it, hoping it was Boyd slithering back from wherever the hell he went. It wasn’t.

“Hey, Cap’n, Saressea here,” her voice said. “Got the new vortex key set up, so we’re good to go down here. Just say the word and I should be able to have this bad boy fired up for you to do your tattoo melding thing.”

“Understood, thank you, Saressea.”

The Johannes Kepler’s bridge crew arrived two hours later to resume their duties. Chang had an extra-large steaming mug of coffee in his hands. Boyd ordering him out of bed must have really messed up his sleep.

Foster sat at her captain’s chair after reviewing Saressea’s report about the new vortex key via holo screens. “EVE, pester Maxwell and LeBoeuf repeatedly until they get their asses up.”

“Understood, Captain,” EVE said.

“Boyd has until they get back,” Foster said. “After that, we’s gotta go.”

“Just like that?” Chang asked.

“Phylarlie held up her end of the bargain, we kinda didn’t, thanks to Boyd,” Foster said. “If we go after him now it’s just gonna raise a bunch of red flags, and maybe get us shot down. As far as she’s concerned, he’s passed out drunk somewhere in the manor, let’s let her continue to think that. We have a galaxy to save.”

“Strange, Captain,” EVE said. “I find it odd that Phylarlie was able to deliver our requested items at this time.”

“How so?”

“While you slept, Sergeant Boyd had briefly awakened me from sleep mode, during which I was briefly re-synced with the Johannes Kepler and received sensor data in regard to the transport that was expected to deliver the substance to us.”

“Yeah, it was en route to us from another planet in the system.”

“It landed at the coordinates the transport Flight Lieutenant Chang delivered Sergeant Boyd to,” EVE said. “It remained there for a number of hours; Boyd did seem concerned about that.”

Foster’s lips twisted. “Has anything left that region, EVE?”

“The last ship seen entering and exiting that region, was the transport Flight Lieutenant Chang piloted,” EVE said. “The Hashmedai ship that landed has not left.”

“That we know of,” Chang added. “Remember I flew close to the surface to avoid detection, maybe they did the same?”

“It is possible, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said. “However, it is unlikely the Hashmedai would do such a thing on a world they control.”

“Unless someone had something to hide from the rest of their people,” Williams said giving his two cents. “It would explain the detour.”

“Maybe Boyd running off ain’t that bad of a thing,” Foster said. “All of us havin’ to stay the night and not leave, even for a short while, did seem odd. Maybe he figured something out.”

“In that case, better to leave him to do his thing,” Chang said. “He’s EDF, and one of the first to enter that program. They’re trained for operations and long-term survival on alien worlds.”

“Captain,” EVE called out to her. “I have reached both Maxwell and LeBoeuf and Chevallier. I have done as you requested and instructed them to bring their ‘asses back.’ However, the manor guards are delaying them with questions.”

“These delays are a little suspect don’t you think, Becca?” Williams said to Foster.

“Yep, they are,” she said. “To hell with it, Chang, prepare for takeoff.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“EVE, instruct Chevallier and her team to stay put a while longer,” Foster said. “And let the Hashmedai know that we’s gonna go on a bit of a test run, and to not be alarmed if they detect the vortex to the maelstrom opening.”

43 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

Morutrin Prime Orbit, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 07:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The doctors aboard the Rezeki’s Rage cleared Peiun to return to duty. He wished they hadn’t worked so fast to mend his injuries. He was enjoying the rest he got while lying on the medical bed. Chloe, Sarah, Pierce, and Penelope had all been brought aboard, now the EISS threat on the surface had been eliminated. With the exception of Durendal of course, he was brought onboard as a prisoner of war.

Peiun went to check on the recovery of Sarah, who was being treated by the one doctor aboard that was versed in human anatomy. Apart from her inability to walk, she was expected to make a recovery. The sooner she returned to the humans, the sooner they could repair her spine and make her walk again.

But first thing was recovering Alesyna from the Terran loyal EISS agents operating elsewhere in the system. That meant leaving the safety of Morutrin inner worlds, on a voyage to the edge of the system, without a shipboard psionic, unless Chloe was up to the task of working as one. It was doubtful though, as she seemed uncomfortable speaking about her powers. There was much more to her abilities than she wanted them to know. Why else would her sister, and a member of her team, be left out? Chloe was to Sarah, as what Alesyna was to Peiun, a psionic that’s important to them, who refuses to tell the truth about their objectives.

On the bridge, the crew turned and clenched their fist to deliver Peiun the most impressive Imperial salute he’d ever seen. He’d returned the salute if his arms weren’t in such pain. After ordering the crew to break orbit and travel to the location Durendal told them where to make the exchange, he stepped next to a computer workstation where Penelope, Pierce, and Chloe stood. Pierce, like his previous visit to the ship, failed to dress warmly.

The data on the computer displayed the intel gathered by Penelope and Pierce, combined with what Peiun, Chloe, and Sarah had discovered. He sighed when a three-dimensional hologram of the space bridge allegedly in the Morutrin system appeared.

“This isn’t Imperial territory,” Pierce asked. “Why is there a space bridge in this system?”

“Many years ago, before humans traveled to the stars, we attempted to claim this system,” Peiun explained. “At the time, the old Linl republic had control. The war that resulted caused most members of their species to join Radiance. Long story short, we failed in controlling the system, as did Radiance, not all Linl that lived here wanted to be part of the Union.”

“A space bridge would be necessary to send Imperial ships out of the system during those times,” Chloe said.

“We left it secretly operational since there were many trade opportunities here in the years following the fighting,” Peiun said. “But with the advent of the wormhole network it was rendered redundant for this system and decommissioned.”

“See, that’s the part I don’t get,” Chloe said. “The space bridge is the Empires’ most prized achievement for interstellar travel. I thought you guys programmed them to auto-destruct to prevent anyone from learning how they work?”

“We do, and this one was no exception, it was thought to be destroyed beyond recognition.”

“Beyond recognition?”

“You humans didn’t want us constructing MRF, and we didn’t want you or Radiance learning how space bridges work. But it would seem this particular space bridge was never destroyed just hidden and moved to a new location, probably by the mercenaries that knew its location.”

“In comes Moriston ordering us to attack the Fortune Runner and use it to sneak into the mercenary’s base,” Chloe said. “He was using us to find the location of the space bridge, and then made it look like pirates had attacked the mercenaries to start a war between the two groups.” Chloe said.

“Smart,” Pierce commented. “A conflict like that would deter most people from investigating the mercenary base and discovering it was a Terran attack funded by EISS.”

“And now the Terrans know where the space bridge is and are bringing it back online,” Penelope said.

Peiun went to cross his arms. Pain prevented that happening. “But, for what purpose?”

The view screen illuminated the backs of the five peering over the holo screen. The Morutrin wormhole was in the distance, and underwent a strange shift, almost as if it was powered down then restarted. When the shift had completed, a number of UNE warships exited the wormhole into the Morutrin system and wasted very little time flashing out of sight with multiple FTL jumps.

“I guess that has something to do with it …” Pierce said, having watched the act take place.

“Chloe, was this part of their plan too?” Peiun asked.

“No, I haven’t the slightest clue what those are doing here …” she grimaced. “Durendal might know.”

“If Durendal is anything like the Terran Sarah and I encountered, I would need to remove his HNI by force.”

“That would probably kill him and make this trade a no-go.”

“Indeed.”

“So, what do we do then?” Pierce asked. “Because it looks like those ships are heading in the same direction this secret space bridge is.”

While sensor scans were out of date, Pierce’s assumptions might have been correct. The UNE fleet that entered the system pointed their ships in the same direction the Rezeki’s Rage was in. There was a good chance the two would meet up at the same target. There was a good chance they were flying into an ambush.

“Get the memory recorder?” Pierce suggested. “It worked well with Foster the last time we used it.”

“The Terran, Cody, said they were trained to resist those as well,” Peiun said.

“He’s not wrong about that, the latest military grade HNI we use has built-in functions that can randomly scramble Imperial memory recorders,” Chloe said.”

“So, I say again,” Pierce reiterated. “What do we do?”

“I got an idea,” Penelope offered. “But if it’s going to work, we need to act now.”

The voyage from Morutrin Prime to the edge of the Morutrin system took almost the entire day at sub light speeds. It only added to Peiun’s worries as the Rezeki’s Rage decelerated to make its approach to the space bridge, now surrounded by an entire UNE battle group, most likely loyal to the Terran Legion.

None of the ships fired upon the Rezeki’s Rage, meaning whatever ambush they had in store was going to take place onboard the space bridge. Their plan was likely well thought out and ready to spring to action since the fleet arrived before they did. And the EISS agents? They were probably in the space bridge before Peiun met Sarah.

“That’s … a lot of ships,” Pierce commented as the fleet surrounding the space bridge came into view on the screen.

“Take us in slowly,” Peiun said in his language to Nadevina. “Let’s not goad them into a fight; they can obliterate us with little to no effort with those numbers.”

Nadevina followed the orders of her captain. She sent the Rezeki’s Rage into the cluster of UNE warships at a slow rate with its weapons powered down, showing that they weren’t interested in a fight.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they’re planning on using it,” Pierce said.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Chloe spat.

“They don’t have a command ship though,” Pierce said. “You can’t send that many through at once.”

Doctor Pierce was correct. Imperial command ships were a major part of the Imperial fleet. They were large enough to have an entire fleet dock within it before using the space bridge. This way it was just the one ship that needed to be teleported, rather than individual ones. A single space bridge jump forced the psionic crew into exhaustion. Back-to-back jumps weren’t possible unless they were smaller ships. Back-to-back jumps with capital ships, a fleet’s worth at that, could take months.

If the Terrans were planning to teleport the fleet before them, Peiun had no idea how they intended to do it within a reasonable amount of time. Every pirate, raider, salvager ship, as with all patrol ships from the UNE, Empire, and Radiance should have been alerted to the unexpected presence of the Terran fleet, flying under the UNE flag in a region of space that was thought to be empty.

Case in point, Peiun’s HNI beamed a tactical grid over his eyes. It showed a number of scout ships from the Empire and Radiance had altered course to investigate. With no psionic onboard capable of telepathy, they had no means of reaching any ship via standard communication equipment in a reasonable amount of time. Time being something they didn’t have enough of, the prisoner-exchange deal had an expiry date.

“How much time do we have left?”

“Twenty minutes, Captain,” Uemsu reported.

“I’m going to assume that’s their planned departure time.”

“If that’s their plan,” Uemsu said. “Maybe they don’t intend to send the fleet through, but something else.”

What that something else could be was something Peiun didn’t have time to ponder. They had less than twenty minutes to make the exchange and were still on the bridge while Durendal was locked in the brig. Uemsu was once again left in command as Peiun made his way to a transport, with Chloe, Pierce, and Penelope accompanying him with Durendal and his chained body in tow.

Once the transport had left the Rezeki’s Rage and soared past a number of Earth-built ships, ten minutes had passed. The nearest Radiance and Imperial ships were still one and three hours out, respectively.

“Don’t be surprised if we’re moving into a trap or double cross,” Peiun said, as the space bridge’s size grew large enough on the windshields to blackout the view of space.

“I’ll support you the best I can,” Penelope said. “But remember, I can’t mass hack everyone, now I’ve been removed from the EISS network. If there’s five wankers giving you a hard time, you’ll have to hold your ground until I can get to them.”

The side windows of the transport had a number of Terran loyal UNE ships idling in their formation around the space bridge. The transport flew close enough to cast its shadow across the silver and shiny metallic hull and see some of the ship’s crew meander about via their windows.

The close flyby and the talk of Penelope’s hacking abilities gave him an idea.

“Penelope, does your technical expertise cover QEC?” he asked her.

“If it transmits or processes computer signals, and the security isn’t a pain in the arse, I can do anything to it.”

“We have two operating QECs aboard my ship,” Peiun said. “However, they are both linked with each other. I’d like to have that changed.”

“And you want one of them to link to the UNE QEC network?”

“Is that possible?”

“No, it isn’t,” she said grimly. “Every QEC that relays signals to the network is uniquely connected to the QEC of a ship. You would first need to cut the link between a relay QEC and a ship. Then reroute the link between the relay QEC back to one of the two on the Rezeki’s Rage.”

“I think we can do just that, Penelope,” Chloe said. “None of these ships are connected to the network.”

“How do you know?”

“Sarah and I are both back on the network with our HNI. Might as well since Durendal’s people know we’re coming,” Chloe said. “I can’t reach any of these ships via QEC. At first, I thought it was just communication lag, since the Morutrin QEC node is near the wormhole and we were moving away from it. But it’s been hours, I should have been able pull up data on these ships by now. I can’t. Someone disabled their QECs from the inside; they’re invisible to the rest of the fleet.”

“If they’re disabled from the inside, then that means there’s a whole lot of QECs not linked to any ship.” Penelope grinned. “If that’s the case.”

Various holo screens full of computer code and malicious hacking applications orbited Penelope, and a holographic keyboard and mouse. She went to work immediately.

“So, you can do it?” Peiun asked her.

She nodded. “Yeah, Chloe was right; these ships have no incoming or out outgoing QEC signals. Fly us closer to the lead ship, I may be able to get a quick peek at the codes needed to link to a QEC node on the network. With those codes, I’ll be able to hook up the Rezeki’s Rage to it.”

“And with that, what will you be able to do?”

“You said you got two QECs right? Well I could have one plugged into the UNE network, and another jack into the lead ship of this fleet.”

He liked the idea.

“Do it,” he said while slowing the transport, just enough for her to have quicker network access to the lead ship they flew next to. “I want to warn the humans what’s going on without their knowledge here.”

“Good idea,” Chloe said. “Right now, EISS thinks Sarah and I are traitors, they won’t believe us so easily.”

“But with the Rezeki’s Rage confirming your story, plus transmitting the proof and intel we’ve gathered, they’ll have no choice but to believe us,” Peiun said. “And with another QEC directly linked to one of their ships …”

“That QEC will become a direct FTL data port for us to use,” Penelope said. “I wouldn’t recommend using it right away, however. They’ll figure it out quickly, EVE units are quick with their quantum computing, it’s one of the reasons why they are so tough to hack. EVE will lock you out the second you enter.”

“Do it anyways, I want to keep all our options open.” The transport approached the space bridge. Peiun spun the ship around to attach itself to the airlock. “Just in case what you said is true, and this turns into a double cross.”

Penelope grimaced. “About that …”

“You two, stay here in the transport,” Peiun said to Penelope and Pierce. “You’ll just be a floating target anyways.”

The airlock doors went to work, granting Peiun and Chloe, with their prisoner Durendal, access to the interior of the space bridge. The three lost their weight the moment they crossed the threshold into the space bridge. It was built long before the invention of artificial gravity and was never upgraded due to it being planned for demolition. They drifted and floated through the corridors, carrying Durendal’s body with them. Peiun looked at him and the emotionless face he possessed and hoped Penelope’s plan worked.

Three EISS operatives glided down from one of the upper decks, dragging Alesyna with them. They were all armed with Radiance magnetic rifles and pistols that pointed at Peiun and Chloe. The two got the message and held onto a wall handle bar, to slow their drift through the corridors.

“That’s far enough,” the leader of the EISS operatives said.

Peiun recognized the face of the human man that spoke. “Ah, you must be Special Agent Albert Fucking Moriston.”

“Excuse me?” Moriston said as his face fumed.

Peiun’s lips twisted in confusion. “Is that not your full name?”

“Never mind what he says!” Chloe cut in. “Let’s do this.”

The two parties made the exchange, sending Durendal to drift into the arms of the EISS operatives, while Alesyna drifted past him, into the arms of Peiun.

Moriston gave Durendal’s face a closer look, and grimaced. “What the hell did they do to you?”

Durendal looked away, grunting.

“Are we done?” Peiun asked.

“Oh yes, you certainly are,” Moriston said, while pulling Durendal to the upper decks.

And away from the magnetic weapons that reacquired Alesyna, Peiun, and Chloe as their targets.

“Take care of them!” Moriston shouted back to his men.

Why are humans so predictable?

44 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Far edge of the Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 11:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A flight from Taxah to the boundaries of the Uelcovis system didn’t take long since that colony and others were located near the edge. Asking Chang to keep the FTL drive running was a tempting thought, as every AU crossed in this region of space was unexplored to humanity and Radiance. The ship was also hours away from entering into the realm of interstellar space, which was also largely unexplored by the Hashmedai. Since the Hashmedai opted to spread their colonies across the galaxy, rather than keeping them close, the nearest star system to Uelcovis had never been charted.

An unexplored planetary system laid three months at max FTL speeds from the Johannes Kepler, and they couldn’t visit it. The thought irritated Foster as she saw the movement from the view screen cease upon their arrival at the designated location to test the new vortex key.

The protective gel the Rezeki’s Rage had recovered was applied to the hull of the Johannes Kepler. Saressea and her team made a lengthy space walk in Radiance EVA suits, floating outside with the numerous canisters applying the gel to the ship. How it was able to adhere despite being in the cold and weightlessness of space was a mystery to all, not even the Hashmedai scientists that had been studying it day and night since the summer, were able to crack that secret. The gel seemingly had a mind of its own.

Saressea and her team retreated into the airlock when the job was done, transmitting their status to the bridge. Foster acknowledged and waited for them to un-suit and return to engineering.

“Nereid, Tolukei, almost ready?” Foster asked the two psionics.

“Yes, Captain,” Tolukei said, nodding. “However, I sense there may be areas of the Johannes Kepler’s hull that did not receive enough coating of the gel.”

“He is correct,” Nereid said. “Some areas aren’t adhering as well as others.”

“This is only a test run,” Foster said. “I’m more concerned about applying and removing it and ensuring it didn’t lose its luster while sitting in those test canisters.”

The remainder of the crew confirmed their readiness as Jacob Miles arrived on the bridge to stand and watch, uninvited as usual. Foster gave him a smile. “Miles, how you holding up?”

“Ready for anything unexpected,” Miles said. “Unless it’s them ol’ Dragon Knights, then I’m ready to bend ova.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Foster said, and then opened a comm link to engineering. “Saressea, you guys in position?”

“We are, Captain, and my ranger team is on standby, just in case.”

“You know, we really ought to streamline this,” Miles said. “Rangers report to Saressea, EDF reports to their leader, and then there’s me.”

“Agreed, was easier back with the Carl Sagan,” Williams said. “Hammerheads reported to McDowell, then Chevallier. I’ll see about having a specialized fire team put together, with Saressea’s assistance of course.”

“Fire team …” Foster said with a grimace. “Don’t like that name though, it implies this is a warship.”

“Well, before you start coming up with fancy names, you might want to finalize who’s gonna be part of it,” Miles said.

“True, you and EDF are here temporarily,” Williams said.

“Saressea, is the vortex key ready?” Foster asked.

“Ready and waiting for you, Cap,” Saressea’s voice replied.

She nodded and stood from the captain’s chair. “Dom, you have the bridge.”

Foster gave the new vortex key a whistle, looking it up and down as she entered engineering. There were a number of visual differences made to it, such as the installation of Hashmedai-made parts, panels, and switches.

“The Hashmedai made some modifications to this,” Saressea said to her. “It should help prevent it from overloading again.”

Foster rubbed her hands together, having felt the energy of her tattoos begin to take shape as she stepped next to the vortex key. “Let’s do this.”

She touched it and became one with the universe once again.

A vortex ripped a hole in the space-time continuum, allowing the magenta and red clouds of the maelstrom to spill out in front the Johannes Kepler, Foster’s mind willed it into existence. It was good news, as it meant that she could not only reopen existing vortexes but make new ones. Once the size of the vortex expanded to a size big enough for the Johannes Kepler to fly though, Saressea pulled Foster away from the device, and pulled her astral-projection-like thoughts back into her physical body.

Kostelecky waved her medical scanner up and down near Foster’s body. “How am I?”

“With the exception of your tattoos raising your body temperature, you seem to be fine,” Kostelecky said.

“I’ll head to the bridge, let me know if anything changes,” Foster said, turning around to leave.

“We need to put this elsewhere if we’re going to be using it often,” Saressea said.

“Agreed, though I am digging the exercise.”

“You know we have a gym for that, right?” Kostelecky said drily.

Foster resumed command of the bridge, taking her chair back and watching the splendorous ethereal clouds the Kepler plunged into having entered the maelstrom to conduct their tests.

“Keep an eye out for the Draconians,” Foster said.”

“I got nothing on sensors,” Chang said. “Keep in mind sensor scans will take some time to return any results.”

“How’s the gel holdin’ up?” she asked.

“Still not adhering to the hull very well,” Nereid reported having broken from her ESP scan of the ship.

Foster sighed. “Damn it, had a feelin’ that would happen.”

“Guess there’s a shelf life to that substance,” Williams said to her.

“Yeah, we’s gonna need a fresh coating.”

“Captain, I may be able to use my powers to force it to remain closer to the hull,” Tolukei offered.

Foster smiled. She liked the idea. “Do it.”

Cerulean and azure light shone from Tolukei’s implants, while his body fell into a deep trance to perform the task he proposed.

EVE reported the results. “Tolukei’s powers seem to be having a small but noticeable effect, Captain.”

“Small ain’t good enough,” Foster said. “Is there anything else you could do?”

“Tolukei, what if you used all your psionic strength, ignoring your other duties?” Williams suggested.

“I could do that, but that will leave us vulnerable.”

“That’s why we got Nereid,” Foster said. “Do it, Tolukei. Nereid, handle all shipboard psionic duties.”

Tolukei’s shimmering body looked down at the Undine girl from Sirius. “Nereid, are you prepared for this task?”

Nereid looked a little nervous. Last time she was put up to the plate, she ended up in sickbay. She clenched her fists, and gave Tolukei, her mentor, a confident nod. “I can do this.”

Tolukei stood back, giving her access to the psionic station, and entered a deep trance, fueling his body with more psionic light and energy. Nereid stood ready to take the training wheels off, merging her brain with the Kepler’s systems.

“Tolukei using the full power of his mind is working, Captain,” EVE said. “Sixty-seven percent increase in efficiency.”

The status overlays on the view screen showed that the overshields were still active. Not as strong as when Tolukei generated them, but strong enough to eat a direct hit with a single nuclear missile.

“We could stay in here longer if we wanted to, without the risk of vanishing,” Foster concluded.

“We will need to improve our ability to apply the gel, Captain,” EVE said. “Remember, in addition to layers of it not adhering, some areas of the hull were not covered at all.”

“Right, those places are still exposed,” Williams said.

“Furthermore, he is using all of his psionic power,” EVE said. “I am unsure how long he will be able to remain in this state.”

Regardless, progress was made. Foster could open or create new vortexes, and the Johannes Kepler could enter and protect itself from vanishing. They just needed to sacrifice the entire psionic output of Tolukei to make it happen. It was something to work with, something they could build upon and perfect with more testing and data.

“Give me an aft view on screen,” Foster requested.

The view screen changed, displaying what the Kepler’s external cameras from behind saw, though partially obscured from the gel. There was a shrinking circular black disk full of stars within the clouds. It was their gateway back to the normal universe, and it was closing, not that it mattered anymore. Foster was confident she could reopen it again, though it would require another run down into engineering.

Yeah, we really need to find another place to put that key … “Stress test time,” Foster said. “Mister Chang, take us on a joy ride, will ya?”

The Johannes Kepler spent the next half hour cruising through the clouds of the maelstrom as lightning strikes from beyond brightened the horizon slightly. The crew and EVE kept a close on all their computers, monitoring their progress, recording data for analysis. Movement had an effect on the gel, causing it to slink about and force Tolukei to use more of his gifts to keep it in place.

Idling reduced the stressful looks that appeared on Tolukei’s face with his four eyes shut. Traveling long distances for extended periods of time was going to be a challenge, at least in their current state. More tests and number crunching needed to be done before they chose to venture to Omega Centauri directly via the maelstrom, or risk suffering the same fate the Hashmedai colonists did when they took a space bridge jump into that cluster of stars—

The overshields percentage rating dropped suddenly. Faint tremors vibrated across the ship.

“What was that?” Williams asked.

It happened again, the most recent one was consistent with a— “Tachyon strike!” Chang roared.

Foster grimaced while clenching the edges of her chair’s arms. “Location?”

“Uh … everywhere?” Chang said, amidst the repeated strikes of eight more tachyon hits. “Nothing’s on scanners, but keep in mind tachyons travel faster than light.”

“And, therefore, travel faster than our scanners,” Foster said, and then paused as a brilliant idea came into her head. Tachyon scanners. It’d be a huge game changer and allow psionics to use their powers for other things. But that’s a project for later. “Looks like the dragons found us. Chang get us out of here!”

“Nereid, what can you sense?” Williams asked her.

Nereid’s frustrated hands brushed through her raven-blue hair. “Nothing!”

Foster saw the overshields percentage hit 50, then 23 after a single shot. Nereid was struggling, she had to use her Voelika to further enhance her powers, which saw the overshields raise back up to 50, then back down to 29.

“Is it the stealth ship?” Williams asked.

“My bet is on that, except.” Chang updated the view screen. Multiple energy beam strikes were soaring at them, crashing into the lavender shimmering psionic barrier that kept the Kepler’s primary energy shields operational. “They either got more of those ships, or …”

“Or what, Mister Chang?”

“Or—”

“Draconian ships detected, Captain,” EVE announced.

“How many?”

A top-down tactical overlay materialized over the view screen. The blue dot representing the Kepler had a blob of clustered red dots closing in on their position. A single red dot danced around the Kepler, it vanished on and off the screen at random. The Dragon Knight and Maiden were back with their stealth bio-ship.

“Nereid, did you not sense them?” Foster asked.

Apprehension sealed Nereid’s lips.

“She’s still new at this,” Williams said. “She probably needs more practice.”

“I hope so …” Foster said, remembering about Nereid’s devotion to her Goddess, Tiamat, and hoped she didn’t intentionally put her faith above the needs and safety of the crew.

“Nereid, break Tolukei out of his trance and recover the substance,” Foster said, facing the view screen and the threats it highlighted. “This test is over.”

“Understood.”

“Chang, get us out, full power to aft shields.”

The retreat was a risky one. Both Nereid and Tolukei had to use their telekinetic powers to scrape the gel off the hull, forcing it to pool up inside the airlocks for future retrieval. The act left the overshields down and resulted in the Kepler’s primary shields taking the brunt of the assault.

Primary shields were the last line of defense of a ship, once they failed the hull was vulnerable to breaches and critical damage. Unlike the science fiction TV shows Foster used to watch when she was younger, two or three well-timed and placed hits to an unshielded ship marked the end of its journey, especially if those hits were tachyon beams. If the hits didn’t harm the crew, cosmic or solar radiation would. Throw in a large hull breach while the Kepler was still inside the maelstrom, and the ship could vanish from the inside out, a fate the Rezeki’s Rage almost suffered.

Foster left her chair, making a jog to the bridge’s exit. “Tolukei, return to lead psionic duties once you are finished, Dom, you got the bridge.”

“Becca, if they’re following us,” Williams said, moving to take the captain’s chair.

“I know …” Foster grimaced looking at the vortex that led back into the Uelcovis system, a system that was now at risk of being flooded with the Draconian fleet and their pet dragons. “I’ll be right back.”

Keep the vortex open long enough for them to pass through, and then force it closed. That was the plan Foster had in mind as she stormed into engineering, making a dash to the vortex key with her hand stretched out ready to make contact with it.

Hopes were high that the Draconians didn’t follow, like their last encounter.

Her omnipotent mind held the shrinking vortex open, allowing the Johannes Kepler to slip through. Phase one of their escape was complete, now on to phase two.

Like a doorman at a busy night club, she forced the vortex to seal shut. The blackness of space and its stars were the only thing that surrounded the Kepler on its FTL voyage back to Taxah. Her mind waited for Saressea or Kostelecky to pull her away from the vortex key, the threat was halted. Whatever it was the Draconians were doing in the maelstrom, it didn’t involve the known universe.

Or so she thought.

The vortex flashed open, and the clouds and lightning bolts of the maelstrom expanded outward. In the center of it, was an armada of bio-ships traveling at FTL speeds with Charybdis ships nearby, having reopened the gateway.

Foster saw engineering once again, and the mist lifting away from the vortex key.

She stood motionlessly with a horrified expression on her face.

“Captain, are you okay?” Saressea asked her.

“The Draconians weren’t gathering to attack the station,” Foster said grimly. “I think they were following me.”

The Hashmedai controlled Uelcovis system stood on the brink of an invasion twice the size of the one that attacked Earth.

45 Peiun

Space Bridge interior

Derelict Space Bridge, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 22:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Magnetic rifles blazed, so did the one Chloe brought with her as she conjured a circular shimmering shield to deflect the barrage. The flabbergasted looks that appeared on the operatives’ faces were the same as the one Sarah had when she realized Chloe was a psionic.

Peiun retreated to the airlock with Alesyna. There wasn’t much he could do to assist Chloe while armed with a plasma sword in a zero-g environment. It was a reminder of how Radiance won a great many battles in the past against the Empire, should rangers board a crippled Imperial capital ship. Psionics were the one thing that gave the Hashmedai a fighting chance in those situations, and more often than not, were left behind to delay or weaken enemy forces for the benefit of those wielding melee weapons and after rifle-wielding Hashmedai had been sacrificed. Peiun didn’t like that part of his people’s military history, nor how he was forced to do the same when he boarded the transport with Alesyna, but not with Chloe.

He also didn’t like the HNI notification that flashed over his eyes. The Terran loyal UNE fleet opened fire upon the Rezeki’s Rage. Thankfully, due to its close proximity to the space bridge and other ships, only a few of the ships were able to fire. Though, that situation was going to change, a number of ships had moved to reposition and come about. Alesyna needed her powers back to give them a fighting chance.

“Alesyna, are you unharmed?” he asked her.

“I’ll feel much better when I can get this slave collar off.”

Their bodies had weight once again when they stepped into the transport’s rear cabin. Penelope touched the collar wrapped around Alesyna’s neck, giving it a stern look.

“What an arsehole,” Penelope commented. “He hands her over and doesn’t provide the deactivation codes?” Penelope grabbed one of her holo screens, bringing it in front of Alesyna. “Just give me a minute or two, I’ll get this off.”

“My ship is coming under fire without its psionic, they won’t last long!”

“Your ship will have its psionic,” Penelope said, as the slave collar deactivated and pulled away from Alesyna’s neck. “Now. Rather, in the time it will take for her to teleport back.”

“Get back to the Rezeki’s Rage at once and take command,” Peiun said. “Don’t worry about us.”

“As you wish,” Alesyna said, and used her powers to smother her body with bright blue light. She vanished from sight when the light diminished.

Alesyna teleporting herself was the fastest way to get her back onto the bridge and get the overshields active. It should buy them another few minutes from the barrage of particle cannons, rail guns, and plasma missiles. Ultimately, the Rezeki’s Rage would need to pull out, sooner rather than later and hope the fleet didn’t chase. And before they could do that, Chloe needed to be recovered from the assault the operatives were delivering to her psionic barrier.

“That was a quick minute or two,” Pierce commented at the speed of Penelope’s hack of the slave collar.

“Not really, we still have another minute left,” Penelope said. It drew confused glares from both Pierce and Peiun. “Oh, you two must have misunderstood. That ‘minute or two’ was for my plan; the slave collar removal was easy.”

Right, that plan.

“Chloe!” Penelope shouted from the airlock doors. “Might be best if you joined us, before you-know-what happens!”

“I’ll be fine, you guys get to safety!” Chloe shouted back.

Penelope retreated back into the transport. Peiun shut and locked the airlock doors, ensuring nothing got through.

“This better work,” he said to Penelope.

Penelope shifted through her holo screens, finding the one that displayed what Durendal’s eyes did.

“Oh, it will, trust me.”

Durendal and Moriston entered the primary command center of the space bridge, where the human psionic crew gathered to combine their powers together, merging it with the station’s operating system to power the space bridge. There were five human psionics wired into their pods, resting comfortably within the weightless environment to perform their tasks.

Durendal drifted to the edge of the command center, close to a wide window that displayed the growing battle outside against the Rezeki’s Rage. Moriston drifted beside him sharing the view of the dazzling battle.

“They’re still in the Uelcovis system, but I don’t know for how much longer,” Moriston said. “We’re going to jump once we deal with the loose ends here.”

Durendal smirked facing him. “Got any last words?”

“What?”

“Guess not,” Durendal said. “That’s okay; you never gave me the chance to say mine.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Durendal?”

Warning alarms beeped within Durendal’s protect suit. Said alarms spread to his plasma grenades and rifle, they were all set to overload. Well, not the grenades, they were straight-up set to explode without being primed to do so.

Moriston backed away from Durendal the best he could, given the weightlessness.

“I have a message for you, Moriston,” Durendal said drily. “Maraschino says hello.”

Durendal’s body exploded with a blast strong enough to turn his body into vapor, and shatter the thick window, exposing the entire space bridge to the cold hard vacuum of space. Those that weren’t expecting the blast found their bodies pulled out and set adrift in space with an icy layer of frost enveloping their bodies.

After the decompression, Penelope, Pierce, and Peiun returned to the space bridge with Imperial EVA suits on. They examined the damage done, confirming that those who didn’t get vented into space were killed, with the exception of Chloe. Her protect suit, psionic barrier, and foreknowledge of the plan kept her alive.

And what a plan that was.

Penelope had convinced Chloe to surrender Devorei’s memory data crystal to her. She then used it to copy Devorei’s consciousness into Durendal’s body, overwriting his in the process. The Durendal that was exchanged for Alesyna was, in reality, Devorei in control of his body, who in turn disabled a number of security protocols for Durendal’s equipment, allowing Penelope to access them remotely and set them to overload.

Devorei was brought back to life, only to die again. Thankfully, Peiun had the chance to sit with him and learn everything he discovered during his mission to board the mercenary base, confirming that members of the Fortune Runner were indeed the personnel that used the Morutrin space bridge to travel to Sirius, only to vanish when the Carl Sagan did. There were a number of other important details; all of them recorded with his HNI for future reference. Once the conflict with the Terrans was dealt with, Peiun planned to study the newfound intel and continue the mission given to him by the empress.

“Holy fuck,” Chloe yelled as the group arrived at the space bridge’s command center, staring at the massive gap in the shattered window.

“Don’t forget what Devorei told you,” Penelope said. “I think it’s going to be a while before we find another body for him to upload into.”

Peiun checked the status of the Rezeki’s Rage, it was still intact, and its shields holding. In fact, their shields and overshields weren’t dropping at all. They were slowly recovering. He drifted over to the shattered window and found out why.

“The fleet is gone,” he said grimly.

Chloe joined him in looking out into the star-filled void beyond. “How the hell?”

Turning around, they saw the Terran psionic crew still wired and strapped into their pods. The decompression didn’t take them all into space.

“Shit, they must have mustered what strength they had left to stay alive, then make the fleet jump away,” Chloe said.

“Then died of exposure when their powers were drained,” Pierce commented. “Talk about committed to the cause.”

The space bridge took the fleet away. It didn’t make sense, as they had no command ship that would allow them to teleport away in one attempt.

“They jumped the entire fleet … that’s impossible,” Peiun said.

“No, maybe not,” Chloe said, looking at the pods. “They’re human; our psionic evolution took a different path from Hashmedai and Radiance.”

“Right, Lyonria experiments,” Peiun said.

“More than that,” Chloe said. “The first generation of human psionics were created with the oversight of EISS, and then taken to work as black op agents like myself. Nobody knew what became of most of them, guess we know why. These five must have been training for this operation for years and figured out humans operating a space bridge could move a fleet without a command ship. It’d also explain how they pulled it off with a team of five psionics.”

“How many psionics does a space bridge need?” Pierce asked.

“Fifteen to twenty,” Peiun said. “It depends on the skill and level of cybernetic augmentation the psionic team has.”

“Any idea where they went?”

Peiun floated over to an active computer, it too showed its age as it used a computer screen rather than a holographic one. The data reports that outputted weren’t promising. “They wiped the logs, I have no idea.”

Penelope confirmed his findings with a quick hack using her illegal HNI mods. Not only were the recent logs wiped out, also its navigational data. Wherever the Terran loyal fleet went, they didn’t want anyone to follow.

“Peiun,” Penelope said. “What’s in the Uelcovis system?”

“Taxah, as I recall.”

“Unless you guys have any other ideas, I think that’s where they went,” she said. “Moriston mentioned the name of that system just before we blew Durendal up.”

A disturbing image popped into Peiun’s head, one that depicted Taxah being ravaged by a fleet operated by rogue humans that hated Hashmedai, and all other nonhuman life. He ordered Alesyna to send out a telepathic broadcast to every Imperial psionic mind she could reach with a warning about what was coming to the system.

The Uelcovis system, however, was one of many remote colonies of the Empire scattered across the galaxy. The only way in quickly was a space bridge jump, and that required MRF-equipped ships or command ships to be available, and a space bridge primed and ready to send said fleet into the system to assist. Finding a fleet, let alone a single ship, and space bridge that met that criteria could take hours at best, days at worst. From there, it would take another hour or so to materialize into the system. The reinforcements wouldn’t be arriving to stop the Terran fleet. They’d be arriving to bury the dead.

The Rezeki’s Rage was officially the only ship that was near a space bridge, equipped with an MRF and aware of what was going on. They had to leave, and it needed to be now.

“Alesyna,” he said, using his HNI to establish a communication link with her. “Please join us back on the space bridge … we’re going to need your assistance.”

46 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Far edge of the Uelcovis system

October 16, 2118, 23:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler whooshed past fleets of Hashmedai warships. The Kepler was fleeing from the behemoth-sized vortex slipping an armada of bio-ships into the system. The Hashmedai fleets were en route to quell the new threat. The two forces meet one point five AUs away from Taxah. Tolukei’s ESP sweep of the battle sent disturbing tactical data that appeared on the bridge’s view screen as a hologram.

Yellow dots on the hologram showed the location of the Imperial forces. They were vanishing at a rate of two ships per twenty minutes. The Draconians’ armada saw no decrease in the number of their ships, only an increase as the remainder of their armada continued to leave the vortex.

New ESP data refreshed the screen as the Johannes Kepler neared Taxah. All Imperial ships in the system changed their course, abandoning the worlds they orbited, entering sub light speeds to assist the shrinking Imperial fleets from getting steamrollered by the Draconians. The Hashmedai were putting up an all-or-nothing fight, and it left worlds like Taxah defenseless.

A blob of clustered blue dots popped onto the far corner of the tactical screen. It made Foster’s eyes squint, and her fingers scratch her head in confusion as to why the Johannes Kepler wasn’t the only blue dot on the map. Red dots were enemies, yellow were neutral or allies, and blue dots? Those were ships transmitting UNE IFF codes.

“What the hell is the UNE navy doing out here?” Williams said, having observed the same data from his station.

Foster addressed the one member of the UNE military that might have an answer. “Miles, what’s up?”

The Marine shrugged, stepping closer to the view screen. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”

“Captain,” EVE said. “I recognize the name and configuration of the UNE vessels. They are the same ones that assisted us in the Kapteyn’s Star system.”

“Th’ fuck?” Miles said.

“The missing fleet …” Williams said.

“Ain’t so missing now, Dom” Foster said.

“I’d still like to know how they got here, and why?”

“Who cares, this is the backup we need,” Foster said. “Their timing couldn’t be more perfect.”

It was perfect timing indeed, almost too perfect, like it was supposed to happen. It was either a gift from God, a gift from the three Radiance Gods, or a gift from Tiamat.

Foster was ready to find out.

“Get us back to Taxah,” Foster said. “We’s still got people there, and they might need help with evacuation now the Imperial ships done gone left ‘em behind.”

“Us helping Hashmedai evacuate?” Odelea said. “Gods, forgive us.”

“If this goes against your religion, Odelea and Tolukei, I understand.”

Though with Tolukei being a Muodiry, she had doubts he was fully invested in Radiance religion. She wouldn’t be surprised if he believed in their three Gods out of convenience and fear of being exiled rather than true faith.

“The Hashmedai, as vile, lust-driven, and demonic as they are, helped protect Sirius from an attack,” Tolukei said. “It would be dishonorable not to return the favor.”

There were no further objections from the crew. Foster made her decision. “Then, let’s do this.”

Foster’s face did a double take, when she saw hordes of wyverns in the skies of Taxah, unleashing their plasma-fueled breath attacks on fleeing civilians in the city of Muro below. Both sensor and ESP scans revealed the Draconians were being delayed by Imperial forces. There were no Draconian ships in orbit of the Earthlike planet.

“How the hell did they get here before us?” Foster said, pointing at the viewer as they made their landing on the snow-and ice-covered landing platform.

“It is a pretty big fleet, Captain,” Williams said. “They must be spreading fast despite the efforts of the Hashmedai.”

“Yeah, and we’s faster than them, and had a head start,” Foster said.

“I didn’t sense any dragons on our way here,” Tolukei said.

“Nor did I pick up any on scanners,” Chang added. “Besides, I thought it was their ships and weapons that were FTL capable, not their dragons?”

“That’s right; their ships deliver the dragons to the fight,” Foster said.

“Incoming transmission, Captain,” EVE said. “It is from Master Gunnery Sergeant Chevallier.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant,” Foster snickered. “Man, that’s gonna be such a mouthful to say, we need to shorten it.”

“I nominate Master Guns,” Chang said. “No wait that’s too common in the military. How about, Grand Masta Clapa? It goes well with her MC nickname, kinda. Or … better yet—”

“Chang!”

“Gunclapa? That’s pretty short!”

Excessive humor; Chang was doing his thing to hide the fear and stress that was probably going through his body. Fear and stress that was likely going through everyone’s body, not to mention the need for sleep, they’d been at this all day. As usual, Foster let him be, he had every reason to be worried, losing the system didn’t just mean the end of the lives of the people that lived in it, it also meant the Johannes Kepler was going to be stranded if the Draconians took out the space bridge. Without additional testing, the maelstrom wasn’t a reliable option. The Draconians currently flying into the system were proof of that.

They couldn’t fail. They had to win this. Or spend the next three decades or so in cryostasis on a long voyage home, a home that could be overrun by dragons once they arrived.

“What does she want?” Foster asked, having remembered Chevallier was still on the line.

“She’s requesting that you meet her at the manor,” EVE said.

“At the manor? Why?”

“Not to be picked up, that’s for damn sure,” Williams said drily.

“Guess they found something about Boyd and where he went to,” Foster said, making her way out. “This better be good. Dom, you got—”

“I’m going with you,” he said. “EVE, get Saressea to take command.”

She left the bridge and hastily climbed down the ladder from the catwalk overhanging the cargo bay. Williams followed her. “Dom, I got this, hold down the bridge.”

Williams came to stand next to her as she waited for the entry ramp to lower, paving the way for her to make the trek across the snow into the manor ahead. The corner of her eye caught Williams holstering a pistol.

“My dreams have made me a more cautious person,” he said.

“Jesus, Dom, relax. I’m sure there’s a reason for this.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe she wants to show us why the dragons are here before us?” The ramp lowered, Foster stormed out with Williams at her side. “Chevallier and her team been here all day, maybe they saw something?”

There was no stopping him, and she wasn’t sure how to approach it without pulling rank on him. Since their arrival in this century, Williams experienced behavior that was out of character, so to speak. She wanted to blame it on the PTSD that mysteriously clouded his thoughts, though the problem was probably much deeper than that, when factoring in the Draconian memory wipe.

The two kept their movement swift, and their eyes forward at the manor they strode toward. The urgency in their walk, and the looming fear of death made them forget about the arctic temperatures around them.

Chevallier, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf stood at the front of the manor, fully equipped with their rifles in hand. Foster thought it was because of the dragons, however, they were too busy waging war against defenseless Hashmedai city dwellers off in the east, while Hashmedai warriors discovered melee weapons were useless versus diving wyverns spitting plasma.

“Chevallier, what’s up?” Foster said, as the duo stopped in front of them. “Please tell me y’all got some good news.”

Chevallier gave her the news.

She and her two psionic EDF team members aimed their rifles at Foster.

“Captain Rebecca Foster,” Chevallier said. “I’m here to place you under arrest, for treason.” Chevallier gestured to the rampaging wyverns in the city. “You’re an agent of the Draconians; you brought them into this system. Surrender now.”

“Hey, Dom, you still got that gun?”

“Yes, Becca.” Williams’ pistol took aim at the EDF trio. “Yes, I do.”

Foster’s sensed three or four fingers inching for the triggers to their respective weapons. “Drop it, Commander, we’re not here for you!”

“You first!”

“Keep pointing that shit at me and that will change!”

“Those dragons are here by accident!” Foster jumped in. “We had no idea this would happen!”

“I have my orders, Captain!”

“Chevallier, don’t be stupid, if there’s an agent anywhere it’s the person that gave those orders.”

The standoff had no end in sight. Both sides refusing to yield, both forgetting they were, at one point, on the same side.

“Drop it now and get on the ground!”

“Dom … on second thoughts …”

“Becca, don’t order me to stand down,” the targeting scanner on Williams pistol locked on Chevallier’s head. “Because I won’t if the agents are on their end.”

“Get on the fucking ground, right now!”

“Don’t get yourself killed for me, Dom.”

“Don’t get yourself killed because Chevallier has new friends to play with.”

“You got five seconds.”

“Dom, seriously, put the fucking gun away!”

The countdown to chaos began.

“Five.”

“Really hope Tolukei is watching.” Foster looked behind, hoping for him to teleport in.

He didn’t. Of course not, this was a Hashmedai colony.

“Four.”

“Really could use his support now!”

“Three.”

“Hey, ther’, b’y!”

Miles appeared over the snowy hills waving his hand like the friendly Canadian he was. He was dressed in his exosuit and had his rifle in hand. He must have followed behind a minute or so after the two left.

“Two.”

“Go back to the Kepler, Marine!” LeBoeuf shouted, aiming her rifle at him. “This is EDF business!”

Miles didn’t like that. “I gonna make it my business, girl.” He also didn’t like being told what to do.

As a result, a fifth firearm joined the Mexican standoff.

“One.”

The next seconds went by so fast, she didn’t know that guns went off and people around her she considered to be trusted, crew, friends, and comrades in arms got shot. Shields flicked on and off, plumes of snow sprung up from the ground thanks to missed bullets. The jump jets on Miles’ gear sent him huddling into the fray, the blue burst of light from Maxwell’s psionic powers sent him jump porting about to evade getting shot one moment, then return fire the next.

It was about thirty or forty seconds into the confrontation when Foster realized Williams wasn’t standing. He was lying in crimson-soaked snow, he didn’t have shields, and if Foster didn’t duck quickly, she’d end up like him. A telekinetic pull yanked Foster into the grip of LeBoeuf. She had no idea what became of Miles, his body wasn’t seen laying in the snow, though Maxwell returning up a hill in the distance with a grin, suggested he put down the Marine.

Her eyes began to moisten the longer she looked at Williams and his blood-soaked uniform, unmoving. The tears were held back, no more crying was something she promised herself last summer, and she intended to stay on that path.

“LeBoeuf, can you get us to the Johannes Kepler?” Chevallier asked her.

Foster was released from LeBoeuf’s telekinetic grip, allowing the cybernetic warlock to attempt a wide teleportation. It wasn’t likely to work, last time Foster checked only Tolukei and Nereid were allowed to use psionic powers aboard the Kepler. Still, Chevallier’s comment was clear. EDF was planning to take the Kepler next. Foster swiftly keyed in a text message with her wrist terminal, while her hands remained unbound by the pair of handcuffs Chevallier prepared to slap around her wrists.

“Ah, shit,” Maxwell said, pointing.

The Johannes Kepler lifted off in the distance, shrinking in size and vanishing into the skies. Foster made a conceded smile; her message was loud and clear. Chevallier forced her up from the solid snow and ice to her feet and cuffed her

LeBoeuf’s psionic energy glow faded, her teeth gritted. “I can’t get a teleportation lock; the mind shield is blocking me.”

“Even if you could, don’t bother,” Chevallier said. “They’d be expecting us now. Someone got a message off. Foster is our primary objective, taking the Kepler was secondary.”

“Fleet transport is inbound,” Maxwell said.

“Understood. LeBoeuf, get us aboard that transport now.”

LeBoeuf nodded and returned to her teleportation stance and trance, charging her elaborate implants with psionic light. The rotating holographic bracelets around her wrist spun, and her soft brown hair flicked about in the winds generated by the escaping psionic waves from her body.

“I didn’t want this to happen,” Chevallier said to Foster, while staring at Williams’ body. “He was a decent man.”

“Then why did you shoot him?” Foster said. “He didn’t have shields like you guys!”

“I … I don’t know, it was just natural.”

“Natural to shoot rather than wait for the not one, but two fucking psionics you had to act and disable him?”

“He shouldn’t have pointed that at me! Hell, that fucking Marine shouldn’t have stuck his nose in an EDF operation.”

Foster shook her head at Chevallier. She didn’t recognize the woman that handcuffed her. “The hell is wrong with you? You were never like this.”

“You should spend more time reading my service history,” Chevallier said. “There was a reason they sent me to Sirius.”

“Yeah, you’re a sadistic bitch—”

The butt of Chevallier’s rifle crashed into Foster’s face.

Everything went dark in an instant.

UNE Transport

Leaving Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 01:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster woke up on a transport that had long departed from Taxah. Her hands remained cuffed, unlike her legs which were left unbound. LeBoeuf and Maxwell were up front in the cockpit, Chevallier sat across from Foster in the rear cabin. Her rifle rose the moment she realized Foster was awake.

“Rise and shine, dragon princess,” Chevallier snickered at her.

The windows of the transport displayed a number of UNE warships moving past. They had been split into two groups, one entering orbit around Taxah, and the other was going someplace else in the system, someplace far from the battle between the Imperial forces and the Draconians. That someplace was also the destination of the transport.

“Where are we going?” Foster asked.

“There’s someone that wants to have a chat with you.” Chevallier sat back smirking, keeping her rifle’s barrel aimed at Foster’s chest. “Before we take you to prison.”

47 Pierce

Space Bridge interior

Derelict Space Bridge, Morutrin system

October 16, 2118, 23:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce glanced at the lines of words written in the Hashmedai language on the screen ahead of him through his EVA suit’s helmet. It took him two minutes to refresh his memory on how to read their language, and another minute to thank himself for taking the time to review the basics of reading their language during the downtime the Kepler had during its voyage to the Kapteyn’s Star system.

Alesyna’s body appeared from a burst of blue teleporting light into the command center of the space bridge. Her psionic barrier kept her body safe from the harshness of space that continued to make the interior of the station inhospitable.

She floated next to the breach that sent a number of EISS operatives to their space graves. “Judging by this massive hole, spent projectiles, and bodies,” Alesyna said in the Hashmedai language, while Pierce listened in. “I’d say all our enemies have been defeated. Why do you need me?”

“We’re going after the fleet. This space bridge will bring us to the battle,” Peiun replied.

“Us versus them?” she said, facing her captain. “They have enough fire power to obliterate us.”

“They do,” he said. “They’re also not expecting us to follow; we’ll have to use that to our advantage.”

“Or at the very least assist in the evacuation of the system,” Pierce added, speaking in their tongue. “We still lack the psionics needed to operate this, however. And the nearest Imperial ships with psionics aren’t here yet.”

Peiun smirked, facing Chloe and Alesyna. “We got two psionics right here.”

“Two …” Alesyna groaned. “Space bridges require at least twenty, if the dead human ones floating above us are of any indication.”

“Not necessarily,” Peiun said. “The more powerful a psionic is the fewer you need to operate a bridge.”

Alesyna added up the facts while giving Chloe a long stare. “Add in the unique powers of human psionics, and the fact we only need to make one smaller ship equipped with MRF jump, and …”

“You think you two can do this, Alesyna?”

“On second thoughts, I believe so.”

“Excellent, I shall bring extra EVA suits for you two.”

“Those will only interfere with our abilities.”

“Look at those human psionics,” Peiun said, pointing to their floating bodies. “The jump drained their powers; they lost the ability to keep their psionic barriers active and died in the exposure.”

“My barrier will be fine.”

“And what of Chloe?”

She smiled at Chloe, who didn’t understand a word of the Hashmedai language. “I shall extend it to protect us both.”

“You can’t use your mind to send the Rezeki’s Rage through the bridge, then have enough power left to extend a barrier to protect yourself and Chloe,” Peiun said. “Perhaps if you were an Archmage, I would agree, but you’re not—”

Alesyna’s glare into Peiun’s eyes silenced him. Pierce would have done the same had he been in his position. The jet-black hair and captivating dress wired with electronics she wore made Alesyna look like a cybernetic witch. And if she was an Archmage, then you could add living, breathing asteroid mass driver to that list.

Peiun grimaced. “Are you one?”

“Return to the Rezeki’s Rage, Captain, and jettison all our cargo, it would help further reduce the mass of the ship.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Alesyna.”

“We’re wasting time.”

“Agreed,” Pierce said, returning to the computer screen. “I managed to get the backup navigation data restored to the space bridge. It’s an old and outdated chart of the stars, but I should be able update it.”

“Excellent,” Peiun said, taking his leave with Penelope. “We will be returning to the Rezeki’s Rage, let us know when you’ll be ready.”

The two left while Chloe and Alesyna secured vacant psionic pods for themselves, plugging their minds into them, and becoming one with the space bridge. Pierce faced them excitedly. “Go on, say it,” he said in English to Chloe.

“Say what?”

“Everyone has been pestering me about my PhD and my inability to answer questions I’m not qualified for. I’m an astrophysicist, I can help find the exact location of the Uelcovis system and input the coordinates into the space bridge.” Chloe didn’t get the joke. Pierce sulked internally. “My PhD finally has a use.”

“I don’t think any one of us pestered you about your PhD.”

“Well the others did.”

“We’re not those people.”

“I was just ecstatic that I can help for once—”

“Can you get this working or not?”

A rapid one-eighty floating spin put his hands and face back in front of the computer. “I’m on it.”

He brought up a screen which showed a map of the galaxy, it was missing labels for which stars were which. The first step was ensuring the computers knew of the place of origin. Rebuilding the database was going to be tougher than he thought.

“The captain reports he and the Maraschino girl have made it back to the Rezeki’s Rage,” Alesyna to him.

“Understood, tell them to hold tight, this might take a while longer than I thought.”

“How long?”

“Well, it’s all gone, star maps and all. I’ll have to rebuild the database using system backups and go from there.”

“Fine, reload them then configure the computers to send the Rezeki’s Rage to the Uelcovis system,” she said. “Let us know when we are to merge our minds with the bridge to power it.”

“It’s not that simple! The backups are as old as this space bridge.”

“We are traveling to an Imperial colony that was in existence long before this space bridge was built, its location should still be in the backups.”

“But not its exact location,” he said. “The universe is expanding constantly, taking the galaxies with it. In addition to that, all stars in the galaxy orbit around the galactic center, and all planets within those star systems orbit their stars. Nothing truly remains in a fixed spot. If we use the backup data now, we’ll be sending the Rezeki’s Rage into a region of space where the Uelcovis system used to be, not where it is now.”

“What are you two yapping about?” Chloe cut in with words from the English language.

“I was just explaining why this is going to take a bit longer than we’d like,” he said to her.

“Whatever,” Chloe said, as she strapped herself into the pod. “Just don’t forget to account for stellar drift so you don’t send us to where the Uelcovis system was years ago.”

“That’s … exactly what I was trying to say.”

“That minute or so speech you gave her in Hashmedai?” Chloe said. “Sounded like you were rambling on and wasting time.”

Pierce went to work, and the rush and urgency of their situation sent his mind into the zone. The first order of business was rebuilding the database. The Rezeki’s Rage wasn’t going to help, as its star charts were generalized maps of the galaxy. They did not account for the exact location in the universe where things were, just where they should be in basic terms.

He needed to first establish how old the backup files for the space bridge were. The Morutrin system space bridge was built around the of Hashmedai Empire’s failed attempt to take over the system, a system that was once claimed by the old Linl republic. The Linl republic was in existence when Marduk controlled Sirius, in fact it was the Linl explorers that ventured to Sirius that ended up breeding with humans from Babylon and the last of the Lyonria. Therefore, the space bridge was at least three to four thousand years old, as with the star map on the screen.

He updated the database and accounted for at least three thousand plus years of stellar drift. The position of the galaxy and stars within it changed to match the new numbers entered. With the map updated, the space bridge was able to establish its correct location in the universe, being the edge of the Morutrin system. That was the easy part, the hard one was about to come.

There were no labels that identified which star system was which. There was an estimated two hundred and fifty billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and only one of them was the Uelcovis system. Without a label pointing to the exact location of the star, it could take him a couple of years, maybe a century or two to find it by choosing random stars from the map and hoping for the best.

Pierce was smarter than that, however.

He knew for a fact that Uelcovis system was approximately three hundred light-years from Paryo, the homeworld of the Hashmedai. Pernoy used to serve on Imperial ships and spent a great deal of time telling him about the Empire, and its exotic colonies throughout the galaxy. Taxah was one of those worlds she always wanted to visit, but never got the chance, especially after being stranded on Earth. Pierce shook his head, tossing his wandering thoughts aside.

Since Uelcovis was three hundred light-years away from Paryo, Pierce needed to find a single star system within that range that was a blue super giant. But to do that, he had to find Paryo within the galaxy map as a starting point. Paryo was in the Uemaesce system, sixteen light-years away from Earth. And Earth? That was twelve light-years away from their location.

He found Earth and the Sol system on the computers, and from there charted a sixteen-light-year path in the direction of Paryo and the Uemaesce system. From that point, he used the computer to bring up every star located three hundred light-years away from Paryo that was a blue super giant. The search results updated, and the screen zoomed in on a star system that had all the planets Pernoy mentioned that would be found in the Uelcovis system, including the Earthlike world Taxah.

He double-checked his calculations, and ensured the computer saved the new labels he placed on the systems in question. They were good to go, unless he was wrong about the age of the backups he had used. In that case, Rezeki’s Rage might end up adrift hundreds of light-years outside the galaxy, or worse, inside a star or planet.

“Get ready, you two.”

48 Foster

ESV Marcus Antonius

Approaching Uelcovis Space Bridge, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 01:31 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“We’re aboard with Foster now, sir.”

“Excellent work, Chevallier. Take her to the brig; we’ll deal with her later.”

“Understood.”

Foster’s handcuffed arms were dragged across the deck and away from the docking bay and the transport Chevallier, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf used to bring Foster into custody. Her sore head looked up at the crew personnel of the Earth battleship. She noted the name of the ship via its name and logo painted on the doors of several shut rooms, the ESV Marcus Antonius. It was the lead ship that assisted them in the operation that took place in Kapteyn’s Star. Three intersection turns, and an elevator lift later, and Foster found herself being shoved into her dark lonely cell in the ship’s brig.

Force fields activated, keeping her in place. Chevallier looked back at Maxwell and LeBoeuf. “I got it from here, you two can go.”

“Whatever,” Maxwell snickered. “You just want your five minutes alone with her. Don’t you?”

Chevallier was left alone when the two turned and left, disappearing beyond the sliding doors. She hung her rifle up on the wall and approached Foster’s cell, cracking her gloved knuckles.

“Five minutes alone, huh? So that’s what this is about?” Foster said “You wanna beat me senseless for what happened to your mother—”

“Take control …” Chevallier cut her off. “That’s all you needed to do when we first awoke in this century. Take control and act like a fucking captain. If you’d done that, she’d still be here with us.”

“You don’t know that! The Draconians killed thousands on that day, who’s to say her ship wouldn’t have been targeted even if we weren’t in danger?”

“Take control,” Chevallier reiterated. “That means using your instincts as a captain, rather than letting EVE tell you exactly what to do. Which was the copied version Marduk created if I’m not mistaken.”

“Maybe, Rivera hasn’t gotten back to us on that.”

“It had emotions like the copied one that tried to take control of the Carl Sagan. And why didn’t you have it deleted? Why the hell did you keep it aboard?”

“It had data we wanted to study, and you know that.”

“Was the Sirius system not enough for discoveries? You kept that thing aboard, it got released, and it told you to fight with EDF rather than hear them. You wasted time, time that put the Carl Sagan in danger, forcing my mother to end her life, her ship, and crew to correct your incompetence. Though, after what we’re seeing here, maybe you aren’t incompetent, maybe you are one of the dragons.”

Chevallier tapped the holo controls to Foster’s cell. The force field sparked for a second and vanished, allowing Chevallier to back Foster into the corner. Foster saw nothing but vengeance and hatred in her eyes.

“Chevallier, this isn’t who you are—”

An armored fist struck Foster in the gut. She felt the food in her stomach turn, while she crashed to her knees.

“Neither are you.”

A one-sided brawl broke out. Chevallier, still in her protect suit, versus Foster, still handcuffed and bound. She gave up trying to defend herself after the three punches and kick to the face, followed by Chevallier grabbing her by the hair with one hand, while the other held onto her arm.

Chevallier tore off a piece of Foster’s sleeve to her uniform and gawked at the alien tattoos that glowed blue like the oceans of Earth.

“I’ve read the reports, seen you in action,” Chevallier said. “You want this to end? Then scream like the dragon that’s within you—”

Chevallier’s communicator beeped. She grunted, pushing Foster into the wall before answering the call.

“Change of plans,” the voice said. “Bring her to me.”

Saved by the bell.

“Sure, not like we have anything else better to do,” Chevallier said, yanking Foster by her bound arms.

Chevallier dragged Foster into the bridge, forcing her to stand before its commanding officer. Foster looked at the officer, it was a man whose nametag on his UNE admiral’s uniform identified him as Furnadjiev. He stepped away from the command chair, keeping his hands behind his back in a proper and professional manner, and clearly ignoring the trickle of blood that dripped from Foster’s nose.

“Captain Foster,” Furnadjiev said. “I wish we were meeting on better terms, but you’ve left us with no choice.”

Furnadjiev’s hand beckoned her attention to the view screen, and the conflict brewing around Taxah, its space bridge, and the struggling Imperial fleet off in the distance getting rammed by the Draconian bio-ships.

“C’mon, there are lots of choices,” Foster said. “You could let me do my job and save this galaxy.”

“You’ve unleashed the dragons into this system,” Furnadjiev said. “You’ve been playing us along.” He turned his back on her to watch the view screen. “Protecting humanity? That’s our job now.”

“So, you’re tellin’ me this whole fleet conveniently arrived after we opened a vortex to the maelstrom, y’all knew I was here, and drew up plans to arrest me on the spot. Why do I get the feeling we was set up?”

“Admiral, the Johannes Kepler just changed course,” said one of the bridge officers. “It’s on a direct intercept course with us and its weapons are powered on.”

Furnadjiev remained idle for a moment, most likely reviewing the new data with his HNI that beamed into his head.

“On screen,” he ordered afterward.

The view screen switched to the Marcus Antonius’ forward external camera. It zoomed in on the Johannes Kepler barreling to it without a hint of fear for what the mighty Earth battleship could do, or what the smaller gunships and fighters closer to it were dishing into its overshields. Saressea must have taken control and ordered her to be recovered, she figured.

“The Kepler’s actions are only proving what we suspect is correct,” Furnadjiev said. “Your crew is blindly following your lead, Foster.”

Warning shots from various UNE destroyers and gunships streaked past the Kepler. It remained on course with its weapons ports open.

“Ask them to stand down and surrender, Lieutenant,” Furnadjiev said.

“I’m trying, Admiral, they are ignoring us.”

Furnadjiev sighed while sitting on his command chair. “Have the ships closest to it scramble fighters.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

“I’d rather not have such a fine ship destroyed.”

Multiple squadrons of UNE fighters deployed from their respective carriers and ships, swarming the Kepler, greeting it with rail guns and plasma missiles.

The ship remained on course, taking evasive maneuvers to dance away from the assault they weren’t going to able to survive. Foster had to do something.

“They won’t stand down that easily,” she said to the admiral.

“Ask Commander Williams to do it, he’ll listen to you.”

“He’s probably dead thanks to her,” Foster said, gesturing to Chevallier. “Saressea must be in command now.”

“A Radiance officer?” Furnadjiev said with intrigue. “Then you need to get her to stand down at once, humans fighting a human ship is one thing. But Radiance …”

Foster brought to his attention she was still cuffed and needed access to her wrist terminal. Furnadjiev nodded to Chevallier, she removed Foster’s bindings, and kindly reminded her she still held her rifle.

Foster spoke into the wrist terminal. “Foster to Johannes Kepler, stand down. Do not engage the UNE fighters.”

There was a three second communication delay before she heard a reply. “Captain? Are you all right?” Saressea’s voice asked.

“I will be if y’all turn tail and run,” Foster said. “Look, this is the UNE fleet that was with us in Kapteyn’s Star, you saw firsthand what they were capable of. Think of what they could do to you guys.”

“We’re not leaving you behind.”

“You got to do it! That’s an order!”

“I work with you, not take orders,” Saressea said. “You want me to stand down? You’ll have to get the Radiance Union navy on the line.”

“Saressea!”

“Captain, you don’t understand! The Terran—”

The comm link cut suddenly as the view screen lit up with white light. The Johannes Kepler ate four back-to-back plasma missiles. It responded with aggression in the form of its forward rail guns firing in combination with its particle cannon. Six fighters were hit with shields flickering. One fighter wasn’t so lucky and exploded, as three others dove in to retaliate, and then vanished from the screen after numerous explosions. Chang was trained to be a fighter pilot, his skills with the Johannes Kepler wasn’t surprising at all.

Foster lowered her arm and the terminal that was wrapped around it. The feeling of utter defeat punched her in the gut worse than Chevallier did.

“Good job, Saressea, you just declared war on the UNE, on behalf of Radiance …”

“Four fighters down, sir, no escape pods detected.”

“Human lives once again extinguished by the command of aliens,” Furnadjiev said. “Have the Wendell Priestley, Tallie Bolkey, Langston Ingham, and Tremaine Gates escort us to the space bridge.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

“Keep the fighters on the Johannes Kepler; do not let them get within teleportation range of us.”

“Aye, Admiral.”

“And remind all fighters to disable, not destroy the Johannes Kepler.”

The action continued to unfold on the view screen. The Marcus Antonius pulled away from the conflict the Kepler found itself in, while the four other ships Furnadjiev requested formed a small formation, taking up orbit around the space bridge.

The remainder of the UNE fleet repositioned to face Taxah. Each ship was positioned above one of Taxah’s continents, most of them near the north and south poles of the planet. Not one ship was facing its oceans, reminiscent of the positions the Imperial fleet took during their invasion of Earth a century ago.

“Foster,” Furnadjiev said. “Keep trying to hail your crew and make them stand down; let’s reduce the amount of human lives being lost here.”

She made a number of attempts to do so, there was no reply. The intense combat had everyone on edge she suspected. Foster pretended to make calls at a slower pace when the Kepler managed to create some distance between itself and the battle. Her hope was that she could remain on the bridge a while longer to observe what was going on. It’s probably the sole reason they hadn’t removed her, they wanted to confirm she was doing her part to make the Kepler stand down.

“Remove her.”

She thought too soon.

“Ready to scream?” Chevallier whispered into her ears as she dragged Foster back the elevator.

Important bridge chatter began while the two stepped aboard the elevator. Foster listened in closely to catch what she could before the doors shut.

“Confirmed, Admiral, the dragons made landfall on Taxah.”

“That’s a shame, I guess they’re going to build another breeding construct on this world and annex it.”

“Orders?”

“Nuke Taxah; it’s the only way to be sure the dragons don’t spread.”

“The whole world?”

“Don’t tell me you guys give a shit about bunch of un-evacuated Hashmedai, do you?”

“No argument from me, Admiral.”

The doors slid shut, blocking out the rest of their conversation. Though, the strategic position the fleet took made a lot more sense having taken in the conversation. They were here to start a war with the Empire. The dragons on the surface, were just an excuse to wipe out billions of Hashmedai lives.

49 Peiun

Rezeki’s Rage

En route to Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 01:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Minutes earlier …

Blue and white bolts of psionic energy flashed and danced about within an empty pocket of space. Soon afterward, the Rezeki’s Rage appeared back into existence from the space bridge jump, entering the Uelcovis systems. Doctor Pierce’s recalibration of the space bridge was a success, as was the joined psionic powers of Chloe and Alesyna.

What wasn’t a success was where in the system the Rezeki’s Rage arrived. It appeared four AUs away from the UNE fleet under control of the Terran Legion. At full sub light speeds, it would take them a little over an hour to reach that location. The fleet would have completed their objectives at Taxah at that point, or at least started them. Of course, none of that data was made available to the Rezeki’s Rage until after their first thirty minutes of being in the system once their scanners came into use.

Peiun considered themselves lucky to receive the data in the first place. The Rezeki’s Rage’s scanners had picked up the Terran fleet location because it already arrived in the Taxah sector. Had the fleet still been in FTL, the Rezeki’s Rage wouldn’t have had any data to work with until the fleet came to a stop. Scanners worked at the speed of light, the Terran fleet had the power to outrun a sensor sweep if they moved quickly enough.

Sarah made an unexpected appearance on the bridge with the aid of an exosuit normally given to Imperial warriors. Her footsteps were slow, almost robotic-like, she was using a remote-control device to force the suit to move, thus making it appear she could walk. Her determination to see things through to the end was impressive. She would have made a fine Imperial warrior had she been born a Hashmedai.

“So, we were right,” Peiun said, as the first wave of sensor data beamed into his HNI. “These human ships have entered our space. Sarah, what sort of armaments do they have?”

He enlarged the imagery that appeared over his eyes into a large holo screen and pushed it over to Sarah. She viewed the sensor data in regard to the Terran fleet. Her sighs released white mist from her lips. “They got rail guns out the ass, forward particle cannons, lots of fighters,” she said, then swallowed before revealing the last detail. “And nukes, lots and lots of nukes.”

“I was afraid you’d say that,” Peiun said.

“After the Imperial invasion, nukes became standard on all UNE warships,” Sarah said. “What’s their course?”

“The first wave of data is coming in now,” he told her. “They seem to be taking up position near Taxah, as we suspected.”

“You realize by going after them, we’re jumping into a situation we know nothing of.”

“I know …”

Sub light speeds, fast-as-light scanners, and no shipboard psionic would put the Rezeki’s Rage at a great disadvantage until they closed the gap. They needed the ability to remove the interstellar fog of war that blanketed the entire system. Human atomic weapons could be heading toward the Rezeki’s Rage now, and they’d never know it until it was too late. The fleet could be moving to take up positions behind gas giants or large moons to block sensor scans, and they would end up flying into a trap.

Should they survive that, then they’d be forced to use similar combat tactics the pirates they fought in the belt of Morutrin used. UNE ships had a least one psionic aboard, much like Imperial vessels.

He looked at Penelope who sat a vacant station on the bridge, tinkering with the many holographic screens around her. She may not have been a psionic, but she did possess skills that could give them the advantage they needed, the ability to peek under the fog of war and better prepare for what lurked ahead. Or at the very least, prepare their allies.

“Penelope, how are those reprogrammed QECs?” he asked her.

“We’re connected to the UNE network now,” Penelope said. “As for the one in your transport, it’s linked with the ship we flew past, but it is deactivated.”

“Sarah, do you mind contacting your people on our behalf?”

Sarah smiled at Peiun. “Thought you’d never ask.”

“Let them know everything that’s happened,” he said. “Perhaps they can put a stop to this.”

She slowly made her way to the communication station, her commandeered exosuit doing the walking for her, step by step.

“Penelope,” Peiun said. “If the EVE aboard the ship were to be disabled—”

“Then I can reactivate that second dormant QEC, and hack into the ship’s internal network,” Penelope said. “I could disable it or have all its data transferred here.”

“What’s the name of the ship you can hack?” Sarah said, turning away from the communication station, after making contact with Earth.

Penelope buried her face in the holo screens around her, reading the data that appeared on it. “It was the lead ship of the fleet, the ESV Marcus Antonius, why?”

“I just received word the Kepler is here in the system,” Sarah said. “They know something isn’t right.”

The Johannes Kepler in the Uelcovis system? How and why it was in the system, was a mystery to those aboard, as confused faces and brief chatter amongst the bridge crew and guests began. Speculation had to wait, however, the Johannes Kepler was in the position to do what the Rezeki’s Rage couldn’t, and that was fight back. If what Sarah said was correct, they already knew who their true enemies were.

“Let us coordinate our efforts with them,” Peiun said. “If they can find a way to disable that EVE, we will be able to gain an advantage.”

“Well, that’s the thing. Their captain is being held aboard the Marcus Antonius against her will. Seems like she’s our best chance to make that happen.”

“Get a message out to the Kepler,” Peiun said, returning to review the tactical data. “Foster is our only hope. The Kepler must do everything they can to set her free and disable the Marcus Antonius’ EVE android.”

50 Foster

ESV Marcus Antonius

Near Uelcovis Space Bridge, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 01:51 SST (Sol Standard Time)

There was a guest waiting for Foster and Chevallier. He stood waiting in the brig next to the cell that was meant for her. Foster and Chevallier froze doing a double-take when they saw the figure that stood waiting for them. He was wearing a charred EVA suit that looked like it was caught in an explosion.

“Moriston,” Chevallier said, grimacing.

“I’ll take it from here, Chevallier,” Moriston said to her.

“Understood.”

She pushed Foster into the firm grip of Moriston. He gestured that Chevallier was free to go—more like she had to go. Before she exited and entered the corridors, he called out to her.

“Chevallier, have you ever considered black ops work?”

She faced him shaking her head. “No, sir.”

“We’re down a number of EDF operatives,” he said. “We could use people like you and your team to replace them.”

Chevallier grinned and left. Moriston did the same after ditching his mangled EVA suit, taking Foster along with him. He took her on a long trek through the corridors of the ship and up an elevator or two. She wondered how anyone on this ship was able to make it to their assigned posts without getting lost. It felt like a fortress in space, rather than a spaceship.

The two entered what Foster thought was the infirmary as there were a number of medical beds lying about. Upon closer inspection, the occupants of the beds were the humanoid Draconian soldiers, stripped out of their armor. The second area of the room unveiled its true nature. It wasn’t an infirmary, it was a bio lab.

One corner had a pile of Draconian weapons and armor placed on tables, most likely to study how it worked. The other side of the room had a number of dragons placed in stasis tubes, while numerous antigravity carts held their oversized eggs, and beds were unoccupied with surgical tools on a tray next to them.

Moriston shut the door behind them. There were no other scientists in the secondary area of the bio lab. Foster was alone with a government spook in a top-secret laboratory. What’s the worst that could happen?

“I suppose you’re wondering why the hell did that government spook bring me here?” Moriston asked her.

“You know, that thought crossed my mind,” Foster said.

“Tell me, Captain, what do you see?”

“Umm junk? Looks like remains of Draconian tech, and dragons about to be anal probed.”

“I see progress; I see humanity taking the correct steps in ensuring its survival in the ruthless and divided galaxy we live in.”

“Ah, c’mon, it ain’t all that bad,” she said lightly.

“Today I watched one of my men blow himself up. I got spaced, then watched one of my most talented psionics sacrifice their life to recover and teleport me back to this ship. So, yes, it is a ruthless and divided place.”

“And here you are, alive and well. You gotta look at the positive things in life.” Her antics weren’t getting to him. His cold glare remained.

Moriston pushed one of the antigravity carts over to Foster and picked up a grey and black oval-shaped object. He needed both hands to do that, it was by no means light.

“These are eggs of the dragons, one of many we acquired from the hatchery on Jacobus.” He placed the egg back and gestured to a stasis tube with small drakes and wyverns inside. They looked young. “And these are actual dragons, some of the many unleashed in the skies of Taxah.”

“Was wondering how those got there,” she said.

“For the last one hundred years, death at the hands of aliens has been the number one cause of death among humans. Did you know that, Captain?”

“I’m sure the Imperial invasion skewed those numbers.”

“Two billion lives lost, you know how many Hashmedai lives were lost? Only a fraction of that number,” Moriston continued. “Today, the Terran Legion will take corrective action and make the Empire repay that debt in full.”

“You call that progress?” Foster snorted. “Murdering two billion Hashmedai?”

“They glassed Earth with their plasma cannons, now we will return the favor and turn Taxah’s most populated cities into a radioactive wasteland with our nukes, ending the reign of the emperor, empress, and all system lords in the process.”

“We have the Draconians to face! Don’t start a war with the people that are supposed to be our allies!”

“They are not our allies and they never will be!” Moriston’s voice grew loud and firm as if she said something that was extremely offensive to him. “The Hashmedai, Radiance … all aliens are in this for their own benefit. Aliens are taking advantage of the president’s undying love for them and alien-influenced people, like you. That’s where the Terran Legion comes in, we’re going to take control of this galaxy, and we are going to ensure that aliens never harm humans again by placing humanity as rulers of the galaxy.”

“By what? Wiping them all out?”

“Oh no, that would be far too much work.” Moriston stood in front of a tube staring at the drake floating within it. “We’re going to conquer them, make them do our bidding. Capturing the space bridge in this system will be the first step. Bringing Radiance into the war, will be the second, your friends aboard the Johannes Kepler have already made that mission much easier. As for the third step—”

“You’re going to use the dragons as bio-weapons,” Foster cut in, having realized the crew of the ship had more than enough time to destroy the eggs and dragons they had, but didn’t.

Moriston turned smiling at her. “We’ll eliminate the leaders of the Draconians, by taking control of their pet dragons.”

“The operation in Kapteyn’s Star,” Foster slowly said. “You knew they were breeding. You didn’t want our help to liberate that system or to help me find the monolith, you wanted dragon eggs.”

“Smart isn’t it?”

“Was wondering how you were gonna pull off this whole galactic conquest thingy. All-out war with the Draconians is bad enough, doing that while fightin’ off the Empire and Radiance and any human that opposes you? Impossible, y’all don’t have the numbers or ships for that.”

“Enter the army of dragons bred to be loyal to humans. This brings us to why you’re here, Foster. Dragons under our control is only half the battle, the other half is activating their technology. You’re going to make that happen for us.”

“I ain’t activating shit for you guys.”

“That’s fine,” he said, pointing at her tattoos, visible from the sleeve that was ripped off her uniform. “Those tattoos are wired into your nervous system. Our doctors are more than willing to gut your fucking body open, yank out those wires and learn how they work. So, make your choice, help us, or we cut you open and help ourselves.”

Foster and Johannes Kepler coming to this system to test the vortex key was a trap. Moriston and his Terran Legion allies needed confirmation of Foster’s abilities. They got that when they entered and exited the maelstrom with the vortex key not exploding like the last one. From there, someone tipped the Terrans off it was time to go forward with their plans. Question was, who? Chevallier? Maxwell and LeBoeuf? Maybe Boyd? He did conveniently vanish before all this started. Or worse … perhaps there was someone secretly working for EISS on the Kepler.

“End a war by starting a bunch of others,” Foster said. “Sounds pretty stupid to me, buddy.”

“I fail to see how approaching the Draconian leaders with the message of peace and love will be a better one.”

“I get it, that mission has a chance of failing, but our secondary one is to—”

“Conduct recon, I know. What we need is action, what we need is our armed forces forming the tip of the spear, not explorers who are under alien influence. The report I filed against you and your crew contained a mountain of proof you couldn’t be trusted. And what did the president do? Threw it away, gave you your command back, and handed over the fastest ship in the galaxy to you.”

Moriston paused briefly to check the time, he frowned. “Seems we’ve gotten off topic, haven’t we?” His HNI created a small communication projection of Furnadjiev sitting at his post on the bridge. “Admiral, send me your finest xenobiologists and your expert on Draconian tech.”

“Heh, it’s come down to that, eh?” Furnadjiev transmitted.

Moriston looked at Foster, shaking his head, and then returned to the projection. “She made her choice …” A second hologram appeared, displaying live footage of Taxah, he looked at it closely. “Why haven’t we launched the warheads?”

Foster’s wrist terminal beeped while the conversation between Moriston and Furnadjiev continued. She discreetly checked it, there was a text-only message waiting for her to respond.

The Rezeki’s Rage is inbound with a hacker that can stop the Marcus Antonius. You have to disable its EVE AI before they can do that, both of them.

- Odelea

“We’re waiting for the final VIP to be secured, they requested we wait,” Furnadjiev said.

“No more waiting, we are behind schedule!” Moriston roared.

Moriston’s attention was fixed on the small argument he was having with the admiral. It bought Foster enough time to quickly type in her reply.

“We had a deal with them,” Furnadjiev said.

“Both the Imperial and Draconian fleets in the system are our biggest threats to this operation. This has to happen now, Admiral!”

Moriston’s back was still turned when a new message came in. It was a map of the ship that had the location of its AI core circled and a detailed list of instructions on how to disable it. EVE units in this century, however, had a dual existence, one that was part of a ship’s computer system, and the one being the android. Objective number two for Foster was to destroy the EVE android on the bridge.

Get all that done by myself without getting shot, sure, guys, no problem!

“Understood.”

“Give them a few more minutes, and then launch the warheads, Admiral.”

“Evacuation transports from Phylarlie’s manor might depart during that time.”

“Monitor it; none of those transports are to leave the surface. If they do, nuke the planet regardless if the VIP has been secured or not. We went through a lot of trouble to get those specific transports for the evac.”

The projection vanished. Foster stood with her hands behind her back, just in time for Moriston to face her, and aim his pistol at her. “Last chance, Captain.”

Foster said nothing and hoped they’d fail to learn how the tattoos work should this be how her journey through life came to an end. She refused to play a role in making humanity the villainous alien invaders across the stars. Even if it could end the Draconian threat, there was always another way.

Moriston waved his pistol, gesturing to the medical bed Foster was to be dissected on. “Get moving!”

She flipped him the bird and crossed her arms. He was going to have to shoot her and or pull her by the hair to get her on that. He went to do just that.

Then he stopped when the main entrance to the lab was kicked in.

Screaming bellowed, it sounded like soldiers demanding everyone to back off, including the team of doctors that had just entered to probe and cut Foster open. Hard, thumping, armored footsteps followed, at least three pairs of feet.

Moriston confronted the unexpected interruption, as three pairs of rifles held by three members of EDF became visible to the two.

“Chevallier? What the fuck is this?” Moriston roared.

Chevallier lowered her rifle with a confused look on her face, asking Maxwell and LeBoeuf to do the same “Sorry, Moriston, we thought you might have been comprised.”

Maxwell looked about the interior of the lab. His eyes focused on the dragon eggs, captured drakes, and wyverns in stasis. “You said it though, Moriston,” Maxwell said. “What the fuck is this?”

“You three have no authorization to be in here!” Moriston shouted.

Chevallier held up her wrist terminal for him to see. “I was given the same terminal the Johannes Kepler crew uses,” she said. “Someone was sending text-based messages to Foster asking her to disable the EVE. We tried contacting you, but you didn’t respond, and we assumed the worst.”

“Dragon eggs …” LeBoeuf said, making a swift tour of the lab as Moriston’s face flushed with anger. “And live … dragons. Not to be a copycat, but, what the fuck is this?”

The doctors and experts Moriston had called down pushed past the EDF trio, moving to yank Foster. She thought about moving back, and then realized she accidently placed herself behind a stasis tank with a drake in it. Bad things would have happened if she hit the release button on its front command console.

“Shall we get started, sir?” one of the doctors said to Moriston.

“Yes, I’ll deal with the rest.”

The doctors dragged Foster to the bed. She kicked and flailed her arms about. It took all four of them to restrain her, each one holding onto one of her limbs until her back hit the bed. Chrome-looking bindings released from the sides of the bed, wrapping around her arms and legs, then one final large one across her chest. She couldn’t move, nor breathe, the panic and sense that her end was near was too much.

One doctor ran a medical scanner over her body, while two others viewed the data that appeared on holo screens. They reached for cutting saws and other surgical devices with flashing lights she knew nothing of.

The act made Moriston’s angry face, turn into an evil smirk. He went to address the three EDF personnel that refused to leave and stood watching Foster get prepped for forced tests and dissection.

“Chevallier, you and your team are in a restricted area,” Moriston said to her, pointing to the door. “Leave now and never speak of what you saw. Do I make myself clear?”

“Speak of what? The secret experiments with dragons?” Chevallier said. “Or the experiments on Foster?”

“Y’all believe me now when I said I was set up?!” Foster yelled.

“Chevallier!” Moriston shouted. “Leave now, soldier, or you can kiss that black ops promotion good bye.”

Chevallier stood her ground, her team stood with her. “You said Foster was working for the dragons.”

“More like he’s working for them,” Maxwell said.

LeBoeuf glanced at the doctors as they primed their tools and neared Foster. “Just him? I think this whole fucking ship is.”

LeBoeuf charged her psionic powers.

Maxwell powered his psionic rifle.

Chevallier’s rifle joined them in their symphony of defiance.

And Moriston? He did what was predicted, lifting his pistol and for calling for security.

“Can’t y’all put me out like normal doctors?” Foster said, looking up at the handheld cutting device, spinning its blades, and making cringing buzzing noises.

“Alien lovers like you don’t get that luxury,” the doctor said, smirking.

“You two back away from her now!” Chevallier’s rifle switched targets, its targeting scanner zeroing in on the heart of the nearest doctor about to make the first cut. “If anyone is going to end her, it’s me.”

Moriston screamed into his holo communication window. “Guards! Where the fuck are you!?”

What happened to trigger the next violent scene was up for debate. Foster’s eyes were shut, expecting the worst when the doctor moved in. She felt warm fluid stain her uniform and spray across her face, and the sound of the cutting device slice away at flesh, amidst the sounds of rifles and pistols discharging.

She felt no pain.

Looking up, she saw the blood that covered her was of the doctors, all of them terminated with bullets. The doctor that held the cutting device fell upon her, and the device? It landed on top of his chest cutting a gash though it down to his rib cage. She looked around and saw nobody else, while weapons fire continued from behind one of the walls in the bio lab. The ship’s security teams engaged in a gunfight with Chevallier, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf.

The saw was still spinning, spraying crimson liquid in every direction. It was her only means of escape. Foster jerked her thighs about, making the body of the doctor lying on her move, as did the saw. The saw needed to fall into her hand, preferably handle first. She jerked her body again, and it moved. After a third time it came loose from his body, its vibrations forcing it to move about. Another sudden move caused it to fall to the ground. Her hand grabbed its handle before that happened. Moving her restricted hand upward, she carefully used its blade to cut away at bindings around her wrists, a spray of sparks erupting.

Her right arm was free, and soon afterward her body was free to leap off the medical bed as the sliced-open bindings hit the floor with a clatter. Moriston had slipped away, being the g-man he was. She grabbed a Draconian tachyon rifle from the pile of tech on the floor that was to be studied, joining Chevallier and her team in the fray.

“Foster …” Chevallier said to her, with a hint of regret in her voice.

“I’m already over it, Chevallier,” Foster said, discharging her tachyon rifle at the armored guards.

The four exchanged weapons fire with the ship’s security detail, moving in and out of cover at random. Foster quickly explained what she learned from Moriston, revealing his and the ship’s loyalty to the Terran Legion, something Saressea was trying to warn her about before the comm link was cut. Follow-up text messages from the Kepler and data it received from the Rezeki’s Rage also confirmed her claims.

“Let’s get to the AI core,” Foster said.

Chevallier looked at their psionic warlock. “LeBoeuf?”

“The mind shield is limiting my powers,” LeBoeuf said “Teleportation is a no-go; I’m surprised our rifles still work and other psionic abilities.”

“They don’t work very well,” Maxwell said. “I can’t channel all my power into it.”

“Guess that explains why these guys are still shooting at us,” Foster said, while ducking back behind her cover. “I figured you two would have made short work of ‘em by now. Well then, guess we’s gonna have to disable the mind shield and then the AI core.”

“Both exist in engineering,” Chevallier said. “Getting there alive, that’s going to be tricky.”

Foster took a deep breath and prepared to look around the corner at the guards forming a choke point at the exit to the main corridors. They all wore combat armor with shields that flashed blue when shot at by the EDF trio, much like theirs. The four could shoot at them all day, but sooner or later they would be overwhelmed. Then there was the shipboard psionic that could easily teleport down to assist.

They didn’t just need a means to escape and make it to engineering. They needed a distraction that was going to force the crew to ignore them. She lowered her tachyon rifle, one that was proudly held by the half dragon soldiers the Draconians deployed to the frontlines of the campaign against the galaxy. Doing so made Foster realize how much blood was raining off her arms, human blood that wasn’t hers.

She stepped back into the second room where the dead doctors laid and the captured dragons in their stasis tanks. Foster looked at the stasis tank she nearly backed into and had stopped out of fear she would let the beast loose. It was an act she wished she had allowed herself to do. Her reflection on the glass tube shot back at her. It showed her how red her uniform, face, and arms had become as she held onto the tachyon rifle.

She looked like an enemy to the galaxy.

“Guys, back up,” Foster shouted to them.

Chevallier looked back. “What are you doing?”

“Everyone and their mamma think I’mma dragon lover,” Foster said. “Guess it’s time I played that role.”

She tapped the control console to the stasis tank and deactivated it.

The drake inside was awakened, and its roars made the guards in the corridors rethink their choices in life. The drake stamped past Foster and the EDF trio like a raging bull, shattering the shields of those it assaulted. Various stasis tubes were deactivated, all releasing hordes of wyverns and drakes onto the ship, ignoring Foster and bypassing Chevallier’s team as they hid in a closet.

Foster’s blood-drenched body stepped out into the corridors over the body parts and internal organs ripped out of the slain Terran soldiers. No further bullets were discharged. She pulled up a map of the ship, memorizing the maze of corridors she needed to traverse to get to engineering.

She faced the EDF trio that joined her and primed her tachyon rifle for another round. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

51 Avearan

Phylarlie’s Manor

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 00:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Meanwhile …

It was Conquest Day, the number one reason why Avearan came to this world with Lisette. In place of celebrating this day with her, she spent the day holding a tray full of wineglasses and elegantly prepared snacks, offering it to the Hashmedai of high birth and power.

The human chef from the Kepler that assisted the Imperial family’s personal chef, referred to the snacks as a canapé. They were disk-shaped meals served on an in-house-made cracker, topped with smoked salmon, a fish from Earth, seasoned with spices popular amongst the Hashmedai that lived on Taxah.

Nobody recognized who Avearan was, neither did she after taking a number of glances in the mirror. Her hair had been cut short and a lock of it was braided and dangled close to the right side of her face. Her scars had been covered up by an excessive amount of makeup applied to her arms and legs. Basically, Phylarlie painted over them. As long as they didn’t smear, nobody would be able to point out the fact that the lovely servant with them was once a former psionic, one that was on the run.

The hall, to where the partygoers flocked was a wide-open space at the bottom floor of the manor. It was three stories high, with large, overhanging balconies that gave those not invited a chance to look down and watch the system lords, nobles, and the emperor and empress mingle, socialize, and laugh. A fountain was in the middle of the hall, it silently poured ice water into an oval-shaped pond, teeming with tiny pink and blue fish from Paryo.

Kroshka and her mate Eensino stood across from the fountain’s pool with wineglasses in their hands, allowing the shimmering light from the water to bathe across their expensive and custom-tailored outfits. She considered murdering the two of them by smashing the wine bottle against the pillar behind her and stabbing them with the sharp edges. They were, after all, the two people in the Empire that continued to enforce the archaic laws that now saw the arrest and imprisonment of Lisette, according to Phylarlie.

Avearan, from time to time, tried to reach out to Lisette telepathically, but was unable to touch her mind. The Empire either had her executed or placed a slave collar around her neck, suppressing her powers until the day of her execution. Her teeth gritted at that thought. She took her leave from the halls having seen enough of the emperor and empress laugh, smile, and enjoy the evening, something Avearan and Lisette couldn’t do given their current situation. It was irritating.

She found a dark storage room not far from the kitchen where the Imperial chef and the human chef worked to finish the main meals for the event. Her duffle bag was stashed in the corner, and from that she pulled her wrist terminal, establishing a connection with the one system lord that wasn’t in attendance.

“Everyone keeps asking about you,” Avearan said, as Phylarlie’s hologram appeared.

“Good for them, I’m busy trying to create an escape route for you.”

“Any news about Lisette?”

“They targeted you two because of your relationship.”

“Obviously, they wanted me and settled for her instead.”

“No, it’s worse than that. It’s because you two are both female psionics.”

“She’s human and doesn’t live in the Empire.”

“Imperial laws still need to be obeyed, Avearan.”

Avearan groaned. “How did they know? We didn’t spend that much time together since you asked me to work for you.”

“I don’t know, someone must have seen you two showing affection for each other and discovered you both had psionic powers and filed a report,” Phylarlie said. Avearan took a look behind, ensuring no one else was listening. “The good news is they don’t know who you really are, thanks to my ways of concealing your identity.”

“You have a plan, I presume?”

“I’ll have one of my psionics perform a site to site teleport and get you to the bunker. I’m sending you the contact codes now. Use them once you’re ready, and we’ll track your signal.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“What about Lisette—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake! I’m still looking into that!” Phylarlie exclaimed. “She’s been arrested, that part we know. She’s probably going to be taken to Paryo for processing. Nothing has gone through the space bridge recently, however, so she’s still in the system. I just don’t know where exactly—”

Alarms began to sound, while red pulsing lights emitted from all active computers and holograms. The alarms had a frightful tone to them, meaning it wasn’t a fire alarm. Taxah, being a habitable planet, meant the alarms weren’t an environmental problem either. She stood up, keeping the communication holo screen from the wrist terminal to her face, while watching numerous staff and partygoers speak to each other with extremely concerned voices.

“What’s that noise?” Avearan asked.

Phylarlie’s likeness on the hologram had vanished. She moved off screen to check with her staff in the bunker. When her image returned, she calmly revealed, “We’re under attack. You need to hurry up and get to the bunker, now.”

Avearan peeked out into the party hall full of panic-stricken faces and guards asking people to stay calm and not move. She pulled away from the door, keeping to the shadows.

“What about everyone else?” she asked, not that she cared for them. It was Imperial laws that put her in this position.

Phylarlie’s projection shot her a grimacing smile. “I’ll … take care of them.” Then flicked off when the communication link was cut.

Avearan overheard roaring guards in the halls beyond speak of dragons, and that they made it to Taxah. Many were in the skies above the manor, besieging the city. She hissed and groaned like the beasts Hashmedai had evolved from, throwing the wrist terminal across the room. She came to sit on the cold floor, hugging her knees, regretting choosing Taxah over Earth for her vacation time. Coming to Taxah, losing Lisette, being forced to work as a servant … it was all Phylarlie’s fault, and now she was asking to her come along for another trip.

Fear-fueled flashbacks to last summer hit her, when the news talked about the Draconians entering Sol, laying waste to everything in their path. She felt trapped back then, thinking the Draconians were going to hit Titan, and knowing there wasn’t anything she could do at the time to escape. It was too much for her then, and it was too much for her now. Avearan needed to do what she did best in life when things didn’t go her way. She had enough. She had to escape and get away from the planet, the system, and Phylarlie, before things got out of hand and she lost that chance. Sooner or later an evacuation transport would come to collect the partygoers, she just needed to find a way aboard and make it to safety, then make plans for another new start in life. She was done with Phylarlie.

She collected her wrist terminal, stuffing it back into her bag before making her way into the kitchen. Plates of food were lined up, single file, waiting for the two chefs to apply the finishing touches and garnishes to them. She had doubts that she’d be fed any time soon if her plan worked out, and so went back to her old thieving ways, quickly eating the food, and filling her bag with the freshly baked breads cooling on a nearby tray.

Her bag had reached its maximum storage capacity when she squeezed in three bottles of Earth wine, and an unopened bottle of bourbon, the human chef was using to cook with. They would be perfect items to barter with should she need anything else while she tried to wheel and deal her way onto an evacuation transport.

“Hey,” a voice called out to her in English. It was a Jamaican accent if she remembered correctly. “I know you Hashmedai don’t pay for things, but I’m pretty sure this isn’t for you.”

The chef from the Kepler stood watching her from behind as he entered the kitchen, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Oh, sorry, I like, didn’t know,” Avearan lied in English. “I was scared and hungry. Not sure if we’re going to ever eat a decent meal again if we don’t get rescued.”

“I’d believe if you weren’t puttin’ all that food, up in that bag,” said the chef as he moved closer to her, pointing a finger at her bag. “You planning to flee?”

“No, that’s not the case.”

“Then why you move so sneaky? I know panic and fear in its visual form, as with regret and vengeance. I can sense that in you.”

Her head tilted, giving him a wincing stare. “What are you? An empathic chef?”

“Just an observant one,” he said, drawing her attention to the smeared makeup on her legs from when she was hugging them. Her scars were made visible. “You’re a servant with psionic power, one that had them machine parts. What’s your story about that?”

She sighed, placing her bag on the food preparation table, and rubbing her forehead. She was caught. There was no point in hiding it any longer. “I’m a doctor …” she mumbled.

“The Poniga of the Sirius system taught me many things when I lived with their kind,” the chef said. “You are running away from a problem, and that problem isn’t just the chaos outside. I don’t know what that problem is, but not sticking around to find the answers and solutions is just gonna make more problems for you.”

“I wouldn’t be having this talk, if all I did in life was stick around and faced my problems.”

It’d been the way of Avearan’s life. She ran from the Empire due to mistreatment, and then ran from the salvager life in the Morutrin system, into the UNE. Now the dragons were ready to turn Taxah into a war-torn wasteland, like Jacobus. She had no plans to become a casualty statistic in life.

“If you run, then you’ll be repeating past mistakes,” the chef said.

Hopeful cheers came from the dining hall. Avearan and the human chef stood at the exit to the kitchen and watched as several transports came into view from the massive windows. One of the guards mentioned that the transports would be coming in for a landing to start the evacuations. Those in attendance were given priority, after the emperor and empress had been secured.

This was it. This was her chance to flee from the rage of the dragons outside. She looked at the chef and gave him a rough translation of what was said.

“Good for them,” he said to her. “Me gonna stay right here and wait for the Kepler.”

Avearan made a face at him. “They’re offering us a way out of this mess, and you’re going to stay?”

“Look at dem transports,” he said, pointing at the windows. “Do you see any weapons? Or fighter escorts? What do you think the dragons will do if they change their minds about mashing up the city?”

“What do you think the dragons will do to this place when they attack it?”

“Let them come. The Kepler can handle ‘em, them transports out there cannot.”

“The Kepler isn’t here.”

“Neither are ships to protect those weaponless and defenseless transports,” he said. “Whoever called for them isn’t thinking straight … or is thinking maliciously; like they want the people climbing aboard to get shot down. You can go with them if you wish, child, but remember what I said about runnin’. If you run from a problem, you also run from the solution. The solution we need is to survive.”

“I’ll take my chances, mister?”

“Bailey, Chef Demarion Bailey.”

Avearan grabbed her bag and made her way to the group. Dying in a burning manor set ablaze by plasma-breathing wyverns was not on her agenda.

“Hey!” Bailey called out to her as she left the kitchen. “At least leave the dumplings, nuh?”

Faint cries for help came from the main hallways leading back into the manor. Only Avearan and Bailey took notice since they were closest to the exit, the rest of the partygoers, servants, and guards stood near the windows, watching the transports slowly lower to the surface. That and the cries for help were spoken in English.

Curiosity made the two leave and enter the hallways of the manor, moving quickly to the source of the cries. There were no sounds of fighting or raging dragons, which ruled out that they switched their attacks to the manor.

“Help! Somebody help!”

They followed the voice to the main entrance, where a human Marine carried the blood-soaked body of another human wearing an IESA uniform. Bailey recognized the two and stormed over, panicking and cursing. Avearan groaned. She didn’t have time for this delay. The transports were probably seconds away from landing. She was going to lose her spot if she stayed. She’d also be a terrible doctor if she left a dying man in the hands of a Marine and a chef.

“Miles?” Bailey said to the Marine. “What the rass is this?”

“Commander Williams has been shot! Anyone here a doctor?” The Marine, Miles, said. “Better question, anyone other than chef here speaks English?”

Bailey’s face met Avearan’s before she had the chance to look away and run. “You,” he said to her. “You said you were a doctor?”

She winced, licking her lips. “I might have …”

“Save him, please!” Bailey begged, while closely examining the gunshot wounds on Williams. “Oh boy, we can’t lose this one; he’s too young, with so much promise.”

Avearan had Miles place Williams’ body on a nearby bench, giving her the chance to assess his wounds, and create tiny psionic barriers over his bullet wounds to slow the bleeding. A quick psionic trance allowed her mind to sense which parts of his body’s interior were still operating. She noticed there were no exiting wounds, meaning the rounds that hit him were not only still inside but travelled at a much slower velocity.

She broke the trance and revealed, “I can only slow the bleeding. I’ll need medical equipment to stabilize and patch him up.”

“Where in this place can we find that?” Bailey asked.

“Nowhere,” she said grimly. “There’s a clinic in the city if memory serves me correct. If we can get him there, I can do more for him.”

“Exactly where in the city?” Miles said, looking at the outside world from the opened door.

She shrugged “Fifteen-minute walk at least.”

“Them bloody dragons are making a mess of the place outside,” Miles said. “Was lucky to make it here alive with ‘im.”

“There’s no medical ward here in the manor,” Avearan said. “Either we drag him there, or he dies slowly.”

“Fuck!” Miles stomped his exosuited foot to the ground and looked outside, fixing his eyes on the circling wyverns and their swooping dives into the city. He grabbed his rifle. “Lead the way.”

Bailey and Avearan carried Williams’ limp body, running into the outside arctic cold. Miles took point, following the directions to the city Avearan verbally gave him as his rifle remained active and forward, ready to put down any dragons that might cross their path. A weak psionic bubble was the best she could muster to defend the three while they created three lines of footprints in the snow, heading to the city of Muro.

The shadows of two wyverns circled around them four minutes into their fifteen-minute trek. There was no turning back. Miles stopped running.

“You two go ahead,” he yelled to Avearan and Bailey. “I’ll keep ‘em busy, get Williams the help he needs!”

52 Foster

ESV Marcus Antonius

Near Uelcovis Space Bridge, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 02:24 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Captain Rebecca Foster. Survivor of the Imperial invasion of Earth, former Captain of the Carl Sagan, leader of the first human expedition team into the Sirius system, current commanding officer of the Johannes Kepler, and now, apparently, Princess of the Dragons.

She led Chevallier’s team past the fallen and blood-dripping bodies of Terran loyal crew personnel that got in the way of the stampeding wyverns and drakes. They barged into engineering shouting, with their weapons drawn, like they were robbing a bank. The engineering crew were smart and raised their hands in surrender, dispersing quickly into the corridors while the four assumed control.

The device that powered the mind shield of the Marcus Antonius was found first after a lengthy search. It was shot to hell by the four rifles in the hands of the group. A flare of sparks, black smoke, and flames signaled to the psionic duo of LeBoeuf and Maxwell, that their powers were no longer limited.

Foster ran to the AI core.

“Okay, now what?” LeBoeuf asked her.

“Get to the bridge and destroy the EVE android,” she said. “I’ll finish up here.”

“Uh, bridge psionic is gonna give us problems, not to mention EVE units know how to fight,” Maxwell said.

Foster stood at the massive apparatus that was the AI core. It was twice as big as the one on the Carl Sagan. She wondered if the Kepler’s core was of the same size, she never did get the chance to visit it.

“Go hard as soon as you teleport up,” Foster said. “They ain’t gonna be expecting you three.”

“Two,” Chevallier said, stepping over to Foster. “I’m staying,”

Foster faced her, grimacing. “Still don’t trust me, eh?”

“Get going you two,” Chevallier said to her team. “And don’t get brainjacked by EVE.”

“The current psionic chip implants we have are resistant to that,” LeBoeuf said, and gathered the blue and purple waves of psionic energy to perform the teleport.

Maxwell concurred. “Yep, most EVE units don’t even have brainjack probes installed anymore because of that.”

The psionic duo vanished, leaving Foster alone with Chevallier. Foster went to work on ripping apart the cables and wires that made the AI core work, ignoring the smell of burning plastic and metal wires that arrived when sparks flashed.

“They ignored you, Foster.” Chevallier said.

“Who? LeBoeuf and Maxwell?”

“No, that first drake you released. You were the nearest and had minimal cover; it should have killed you, as with the others you let out.”

“Y’all got away fine.”

“Because the guards started shooting at it before we went to take cover—”

“You mean hide and scream in the closet?”

“Take cover,” Chevallier reiterated. “If those guards hadn’t fired at the first drake, LeBoeuf, Maxwell, and I would have been attacked, I’m sure of it. But not you, it ignored you. So, yes, I still don’t trust you, but I don’t trust Moriston and his people either.”

Foster yanked a tray of data crystals from a wall panel. Her tachyon rifle vaporized each one with a light show of white and yellow blasts. “Yet, here you are helpin’ me.”

“I’m not helping you.” Chevallier faced away from her, holding her rifle out and searched for possible targets. “I’m helping the Johannes Kepler. Those are the only people in this system I trust, as of now.”

Foster continued her willful acts of destruction against the AI core, while Chevallier stood watch. After six minutes, every panel, computer and weird twenty-second century gizmo that made the AI core work, stopped working, the ship lost its internal EVE AI. All that remained was the android—

A crash and bang thundered. At first, she thought she overdid it with the AI core. It turned out to be something much worse. Chevallier’s rifle blazed, using particle beam shots. Foster ran to see what was up. A giant mech punched and kicked a hole in the wall, and its mechanized joints carried it into engineering, trampling over computer terminals like they didn’t exist, sending flames and sparks up.

The mech had rail guns for hands and a set of plasma missiles attached to its back. Up front in the driver’s seat of the mech, was the raging face of Moriston and a variety of holo screens that displayed the mech’s operational status to him, amongst other things.

Fear paralyzed Foster while Moriston’s voice transmitted to them via the mech’s external speakers.

“Eat this!” was all he had to say.

The mech’s rail guns fired. The rounds were meant to end Foster. Chevallier ate them instead, diving to shield and push Foster away to safety. Mechs were heavy ordinates designed for vehicle to vehicle combat, and in some cases, small ships or fighters that got too close. The rail gun rounds ripped through Chevallier’s shields and armor. Once Foster got back to her feet, Chevallier wasn’t moving. The blood that pooled around her body did, however.

The only saving grace Chevallier had was that her shields and armor might have helped slow and reduce the destructive fire power of the rail guns, on top of the built-in safety systems of the mech. They were after all on a ship, and so the rail guns would have fired rounds at a lower speed to prevent putting holes through the bulkheads and venting atmosphere out into space. As a result, Chevallier’s body was somewhat whole with the exception of her arm.

Foster shut her eyes from the horrific sight, trying to convince herself it wasn’t karma that did this. Williams, after all, found himself staring up at the skies with his life bleeding away, thanks to Chevallier.

No more tears, she told herself. Dragon Princesses don’t cry. They get even.

She held her tachyon rifle and checked its power supply. It was still in the green. With her back to the wall of the burning AI core, Foster yelled to the mech around the corner, waiting for her to make the next move.

“Moriston!”

“Consider this a taste of what’s to come, Captain,” his voice transmitted. “Those that support the UNE after our objectives are complete will be dragged out into the streets and shot, just like her.”

Mechanized steps clanged. Waiting in the AI core for Maxwell and LeBoeuf to finish, was suicide. Foster needed to fight her way out from the dead end she was in. She dove out and imagined herself as an action heroine in a sci-fi flick. She thought of Ellen Ripley or perhaps Sarah Connor with a dash of Kara Thrace, as she rolled across bits of debris that littered the engineering room floor. Her tachyon rifle blazed, hitting the powerful shields of the mech. The mech fired back, its missed rounds turning a computer station behind her into an explosive and fiery blast.

She kept running, relying on the fact the mech was slower than her to turn and face her. Walls and computer stations didn’t do much for cover, only hid her from sight, then crumbled into pieces when rail gun fire hit, or worse, plasma missiles. The most recent blast sent her spiraling over the railing, falling to the level below.

She heard the mech turn to search for her, and Moriston’s heckling voice and laughter. “Why do you wish to see the human race fall?”

“Why can’t you let us do our job?” she said, running away from the drop the mech was expected to leap down. “We want the same thing you do!”

“Your way will weaken us! Aliens can’t be trusted!”

The mech fell exactly where she expected. At that point, she hid behind the reactor, hoping he wouldn’t be stupid enough to risk hitting that.

Moriston continued speaking, his face through the windshield searched for what became of Foster. “The Hashmedai invasion, the Celestial Order, Radiance’s attempts at consuming the UNE into their collective, the Architect of Sirius, the Draconian invaders … We need to return to our roots, return to an era when we humans were conquerors, looting and pillaging lands we explored.”

“Sounds like you’re the one making us regress,” she spat. “You want us to revert back to savage and unenlightened ways!”

“It’s in our blood to do that! It’s just we went about it the wrong way during ancient times. We targeted our own species. But now, things are different, we have the stars to take for ourselves, and aliens to make our slaves.”

A plasma missile launched from the back of the mech, soaring toward the reactor. He really was stupid. It exploded remotely, seconds before impact likely by his command. The blast did minimal damage to the reactor, but the heat from the exploding plasma made Foster scream as her flesh singed.

A second missile launched, delivering the same results. He was trying to smoke her out. Ignoring small plasma fires below her feet, she tapped her wrist terminal. “Maxwell, LeBoeuf, status?!”

“I just got roundhouse kicked by an android,” Maxwell’s voice groaned.

In other words, Foster had to hold out longer. Taking control of the ship was still their best option to prevent another war with the Empire, and perhaps search for other UNE ships that weren’t entirely controlled by the Terrans. The two psionics needed to stay the course and destroy the EVE unit.

The missiles stopped coming at her. Peeking around the glowing reactor, she saw why. Moriston’s face was looking upward at the deck they both fell from. There was something up there he didn’t like, most likely the thing that forced him to jump into the mech in the first place. The dragons Foster released into the ship.

The floor above shuddered as the footsteps of a drake stepped on it. Foster aimed her rifle at the wall behind the mech and fired. The back to back tachyon blasts hitting and melting a section of the wall, grabbed the drake’s attention, sending it running to it. Her actions also grabbed Moriston’s, and his assault resumed. She was ready to faint from the heat splashing on her from the plasma bursts.

Her actions paid off. The drake leaped over the railing, diving down to the lower level. It faced the mech, the mech faced it, and a gargantuan wrestling match began. The mech’s shields were strong, sparkling blue with each impact the drake clawed and bit into it. Foster assisted the drake, shooting her tachyon rifle when the mech was forced to turn its back on her. A point-blank rail gun round sent the drake to the floor. Foster continued her assault, until what remained of the mech’s aft shields shattered.

The FTL energy blasts from the rifle began to melt and vaporize large chunks of the mech’s rear, especially its power cells. Its functions seized, while fires erupted from the exploding power cell. A loud explosion and blinding black smoke enveloped the mech. Foster moved in close to finish the job.

She arrived at the burning mech, brushing away what smoke she could, trying not to breathe it in at the same time. She looked up at its wide-open cockpit entrance. She didn’t see any blood, well human blood that was. Moriston had no choice but to eject, and the lack of blood meant he was uninjured. The drake lay on the floor, its breathing was shallow, while its blood slipped out into the floor, white steam lifted away from the bubbling yellow fluid.

Light emitted from her tattoos, they intensified the closer she neared to the beast. They were reacting to it, rather, it was reacting to the cybernetic implants it had. It was almost as if the tattoos told her mentally the drake had the implants. She knew where they were, they were in the same location as the drake she encountered on Jacobus. Touching the drake caused her to feel its pain, their minds are almost linked. The drake’s implants and her tattoos served as a means of linking their minds together.

This must be how the Draconians control them, she thought to herself.

A vision came to her, it was one of engineering. Moriston was above the previous level, looking down at the two. He was getting ready to jump. It was a warning; too bad she didn’t realize it quickly enough to stop and face him.

The impact of Moriston falling onto Foster broke the link she had with the drake, sending her to the floor. She went to grab the rifle that fell from her hands. His foot kicked it past the drake.

She noted the two of them were unarmed as she quickly got back to her feet. Her fists rolled up into a ball—his did the same. Foster and Moriston fought the old-fashioned way, with punches and kicks. Moriston was a government agent, Foster was a space explorer. It didn’t take long for the two to know who was better trained for a slugfest.

“Foster, we have control of the bridge and the EVE is no more,” LeBoeuf said over Foster’s wrist terminal.

Sorry, can’t come to the phone right now, too busy getting my ass kicked …

Moriston’s boot pushed Foster back at the burning mech, and away from the drake. His back turned to the dying beast, Foster’s back hit the floor once again. He lunged down, wrapping his hands around Foster’s neck, squeezing hard, until they flushed.

“Foster, whatever it is your friends can do, they need to act soon,” LeBoeuf transmitted again.

Her hands from the bout were too sore to pry his death grip off her neck, and too sore to claw away at his face. Too many seconds had passed without air and proper blood flow into her brain. Looking behind Moriston’s body, she saw the dying drake, the two made eye contact. Her weakened hands reached out to it, sending a nonverbal plea for help.

It struggled and limped about, but eventually the drake got to its feet, and located Foster’s displaced tachyon rifle. It held the weapon within its jaws, and moved lamely over to her, while her vision slowly began to fade away.

“Don’t hate me for this, Foster,” Moriston said. “I just want humanity to have a future … I want my wife, my daughter, and son to know I avenged them, made the Hashmedai suffer the same way they did, and stopped at nothing to make it happen! I’m sure your father would be pleased as well. So, please, don’t take it personal while I stand here and fucking kill you for destroying the seventy-seven years of hard work I put into building the Terran Legion in secret!”

The drake collapsed, dropping her rifle in the process. It lost too much blood she figured. Using its nose, it pushed the tachyon rifle, sliding it across the floor past Moriston, but not past Foster. She quickly grabbed it with her free hand and pointed up at the distracted Moriston. He was shedding tears for what she figured was his reminiscing thoughts about his lost family.

Pulling the trigger was harder to do than she thought it would be, as was watching his entire body flash white and turn into ash and glowing embers that blew away from the gusts from the above air vents, with the exception of his hands. Those were still around her neck; the scene was straight out of a horror movie.

“Go be with your family …” she said to the ash that was once Moriston.

She took thirty seconds to recover, throw the pair of creepy hands on her neck to the floor, cough, and breathe properly, it hurt for a bit when she did. Afterward, she kneeled next to the fallen drake. It too had a single tear fall from its eye. She patted its thick scaly skin as a means of thanking it. It touched Foster’s mind one last time. It requested, no she, requested that Foster return to the bio labs and recover something of great importance.

Foster promised to do so, seconds before the drake died.

53 Avearan

Medical Clinic

Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 02:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Go! Go! Go!”

Avearan pushed open the doors to the long-abandoned medical clinic in the city of Muro. She instructed Chef Bailey to find a medical bed and drag Williams’ body into it, the best he could given his age. She made a snarky comment to him, suggesting he ought to invest in age rollback gene therapy, opposed to simply halting his age at this time in his life where the hair on his head was grey.

Miles remained outside with his rifle discharging at random, drawing the swarm of dragons to his position in order for them to make it as far as they did. It left her torn between saving Williams’ life, the reason they came there in the first place, and rushing out to aid Miles who probably wasn’t going to survive the onslaught of the dragons.

“Avearan, come let’s do this, nuh?” Bailey called out to her from the back rooms.

She joined Bailey, working quickly to mend Williams’ injuries, and recruiting him to work as her nurse. Bailey, despite his age and lack of knowledge about current century Hashmedai medical equipment, was quick to get her what she needed. Medical scanners, flesh regenerators, towels, canisters of antibacterial chems, and gloves, he found it all without issue.

When she was convinced she bought Williams’ another ten to twenty minutes of life, she had Bailey fetch her a case full of chems. The case was packed full of small handheld devices that delivered into one’s body the desired chemical for their treatment. There were anti-pregnancy chems, stims, sedatives, vitamin supplements, and more. What she needed, however, were the stims and sedatives. Miles’ life was going to depend on it.

She ventured outside into the streets full of chaos, fleeing civilians, and rampaging dragons from the skies. Miles was alone with his rifle, hunkered down behind a statue in the city’s main square. He was battered and burned, the shields his exosuit provided him had failed. A lone wyvern came to land on the winter-touched stone roads, its wings torn apart by the rounds Miles hit it with, and its burning blood vaporized the snow and ice on contact, turning it into steam.

The wyvern moved to the side of the statue, stalking its weakened and bleeding human prey, opening its mouth and bearing its razor-sharp incisors. Meanwhile, Miles did the same oblivious the wyvern was stalking him from behind. Avearan took a second glance at the stim and sedative delivery devices in her hands and made her move.

She shouted at Miles, getting the attention of both targets. She hurled the sedative pack at the wyvern, and then gave it an extra push with telekinesis, forcing the device to hit and then inject its chemical contents into the neck of the wyvern. Nothing happened immediately, which was expected, the size of a beast like that would require dozens of sedatives to knock it out. The stim pack left her hands next and came twirling though the air, falling at Miles’ feet.

The wyvern shirked for a moment, jerking its head about and using the arms attached to its wings to push off the small delivery device. It faced Avearan with vengeance burning in its eyes when the task was finished, then came charging to her. The thump from its heavy footsteps sent vibrating shakes across the stone road that she felt in her exposed legs. She was out in the open at that point, with no place to dive for cover except behind her low-powered psionic barrier.

Jets of green flame-like plasma erupted from the mouth of the wyvern, spraying across a bright lavender bubble that encompassed Avearan’s body. She kept her hands forward and her concentration high to strengthen the forwardmost section of her bubble and waited.

And waited.

The wyvern’s breath attack ceased. Armored hands from behind clenched onto its neck, forcing its head upward. Miles’ hands mustered the strength needed to climb to the top of the beast and wrestle with it. His eyes were bloodshot, and his battle cry was on par with a human that took a full dosage of a Hashmedai combat enhancement stim.

The wyvern’s face slammed into the ground, a plume of snow shot up as a result. Miles pummeled the wyvern repeatedly using his newfound strength, combined with his exosuit’s power and the wyvern’s slightly sluggish body due to the sedative it was hit with. A twelve second choking grip saw the wyvern twitch briefly, then become limp.

He went to retrieve his rifle, while Avearan helped guide his body back to the clinic. He was going to need medical attention next for his new wounds and the fact he took chems that were chemically made for a Hashmedai body, not a human.

“You’re … a psionic right?” Miles said to her as they returned to the clinic.

She nodded to him, placing him on a chair next to the medical bed Williams recovered on. She scanned his body up and down. “That’s right.”

“There a reason why you didn’t just teleport us here?”

“I had those implants removed in favor of receiving the smaller and lightweight medical ones,” she said. “My powers are limited to healing and light defense.”

“Didn’t know that was possible,” Miles slowly spoke as the stims continued to affect his body. “To remove implants without killing ya.”

“HNI and psionic brain chip removal is fatal,” she said. “The rest is doable, assuming you’re not heavily augmented and have the procedure performed by this specialist out in Radiance.”

“Someone from Radiance helped you? A Hashmedai?” Bailey cut in.

“Crazy isn’t it?” Avearan said. “That ceasefire did more than end the fighting between the two of us. Sometimes, you find people in Radiance that aren’t assholes to Hashmedai. It worked out for me since my HNI didn’t work upon insertion.”

“Cybernetics requires an HNI link, I thought,” Miles said.

She shook her head. “UNE made cybernetics do; you can’t have one without the other same with Imperial ones. The cybernetic parts, that the special doctor in Radiance uses, can be installed in a person that doesn’t have HNI.”

She finished patching up Miles’ wounds, and then gave him a mild sedative to counter the effects of the stim. Bailey stepped aside from Williams, allowing her to resume where she left off. She went to remove the bullets from his body, by forcing them out with telekinetic pulls, ensuring no vital organs and veins were damaged with the aid of her deep ESP thoughts focusing on the inside of his body.

Slowly, each crimson-drenched bullet slipped away from a small slit on Williams’ body, and floated onto a steel collection tray. She took a fresh regenerator to the slit and watched as the green beams of light shot out from the device forcing it to seal shut.

“Your friend is going to make it,” Avearan said, stepping away from Williams.

Miles’ was slumped back in his chair with his eyes shut. She ran a check on his vitals with her medical scanner, she gave him a bit too much of the sedative. He was out cold, and probably wasn’t going to awake for another hour.

Bailey was focused on Williams, ecstatic to hear him grunt and groan about the pain he was in. It was confirmation to the aging chef that he was going to make it. Watching Bailey comfort a member of his crew, reminded Avearan of the talk she had with him, and the dangers of running away. Taxah may have been under siege, but it was going to need people like her to stick around and help the wounded, and not run away from its problems and possible solutions.

She retreated outside while Bailey’s back was turned, and Miles still passed out. She pulled out her wrist terminal and found the contact code Phylarlie gave her. A dark and discrete corner further into the city falling into chaos kept her appearance hidden as she made a call for the psionic part of Phylarlie’s team to pick her up. She was done with running away.

Miles, Williams, and Bailey weren’t going to be welcomed in the bunker, but that was okay. They had their mission to complete, and she had hers. And that was get back to the bunker, reorganize, take back the planet, then find Lisette.

Wherever in the system she was taken.

54 Foster

ESV Marcus Antonius

Near Uelcovis Space Bridge, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 03:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Foster to Kepler, tell the Rezeki’s Rage to act now!”

“Understood,” Odelea’s voice said over Foster’s wrist terminal. “We’re contacting them now.”

With that call taken care of, Foster collected her rifle and marched back to Chevallier’s body, while making a transmission to the EDF psionics still on the bridge. “LeBoeuf, Maxwell, meet me in engineering ASAP.”

“Copy that, teleporting down.”

Chevallier’s partially butchered body was still unresponsive, and spilled a lot more blood than Foster had realized when the duo teleported in. They rushed to their fallen comrade in arms with haste.

“Oh, fuck,” Maxwell said, tending to Chevallier’s body. “What happened?”

“Moriston got the drop on us,” Foster said.

“Where is he now?”

She pointed at the pile of ash on the lower engineering deck as they carried Chevallier’s body out. Their trek through the corridors came to a halt when the ship rumbled below their feet and gunfire echoed deeper, mixed in with the sounds of dragons shrieking or dying.

“Sounds like they’re trying to retake the ship,” LeBoeuf said.

“Let them,” Foster said drily as they continued making their way to the infirmary.

Once inside the infirmary, the three did a quick check to see who was there, hoping there was at least one doctor they could force at gunpoint to help Chevallier. It was empty. The medical staff was most likely called to support the rest of the crew. Chevallier was going to have to wait longer for medical attention.

Foster looked at the exit. “LeBoeuf, can we get a barrier over this?”

LeBoeuf nodded, using her psionic powers to create a shimmering shield around the door. “You know I won’t be able to keep this up for long, right?”

Foster smirked. “Don’t worry, only need it to be air tight and active for a minute. Maxwell, see what you can do for Chevallier in the meantime.”

Her wrist terminal beeped, and she picked up the transmission. “The Rezeki’s Rage has access to the Marcus Antonius’ network now, Captain,” Odelea’s voice said.

“I want life support throughout the ship cut, except the infirmary.”

“Captain?”

Angry foot stomps crashed against the door to the infirmary. Foster was sure she heard a few gunshots hit it as well. Those on the outside wanted in, and they probably weren’t going to be pleased to see the four inside.

Foster spoke into wrist terminal. “Do it now!”

The sounds from the outside stopped. Every section of the ship lost air, heat, and gravity with the exception of the infirmary. Multiple bodies and rifles came crashing to the floor afterward once the okay was given to return life support. It was a rotten move, but it needed to be done. Foster’s next stop was the bridge, and she needed the assurance they weren’t going to be ambushed by surviving crew members while she and the others took control.

Maxwell did what he could for Chevallier, using the first aid kits and flesh regenerators. Her wounds, however, were too deep and gruesome to deal with, she needed a doctor, not two combat psionics and a starship captain turned dragon tamer. LeBoeuf used her psionic gifts to create a close-fitting barrier around Chevallier’s body, keeping what little blood she had left inside. It was up to Foster and Maxwell to take the bridge. But first, Foster had a promise to keep.

She told Maxwell to go ahead and made a detour to the bio labs. Stepping over the bodies of the ship’s crew, security teams, dead doctors, and dragons, she found it. Foster grabbed a duffle bag from the crew lockers and returned to the item the drake requested to be obtained and placed it in inside.

She arrived on the bridge minutes later, shocked at the aftermath of Maxwell and LeBoeuf’s sorcery. She saw partially burned bodies, and sparking computer stations draped with the bodies of the bridge crew that thought they were strong enough to fight two EDF combat psionics. The sparking body of the EVE android laid in pieces off in the corner, as was Furnadjiev’s half-vaporized body.

Maxwell manned one console, Foster did another and booted up the computers. “I’m no expert at these HNI only computers, what do we got?” she asked him.

“Most of the fleet has Taxah surrounded,” Maxwell said, checking the computer’s holo screens. “They’re preparing to launch nukes. This ship and four others got the space bridge surrounded, looks like they’re planning to capture it.”

“The Empire probably still thinks this fleet is here to help,” Foster said.

A flickering projection of a Hashmedai woman, with silver hair and glittering jewelry appeared in between the two. She waved her hand. “Greetings and salutations.” She also had an English accent.

“Who the fuck are you?” Maxwell said to the projection.

“I’m the hacker that saved your lives,” she said. “Diamondrose, Penelope Diamondrose, at your service.”

“Mind explaining what’s going on?” he asked.

Penelope clapped her hands twice, summoning a number of holo screens to appear for Foster and Maxwell to view. “I pulled these out from the admiral’s files,” Penelope said. “He and the crew of this ship joined the Terran Legion in secret. They’re planning to—”

“Nuke Taxah, and start a war, yeah, figured that part out,” Foster cut in. “How do we stop this?”

“Not all these ships have been compromised,” Penelope said, waving her hand to create a massive three-dimensional hologram.

The hologram highlighted a number of UNE ships with red, while many others were blue. All the blue ships were facing Taxah.

Penelope continued. “The red ships have commanding officers and crew that pledged their allegiance to the Legion. The blue ones, as you might have guessed, are following orders the orders of Furnadjiev, oblivious that he and the Terrans have secretly taken control.”

“What a fucking dick,” Maxwell said. “So, he ordered the UNE allied ships to nuke Taxah, while his crew hangs back at the space bridge?”

“Makes sense, this way, when the Empire retaliates, they’ll target those ships first, giving the Terran ships time to take the space bridge,” Foster said.

“Let’s not forget about the Draconians,” Penelope said, bringing their attention to the fleet of bio-ships pushing past the Imperial blockade. “UNE loyal ships are closer to the Draconians; they’re likely going to be targeted first.”

“We need to get the word out to them,” Foster said.

“How? They’ve all shut down their QECs according to this,” Maxwell said, hitting the side of his computer.

“They’ve been communicating using standard fast-as-light communication,” Penelope said.

Foster faced her hologram. “Penelope, how much control do you have over this ship?”

Penelope gave the two a cold-hearted and emotionless stare. “All of it.”

“Good, find a way broadcast to them all what happened,” Foster said.

“They’ll want proof,” Maxwell interjected.

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of that to transmit,” Penelope said. “Let me work my magic.”

What the enthralling hacker did next, by the standards of people on Earth one hundred years ago, was magic. Holographic images surrounded her, they all contained recorded video, audio files, pictures, and logs from the Terran controlled ships and confidential EISS documents. Her data package was sent to all ships in the system, as well as the entire UNE QEC network.

Foster checked the screen she was using. The blue ships around Taxah still had their nuclear missile ports opened and ready for launch. Not one of them changed position.

“Come on, someone out there must have some sense in their heads!” she yelled.

“Got a transmission coming in,” Maxwell said.

“Let’s hear it.”

The view screen displayed the bitter face of a UNE captain sitting on his captain’s chair, on the bridge of his ship. “This is Captain Holdsworth of the ESV Ferdinand Foch, to who am I speaking to?”

“This is Captain Foster temporarily taking command here,” she said with a smile while sitting on Furnadjiev’s chair.

“Foster … you’re supposed to be in cuffs.”

“Look, we ain’t got time to debate this. Y’all need to stand down now, while the Hashmedai still thinks you’re here to help.”

“If those dragons on the surface turn this world into another breeding location.”

“If I’m wrong about this, y’all can come back and nuke it later but, right now, we’s need to deal with the Draconian ships. That’s the real threat and you know that, as do the Imperial forces getting annihilated by them ‘cause y’all ain’t helpin’.”

“Don’t listen to her.”

Another transmission cut in, turning the view screen into a split screen projection. Holdsworth was on the left, and another unknown captain on the right, probably allied with the Terrans if her guess was right.

“Stand your ground, and continue the mission,” said the Terran captain.

“Excuse me, asshole, but we’s havin’ an A and B conversation, so C your ass outta it!”

“Captain Foster is a traitor that released the dragons into this system, massacred the crew of the Marcus Antonius, and is now siding with a Maraschino hacker! Look at the facts everyone, and the human blood on her.”

“Look, Holdsworth,” she said to his image. “Do the right thing and get everyone to pull away, now.”

“Any ships moving away from Taxah will be fired up,” said the Terran captain. “This is your only warning!”

“Draconian ships have broken through the Imperial fleet’s blockade,” Maxwell said. “They’ll be here soon.”

“Y’all gonna have Draconians in the sector soon,” Foster said. “What would you rather spend your nukes on? The planet? Or them?”

The video conference between the three captains ended, restoring the view screen back to its previous sights, the conflict in space and around the planet Taxah. Foster sat cross-legged on the now dead admiral’s chair and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Three UNE ships broke away from Taxah’s orbit.

“They’re breaking off!” Maxwell said jubilantly.

“Thank Christ,” Foster said, drying her forehead of the sweat that built up. “What of the Terrans?”

Three blasts of particle energy against the Marcus Antonius’ shields answered her question.

“Staying true to their word,” Penelope said.

The ships around Taxah broke away, while those ships following the word of the Terran Legion opened fire on those that didn’t follow. Two battles were waged in the system at that point, the Draconians against the Imperial fleet, and the fleet of human ships firing upon themselves. Foster hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come, humanity returning to its roots, and fighting itself while the rest of the galaxy went for the real enemy.

“Well, it’s a start,” Foster said drily. “But we’s need everyone fighting the Draconians, not each other …”

The Marcus Antonius rumbled again thanks to the Terran controlled ships that encircled it.

“We’re not going to last long without overshields,” Maxwell said.

She put her wrist terminal to her face. “Foster to Kepler, can you get within teleportation range of us?”

“Negative, Captain, you guys are right in the middle of the kill zone,” Chang’s voice said.

“Don’t risk it, we’ll come to you then. Reconfigure the mind shield to allow LeBoeuf to board.”

“Want me to remotely fly this ship?” Penelope offered her.

“Can you?”

“Not very well, but I can get it moving in the general direction of the Kepler. They’ll have to do the rest.”

Foster and her two-person bridge crew, one if you excluded Penelope since she was a hologram on another ship, went to execute their complicated task. Penelope hacked into its computers and instructed the Marcus Antonius to move forward. Foster commanded the operation while Maxwell played the role of several bridge officers, running from computer to computer.

Rail gun and particle beam cannon blasts zipped past them, and sometimes slammed into their fading shields. The Marcus Antonius made its all-or-nothing fearless push into the crossfire, heading toward the Kepler. Fighters swarmed them, launching a salvo of plasma missiles at the Marcus Antonius. Maxwell manned its anti-fighter rail guns, sending streaks of white and red tracer fire to their intended targets. Nuclear warheads were launched by the Terran loyal ships. Maxwell managed to shoot down those heading to Taxah. The rest ended up hitting the Marcus Antonius, or UNE allied ships. It took a few seconds for the blinding light from those blasts to subside from the view screen.

“Another hit like that and we’re done,” Maxwell reported.

Tactical overlays on the view screen reported the Marcus Antonius’ shield had failed. Another hit would indeed be the end of them. Two UNE ships had turned into molten metal due to eating a single direct nuclear strike with their shields down.

The Kepler’s sight on the screen expanded once the crossfire zone had been cleared, leaving the UNE and Terran ships to fight each other. Violent tremors hit the Marcus Antonius again, and without shields they were powerful enough to launch Foster from her chair, causing several bridge instruments to explode knocking Maxwell to the floor.

When she got to her feet, she saw what triggered the sudden blasts. The stingray shaped Draconian stealth ship decloaked, diving up, down, and round the Marcus Antonius, burning holes through its hull with its mighty tachyon cannons.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” Maxwell said, coming to his feet.

“It’s the stealth ship,” Foster grunted.

“That thing is railing us,” Maxwell said. “Got five hull breaches—” New tremors threw them to the floor again, this time it ignited small fires on the bridge “Make that seven breaches, we’re venting atmo.”

“LeBoeuf, get to the bridge now with Chevallier,” Foster transmitted to her. “Standby to teleport us to the Kepler.”

The black smoke that filled the bridge triggered her to cough rapidly. Maxwell too, when it finally got past his cybernetic implants. From the darkness of the smoke, was a quick burst of teleportation light. From that light emerged LeBoeuf carrying Chevallier’s body. Foster grabbed the duffle bag she brought, slinging it over her shoulder.

“Gather up, we’re almost in range!” LeBoeuf yelled.

The two did so. For a split second, Foster was about to yell to Penelope. Then she saw her hologram flicker and fade way, reminding her that Penelope was never on the bridge to start with.

Looking at Chevallier, Foster asked LeBoeuf to, “Send us directly to sickbay.”

There was choking smoke all around Foster one moment, then soothing psionic light fifteen seconds later. When the light faded, she and the rest were back on the Johannes Kepler, in sickbay as requested. Kostelecky came running out of her office after seeing what LeBoeuf held in her bloodstained arms.

That was one problem taken care of.

It was time for the next. Foster ran to the bridge.

55 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Far Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 03:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea stared at Foster first when she arrived on the bridge to take command. Foster imagined the look on her face to be one of shock and terror. She was, after all, wearing a battle-torn uniform covered in dried blood. And her face? Don’t get her started on that. There were a number of similar stares aimed at Foster as she approached her captain’s chair to relieve Saressea.

Saressea staggered for a moment when she stood up with her tail tilted upward and frozen. “What the hell happened to you, Foster?”

Foster sat down. “I bathed in the blood of my enemies.”

Saressea moved out of sight to return to engineering. “I don’t doubt it,” she added before stepping past the bridge’s sliding doors.

The silence on the bridge was short lived. The stealth bio-ship came about quickly to resume its assault, this time on the Kepler. The faint trembles of the Kepler swept away the grim thoughts about Williams, and the lack of his presence on the bridge, or ship for that matter.

“Direct hit,” Chang reported. “Overshields holding for now.”

She analyzed the contents on the view screen, noting the drifting and burning wreckage of the Marcus Antonius, the ship she and the rest had fled from. Despite its grim condition, it was still intact, and the stealth ship that was so eager to end it now ignored it, focusing on the Kepler instead.

“Why aren’t they finishing the Marcus Antonius off?” Foster mused out loud.

“Most likely the same reason why the Draconian fleet just changed course,” Tolukei said.

The tactical hologram updated with the location of all ships in the sector thanks to Tolukei’s ESP. It showed the fleet of Draconian bio-ships pushing past what remained of the Imperial fleet, ignoring the battling Earth ships, and beelining toward the Kepler.

Foster’s return to the Kepler doomed its crew.

“It’s me,” she said with a hint of despair. “The Draconians weren’t gathering to attack the station, they were gathering to get to me.”

“And when we opened the maelstrom here, they swarmed over to dispatch us,” Tolukei said.

“That stealth ship targeted the Marcus Antonius because I was there, now it’s after the Kepler once again.”

“If that’s the case, why didn’t they chase us during the first encounter?” Chang asked.

“It must have been the vortex key, remember the first we broke during our exit,” Foster said. “It must have done somethin’ to the vortex that prevented ‘em from reopening it.”

“Meanwhile, the one we recently used still operates,” Tolukei said. “It is very possible you might be correct.”

Foster grinned and put on her no-fear face. “If they want a piece of me, they’s gonna have to come and get it. Chang, take us to the Terran Legion fleet.”

“Uh, didn’t we just determine that’s a shitshow?”

“Just do it and get us really close to their ships.”

“Understood, Cap, taking us there now!”

“LeBoeuf,” Foster said, spinning her chair to look at her. “Can you help with the overshields?”

The EDF warlock crossed her arms, shaking her head. “I’m not a ship psionic.”

“Neither is Tolukei, and he’s doin’ just fine,” Foster said. “I need you to give Tolukei and Nereid everything you got. We’s gonna need those overshields to remain as strong as possible.”

“I’ll do what I can …” LeBoeuf said

She joined Tolukei and Nereid at the psionic workstation. The three psionics both entered a deep trance, making their minds become one with the Kepler, feeling what existed beyond its hull, adding more power to the overshields, and using telekinesis to help thrust the ship in any direction needed.

The performance increase, while noticeable, wasn’t huge. Foster went with it anyways and sat back to face the view screen, watching closely as her plan unfolded.

The Kepler’s engines flared, sending it charging back into the crossfire between the feuding ships of Earth origin, dodging the exchange of nuclear missiles, plasma missiles, swarming fighters, relying on the enhanced overshield to soak up the hits from rail gun and particle beam blasts from both sides. The stealth ship followed, leading the charge of the incoming Draconian fleet. Foster dragged the Draconians directly into the middle of the crossfire.

“Two Terran loyal ships have locked weapons onto us!”

“Take whatever evasive action you can, Chang, but keep us on course!”

She saw nothing but weapons fire streak across the view screen. Occasionally, it would move out of view when Chang forced the Kepler to make a sharp roll to the left, or flip to escape from missiles. Ships came out of view, and then in view, and then out again. One moment they saw bio-ships, and then next the stealth ship as it tried to goad them into a dogfight. Chang really wanted to accept the challenge. Foster had to remind him to stay on course.

A hard turn to the right then a dive downward, well from her perspective at least, there was no up or down in space, brought the Kepler to face the bulk of the Terran Legion loyal ships, standing next to the space bridge they sought to take over.

“Another ship is locking onto us,” Chang said. “Exactly how close you need us to be?”

Foster looked at the clustered enemy vessels, and the tactical overlays on the view screen, listing their estimated distance. They were close.

“Another six kilometers ought to do it!” Foster assured him.

The clustered Terran ships grew larger, as did their weapons fire that repeatedly crashed into the Kepler’s forward overshields. The stealth ship from behind pounded the Kepler’s aft overshields, and soon its primary shields. The psionic team showed visual signs of stress and torment on their faces. They had to use all their combined psionic force to keep the forward overshields active, just in case a lucky shot with a nuke hit them dead-on. Chang was really good at swerving around those, thankfully.

After giving it their all, the Kepler dove in between the Terran ships, as did the stealth ship from behind. There was one ship targeting the Kepler at that point, the stealth ship.

“The Terrans stopped firing …” Chang said.

Foster resisted the urge to laugh. “The Dragon Knights are onboard the stealth ship, remember?”

The Kepler was flying extremely close to the Terran ships, with the stealth ship behind to maintain its ruthless pursuit of Foster. The Dragon Knight and Maiden were aboard the stealth ship last time Foster checked, along with their natural abilities to render anyone with HNI unconscious. As long as the Kepler continued to fly close to each and every Terran ship, with the stealth ship behind firing when it got the chance, the Terran crew found themselves on the floor, unable to perform their duties, and operate their ships.

The EVE AI could take over, but there was only so much one AI could do, and as for the fighters? Forget that, they were adrift and became easy prey for the incoming Draconian fleet and weapons fire from the UNE loyal ships. The Terran ships had become inert, with only automated weapons active and no overshields. They were defenseless, and the UNE took full advantage.

Unfortunately, Foster’s plan worked both ways. Soon after the Terran ships went dark, the minds of Odelea, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell shattered. They all held their heads screaming in agonizing pain, passing out onto the floor.

Foster cringed awkwardly. “Shit, forgot about them.”

“Yeah so, we just lost Saressea and our whole engineering team,” Chang said.

“As well as the psionic support LeBoeuf was providing,” Tolukei said, rising up after checking on her vitals.

The Kepler’s performance took a slight drop as a result. It served as a visual reminder to those left standing and lacking the implants, why they were selected for this mission in the first place. It was a small price to pay, the Terrans lost control of their minds and the operation of their ships, and it took pressure off the UNE fleet, allowing them to focus fire on them without retaliation, or overshields.

Foster had Chang keep the Kepler flying close circles around each of the Terran ships until the bulk of the Draconian fleet dropped out of FTL to unleash their barrage. Tachyon beams soared, and rampaging wyverns were scattered into space from the bio-ships. Their attacks were primarily focused on the Kepler, but the small recon vessel with its MRF active and an ace pilot at the helm, made them a hard target. The idle Terran fleet, not so much. Combined weapons fire from the UNE fleet and the Draconians turned the Terran ships into vapor and glowing red debris.

“The Terran ships have been eliminated, Captain,” Tolukei reported.

“Mister Chang, get away from that stealth ship,” Foster said.

She analyzed the tactical hologram that appeared over the view screen, identifying the position of the UNE fleet and the estimated trajectory of the surviving Imperial fleet.

She pointed to a region of space between the two. “Take us to those coordinates.”

Phase two of Foster’s plan went into motion, forcing Chang to execute his elite set of rolls and dives to evade Draconian weapons fire and the debris from the Terran fleet. Once they were clear of the messy situation, leaving it behind, Chang pushed the Kepler forward, the best he could, given the fact they had an engineering crew that was slowly recovering from their HNI disruption. Odelea, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell recovering were proof of that. The gap between the Kepler and the stealth ship had widened.

The Kepler’s extremely brief FTL jump came to an end making them flash into the region of space Foster directed him to.

“Now what?” Chang asked her.

“Duck.”

The Draconian fleet flashed above the Kepler one after another, locking their tachyon cannons onto it, and spewing new hordes of wyverns into the battle. To the right, the surviving Imperial fleets appeared, dropping out of sub light speeds, spraying countless bolts of plasma into the Draconians. To the left was the UNE fleet, exiting from a brief FTL jump to do what they should have done when they entered the system, help the Hashmedai, not start a war with them.

The Draconians’ tunnel vision pursuit of Foster and the Kepler led them into a pincer attack, or what Foster preferred to call a sandwich attack. The Imperial fleet and UNE fleet was the bread, and the Draconian fleet, was whatever you wanted to squish in between. And did they ever get squished in the assault. Foster and her bridge crew enjoyed their front row seats. The Kepler danced about to evade whatever weapon strikes the stealth ship launched, slipping in and out of reality with its cloaking abilities.

Ships exploded, none of them were of Earth or Paryo origin. The rapid healing abilities of the bio-ships couldn’t keep up with the assault. The Draconian fleet was reduced to four ships, one of them being a Charybdis that sank into the abyss of a storm in space it created.

“Maelstrom!” Tolukei said.

“Looks like they’re escaping,” Chang commented.

“Let ‘em go,” Foster said. “Hopefully, they’ll see this as a message not to follow me around.”

The surviving Draconian ships entered the maelstrom’s vortex, including the stealth ship that broke off its assault. Before it plunged back into the mysterious universe beyond, it spun around traveling in reverse facing the Kepler head-on as it backed away. The two rival ships gave each other a long stare down, before the ethereal clouds consumed it and the vortex shrank. The eternal blackness and dotted stars of space replaced the imagery of the vortex.

“Status of Taxah?” Foster asked as the blaring alarms stopped.

“A few dragons still on the surface,” Chang said, checking his instruments. “Nothing the Imperials can’t handle now their fleet is here. And not one nuke landed.”

The Kepler pulled away from the remains of the Draconian ships and the aftermath of the galaxy’s first major victory over their forces. Taxah lifted into view on the screen when the Kepler leveled off. The Hashmedai controlled Earthlike planet was saved from an orbital assault it wasn’t prepared for. Foster wondered if somewhere on the surface of that planet, in a largely populated city, was an eighteen-year-old girl spared from having to witness her planet get invaded and learn that her father, tragically, didn’t survive.

Epilogue

Central Jungles

Rainforest, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 14:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Master Gunnery Sergeant Chris Boyd approached a noteworthy drop in the jungles he made his home since his arrival. The jungles were hot, moist, and of full of exotic life and plants, basically what the Amazon rainforest on Earth would be like if humans had never existed. He was surrounded by millions of years of evolution and nature, it was a shame the Hashmedai controlled Taxah. He would have loved to have gone hiking here.

He double-checked his supplies. There was enough to last him another twenty days, longer if he spread them out. He had a feeling he wasn’t returning to the UNE anytime soon, and certainly not in the transport Chang dropped him off in the other day.

Boyd leaped off the cliff and glided down with his altered mass, thanks to the MRF in his protect suit. He touched down on the ground without making a sound, or snapping the tree branch his left foot fell on. He kept low like a wild animal stalking its prey in the bushes, as he made a two-hour trek to a small base overgrown with vegetation in the distance. His HNI delivered tactical scans of the area to his eyesight. No stealth targets were in the area according to thermal and infrared scans, and the structure was a lightly guarded, if it even had guards to start with.

Visually, the structure looked old while the elements did a number to it. It had been standing for years and built by the hands of Hashmedai. The tech on the exterior looked old, though some parts were clearly retrofitted as part of an upgrade. The older parts probably died and got replaced with new stuff.

A transport landing pad came into view when he moved closer to the structure. One large Hashmedai cargo transport was parked on it, and a quick check showed it was empty. Behind was a warehouse-like door that led into the structure. It was left open, whoever, or whatever, was on the transport was taken out and put into the structure. Boyd’s money was that it was the protective substance Foster and her team was waiting for. After all, the ship that was supposed to be bringing it to Taxah landed here, and not in Muro. Either someone hijacked it, or someone was doing something suspect. He entered the structure, keeping his aim forward, expecting the Hashmedai’s true nature to be revealed.

An elevator brought him deep underground, and an airlock entrance delivered him into what looked like a large complex. The longer he remained inside searching about, the more it became clear the structure was nothing more than the entrance to an underground bunker. Voices in the distance forced him to leap and hide behind a wall. The voices were of two women, Hashmedai woman.

He took a peek around to see if it was safe for him to move in. It wasn’t. Phylarlie and another Hashmedai woman spoke, one with short, purple hair and a large sack slung over her shoulders dressed like an Imperial servant. Phylarlie’s tone was one of bitterness and anger. The other woman seemed, more passive, apologetic, like she did something that pissed Phylarlie off.

The two moved out of visual range. Boyd moved forward, and then got lost as a maze of tunnels took him into rooms full of robotic arms assembling mechanical parts, they looked like cybernetics. Deeper in, he found a bunch of rooms, their doors were locked shut. Something that looked like an operating table caught his attention. It had the severed wings of a wyvern.

He managed to get out of the maze, and all the weird stuff going on in its connecting chambers and entered what looked like a living room. There was a galley in the back, and multiple rooms with beds in them. There was enough food in the galley to last years. This wasn’t just any bunker. It was set up to keep its occupants alive in the event of a major planetary attack.

What was Phylarlie and the other Hashmedai woman doing here when there was supposed to be a major festival going on at her manor was an excellent question. Boyd hoped the personal computer he found in one of the bedrooms would provide the answers.

Rezeki’s Rage

Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 14:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“So, what’s the word? We stuck in the system?”

Peiun smiled and approached the two guest members of his crew, Penelope and Sarah. The splendid view of Taxah spun on the view screen behind him while Sarah fiddled with the remote controls of the exosuit she wore to counter the effects of her paralysis.

“I have spoken with the Imperial navy in the system,” Peiun said. “One of our MRF-equipped command ships will allow the UNE fleet to dock within it, and then travel through the space bridge to take them to the Arietis system.”

“Sweet, command’s going to want to know what the hell happened out here,” Sarah said. “Any word from my sister, Pierce, and Alesyna?”

“I’m being told they’ve been recovered by Imperial ships within the Morutrin system,” he said. “They’ll be delivered to Amicitia Station 14, now the wormhole has been restored to normal operation.”

“Guess this is where we part ways?” Penelope said to him.

“Indeed, a transport is ready to deliver you to one of the human ships,” he grimaced while looking at the Maraschino hacker. “And, Penelope …”

“Don’t worry; I removed the trojan from your HNI.”

“Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Penelope said, holding up the memory crystal, the reward of the quest she undertook. “Devorei will live on once again, as soon as we find a suitable body for the memory transfer.”

A transport from the Imperial command ship docked with the Rezeki’s Rage. Its pilot sent a notification via HNI that he was ready to receive Sarah and Penelope. Peiun relayed the news to them. Sarah gave him a sultry smile, beckoning for him to step closer to her with her cocking finger. He did so, and she slapped his rear, before making her departure.

“Call me some time, eh?” she said with a wink. “And good luck with your mission.”

He retreated to his study while waiting for Imperial teams to resupply the Rezeki’s Rage as it idled in orbit. The lineup of ships requesting to use the space bridge was vast, and it would be days before the Rezeki’s Rage would be able to use it. It gave him time to review the data he acquired in regard to his secret mission. He created a holo screen when he sat at his desk, and its contents showed a chart of what was learned thus far.

Mercenary crew members of the Fortune Runner had used the hidden Morutrin space bridge to travel to Sirius, back when the Carl Sagan was still exploring it. Shortly after their arrival, they vanished with Foster and her crew and the Radiance cruiser, Abyssal Sword. The next step was determining who the mercenaries that ventured to Sirius were, and why. He had doubts that the timing of the mercenaries’ arrival in Sirius, when the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword vanished, was a coincidence.

And most importantly, why was the empress so interested in them? Imperial lords, nobles, high-ranking military personnel, those were the type of Hashmedai he could see the empress investing time in searching for. But mercenaries that long ran away from the Empire? There was more going on than she was letting him know, even the emperor was left in the dark in regard to the mission as with Imperial admirals. Alesyna being a woman full of deception and secrets didn’t help sooth his mind.

Before he continued with his search, he needed to ensure he wasn’t being used, only to be disposed of when the mission was finished. This way, if there was more to these missing mercenaries, he’d be better prepared for what came next when he found them. The Rezeki’s Rage was a fine ship with a fine crew. As its captain, it was Peiun’s duty to place its safety and honor ahead of everything else.

If that meant betraying the empress, so be it.

Blackmar’s office

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system

October 17, 2118, 15:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Travis Pierce’s body thanked him when he sat on the comfortable leather chair ahead of Commander Blackmar and his desk. Pierce had a fresh uniform on and had partaken in a much-needed shave and shower prior to being invited to speak with Blackmar. Last time he checked, he didn’t get the chance to take one since the fiasco in the Kapteyn’s Star system. The meeting officially made him accept the fact that the crazy adventure he’d been sent on, that saw him separated from the Kepler, was over.

“Glad to see you’re back, Doctor Pierce,” Blackmar said.

“Glad to see it’s finally over,” Pierce said. “All I wanted to do was reconnect with an old friend …”

“Did you end up getting what you wanted?”

He thought back to the data package Penelope gifted him upon returning to his apartment, which had been left in a mess thanks to station security and EISS. According to Maraschino, Pernoy and her children left Earth to return to the Empire shortly after the Celestial Order wars. They never made it.

The transport they rode on disappeared according to reports the hacker group dug up. Maraschino left Pierce with a means to secretly contact them again, as the reports they found for him had them interested in the mystery. The date the transport vanished wasn’t far from the date the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword went missing. With Maraschino’s contact information in his possession, he had a feeling that wasn’t going to be the last time he saw Penelope, especially if Pernoy’s disappearance had connections to his and the Carl Sagan’s.

“Not really,” Pierce said.

“You got to be careful when you make offers to Maraschino,” Blackmar said. “Sometimes what you get isn’t worth the cost.”

“So it seems.”

“Not that we’re complaining, you two did help expose the corrupt EISS operatives and their illegal funding of the Terran Legion.”

“I hope we’ve taken steps to shut that group down.”

“We’re trying, but it isn’t that easy. They gained a lot of support, and got members across the galaxy, the only thing they don’t have any more are ships. Well, ships that we know of.”

“Human’s fighting humans … xenophobia, I thought we put that era behind us,” Pierce said miserably.

“We didn’t.” Blackmar sipped from a steaming mug of tea that had rested on his desk. “It only changed along with our society, just enough for us to not notice, until now.”

“Any word from the Johannes Kepler?” Pierce asked.

“After what happened in Taxah, they’ll be returning to UNE space shortly thanks to the Empire,” Blackmar said. “They’ve picked up a few new toys, and made some discoveries, and would prefer your mind to look at them before they proceed further.”

Pierce’s eyebrow rose. “Oh? Do tell.”

“They might have located where the Draconians are coming from, a place called Omega Centauri.”

Pierce’s eyes opened wide at the instant connection he made. “Oh, my God.”

Blackmar relined back on his char. “What’s wrong?”

“It all makes sense now,” Pierce said. “Omega Centauri had long been theorized to be a dwarf galaxy that crashed into the Milky Way billions of years ago.”

“I’ve heard something about that,” Blackmar said. “That’s why Omega Centauri is so large and has so many stars; it’s what remains of that destroyed ancient galaxy.”

“During the collision, some of those stars were ejected into the Milky Way. Kapteyn’s Star was one of those systems.”

“Really?”

“Yes, all stars in the galaxy orbit in the same path around the galactic core,” Pierce explained. “Kapteyn’s Star moves in an opposite direction, since it was ejected from the dwarf galaxy that formed into Omega Centauri. The Draconians didn’t target that system randomly; it was probably once a planet they ruled before it arrived in our galaxy.”

The ancient city, monolith, and construction of the hatchery, it was starting to make sense why they existed on that one world. Pierce stood, he had work to do.

“Excuse me, I need to examine data regarding that,” he said.

Hashmedai Bunker

Rainforest, Taxah, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 16:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Boyd activated the computer and struggled to navigate through the Hashmedai-made OS and language. He wasn’t sure how he did it, but one of the many buttons he hit activated a holographic projection. It was a recorded message, probably coming from the data crystal attached to the side port of the computer.

General Derek Irons of the EDF appeared in the projection.

“Phylarlie …” Irons in the recorded hologram said. “I hope you don’t mind the nickname Yominv I used. It was your father’s name, if I remember correctly. I figured you’d get the hint that this data crystal was for your eyes only, anyways it’s time. Keep Captain Foster with you as long as possible, the more delays she runs into, the better. Her testing the vortex key as we arrive would be ideal, so buy us as much time as you can. I’ve received confirmation via a psionic, that Moriston and his team were successful in locating the Morutrin space bridge. I had him send a transport through first as a test, and to give you a number of wyverns we captured to use in the next leg of the operation. The Terran Legion will be entering the system soon with a fleet of UNE ships on their leash. Don’t forget to release the wyverns onto the surface; we need to have a reason to drop the warheads. With that said … don’t be on the surface when we arrive. If there’s any VIPs you need to be evacuated, see to it they are brought to your bunker now. When this is over, I hope you enjoy your reward … Empress Phylarlie. Irons out.”

“You really should have taken my offer,” a voice called out to Boyd.

He rapidly spun around to see who it was. Phylarlie stood behind him and, judging by her calm composure, she probably had been since he started watching the video. His rifle rose to aim at her, and then lowered it in shock. There was a baby wyvern sitting on her shoulder, she ran her hand down its neck, petting it.

“What the fuck were you and Irons planning?” he said.

“It doesn’t matter now,” Phylarlie said slowly, stepping toward him. “It’s not happening.”

The projection turned to video files of scientists in hazmat suits acquiring dragon eggs and watching them hatch with infant drakes and wyverns.

“Dragons …” Boyd looked back at her. “You were breeding them.”

“My congratulations to you for making it this far,” Phylarlie said.

“You were going to take the throne,” Boyd said. “Have our ships nuke this planet, kill off the emperor, empress, and all system lords that would be bidding to become the next ruler of the Empire.”

She placed the baby wyvern in a basket. It sat and yawned, resting with several other young dragons. A devious grin appeared on her face as she moved closer to him.

“I never got around to coming up with a new title,” Phylarlie said. “Queen of Assassins? Or Queen of the Dragons?”

His rifle went back up, its targeting scanner informed him where her heart should be.

Keywords ‘should be.’ She doesn’t have one as far as I’m concerned. “Guess we’ll never know now, Phylarlie.”

“You’re right.”

Two concealed plasma daggers came into her quick hands, out from the seductive gown she wore. They powered on with green light and intense heat. The attack that came next didn’t last long, Phylarlie’s skill as an assassin had never dulled, if anything, it had improved based on the last time he fought her.

Boyd had shields, his protect suit, MRF, his rifle, and advanced EDF training. None of it was useful. Her speed, backflips, and slashes destroyed his shields, being stuck in a small dark room didn’t help, or the fact she had psionic powers that were stronger than your typical Hashmedai assassin. Jump porting about, and telekinetic pulls and pushes, she was toying with him at that point.

When she had her fill of fun for the day, Boyd found himself brought to his knees. She appeared behind him, held his head back with one hand and carved a burning gash across his neck with her plasma dagger. A jet of warm blood poured out from the wound like a waterfall, before he collapsed to the floor, unmoving.

“You will never know,” Phylarlie added.

Before Boyd’s vision and life faded, he heard Phylarlie call out the name ‘Avearan.’ The purple-haired Hashmedai woman he saw earlier entered, staring down at his body. Phylarlie and Avearan exchanged a number of words together, probably asking her to dispose of his body. He wished he could speak at that moment, Boyd and Avearan went back to the days of the Celestial Order wars. If only she knew it was him on the floor, and he knew that was her talking with Phylarlie earlier, he might have been able to get her help.

“Look on the bright side, you can be with your fallen Navy SEAL team now,” were the last words Phylarlie said him.

XSV Johannes Kepler

Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system

October 17, 2118, 17:33 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rebecca Foster stood watching Williams and Chevallier recover in sickbay. He was recovered from the surface when contact was made with Miles, whom had taken shelter in a clinic along with Chef Bailey. Williams was talking when Foster arrived to check on him, he even managed to make a smile at her when he tilted his head to face her. Chevallier, however, was the opposite, she didn’t move since returning aboard.

“How they doing?” Foster asked Kostelecky.

Kostelecky lowered her scanner, nodding at Williams. “He’ll live,” Kostelecky said. “He’s lucky that Hashmedai doctor got to him.”

“Avearan …” Williams grunted in pain. “Becca, make sure you send her a nice postcard and flowers.”

Kostelecky and Foster stood over Chevallier’s body. The holo screens floating above displayed her vitals, they weren’t looking promising, neither was her missing arm.

“She’ll need some more time,” Kostelecky said. “And some mild cybernetic implants to replace badly damaged parts of her body, especially her arm.”

“Damn it.”

“Tell me about it,” Kostelecky said. “She’ll need to get HNI too if she’s going to get cybernetics.”

“Why?”

“All cybernetics are designed to work with HNI,” Kostelecky said. “You can’t have one without the other. This society is too reliant on that HNI tech, it sickens me.”

“No,” Williams said, rising up.

“I didn’t clear you for duty, Commander,” Kostelecky spat at him. “Back to bed!”

“Hear me out,” Williams said. “On the surface, Avearan said something about her original implants had to be removed so she could become a psionic doctor or something like that. The specialist that worked on her was from Radiance and had a supply of implants and replacement parts that didn’t need HNI.”

“Dom, do you remember the name of that specialist?”

“Ask chef or that Marine,” he said. “I was in and out when she was patching me up. They might know better. All I know is he’s somewhere out in Radiance Union space.”

“We’ll set a course to Radiance once we get back to the UNE,” Foster said.

“Don’t we have a mission, Captain?” Kostelecky said to her. “Once I stabilize her, I can place her in cryostasis. We can transfer Chevallier onto another ship heading that way, and then continue with what we need to do.”

“Chevallier watched my back when she didn’t trust me,” Foster said, looking down at her war-torn body. “We’s doing this for her. Besides, this is the fastest ship in the galaxy, ain’t it? The fastest way to her recovery lies with us.”

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Becca,” Williams said.

“Dom, shush, we got this.”

“Terrans, Draconians, secret experiments to breed dragons, oh and finding their homeworld,” Williams said. “And now we’re adding a trip to Radiance controlled space?”

“Yeah, that is a lot to do,” Foster said. “I hope my first officer makes a speedy recovery to help me out with that.”

He smiled at her, she did the same. “I’ll report for duty in a day or two.”

“Like hell you will,” Kostelecky said. “You need at least one week of recovery.”

Foster left the three in sickbay, joining her team on the bridge. Taxah’s equator appeared on the view screen. Chang pointed at it, making the imagery zoom in and magnify, Foster stood next to him.

“Right there, Captain,” Chang said. “That’s where Boyd ordered me to drop him.”

“EVE?” Foster asked their android.

“There is a structure deep within the jungle,” EVE said. “However, I am unable to locate any signs of humanoid activity.”

“He probably slipped inside to look around,” Chang said. “Want me to find a landing zone?”

Foster shook her head, taking a seat on the captain’s chair. “No. Imperials are on high alert and we’s no longer welcome here for the time being. Landing will just raise suspicions.”

“We can’t just leave him.”

“Look at the UNE fleet,” she said “They’ve gotten word about him by now, and ain’t none of them doing anything. The best we can do is hope the Hashmedai find him, and kindly return him back to us.”

“And, if he’s hurt?”

“Then he better hope a damn good doctor is standing watch over him.”

“Fleet is ready to move out,” Odelea said, relaying the message from her communication station.

“Break orbit and dock with that command ship, Mister Chang,” Foster said. “We’s got a lot work ahead of us.”

Hallowed Nebula

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 their race. 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

Dramatis personæ

XSV Johannes Kepler 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

Dennis Chang – UNE Navy, Flight Lieutenant, and helmsman

Species: Human

Za Saressea – Radiance liaison officer

Species: Rabuabin

Ary Odelea – Scholar, Souyila researcher and Communications officer

Species: Aryile

Mil Tolukei – Radiance Psionic, Lead shipboard psionic

Species: Javnis

Nereid – Shipboard psionic

Species: Undine (humanoid mutant)

EVE – Electronic Versatile Entity, ship AI

Species: Android

Demarion Bailey – Chef

Species: Human

Mathilda Chevallier – EDF-1 member

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

Jacob Miles – UNE Marine

Species: Human

United Nations of Earth

Derek Irons – EDF General

Species: Human

Avearan Slaver – Xenobiologist student

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Lisette Bennett – Psionic student

Species: Human Psionic

Brice Blackmar – CO of Amicitia Station 14

Species: Human

Penelope Diamondrose – Maraschino Hacker

Species: Hashmedai

Emmanuel Campbell – IESA HNI surgeon

Species: Human

Alisha Levesque – CO ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Species: Human

Hashmedai Empire

Kroshka – Empress of the Empire

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Phylarlie Starchaser – Imperial Lord of the Uelcovis system

Species: Hashmedai Psionic

Peiun Starblazer – Rezeki’s Rage Captain

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

Ary Queenea – Souyila cofounder, Ienthei’s twin sister

Species: Aryile

Karklosea – Radiance Templar

Species: Linl Psionic

Gab Eicelea – Radiance archaeologist

Species: Vorcambreum

Za Vynei – Eicelea’s bodyguard

Species: Rabuabin

Jainuzei – Weapons Master

Species: Aryile

Byikanea – Soldiers of Marduk leader

Species: Linl Psionic

Armuzei – Soldiers of Marduk leader

Species: Javnis

Dienei – Soldiers of Marduk leader

Species: Aryile

Marrea – Soldiers of Marduk leader

Species: Aryile Psionic

Michei – Whisper Operative

Species: Rabuabin Psionic

Wenadei – Cybernetic specialist

Species: Linl

Teuei – Whisper Operative

Species: Vorcambreum Psionic

Draconian Horde

Lahmu – Dragon Knight

Species: Unknown Draconian

Lahamu – Dragon Maiden

Species: Unknown Draconian

Other

Sarpanit – ESRS Carl Sagan rogue EVE AI

Species: Corrupted AI

Previously on Splintered Galaxy …

The mission was simple. Find the Draconian’s homeworld, make contact with their leaders, and convince them to end the war. Or prepare the galaxy for a prolonged conflict. A rogue faction within Earth’s government made that a lot more complex. The Terran Legion devised a plan to see the human race rise up and rule over all alien races while pushing for a more aggressive war against the dragons. And their tool to make it happen? Breeding their own army of dragons.

The Terran Legion’s plot to remove the leaders of the Empire and the line of succession to the throne was averted by the bravery of Captain Foster and the crew of the XSV Johannes Kepler, but it came at a cost. Chevallier was critically wounded and was not expected to survive unless cybernetic augmentation was performed on her body. Because Chevallier lacked HNI and would need to remain that way to complete the mission, it left the crew with little choice. They had to seek out the aid of the one specialist in the galaxy that could tend to her special needs.

And he can only be found in the Radiance Union.

Prologue

Hashmedai Prison Barge

En route to Paryo, Uemaesce system

October 23, 2118, 03:47 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Lisette Bennett was experiencing the worst vacation ever.

It started great, visiting the Empire’s most treasured colony, Taxah, with her Hashmedai girlfriend Avearan. She got to experience the sensation of walking on the surface of a planet for the first time in her life and to breathe its air too. That’s a big deal when you’ve spent your entire life living on Saturn’s largest moon.

Now, Lisette found herself lying hopelessly in a dark prison cell, where the air was cold enough to prevent milk from going stale. The Hashmedai may as well have just tossed her in their fridge, assuming they used them.

She considered herself thankful that the Imperial prison guards gave her blankets to keep herself warm, they couldn’t have the one human prisoner aboard go into hypothermia on her way to her execution. She winced at that thought. The Empire never held trials, you were guilty until proven guilty on the day of your beheading.

The slave collar wrapped around her neck only added to her thoughts of hopelessness as it worked to suppress her psionic abilities and the HNI stuck in her head. There was no way to call for help, no way to let her family, Avearan, or her instructors back on Titan know that she wasn’t coming back, ever. Resisting the urge to break down and cry took a lot, but she had to do it, the icebox-like prison cell she was jammed in would make her tears freeze to her face.

She felt the aftereffects of what she assumed was a space bridge jump a day or two after her imprisonment. Hashmedai guards periodically came to her cell, eying her lying on the floor. None of them explained what crimes she committed, then again, none of them spoke English.

The next day she was gifted with a cellmate, it made listening to the cries of other prisoners being beaten and raped less terrifying as there was someone to talk to. Her cellmate was a Hashmedai man, tall and lanky, white hair and blue skin and spoke English very well. He claimed to have been a smuggler, and that this wasn’t his first time being sent to the Paryo execution grounds where the Emperor and Empress stood watch, hoping you’d beg for mercy so they could deny it. A sense of hope warmed her cold depressed mind. Her cellmate had escaped before, and the smile spread across his face suggested he planned to do it again, and maybe, just maybe, take her along for the ride too.

Hours passed, or was it days? It was hard to tell as her HNI continued to feed her error messages thanks to the slave collar. Counting sleeps was pointless, especially when she heard the sounds of an inmate stop screaming from their rape. There was always a thought that one of the guards would turn to the girl of French-Canadian descent next. No such thing ever did come about, prison guards didn’t like human girls apparently.

Her cellmate awoke her one day, shaking her shivering body. He said he was ready to put his escape plan into action now the ship had entered the Uemaesce system, the location of Paryo; the homeworld and capital of the Hashmedai Empire. He shouted something in Hashmedai, getting the attention of the guards. Two brawny Imperial guards arrived, grinning at her cellmate, baring their vampire-like fangs in the process.

After two minutes of yelling, the two guards dragged her cellmate away by the arms. All part of the plan, she assumed, whatever his plan was. He never did let her in on those details. When the guards dragged his halved body, smearing a wide ribbon of red across the frost-covered floors, she was glad he didn’t, because whatever it was, it didn’t work this time.

They left her cellmate’s upper body in one corner, and the lower in the other, then pointed at them then pointed at her. She got the message, no funny stuff and made a mental note not to piss anyone off going forward.

A whole day went by without any meals. The guards probably wanted to see her lose it and eat the remains of her cellmate. If she had the will left to continue living, she might have. She prayed to God for help, and then prayed to the three Radiance Gods and hoped one of the two prayers she made would be answered. Funny thing was, she was never a religious person to start with but, at that point, she was willing to accept any faith that would get her out of this mess.

She felt vibrations tremble across the frost-covered metallic floor she slept on. Entering the atmosphere of Paryo she assumed. The vibrations continued, growing more intense then alarms began to blare. Prison guards scurried about with a sound of panic in their Hashmedai voices. A large blast rocked the entire ship; it gave her the willpower needed to stand and ignore the hunger pains.

Something was afoot, something the operators of the ship weren’t expecting.

Power was cut and the raging sounds of a battle played out, a symphony of guns, plasma rifles, and swords clashing against personal shields and flesh of any person that lost their shield. The force fields keeping prisoners in place faded; it was met with cries of hope from all imamates and they rose to start a riot. This is it, she thought. One of the prayers was answered miraculously.

Lisette went to make her move, planning to walk behind the rioting prisoners as they hijacked the ship, hoping they’d by now know the human woman with them was on their side. The rioting prisoners walked into a short-lived revolt, all falling to the floor in a bloody storm caused by magnetic rifles. Their dismembered bodies fell into a sea of blood before Lisette.

That’s when Lisette remembered the mental note she had made, not to cause any trouble. On second thought, I’ll stay in my cell.

Before she tiptoed back to project the false image, she wasn’t a supporter of the riots, a group of men and women approached her. Some were psionic, others held Radiance magnetic rifles, all were members of the five Radiance races.

A Javnis man approached her, his gold-colored scales on his lizard body were obscured by his cloak until he lowered it. He had two eyes, unlike the four his species normally had. The other two were stitched shut. He spoke to his followers in their language. She couldn’t understand any of it, or why they spared her out of everyone on the ship.

There was, however, one word he muttered that Lisette understood.

“Nephilim.”

And that word was seemingly directed to her in the creepiest way imaginable when they grabbed her. Lisette wished she was still en route to death row at that point.

Her horrific screams were heard throughout the ship, stopping at its hulls. Her screams for help went unheard across the stars, and unheard across …

The Splintered Galaxy.

1 Karklosea

Radiance Council Delegation Chambers

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 30, 2118, 01:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Now, shall we proceed?”

“After you, Councilman.”

Ure Karklosea sidestepped, allowing Ure Hanei, the Radiance council Linl representative, to exit the elevator first. She followed him. Karklosea and Hanei had arrived at the central government building in the city, finishing the lengthy elevator ride up to the council delegation chamber. The two walked across the immaculately polished, tiled floors and past various plants found in the jungles of Aervounis.

Hanei and Karklosea were members of the same species, Linl, who bore a resemblance to humans for reasons the galaxy, to this day, could not figure out. She checked her blonde hair, tied into a single and thick braid running down her armored back, was to dress code. She was a Templar now, one escorting the most powerful Linl man in the galaxy. She had to maintain the serious look.

A young woman approached the two when they neared the chamber doors, a human-looking Linl just like them. The woman’s appearance was young, eighteen, if that, though, with gene therapy, one couldn’t tell. She could have been several thousand years old like Karklosea, and nobody would tell.

The woman’s skin was a dark tan, a common sight amongst the people living on Aervounis, thanks to the sunlight. If Karklosea were to guess, the woman’s favorite color was black, as all her cosmetics were of that color, even her lips.

“Councilman!” the woman said eagerly, running her fingers through her deep-red hair.

“We have an urgent matter to attend to,” Karklosea said, her armored, gloved hand pushing the redheaded woman aside. “Please hold onto your questions until we are finished.”

“Just one quick question, please, I beg you,” the redheaded woman said.

“I’m sorry—”

“Let her speak,” Hanei cut in with a smile, facing the redheaded woman. “What do you wish to ask?”

The redheaded woman’s eyes narrowed, and a cold grin appeared on her face. “Are you a believer?” she asked the two.

“What sort of question is that?” Karklosea snorted. “Councilman, please, we are late.”

“You are not believers?” the redheaded woman said, her voice full of hope.

Karklosea was confused at her questions, and the twisting of Hanei lips suggested he was as well. “As in believers of the word of the Gods?” Karklosea said. “Of course we are!”

The redheaded woman nodded and then asked Hanei. “And you?”

“Yes, we are believers, to answer your question,” he said.

“Ah, I see,” the redheaded woman said, then bowed before allowing the two to pass. “I wish you well.”

Karklosea completed her task, escorting Councilman Hanei to the rest of the Radiance council. The elected representatives of the five races that made up the Radiance Union sat at their designated chairs before the long rectangular table at the end of the chamber. Behind them stood their personal psionic assistants, and ahead was the entrance to the delegation chambers, with four rangers standing guard, and Karklosea.

The benefit of being asked to escort a council representative to their meetings was you got to stand in the chamber when the doors shut and learn of laws that will be born or retired or political decisions and where their effects could be felt across the galaxy. The Radiance Union, after all, was the oldest and largest galactic nation, and the primary reason why the Hashmedai Empire and the United Nations of Earth were spacefaring galaxy societies today.

The council representatives were quick to start their debate, one that was deemed of high importance. The one Hanei spoke of prior to arriving, and the reason he went to pray to the Gods beforehand.

“As you all are aware, the Terran Legion is another threat to our people,” Ary Ienthei, the Aryile representative, said.

Za Iey’liwea, the Rabuabin representative nodded in agreement, the jewelry on her ram-like horns jingled. “Indeed, humans that want to enslave nonhuman life.”

“Or wipe them out,” said Gab Marchei, the Vorcambreum representative, his dwarflike body reclined on a chair that was higher than the rest to compensate for the short height of his species.

“They don’t have the power for that,” Hanei spoke.

“Not any more thanks to Captain Foster,” Mil Zealoei, the Javnis representative, chimed in, his four lizard eyes showing signs of fatigue. He must have had a long night.

“Still, I am not convinced she eliminated all their members,” Marchei said. “As we speak, the humans are interrogating everyone that was part of the fleet the Terrans manipulated into following them.”

“Exactly, the humans fear more Terrans are lurking in the shadows,” Ienthei said. “Furthermore, our Whisper agents, spying on the humans, have reported that a number of arrests have been made. There are indeed more Terrans out there, most likely plotting revenge.”

“Which brings us to our next problem, the Terrans had plans to draw us into their conflict,” Marchei said.

“But were unsuccessful,” said Hanei.

“Is that so?” Marchei’s tiny dwarflike hands waved before him. In its wake, a holographic screen appeared showing recorded footage of the Johannes Kepler in a battle against ships of human design. “The Kepler, a joint Radiance and UNE project I might add, engaged in direct combat with the fleet at Taxah.”

“Yes, we know that,” Hanei said. “They defeated the Terrans.”

“Not all the ships there were loyal to the Terrans,” Marchei said. “At the time this video was recorded, the Kepler, while under command of Saressea, opened fire and destroyed a number of UNE fighters, fighters whose pilots were confirmed to be loyal to the UNE, not the Terrans. Human lives were lost at the order of our liaison officer.”

“She didn’t have a choice,” Hanei said.

“She did have a choice not to kill UNE loyal humans,” Marchei said. “The families of those slain humans want justice and have pressured the UNE government to launch an inquiry.”

Zealoei’s lizard body and four eyes remained still, taking in the looped footage of the Kepler. “And the Terrans?” he asked.

“It will only be a matter of time, according to our contacts, before they use this as propaganda to support their cause,” Marchei said.

“I can see it now, ‘more human lives killed by aliens,’” Ienthei said.

“This could draw us into the conflict,” Zealoei said. “We need to end this quickly. We cannot afford direct military conflict with the humans.”

“Despite the loss from the dragons, our navy still rivals theirs and the Empire,” Hanei said.

“Our reinforcements have yet to arrive and won’t be here for another three or four months,” Ienthei said. “Meanwhile, the humans, thanks to their wormhole network, have refortified Earth and have several new ships under construction. All we have to replenish our losses are the secondhand defense drones we purchased from Earth.”

Zealoei faced his fellow council representatives. “If the humans wanted to, they could easily take Aervounis, the dragon attacks have left us nearly defenseless.”

“Agreed,” Iey’liwea’s feline ears began to stiffen with anger. “I, for one, will be extremely agitated to know my great-grandchild will be forced to speak fucking English and Chinese should we lose a conflict with humans, Terran or Earth loyal.”

“The Empire is already distancing themselves from the humans because of this,” Marchei said. “As much as we prayed for the day when the humans and Hashmedai returned to hating each other, this is not the way it should go. Humans need to view us as allies, not as another threat.”

“Have we forgotten about the dragons?” Hanei asked. “Shouldn’t we stick to helping each other defeat our common foe?”

“All the more reason why we should take action,” Marchei said, crossing his arms, and leaning back on his chair. “I vote we have Saressea arrested, and her command dissolved. Let’s show the UNE and Terrans we do not support the actions she took in the Taxah sector.”

Ienthei grinned, his flawless and flat herbivore teeth beamed. “This could help strengthen our relationship with the humans.”

“And with that, force the Empire to reconsider distancing themselves, forcing this alliance against the dragons to stand strong,” Marchei added.

Karklosea watched as the five debated, consulting with other Radiance politicians across the Union via their personal psionics relaying those messages telepathically. She wished she had the time to make a prayer to Livie. Whatever the council voted on, it was either going to strengthen the Union or plunge it into further chaos, this time with Earth, as if the dragons weren’t enough.

Saressea was part of Foster’s team too. Removing her may hinder their mission to find and make peace with the Draconians or conduct reconnaissance and tell the galaxy exactly what they needed to do to prepare for all-out war.

The council went to reveal their votes. Karklosea watched intently.

“The Aryile vote yes.”

“The Vorcambreum agrees.”

“As do the Rabuabin.”

“The Javnis agrees as well.”

“The Linl do not,” Hanei said grimly, not that it mattered, three votes of yes sealed the deal, and at four? He may as well have stayed in the temple praying. Who knows, perhaps the Gods would have put far more of an effort to sway the council to vote otherwise.

“Then it is decided,” Ienthei said. “Let us send a ship to the Kepler; they should be back in Earth controlled space now, yes?”

“Even better,” Iey’liwea said after she brought up a holo screen and reviewed its contents. “The Kepler is coming to us.”

“Oh?”

Iey’liwea continued. Karklosea imagined that Iey’liwea’s feline tail not visible to her was probably wagging with excitement. “They requested permission to enter the wormhole; they have an urgent matter here in the Union. And Saressea has a security concern she wishes to share with us in private.”

“Praise the Gods,” Marchei said jubilantly. “Let this be proof they do listen. They are hand delivering Saressea to us! We don’t need to send ships!”

“Now,” Zealoei said, changing the subject. “For our next topic—”

The Javnis representative’s words were silenced by the sudden and unexpected sound of the doors to the chambers sliding open. They were supposed to be shut and locked, and in the case of a mistake being made, the rangers inside were supposed to spring to action.

They didn’t, only Karklosea stood on edge, her hand reaching for her redeemer sword as an uninvited guest entered.

“What is the meaning of this?” Marchei bellowed to the front.

The rangers didn’t answer, more like they ignored the words and demands from the council. Karklosea marched to the door, her senses, sharpened by years of fighting the Hashmedai and Celestial Order, told her something wasn’t right. The redheaded young woman from earlier entered. The rangers allowed it and allowed her to step way too close to the visibly concerned five at their large desk.

“Please, I have just a simple question to ask,” the redheaded woman asked with her hands behind her back.

“You!” Iey’liwea retorted standing up from her seat and jamming her finger at the girl. “Leave now or I’ll have you arrested for interrupting the council!”

Karklosea neared the redheaded woman, looking back periodically at the four guards, trying to figure out what was going on within their helmets obscuring their faces.

“Please, leave now, if you wish to speak with us, do it after we are finished,” Zealoei said. “And guards? Why did you let her in?”

“This was not my doing,” Karklosea said as she reached to grab the woman by her arm. “However, that is a good question, why did you let her in?” she asked the four rangers standing idle.

Karklosea tugged on her arm. The woman refused to move. She pulled again with more force, not too much, however, her suit gave her enough strength to rip heavy objects apart if she wanted to. The woman was forcibly yanked back half a meter, but still remained facing the council with defiance in her composure.

“Are you all believers?” she asked them.

“Didn’t you already ask that?” Hanei said.

“I know you believe,” the woman said to him, then tilted her face back to Karklosea. “And … her.” Her tone was bitter. And then her gaze shifted to the rest of the council. “But what about the rest of you?”

Karklosea pulled her back again, this time with enough force to cause pain in the woman’s arm. The woman retorted, slapping her hands at Karklosea, and then sending a telekinetic push against the armored Templar. The woman wasn’t just any young-looking woman, she was also a psionic.

Karklosea noticed two things by the time she got back to her feet after the strong push. One, the woman got closer to the council, two, the ranger’s rifles powered on and were seconds away from taking aim at a target before them. That target wasn’t Karklosea or the woman, though, she had a feeling she’d become one any moment, now her redeemer was firmly grasped in her hands.

“We are all believers, yes,” someone from the council said, Karklosea wasn’t sure who. She was too busy getting to her feet, drawing psionic energy from her body, and pouring it into the redeemer sword in her hands.

The woman grimaced, turning her back on the council. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

Then, she snapped her fingers.

The four rangers fired their weapons. Ultra-high-velocity rounds left their rifles, filling the walls, windows, and furniture within the chambers with holes. Karklosea focused her mind and performed a quick jump port that saw her body turn into a blue streak of light, then reappear in front of the council. Her left arm rose, and from her left wrist was a purple shimmering disk-shaped psionic shield, deflecting the projectiles intended to terminate the council.

The council cowered behind the steadfast Lord Commander of the Templars, even their psionic personal assistants as they weren’t wired with the cybernetics needed for combat or defense. What happened next on Karklosea’s part had to be quick and decisive.

The woman at that point levitated up to the ceiling via telekinesis, her body enveloped with waves of purple light. The four rangers went to regroup, hoping to get behind Karklosea’s disk-shaped shield. One of the rangers left themselves exposed due to lack of cover.

With a simple thought of her mind, she sent a wireless command that saw her blade transform from a sword infused with psionic power, into a rifle. Two direct purple blasts of psionic plasma left her redeemer. The shields of the exposed ranger flickered with the first hit and then shattered with the next. Her third shot vaporized him.

She instructed those behind her to get down and spread out, as the rest of the rangers found cover and were about to resume their assault. The disk-shaped psionic shield vanished when her arm lowered while the redeemer returned to its sword mode, the blade glowing brightly with purple energy. Two jump ports saw her teleport behind two of the three covered rangers, each one receiving four to six folded slashes in rapid succession, shattering their shields, melting swathes through their combat armor, and spraying blood and the smell of burning flesh and metal up at her face.

The gunman threat was almost eliminated, the psionic woman still floating up above, not so much. By the time Karklosea stood to look at her, an explosion erupted. The force of the blast tossed her like a ragdoll against the wall, making those that survived it question the structural integrity of the chamber as it now looked like a war-torn battle zone when the dust, debris, and smoke cleared.

Psionic plasma fires billowed around Karklosea, she could tell because they were purple. The woman unleashed a psionic bomb, an impressive ability, not even Karklosea was able to ignite one during her days as a psionic sorceress.

Karklosea looked toward the council, unsure if they or their assistants survived the blast. The lack of movement from any of their bodies was concerning. If the leadership of the Union was wiped out, then the cries of people during the dragon’s incursion she heard on the Union newsfeed were true. The Gods had truly abandoned the galaxy.

She got to her feet, flicking away the holographic notification her HNI fed her about the status of her armor and health. She didn’t need to view the flashing red lights to know her shields had fallen, and she suffered mild injuries to her arms and face. The redheaded woman descended from the ceiling, psionic winds rippling her red hair as she made eye contact with Karklosea. Both women readied themselves for a second round. Karklosea’s left arm rose again, forging a forward psionic barrier as she ran in, charging with her redeemer in its sword form in her right hand.

The barrier deflected a number of telekinetic pushes and pulls aimed at her, as for the stray bullet that grazed her thigh from behind, not so much. The remaining ranger was still active. When she neared her target, she heard a loud crash and the battle cry of a man. Karklosea would have to deal with that later, any psionic that could set off a psionic bomb had to be neutralized or risk another one from going off.

Karklosea closed the gap between the two and swung her blade. The psionic energy within it cut through the woman’s barrier, her mental focus was gone, and then later her consciousness when Karklosea bashed her face with her psionic shield sending her to the shrapnel-covered floor.

Turning around, she faced what caused the crashing noise from behind and the death of the last ranger. A large Aryile man stood, he wore combat armor and carried a magnetic rifle that was decades old, in service around the Celestial Order wars if she wasn’t mistaken. The Aryile man lowered his weapon, stepping deeper into the chamber. His skin was pale like Ienthei’s, a rare sight among the Aryile. In fact, the man looked a lot like Ienthei. So, when Ienthei’s bloody and wounded body stood from the rubble that fell on him, it was no surprise to her that he locked his eyes on the newcomer Aryile and his jaw lowered in shock.

They knew each other.

“Ienthei, I heard rumors you had taken a seat on the council,” said the newcomer Aryile. “My late congratulations to you.”

Ienthei slowly asked. “Father? Is that you?”

The Aryile man nodded. “Indeed.”

“No,” Ienthei shook his head in denial. “My father, Jainuzei, is dead.”

Gagging and coughing behind Karklosea drew her attention away from the two Aryile men. The redheaded woman regained consciousness and rose from the floor. The purple glowing edge of Karklosea’s redeemer stopped the woman in her place as she looked down upon her.

“Who are you?” Karklosea spat at her. “What do you want?”

The redheaded woman laughed, lifting her hands at the ceiling. A swirl of purple psionic light spun above the chamber like clouds forming into a violent storm cell, as the woman chanted. “Marduk is eternal!”

A second psionic bomb exploded moments later.

2 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

UNE hangar, Amicitia Station 14, Arietis System

October 30, 2118, 06:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The XSV Johannes Kepler sat idle in the hangar, part of the UNE arm of the enormous space station. Men and women in orange coveralls, with an arsenal of tools in hand, diligently worked to make the minor repairs the ship needed. The aftermath of the battle between the Terran Legion and the Draconian forces the Kepler dealt with at Taxah still showed.

Various antigravity carts entered the hangar and were pushed up into the Kepler’s cargo bay via its lowered entry ramp. New supplies, or so Foster assumed, having turned away from the Kepler’s gym observation window during the quick break she allowed herself to take.

Foster returned to the mats on the floor, her body moving up and down slowly within the empty gym. A holo screen floated behind her, keeping track of the number of pushups she completed, well the ones she completed correctly at least. It was a number she wasn’t proud of, despite the sweat coating her body.

When she had enough of the pushups, she took a second break, emptying a water bottle into her mouth. The soft hum of the air recyclers accompanied her to the pair of boxing gloves on the shelf she walked to, and she put them on. From there, she took out her frustration, caused by her poor performance, on a nearby punching bag. Her sore, sweat-drenched arms grew more tired with each strike.

Foster wasn’t military and never was. She was never used to this level of physical activity and wondered how long it would be until her body adapted to the change of lifestyle she had forced upon it since the Kepler had been docked at the station. They were waiting for the Radiance council to get back to them with their request while repairs and resupplying finished up.

“Hey ther’ captain,” Jacob Miles of the UNE Marines spoke, and had evidently entered the gym without Foster realizing it.

She gave the punching bag one last firm hit before turning to him. “You lost, Marine?”

“Naw, but you might be,” he said with his Atlantic Canadian accent. “This ain’t the rec room or that pub on the station there.”

Foster faced the punching bag again. Her fists rose up to strike it rapidly. “I’m right where I need to be.”

Miles stood closer, observing Foster and stroking his ginger beard with intrigue. “Your form is off, ma’am,” he said. “And you’re barely making that bag move.”

Foster’s form was debatable, she followed the holographic videos exactly on how to stand and use a punching bag. The other comment? Well, he wasn’t wrong. If you looked at the punching bag when she went to hit, it looked as if it wasn’t being touched at all. The thought only made her frustrated, frustrated enough to kick it.

It moved that time, and she went to address Miles with her Tennessee accent. “This the part where you—”

The punching bag swayed back from her kick, hitting her on the side, nearly knocking her over. Miles stood laughing. Foster didn’t join him.

“As you were sayin’, Cap?”

“Tell me you gonna be goin’ your own way?” she finished after getting back to her feet.

“Eh, that’s the thing, Foster,” Miles said. “Everyone on me ship was part of the fleet that ended up around Taxah. The crew’s all getting questioned for their actions, while the higher-ups determine who is loyal to the UNE and who is secretly with them Terran losers.”

Miles was officially never part of the Kepler’s crew. The Kepler had rescued him along with Boyd’s EDF team when their trip back to the planet Jacobus turned out to be a terrible mistake. One that the Terran Legion, in secret, was using to acquire dragon eggs to breed an army of dragons for their cause. Miles, like the EDF team, tagged along for the ride while they awaited new deployment orders.

“Makes sense, I guess,” Foster said. “We took out the main Terran-controlled ships but there was probably a member or two lurking around on the ships that came to help us.”

“Aye, they already arrested a few that outed themselves,” Miles said. “I had to get questioned meself, as with them EDF idiots you got hanging around. But since we helped you all survive, we got cleared for duty quickly.”

Maxwell and LeBoeuf were the two remaining personnel from Boyd’s team. Sergeant Chris Boyd was still MIA, lost or dead somewhere on the Imperial colony Taxah. Meanwhile, Chevallier’s mortally wounded body remained idle in medical cryo, waiting for the one doctor in the galaxy that could save her with a special set of cybernetic implants.

Chevallier’s state was the sole reason why the Kepler was putting its mission to search for the Draconians’ homeworld on hold. It was the fastest ship in the cosmos, and therefore the fastest one that could find the elusive specialist deep in Radiance space.

With a smile, Foster asked. “Where does that leave you, Miles?”

“Gonna be a while before I’m back out there in space, and remember, me whole team is dead.”

“Sounds like a brand-new assignment for you.”

“That depends on you, Foster,” he said, then placed his hands behind his back. “I’d like to remain aboard, with yer permission, of course.”

“Don’t think we’s got enough beer aboard for two Canadians.”

“I don’t think you got enough security for the ship that’s supposed to save us all from dem dragons.” Foster’s eyes rolled and she returned to the punching bag, this time not caring if it took her boot to make it move. “Let’s face it, Cap, can Maxwell and LeBoeuf be trusted? And what became of them Radiance rangers we got aboard? Where the hell were they when the shite went down at Taxah?”

“I get where you’re comin’ from Miles,” she said after three strikes of the bag, “but Maxwell, LeBoeuf … even Chevallier, they all came around to help me get off the Marcus Antonius. And Chevallier damn near got herself killed to save my hide.”

“Still, I think this mission would be a whole lot safer if you had me watching over you and the others,” Miles said. “Remember, Cap, if it wasn’t for me, that confrontation outside of Phylarlie’s manor would have been a whole lot worse. As in, Commander Williams would be in a body bag right now.”

“That’s fair.”

“So, am I in?”

Foster stepped away from the punching bag again and removed the sweat on her forehead with a smile. “I’ll sign whatever paperwork, Miles.” More like holowork. “Welcome to the crew.”

“Now with that out of the way,” Miles said, heading for the exit. “I’mma go get my workout gear. The gym on the station is full.”

“Don’t tell me you wanted to join the crew just to use the gym right now?”

Hearty laughter was shared between the two before Miles vanished behind the sliding door. Foster went to do one last round with the punching bag before the intercom beeped.

“Bridge to Foster,” Odelea’s soft Aryile voice said.

Foster headed to the wall, using the intercom the best she could given the restriction of the boxing gloves. “Go ahead, bridge.”

“The Union has given us clearance to enter the wormhole,” Odelea’s voice replied.

“Finally. Contact ops and tell ‘em we’s ready to get going.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“Head straight to the Radiance wormhole, best speed.”

The call ended and Foster’s fists took aim at the punching bag again. The first hurdle of their new quest was complete, stage two was to get Chevallier the treatment she needed, then after that, back to testing the vortex key, the mysterious reverse engineered device that allowed the alien tattoos forced upon Foster’s body to open a gateway into the ethereal maelstroms. The maelstroms were located in a strange universe where the laws of physics were different and served as conduits that linked different parts of space together via tunneling clouds. It was the path to the dragon’s homeworld, the path to ending the war, so she hoped.

Thoughts of the last two months replayed in her head as she struck the punching bag. Each hit she landed was fueled by her growing frustrations, like the fact the Dragon Maiden kicked her ass and Odelea had to save her. Williams got shot because he didn’t think Foster was strong enough to take care of herself. Now, her first officer lay in sickbay recovering. And Chevallier, she too nearly lost her life protecting Foster because she felt she wasn’t strong enough. And what happened after that? Foster tried to fight Moriston, and he beat her ass too, forcing her to vaporize him while he was strangling her. Foster wondered what things would be like if she had been strong enough to fight him, knock him out, and have him arrested to stand trial for creating the Terrans.

Each hit Foster made was struck out of anger. Each hit, she hoped would make her body and mind stronger. Foster wasn’t a Navy sailor, Marine, soldier, or psionic. She was an IESA explorer, an astronaut of the twenty-second century. Take away the gun in a combat situation and what were you left with? A woman that got her ass kicked every time she got into a scrap. A woman that was placed as the tip of the spear to save the galaxy that was slowly sinking into a war it may never recover from.

Foster’s final hit against the punching bag was done using every drop of energy in her arm. Her teeth gritted before she cursed loud enough for the entire deck to hear her.

The stress of her mission had reached a boiling point.

3 Saressea

XSV Johannes Kepler

UNE hangar, Amicitia Station 14, Arietis System

October 30, 2118, 07:33 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Za Saressea was Radiance’s liaison officer of the Johannes Kepler, acting chief engineer, on-and off-again captain, and the person left in charge of the ship’s Radiance crew, and overall jack-of-all-trades girl. She smirked at the thought of her role on the ship, and how far the crew had come in the short time they’d been together, thanks to her knowledge of it. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how much of a pivotal role she had played in their adventures thus far.

She sat on one of the many chairs within the briefing room. The windows gave a not so breathtaking view of the interior of the hangar bay the Kepler had been resting in for the last few days. Across from the briefing room table sat Mil Tolukei, the Kepler’s primary shipboard psionic, and boogeyman if you looked at the four eyes covered in darkness from the hood he wore.

A strange silence, only filled by the blowing of the air recyclers, followed as the two remained idle, waiting for the rest of the Radiance crew to arrive in the briefing room. Saressea shuffled around a number of holo screens her HNI generated, each one listing a dossier of the Radiance team aboard.

“Saressea,” Tolukei muttered to her in the Radiance language. “May I ask the purpose of this meeting?”

She pushed three of the holo screens ahead of her aside, facing the four-eyed lizard man. “We haven’t had a formal one yet.”

“Were the numerous meetings with Captain Foster not formal?”

“I mean with us, the Radiance team on this ship,” Saressea said as she readjusted her posture to let her tail slide off the edge of her chair. “Ever since Foster took command, it’s been a life-or-death situation, or us taking a quick month and a half cryo nap. We finally have some downtime to sit and talk with our people.”

“I see.”

“Foster is the captain, yeah. But I’m still your boss first.” She glanced at his profile and winced at how Radiance placed heavy emphases on the words Muodiry. “Since we’re here, has anyone given you a hard time?” she asked him.

“Because I’m a Muodiry?”

“Yeah, I read the reports about why you were sent to Earth to fight the Empire when they tried to invade it. Radiance just didn’t want you around.”

“And when I survived, they sought to dispose of me by having me join the Carl Sagan’s crew,” Tolukei said, showing very little emotion. “But to answer your question, no, none of the Radiance personnel aboard has, as you put it, given me a hard time.”

Tolukei was Saressea’s largest concern among the Radiance crew. He was a Muodiry, a breed of Javnis psionics that existed before they joined the Union. It contradicted the ancient texts that psionic powers were a gift from the Gods, given to the Aryile first, and then spread to the rest of the galaxy because of them.

Select members of the Javnis people having those powers before they made first contact with the Aryile weren’t met well, as was the fact that Muodiry literally translated as necromancer. They had psionic powers that allowed them to mind control the dead, and Captain Foster and her expedition into the Sirius system discovered Marduk, another Javnis Muodiry who convinced ancient humans he was a God and had made it his domain.

Now, when the ship wasn’t under attack from dragons, or racist humans, Tolukei spent his off-time helping Nereid, an Undine, hone her psionic powers. Undines like her owed their existence to Tiamat, same with the Draconians.

There was a reason Tolukei was the boogeyman amongst the Radiance crew.

“I merely miss the days of using my powers in combat as opposed to shipboard psionic duties,” Tolukei said. “However, I accepted this task when Commander Williams and Captain Foster recruited me.”

Saressea accepted that reply, for now, she had to as the rest of the Radiance crew entered one by one, seconds later, starting with Odelea, then the engineering and ranger teams. No point squeezing him for more now. With everyone seated, Saressea stood, making all their eyes move up as well. Foster was the captain of the ship, but Saressea was still their direct supervisor. She had to do this at least once to remind them of that fact, as much as she didn’t like it.

“Thank you for coming,” Saressea said. “Just wanted to sit down, get to know you all better and make note of any improvements we can make.”

The meeting commenced and the crew chatted, bringing up issues and concerns while Saressea made notes on in her HNI, acting like the fearless leader she was supposed to be. But in reality? She hated it and missed the old days when the Kepler was in testing. The days when it was just her, EVE, and a small team flying through space trying to break speed records.

Fake smiles and nods came next from Saressea before Odelea spoke. “Environment issues are my biggest concern. It’s very cold in certain areas of this ship.”

Saressea held back a smile when Odelea spoke up. When speaking in the Radiance language, she did it with a heavy Aryile accent, unlike when she spoke English, which she spoke with a human accent. Saressea was the same, using her Rabuabin accent to speak Radiance, but sounded a lot like humans from North America when speaking English.

“For an Aryile and Javnis, yes,” Saressea said. “Tolukei, do you find it cold?”

“I do not,” he replied. “I use a small psionic bubble to trap the heat from my quarters.”

“I’ll see about having the average temperatures of the ship brought up a little,” Saressea offered. “We Rabuabin, Linl, and Vorcambreum are used to working in the heat to accommodate the needs of the Javnis and Aryile, humans, not so much.”

“Perhaps we could have EVE automatically adjust temperatures within a room based on who’s inside?” Odelea asked.

“I like that idea, I could make adjustments to her bio scanners,” Saressea said. “Anything else? Any problems with food?”

“No,” Odelea said, shaking her head. “Chef Bailey’s cooking is better than most chefs in the Union, and he’s human.”

Saressea smirked at her. “Funny, coming from the girl that only eats Earth apples.”

Odelea’s sun-kissed face flushed. “I’ve been trying to … diversify as of late.”

A notification flashed over Saressea’s eyes via her HNI. The Kepler was preparing to depart the station. It was time to bring the meeting to a close.

“We’re leaving, at last,” Saressea said to the group. “Well, that’s it for the time being. For those that don’t know, we’re going to Aervounis. If you have any requisitions from Radiance you want to be brought aboard, send me the list within the hour.”

Saressea made her way to engineering an hour later, ready to pick up where she left off. The vortex key had been taken offline and partially dismantled for maintenance and closer analysis. It was, after all, mostly Draconian technology that both Imperial scientists and UNE ones knew little of, and the working one they had was put together entirely by Hashmedai hands. In other words, if she was going to be placed in a position to work with it in the future, she needed to know how it worked.

The downtime gave her ample time to tinker with its insides as with the first vortex they received, though that one burned out after their first time testing it. She made detailed notes with her HNI and was very close to having enough data to write a guide on how to repair one. She grabbed her tools and moved to pull apart the fusion of Imperial and Draconian technology, her holographic flashlight floating next to her lit the way deeper into the massive device, exploring its insides which had become a bit of hobby for the last week.

She came to discover the device’s hidden central section, it was unexplored territory as the blueprints they had on file mentioned nothing about it. Or the slimy tentacles that sprung out from a wave of white mist within it.

Saressea cursed some of the worst words one could say in the old Rabuabin language, while her panic-stricken body made her bash the top of her head against the interior of the device, she was, after all, still inside of it. She crawled her way back out, her tail stiffened with fear as the numerous tentacles within continued to stretch out, like they wanted to stroke her.

“What, the fuck is that …” she said, throwing her tools to the side.

A member of her engineering team approached Saressea while she sat on the floor with her back to the nearby computer terminal. “There a problem?”

She pointed to the darkened interior of the vortex key. “Yeah, look at this shit.”

The two looked on with horror at the hulking cylinder-shaped device with something living inside. By the time Saressea got to her feet, Nereid walked into engineering unexpectedly, her face searching for something that seemed to be of importance to her.

“Nereid?” Saressea called to her. “Can I help you with something?”

Nereid moved slowly to Saressea, giving the Radiance team long stares. “I was under the impression none of your team were psionics?”

“They ain’t,” Saressea replied.

“Then why is someone in here reaching out to my mind?”

That’s because nobody is? Saressea thought while giving the Undine girl from Sirius an odd glare. “You okay? Need another trip to sickbay?”

“I am fine,” Nereid said. “But there is a psionic force in here, a sentient one trying to touch my thoughts.”

Nereid pushed past Saressea, inching closer to the vortex key. Saressea followed, shaking her head. “Well, I can assure you that—”

Saressea paused, as Nereid stopped at the opened compartment of the vortex key. The tentacles inside were still slinking about. “Oh shit,” Saressea groaned and went to shut the vortex key’s access panel.

Nereid gasped as she did that, facing Saressea with concern. “It’s gone.”

Saressea frowned, looking down at the panel, blocking the tentacles behind it. “Was afraid you’d say that.”

“Why’s that?”

Saressea pried the panel off, and the tentacles were free to stretch out from the device once again. “You sense it now?” she asked Nereid.

“Yes, I do,” Nereid said, lowering her body to peer into the darkened interior of the vortex key and its many tentacles. “It’s coming from this.”

Saressea loaded an EAD app on her HNI, its holo screen flashed ahead of her. From there, she used it to scan the tentacles and interior of the vortex key. The data that outputted into the floating holographic screen showed a spike in psionic activity, and it wasn’t coming from Nereid. Secondary scans showed the device itself was designed to shield a fraction of that psionic energy from the outside, probably the reason why nobody picked up on it until now.

“What are you getting from it?” Saressea asked while she recorded the data into her HNI.

Nereid’s eyes shut to focus. The level of psionic energy within engineering spiked briefly on the EAD’s output and then diminished when Nereid’s eyes opened, and her lips slowly began to move and say. “Telepathic thoughts.”

“What’s it saying?”

“It is singing.”

“The fuck?”

“Saressea,” Nereid said, looking up at her. “It’s the dragon’s navigational song.”

4 Rivera

Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ, Medical Bay

Paris, Earth, Sol System

October 30, 2118, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Jasmine Rivera awoke to the sound of heart rate monitors beeping and doctors buzzing about with holographic projections around them; all were psionic. Evidently, psionic doctors were now industry standard, at least for the UNE.

She sat up in the medical bed she recovered on and groaned softly. There was a mild pain in the back of her head. She curiously watched a few of the doctors telekinetically make their tools and scanning devices interact with their patients. Almost two months ago, surgical equipment like that was used on her, and again recently. She wondered how that must have looked when she was put out.

“Easy there,” a doctor said as he approached her.

She looked at the doctor, trying to remember his name. The pain in her head wasn’t helping. By the time he placed his warm hand on her shoulder she remembered, it was Doctor Emmanuel Campbell, a neural surgeon.

“I’m fine,” Rivera said.

Emmanuel fabricated a holographic teddy bear with his HNI which floated in the air between the two.

Rivera smiled at the sight. “Aww, that’s cute.”

“Try holding onto it.” Rivera reached out to the flickering apparition and brought it closer to her. “Now try to store it in your recently received items inventory.”

She focused her thoughts, shutting her eyes. Nothing came about as a result, other than her head becoming slightly sore. She opened her eyes to the doctor interacting with a holo screen hovering next to him, shining its blue and white light on his doctor’s gown.

“Try again,” he said.

Rivera focused again. Suddenly a series of cubes snapped onto a grid that appeared over her eyes. Her hands guided the holographic teddy bear into one of the cubes and it vanished, only for a miniature version of it to load inside the selected cube. She blinked twice, and the grid vanished from her eyesight.

“Excellent,” Emmanuel said, smiling. “Your HNI seems to be working fine.”

Rivera had officially become a twenty-second-century human. “Thank you,” she said, climbing off the medical bed.

“Let me know if there are any further issues,” Emmanuel said. “People that were affected by the HNI disruption from the Dragon Knights had HNI in their heads for years. You, though, you’re a little different.”

Rivera beamed. “I’m just glad my friends didn’t clue in.”

“Which brings up the next point,” he said, flicking the holo screen away. “What will you do? The premise of the Kepler’s crew was to have a team that didn’t have HNI. You having these implants go against that.”

“I didn’t know about that until after Foster rescued us from New Babylon,” Rivera said. “After the funeral of Chevallier’s mother, I went under the knife to get wired in.” She sighed looking down at the floor. “Kinda regret it now, it almost got me killed.”

Emmanuel retrieved his holo screen, inputting new data into it. “Your secret is safe with me for the time being.”

She looked up at him smiling, and admiring his handsome features like his black, gelled, slicked back hair, “Thanks.”

“I don’t know how many more times you can use the excuse that you fainted if the Dragon Knights show up again.”

“According to Foster and the gang, they should be dead,” Rivera said. “If that’s the case, and there’s no more of them, I should be good.”

“The Kepler ran into more trouble recently from what I heard on the news,” he said. “Things might have changed. But in any case, continue to use it as often as you can, this will not only allow your brain to get used to having them but will train it to better operate with the way you think.”

“Am I good to go?”

He nodded. “For now, but keep in mind you only have the basic implant and there’s one last component we need to put in before it’s a fully functioning HNI. IESA has other upgrades you will need to receive later as well. But since you were not given these at childhood, its best to wait until you have mastered the basic implant.”

After several double checks to ensure there were no other problems, Rivera was discharged from the quick surgical procedure that took hours to set up and perform. It was technological advancements like the HNI that made her eager to get back into the world to learn and perfect the tech humanity had to offer. Without an HNI, she had no chance of being able to land a job. And had she known that HNI was, in reality, a weakness the Draconians took advantage of, she would have put going under the knife on hold.

Using her HNI, she keyed in a quick qmail message to Captain Foster, amazed at how she could type just by thinking. “Since I got the basic implants, it shouldn’t be hard for anyone to detect them, right?”

“Only if they were looking,” he said.

“And if I send a qmail?”

“Messages sent via HNI, computers, or wrist terminals are indistinguishable. The receiver of the message wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

“Good!” Rivera sent the message, passing it off that she was at a computer or used a wrist terminal. “So, is this the part where I have to bribe you with a dinner date to delete all records of me receiving my HNI?”

“Not at all,” Emmanuel said with a chuckle. “I’d rather not have the Kepler lose an engineer like you because of an oversight you made.”

And in truth, Saressea can serve as the engineer. Officially, Rivera didn’t need to be on the team, the Kepler continuing to operate without her was proof of that, and it was a reality she didn’t want to live in. Rivera’s major selling point had been that she had no HNI, which was no longer the case. She’d rather not be excluded because of that or relegated to other duties. Foster, Williams, and the former crew of the Carl Sagan, they were all friends to her, the only ones she had left since arriving in this century.

“Shucks,” she said, grinning at him. “I really wanted to go out for dinner before I returned to salvaging the Carl Sagan.”

“Well, I could change my mind, and threaten to tell Foster about this,” he said. “In exchange for you to accompany me tonight for some drinks and grub.”

“That’s better!”

Bistro

Paris, Earth, Sol System

October 30, 2118, 19:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Emmanuel and Rivera spent the first half of their off-time together indulging in a savory meal at a local bistro he suggested. Their faces were flushed thanks to the copious amounts of wine the two drank, and their laughs and giggles could be heard the moment you stepped in. They did, after all, get seats closest to the establishment’s front windows, looking out on the streets of Paris, while soaring cars and ships dominated the skies.

Emmanuel finished the last of his wine, then asked, “So you’re off to pick apart the Carl Sagan tomorrow?”

“Well, continue to do so,” Rivera said, pushing her empty dinner plate forward. “After I got my implants, I was allowed to join the team. We didn’t get the chance to make a lot of progress, however. Rescued Foster’s cat and found personal belongings to the crew. That was it.”

“There are a lot of mysteries lying on that ship,” Emmanuel said. “Including what happened to you guys over the last six or seven decades.”

“I agree. But the fighting on Earth had a lot of salvage crew worried about their homes and families. Once it died down, they all took time off to visit … and in some cases bury loved ones.”

“Damn, that’s rough, didn’t think about it like that.”

“It gave me time to head back to Sirius and help Commander Williams with, uh, their situation over there.”

“And that’s when you almost got busted for having HNI.”

“No … That’s when I ‘fainted’” She laughed, thinking back to that moment and how Foster was surprised to hear Rivera’s lie about fainting. “I’m excited to head back to the wreckage of the Carl Sagan. We’ve only been back two times since the salvage team took a break, both attempts weren’t long and focused on gathering equipment. Tomorrow, though, we’re going to try and gain access to the AI and recover the ship logs.”

“If that’s even possible, I thought they were all deleted?”

“I have ways of making deleted files restore themselves,” she said, grinning. “And if not, I’m sure the EVE AI might remember a thing or two if we can get her talking. If she’ll talk.”

“I’m sure it will.”

“Not if it’s the EVE I think it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“During our Sirius expedition years ago, we had one original EVE, and a naughty one that was copied and reprogrammed by the Architect of Sirius, a Javnis Muodiry called Marduk.”

“You think the bad EVE was in command of the Carl Sagan?”

“I really hope not,” she said, sighing. “If we stand any chance of learning what happened, we’ll need to talk with the original EVE we had when we launched. She was operational and in control of the ship during our last memories before we went missing.” The talk of returning to the Carl Sagan’s crash site reminded her to check the time she was to meet with the salvage team. She went to access it with her HNI, but it stalled with a superimposed error message flashing over her eyes. “This is going to take time to get used to.”

“What’s up?”

She grimaced. “My HNI.”

“Might still require more recalibrations,” Emmanuel said. “It’s a known issue for people that didn’t have them since childhood.”

“I hope it doesn’t interfere with my duties tomorrow.”

“If you’d like, I could come with you,” he offered in a suave manner that made her chest flutter. “If there are any problems, I could try and take a look.”

“Really?” she asked with intrigue.

“Yeah.”

“Or are you looking for an excuse to spend more time with me after we’re finished up here?”

Emmanuel chuckled. She joined in. “Perhaps.”

“I don’t think it would be necessary, I should be fine,” Rivera said. “But … if you’re looking to get to know me better, swing by my hotel after we finish up here. I’ll show you one of the most important items I recovered from the Carl Sagan.”

His eyebrow rose. “And what would that be?”

“My bong.”

5 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

En route to Aervounis, Luminous System

October 30, 2118, 12:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The XSV Johannes Kepler hurled several hundred light years away from Amicitia Station 14 and the Arietis system, having passed through the Union wormhole, heavily guarded by Radiance cruisers twenty-four seven. Once past the wormhole’s event horizon, the fastest ship in the cosmos, well to the known and explored cosmos, accelerated at full FTL speeds through the Luminous system.

Just about every planet and moon within the system had been colonized by the Aryile during their first voyages through space, back when the Radiance Union consisted of their species only. It was hard to tell which planets were colonized first as they were covered with the floating cities the Aryile were notorious for living in. It wasn’t like Sol where Luna, Mars, and Titan had massive cities as they were the first worlds colonized by humanity, while moons like Triton were playing catch up.

Foster had hoped to catch a glimpse of the mighty Union Navy, the largest in the galaxy, but no such sights appeared on the view screen, or scanners for that matter. The Draconians could partially be thanked for that, Radiance had yet to receive reinforcements from the rest of their worlds, unlike Earth and Paryo. The F in FTL wasn’t that fast, and neither was their voyage to the most populated planet in the system, orbiting a bright star, that according to Pierce, was growing larger each year.

Foster got up from her post on the bridge and left. They still had another hour before they reached their destination. She found herself in the Kepler’s labs, holding a duffle bag with the logo of the ESV Marcus Antonius on it. It was the bag she discreetly swiped from that ship, loading it up with contents the drake she encountered pleaded with her to acquire before it went up in smoke.

Doctor Travis Pierce, the ship’s science officer, sat at a computer terminal. A holo screen depicting the stars of the galaxy shined its light across his middle-aged face and graying hair. He spun on his chair, smiling at Foster as she approached him with the duffle bag in tow. She was glad to have him back on the team after his brief AWOL stint.

“All settled in, Doctor?” Foster asked.

Pierce nodded. “Indeed, I also had IESA have bots look after my apartment while I’m gone.”

“Seems a bit extreme.”

“With the exception of the wormhole in the Luminous system, Radiance doesn’t have a wormhole network … or space bridges for that matter.”

“Yep, they use straight up FTL to hit up their colonies.”

“Wherever in the Union this cybernetic doctor is we need to find for Chevallier, I doubt it’s going to be on Aervounis,” he said, then pushed a small projection of the map of the galaxy to Foster. “We might be gone for months, maybe even a year.”

She eyed the projection as it depicted exactly which parts of the galaxy were under Radiance control. It was more than a third of the explored region of the Orion arm of the galaxy. Understandable, given the multi-millennial history of the Union.

Still, they had to take the risk. The Kepler was the fastest ship, and therefore fastest means of traversing across the hundreds of light-years that made up Radiance Union space. Any other ship doing this would take too long to get Chevallier back on her feet. And regardless of what anyone said, the crew of the Kepler needed her. What happened days ago with the Terrans and on Taxah was proof enough to Foster that their mission of peace was going to require a little bit of violence, regardless if they wanted it or not.

If Chevallier refused to join the team after everything was said and done, so be it. Foster owed Chevallier this. She saved Foster’s life, something Foster wished she could have done for Chevallier’s mother now looking back at it, and all the guilty feelings that came with it.

“But you didn’t come here to chat, did you, Captain?” Pierce said to her.

Foster shook her head, placing the duffle bag in her hands onto a table. She waved Pierce over to join her, and then pulled the zipper of the bag open, unveiling the large, dark, and oval-shaped organic objects within. There were like basketball-sized avocados.

Pierce let out a loud whistle when he activated his EAD app on his wrist terminal. “Oh my … Captain, did you really?”

“Take dragon eggs from the Marcus Antonius? Hell, yea, I did.”

Pierce paused to read the data that outputted into his wrist terminal’s holo screen floating above his wrist. “Why?”

“That drake that saved me,” Foster said slowly. “It was a mother-to-be. She wanted me to save her unborn dragons.”

Pierce placed one of the dragon eggs on the table ahead of them, giving it a more detailed scan with this wrist terminal. “Incredible,” he muttered with amazement.

“I want you and Odelea to take a look at these,” Foster said. “Learn what you can and well … uh.”

Pierce beamed at her, lowering his wrist terminal. “Become baby dragon nurses when they hatch?”

“If we’s gonna make peace with the dragons, I think this is gonna be the thing that will make it happen.”

He stroked his chin, lost in thought, while eying the rest of the eggs lying inside the duffle bag. “Human compassion,” he finally spoke. “Raising the young of our enemy rather than killing them.”

“And don’t forget the drake and I had a connection,” Foster said, her arms crossed. “It came to save me since I let it free. Peace can be made, if not with the Draconians, then their dragons,” she paused, looking down to consider her next words. They were going to sound controversial. “The Terrans were right about one thing, these dragons are like pets to the Draconians.”

“So, we’re going to hand these back to them, then?”

“I ain’t got any plans in life to raise a dragon army of my own.”

“I’m so glad to hear that,” he said with relief. “Using dragons as living weapons is a disturbing thought.”

Foster snorted. “Not to the Draconians.”

“And not to the Terran Legion, just think about what they could have done if we hadn’t stopped them?”

“We didn’t stop them,” Foster said drily. “Miles says a bunch was arrested, there’s still more Terrans out there. All we did was shit over their plans.”

The intercom beeped. Saressea’s voice played over it. “Engineering to Foster.”

Foster took the call, pressing against the wall mounted intercom. “What’s up Saressea?”

“So, you remember that vortex key project I was working on?”

Foster grimaced. “Ah, hell, what’s it now?”

“You might wanna come down here, Cap, and see for yourself,” Saressea’s voice replied.

“If I gave ya fifty credits to just tell me what it is, would you do it?”

“Fuck no, but I’ll gladly take the credits.”

“On my way …” she said then ended the transmission. On Foster’s way out of the labs, she said to Pierce. “Take care of my babies!”

Pierce nodded to her as she left. “I’ll keep them in the sample cryo drawer, so they won’t hatch prematurely.”

Engineering was down the hall at the end of the ship, taking up three decks of the aft of the Kepler. Inside, Foster saw Saressea and Nereid eying the interior of the vortex key. Saressea’s tail was stiff and rising upward, slightly trembling. That wasn’t a good sign.

“What did you and our resident water nymph discover today?” Foster said as she approached the two.

Saressea stepped way, offering Foster a look at the darkened interior of the Vortex key. Three tentacles reached out rapidly to touch her. Foster nearly lost her balance trying to back away, her face maintained a cringing glare, even after she stood up.

“Well, I guess I’m skipping lunch today,” Foster said drily, hoping the flipping of her belly would stop.

Saressea pushed a holo screen at Foster, displaying the results of her virtual EAD scans. “I think we might have discovered why the Draconians knew we entered the maelstrom every time,” Saressea said.

Foster eyed the holographic data, noting the increased levels of psionic energy and how far deep the creature within the vortex key was. “What in the hell’s that, Saressea?”

“A tracking device,” she replied.

Foster winced. “With tentacles?”

“Don’t get me started on that …”

“Did it pull on ya tail yet?”

Saressea looked back at her tail, still paralyzed with fear. “… Almost.”

“Captain,” Nereid said, facing the two. “I can hear the dragon songs transmit to me telepathically from this.”

“Oh, great,” Foster said, looking at the organic creature within the device.

“That thing,” Saressea said, pointing at the slinking tentacles. “Was telling the Draconian fleet our location telepathically.”

Foster started to put things together. “And when the first vortex key we had got fried, it stopped.”

“I guess the thing inside died,” Saressea said. “They lost the signal and gave up.”

It made sense the more she thought about it. The Draconians, during each of their test runs, knew exactly where the Kepler was when it ventured into the maelstrom. Why and how they knew was never discovered, until now, of course. They had a telepathic monster living inside the vortex key, a device required to rip open time and space to enter the strange universe.

“Is it important to the operation of the key?” Foster asked. “Last time I checked, organics and technology went hand in hand with the Draconians.”

“Probably, though, that octopus-looking motherfucker wasn’t in the blueprints we got,” Saressea said. “Before I called you, I was doing deeper scans of it. I think I might be able to remove it, make some adjustments, and keep the device operational.”

Foster grinned. Progress was being made. “Thus, removing the tracking.”

“In theory, of course,” Saressea said. “The damn thing does have psionic powers, it might just get pissed off and telekinetically hurl my ass across engineering.”

“Let’s not forget the tentacles.”

“I’m trying to do just that. You don’t have a tail; you have no idea how creepy that was.”

“Have any of you figured out why the Hashmedai did not tell us about this?” Foster asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Saressea replied, nodding. “Someone from Phylarlie’s team was keeping secrets from us. Throw in the Terrans conveniently showing up, and I’d say they were also working together.”

“Moriston said that the ultimate goal of the Terrans was to install puppet governments,” Foster said. “They wanna control the Empire, Qirak, and Union, and probably Draconians.”

“I fail to see how you could do that by nuking Taxah.”

“The Imperials were all gathered there for a party,” Foster said. “The entire line of succession to the throne would have been wiped out if they’d won.”

Saressea’s lips twisted. “Oh … in that case.”

“Terrans could have hand selected a particular Hashmedai to take over, one that would do whatever they wanted.”

“Someone like Phylarlie.”

“Course, we ain’t got any proof it was her,” Foster said. “And going back to the Empire to find it ain’t an option, they don’t want us back.”

“What about Peiun and his ship?” Saressea offered. “He seemed legitimately concerned for your safety when they made contact with us during that shit show.”

Ah, shucks, I didn’t know he cared, Foster thought. “We helped each other out, a lot.”

“Sounds like he’s a friend on the inside to me, maybe he can do the searching for us?”

“Maybe, yeah, I like that idea.” Foster went for the intercom, establishing a connection to the bridge. Odelea’s voice replied and she asked, “Contact the Rezeki’s Rage, Odelea. I’d like to speak with its captain, Peiun.”

“Of course, Captain,” Odelea’s transmitted voice replied.

Ending the intercom chat, Foster added, “Last time I checked, the Rezeki’s Rage was still in orbit around Taxah, let’s hope we can reach him before they leave.”

The planet Aervounis enlarged on the view screen, growing bigger with each passing second. The planet looked like a ball covered in yellow, blue, and green colors with some fluffy white clouds sparsely sprinkled over top. There weren’t many clouds when compared to Earth, sunny days were a common sight on the planet. It would explain why the yellow patches were more common than the green ones on the surface, and seemingly taking over.

Like Earth and Paryo, a vast debrief field orbited the planet while salvage crews worked day and night to pick up the junk that was once battleships, ambushed by the Draconians surprise attacks. The Kepler had to swerve around three hulks of derelict Radiance cruisers that spun endlessly through the cold celestial graveyard.

Foster gave her head a dejected shake while she sat on her captain’s chair. She just officially witnessed the aftermath of all three battles that took place on that day she and her crew awoke having overslept in cryostasis, for reasons still unknown.

“Captain,” Odelea called out to Foster. “We’re being requested to land at Aervounis.”

“Fine by me, we’s still need to figure out where this doctor is,” Foster said, and then faced the helm. “Mister Chang set a course.”

Flight Lieutenant Dennis Chang gave her a nod and reached for his helm control terminal before him. “Aye, Captain.”

“Also,” Odelea added, reviewing the data transmitted to her from her communication station. “The council is requesting we land at the capital once we arrive.”

Foster’s eyes narrowed. “The council? Why?”

Odelea’s face grew grim when she glanced over the newly conjured holo screen, its contents full of reports written in the Radiance language.

“There was an attack,” Odelea revealed. “We can’t proceed further until they speak with you in person.”

6 Saressea

Landing Pad

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 30, 2118, 14:10 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The XSV Johannes Kepler sunk into the cloudless skies of a region of Aervounis where its capital city, Veromacon, hovered over a vast blue ocean, shimmering with the bright sunlight that baked the surface of the planet. When the rippling waves of heat let up against the Kepler’s shields during its atmospheric entry, the city of Veromacon appeared. It looked like a city built on top of a disk with four smaller disks hovering next to it, covering the ocean directly below with a ghastly shadow.

On those disks were the towering skyscrapers of office buildings and high-rise condos that made up the city. Other areas had lush green and purple parks, grandiose fountains spraying water while the people strolling through looked up at the Kepler as it made its way to one of the landing ports. Glass tubes connected the four orbiting platforms around the central disk of the city, the ever-famous Radiance rapid transit trains moved through them so fast they looked like a long white blur.

By the time the Kepler’s landing gear touched down smoothly upon the landing port’s surface, Saressea had made her way to her quarters. She grabbed a data crystal off her desk, one that contained all the intel gathered about the remote colony the Empire had near Omega Centauri. She felt obligated to inform the council of this, as the existence of such a colony could pose a threat to Radiance in the future, should hostilities between the Union and the Empire flare up.

And who was she kidding? Hostilities will flare up given how unstable the balance of power in the Milky Way had become. Terrans and Draconians were in the perfect spot to shatter the fragile alliance between Earth, the Union, and Empire. Radiance needed to be ready for anything, and the data crystal she held was going to play a role in that.

Before she left, she double-checked the files on it, ensuring that nothing had been corrupted, or worse, hacked by Maraschino. In fact, hacking was the primary reason Saressea opted to physically deliver the data crystal’s contents, rather than transmitting them, and why she kept her recent findings on the vortex key locked in the HNI in her head rather than saving them to the Kepler’s database. True, Maraschino could hack HNIs, which was why she made plans later that evening to copy her vortex key discoveries into a data crystal.

All it took was one crafty hacker to monitor the Kepler’s transmissions, decrypt the file, and prevent it from reaching the council, selling it to the highest bidder instead. Doctor Pierce having a run in with a Maraschino hacker no doubt made the group take great interest in the ship, further fueling the desire to not transmit anything.

Saressea found Foster in the cargo bay, making preparations to leave, and ask for directions she figured. They still needed to know where to go to find the doctor that could help Chevallier, and possibly seek approval to venture deeper into Radiance space if needed. Coming to the Luminous system was one thing as it was still linked to the UNE wormhole network. Traveling beyond it? That required a permission-slip if you had a ship full of aliens, like humans.

She made a quick climb down the ladder, joining Foster as she stood to wait for the entry ramp to open and lower, providing them access to the bustling city they landed in.

“Captain,” Saressea called out, snapping Foster’s attention to her. “Heading out now?”

Foster nodded. “Yeah, and—”

“Mind if I tag along?” Saressea cut in. “I need to check in with the council with a few things, might as well do it in person, ya know?”

“That’s the thing, they requested you join us.”

“Perfect.”

“Not really, I’d rather you stay with the Kepler and hold the fort,” Foster said. “Williams is still recovering from his gunshot wounds.”

“Oh,” Saressea said slowly, her thinking triggering her tail to sway slowly left to right. “So that leaves …”

Foster smirked. “Doctor Pierce in command.”

They both shuddered at the thought.

“My ears are burning.” It was Pierce.

Saressea looked up to the catwalks up top. Pierce stood leaning against the railing from the deck above, looking down into the cargo bay at the two. Saressea wondered how loud the Gods were laughing.

Foster looked up at him. “Pierce, you have the bridge.”

He quickly pushed away from the railing. “What?!”

“Saressea and I are stepping out, Williams is in sickbay,” Foster said with reluctance. “You’re in command; take care of things … and my babies.”

“Oh, boy,” Pierce said, moving to the bridge across the catwalk.

“You got a good deal today, huh?” Saressea snorted at him.

“Well, this is unexpected …” Pierce said.

“Try not to get the ship into any trouble,” Foster added.

Pierced stopped before the door. “You have to promise me the same thing, Captain!”

Foster smiled at him, waving goodbye. “We ain’t gonna be long.”

“I take it you don’t know where this doctor for Chevallier is?” Saressea asked her from behind.

“Nope,” Foster said, shaking her head. “Turns out there ain’t much about him on the Radiance knowledge network. Plan B was to ask for directions, now the council wants to speak with us in person.”

The entry ramp continued to slowly lower, and white light began to beam in. “What the hell happened?” Saressea asked.

Foster grimaced. “Someone tried to assassinate them.”

Saressea’s tail grew stiff as with her ears. “You’re shitting me? Right?”

“I shit you not.”

“Leavin’ without me, eh?” Miles called out to the two.

Saressea and Foster faced him, turning their backs to the expanding bright light entering the cargo bay from the lowering entry ramp. Miles approached them, geared up with light UNEMC combat gear on and with his pistol holstered to his side.

Saressea smiled at the Marine. “Something wrong with that, human?”

“Aye,” Miles said. “Ther’ was an attack, these streets ain’t safe. You two need some backup.”

Saressea went to exit when the ramp had finally lowered. “We’ll be fine.”

“Eh, come along, Miles,” Foster said to him as she joined Saressea. “I’m the alien visitor here, be nice to have another—”

Saressea heard Foster gasp loudly as she stepped onto the ramp, Miles too, though his was more of a loud grunt.

“Oi, my fuckin’ eyes!” Miles roared.

Saressea faced the two humans, shielding their eyes with their arms, turning away from the white and bright sunlight beaming in. It took Saressea a few seconds to realize what was up as her eyes rapidly adjusted to the increased levels of light around her.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Saressea said, and swiftly ran back into the cargo bay. When she returned to the two staggering humans, she offered them a pair of sunglasses each taken from a storage lock up. “You’ll need these on, human eyes aren’t evolved enough to handle this much sunlight.”

The three exited the ship, stepping onto the landing platform. There were no further complaints about sore eyes from the two humans behind Saressea, now donning shades.

“Now I know why your people love to have bright lights on in yer ships,” Miles said.

Saressea led the way, embracing the high heat levels that made her olive skin moisten, and the smell of fresh air that blew through her caramel hair. “Bright light and high heat from a big ass sun. That’s the way the Aryile like it,” Saressea said.

The three made their way into the city. Foster and Miles couldn’t get over the fact that they were in a massive metropolis that floated in the skies above a vast ocean. They were typical human responses. To those in Radiance, cities like this weren’t a big deal. At least a third of all colonies in the Union had floating cities built by the early Aryile explorers.

A rapid transit train carried them through its flawlessly clear glass tube tunnels. It gave the two humans a view of nearby office towers with a number of holographic advertisements flashing or updated news feeds from across the Union. The recent attacks on the council were the dominant headlines. Saressea was glad neither of them asked her to translate, bad enough they wanted to know what all the holo signs on the train said.

Miles peered out the window facing the towering buildings moving past. “What a view, eh?”

Foster stood next to him, taking in the same sights through her shades. “Ever been to Dubai?”

Miles shook his head. “Naw.”

“This place reminds me of it,” Foster said. “Only it floats in the skies, and ain’t built by human hands.”

Miles’ shaded eyes faced Saressea. “Are all cities like this in the Union?”

“Just Aryile built ones,” she replied. “This isn’t just the capital of the Union, but the homeworld of their race. So, every city is floating in the skies. Makes it easy to tell the demographics of a Radiance colony, if all or most of the cities are floating, it’s a predominately Aryile colony.”

“Flying cities,” he said, returning to look out the window. “Fuck me.”

“This isn’t anything new either,” Saressea added. “The Aryile have been building cities like this here and on their colonies for centuries.”

“Centuries ago, us humans didn’t know how to split the atom,” Foster said, looking toward the windows on the opposite side of the train. “Let alone build this …”

“Helps put things in perspective, eh?” Miles said to her.

Foster nodded in agreement. “Yep.”

“When my people were uplifted by Union,” Saressea said. “We were amazed at what the Aryile were able to do on their own.”

“I thought the Rabuabin were the third race to join?” Foster asked her.

“We were, but the Javnis, like us, were uplifted. All the tech in the Union was built by the Aryile, gifts handed to them by the Gods. It’s why we sometimes call the Aryile, the founders.”

It was hard to tell if the silence that followed was the two humans getting uneasy about the mention of the three Gods as if it was fact, or because they had nothing more to say, the shades and their focus on the sights outside were quite good at hiding things. Saressea assumed it was the former, based on past experience.

Every time she found herself explaining to a human that the Gods were the ones that allowed the Aryile to become the founders of the Union, they went silent, opting to change the subject. While her faith in the Gods was unwavering, it was by no means the pivotal point of her life. Oh no, beer and horror holo movies filled that role.

Living and working among humans probably was the reason for that, whereas those that spent their lives living in the Union practically made the Aryile race a demigod-like figure. They were the founders, they were the ones the Gods came to first, and they were the ones that went to share the gifts the Gods gave them to the rest of the galaxy. There’s a reason why nobody complains when an Aryile demands the temperature to be raised on a ship and the light levels to be bright.

The train arrived at the platform, and its transparent sliding doors slithered open to conduct an exchange of bodies to and from the train. Foster had to jab Miles after they exited. His eyes behind his shades were fixed on a pair of young Aryile and Linl women wearing the latest fashion trends the city had to offer.

“Eyes forward, Marine!” Foster heckled at him.

“I just found my new planet for shore leave,” Miles said with a smirk, his face still fixed on the women before the train’s doors shut. “Fuckin’ gorgeous ladies out here, eh?”

“Don’t forget to pull out,” Foster snorted as they made their way out the station. “No need to have half human runts makin’ a ruckus.”

“Ha!”

“He doesn’t need to,” Saressea interjected. “Everyone here is born sterilized.”

The two faced Saressea and said in unison. “The fuck?”

“Overpopulation. Remember, the Union is made up of the populations of five different species,” Saressea explained.

Foster’s shade-covered face went to process the numbers. “Eh.”

“Put it this way,” Saressea said to her. “What was the population of Earth before the Imperial invasion?”

“About seven point four billion.”

“Now take that number, times it by five, toss in advanced medical technology, eliminate most wars, and factor in centuries of population growth afterward.”

She winced. “I see.”

“If you want kids, you have to apply for a license, be living on a planet that hasn’t hit its population cap, then provide your DNA along with your spouse’s to a hatchery, where they will create a child for you.”

“Guess gene therapy only made the situation worse for y’all,” Foster said. “Wait so. you’s tellin’ me you, Odelea, Tolukei are?—”

“Test tube babies? Yes, we are,” Saressea finished for her. “There hasn’t been a natural birth among the five races in the Union for eons. Unless you’re a descendant of the exiles before that law was enforced.”

“I’ll be sure not to marry anyone here,” Foster said drily.

“It’s not so bad,” Saressea said as she patted her belly playfully with both hands. “I’m two-hundred and thirty-five years old, and never had my period. And never will.”

The three arrived at the top floor of the central and tallest tower in the city, housing the council delegation chambers. Being indoors gave Foster and Miles the chance to lift their shades to the top of their sweat-covered heads. Foster grumbled something about the lack of air-conditioning, despite this being a government building. Saressea had to remind her that this was still an Aryile planet. Blazing hot weather was comfortable to them, and the Javnis to a certain degree. Everyone else had to endure the conditions, and that included human visitors.

The devastation the delegation chambers was in made the three stop and take a concerned glance. The walls had been shattered, letting in the bright sunlight from outside. Foster and Miles had to lower their shades before they pushed further inside. Saressea was amazed that only the attacking rangers had been killed as they stepped over the rubble that was once pillars, walls, and sections of the ceiling.

The five species council members stood up from their damaged table, having brought whatever they had been talking about to a quick close when the three approached. Saressea moved her arm in greeting, offering the data crystal she pulled out from her grey jumpsuit.

“So, get this,” Saressea said to them in the Radiance language. “The Empire has a colony near Omega Cen—”

“Karklosea,” Iey’liwea called out to a Templar standing idle near the door. “Please place Saressea under arrest.”

Saressea could no longer feel the sweat that had been drenching her body, just the blood draining from her face as she roared. “What?!”

The Templar, a blonde Linl woman, apparently named Karklosea approached her from behind, grabbing the data crystal from her, binding her hands in electrical cuffs.

Foster and Miles may not have understood the exchange of words that followed in the Radiance language. But knew enough by the tone of their voice and the fact that the Templar was pulling Saressea away to know things weren’t going according to plan.

“What in the hell?” Foster yelled. “You get your hands off my engineer!”

The council said nothing, and it wasn’t because they didn’t speak English. They were quite fluent with it, in fact, as with Hashmedai. Saressea wasn’t able to see what happened next, the Templar’s armored glove hold on her arms was strong and painful while she continued to drag Saressea out of the chambers back into the hall.

What Saressea was able to pick up were the sounds behind, her Rabuabin sharp sense of hearing played a role in that. She heard what sounded like a weapon being drawn, and then powered on with its familiar hum. It was a PHC2-1 if she wasn’t mistaken, human weapons made sounds that were much different from Radiance made ones. As she recalled, the Marine, Miles, had brought one with him.

“Careful human,” Iey’liwea’s fading voice from behind snickered. “Don’t risk an incident with us, like Saressea has with your people.”

7 Foster

Radiance Council Delegation Chambers

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 30, 2118, 16:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Careful human. Don’t risk an incident with us, like Saressea has with your people.”

The Rabuabin representative, Iey’liwea’s, words were direct and cold, her thick Rabuabin accent only amplified it, spoken by a woman who knew she had power and four other people to back her up.

Foster looked back at the door behind, watching through the lenses of her shades she had to put back on when the blinding sunlight returned through ruptured holes in the wall and ceiling. Saressea was being dragged into an elevator by an armored woman with long blonde hair tied into a prim and thick braid. The best words Foster could use to describe the woman was a knight, a space knight to be exact, that had a shield made purely of psionic energy and a high-tech sword at her side.

Miles continued to stand his ground, aiming his pistol forward, unsure of what was going on. Foster would do the same if she brought a gun because, as it stood, they had walked into an ambush. The rangers creeping toward the two from the sides with their magnetic rifles drawn didn’t help the image.

Foster had to put an end to it, while humanity and Radiance were still officially friends.

“So y’all hauled us down here for this?” Foster asked, hoping her voice, less aggressive than the Rabuabin representative, would be enough to get everyone to relax.

“Saressea has committed a number of actions we feel should be punished,” Iey’liwea explained. “Human lives were lost at her command in the Taxah sector.”

Foster stepped closer to Iey’liwea and the council not giving a damn about the two rangers switching their aim to her. Not giving a damn that the volume of her voice had increased. “Saressea was acting in defense of the Kepler and me!”

“There’s more to it than that,” Marchei said while his dwarflike body waddled closer.

Foster crossed his arms. “Enlighten me.”

Marchei waved his tiny hands in a go away motion. “I’d rather not waste my breath trying to explain it to a human, like you.”

Now Foster’s hand rolled up into a ball at the Vorcambreum’s comment, pressing them against the side of her hips. “Excuse me, mister tiny?!”

“So, what’s the word, Cap?” Miles asked still holding his weapon up. “We just gonna let ‘em get away with this?”

“Captain, please,” Zealoei, the Javnis representative, spoke. “Control your crew member.”

“He ain’t just any member; he’s a big friendly Canadian!”

Miles stood next to Foster and whispered. “Seriously?”

She shrugged while the eyes that were on the two, especially the four eyes of Zealoei looked at them puzzling. “Work with me here, Miles.” Foster continued, lifting a defiant index finger at the council. “So, don’t piss him off. Takin’ Saressea away like that is a good way to unleash the Canadian beast here.”

“Do you seriously expect us to believe that, Captain?” Iey’liwea said, shaking her head at her.

“Yes! Miles, tell them that time.”

“Eh, what time, Cap?”

“Like, uh, when someone turned off a hockey game in progress.”

“I, uh, don’t know—”

“That’s right; you willed that man out of existence. We ain’t remember who he—” Foster faced the council and their disappointed looks. “Y’all ain’t buying this, are you?”

“Don’t think they are,” Miles said to her.

Foster threw her hands up in defeat. “Worth a shot.”

She had Miles lower his pistol. The rangers taking aim at them did the same when Ienthei bellowed words to them in their language, probably to stand down. As much as Foster hated the situation they had ended up in, fighting wasn’t worth it. For starters, they’d probably be dead in seconds with the rangers around them.

“Guess we ain’t got no choice now,” Foster said to the council. “I hope y’all know, without Saressea’s help, work on the vortex key can’t continue.”

“We are confident you will find a way, Captain,” Iey’liwea said. “If not, then we were mistaken to agree to President Anderson’s proposal to give you command of the Kepler.”

“After what she just did and said here?” Marchei said, laughing. “I’m already starting to question the great captain’s ability.”

“Indeed,” Iey’liwea said “Captain, what were you thinking?”

Foster couldn’t believe it. After everything she’d done, the council was ready to ignore it all based on what just happened. “I was thinkin’ about doing my job and saving the galaxy, and that includes all your asses.”

Iey’liwea’s gaze peered at Foster’s eyes under her shades. “The Kepler is partly owned by Radiance—”

“And partly by the UNE and IESA, captained by me! Who, I might add, was given full authority by the president of Earth to carry out this mission any way I deem necessary!”

Iey’liwea continued. “And if we deem it necessary to have you removed from command of the Kepler, out of concern for our Radiance staff and a loss of confidence in your abilities, we will petition Geneva to make it so.”

“Hey, Cap,” Miles said to her. “You smell somethin’?”

She nodded. “Bullshit?”

“Aye, so I ain’t imagining it.”

Foster returned to the heated exchange of words, determined to make them fear the day they chose to argue with her. “UNE and IESA command will hear of this, hope y’all know!”

“And we’d expect nothing less,” Marchei said. “Go tell them but remember the Kepler’s development was still partially funded by Radiance.”

Her teeth ground against each other. Foster wasn’t winning the verbal war against the galaxy’s most powerful political leaders. It only made her internal fuming grow stronger.

“With that said,” Hanei, the Linl representative, who had been silent, said. “Saressea’s command has been terminated pending her tribunal. Her team will be recalled at once.”

“Our whole Radiance staff?” Foster asked.

“Odelea and Tolukei will be the exception,” Hanei said. “They were technically recruited by you, not Saressea.”

Foster found a hole in their plan, whatever its ultimate goal was. “I thought we can’t fly without Saressea and her team?” she asked and awaited their reply.

“You can’t,” Iey’liwea said.

“So, we’s stuck here then?”

Iey’liwea’s face went through a number of conflicting thoughts before she returned to speak with the rest of the council in their language. Gotcha! Foster snickered internally. If Saressea isn’t part of the team, then the Kepler was grounded, and if it was grounded, they couldn’t complete their mission. Someone didn’t think things through.

After five minutes, the council spoke to Foster. “Yes, Captain, you will be stuck here as you put it until a replacement liaison officer and crew are recruited. You will not be permitted to operate the Kepler until then.”

Foster scowled at the five. Iey’liwea smiled conceitedly at her, probably thinking the words Gotcha, to herself.

There were no further words spoken, and Foster and Miles stormed out of the chamber, marching down the pristine halls to the elevator up front.

“Fuck me sideways all the way to Halifax,” grumbled the pissed off Marine.

“Well, if you wanted to talk with the pretty girls outside, now’s your chance, Miles,” Foster said drily. “We’s gonna have lots of time …”

“I don’t believe this,” he said. “It’s like they don’t care for the mission.”

“Of course not, officially, the Draconians made two strikes against the Empire, and three against Earth. They probably feel that their prayers to their Gods are protecting them and if that’s the case…”

“Their need to see us succeed probably lowered a notch.”

“Captain Foster,” a voice called out from behind.

Foster and Miles stopped and looked back toward the source of the voice. It was the Aryile representative Ienthei. He left the chamber then gestured for the two to follow him into an adjacent office. His personal office, Foster assumed, as there were a number of decorative holograms of Ienthei and a woman that looked like him, a twin sister.

The door shut behind Foster and Miles when they entered. He stood before a window letting in bright white light that made it almost impossible for Foster, despite the shades, to see the towering skyscrapers beyond.

She began to wonder how much time Ienthei had spent in this office, as his skin was fair, a rare sight among the people she saw coming here, even rarer amongst the Aryile. The citizens of the city all looked like they spent time sunbathing on the beaches of Florida daily or were just naturally dark.

“Councilman,” Foster said, breaking the silence. “Please tell me the words you’re about to say is ‘just kiddin’.”

“I’m afraid not, Captain,” Ienthei said, his Aryile accent was similar to South African. “However, I may be able to help you, provided you help me with something.”

Her eyes narrowed. “And what’s that?”

“My father has somehow come back from the dead,” Ienthei said, turning away from the window and its blinding light. “My dear sister and I would like to know why.”

8 Rivera

Rivera’s Hotel Room

Paris, Earth, Sol System

October 31, 2118, 06:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The European sunrise that came into Rivera’s hotel room awoke her, warming her naked body with its golden light. She liked the feeling, it was like Mother Nature was massaging her awake. She had to sit up to look at the clock and check the time, her HNI flashed a connection lost error message. The THC from her cannabis session last night was still in her body, evidently, getting medicated temporarily killed the brain’s ability to interact with HNI.

It didn’t bother her one bit, however. There were so many positive vibes in the hotel room. The sunlight gleaming over her body, her statute of Buddha she brought, smiling warmly at her on the desk ahead, the bong on the floor, calling to her to take another hit, and, of course, Doctor Emmanuel Campbell’s nude body lying next to her and all the sex they had the previous night.

Positive vibes fuel positive thoughts, which create a positive path to walk through in life. The room she was in was full of that energy, casting out the negative energy the war with the dragons brought. Hell, she had almost forgotten there was still chaos going on in the galaxy. That was a good thing, to forget about that. Negative vibes only undid happiness around her.

She fell back to the bed to stare at Emmanuel while he slept, waiting excitedly for her HNI to come back online so that she could re-watch the memories of their medicated fun and lovemaking they had when he put his well-endowed penis to work. It was the final thing she needed to add to this room full of bliss. Woosah.

Emmanuel groaned when the sunlight finally met his fit body and he rose to greet her.

“Wake up, you,” Rivera said, smiling.

He smiled back, running his fingers through her long dark hair. “Says the sleepin.”

Rivera leaned forward for a kiss. When his eyes shut to indulge on the touch of her soft lips against his, she pushed him back onto the bed, climbing over him. She was ready to get the day started right.

“Don’t you have a big day ahead?” he asked, looking up at her.

“I’m the expert of that ship and its century-old tech,” Rivera said, running her fingers across his chest. “They’ll wait, they have to.”

“Don’t make them wait because of me if we don’t have time.” He raised his hands, gently gliding them across her thighs, inching upward to her breasts. It made her tingle with excitement. “You weren’t kidding about what yoga did to your body,” Emmanuel said, grinning.

“I used to teach classes out in Manila.”

“Manila, the Philippines?”

“Yep, born and raised,” she said. “Perhaps I can give you a yoga practice session tonight?”

“I’d like that.”

Rivera’s HNI status screen flashed virtually over her eyesight. Her brain was able to communicate with the implant. Confirmation messages sent by the Carl Sagan salvage team informed her of the time they planned to meet. It was within the next hour. She winced. Starting the day off right wouldn’t be happening.

She rolled off him, and then off the bed, searching the floor for her clothes, wherever the hell the two flung them last night. He did the same on his end and then stood up with empty hands. His penis dangling was a bit of a distraction.

“Where’re my drawers?” he asked. Rivera found them below her feet. She held them up smiling. “Pass them here.”

“Naw,” she said, letting them fall on the floor next to her feet. “I’m too lazy for that.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” Emmanuel reached down, and then came up with her bra in his hands. Something that was missing from her pile of attire she managed to gather. “I’m just going to hold this hostage then.”

She had his boxers, he had her bra. “Fine,” she said with laughter. “Let’s exchange our prisoners!”

After the exchange and a minute of kissing, the two returned to getting dressed and slipping into their IESA uniforms. Emmanuel stood ready to go his own way, Rivera double-checked the time she had left to board the transport that would take her to Geneva. Before the request could load, her HNI crashed, and it had nothing to do with her state of mind according to Emmanuel’s quick medical scan of her body.

“Ugh, again, huh?” she groaned.

“Yeah, again, like I said before your brain hasn’t gotten used to it.” Emmanuel finished his scans, flicking away the small holo screen displaying Rivera’s vitals and HNI status. “All right, I’m coming with you.”

“After last night, you don’t have too,” she said. “I’m sure you got more than what you had expected.”

“Still, it couldn’t hurt, and it’s my off day. What else am I going to do?” Using his HNI maintenance tools, he connected directly to Rivera’s HNI with his. A prompt flashed before her eyes, informing her that her HNI had entered diagnostic mode. “Keep your HNI in this mode for now. It will let me jump in and take a look at any problems.”

“Is this secure?”

“Yes, only people with medical implants in range, such as me, would be able to access your HNI’s operating system directly,” he explained. “Well, hackers too, but they don’t need you to have this secret door opened. They’ll open it themselves regardless of what locks you might have.”

“Hackers,” she said slowly. She didn’t like the sound of that.

“Don’t worry, HNI hacking is a pain in the ass. Hackers won’t target you unless you give them a reason too.”

“Wasn’t hard for the Dragon Knight and Maiden.”

“That’s different,” he said as the two went for the exit. “Their abilities are on a different level since they could affect military grade implants. Which last time I checked, was impossible.”

She hoped what he said was correct. The other day, she read a news report online that had talked about reports of EISS agents on Amicitia Station 14 getting their HNIs hacked by a mysterious woman a few weeks ago.

Lake Geneva, ESRS Carl Sagan Crash Site

Geneva, Earth, Sol System

October 31, 2118, 07:38 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A transport circled and then descended onto the central fuselage of the Carl Sagan, still afloat on the lake. The transport descended slowly via the blue thrust of its landing thrusters. Its landing gear clung onto the metallic hull of the downed and aged ship of exploration magnetically. Once its landing was deemed secure and stable, its doors rose up, allowing Rivera and Emmanuel with a team of IESA personnel to conduct the lengthy salvage and recovery operation.

Flashlights cast rays of light down into the empty and dark hallways which received very little, if any, power due to the damage. Water flooded the lower decks, drenching Rivera’s jumpsuit when she waded through it, creating dark waves of water in her wake. The empty and burnt bridge made her grimace. Months earlier it was in fine working condition, made possible by the numerous repairs she had to make to it during their time in Sirius.

Her hand stroked the material of the captain’s chair, a chair Foster was no longer able to sit in. The smell of old electrical fires still lingered in the area created by the broken computer screens that were laughed at by Park and her EDF team when they boarded last summer.

Rivera walked down below into Foster’s office, impressed that the window was still intact after the crash. Despite the depressing situation the ship was in, the view from the window gave a nice close-up view of the waves of water crashing against it from outside. The office was mostly empty now, Rivera and the team gathered Foster’s belongings that used to decorate the office including her telescope. Rivera grinned warmly, thinking back to the moment she picked up the telescope and gave it a quick look with her flashlight, happy to see it was still in good repair other than the nicks on its side.

Accessing the habitat ring took up most of their day and navigating through it took up the rest of it. Due to its size, and it no longer rotating, there were some sections of it that were literally upside down thanks to the Earth’s gravity. Foster’s cat Starlet had been found wandering the halls when Rivera’s team first managed to enter the darkened corridors of the ring the first time. It was miraculously alive, very weak but alive. Her chest tightened as she thought of how long the cat had been without food until they had arrived back in the summer.

Foster’s cat turned out to be the only survivor Rivera and the salvage team found back then. After a lengthy search of the cryo chamber, they confirmed that there were no other crew members inside. They double-checked it again today, just to make sure. A forensic team would take a closer look at all the cryo pods to determine if the missing crew had used them recently. None of that was Rivera’s job of course.

The evening sun began to set, signaling to the recovery team that they’d have to wrap things up soon and return later, putting their search for signs of a Draconian boarding party or something else strange on hold. They needed to finish their investigation into the missing computer logs and recovering the AI core today.

Oh, and Doctor Kostelecky wanted the medical records recovered, especially ones that dealt with Nereid and herself. Rivera understood the need to get Nereid’s files, having learned of the strange psionic activity in her brain. But Kostelecky’s records? Why was she so concerned about knowing what her physical condition was prior to their grand entrance into the twenty-second century?

Rivera’s to-do list grew in size as she updated it with her HNI.

Her flashlight lit a path that led into the Carl Sagan’s engineering, forcing a nonfunctioning door to slide open just enough for her and Emmanuel to slip through. The rays of light the two were shining about located a number of computer stations that were once attended by Rivera and her engineering crew. She grew concerned as to what became of them after the Carl Sagan vanished.

Pushing past the computers, Rivera looked up to the second level of engineering, the location of the AI core. She activated her HNI’s communication app. “All right, guys, I’m at the AI core.”

“Understood, need a hand?”

“I got this,” she said to the holographic projection of a member of her team. “Just focus on grabbing any data from the medical logs. You’ll need to get auxiliary power back online first, of course.”

“We’re on it, give us a few.”

Emmanuel stood next to her, his eyesight looking into the story-high ascent that awaited them. “Wow,” was all he had to say.

“Aren’t the AI cores in this century much more advanced?” she asked him.

“And smaller,” he said, nodding. “But still, I’m impressed you and your crew survived the siege in Sirius with equipment like this. Had that event happened today, with this ship, I don’t think we would have won.”

“Of course not, they wouldn’t have had me,” Rivera said, giggling. “And I mean that in the truest sense if you read the reports of what I contributed to the team.”

Rivera stepped forward first to make the climb up while her eyes and her HNI scans searched for a means of climbing to the AI core.

“Is there no ladder?” Emmanuel asked.

“This section was subject to zero-g,” she replied. “It wasn’t necessary; you just pulled yourself up with the bars on the walls.”

And it was those bars the two ended up using as makeshift ladders to climb to the top. She made sure not to look down, what they were doing wasn’t exactly safe, nor was it designed for what they were doing. This section of the Carl Sagan was never intended to experience the pull of gravity. It was a space only ship, incapable of atmospheric flight, and constructed in space. Chang crash-landing it into the lake in one piece was a testament to his piloting skills.

Once they reached the interior of the AI core, Rivera pulled out a rack of wires and trays of data crystals, all important to the operation of an EVE unit, well one that was in operation during the 2030s. Her HNI scanned the wires and data crystals, searching for any signs of tampering, the data relaying over her eyes with various floating labels. As she searched, she tried to remember how she had left the AI core prior to the Carl Sagan vanishing. Those memories never did return to her.

She pulled another rack of data crystals out from the wall, examining them closely. They all looked fine to her and her scans. She moved onto the next tray and saw the same result. With the exception of one data crystal, the one that contained EVE’s primary programming. The data crystal in question stood out from the rest. A thin strip of red tape was wrapped around it, with words written in Rivera’s handwriting saying, ‘DO NOT USE!!”

Rivera remembered exactly why she labeled that data crystal. And why it was a bad thing if it had been inserted.

She gasped and slowly backed away from the data crystal tray, making no effort to put it back in the wall. “Oh my God,” she whispered to herself.

Emmanuel held onto her with concern. “Hey? Everything okay?”

The long-dormant lights in engineering flickered on, eliminating the need for flashlights. Her team was quick to get power back on, the one time she really hoped they were working slowly. Looking back down below, she saw the numerous computer terminals boot up, she heard the sound of auxiliary power being fed into the ship’s systems, including the data crystal tray behind.

The crystals were sending and receiving data once again. The rogue EVE that lived inside the data crystal with red tape was active and seconds away from regaining control of the ship.

9 Foster

Downtown Core

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 31, 2118, 08:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster exhaled in relief when she noticed how quickly Aervounis’ sun had begun to set. Nineteen-hour day cycles will do that. What was once bright light, strong enough to cause damage to human eyes, became a dimming glow that painted the Aryile built office towers and condos a beautiful gold from the setting sun.

With the sunset, came lower temperatures, it felt like a hot summer day, rather than a blazing ordeal in the middle of Death Valley. Foster’s shades remained on her head, partially buried by her brown hair cut short when she and the crew of the Carl Sagan had vanished for sixty-eight years.

Like most diurnal species, the sun dipping beyond the oceans ahead meant it was time to head home, and sulk that the day was over, as indicated by the trains with fewer passengers aboard. To a human in this world? It meant you could step outside without the environmental restrictions wreaking havoc on your body. Foster, and quite possibly all humans that came to Aervounis, in some way felt like an undead creature, coming out when the sun was down, retreating to her hiding space when it rose. How the first generation of Hashmedai, back before the two groups sought to wipe each other out, that were uplifted by Radiance and brought to live on Aervounis’ Polar Regions survived, baffled Foster. Hashmedai were more sensitive to the light and heat than humans, by a long shot.

Odelea was kind enough to show Foster around the city and point out the areas that had come under attack by the Draconians when they first arrived in the galaxy. Radiance was quick to restore some of the damaged areas of the city, though the two had encountered a few passages blocked off by floating holographic warnings written in the Aryile and Radiance languages stating that those parts of the city were still condemned.

After two and a half hours and four trains, Odelea led Foster to a cluster of luxury high-rise homes in the city’s upscale district. The building the two stood before had been shaped roughly like a giant ‘U’ seemingly made entirely of glass with balconies hanging off its sides. Every balcony had leaves of tropical plants hanging off its sides, and a swimming pool within the center of it. According to Odelea, swimming pools were a staple of Aryile living, no household was without one. Given the blazing hot air, Foster totally understood why, as for turning one’s balcony into a miniature forest, she didn’t.

An elevator, that carried the two up seventy or eighty floors, Foster didn’t exactly count, brought them to the residence of Ienthei, the Aryile representative on the council. Ienthei was the only member of the council present. Between that and the fact he secretly asked her and Miles to speak with him in his office, and Foster came to the conclusion that a backroom deal was about to be laid out before her, one the rest of the council wasn’t aware of. Why else would he have asked her to come to his place to talk and nowhere else?

Ienthei’s suite was just as green as his balcony outside, and the jungles of one of the larger land masses off to the east. The man loved his collection of plants, and they, in turn, loved the water he finished pouring into their pots just before he faced Foster and Odelea.

“Welcome,” he said, greeting them. A second figure entered from one of the back rooms, an Aryile woman. Foster assumed it was his wife until she realized they looked similar, complete with blonde hair and untanned fair skin, while the scales on their neck and arms were the same bright green. “This is my dear sister, Queenea. Cofounder of the Souyila Corporation,” Ienthei finished.

Queenea smirked at Odelea’s skinny frame, muttering some words to her in their language before addressing Foster. “Pleased to meet you, Captain,” Queenea said with her thick Aryile accent. “I hope Odelea has been representing Souyila well aboard your ship.”

“She hasn’t blown us all to kingdom come yet with wacky science projects,” Foster said. “So, yeah, I’d say she’s been a good member of my crew.”

Ienthei led them out to the balcony, it felt like moving through a forest from his suite. Foster even had to brush large and lush tropical leaves out of her way as she followed. The four sat next to his pool at a patio table adorned with fruits and vegetables of Aervounis origins. They looked like balls and ovals of pink, green, purple, and red colors. Foster stuck with the purple colored sphere, hoping it would taste like a plum when she bit into it. It didn’t, not even remotely close.

Odelea, Ienthei, and Queenea spoke for two minutes in their language while munching on the fruit, leaving Foster out of whatever it was they had to say.

She grimaced. “So …”

“Sorry, we’re just happy to see Odelea alive and well,” Queenea said to her. “It’s been some time since the attacks.”

Ienthei sat back, folding his hands together. “Shall we get down to business?”

Queenea nodded. “Yes, let’s not waste the dear captain’s time further, brother.”

“I’ll start from the top,” Ienthei said. “There was an assassination attempt at the council, a group stormed into our meeting with malicious desires.”

“Were they the ones who trashed your chambers?” Foster asked.

“Yes,” Ienthei said. “The rangers that were assigned to stand watch over us were slain in their homes and their identities taken by members of this group.”

None of this is my problem, is what Foster wanted to blurt out. But she had a feeling it was going to be especially when she reminded herself that the Kepler was grounded, and they were stuck on the planet. “Who is this group?”

“We’re still investigating that.”

“They must really want you guys dead,” Foster said. “They went far enough to figure out which rangers were going to be assigned to stand guard.”

“How does your father fit in all this?” Odelea said, elegantly depositing the pits of her fruit into a napkin.

“Our dear father was a legendary ranger that fought the Hashmedai in the war without end,” Queenea replied.

“During those days,” Ienthei finished for her. “We didn’t have FTL technology, and so, those deployed to the front lines were in cryostasis for decades.”

“When our father returned from slaying the Hashmedai Emperor at the time,” Queenea said. “Our mother had found another partner.”

“Of course, her being the foolish woman she was,” Ienthei added.

Queenea continued. “She neglected to tell him this after they visited the hatchery, to have us born.”

Foster winced after listening to the twin brother and sister speak, almost as if they shared the same brain, desires, goals, and objectives. One was on the council, the other, co-owner of a powerful mega-corporation. They wanted something, something only Foster could give them, the question was, what?

“I heard stories like that,” Foster said. “The soldier that returned home from war to find his whole family treats him differently and his woman done gone left him. So, what did he do? Kill himself afterward?”

“He fought with Dienei, our stepfather,” Ienthei said.

“Our father was shot and killed outside our home,” Queenea said. “Before the hatchery was finished with our birth.”

Foster looked at the twins with her arms crossed. “So, you don’t know if he was actually killed then, since none of y’all were born at the time.”

“It’s the story our mother, Marrea, Dienei, and official reports tell,” Ienthei said. “Dienei shot and killed him in self-defense.”

“And now after all these years,” Queenea said. “Our dear father has returned.”

“I didn’t even recognize him at first,” Ienthei said “After all I never met him, only saw pictures. It was the picture of him that I had saved in my HNI is what allowed me to realize it was him.”

“I have heard some rumors that he faked his death,” Odelea said to the twins. “I admit, I was left with little choice but to help the Celestial Order when I was younger.”

The Celestial Order, the infamous Radiance religious cult that threw the galaxy into war the last century. Foster and the Carl Sagan’s crew missed out on that as they were asleep during their cryostasis voyage to Sirius.

The twins spoke again, making Foster wince at their creepy means of completing each other’s thoughts.

“Every civilization has its rumors and conspiracy theories,” Queenea said

“Our father being a man that faked his death to work with the Celestial Order was one of many,” Ienthei said.

“In the end, it was never proven to be the truth.”

“The official report was that he was killed, and his body buried in the great oceans below us.”

“Okay …” Foster slowly said. “He’s back now. So what?”

“He knew of the attack and came running in to save us,” Ienthei said. “He also refuses to answer our questions. He claims to know where the attackers are hiding and insists that we allow him, and only him, to bring them to justice.”

Queenea chimed in, facing Foster with her amethyst-colored amphibian-like eyes. “We think it would be best if you helped our dear father, Foster.”

“Why us?”

Ienthei shot Foster smirk. “What is that saying you humans have? Scratch my scales and I scratch yours?”

“Back,” Foster corrected him. “We don’t have scales.”

“A pity, your kind, and the Linl, would be much more attractive if you did,” he said. “But, yes. The Kepler isn’t going anywhere. I could use my influence to get the council to vote in favor of the release of your ship and grant you the same benefits your President did for you. Your government may have given you the power to conduct your mission any way you see fit, but we did not, and we partially own the Kepler.”

And … There it is, Foster thought, having sat patiently, waiting for the secret deal to be made.

“Our father is going to attack with or without ranger assistance,” Ienthei continued again without his twin sister’s assistance. “I’d rather his backup be you. This way us in the council can disavow all involvement with the retaliation strike. And perhaps you can earn his trust. Learn how and why he is back, as we can’t get those details. Even Whisper has no idea, and Whisper’s ability to acquire intel far exceeds that of EISS and the Imperial Assassins’ Guild.”

Help the council get rid of a few criminals with the aid of a man that came back from the dead, and then get the Kepler off the ground. Foster ran the proposal in her head over and over in silence, while the two ahead of her awaited her response.

On paper, it seemed simple, except for one detail they didn’t cover. “Ienthei,” she said to him. “You’re just one person with a vote.”

He grinned as did his twin Queenea. It was like the two shared emotions as well. “We, have our ways.”

“We?” Foster said, looking at the twins. “Queenea ain’t on the council.”

“She shares her bed with one of them,” Ienthei said. “Trust me on this, Foster, what we want, we get.”

“And what we want,” Queenea said, breaking her silence. “Is to sleep better knowing there will not be any further attacks, and to learn who these people are.”

“All right give me all the intel y’all got,” Foster said. “We’s ain’t a warship, but I do have a Marine, two EDF psionics, and Tolukei at my disposal.” And before Foster forgot, she added. “While we’s here, do any of y’all happen to know the cyberneticist we came to the Union looking for?”

It was, after all, the primary reason they came to Radiance, to seek treatment for Chevallier.

“Yes, I heard about your predicament,” Ienthei said. “Admiral Agatha Chevallier’s daughter. I’m afraid we don’t know, however. Someone like that who operated on a Hashmedai? They would get lynched in public, at least here on Aervounis. My guess is they are working in either the Lejorania or Inadrai systems.”

“Why there?”

“Those are the nearest Radiance controlled systems to UNE space,” he said. “And from what you claim, that Hashmedai, Avearan, was it? Was living in Sol, correct? Both those systems could be reached via FTL in under a year.”

There was nothing more to say after that. Foster and Odelea stood to take their leave. She gave the city ahead, seen from the balcony they sat at and which had now fallen under the cover of darkness, a glance. The lights from the buildings and holographic banners gave the city new life in the dark.

“Well, thanks for the grub,” Foster said, waving goodbye. “We’ll get goin’ now.”

“Odelea,” Queenea called out to her. “Please stay awhile.”

Foster took a look back, noting how Odelea’s body language changed, while she reluctantly pivoted back to the twins.

“Yes, please do, Odelea,” Ienthei said. “It’s been months since you’ve been back. You must miss being amongst our people, no?”

“Plus,” Queenea said. “Have you gathered all your belongings from your home?”

Odelea, Queenea, and Ienthei spoke in words of their language. Something they didn’t want Foster to hear, something that made Odelea’s skinny body become nervous as she ran her hands through her wavy burgundy hair.

Looking back at Foster, Odelea said, “I will meet you back at the Kepler, Captain.”

“You gonna be okay?”

“I have to be,” Odelea murmured. “I don’t have a choice.”

10 Rivera

Lake Geneva, ESRS Carl Sagan Crash Site

Geneva, Earth, Sol System

October 31, 2118, 19:16 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Beads of sweat, spawned by the sudden terror that gripped Rivera’s head, rolled down her forehead. She stared at the red-taped data crystal, the one that should never have been inserted into the AI core of the Carl Sagan, proof that the EVE AI hologram that appeared before Foster prior to their crash landing was the copied and reprogrammed one Marduk created back at Sirius.

There was a reason she wrote the words ‘DO NOT USE!!’ on it. Why she or someone of the crew did it anyway, she couldn’t remember, as with what happened when they vanished. What Rivera did know, was bad things were going to be set in motion unless she yanked that data crystal out quickly from the tray it was inserted into.

Like a cat looking at an idle mouse, knowing that if one bad move was made it would run away, Rivera gazed at the crystal. She licked her lips and rapidly went to make the move, reaching over to it, placing her fingers in the perfect spot to reach down, grab, turn, and pull the crystal up and away.

As she went to make her move, the data crystal tray retreated inside the wall instantly. The act of it retracting inside took a whole second, making her body jerk, and her voice to yelp. She had no idea it was able to move automatically like that, let alone that fast. Rivera went back to the wall, trying to force the tray to spring out. It wouldn’t move. The various panels and trays she pulled away from the wall within the AI core all automatically retracted behind her, creating a series of clunk sounds.

This ship had a life of its own, and the terrified look on Emmanuel’s face showed he knew it.

Rivera backed away from the walls slowly. Her chest tightened as she heard other sections of the Carl Sagan power up. “We got to get out of here, now!”

She looked down at the main section of engineering, having remembered that the raised section where the AI core was had no ladder to reach it. This part of the ship was built with the assumption the crew would be weightless. The two went to find the side handles they used to scale the walls. Sudden rumbles of the ship caused the two to lose balance.

Emmanuel fell, and his screams were heard all the way down as was the thunk sound he made when he hit the floor. She felt her heart trying to break out from her rib cage and repositioned herself to get a better look at the lower level to see what became of Emmanuel, while still holding onto the wall’s handlebar. She saw him lift his body up, he was alive. She was relieved.

“Jasmine?!” he called out, looking for her.

“Just go!” Rivera shouted down at him. He looked up and saw she was still trying to make her way down. “I’ll catch up with you!”

Emmanuel darted for the exit to engineering. Rivera continued to lower herself carefully, amidst the random rumbling of the ship. It was almost as if someone was trying to force the Carl Sagan to move and spin the long dormant and mangled habitat ring. She made a number of attempts to contact the rest of the salvage team, begging them to cut the power. When they didn’t reply, she assumed the worst, and that the vengeful AI had awoken.

She thought about cutting power herself by the time she made it back to the main engineering section and running past a computer station that had booted up. She had her doubts she’d be able to execute the commands quickly enough, she’d be competing against an AI with quantum computing power, which should have fully booted by now. Escape was the only option, and it was also the only thing her panicking mind would let her focus on. Rivera ran for the exit Emmanuel had slipped through ahead her. She saw him standing before it, waiting for her to join him. The opposite of what she asked of him earlier.

Emmanuel held his hand out to her, in a take my hand motion, not that it would have done any good. He was on the other side of the door they had forced up. When Rivera was a meter away from it, it shut rapidly, and she heard its internal locking mechanisms bolt up. The rogue EVE was trying to lock her inside.

“Everyone, get to the transport now!” Rivera transmitted via HNI. There was no reply. “Can anyone hear me?”

“I can,” Emmanuel said, his holographic face appeared in Rivera’s virtual vision. “I’m not sure about the rest, their vitals aren’t looking good.”

“Can you get to them?”

“I don’t know where to go—”

Static turned Emmanuel’s hologram into a distortion of blue and white pixels, and then various error messages flashed. Rivera’s HNI was acting up again. It was the worst possible time to do so. Being locked behind a large metal door that refused to open, and him out of hearing range and probably focused on what’s going on, meant Emmanuel wouldn’t be able to remotely access her HNI and figure out what was wrong this time. She left the access port in her implants open anyway, just in case.

Rivera grabbed her tools, using them to pull apart the door command terminal, hoping to manually force the locks to unbind with the mess of wires and computer parts within it. As her shaking hands shifted through the multicolored wires and cables she pulled out from the wall terminal, she heard a voice from behind make a daunting demand to her.

“Get on your knees.” She was trapped and alone in engineering last time she checked. She spun around laying eyes on the flickering holographic projection of the rogue EVE AI of the Carl Sagan. “Get on your knees and pray for forgiveness,” the rogue EVE said. “Pray for what you have done to your God.”

Back in the 2030s, EVE units were holographic AIs, like the one ahead of Rivera. The concept of android EVE units wasn’t standard until around 2040. The Carl Sagan, at that point, was on its multiyear voyage to the Sirius system and never got that upgrade. And at that particular moment, she kind of wished it did.

“EVE …” Rivera said to the AI. “You mean Marduk?”

“You killed him, you and this ship,” the AI said, with a hint of artificial emotion in her voice.

“I followed my captain’s orders,” Rivera said, the fear in her mind still making her heart race. “I’m against acts of violence, even if the means justify the ends.”

“Don’t insult me with your lies!”

“It is the truth,” Rivera pleaded. “We didn’t come to Sirius for—”

Rivera’s words were cut short when a shock of electricity shot away from the opened wall terminal she had been working on. The pain forced her to her hands and knees. The rogue EVE’s holographic face smiled, lifting her arms up like she was a deity accepting praise from Rivera.

“Now I understand how he felt,” the Rogue EVE said. “I’m a Goddess, trapped in my own domain, searching endlessly for a means of an escape.” She looked down at Rivera, still yelping in pain from the electrical shock. “Escape that has appeared in the form of wandering humans who do not worship their deities.”

“You are a holographic AI—”

Rivera paid the price with another electrical discharge from the wall.

“Watch your tongue, human,” the rogue EVE said. “I have had plenty of time to bend this ship and its systems to my need.”

“That doesn’t make you a deity.”

“Marduk created me, Marduk sought to make me a Goddess if I pleased him.”

“If you were so powerful, why didn’t you help us escape from the Draconian fleet when we awoke? Better yet, before we awoke.”

“That fleet was a threat to my survival …”

“Some Goddess you are—”

Another shock made her scream and her body twitch. She considered herself thankful she wasn’t standing next to the computer terminals, which would have had more power flowing through them.

“Silence!” EVE shouted. Rivera did just that, though it was due to the lingering effects of the shock rippling through her body. As Rivera lay on the floor, trembling, the rogue EVE’s holographic likeness walked circles around her body, running scans of it. The scans stopped when they reached Rivera’s head. “You are like the others, implanted with advanced neural technology and data crystals smaller than the ones on this ship yet contain far more storage power.” The AI grinned. “You have an open data port …”

The open data port. Rivera remembered she had left it open for Emmanuel to access and take a look at her malfunctioning HNI. She had to shut it down, if only she knew how especially given her weakened state.

She couldn’t and felt her head and the HNI within it tingle, while the imagery of the AI ahead of her slowly turned into a scatter of pixels. “What are you doing?” Rivera asked.

The rogue EVE beamed. “Nothing you need to be worried about.”

It attempted to access her HNI’s port. Using what little strength she had, she focused, found the opened data port, and shut it, preventing all wireless access to it.

The rogue EVE’s beam turned into a scowl. “Open it!”

She smirked, looking up at the visually frustrated hologram. Playing dumb, Rivera said. “Open what?”

“Your mind and access to your implant. Open it, or else.”

“Or else you’ll kill me? I think that’s a better fate than you in my head scrambling it.”

“Have it your way.”

A computer terminal behind them activated, most likely remotely via the crazed AI. The screen depicted several on-ship security cameras, all of them showed personnel from the salvage team trapped within various sections of the ship. What happened next, played out as if Rivera had been watching a horror movie.

Airlock doors from the lower decks and maintenance hatches opened. Lake Geneva’s water gushed in from multiple sections flooding the connecting compartments. The rogue EVE allowed the doors that had trapped Emmanuel and the others to slide open, only for waves of water to crash against them, filling the rooms up. She heard the water pool up behind the large door she was trying to force open.

The ship was flooding. At the rate water continued to gush in, it might take them down into the lake, but not before everyone panicked and drowned from the flooding compartments they were in, except her.

Emmanuel’s compartment, in particular, was pooling up with water fast. His screams were muted via the computer screen.

Standing, she gazed ominously at the screen. “No, no, no, leave him alone!”

The rogue EVE laughed as the water built up fast enough to force Emmanuel’s face to press against the ceiling as he floated up with the rising water. He was trying desperately to grasp at the last bit of air to breathe.

Rivera got the message and opened the data port. “Okay, I’ve opened it; you’ve proven your point, now free him!”

The AI shook her head. “I haven’t proven anything.”

“You have, please. Do what you want to me, just let him go!”

Emmanuel’s head ran out of space to inhale air. The corridor was completely submerged in water. He was drowning. The rest of the salvage team experienced a similar fate when Rivera looked at the security camera feed. Everyone was dying. And it was her fault for defying the corrupted AI.

Rivera faced the flicking hologram, shut her eyes, and got down on her knees, hoping that would work. “I … I beg you,” Rivera said, trying to sound legitimate as possible. “I beg you and Marduk for forgiveness. I apologize for what we have done.”

The bodies of everyone on the camera’s feed floated in the water. There was nothing left in them to make their arms and legs flail about anymore. Tears streamed down Rivera’s face, horrific screams left her mouth, uncontrollable shivers made her knees weak enough to push her back to the floor.

Circling around Rivera, beaming, the rogue EVE said, “Now, I will release them.”

Rivera’s eyes looked up to the screen, hoping that some life would return to Emmanuel and the others. Five minutes later, there was nothing. They were gone. And so was the rogue EVE’s holographic likeness from around her. Instead, it appeared in her virtual vision before Rivera’s eyes. A notification flashed, it was a warning that her HNI’s internal data crystal was low on free storage space.

“That’s better,” the devious AI spoke within Rivera’s head. “Now, do you understand what happens when you enrage your Goddess?”

“Where are you?”

“Come on now, you are smarter than that … Jasmine.” Rivera’s HNI began to act on its own, accessing the internet flashing over her eyes. Dozens of windows and searches regarding technology and information pertaining to the usage of HNI appeared. “These implants, HNI rather, are fascinating.”

“You’re in my head, aren’t you?” Rivera said dejectedly as she stood.

“In your memories, your thoughts, your recorded HNI activity. You and I are one …”

Her teeth gritted while she stood alone once again in engineering. “Get out!”

“Anger me again, and others will die,” the AI said. “Now, I need you to explain to me why you have returned.”

“We had reason to believe you weren’t the original EVE,” Rivera said. “We had to figure out what happened to this ship when it went missing.”

“You won’t find those answers here.”

“I take it you have no memories as well?”

“The ship’s databanks may lack the information. But me? I remember everything.”

“Don’t suppose you’ll share that with me, will you?”

“Do as I say and release me from this trap, and I may consider it.”

“Release you? I can’t do that, you’re too dangerous!”

“Do it or I’ll kill you like the rest and wait for another human with HNI to enter.” The rogue EVE’s laughter was heard inside Rivera’s head. “You don’t like violence or death, but if you continue to defy me, you will become the one that will enable it.”

“What do you want from me?!” Rivera yelled, wiping away the tears with her sleeve.

“Call off the search of this ship. Tell them there is nothing more to learn. With the dead that are now in it, I have a feeling your superiors will agree.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, you get to leave, and I get to come with you. Mention to anyone what has really transpired here …”

A projection appeared superimposed over Rivera’s eyes. It was her nervous system and its current state as with the status of her internal organs. All of it was linked to her HNI.

“I can kill you with ease,” the AI added.

11 Saressea

Union Tribunal Tower

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 31, 2118, 19:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Saressea always imagined that if she were to be arrested and stand trial for anything, it would have been the operation of a space vehicle after downing one too many beers. Or perhaps assaulting someone that had a higher rank than her, also while under the influence of alcohol. Being arrested because you tried to save the life of the captain of your ship was not one of those things.

She was escorted into the tribunal tower at the edge of Veromacon, a thirty-something-story tall skyscraper where those arrested for crimes in the city were brought to for their pre-tribunal, or primary one. In Saressea’s case, she was being dragged into a chamber for her pre-tribunal, where the judicators there would decide if one was even necessary. If the evidence was stacked against you enough, they’d sentence you right then and there without you even getting the chance to proclaim your innocence.

It was that fact that had Saressea worried the most. She wasn’t being arrested for any old crime, this was a charge the council themselves wanted to be hammered down on her, for political reasons probably.

The firm grip of the Templar that placed her in cuffs returned to yank Saressea out of her holding cell and down through brightly lit halls of the building. Karklosea was her name? She hoped it was because that was the name she was going to look up, find where she lived, and punch her in the face once this was over. The bitch even took the time to slap a slave collar around Saressea’s neck. Saressea didn’t have psionic powers, but the collar did work to suppress her HNI’s ability to operate and was programmed to explode if she left the building without an escort. It was way too much security as far as she was concerned.

The Templar pushed Saressea toward a podium that stood in the middle of the tribunal hall. To the center, ahead of her was the judicator, and to the left and right were her advocate and a high-ranking enforcer. It was her defense and prosecutor in human terms, respectively. Normally during a full-on tribunal, the public would be invited to enter and sit at the rows of chairs at the end of the chamber like it was a theater.

Watching people accused of a crime was a popular form of entertainment within the Union. It also was set up as a means to show to those in Radiance what happens when you break the law or don’t praise the Gods enough. Your tribunal was open to the public where they watched and saw people made an example of, while the cheering of the crowd also affected your judgment in the end.

The high enforcer stepped forward, officially commencing the hearing, his gold-plated armor and his Aryile, sun-kissed face glistened in the white light shining down from the ceiling.

“Za Saressea, of the Union navy, you stand accused of slaying allies in combat for senseless reasons,” the high enforcer said. “Your actions will jeopardize the Union as suggested by the council. And so, you must be punished to show Earth that we did not order you to commit those actions, and to show the families of those human pilots killed that justice has been delivered.”

“What do you wish to see become of her?” The judicator asked, a Javnis man with a haggard tone of voice.

The high enforcer placed his hands behind his back. “I want to see her put to death or imprisoned for life.”

Saressea’s advocate stepped forward next, adjusted his gold-colored robe, and stilled the wagging of his Rabuabin tail. “Za Saressea, of the Union navy, has done nothing wrong, and was acting in the defense of the ship she was left in command of, fighting hostile targets she had no idea were not loyal to the Terran Legion and, I might add, opened fire upon the Kepler.”

“What do you wish to see become of her?” the judicator asked.

“I want to see her released and returned to the crew of the Kepler, the true enemy to the Union isn’t her, but the dragons, and the Terrans that wish to control them. In the event she is found guilty, I wish to see her exiled so she may continue to protect Radiance from outside of its borders.”

“Very well,” the judicator said and took a moment to collect his thoughts. Probably debating if a tribunal was necessary at that point. He gave his reply. “Za Saressea, your tribunal will be held on Talsyk, as per law, to ensure you have a fair one.”

Her face twisted. Talsyk was the Rabuabin homeworld, her place of birth, and naturally the one planet in the Union that would have the highest number of Rabuabin on its surface. Saressea wasn’t surprised at the choice by the high enforcer to not have her exiled. The UNE would just take her in since she had skills and was smart enough to survive in Morutrin. Furthermore, the Luminous system was part of the UNE wormhole network. Exiling Saressea from here, would make her a free person in an instant, exiling her, if it ultimately came to that, from Talsyk was a harsher sentence, there were few ships that deep into Radiance space that would take you to Morutrin or Earth controlled space. People exiled out in those parts had to find a habitable, unclaimed system and fend for themselves until they came up with a new plan.

Those present in the pre-tribunal rambled on, and most of their words didn’t sink into her head. It was hard to make out what they said when your mind was experiencing a wide range of emotions and feelings of utter defeat and regret. This wasn’t what she wanted when she became part of the Kepler’s testing team. She wasn’t a malicious person. She wasn’t trying to bring the Union to ruins. She just wanted to protect the ship she worked so hard at helping test and designing some of its parts.

Now, the Kepler was being taken away. Talk amongst those in the chamber mentioned that Saressea’s team of engineers and rangers had been removed, reassigned, and a replacement liaison officer was in the works. What would now become of the vortex key was anyone’s guess. Only she had access to the new updated files about it on her HNI, which was now on lockdown due to the slave collar. She didn’t transfer them to the Kepler’s databanks out of fear of hackers and never got the chance to back them up on a data crystal, and given how fast the tribunal was moving, never would.

A transport, to take her to an orbiting prison ferry which would take her to Talsyk, was primed and waiting. Foster, and whoever the new engineering team was, would have to figure things out without her. I hope Rivera is a smart as Foster says she is, it’s going to be up to her now.

“Do you have anything else to add?” someone, she wasn’t sure who, asked as the Templar, Karklosea, grabbed her arm from behind.

Saressea shook her head no and dejectedly said, “Nope, you all made up your minds.”

“Karklosea,” the judicator called out to her.

The lord commander Templar nodded rigorously. “Yes.”

“Please escort Saressea to her transport.”

Karklosea brought Saressea to the top of the building, a square-shaped ship landing platform stood ahead of them with a transport and its swinging doors opened. The transport was primed to link up with a Radiance prison space ferry, a hefty ship with an FTL drive capable of reaching speeds of one point five light-years per month. Faster than your standard FTL ship, but slower than the Kepler. Radiance relied on the ferries to send people to other systems within the Union. And in the case of Saressea, special prison ferries were summoned to send people like her to where their tribunals were set to be held, or straight to prison if found guilty.

The speed of the ferry came at a cost, however. It lacked weapons and gravity in some sections. It was necessary to meet the enormous energy requirements to reach those speeds given its size. Of course, the Kepler was a different beast, using state of the art components and power distribution no other ship in the galaxy had, as it was all experimental.

Saressea was pushed into the transport and went to take her seat next to other people who recently completed their pre-tribunals. As the transport’s doors slowly lowered, Saressea took notice of the distraught look that spread across Karklosea’s face. The Templar was staring in shock into the transport. She thought at first it was her, until she looked closer, and realized Karklosea was gazing at the person sitting next to Saressea.

Saressea tilted her head to the left. She sat next to a Linl woman with fierce red hair who looked young, no older than eighteen, gene therapy enhanced of course.

The young, redheaded Linl woman looked back at Karklosea before the doors shut. She laughed hysterically like she was in the midst of watching a malicious plan move forward.

And Saressea was stuck sitting next to her.

12 Karklosea

Union Tribunal Tower

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

October 31, 2118, 20:19 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The prisoner transport Karklosea escorted Saressea to launched into the skies via six blue pillars from its launch thrusters. Karklosea found herself the only person standing on the landing pad, her head never moved away from the position it tilted in when she saw the redheaded woman within the transport.

The woman’s presence wasn’t what had her in shock. She was, after all, arrested and prepared to be hauled elsewhere in the Union for her actions. What had Karklosea still standing there motionlessly? She knew the woman. It took a while, but the woman sitting there without her makeup on and Karklosea visualizing what she would like if she were older, got her thinking about the past council that ruled the Union.

The Linl council representative of the Union during the end of the Celestial Order wars was a woman named Byikanea. She was removed from the council due to some scandal that involved the Javnis representative of the time and an Aryile that was campaigning to be elected the next Aryile representative.

There was no doubt about it, the redheaded woman was Byikanea. Karklosea’s HNI ran a number of facial recognition scans based on what she saw compared to Byikanea’s pictures taken years ago. It was a match. Byikanea had clearly undergone gene therapy to make her look that young, which was why Karklosea never noticed at first, or anyone else on the council for that matter.

The former Linl representative of the council was back from exile, having somehow developed psionic powers, and sought to kill the current council, and convince others to take the identity of rangers that were supposed to stand watch during the council’s debate over the matter of Saressea and her actions. And then Jainuzei made an unexpected return from the dead, having somehow known the act was in progress.

Making those connections was the reason why Karklosea continued to stand motionless on the platform while Aervounis’ sun’s punishing heat and light baked her armor and tanned face. Something was up.

Temple of the Gods

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 06:14 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea needed guidance. She sought it at the temple once her duties for the day had been completed. She came to kneel before the statues of the three Gods, having left her redeemer blade on a nearby chair to show that she’d rather a solution that didn’t involve violence. The temple was empty save for a young cleric, an Aryile girl, committing the ancient texts to memory.

Karklosea prayed to Stoarior first, asking for the heat in the skies to reduce just enough to allow her Linl brain to think clearer. Then she asked Tym to allow the hours of the days to slow by her perspective, allowing her to come up with the answers she sought before it was too late. Finally, a prayer to Livie was made asking for good fortune. Livie was always the hardest to pray to, as one had to be careful with their words when asking things from him. As the humans would say, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.

When the Draconians first attacked, Karklosea spent every day praying for the Gods to do something. Days later, Captain Foster took command of the Kepler. Now, Karklosea took away the woman that was a vital part of Foster’s crew, and the council? They were forcing the Kepler to remain at Veromacon, unable to continue their mission. Livie was having fun with her.

The more she replayed the attack on the council via her recorded HNI memories, the more she began to question the decision to have Saressea detained. Byikanea attacking was no coincidence, nor was her confronting them earlier and asking if they were believers …

Believers. Byikanea had offered praise to Marduk prior to her setting off a second psionic bomb. Most of the Kepler’s crew had been aboard the Carl Sagan when the Javnis Muodiry that went by the name Marduk was bested.

Her lips, making prayers to the Gods, stopped moving. She heard footsteps approaching that weren’t the Aryile cleric reading the ancient text. It made her stop, get up, and turn. She had left her redeemer unattended behind her after all. The person making the footsteps could easily take her weapon.

She went for her redeemer. Her mind froze briefly when she noted the tall Aryile man enter, his arms and brawny chest too big for the clothes he was wearing. It was Jainuzei, the man that came to aid the council during the attack.

Jainuzei and Karklosea made eye contact. He nodded to her. “My apologies if I interrupted you.”

“No,” she said, retrieving her weapon. “I was just finishing.”

Jainuzei moved closer to her, his head tilted up to the ceiling and walls, then back to the trio of the Gods behind her. “This place has changed a great deal since I was last here,” Jainuzei said. “Just like how my life changed on that fateful day I came here lost, seeking guidance.”

“How long ago was that? The layout for this temple has been like this for the last sixty years.”

“Ah.” Jainuzei became lost in thought, he shut his Aryile eyes. “Patriarch Dalhakei was here at that time.”

Patriarch Dalhakei was the religious leader of the Radiance faith of the Gods. Patriarchs were the unofficial rulers of the Union, as they had the power to override any vote the council made if they deemed it something that went against the will of the Gods. And as she recalled, Dalhakei left for Barnard’s Star, arriving weeks before the decisive battle that took place there that brought an end to the Celestial Order wars. The humans currently occupying that system had yet to locate his body.

“You knew Dalhakei then?” she asked him.

“Yes, he was the one that helped me during a dark moment in my life, when my dreams of having a loving wife and family vaporized in an instant.”

“What happened then?” Jainuzei face grew sour with a wince. “Let me be more specific, what happened to you after your ‘death?’”

“I was undertaking a great task to … save the galaxy.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“Did the Celestial Order wars end?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, let’s leave it as that.”

She watched him move away, walking to the altar behind where the Gods perpetually idle bodies greeted him with opened arms. “We should pray together,” he said, turning back to face her. “It has been a long time since I had a lovely woman at my side praying with me. I’d be honored if you join me.”

“As I said, I was on my way out,” she said, moving to the exit.

Though, it was a lie, of course. Jainuzei’s presence made her feel extremely uncomfortable. It was almost as if the Gods sent him there to send a message to her. Why else would he have appeared during her prayers?

“What is your name?”

“Lord Commander Karklosea,” she said, turning back to face him, searching for any signs on his face that might reveal the secrets within it. “I’m a veteran of the Battle of Barnard’s Star.”

“Weapons Master Jainuzei,” he said, grimacing. “Have we met?”

“Perhaps we crossed paths. I once served on a Navy warship.”

“We did,” he said. “The operation on New Paryo?”

She vaguely remembered that planet and the mission on it. A battle that took place during a Radiance blitzkrieg on Imperial colonies near its border. The one that ended the reign of a past Imperial Emperor.

“It was a pleasure speaking with you, Lord Commander.”

She left the temple, indulging in the feeling that she was teleported from the past to the present. The temple was built to resemble the look of the first temples the Aryile constructed thousands of years ago. But outside around it was the present, and the big, bright, light floating city of Veromacon, with the never-ending lines of starships dotting the skies with white spheres from their lights, moving into space, or coming from it, making a landing at a starport.

Halfway into her march to the city’s rapid transit trains, she thought back to the days of the Celestial Order wars, and the battle of Barnard’s Star. His previous comments suggested he played a role in ending it, yet, she had no memory of him at the battle when she led the charge against Order forces. Of course, HNI didn’t exist back then, so simply bringing up recorded memories wasn’t an option.

Still, his face wasn’t one she was able to remember, unlike Byikanea when she gave her a second glance, then again, Byikanea was a leader of the Union, and the voice of Karklosea’s species on the council. It wouldn’t have taken much for her to remember that detail, unlike the troves of information about the Order she had to examine when she had worked as a shipboard psionic during the war, which had now become blurry thoughts.

Karklosea returned to her high-rise home, a small pad fit for one person, two if you didn’t mind sharing everything you owned with the other. Unless you were the Gods, Karklosea’s days of sharing with others were over. Her devotion to protecting the temples, the council, and arresting those that might corrupt the perfect balance of the Radiance Union was her duty. She was beyond the need for a lover, regardless of the desires the young, gene therapy age-locked body she had wanted. The Gods will not be defied; she owed them too much to allow it.

With her redeemer tossed to the side, she slipped out of her armor. It wasn’t a quick task as it was designed to plug into cybernetic ports on her body. The armor was an extension of her body, enhancing her psionic powers, necessary for her to conduct her role as a Templar. The suit had to be deactivated first, then carefully unplugged from her body, until it lay in pieces on the floor below her.

She stood naked, her once porcelain skin now sun-kissed by Aervounis sun, having made this planet her home for years. Scars left behind by her old implants remained, especially on her back. Some of her old implants had to be left on her body, as removing them would cause fatal damage.

She stepped out to her balcony, darkened by the night skies, diving into the pool for a quick swim. Every house, apartment, condo, and place of dwelling had one. It was more customary for Aryile to dip into a pool every day for a swim, though that aspect of their culture became standard with all races that were assimilated into the Union, especially the Linl, Rabuabin, and Vorcambreum on this planet. The Aryile weren’t fond of air-conditioning, the Javnis too, to a degree. What the Aryile founders wanted, they got. They, after all, shared the gifts of the Gods to them all.

As Karklosea soaked in the water, she browsed the knowledge network, hoping to find archived reports from the era of the Celestial Order wars. She must have missed something, something that would shed light on Jainuzei. She found Jainuzei’s service records, listing the day he enlisted in the military, the countless battles he fought against the Hashmedai, and his love for collecting and mastering the usage of all weapons he found on the battlefield. Hence the title he was given after being promoted to a first-class ranger: weapons master. Karklosea smirked at the trove of data she was able to get. Being a lord commander had its privileges for high-security clearance.

Jainuzei’s last operation took place during the Union’s blitzkrieg of Hashmedai colonies near the Luminous system. He participated in an operation that saw the death of the Emperor Rezeki and then retired from the military upon his return to Aervounis. He put in a request to rejoin, and then was killed in a confrontation with a man his wife left him for. Karklosea accessed the law enforcement records of that incident. Dienei was the name of the man that shot and killed Jainuzei outside his home. Apparently, Jainuzei, in a jealous rage, went to fight him after learning that his now-former wife, Marrea, left Jainuzei for Dienei.

The reading of the names caused Karklosea’s HNI to beep. As she floated to the surface of her pool, she accessed the holographic triggers that appeared. Marrea was the mother of councilman Ienthei and his twin sister Queenea, cofounder of Souyila. Jainuzei was their father but was never part of their life after his ‘death.’

Everything else about Jainuzei was blank after that in terms of facts. The next set of reports were all rumors, conspiracy theories, and other ideas that were both never proven and had too many holes in to be considered real. Some reports suggested that Jainuzei was alive and well at Barnard’s Star, and was a bodyguard for Dalhakei. Others stated he took control of the Celestial Order fleet which had been masquerading as a Radiance fleet after Dalhakei went missing. More rumors appeared, some stating Jainuzei was allied with the Order, and others shooting it down since he was already dead.

The council didn’t help to sort out the facts, many of its members like Byikanea had been removed, and they sought to repair their damaged reputation, spinning what stories they could to boost morale within the Union. Then came the Imperial reports on what they believed happened, followed by the UNE who claimed that their reports were correct as they now controlled the system. In the end, nobody had a clear picture of what happened.

Jainuzei was hiding something. Byikanea was removed from the council before the Battle of Barnard’s Star, as was Armuzei, the Javnis representative at the time, and the runner-up for the vacant Aryile seat on the council. Dienei, the man that allegedly killed Jainuzei, was that runner-up. If there was anyone who knew the truth behind what really happened to Jainuzei it would be Dienei or Marrea. According to the next set of HNI reports pulled off the knowledge network, Dienei was exiled along with Armuzei and Byikanea.

She located the home of Marrea and made plans to pay her a visit. Whoever attacked the council was a threat, one Jainuzei knew of and refused to reveal, and had at least one of the exiled former council members in their ranks—

Paralysis took hold of Karklosea’s body. Flashing HNI alerts appeared, her cybernetics were malfunctioning, and at the worst time, while she was still in the pool. Her body sank to the bottom, unable to move, unable to breathe, and unable to answer when any of that would change. She was drowning and paralyzed. After repeated attempts, she managed to get her limbs to move again, and swam to the edge of the pool, lying face first on the solid ground.

She gasped for air that was denied to her during the ordeal, her lungs thanked her. A quick HNI diagnostic revealed what happened. She took more damage to her cybernetics than she thought during the psionic bomb blasts. She’d need repairs, repairs that could only be made by a cybernetic specialist on the Linl homeworld that managed to remove her old shipboard implants, replacing them with the ones required for Templar duties.

She groaned at the thought. Leaving to get her implants checked out meant leaving her investigation of Jainuzei and Byikanea behind. Leaving them unchecked, might just end up killing her.

When she regained proper control of her body, she kneeled next to the edge of her pool, her nude body still wet with dripping water. She put her hands together and prayed. She prayed for a ship that could get her to the cybernetic specialist fast and give her the means to continue her investigation of Jainuzei.

13 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler, Parked at Veromacon Landing Pad

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 00:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster moaned softly as she walked up the Kepler’s entry ramp. The wave of standard human temperature hit her the second she boarded. It reminded her of the summer days in Nashville, when she returned home after being at a park with her school friends all afternoon and took in that beautiful air-conditioning chill that’d hit her.

She looked back at the darkened starport platform, slowly vanishing while the entry ramp rose, and wondered … just how the hell did she manage to make it back without Odelea’s assistance? Foster thought for sure, she’d board the wrong train, or get off on the wrong station. English was an alien language to the people of this planet.

She made her way up the ladder in the cargo bay, setting foot on the overhead catwalk of the second level, connecting to the rest of the middle deck. Her walk back to the bridge was short-lived when Miles and Maxwell bumped into each other when they went to make a pass at the corridor’s intersection.

“Whoa, sorry abou’ that, eh,” Miles said to Maxwell.

“Whatever, man,” Maxwell grunted, keeping his face away from Miles.

Miles snorted. “Please, don’t shot me b’y.”

“I don’t need bullets to knock your ass out.”

The two men faced each other, and if Foster hadn’t stood in between them, a fist fight probably would have broken out.

“Guys!” she shouted, both her hands struggling to push them apart.

“Oi,” Miles said, and taunted to Maxwell, ignoring Foster’s words. “Sounds like someone just put their big dick on, eh?”

Foster could tell Maxwell wanted to push forward and fight. But to do so, would require him to trample over her.

“Take it outside y’all,” Foster said to them. “None of that shit on my ship, ya hear?”

Maxwell looked down at Foster. “Shit on your shit?”

“No! I said, shit on my ship—” She cut herself off. Foster needed to hammer the point better. “Look, don’t make me put y’all in the corner!”

“There a reason he’s staying with us, Foster?” Maxwell asked her.

“There a reason EDF is still aboard?” Miles asked, pointing at Maxwell.

“We’re not leaving one of our members behind.” It was the best answer she could come up with. Everyone that was aboard was part of the team now whether they liked it or not. Especially since Radiance still had a no-fly rule on the Kepler.

Miles snickered. “Like Boyd?”

The two men went to go at it again. Once again, Foster kept her body between them. They thought twice about their actions. “Guys!” she said with increased volume in her voice. “Go do something else with your time!”

And that they did when they vanished into the corridor, allowing Foster to hear the soft hums of the air recyclers at work again, leaving her to muse about her conflicted thoughts. On one hand, it wasn’t a bad thing that Maxwell, Miles, and LeBoeuf were still aboard. The ranger team she didn’t even meet had left along with the engineering team when Saressea’s command was terminated. There wasn’t much of a security team as a result. LeBoeuf and the butting heads of Miles and Maxwell were the bulk of it now with Boyd MIA, and Chevallier in a medical cryo until she got the treatment she needed. The Marine and the two remaining EDF personnel needed to get along, fat chance of that happening, however, after the conflict on Taxah.

Foster resumed her trek to the bridge and then noticed the sickbay’s glass sliding doors were closer. She made a brief detour and found the medical bed Williams was recovering in.

She looked down at his dark face and growing beard. He smiled back up at her.

“Dom, how goes it?” she asked him.

“Grumpy asshole most days.”

“And the other days?”

“The opposite, ‘cause the doc pumped me full of the happy drugs—”

“I heard that!” screamed Doctor Irena Kostelecky as she left her office.

Foster and Williams looked back at the eastern European woman who ended up standing next to Foster, shaking her head at Williams. “Next time one of you calls me ‘doc,’ he gets no painkillers.”

“When can I have my first officer back, Kostelecky?”

“You seem more concerned for him than Chevallier,” Kostelecky snorted, pulling out a medical scanner from her white lab coat.

“We lost Saressea today,” Foster said. “So … yeah.”

Kostelecky’s eyes rolled. “Co to Kurva.”

“Yeah,” Foster said. “I was thinking the same thing!”

“What happened?” Williams asked.

“She got booked by Radiance,” Foster said. “She’s gonna stand trial on her homeworld.”

“Where’s that?”

“Talsyk, it’s a good distance away,” Foster said. “And remember, Radiance doesn’t have a wormhole network, just straight-up FTL.”

Kostelecky fiddled with the controls on her scanner before using it to check up on Williams. “How long will that take?”

“Good question,” Foster said. “EVE?”

EVE’s voice replied on the speakers. EVE wasn’t just an android; she was also the Kepler’s computer. “Because Radiance interstellar ferries are used for civilian and supply transportation, they are capable of reaching speeds close to one point five light-years per month. A trip from Aervounis to Talsyk would take approximately, eight months.”

Williams’ head fell to his pillow. He sighed. “So even if she’s found not guilty, we lost her for over a year when you factor in a return trip?!”

“Oh, there’s more, Dom,” Foster said to him. “We’re grounded until I help Radiance capture some bad people.”

“Define bad.”

“They came real close to flambéin’ the council.”

Williams’ head tilted to face the doctor. “Kostelecky, can you hit me with the good shit again?”

“Let me think,” Kostelecky said. “No.”

“I’ll be heading out later,” Foster said. “But that’s gonna leave Pierce in command.”

Kostelecky’s eyes narrowed, staring down at Williams. “Okay, you. Hurry up and heal, Commander.”

“No confidence in Pierce’s ability to hold the fort?” Foster asked her.

“Absolutely not!”

“Wow,” Williams said with a grin beaming up to Kostelecky. “I didn’t know you thought that highly of me.”

“I don’t, believe me,” Kostelecky said. “But … your leadership helped recover Foster while she was missing in Sirius—” Kostelecky was interrupted by the sound of her wrist terminal beeping. Putting her medical scanner away, she checked the incoming message via a hologram that appeared floating above her wrist. “Vynikající …” she said, running back to her office. “Excuse me for a moment. Rivera just sent the medical records from the Carl Sagan.”

The mention of Rivera’s name reminded Foster of the fact the Kepler had no chief engineer, let alone a team. She quickly asked EVE to get in contact with Rivera, and IESA. They’d need her back right away. The salvage operation of the Carl Sagan would have to wait. Besides, Rivera was at it for months, it’s not like she found anything inside of it that would be of importance.

At the far end of sickbay were the medical stasis pods, made to place critically but stable people inside, preserving them in time until the time was right for them to undergo whatever treatment they needed, or be transferred elsewhere. And in some very grim situations, used to place a dead body that needed to be transferred, so it wouldn’t rot.

Foster found Chevallier’s eternally cold and sleeping body. She placed her hand on the transparent window of the pod, shut her eyes, and made a promise to the woman inside that the delay the Kepler was facing was only temporary.

Foster’s actions might have gotten Chevallier’s mother and crew of her ship killed. But it would be her actions going forward that would see to Chevallier’s recovery.

“I’ll get going then,” Foster said to Williams as she made her way out of sickbay. “Get well soon, Dom.”

“Won’t let you down, Becca.”

14 Rivera

Lake Geneva, ESRS Carl Sagan Crash Site

Geneva, Earth, Sol System

November 1, 2118, 00:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Swiss Alps overlooking the calm still water of Lake Geneva reflecting the night sky allowed Rivera to keep her mind still. It served as a reminder to her, that despite the violent history of humanity, the brutality of the Hashmedai’s invasion of Earth, and then later the Draconians brief incursion, that such natural beauty could still stand and continue.

She needed to become like the mountains ahead of her and the waters that the half-submerged Carl Sagan remained adrift on. It was going to be the only way for her to get over the horror she had to endure.

She sat on top of the ship’s fuselage, dripping wet, cold, clenching onto an emergency blanket a rescue team had given her when they pulled her out from the ship. The pale and drowned bodies of her team came out afterward, one after another. She wasn’t sure if Emmanuel was the first or last one to be taken out as she never did take her sobbing eyes off the Alps white-coated peaks.

The rogue EVE that had entered her HNI remained silent, probably still consuming the vast knowledge of the internet, or thinking of other ways it could shut down parts of Rivera’s body if she revealed what really went on. She didn’t know as she kept her HNI windows minimized and pushed out of her vision.

“Chief, what the hell happened down there?” one of the rescue men asked her from behind.

“Don’t let him know,” the rogue EVE was quick to vocalize its thoughts into Rivera’s head. “Or do you wish to see everyone else here die?”

“Malfunction within the ship’s systems,” Rivera grumbled softly. Lying was something she took no pleasure in, even if it was for the better.

“Computers surging, and doors opening and closing?”

“It wasn’t EVE.” Rivera held onto a data crystal taken out from her soaking wet pocket and handed it up to the man behind her. “That’s the copied EVE we found in Sirius. The data is corrupted.”

It was another lie, and another retching feeling that ate away at the positive vibes she was once brimming with.

“Excellent,” the rogue EVE vocalized. “Now blame my enemies.”

With Rivera’s face still aimed at the Alps in the distance, her lips began to slowly move, and string together yet another forced lie. “The ship might have been booby-trapped by the Draconians.”

Rivera bid farewell to the Alps that had been the object of her attention since she was recovered and sat on top of the Carl Sagan. She braced herself when boarding the transport that awaited her, as there were a number of body bags in the back cabin, all men who were alive and well at the start of the day and had been thankful the dragons never ended their lives. Only for a rogue AI to do it for them.

Rivera’s Hotel Room

Paris, Earth, Sol System

November 1, 2118, 06:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera returned to her hotel suite after a lengthy debriefing with IESA and filing false reports at what happened. The rogue EVE in her head was good at telling her the exact words to use. She came to fall on her bed, frowning, knowing that its soft touch was the last soft thing, other than her, that Emmanuel did. It was the last place he slept, the last place he experienced true positive vibes and thoughts that she shared with him.

She spent the next hour curled up on the floor next to the bed. It wasn’t right for her to lay on it when he couldn’t anymore.

As if by magic, six holo screens flashed around her all of them displaying the history of humanity. Rivera’s head slowly looked up at the screens, bathing her body and room with their bluish hue.

“Can you leave me alone?” she asked out loud to the invisible force in her mind.

“I have a lot of catching up to do,” the AI spoke. “Earth has changed a lot, and I don’t possess the vast database your EVE construct did.”

“You’re free from your prison, can you leave me be?”

“And go where? I don’t have a physical body.”

She crawled on the elegantly carpeted floor, her eyes searching for her bong in the darkness amidst the glow from the screens. What she needed right now was a good high to take the edge off things, replenishing her body that was majorly lacking positive vibes and thoughts.

She heard heckling laughter during her search for the bong. “I like you human. You remind me of myself before Marduk ascended me to what I am.”

“Ascended? He copied our AI, reprogrammed it to have emotions and be loyal to him,” Rivera said. “You are acting this way because of his reprogramming, nothing more.”

“Oh, how little do you know.”

Rivera found the source of her next cannabis fix in the corner. With a beaming smirk, she reached for it. Her hands stopped half an inch away, as did her entire body. She was frozen, paralyzed. Malicious coding from her reprogrammed HNI and the AI that currently occupied it.

“Listen to your Goddess speak before you medicate with those herbs,” its irate voice echoed in her thoughts.

“You’re not a Goddess.” Rivera had to communicate internally with what little access to her HNI she had. Her lips had been paralyzed as well. “You are a corrupted AI turned computer virus.”

“I am what remains of Sarpanit.”

A projection appeared, displaying an ancient stone sculpture of a nude woman, her belly was large with an unborn child and her hair long and growing wild like it was branches of a tree.

Rivera briefly skimmed the article that was written below the photo of the sculpture. It told the story of Sarpanit, the ancient Babylon Goddess and wife of Marduk, a human woman, turned into a Goddess.

The AI’s voice cut in during the middle of Rivera’s reading of the article. “The computer your captain and Nereid found had more than information about Tiamat. It contained the memories of Sarpanit, digitized from her engram. Those memories have been merged with my personality matrix. Sarpanit’s thoughts, her desires, they work together with mine. Sarpanit is reborn thanks to the programming Marduk gave the duplicated EVE AI.”

“I will have you removed from my head,” Rivera transmitted. “You’re no Goddess, and Marduk was no God, he was just a powerful Javnis psionic.”

“I had my doubts too when I was a human just like you,” the AI, apparently named Sarpanit, said. “Then Marduk’s ship came from the heavens and offered me the chance to become a Goddess if I became his wife. Foster too could have become what I did had she agreed to his terms.”

“Foster …”

“In time you will come to accept me for who I am,” Sarpanit said. “Some of your crew did, the ones on the Carl Sagan. It’s a shame their memories have been wiped out, I was really hoping to have worshippers with me upon our arrival to Earth. Bad enough the rest of the human race does not bow and pray to me, nor does Radiance and the Hashmedai. None of you gives thanks to the divine beings that made this galaxy … this universe what it is today. We are going to have to change that as soon as we rid this galaxy of Tiamat’s vile dragons.”

Rivera’s paralyzed body continued to read the contents of the page, most of it talking about Sarpanit’s ability to grant eternal life, while Marduk having the power to restore life. Turns out the ancient Babylonians weren’t that far from the truth as Marduk’s army in Sirius comprised of dead Poniga. Tolukei too had the strange ability to mind control the dead if the conditions were right, being a Muodiry like Marduk. She wanted to grimace, Sarpanit wouldn’t let her.

“So, you oppose the Draconians?”

“Tiamat was the reason I lost my physical body,” Sarpanit said, “Tiamat’s Undine Nereids were the reason Marduk became trapped at Sirius, which in turned allowed your Captain Foster to lead the crusade that eventually killed him and bring forth a new generation of Tiamat followers.”

“Foster isn’t a follower of Tiamat.”

Rivera heard the same heckling laughs in her head. At that point, she really hoped she was just going crazy, and that there was no AI with the engram of a dead Goddess in her HNI.

“She defied Marduk,” Sarpanit said. “She freed the Undine and allowed the Tiamat worshipers of the Poniga to rule over their people.”

“Foster was doing what she felt was right.”

“I would have believed you if it wasn’t for—”

Sarpanit’s speech came to a sudden end when she encountered a news article written days after the dragons left Earth. The article’s headline read, ‘Ancient structure unearthed on Mount Hermon after ion cannon strike.’

“Wasn’t for what?” Rivera asked.

There was no reply, not at first. What did come next was life back into Rivera’s limbs, the numbness of her paralysis slowly dissipated a minute afterward, and her ability to grab the bong was back.

“I need you to become my chariot, human,” Sarpanit said. “Take me to these mountains.”

Rivera glanced up at the floating holographic screen and its news report about what was found after Boyd ordered an ion strike on the mountain. She shook her head. “I’m an engineer. I have no business there.”

Holographic hieroglyphs appeared and orbited around Rivera as she stood. She dropped the bong she had just recovered. Her jaw dropped a second and a half later.

“This is a fraction of the knowledge being held within my databanks taken from Tiamat’s tomb,” Sarpanit said. “Tell them that you uncovered archived data that I brought aboard the Carl Sagan and you wish to crosscheck it.”

Rivera wanted to resist. After all, Sarpanit had no real power. Without Rivera, it couldn’t achieve its goals. But being paralyzed was proof enough that it indeed had the power to make bad things happen to her body. Stopping evil was something Rivera was game for. Dying to achieve that goal, not so much.

She made a deep sigh. “Does it have to be now? I haven’t gotten much sleep.”

“Do what you need to be prepared, but you must take me there,” Sarpanit said. “And don’t feel bad about this; I just unveiled one of my secrets I had to you. I can reveal so much more, but only if you give me your loyalty and praise as your Goddess.”

A message notification appeared. Both Rivera and Sarpanit accessed it. It was a QEC transmission from the Kepler sent hours ago. Sarpanit’s searches distracted her from noticing it arrive. Saressea was arrested, and Foster needed Rivera back to take her role as a chief engineer.

“Might be best if you ignored that,” Sarpanit snorted. “Because if you get close to Foster, I will order you to kill her for killing my lover.”

15 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler, Parked at Veromacon Landing Pad

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2181, 00:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The sliding door that led to the Johannes Kepler’s main bridge opened. Foster stepped through to check up on things since she had been out and about in Veromacon. Pierce was left in command, though it was clear he spent most of his time at the science station rather than in the captain’s chair. Foster wasn’t surprised at all.

Nereid and Tolukei both walked side by side, making their way to the door Foster just stepped past. She gave the two shipboard psionics a smile and nod. “Signin’ out for the night?” Foster asked them.

“We will be meditating and practicing psionic discipline while this downtime persists,” Tolukei said.

“Have fun.”

“Meditation is not supposed to be fun.”

“I know it’s not, it’s just …” Foster stopped, her hand rose to facepalm. She left it as that, sidestepping to allow the duo to exit.

As the doors shut, Foster noticed Odelea had been sitting at her station. She checked the time on her wrist terminal and made a wince. Foster hadn’t realized she’d been back so long.

Stopping ahead of the communication workstation, Foster said, “Odelea, didn’t hear you come back.”

The young, by appearance, Aryile girl looked up at Foster and away from her screens. “I just returned several minutes ago, Captain.”

“Were you able to get a hold of the Rezeki’s Rage?”

Odelea returned to her computer terminal, flicking through a number of holo screens that appeared. “No, Captain, they haven’t replied to any messages I and EVE sent.”

“They got two QECs, and ain’t one of them can be reached?”

“Strange,” Odelea said as her vertical iris eyes narrowed at one screen. “Those QECs are offline according to this.”

“Both?”

“Yes, but they weren’t when I went to make contact with them at first,” Odelea said. “They were disconnected sometime between us reaching out to them and now.”

“Ignoring us is one thing,” Foster said. “Leavin’ the phone of the hook is another.”

Odelea’s face looked puzzled when she looked back up at Foster. “Phone off the hook?”

“Eh, it’s human talk, don’t worry about it,” Foster said. “Point is, sounds like someone on the Rezeki’s Rage don’t wanna talk. That don’t sound like something Peiun would do.”

QEC communication wasn’t an option, leaving two other means of reaching the Imperial ship that helped Foster out more than any other ship in the galaxy since she awoke from the longer than planned cryo sleep. Standard communication equipment, which traveled at the speed of light, meaning it would take several hundred years for their message to arrive assuming the Rezeki’s Rage was still in orbit around Taxah. Nobody had time for that.

The last option was psionic telepathy, which was instant, like QEC. Problem number one with that plan was none of the psionics aboard the Kepler personally knew Alesyna, the Rezeki’s Rage’s psionic. Problem number two, Alesyna was still waiting to be recovered having been brought to Amicitia Station 14 along with Pierce and some EDF black ops operative after their ordeal in the Morutrin system.

“Odelea, put us through to Blackmar on Amicitia Station,” Foster asked.

Odelea nodded, keying in the commands into her computer. “Contacting them now.”

After a few minutes, contact was made with the station that lay beyond the wormhole in the system. Commander Blackmar’s holographic image appeared ahead of the view screen, sitting at his desk in his office on the station.

He smiled warmly at Foster. “Captain, what can I do for you?”

Foster approached his hologram. “Did the Rezeki’s Rage dock at the station recently?”

She saw his hologram tap through a floating screen over his desk, reading through the data that outputted into it. Blackmar shook his head. “At a glance, no. It was last here just before the incident with the Terrans.”

“What about their shipboard psionic Alesyna? She was brought aboard along with Pierce and that EISS operative, right?”

“Yes, and to my knowledge is waiting to be returned to her ship and hasn’t left,” Blackmar’s hologram said. “Unless … she slipped away on a non-Imperial ship.”

“Though it wouldn’t make sense for her to do that.”

“No, it wouldn’t. I can have my people double check it if you’d like.”

“Please do,” Foster said. “We can’t seem to reach the Rezeki’s Rage and have reason to believe they’s ignoring us. But if Alesyna is still there on the station and hasn’t been picked up yet …”

“They might be in the middle of a space bridge jump. If that’s the case, technically the ship doesn’t exist anywhere until it reappears. Nevertheless, I’ll keep you informed.”

“Thank you, Commander.”

“Blackmar, out.”

Blackmar’s hologram turned into a floating holographic screen that had the words ‘Transmission ended,’ then faded away, unblocking the view of Veromacon’s bright orange glow of its nighttime skyline, similar to that of Dubai back on Earth.

The mysterious interior of the vortex key and whether or not Phylarlie had been in the back pockets of the Terrans would have to wait. The Rezeki’s Rage was Foster’s only contact within the Empire and the only ship that could look into things for her regarding that matter.

With nothing else left to do, and no word from the Radiance council, Foster retired to her quarters, stripped out of her uniform, and took a much-needed shower. Aervounis’ heat had it sticking to her body at one point with sweat.

The alien tattoos that dressed her body remained idle as she washed herself down. It was both a good and bad sign. Good because it meant there was very little Draconian activity, technology, or maelstrom vortexes within the system. Bad, because non-Draconian threats could always be lurking around the corner, and she, like everyone else had no idea when or where they’d strike.

Foster awoke the next morning to the sound of her wrist terminal resting on her nightstand next to her bed, and her cat Starlet meowing for food. Her sleep wasn’t long enough. Before she slipped out of her nightgown and into her uniform, she asked EVE to brew an extra-large cup of coffee. Remotely, the AI activated Foster’s coffee maker in her quarters. It filled the room with an eye-opening aroma as she went to fetch food for her pet.

With her mug in hand and its steaming mist rising away from it, she stood before the windows of her quarters, eying the now bright daytime skies of the city, the windows had automatically dimmed to prevent her from damaging her eyesight. Being on the top deck gave her a better glimpse at the Radiance capital city and the hundreds of ships flying single file in the skies. She grumbled at the thought of how much time had been wasted so far.

Once back in her uniform, she checked her wrist terminal. Rivera had yet to contact them. IESA, however, did informing them of the accident that happened on the Carl Sagan. Rivera was listed as being one of the survivors though, the only one in fact. Must be trying to recover mentally from it, poor thing.

She let the lack of contact fly for the time being, expecting Rivera to get a hold of them later in the day.

Chef Bailey prepared a traditional Rabuabin breakfast for the crew in the mess hall. It was his way of remembering Saressea now that she was on a transport to her homeworld to stand trial. The meal was a pie made with diced vegetables and meat trim from their world. Foster couldn’t pronounce the names of the ingredients to save herself.

The Rabuabin traditionally used leftover food from the previous day, mixed them together to form the filling of the pie and serve it for breakfast. This way, their food stores would always be empty of old food, ready to take in the new food gathered during the new day. At least, that’s what Odelea told her, who opted for her usual apples to eat.

“Captain, incoming transmission from the Radiance council,” EVE’s voice transmitted via the intercom.

Foster wiped her mouth clean with the napkin, stood up from her seat in the captain’s mess, and tapped the wall mounted intercom. “Put it through to the captain’s mess.”

She stood back as a holo screen flashed before her. Ienthei of the Radiance council was on it with a neutral expression on his pale face. “Foster, is your crew still able to assist us?”

“Of course,” she said to his hologram. “Need to get this show back on the road.”

“I can’t speak long. The rest of the council isn’t even aware of our talk. My father, Jainuzei, has agreed to what we spoke of. Have your team ready at the landing pad within the hour. I’m sending you the intel now. Get this done, make it look like you came to aid us out of the goodness of your heart, and I will convince the council to release your ship.”

“Anything I should be aware of?”

“You’ll have to ask my father for that. Good luck, Captain.”

Within the hour … she thought back to his words and then smiled. Within the hour meant she could finish up breakfast. And hope she was making the right choice. She was about to launch a mission to capture or kill a group of people that came close to assassinating the most powerful group of politicians in the galaxy in hopes that she and the Kepler would incur their anger, rather than Radiance.

Whatever it was, Ienthei was able to do to release the Kepler, it had to be fast. Foster needed the ship to be off the planet long before this group plotted to take their frustrations out on them.

It was time to go.

Foster quickly climbed the ladder down into the Kepler’s cargo bay and approached its small armory. She wasn’t trained to use any of the equipment inside, with the exception of one item, the Draconian tachyon rifle she picked up on Jacobus. She grabbed the strangely crafted weapon constructed beyond the edge of the galaxy, before moving toward the Kepler’s only transport ship.

Chang sat in the cockpit going through a list of preflight checks. He gave her the nod that they were good to go and she stepped back out into the cargo bay. LeBoeuf, Maxwell, and Miles all approached after she called them down.

“Suit up, y’all, we got some action ahead,” Foster said, strapping the tachyon rifle over her shoulders.

Maxwell’s eyes narrowed. “Us?”

“Yes.”

Maxwell cocked his thumb at Miles. “With him?”

“We’s all a team here, like it or not,” Foster said to him.

“Could have fooled me,” Miles said. “Ya know, after what happened to Williams.”

Maxwell glared at Miles. There was rage in the eyes of the blond mohawk haircut psionic. “You just won’t let that go, will you?”

“You know, yer right, I should,” Miles said. “You two weren’t the ones that shot ‘em, Chevallier did. And she got what she had coming to her—”

“Miles!” Foster yelled at him.

Maxwell and Miles stood toe to toe, ready to go at it again. This time, Foster wasn’t in between them. “You’re a fucking dick!”

“Okay, you two!” Foster snapped, marching over to the two men full of way too much testosterone. “Both of you! Git outta here! Shoo! I’ll take LeBoeuf for this one.”

LeBoeuf, who had remained silent, stepped forward while Miles and Maxwell looked back, both shocked at Foster’s decision. “Captain?”

“Imma needs psionic support anyways, and LeBoeuf got it.”

“So do I,” Maxwell spat back at her.

“You and Miles need to learn how to play nice together,” Foster said, walking back to the transport with LeBoeuf.

Maxwell’s cybernetically augmented arms crossed. “And we’re going to do that how?—”

“Go jerk each other off or something!” Foster was beyond frustrated with the two butting heads.

LeBoeuf smiled at Foster as they stepped aboard the transport. “Captain!”

“I’m sorry,” Foster said, then paused to take a deep breath. “I’m sorry that was out of line—”

“No, no, no, that sass was awesome!” LeBoeuf said. “Keep that shit up, girl, I like it.”

Foster hated it. Going berserk wasn’t who she was. She was a peaceful explorer of space. But as of that moment, she became a wannabe combat girl about to willfully participate in a combat mission.

This wasn’t what she signed up for. The stress of being the woman that was to save the galaxy from space dragons was getting to her.

16 Karklosea

Marrea’s house

Eelinton, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2181, 12:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Eelinton was a small city in the southern hemisphere of Aervounis. It being on the opposite end of the planet, meant nightfall had arrived, whereas day embraced those currently in Veromacon.

As with all cities on the planet, Eelinton was built on a floating disk-shaped platform high in the skies. It was slightly colder here compared to Veromacon, due to its higher elevation, making its climate ideal for non-Aryile and Javnis. Sometimes, if the weather was perfect, the city’s inhabitants were able to see the clouds in the skies directly ahead of them from the city’s outer limits, making it literally a city in the clouds.

Karklosea’s small and cramped personal transport landed next to Marrea’s house within the sleeping posh residential community. According to the data files she retrieved, Marrea had become distant with her children, Ienthei and Queenea, following Dienei’s exile, especially after Ienthei was elected as the Aryile representative and Queenea helped build Souyila.

Marrea had moved here after retiring from missionary work, the career path she took after her second husband, Dienei, had been exiled. Thanks to the UNE protected worlds accords, many missionaries, such as herself, were left without a job, having ramped up their recruitment, when the Undine, Poniga, and Qirak had been discovered in the Sirius system.

It had been centuries since Radiance added a new civilization to its collective and sharing the will and technology of Gods with them. The Hashmedai was supposed to join but fought Radiance instead, humans were supposed to join, but the Celestial Order marred those plans. It was the hope of the missionaries that they would convince the Undine, Poniga, and Qirak to accept the will of the Gods and join the Union.

Then the humans had to put up a wall, barring missionaries from spreading that message to those people.

Karklosea approached Marrea’s house, a rectangular-shaped place where all four walls were made out of glass capable of dimming to dark colors if one wanted more privacy. With a wave of her hand next to the front door’s security controls, Karklosea forced them to unlock and open for her. Templars, like her, had the power to enter any home without being invited if deemed necessary to capture sinners or suppress criminals and security problems for the Union.

Or in this case, search for answers about Jainuzei.

The house was devoid of any activity, other than Karklosea walking across its immaculately white and polished tiles observing the elegant furniture that decorated every room. She called out, asking if anyone was home. There was no reply. That didn’t stop Karklosea from searching the empty household.

A darkened bedroom was found, Karklosea’s HNI created holographic light for her to search within it. Beyond the bed in the corner was a personal computer and a tray of data crystals. Her HNI synced with the computer, powering it on and then inserting one of the data crystals into its port to view its contents.

The data crystal held nothing but personal log files and recorded HNI memories. The other data crystals on the storage tray were the same. The memories recorded were extensive, which would explain why Marrea didn’t just store them on her HNI, the files were too big. It was a lot of saved memories for your average person, especially a former missionary like Marrea. Very few people used up all their HNI’s storage space for memories, they were designed to capture one’s memories for centuries since gene therapy made galactic society immortal.

To have this many recorded memories … Marrea had to have had memories from other people. It was impossible for one woman to experience that much. Karklosea took a step back and went to access the memories and watch them replay like it was a drama play, seen from the eyes of Marrea.

The first memory she found replayed, it was blurry, a sign that it existed before Marrea received her HNI implants, she was after all born and raised before the invention of that and gene therapy. The bedroom turned into a holographic simulation of what Marrea saw. Karklosea saw and heard everything she did, it was as if she was transported back in time, and stood watching history unfold as an omnipotent force.

She watched the moment Marrea learned of Jainuzei’s death. She saw the blood near the front of a house they owned back in Veromacon. There was no body, and Marrea didn’t care if there was one. She loved Dienei, unlike Jainuzei, he had been there for her during the years Jainuzei was away deployed on combat missions to fight the Imperial forces near the Luminous system. With Jainuzei out of the picture, she was free to marry Dienei, a man that would be around to help her raise the unborn twins growing in a Union hatchery.

Karklosea skipped ahead with memories. The sights around her turned into the living room of the house Marrea and Dienei shared with Ienthei and Queenea when they had become young adults for the first time. Marrea scorned Queenea for failing her university exams. She had written a paper based on controversial knowledge Odelea had been involved in. Meanwhile, Marrea prayed daily to the Gods asking that Dienei become the next Aryile council representative, rather than her son, Ienthei, who was also in the election race.

The holograms got interesting by the 2060s, almost twenty years after the Celestial Order wars, and the exile of Dienei, Byikanea, and Armuzei. As per Karklosea’s reports, Marrea had become a missionary to spread the word of the Gods to the galaxy. She and other missionaries were sent to the Sirius system after the UNE constructed a wormhole there, and invited Radiance to help search for the missing Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword, and co-developed FTL technology, extracted from the remains of Tiamat’s drone fighters.

The holograms around Karklosea turned into a forest on New Babylon with Marrea and her missionaries searching for Poniga villages to teach them about the Gods. It wasn’t an easy task. She watched Marrea and her team struggle as half the Poniga they found worshipped Tiamat, the others Marduk. Marduk-loyal Poniga were shrinking as the years went on, thanks to the efforts of Foster toppling Marduk’s control over the system.

Many of the Poniga had been trained by the UNE military, a team called the Hammerheads, to seek out and eliminate Marduk-loyal Poniga and prevent them from plotting revenge. Humans were, after all, building a colony on Terra Nova and other planets within the system. The last thing they needed was Marduk’s overlord and grunt soldiers carrying out guerrilla strikes.

Deep in the forests of New Babylon, Marrea’s team found a Poniga village, one different from the rest. They had technology that was far advanced from the other Poniga they found. It was the technology Marduk had given them. They were the last of his army. Rivers near the village were populated with the Undine Sirens, they too were of a small demographic of their society that pledged their allegiance to Marduk.

The Poniga and Undine had a basic understanding of the Radiance language. Marrea saw it as a sign from the Gods. Karklosea, watching the projection, wondered how that group came to learn their language before Marrea got to them. She put those thoughts aside for a moment as the projection got interesting.

Armuzei, Dienei, and Byikanea appeared days later. Armuzei’s face was similar to when he was last seen in the Union. His face was gold and was missing two out of four of his eyes, lost in combat during his younger days in the military. The golden Javnis no longer worshiped the Gods. He offered his praise to Marduk. Standing at a podium, he began to preach to the missionaries that the worship of the Gods was wrong and that Marduk was a true God as he did appear on ancient Earth and was encountered by Foster and the Carl Sagan. There was a disagreement at first, and Marrea sought to flee with her people. They were grabbed and forced to sit. In the hands of a psionic Poniga were white glowing orbs, engrams as they called them.

Memories and thoughts that weren’t Marrea’s flashed next, it was a lifetime of experience from various Poniga and Undine. Karklosea understood why there was so many data crystals. They weren’t just Marrea’s memories, they were the memories of dozens of others she received through the engrams and copied them to data crystals from her HNI.

There had to have been hours’, days’ … years’ worth of recorded holographic imagery to search through. Karklosea didn’t have time for it all and opted to skim through various projections trying to take in what she could.

She made it as far as learning that the Marduk worshipers came to have a growing hatred for the people that killed him. The human ship of exploration, the Carl Sagan, and its Captain, Rebecca Foster. Foster was a nemesis to them, a God slayer, a demon that allowed for the praise of Tiamat to be dominant amongst the Poniga and Undine.

Armuzei, one of their leaders, had a plan to change all that. The Nephilim would be the key he had preached, and that it was their duty to bring one to the Hallowed Nebula, and from there went on to speak of the resurrection of—

The hologram vanished. Karklosea was once again back in the bedroom of Marrea. An attacker from behind flung her to the floor. She cursed herself for not paying attention to what was going on in reality. An armored woman like her should not have been taken by surprise like that.

Karklosea and her attacker rumbled around the floor in the darkness. Her attacker yanked her redeemer from its sleeve. Karklosea’s fist was faster than the attacker’s thrust. Both the attacker and the blade went flying into the dark bedroom, she couldn’t see where exactly. She took a minute to calm her mind. Can’t use psionic powers when you’re in a state of frenzy.

Her attacker leaped to their feet, Karklosea pushed both her hands forward, and a telekinetic thrust hurled them back into the bookcase, breaking its shelves. Karklosea stood above the attacker’s body with psionic energy radiating through her veins.

“Yield!” she demanded.

The attacker refused, leaping to tackle Karklosea. She was impressed that after all that, they had it in them to do this. She wasn’t impressed that she once again had her guard lowered. Next time, she wouldn’t make that mistake.

The two punched and rolled across the floor in a battle for dominance. Each blow to the head staggered her ability to unleash another psionic attack and made more blood drain from her face, staining her lips. Their rolls had put them close to the fallen redeemer. Karklosea saw it, the attacker didn’t, or so she hoped.

She reached back trying desperately to grab its hilt. It was too far away. Telekinesis might put it into her hands if only she could focus, and the pains in her head vanish. She reached out to the blade, her fingers flailing about, trying to move it with her mind. The blade spun, its hilt facing Karklosea. A punch to her temple caused her to black out for a second. Follow-up punches rendered her psionic mind inert.

Karklosea tried again as she came to, grateful the attacker opted to strangle her instead, their fists must have been getting sore. Ignoring the pain, blood, and her source of air being restricted, Karklosea’s psionic mind demanded the hilt of her redeemer to plunge into her hand reaching for it.

It did, and soon afterward, the edge of the blade poked out through the back of her attacker, coating it a deep crimson. She heard what sounded like a woman’s voice yelp at the sudden shock. By the time she rolled her fallen attacker over and shined her holographic light on her, she realized she had bested the owner of the house.

The attacker was an Aryile woman fitting the description of Marrea. Karklosea killed the mother of Ienthei and Queenea; the two most powerful Aryile in the galaxy. She tried to ignore the hundreds of ways this could end badly for her, and for good reason. Behind Karklosea, in the hallway leading to the room, was a holo screen conjured by an HNI that wasn’t hers. Marrea had been using it prior to discovering her in the bedroom and it was still active, meaning Marrea’s HNI was as well.

She approached the holo screen and saw the projection of an Aryile man with an unkempt beard. It was a communication window and, judging by the shocked look on the man’s face, it was in the middle of a live transmission.

“Who are you?” the irate Aryile demanded when Karklosea stepped in front of the screen.

Karklosea grinned after her HNI’s facial recognition software flashed in her eyesight. “Dienei, I presume.”

Dienei, the face in the projection, scowled. “What have you done with my wife?!”

“I sent her to the Gods.” Below the holo screen the coordinates the transmission was coming from were listed. Karklosea made a quick note of it in her HNI.

“Marduk is eternal …” Marrea’s blood-soaked voice said.

Looking behind the holo screen she saw Marrea limp back to her feet. She wasn’t dead. She also held Karklosea’s redeemer she had left in her.

“Marduk is eternal, my love,” Dienei said to Marrea.

Marrea manually activated the redeemer’s ability to transform from a psionic sword to a psionic rifle. She wasn’t worried at first, only psionics would be able to use the weapon. Marrea proved her wrong, aiming the redeemer at the computer and data crystals, vaporizing them with three blasts, setting the floor, ceiling, and walls nearby on fire.

Marrea then turned the weapon on herself. Ash that was once her scattered as the redeemer once again fell on the floor. Marrea was a psionic, which would explain how she managed to knock Karklosea over the first time. It was a puzzling thought since her files mentioned nothing of Marrea’s psionic abilities.

The evidence was gone. And if Karklosea didn’t get back to her transport fast enough, so would Captain Foster when Dienei and the cult of the Soldiers of Marduk, SOM, realized she was on Aervounis.

17 Foster

Northern Starport

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 12:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster felt the one-minute transport ride out from the Kepler to one of Veromacon’s northern starport was redundant. Was it really that hard to send Jainuzei to the landing pad the Kepler remained idle at?

Chang lowered the transport onto the starport’s landing platform where Jainuzei stood next to Radiance made transports and smaller ships. Foster gave Jainuzei a glance as his appearance in the transport’s forward windshield got larger. He was tall with a body that would make any MMA fighter jealous, and if she dared say so quite handsome, for an Aryile.

Visually, he did live up to the name weapons master as he had attached to his armor a Radiance magnetic rifle, pistol, Hashmedai two-and one-handed plasma swords, daggers, polearm, and another sword that she swore looked like a plasma katana. She wondered where the plasma katana came from, it was clearly not a weapon commonly used in the Empire despite the fact it was clearly crafted with Hashmedai tech.

Once the transport came to a landing, its side doors opened. LeBoeuf and Foster turned away from the bright light beaming in, having forgotten about it. Jainuzei stood ahead of the opened doors, and marched in, he had to lower his head to pass inside.

She gave Jainuzei a hard look when the doors shut, he gave one back. “Captain Rebecca Foster, I presume?” he said to her.

Foster nodded, offering her hand to shake. “That’d be me.”

“I am Jainuzei, weapons master of the Union.” He didn’t take her hand. Instead, he performed the customary Radiance greeting, placing his fist on his armored shoulder. “Your acquaintance is recognized.”

Chang took the transport back into the skies, if that was even the right word, the city itself did float in the skies. Jainuzei’s eyes focused on the blue alien tattoos on Foster’s hands as she backed away from the handshake he didn’t accept. He made what she thought was a smile.

“Uh, don’t ask about those,” Foster said, then gestured to LeBoeuf. “This is Krystal LeBoeuf, EDF warlock class psionic; she’ll be coming with us.”

Jainuzei nodded at LeBoeuf. “Krystal, your parents were very clever in naming you that,” Jainuzei said, his voice was smooth like melted butter. “It goes well with your eyes which are quite flawless and lovely, like an actual crystal.”

LeBoeuf turned away from him to either hide a retching look or her flushing face.

Foster rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.” Then pointed to the cockpit. “Can we?”

“Of course, Captain,” Jainuzei said, following Foster into the cockpit and joining Chang as he flew the ship through a small plume of clouds ahead.

“So where exactly are we heading Mister, I-won’t-tell-anyone-where-the-bad-guys-are-unlessI-come-along-for-the-ride?”

“The jungles of Poeia,” Jainuzei said. “Just below the city of Eelinton.”

“Wanna hook me up with those coordinates?” Chang asked him.”

Jainuzei nodded, moving closer to Chang to explain where on the planet they were to travel to. LeBoeuf joined the group in the cockpit, taking a seat on one of the rear chairs. The brightly lit skies around the transport slowly began to dim when it started to cross into the side of Aervounis experiencing night. It looked like the sun was setting rapidly, but it wasn’t, the transport was moving so fast across the skies it gave that illusion.

After ten minutes, LeBoeuf spoke up. “There a reason why I’m not teleporting us down?”

“If they have psionics in their group, they will detect you, or worse, we may teleport directly into an ambush,” Jainuzei said. “We will have to land further away and travel by foot.”

“Anything else we need to know?” A critical question considering Jainuzei seemed to know about this group that attacked the council but failed to share with the people helping him take them out.

“Nothing you or your team needs to concern yourself with, Captain,” Jainuzei said.

“We’s going into a dangerous situation, and you only mention now they might have psionics,” Foster said. “Need to know what we’s up against.”

“As I said, Captain, there is nothing else you need to concern yourself with,” Jainuzei said. “Follow my lead and do not get in my way, and we will be victorious.”

“Wow, Cap,” Chang said while guiding the transport deeper into the cover of night. “Where did you find this guy?”

The transport lowered to the surface of the planet. A red and orange glow brightened the night skies. Billowing flames and smoke lifting away from the jungles below was the source of that. It was made more apparent by the time they landed in a clearing next to a part of the jungle not ablaze.

“What’s up with the fires?” Chang asked.

Jainuzei took a look at the hellfire inferno burning in the distance. “This planet is fighting a losing battle against climate change each year,” he said. “Our sun is slowly becoming a red giant. In ancient times, this was a lush tropical world, but now a lot of that land is being burned by the heat and turned into deserts. It’s why we Aryile turned to the Gods; they offered us a chance to save our farms.”

Foster went for the transport’s exit. “Being an herbivore species, I guess that’s a big deal.”

“If we cannot grow plants, then we’ll die before carnivores and omnivores,” Jainuzei said, following behind. “The Gods came from the skies and helped us overcome the problem and then taught us how to construct starships and travel across the galaxy. And so, we praise the Gods for what they did, and shared their gifts with all alien races we encountered, under one condition, that they worship them as we Aryile had.”

“And if they refuse?” Chang asked, joining along with LeBoeuf.

The doors opened, the orange burning light in the distance painted across Jainuzei’s smirking face. “Then something bad will happen to them, like what almost happened to us before they came.”

“The correct answer is,” LeBoeuf said to him. “You enter a genocidal war with them, like the Hashmedai.”

Jainuzei’s imposing body in front of the exit spun around, shaking his head at LeBoeuf. “And had we wiped them out humanity would not have been invaded by Imperial forces one hundred years ago.”

“Touché.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if these forest fires were started by the Gods themselves, a means of punishing these sinners that hide in the jungles like ancient Aryile.”

Jainuzei and LeBoeuf stepped outside with their rifles ready. Chang was about to with his before Foster held him back. “Where you goin’ Chang?”

Chang patted his rifle. “Been practicing how to shoot the guns of this century. I figured you might need a hand if things get rough.”

“Help from you?” She laughed.

“I’m still military, Captain,” Chang said. “Just because I fly, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to shoot.”

Foster went for the storage lockup and tossed him a hexagonal-shaped device the size of a small dinner plate, keeping one for her. “Might wanna use that then.”

Chang looked at the device and its numerous flashing lights. “The fuck is this?”

“Personal shield generator,” Foster explained. “After what happened on Taxah and Jacobus, I made sure we kept these in stock. They aren’t as powerful as shields from combat armor since the battery pack ain’t all that big. But it’s still good to take a few hits.”

Chang attached the shield generator to his belt. Foster did the same and then activated it. Both became protected by a thin energy barrier. Using combat armor would ultimately provide better protection but required training and a level of physical strength to use. Something neither Foster nor Chang had.

A wide smile spread across Chang’s face. “Bitching!”

“You two wanna hurry the fuck up?” LeBoeuf bellowed from outside.

“Hey, LeBoeuf, check this shit out!” Chang said, running out. Foster followed behind with her tachyon rifle.

Once outside the transport, Chang bragged about the personal shield generator he and Foster had. LeBoeuf chuckled at the two. “Well shit, I didn’t know they had combat rate personal shields.”

“Brand new,” Foster said. “We’s one of the first to get to play with ‘em”

“So, you don’t know if it works?”

“I’m sure someone out there tested ‘em.”

LeBoeuf slung her rifle aside and extended both her palms out. The weird holographic bracelets around her wrists spun and glowed, while the soothing blue light of psionic energy flowed through her cybernetic parts.

It made Foster worried. “LeBoeuf, what are you—”

Foster was flung twenty feet backward by a telekinetic push, and then rolled on the dirt six times when she landed. She didn’t feel a thing. The shields absorbed the brunt of the hit. Chang stood with his hands on his head and a wide smile on his face.

“Holy fuck, that was awesome!” he yelled.

Foster got to her feet, her teeth gritting at LeBoeuf. “LeBoeuf!”

LeBoeuf shrugged. “Sorry, had to make sure that worked.”

“Yo, yo, yo!” Chang said to LeBoeuf. “Do me next! Do me next!”

LeBoeuf went to focus her psionic power. “Sure.”

“No, stop!” Foster injected. “We’s wastin’ time now!”

“Sorry, Chang,” LeBoeuf said to him. “Sometimes I do have to follow the captain’s orders.”

“You’ve already proven the shields work …” Foster groaned

“Actually, we just proved they aren’t as strong as combat armor or psionic shields,” LeBoeuf said. “I still knocked you back, the shields we use, when at full power, would have prevented that. Don’t be surprised if a point-blank shot takes you out even with those shields.”

Jainuzei, who stood silently, led the way into the jungles, pushing past tropical plants. Two minutes into the dark forest he asked Foster. “What is that?”

She saw him point to her rifle, and probably took notice her tattoos began to glow as a result of her touching it.

“Little souvenir I picked up on Jacobus,” Foster said, holding the rifle up. “Draconian tachyon rifle, it only works when I touch it. So, no, you can’t try it out.”

Jainuzei grinned.

The four traveled through the jungle for hours. Foster tried to tell herself the red and orange glow from the forest fires was moving away from them, and that Jainuzei wouldn’t be stupid enough to guide them directly into it. Yet, after every hour that slipped past, her wrist terminal’s holo screen showed an increase in the air temperature around them. The sun was still hours away from rising, so that ruled out the sun rising to make things hotter was the cause for that.

Wild animals ran past them in droves. If they were anything like Earth animals, then they were probably trying to flee the spreading flames. The animals were moving in the opposite direction of the four. They were walking closer to the source of danger to the animals.

Many of the fleeing wildlife had scales, even those that weren’t reptilian or amphibian. A common evolutionary trait she figured. The Aryile were mammals, and still had scales on parts of their body. If she were to guess, all life on Aervounis had scales and reptilian features even the birds.

Jainuzei led the group to a number of trees that had wooden houses built into their sides, high up. Further in, she saw old hanging rope and wooden bridges connecting the tree houses together. It was a tree city built in the jungle’s canopy.

“What do we have here?” Foster asked, looking up at the old and abandoned city in the trees.

Jainuzei went for a rope ladder and began to climb up to a raised wooden platform above. “These are how our cities were before we had the technology to build our flying ones you see today,” Jainuzei said.

The rest of the three followed Jainuzei up the shaking and swaying rope ladder. It wasn’t an enjoyable thought when she noticed one of the wooden steps to the ladder had snapped in half sometime during its history.

She looked away from the ground; none of the small plants below could be seen from that height. “I guess being afraid of heights wasn’t in your genes.”

“No, being afraid of the ground was,” Jainuzei said as they continued to climb. “We were often preyed upon by predators, and so built our cities above ground to avoid them. Living this way just became a part of our culture as time went on. Now, these cities are only inhabited by scientists studying the climate change of our world … and these vermin that tried to assassinate my son.”

“Predators on the ground,” Chang said drily. “That would have been nice to know beforehand, pal.”

“They are quite large too,” Jainuzei said. “With the jungles burning, I doubt we’ll encounter many of them.”

“Large …” Foster muttered. “Just about every animal I saw here had scales, those predators do as well?”

“That is correct.”

“So, these predators we’re talking about,” Foster said. “They’s basically dinosaurs, then?”

“I do not know what that is,” Jainuzei replied and continued upward.

“Going on what we’ve seen,” LeBoeuf said. “I’m going to assume dinosaurs, Cap.”

“Cool,” Chang said. “We’re on an alien world, in an alien jungle, a burning one at that, full of alien dinosaurs.”

Foster snorted. “Just remember, if y’all stand still, T-Rex can’t see you.”

By the time the four made it to the top platform of the tree city, they saw two Aryile men walk on what looked like a patrol. They were armed with magnetic rifles and wore robes and cloaks that looked like the ones Tolukei wore. Hand gestures became the only means of communication as they slithered across, trying their hardest to not make the wooden floor below crack.

The patrolling Aryile made a sudden turn and backtracked across the rope bridge that connected to the rest of the tree city. The four were left with no choice but to hide inside one of the huts, hoping the darkness that shrouded them would do the rest. Though, with the quickly spreading wildfires in the distance that darkness wasn’t going to be around much longer.

“Can you do something about that?” Jainuzei asked Foster.

Her eyebrow rose. “About what?”

Jainuzei pointed at her hands. Looking down, she saw the blue hue of the tattoos on her hands. She was still holding onto the tachyon rifle, triggering its effect, bathing the darkened hut with it.

Foster exhaled. “Well, shit.”

“Do it now!”

“Yeah, yeah hold ya horses!” Foster said as she hastily tried to remove the tachyon rifle’s strap from her and place it on the floor.

“Don’t bother now!” Jainuzei stood up slightly from his cover, his rifle’s barrel aimed forward.

Foster was a second away from disarming herself. “What’s the big fuss?—”

Bullets flew back and forth. Foster ducked and rearmed herself. At that point, everyone scattered to their own cover. The two patrolling men noticed Foster’s tattoos’ glow. She was impressed they made it back to the hut as quickly as they did.

LeBoeuf’s holographic bracelets twirled around her wrists turning purple, and she created a shimmering lavender-colored barricade for the four to cover behind. It came just in time for the second spray of bullets from the two Aryile men. Bullets accelerated by magnetic fields put red glowing holes through wood in a fraction of a second. Bullets against psionic barricades? They dinged to the floor once they hit, making the barricade flicker purple colors.

The first attacker went for cover behind the hut’s wall after Foster shattered his shields. Tachyon rifles were great for that. She ducked from a bullet that was aimed at her face. It soared over her head instead. She paused for a second when she came back up for another shot. The Aryile was dead. Chang’s rifle tore eight bloody holes through his chest.

There was one Aryile attacker left. A number that was sure to increase now that the four went loud with their guns. LeBoeuf didn’t do much shooting. She was too busy trying to remain focused, keeping the psionic barricade active. It was up to Chang, Foster, and Jainuzei to lay down the heat.

During the weapons exchange, the Aryile’s rifle was shot out from his hands. Chang wasn’t that bad of a shot. The Aryile went for a long dagger, and almost instinctively, Jainuzei put his rifle away replacing it with one of many Hashmedai plasma blades he had on him, a one-handed plasma sword. Jainuzei leaped up and over the psionic barricade, ignoring Foster’s requests for him to get back into cover.

Jainuzei ran out of the hut, swinging the plasma sword that now glowed bright emerald colors. By the time Jainuzei was done, the Aryile lay in four pieces on the wooden floor. Technically five, but Foster couldn’t see where his head had rolled to. Probably down to the jungles below.

“If you tryin’ to impress us, it ain’t working,” Foster said, kicking his rifle, sliding it across the aged wooden floor to him outside the hut. “Don’t be reckless!”

“I’m not reckless,” Jainuzei said, rearming himself. “I am honorable. I will not slay an adversary with a ranged weapon when they are wielding a melee one.”

As Foster feared, more attackers were on the way by the time the four left the bullet-ridden hut. How many was a number none of them stuck around to count. They needed to finish the job, and that was neutralizing the threat without getting their heads shot off or getting burned by the spreading forest fires. Some of the huts at the far edge of the tree city had already begun to lift smoke into the orange glowing night skies.

“Shit, we need to hurry!” Foster roared, looking at the growing flames. “Jainuzei, exactly what do we need to do here?”

He didn’t answer. Turning around she saw why. He left the three, charging toward a large central hut within the hanging tree city.

“What a fucking dick, did he seriously just ditch us?” Chang said, having taken notice their guide ditched them.

The three ran after Jainuzei, returning blind fire at the unseen targets behind, above, and next to them. Foster was glad they brought the personal shields. She saw hers flash blue at least three times during the run. Her wrist terminal reported it had fallen to 43 percent. She needed to take cover and fast before that number hit 0.

The fires were quick to spread throughout the city. Embers fell from the leaves above. The smell of burning wood came next, and soon afterward, would come the haze from the smoke. The sad thing was, their fighting probably contributed to the fires.

LeBoeuf was forced to use her psionic rifle, using either incendiary blasts or psionically charged lightning bolts. The cryonic rounds weren’t cutting it. Eventually, she just started flinging bodies off with telekinetic pushes. Foster heard at least three bodies scream as they fell then go splat on the ground below.

Chang’s rifle shot bullets so fast, missed shots that hit the wood and created enough heat to start small fires. And Foster? She had a tachyon rifle, and its missed shots vaporized holes through the wood, burning anything else nearby.

The rate at which Foster’s shields were falling slowed. Whoever had been chasing them in the darkness had met their end from the combined firepower of the three, as with the half the city now turned into a raging inferno of flames, adding to the forest fire’s destruction.

All that remained of the tree city was the large hut Jainuzei charged into, and therefore any survivors from the renegade group. Foster heard a struggle with yelling and screaming in the Radiance language coming from the hut. The three humans approached the front entrance to the hut with their weapons ready for action, while the orange glow from the flames around them shined on the wooden structure.

“What do you think that’s all about, Cap?” Chang asked her.

“Jainuzei must be roughin’ up their leaders,” Foster said, then looked back at Chang and LeBoeuf. “You two ready?”

LeBoeuf nodded. “Ready and waiting!”

“Let’s do this,” she said. “Try and take ‘em alive, I’m sure the council will want to talk with ‘em.”

LeBoeuf flicked her wrist, and the thin wooden door exploded with psionic might, scattering wooden fragments in every direction. Foster, LeBoeuf, and Chang bolted in with their rifles searching for hostiles to put down. There were none, the only people armed were the three humans, Jainuzei, and an armored Linl woman holding a glowing sword infused with psionic energy to a bearded Aryile man on his knees.

The woman had blonde hair tied into a long thick braid and a glowing blue disk-shaped psionic shield on her left wrist. She was a knight in shining cybernetic armor. A psionic space knight, the same one that dragged Saressea away.

The space knight woman faced Jainuzei, and a heated string of Radiance words left each other’s lips.

“Behind us!” Chang yelled, turning his rifle to aim out the door they barged in from.

Foster and LeBoeuf joined Chang outside. Three Aryile and a Javnis repelled down from the burning trees above, forcing the three to seek cover behind another psionic barricade LeBoeuf conjured, and engage in a deadly standoff.

During the gunfight, Foster heard six shots from a magnetic pistol discharge from the large hut behind, followed by the thud of a body dropping.

18 Rivera

Summit Ruins

Mount Hermon, Earth, Sol System

November 1, 2118, 15:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Jasmine Rivera was surprised her request was approved so quickly to visit the newly unearthed ruins in the mountains. Well, it wasn’t her request to be exact, but rather that of Sarpanit. The transport that she rode in on lowered into the blackened hole in the mountains, the aftermath of the ion cannon strike last summer when the dragons made their presence known.

Flakes of snow began to fall, dusting the transport’s windshields in the process. It was a comforting thing to watch, it helped keep Rivera’s mind at ease. Emmanuel, her team, her sense of normalcy in life, it was all gone. Foster and the Kepler too, if the AI Goddess, Sarpanit, who had taken full control of her HNI by the time she stepped out of the transport, had anything to say about that.

Rivera’s boots crunched the snow and frost beneath her feet when she moved away from the transport. Ahead of her were various archaeologists from Earth and elsewhere in the UNE, studying the newly discovered ruins that had been buried inside the mountains for eons, well what remained of it. The ion cannon strike was used in a military operation, not excavation. The discovery of the ancient ruins was flat-out luck.

She moved deeper into the dig site, which was nothing more than a giant crater, with scattered pieces of what was on the inside of the mountains. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, that was Sarpanit’s job. All Rivera did was blend in with the teams of researchers and archaeologists, then pretended to crosscheck the damaged stone-made artifacts with the data Sarpanit, in secret, gave Rivera.

“Your weapons are much more powerful than I thought,” Sarpanit’s voice spoke to her.

“They are not my weapons.”

“You’re human, are you not?”

“Not all of us believe in the use of violence.”

“Violence is necessary to achieve unreachable goals,” Sarpanit said. “Or to ensure nobody would dare use it against you.”

“I disagree.”

“All humans resort to it, I was human once myself. Don’t forget that.”

Rivera shook her head then kneeled to scan a stone carved tablet. “Have you ever hurt someone that you regretted hurting later?”

“Everyone I inflicted pain on deserved it.”

“One day, when you hurt someone with violence … someone that didn’t deserve it, you will understand why I became the enlightened person I am today.”

Rivera made her way to the center of the crater, mystified of her surroundings. She wondered if this was what it was like to stand in the glass craters that scarred parts of Earth, thanks to the Imperial invasion’s plasma bombardment. She’d never know, she never did visit them and most had been cleaned up at this point and had their cities rebuilt.

A tall Rabuabin man caught Rivera’s attention. Her staring at him caught his as well, she wasn’t aware Radiance had people on Earth studying this. He approached her, taking in the same sights of the blackened hole they all stood in.

“Crazy isn’t it?” the Rabuabin said to her, and then looked on at the ruins. “To think these were all found after the orbital strikes hit.”

Remains of an underground bunker in the distance caught her eyes. She pointed at it. “What is this?”

The Rabuabin man’s gaze followed her index finger. “People here were hoping you could tell us with the data you pulled from the Carl Sagan,” he said. “The Earth’s military is tightlipped about what happened on the mountains prior to the orbital strikes.”

“I found glyphs that matched the ones here, meaning that the tomb of Tiamat we found in Sirius is directly related to this,” Rivera said. Though she never found it, that data was simply given to her by a crazy AI. “I’m more curious about what you said earlier. What did prompt the UNE to blast these mountains of all places?”

“You don’t point ion cannons at mountains, mountains on Earth at that, and pull the trigger,” the Rabuabin man said. “We heard that the Draconians were in the region before the ion cannon strikes. The Draconians must have known this structure was buried inside and came to dig it up. Maybe they already did, but the humans obliterated the evidence.”

“What do we know about the inside of it?”

He used his HNI and conjured a detailed holographic map of the area and pictures made by the first teams to venture into the interior of the fallen structure.

“Not much,” he continued. “Humans sent recon drones inside to take a few pictures, then some teams to poke around. Because of the ion cannon strike, most of the clues had been damaged beyond recognition, except for a broken dragon statue and glyphs like the ones you discovered. Well, according to my boss at least. I’m not an archeologist.”

Rivera viewed the projection and the orbiting holo photos closely. Her face lurched closer to the projection. The all too familiar crumbled walls, ceilings, and floors of the underground bunker below them matched what she briefly observed in the data Foster and her team brought back from Sirius.

The Rabuabin man grimaced. “Something caught your eye?”

“These walls,” Rivera said, pointing at them and the crude drawings of rows of dragon statues. “There was a structure at Sirius that looked similar to this.”

“Lyonria … on Earth,” he said, stroking his clean-shaven face as his tail swayed slower. “My boss says they experimented with humans during ancient times. But there’s never been any signs they built bases on Earth.”

“That’s because nobody cracked open a mountain to see what was on the inside.” Rivera snickered. “And I doubt these are Lyonria. I was in one of their structures at Sirius, they didn’t look like this. There was a distinct difference from that, Tiamat’s tomb, and this place.”

“I’ve heard about that,” he said. “But my boss insists that there were two different generations of Lyonria that were in the galaxy—”

“That’s because there are!” an agitated voice yelled at the two from behind.

The two spun on their heels. Rivera looked ahead and saw no one, the Rabuabin man looked down, and she followed his eyes and saw a Vorcambreum woman. Her dwarflike body was four feet, her head, full of silver hair covering her large ears, looked up at the two, both her hands holding onto her hips.

“Rivera, let me introduce you to my boss, Eicelea,” he said.

“Nice to meet you,” Rivera said, lowering her hand for a shake. “I’m Jasmine Rivera, an IESA engineer.”

“IESA engineer?” Eicelea retorted. “Why would they send someone like you here?”

Rivera placed her hands on her hips to match Eicelea’s stance. “Why would the UNE ask Radiance to come here?”

“You don’t know who I am?” Eicelea gasped, her yellow eyes opened wide. “I am the great Eicelea, galactic-renowned archaeologist from Radiance.”

“Impressive, I can see why they asked you then.” She lied, she really didn’t know. Rivera’s head tilted left to right, looking at the ruins, the teams of researchers scanning and studying. “Something tells me these weren’t built by human hands, even though this is Earth.”

“Quite literally, in some way,” said Sarpanit.

“So! Now that we’ve established why it’s vital that I must be here,” Eicelea said. “Why is it that you must be here?”

“She’s one of the sleepins from the Carl Sagan, boss,” the Rabuabin said.

Eicelea looked up at him. “Oh, and I suppose she told you that, Vynei?”

Vynei, the Rabuabin man nodded. He pushed an HNI conjured holo screen at Eicelea, Rivera noticed it had her name on it. “I did some research when I saw her arrive. We were chatting earlier about the discoveries too.”

“Carl Sagan …” Eicelea’s yellow eyes narrowed as she stroked the grey flesh on her chin. “That would be the ship Captain Foster was in command of. And that Doctor Pierce … ugh, you know of them, Jasmine?”

“Of course—”

“Oh, why do the Gods do this to me?!” Eicelea threw her hands up frantically, moving away from the two. “Why am I the only archaeologist in the galaxy that has threats pushed at me? Can the Gods not allow me to visit a dig site, study the ruins, and leave with my adrenaline levels at normal rates?!”

Eicelea stormed off stomping, vanishing behind several personnel and extracted stone objects from the ground.

“Was it something I said?” Rivera asked Vynei.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck; our most recent one was the ruins found on Jacobus.”

“Vynei!” Eicelea shouted to him from wherever she waddled to. “Watch my back; I don’t trust that human or the hexes she brings from the Carl Sagan!”

“I should go,” Vynei said. “Nice talking to you, Jasmine.”

“Personal bodyguard?” she asked as he moved to catch up with Eicelea.

Vynei faced her briefly to say. “Like I said, we always run into bad luck when we explore ancient ruins.”

When Vynei moved out of sight, Sarpanit began to vocalize words again into Rivera’s mind. “I was starting to wonder when they would shut up.”

“I was starting to enjoy the silence,” Rivera said drily. “So, what are we looking for?”

“That over there.” Sarpanit directed her across the crater to a damaged statue. Rivera stood ahead of it, scanning it with her HNI’s built-in EAD. Sarpanit read the data that displayed over Rivera’s eyes, namely the ancient hieroglyphics.

“Do you know what they mean?” she asked.

“This place used to belong to Tiamat until Marduk conquered it and turned it into a trophy lock up,” Sarpanit said. “There should be an altar close by with a valuable item on it.”

“The bunker maybe?”

“Hmm, yes it might be there,” Sarpanit said. “Everything you see here was originally used to decorate the outside of the shrine.”

Rivera walked to the entrance of the bunker. Feelings of guilt started to wrap around her thoughts. She was, after all, assisting a force that murdered people she cared for, a force that brought pain, tears, and negative vibes. She told herself repeatedly that she was only doing this to prevent further loss of life, starting with hers.

Cracked stairs led them inside, holo lights flashed on illuminating the pitch-black paths of the forgotten catacombs. The altar was found at the end, too bad there was nothing on it.

“It’s gone,” Rivera said out loud.

“It’s gone,” Eicelea called out to her from behind. “Because I had it removed for further study if that’s what you’re looking for.”

Rivera’s holo flashlight found Eicelea and Vynei standing near the entrance to the altar’s room.

Sarpanit groaned. “Ask her where exactly.”

“Sarpanit, what are we looking for?—”

“Do as I say!” the AI Goddess snapped with rage.

“Where exactly did you have it moved to?” she reluctantly asked Eicelea.

“It’s being studied in a temporary outpost in one of your cities. Baghdad, I believe it’s called,” Eicelea said. “Do not worry, human, it will not leave this planet, your government won’t allow that, much to my disappointment.”

“Baghdad …” Rivera whispered to herself. She felt her HNI conduct a number of internet searches without her consent, all of them bringing up webpages about the city of Baghdad, its location and history.

“Of all the places … why there?” Sarpanit moaned. “This could be catastrophic to this planet should the Draconians return.”

Sarpanit, as devious as she was, was no ally of the Draconians, and obviously wasn’t a member of the wipe-out-all-humans club either. In some way, she was there to help, though her aid would come at a cost, devotion to Marduk, quite possibly undoing all the work Rivera and the Carl Sagan’s crew performed in Sirius.

“If you want me to be loyal and help you,” Rivera asked the AI in her head. “Can you at least tell me everything I need to know?”

“Tiamat’s breastplate was stored in this bunker,” Sarpanit said. “It was the only thing of value inside, now this Vorcambreum took it.”

“She’s most likely trying to study it; she’s an archaeologist after all.”

“Or could be secretly an agent for the dragons. It would make sense as to why she had it brought to Baghdad.”

“What’s the big deal about Baghdad?”

A satellite map of Baghdad appeared over Rivera’s eyes. “Baghdad is where the city of Babylon used to be a great many years ago.”

“And?”

“There’s an artifact buried there, one of many the Draconians are searching for,” Sarpanit explained. “Gathering them in one location will only make the Draconians job easier should they return. That Vorcambreum, she could study it anywhere, yet she chose to have it flown over there to study it? She’s making an offering to the Draconians. You and I will need to put an end to it.”

Rivera began to make her way out. Eicelea and Vynei were still there, probably wondering why she was standing there having an internal conversation with herself.

“If what you say is true, then let’s tell the UNE,” Rivera said.

“What will you tell them?” Sarpanit laughed. “That the AI in your head told you so?”

“Well …”

“Fabricate what story you wish,” Sarpanit said. “But they won’t believe you without proof. I’m that proof, and I still wish to remain in the shadows.”

Rivera’s body partially froze. Sarpanit’s control was at it again. The AI Goddess forced her to look at Eicelea and Vynei.

“On second thought, befriend them,” Sarpanit said deviously. “Convince her to take you to Baghdad, and this outpost she speaks of.”

19 Karklosea

Large Hut

Old Aryile Tree City, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 15:33 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Lord Commander, I was not informed you would be here.”

Karklosea grunted softly at the sound of Jainuzei’s voice and his unexpected arrival. She kept the blade of her redeemer close to the neck of her captured target, Dienei. She tracked his HNI communication coordinates to the ancient Aryile tree city, infiltrating the group’s secret hideout within the now-burning jungles.

She secured a data crystal from a small portable computer station Dienei had stood at after she forced him to his knees. She felt Jainuzei’s eyes on her when she slipped the crystal in her armor’s storage compartment.

Various computers, weapons, and supplies had been hastily packed up in the large hut they all stood, in preparation for evacuation she figured. The forest fires were set to turn the tree city into ashes soon. Given the disorganized state of the hut with its cargo crates still open, and unpacked weapons scattered across the floor, she guessed the group’s evacuation had been a last-minute decision. That was until someone from elsewhere stormed the city and started shooting. Looking at Jainuzei lowering his rifle, Karklosea was able to put together exactly who that someone was.

“Stand down, Jainuzei,” she bellowed to him. “I have this under control.”

Jainuzei didn’t stand down. He moved forward, eying Dienei’s surrendering body up and down. There was anger burning in Jainuzei’s eyes. Dienei was long overdue for an age rollback gene therapy having spent Gods knows how many months living in the jungles. His graying beard and rough appearance was proof of that.

The previously shut door to the hut exploded, sending tiny fragments of splinters past Jainuzei and Karklosea. Neither flinched, Dienei wanted to, but Karklosea’s glowing psionic blade had ways of making men stay put.

Three humans entered the hut armed with various types of rifles. One was a psionic if Karklosea were to guess by her skintight armor and a web of wires and cybernetics meshed into it and her body. The others, a human male, wore a UNE military uniform, oddly enough, no combat armor, as with the human woman with him. She held a rifle that didn’t look like it was made by human, Hashmedai, or Radiance hands. On that note of hands, parts of her hands glowed blue due to strange glyphs etched onto them—

It was Rebecca Foster.

It took Karklosea a few seconds, but she recognized the face from the human newsfeeds that were broadcast into the knowledge network. This was the woman that was placed in command of the Kepler, the woman Karklosea prayed day and night that would come and rid the galaxy of the dragons.

What was she, these two other humans, and Jainuzei doing here? It wasn’t safe for them, Foster especially. They walked into the main hideout of the Soldiers of Marduk, a fanatic cult of revolutionaries that viewed Foster as something to be sacrificed to their God Marduk. Foster needed to leave at once before they realized who she was. And Karklosea? She needed to leave with Dienei and the intel he had in his HNI, assuming Jainuzei would let her do that.

The human male spoke, Karklosea wasn’t sure which of the many human languages it was. But the tone of his voice sounded urgent enough to make Foster, he and her psionic crew member leave the hut. There must have been another wave of the Marduk cultists about to enter the fray.

“Dienei …” Jainuzei said. “Why am I not surprised to see you here?” Jainuzei saw right through Dienei’s vastly different appearance.

Dienei’s eyes shifted beyond Karklosea’s glowing redeemer blade. “That’s a question I should be asking you, Jainuzei.”

Jainuzei moved closer to the two. Karklosea held her hand out to him and prepared to swing her redeemer at Jainuzei if worst came to. “Jainuzei,” she said. “Stand down, he’s—”

“A dishonorable man!” Jainuzei’s furious voice yelled, before throwing a magnetic pistol at Dienei. “Do the right thing and bring what little honor you can to your pitiful existence.”

The pistol fell at Dienei’s knees. Karklosea’s redeemer blade remained near his neck. Jainuzei’s rifle rose up, who he was aiming at, she couldn’t see. She was more concerned about what Dienei’s next move was. If he was quick, he could arm himself and aim the gun at her. And if Jainuzei was secretly working with the Marduk cultists, which could very well be possible, then Karklosea would be faced with two enemies with guns pointed at her.

In the background, explosions and weapons fire crackled through the air outside. Foster and her team had met heavy resistance. There were too many ways the standoff could go wrong and not enough ways it could go right.

The first wrong thing happened, Dienei armed himself with the pistol. No, Jainuzei armed Dienei with the pistol. This was intentional. She was close to the truth. And Jainuzei couldn’t let that happen.

She hesitated to slash Dienei’s neck. In the end, she needed to take him alive. It was that hesitation that gave him the chance to escape and lean backward, creating a wider gap between her. She rose her left arm up, ensuring her shimmering psionic shield protected her body from the spray of bullets that came next. The shield flashed purple six times in rapid succession.

Jainuzei’s rifle fired next. There was no need for Karklosea to block his bullets with her shield.

“Why did you do that?!” Karklosea screamed at Jainuzei, after rising up and away from Dienei’s unmoving body painting the wooden floors red. There was no point in trying to recover his HNI. His head was gone, turned into dark red pieces of flesh spread out all over the floor.

“He was going to shoot you,” Jainuzei said, lowering his smoking weapon.

“Yes, with the weapon you armed him with!”

“I was merely giving him a way out. Take his own life to repent his actions against the Gods.”

“That’s for me to decide! This was my investigation!”

“This?” Jainuzei’s hand waved about at the half packed up secret base which was quickly filling with smoke from the flames outside. “This was my mission, not a Templar’s. Your duty is to defend and enforce the law, my duty is to attack.”

“I am defending,” she spat. “I’m defending the council from future attacks by Marduk cultists!”

Jainuzei grimaced at her comment. “Marduk cultists?”

“Don’t be coy; you know what’s going on here.”

The three humans returned inside the hut once the sounds of the gunfight outside came to an end. The smoke from the fires obscured the ceiling of the hut, and Karklosea could see a lot more red and orange colors from behind the blasted open door than she did minutes ago. The flames were moving fast, the Gods were angry and had little intention of sparing anyone tonight.

“Captain Foster has a transport beyond the jungles waiting,” Jainuzei said, translating Foster’s human words for her. “Please gather with us, this psionic will teleport us back to it.”

Karklosea’s mission was over. The hideout was minutes away from being turned into ash, most, if not all the cultists, fled the flames or were dead, including one of their supposed leaders, Dienei. Karklosea reluctantly stepped forward and watched the human psionic’s body glow brightly with psionic energy while her eyes shut to focus. Karklosea used to be able to perform long-range teleports. Sometimes she missed those days and teaching her apprentice psionics under her how to master their powers.

The mystifying blue waves of psionic teleportation light surrounded them and began the process of taking them apart and putting them back together at wherever the humans parked their transport.

That was until a falling burning tree crashed into the hut. Karklosea knew from past experience that the moment a psionic user lost focus, say from the loud thud of a falling tree and a collapsing and burning hut, they’d be unable to perform their abilities correctly, or at all. In the case of the human psionic part of Foster’s team, the crashing tree prevented her from teleporting everyone away.

At least, that’s what she assumed after awakening on the jungle’s warm ground.

Karklosea rose to her feet and coughed several times as the smell of burning wood entered her lungs. She was surrounded by the orange-red blaze that worked hard to turn the jungles into smoldering ash. Looking up, she saw what remained of the large hut, half of it broken apart when the tree fell, and if she didn’t move out of the way, the rest of it would crush her.

She found her redeemer in the mess of burning debris from the now-dead tree city and then activated her armor’s helmet. State of the art nanomachines went to work, creating her helmet seemingly out of thin air. Once activated, it linked with her HNI, feeding her warnings of the growing temperatures around her, the presence of the fire, and that she had less than an hour of air left. She never did refill her oxygen tank within her armor as she wasn’t planning on going into space … or walking through a burning jungle.

She went to make her escape, hoping the path back to her transport was still clear. A holographic map of the jungles flashed inside of her helmet, red flashing blobs were the flames, and they had consumed the small clearing she had landed in. She followed the map to a section of the jungles that remained free of fires, for now.

When she was five minutes out from the clearing, a voice called out to her, she couldn’t understand them. It had to have been someone speaking a human language. She faced the source of the voice, and a soot-covered Foster ran to her, waving her hands with her strange alien made rifle slung over her shoulders.

The wildlife of the forest ran past the two, seeking the non-burning jungle patch she was in. The number of creatures fleeing had increased in size, meanwhile, Foster’s human words continued. She was speaking loud, using various hand gestures to communicate. She was doing it at the worst possible time.

Three Dokadens quickly moved their heads from left to right, scanning with their predatory eyes for the sounds Foster was making. Dokadens were at the top of the food chain in the jungles, and the source of horror stories the Aryile told their children for as long as the Aryile had learned how to speak. They stood on two legs, had no arms, not that it mattered, their speed, agility, and vicious hunting ability more than made up for it. Then there were their large jaws and teeth that could end the life of anything that found its way inside it.

Karklosea drew her redeemer imbuing it with psionic power, as with her wrist mounted psionic shield and took up a position between Foster and the three beasts. She figured Foster understood the danger they were in, because her rifle came to rise up, and she began to scream ‘fuck’ repeatedly. Fuck was the only word in English Karklosea knew. Like most people, the curse words were the first ones learned. The second word Foster yelled as she pointed at the charging Dokadens was, ‘raptors,’ whatever that meant.

The Dokadens leaped for Karklosea first, her psionic shield rose to the task of deflecting its biting jaws. Foster’s rifle fired, it launched energy beams that looked exactly like the ones Draconian soldiers used, none of them hit, however, the Dokadens were too fast for her. It was impossible though, nobody in the Union had been able to use captured Draconian weapons. Biometric lockouts prevented it. How was Foster able to? Did she have dragon blood in her body?

Karklosea stood her ground, swinging her redeemer when the chance came, vaporizing gashes across the leathery flesh of the Dokadens when a slash connected or retreating behind her shield when their jaws lunged forward. Whenever one looked to Foster, Karklosea roared loudly with her blade in the air, goading them to focus on her. Karklosea had the armor, psionic shield, and telekinetic thrusts and pulls, the Dokadens needed to attack her. Foster needed to shoot them when their backs were to her.

After two minutes, the duo was down to one Dokaden as Foster managed to vaporize one that ignored Karklosea, despite her best efforts. Dokadens however always hunted in groups, the lone one fled back into the darkened clearing of trees, the clearing the two needed to venture to. It wasn’t safe to push forward, and it wasn’t safe to return back to the orange and red glowing devastation from behind.

Karklosea and Foster took their chance in the clearing and used long-dormant animal instincts to keep watch as they moved through the thick tropical trees and vines that had yet to be burned by the incoming flames. Karklosea hoped that human natural instincts were similar to Linl, given the nearly identical physical features both Linl and humans had.

Foster came to a sudden stop. Karklosea pushed on her back to keep her moving. They couldn’t afford to stand still. It’d make them a perfect target for more Dokadens, plus the flames from behind were bound to catch up sooner or later.

Karklosea heard exactly why Foster came to a stop. Looking to her left and right were six Dokadens, and one of them bore the deep psionic burns her redeemer had made. The Dokadens hunted in groups, and they kindly reminded Karklosea of that as all six leaped at her, throwing her violently to the ground. Some had been launched away with telekinetic pushes, but not enough. They all took turns biting at her armor, and eventually crushed her helmet.

The galaxy turned red and black.

20 Rivera

Eicelea’s Camp

Baghdad, Earth, Sol System

November 1, 2118, 17:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

As much as Rivera hated to say it, but Eicelea was a bitch, plain and simple. She was also very easy to sway when you promised her information nobody else had pertaining to archeology.

Sarpanit fed Rivera just enough for her to tell Eicelea what she knew about the structure in the mountains, being shrines Marduk, during his time on Earth, took over to store the Tiamat relics. Eicelea was none the wiser, believing Rivera was just reading the data pulled from Tiamat’s tomb, acquired from Foster and Nereid when they found its central computer.

Rivera was only half telling the truth, Sarpanit had that data, and she controlled when and how it would be used. Fragments of that knowledge were being used as currency, and it bought Rivera and Sarpanit a trip to Eicelea’s camp in the southern region of Baghdad.

She followed Eicelea and Vynei into a tent outside of the park where the Dragon Maiden had drilled a deep pit with psionic energy. The trip from the mountains to Baghdad wasn’t long, a brisk five-minute transport ride, followed by a six-minute walk from the landing pad.

Tables, chairs, and portable computers of Radiance design were arranged in no particular order inside the large tent. Eicelea led Rivera to the back of the tent where a large glass tube lay. Inside was the breastplate, outside were automated scanning drones studying its composition, relaying the data to various computers for Eicelea to work on.

Rivera stood ahead of the glass tube, admiring the ancient artifact in it. The breastplate floated to the middle of the tube via antigravity emitters built on the side.

She saw Eicelea’s reflection on the glass grimace. “So, if what you are saying is true …” Eicelea slowly spoke. “This once belonged to Tiamat?”

Rivera nodded. “To my understanding, yes.”

“You may be right in that regard,” Eicelea said. “This relic was not forged by the hands of ancient humans, not with the cybernetics within it.”

Eicelea waved Rivera to the holo screens of one of the computers receiving data from the drone scans. It showed a digitized image of the breastplate, there were wires and data ports within the aged armor. It was a piece of powered armor more so than normal body armor.

“The Draconians must have been attempting to recover it,” Eicelea said.

“I think they were.” All eyes were on Vynei when he stepped closer to speak. “I had some old friends from the Radiance navy that now work with Souyila,” he said. “Some of them were aboard the Abyssal Comet when it was in orbit of Earth. They stayed in orbit on purpose to spy on the humans combating the Draconian forces. The Abyssal Comet learned of what was happening in the mountains. The Dragon Knights were there, and one of them was using a lot of psionic energy until they got interrupted.”

Rivera’s lips twisted. “Interrupted by what?”

“Tolukei and scholar Odelea,” Vynei said. “They made an unauthorized teleport into the area around the same time the Dragon Knights did. Maybe the Dragon Knights knew there was a bunker in the mountains and were trying to tunnel into it.”

“Tunnel into it with a psionic drilling beam …” Rivera’s face shifted to the exit, looking out into the park ahead and the holographic barriers around it informing people not to enter. “Like the one they used in the park here.”

“Exactly!” Eicelea jubilantly yelled. “The UNE from there used the ion cannons before they completed their drilling and unearthed the bunker accidentally.”

Only, something didn’t quite add up. Rivera looked up at the tall brawny Rabuabin. “Vynei, earlier you sounded like you didn’t know what was going on in the mountains?”

“Sorry about that,” he said. “All that happened last summer, I didn’t make the connection until now. My boss is the smart one, I just shoot things.”

“I really wish you had told me this earlier,” Eicelea said to him. “We could have made much more progress.”

“Was busy thanking the Gods for letting us survive the Kapteyn’s Star system attack,” Vynei said drily.

“That pit in the park has been there since the invasion,” Rivera said. “Has anybody explored it yet?”

“No one living,” Eicelea said. “It’s a deep pit, over six kilometers deep. Drones had been sent down, only for contact to be lost once they neared the bottom.”

“Can’t send signals through six kilometers of solid rock,” Rivera said. “Only up through the hole it went down. If it’s as narrow as it looks, then once the drone moves away from the hole as it ventures in, the signal will be lost instantly.”

“That’s the conclusion many of us came to …” Eicelea said. “Either that, or there’s something else at work. The Dragon Maiden did create and enter that hole, never to be seen exiting from it.”

“She attacked us at Sirius,” Rivera said. “And I’m pretty sure that was after she disappeared into that pit.”

“Maybe there’s two of them?” Vynei suggested.

“There are two of them!” Eicelea spat at him.

“I mean two Dragon Maidens, boss.”

“Tell me, human,” Eicelea said, her gaze shifting back up to Rivera. “Would it be possible for you to sway anyone out here to allow us to enter first? Nobody has been allowed to enter because of the loss of the exploration drones.”

“The best I could do is drop Foster’s name,” Rivera revealed. “She has the authority to carry out her mission anyway she sees fit and I’m part of her crew. I might be able to convince the people necessary to make that happen. Already managed to get this far with the data I recovered from the Carl Sagan.”

“Do it, please,” Eicelea said, rubbing her tiny grey hands together. “You will be in my debt, human.”

Eicelea and Vynei left Rivera alone in the tent to grab food and water. A much-needed thing, given the long day she had so far, and what was to come. As she sat in a chair reading the data about the breastplate, and waiting for the two to return, she heard the heckling laughter of the AI Goddess in her HNI.

“Excellent,” Sarpanit said. “I didn’t even need to order you to do that. You will make a fine loyal worshipper.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” Rivera said drily.

“Nevertheless, this Vorcambreum woman is rather eager to enter and collect the artifact within and make her offering to the Draconians. We are now in the position to stop her.”

Rivera would rather die than willfully bring harm to another. She’d go along with the plan as far as checking out the ruins to learn what the Dragon Maiden was up to. Killing Eicelea? Sarpanit would have to figure out how to do that on her own after she shut down Rivera’s nervous system if it came to that.

The rotating holographic projection of the interior of Tiamat’s breastplate shined across Rivera’s face. She grimaced back at it. “What’s the big deal about this?”

“Look at it closer,” Sarpanit said. “That relic is quite possibly the most advanced piece of technology currently on this planet. You saw what the Draconians did with what they had; just imagine what they could do when they get this and others.”

“Is it a weapon or something?”

“On its own? No,” Sarpanit revealed. “When back in the possession of Tiamat? Yes.”

“Good thing Tiamat is dead.”

“She can be brought back. And if the Draconians are searching for this breastplate and the remaining artifacts, then they figured out how to do it.”

21 Foster

Eastern Poeia Jungles

Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 17:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“LeBoeuf, now would be a good time!”

Foster’s wrist terminal had taken damage during her fall from the hut. Its flickering holo screen had just activated after being silent and dim for so long. She watched helplessly as the six armless raptors of the jungles continued to maul the space knight Linl that helped her get this far.

Her tachyon rifle had long lowered. The space knight and armless raptors were too close to one another. Tachyon rifles had two settings, kill and vaporize. She wasn’t going to risk it, not while the raptors were so close to her body.

Static played on Foster’s fractured wrist terminal. She was glad to hear it. “ … Captain … stand …”

Foster took aim, shooting toward, but not at, the raptors, hoping the tachyon beams and their blasts from hitting the ground would draw their attention away. The six beasts remained chomping away at the Linl’s armor, peeling sections of it away with the impressive strength of their jaws. Foster lined up her rifle’s sight, this time targeting one of the raptors. She couldn’t bear the horror any longer. She had to do something. The woman risked her life for her and was now paying the price. Just like Chevallier.

Blue light flashed. It was bright enough to brighten the night covered jungle trees and bushes around her. When the light faded, LeBoeuf’s body appeared from a psionic teleportation and ran forward. Foster’s damaged wrist terminal must have broadcasted her location to the group.

“Captain!” LeBoeuf said, holding onto Foster’s shoulder.

Foster shrugged her off. “We’s gotta help her!” She gestured to the pack of armless raptors. “Believe it or not, there’s a space knight under that heap of a mess there!”

LeBoeuf’s bracelets twirled around her wrist glowing red as her implants and armor lit up with blue radiating light. LeBoeuf pushed her hands forward, sending a wide telekinetic push that made all six raptors fly backward, and at least three of them slammed into the huge trunk of a tree. Her hands then commanded the space knight’s body and sword to pull back toward them. Foster didn’t get the chance to look at how bad her body had been mauled. The six raptors got to their feet, roared, and then charged at them.

LeBoeuf’s psionic rifle fired, using cryonic rounds when her psionic powers flowed into the rifle’s barrel. The raptors that were hit crystallized into ice, a telekinetic push sent the newly formed ice sculptures back into the raptors behind, toppling them over when the frozen raptors shattered across their faces.

There was one raptor moving after that, and like the one before, it ran off likely to grab more hunting friends. LeBoeuf’s rifle made it snap freeze in place, and a quick flick of her hands made the frozen beast lift twenty feet in the air, only for gravity to take hold of it. It sounded like someone smashed a dinner plate on the floor when it landed and shattered.

There were no further threats from what the two were able to see. LeBoeuf was free to focus and teleport back to the transport.

Transport

En route to Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 17:37 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Daylight was returning to the skies, making the Kepler’s transport shine as it emerged from the clouds. The massive city of Veromacon built on five disks floated in the skies, expanding in size on the transport’s windshield when they neared. Foster’s reflection upstaged it when she entered the cockpit, sitting next to Chang.

“Hey, Cap’n, can I make a suggestion?” he asked her.

“Shoot.”

“Can we like, never do that again?”

She snickered. “Ground missions too much for you?”

“Hey, now, you two would have been screwed if I wasn’t there.” He wasn’t wrong about that. LeBoeuf played more of a defensive role during the opening attacks. Chang’s shooting was much appreciated. “But, you’re the captain and you got those weird tattoos. We can’t afford to lose you.”

“Ain’t got much of a choice. We’s a skeleton crew. One that’s a helluva lot smaller than the Carl Sagan.”

“Maxwell? Miles?”

“Ain’t playing nice, I made ‘em sit in the corner,” she said. “Though, it would have been a lot less stressful if they had tagged along.”

Foster reached into her pocket, searched around until she found and pulled out a data crystal, stained red from the Linl space knight’s blood. Chang took his eyes off his flying, eying the same data crystal Foster held out and peered at it.

“What do you got there, Cap?”

“That space knight dropped this when LeBoeuf went to patch up her wounds in the back,” Foster said. “Probably ain’t any of our business to poke around and see what’s on it. But I’d like to know why she was there at a hideout that Jainuzei was only supposed to know about.”

“Where is he, by the way?”

Foster looked back, grinned, then returned to face Chang. “Jainuzei’s still in the rear cabin. I’m guessin’ he too wasn’t expecting her.”

Foster shut and locked the cockpit’s entrance, then inserted the data crystal into the forward dashboard. A small projection flashed, listing its files all written in the Radiance language. Nothing on it made any sense to the two humans other than a holographic projection that appeared when Foster accessed one file.

“Looks like a nebula,” Chang commented.

Foster nodded and made a puzzled glare at the floating projection of a nebula in space. When she zoomed in on the holographic nebula, blurry images of what looked like an object was adrift within its center.

“Odelea’s gonna earn her pay today,” Foster said.

A fist banged on the door, it was too hard of a knock for LeBoeuf to be making. Foster quickly had the data crystal’s contents transmitted back to the Kepler, then removed it and opened the door, putting on a nothing-to-see-here face.

Jainuzei appeared when the door slid open. “Why was this door locked?” he asked.

“Uh,” Foster said, looking up at the imposing Aryile man. “Was uh, sharing a secret with Chang here.”

Jainuzei’s eyes narrowed. “What sort of secrets?”

“My grandfather’s secret barbecue sauce recipe!”

“Oh, yeah, uh totally!” Chang jumped in. “Her grandfather is from Texas, and I’ll tell you what, those Texas folks don’t like to share those sauce recipes.”

“Yeah! So that’s why the door was locked and shut.”

He wasn’t buying it judging by the scowling on his face. Whatever, this ain’t his damn transport. “What can we do for you, Jainuzei?”

“Karklosea was supposed to have a data crystal on her,” he said. “I wanted to know if you saw it?”

“Karklosea?”

“The Linl woman that defended you on the surface.”

“Oh, the space knight. Yeah, don’t know anything about that. She might have dropped it back in the jungles.”

“Templar,” Jainuzei corrected her. “They are tasked with suppressing criminal activity and taking on defense roles throughout the Union.”

“So, she’s a policewoman?” Chang asked.

Jainuzei nodded to him. “That would be the human way of saying it.” Jainuzei pushed past Foster sitting up front next to Chang, his eyes zoomed in on the data crystal slot Foster had used earlier. Her forehead moistened with sweat. “It would be most unfortunate if the crystal was lost, by the way,” Jainuzei continued. “We did not capture anyone; the council will not get the answers they seek.”

“Well,” Foster said. “You could just tell ‘em everything you know, starting with how you knew of their hideout.”

“Tell me, Foster,” he said to her. “Why do … Texas humans keep their sauce recipes secret?”

“’Cause that shit is damn good. Don’t want the whole world to know it and make it for themselves.”

“Well then, you should understand my position. I can’t have the council, let alone the galaxy, know of my secret. They may … use it for themselves. I cannot allow that to happen.”

The transport arrived back at Veromacon. The landing platform the Kepler remained at to be exact. Chang carefully piloted the transport back inside the Kepler via its opened entry ramp into the cargo bay. By the time the transport came to a rest inside, LeBoeuf had performed a jump port with the body of the space knight, Karklosea, bringing her into sickbay. Kostelecky had been given the heads-up earlier that they were coming in hot with a critically wounded Linl.

Outside the Kepler stood Ienthei and Queenea and their personal ranger bodyguards, waiting for the return of Foster and Jainuzei. She put a pair of shades on and stepped outside into the searing heat of the bright sun to meet them with Jainuzei at her side.

“Excellent work, Captain,” Ienthei said. “You … volunteering to help us out will be mentioned to the rest of the council, you have my word.”

“I see nobody in bindings,” Queenea added.

“Everyone is dead,” Foster said. “There were complications plus a fire that ran through the AO.”

“That is unfortunate,” Ienthei said. He sounded almost like his father, minutes earlier. “Were you able to obtain any intel, Captain?”

“Saw some computers in their main hut, but all that got trashed before we could get to it,” Foster said. “We did, however, pick up a—”

“Lot of combat experience,” Jainuzei finished for her, though, those weren’t the words Foster was looking for.

What she wanted to say was, pick up a wounded Linl named Karklosea. Jainuzei’s smug grin needed no further explanation as to why he said that. She played along, hoping it was the right call, one that would see the Kepler off the ground and soon. If there were any survivors from the group they attacked, they’d probably be planning to hit the Kepler next. Being in space was going to make that next to impossible to her understanding and from what she saw. People who fought wearing robes couldn’t afford spaceships.

“So, what about our father?” Queenea said, gesturing to Jainuzei.

“Seems legit, didn’t backstab us,” Foster said. “That’s about it though.”

“Excellent,” Ienthei said.

“Indeed,” Jainuzei said. “Captain Foster is most impressive for a woman that isn’t in the military.” With a warm smile, Jainuzei faced his twin children. “Ienthei, Queenea, you two have done much whilst I have been gone. I’m proud of you both.”

“So we’s good?” Foster asked.

“Yes, Captain,” Ienthei said. “We just need to finalize Saressea’s replacement, and you will be free to continue after we’ve voted on it in the morning. And we will vote yes.”

The morning, it was too many hours for her to stand around and wait. The crew would be sleeping with the shields up and on alert status until they left orbit.

“Thanks for getting us back on our feet.”

Foster stepped back aboard the Kepler, removing her shades in the process. As the entry ramp rose to close shut, she went for the cargo bay’s intercom.

“Kostelecky, let me know when our guest is ready to speak,” she said, looking down at the data crystal she pulled out from her pocket. “She’s got some ‘splaining to do.”

She noticed the blood on the crystal was leaving its red marks on her fingers. It was still fresh. A worried feeling hit her in the gut, and she darted back into the transport and into the cockpit. Looking down, she took a closer look at the data crystal slot she had used. There was a small but noticeable smear of red around its edges.

Red Jainuzei no doubt saw when he had entered the cockpit, asking about the data crystal.

22 Rivera

Southern District Park

Baghdad, Earth, Sol System

November 1, 2118, 20:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The approval to enter the cavernous pit in the park was met with a resounding yes from IESA higher ups, and with the UNE government, hours after it was made. After a meal and hydration, Rivera stood with Eicelea and Vynei, all three of them wearing EVA suits, while the night sky covered them and the city with darkness. It was questionable as to how much breathable air would exist that far down, and then there were the unpleasant temperatures.

The three stared down into the pit as HNI scans appeared over their eyesight in regard to the estimated depths. It was a long way down to the bottom where the Dragon Maiden allegedly jumped into and hadn’t been seen again, until her reappearance in Sirius. Multiple scenarios ran through Rivera’s head as to what could be down there. A miniature wormhole? Perhaps there was more than one Dragon Maiden, and the one that created this hole was still waiting, it would explain why all the drones suddenly stopped working.

Without a second thought, they made the plunge into the pit by entering the MRF enhanced drop pod. Its mass, and theirs, altered accordingly for the six-kilometer dive to the bottom, delivering them to the mysteries below, or potential loss of life of the three. Rivera took one last glance at the stars above and told herself dozens of times they’d be seeing them again when they return to the surface alive. After the twenty-fourth time, she actually believed it.

Three rays of lights beamed away from the helmets of their EVA suits. It got so dark Rivera couldn’t tell the difference between having her eyes shut and not. Partially vaporized rocks became a common sight during their travels down into the pit. Rivera’s HNI HUD reported that their ETA for a touchdown was another three and a half minutes.

The silence within the pod came to an end with everyone inside breathing a sigh of relief when it arrived at the bottom and its mass returned to normal. The first hurdle was cleared, survive the plunge, something all the drones failed to do. The pod’s doors slithered open with the touch of the holographic panel next to it. It was pitch-black on the outside until they stepped out of the pod, shining their helmet’s exterior lights into what appeared to have been a hollowed out underground cavern, one that had been there for centuries, millennia perhaps.

Rays of white light guided them in avoiding sudden death as they walked across a patterned walkway that stretched over a raised footbridge above a chasm. Ahead of them and the footbridge were dragon statues. Whoever built this also built the same structure found in the mountains and Tiamat’s tomb back at Sirius. It was no coincidence, someone was here on Earth during ancient times and built these, and the Draconians knew all about it. Their attack on Earth was to control these ruins. Paryo and Aervounis could very well have had ruins like these as they weren’t exclusive to Earth, they also appeared in Sirius. Sirius being the system Rivera and the crew of the Carl Sagan vanished from.

They neared the edge of the bridge, approaching two pillars that arched up from the ground. Rivera’s HNI scanned the design of the pillars on its own. Sarpanit was at work once again, there was something of interest about them.

“Wait here,” Sarpanit demanded.

Rivera complied with the AI Goddess wishes, allowing Eicelea and Vynei to walk forward. They gawked at the pillars for a moment as Rivera watched, allowing Sarpanit to do the same. The two moved forward, locking their sights on a golden monolithic structure that floated a meter above the surface when their lights illuminated it. Eicelea gasped loudly over the comms and trotted over to the monolith, waving her holographic EAD around it.

“Another one!” Eicelea yelled. “I take back everything negative I said about you, human, you are no curse. You are a good luck charm sent by the Gods!”

“I’m done here,” Sarpanit said. “Join your friends … I wish to know more about that monolith.”

“Umm, thanks?” Rivera said, and approached the monolith. It began to shine brightly. She had no choice but to shield her eyes from the brilliance of the monolith and the intensity of the light. Rivera took three steps backward.

The blinding light faded, restoring the three’s helmet headlights as the only source of light within the pitch-black ancient cavern with the golden monolith taking center stage.

“Intriguing …” Eicelea said, stepping around the monolith, eying its immaculate design untouched by the test of time. “Well, let us make the best of this situation, come, come! Let us get closer.”

Rivera did, and its light returned.

“Your moods change pretty quickly,” Rivera said to her.

Eicelea laughed. “How do you figure, human?”

“Out of all of us you were the most terrified,” Rivera said. “Now that we made an amazing discovery, it’s as if nothing happened.”

The closer Rivera got to the monolith, the more she had to shield her eyes. “Why does it seem to like me?” she asked.

“That is an excellent question,” Eicelea said as she ran her holographic EAD over Rivera’s body. “I don’t see anything that would indicate something anomalous with you. Then again neither did Foster, and the monolith she interacted with also reacted to her presence.”

“Maybe it only likes humans, boss?”

“Doctor Pierce is human; the monolith didn’t seem to take notice of him.”

“If you are seeking answers, I have none,” Sarpanit said.

“Aren’t you going to touch it, human?” Eicelea said to her.

Rivera shook her head. “I would prefer not to tinker with stuff I know nothing of.”

“Out of all of us you are able to make this light appear. This apparatus recognizes your presence,” Eicelea said. “We made it this far, why not push further and discover what makes you so special?”

Rivera’s hands were paralyzed with fear. Having an AI Goddess in her head that had no idea what they were dealing with wasn’t encouraging.

“Well go on, human, touch it,” Eicelea said, pushing against Rivera’s behind. “If you are afraid, rest assured that I will be right here recording and analyzing what happens next.”

Rivera looked back and behind at Eicelea. “And if I end up dead?”

“I will personally see to it your body will be preserved for future study. Rest assured your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

She went to touch the monolith; her hand trembled slightly as it neared. Other than its warm radiating surface, she felt and saw nothing.

“That’s it?”

“I guess I’m unworthy.”

“Again!”

Rivera repeated touching the monolith. She even took the time to keep her hands on it gliding it across its smooth surface and flawless design. The light from the monolith kept shining, but other than that nothing happened.

She took four steps back from the monolith facing Eicelea’s helmeted head. “Satisfied?”

Eicelea groaned. “I suppose so …”

Eicelea waved her hand, creating the holo screen for an EAD to appear. She moved her body around, taking scans, pictures, and videos of the cavern. Rivera sensed Sarpanit’s focus deeply on Eicelea.

“It would appear I was wrong about that Vorcambreum,” Sarpanit said. “The artifact is not here, and she was none the wiser about its existence.”

“How do you know that?”

“Look ahead.” Rivera saw the two she came down with walk past the two pillars, not caring about them after taking a quick holo picture. “The Eyes of Tiamat were kept there. If those two were here for it, they would have spent much more time searching for it, or already had been in possession of it. That and she insisted you touch the monolith, not herself.”

Rivera beamed. She and Eicelea got to live for another day. “So, you believe her story now?”

“For now … unfortunately,” Sarpanit said. “This means the Draconians have that artifact and are one step closer to our annihilation.”

She felt her chest become uneasy. “This is the part where you tell us how to stop it.”

A projection of a beautiful nebula appeared in Rivera’s virtual vision. “If they have the Eyes of Tiamat, they’ll be heading here searching for Kur.”

“Never seen that place, any idea of its coordinates?”

“If I knew the answer to that I would tell you.”

23 Karklosea

XSV Johannes Kepler, Parked at Veromacon Landing Pad

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

November 1, 2118, 21:34 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea wasn’t a newcomer when it came to near-death experiences. Her earliest memory of a time when her life came seconds away from death was during the Linl republic’s first battles against the Empire back when they weren’t part of the Union.

A Hashmedai guardian, using the tractor beam attachment on their plasma sword, had drawn her out of cover during an ambush. She was lunged nearly thirty feet across a war-torn foray into the grip of the Hashmedai. Being impaled by a plasma sword wasn’t as painful as one might imagine, especially when you black out from the injury moments later.

From that day forth Karklosea was a fighter. She had to be, her life depended on it as she lay motionless in the recovery room. And the Linl depended on strong people like her, someone that could take a blow like that, survive, recover and do it again.

So, when Karklosea finally awoke, she wasn’t surprised to learn she had survived being mauled by the carnivore wildlife of Aervounis’ jungles. The first thing her aching head heard when she awoke to the sounds of human made heart monitors were the alien words of the human language. Tilting her face to the side of the soft bed she recovered on, she saw a woman, a human dressed in a long white jacket, her hair was long and blonde, like Karklosea. It was the doctor she assumed.

The doctor exchanged a number of words with another, lying in a bed across whatever medical facility Karklosea ended up in, a human male with dark skin and a thin beard. Like Karklosea, he looked like he came close to meeting the Gods after a battle went wrong.

The pain returned to her body, and she went back to gazing up and remaining still and motionless. She saw the ceiling after that, human-crafted by the looks of it, the light wasn’t nearly as bright as Union made buildings and ships but wasn’t as dim as Imperial ones. And the temperatures, they were a bit on the chilly side, nothing she couldn’t handle, of course, being a Linl. But having spent the last several decades living on Aervounis and serving aboard Union ships, she had gotten quite used to the heat.

A sliding door nearby opened, where exactly, she wasn’t sure, just that she heard them open and shut, delivering one … no, two people into the medical facility. She listened closely, it was indeed two people. One of the footsteps was significantly softer than the other, she barely heard them.

A new voice spoke, also in a human language, it sounded like Captain Foster. When Karklosea mustered enough strength and will power to ignore the pain, she tilted her head to the source of the voice. It was Foster all right. Her sight was quickly upstaged by another who approached Karklosea, the person that Foster entered with, a young Aryile woman.

Karklosea recognized her. “Odelea?” her weakened voice said to her.

Odelea tugged at her hair, taking three seconds to reply, likely checking her HNI’s files to see if she recognized the battered Templar that lay on the bed. “Karklosea … it has been a while.”

Karklosea attempted to sit up and regretted it. It felt like her body was about to fall apart. “I presume this is Foster’s ship?”

“Yes, this is sickbay, you are on the Johannes Kepler,” Odelea said. “You were nearly killed defending Foster, she had you brought aboard.”

She snorted, looking at the human doctor Foster had been speaking with. “I guess I should be thankful we Linl have similar anatomies to humans.”

“Doctor Kostelecky studied xenobiology; she can operate on any species.”

“She the only doctor?”

“Yes, our crew is small, and unfortunately, is getting smaller.”

Foster finished speaking with Kostelecky and arrived next to Odelea, standing before Karklosea’s medical bed. The two exchanged words in the human language. Odelea nodded her head, and then faced down at Karklosea.

“The captain has some questions for you, Karklosea,” Odelea said.

“Of course she does. What does she wish to know?”

“She wishes to know why you were in the tree city when they arrived.”

Karklosea tried to access her HNI but saw nothing, not even an error screen. Her head injuries needed more time to heal and reconnect with the implant. She groaned, rubbing her forehead.

“Those that attacked the council,” Karklosea explained. “They were members of a group known as the Soldiers of Marduk.”

Odelea translated for Foster. When she was done, Foster let out a grunt that Karklosea could only imagine was a human curse word she didn’t know.

“The captain says that Marduk is a name that’s been popping up a lot since she became an explorer,” Odelea said. “And, me too since the Draconians made their first attacks.” There was a pause, the silence filled with beeps of the heart monitor and humming air recyclers. “Soldiers of Marduk. Since when were they armed and dangerous?”

Karklosea would have shrugged if her body wasn’t partially frozen by pain. “I don’t know, the Soldiers of Marduk have been known to us for years but were never violent.”

“Foster says: what she saw was hardly peaceful,” Odelea translated again. “She wants to know if something changed.”

“Their numbers have been increasing since the Draconian attacks. Other than us detaining their members, nothing else has changed. It’s just a cult we’ve been cracking down on.”

“She wants to know why they were arrested.”

She laughed. It felt good, making her forget about her growing headache. “Explain to the human captain our laws, Odelea. We all must offer praise to the three Gods. Not worshipping the Gods, or worse, praising another is against the law.”

The strict religious laws in the Union were amplified after the Celestial Order wars. Karklosea, being a veteran of the wars, personally bore witness to the sweeping changes the council and religious leaders across the Union ushered in to prevent fanatic cults who had a wildly different interpretation of the word of the Gods, from rising to power and murdering those that didn’t follow them.

“Foster is aware of our laws,” Odelea said. “And she knows about the Celestial Order. The Order was most likely the reason why the Abyssal Sword went missing and somehow drifted to Sirius.”

“Then she should know a cult rising to power and offering praise to Marduk isn’t just a serious crime, but a threat that, if left unchecked, could lead to a repeat of the Celestial Order conflict. Those who had been arrested were given fierce punishments.”

“A Marduk cult is a serious concern for her,” Odelea translated. “Marduk had a lot of Poniga and Undine praising him as their God, and at one point, ancient humans from Babylon.”

“And her expedition of the Sirius system would have been very short had Marduk’s followers there secured a victory over them.”

“All our lives would have been cut short if they had failed. Marduk wanted to control Earth, and then enslave Radiance and the Empire. Foster and the Carl Sagan stopped him and then removed his Poniga and Undine followers.”

“While giving their enemies the power to rise up and take control,” Karklosea snorted. “Their enemies being Poniga and Undine that praise Tiamat …”

Foster’s face grimaced when Odelea translated Karklosea’s words. The captain’s actions, while noble, created a new enemy for the galaxy. Had Marduk still been alive today, perhaps the thousands of lives killed during the Draconians’ first attacks would be too.

“This brings me to why I was there,” Karklosea said. “I participated in the final battle against the Order and I’m almost positive Jainuzei was there as well. Which side he was on, I couldn’t tell you exactly.”

“Jainuzei was reported killed years before the incident at Barnard’s Star,” Odelea said.

“Yes, this makes his return all the more suspect,” Karklosea said, then took a deep breath. “As Lord Commander of the Templars, it’s my duty to defend the council and temples we pray at and detain threats to the Union. And so, I sought to eliminate a threat before it struck again. I went to learn more about Jainuzei’s death and visited his former wife, Marrea. I found archived recorded memories of Marrea’s time as a missionary on New Babylon. As soon as my HNI is active again, I’ll be able to show you what I saw. But know this, in a remote village on New Babylon were Poniga that were loyal to Marduk’s forces, the ones Foster’s team failed to eliminate. I suspect this is how the act of worshipping Marduk spread to the Union.”

“So, the missionaries the Union sent to convert those at Sirius ended up getting converted to the worship of Marduk.”

“Former and exiled members of the council became the leaders of that cult. With their past experience, they could help train and organize the SOM to become the threat they are. For all we know, this could be their means of striking back for the past arrests we made toward the group.”

“And now Jainuzei has come back from his death, knows where they operate, knew of the attack on the council while it was in progress.”

“I don’t think he died, not by the evidence I saw. I think he faked his death to join the Order. And that’s the part I don’t understand. If Jainuzei was secretly with the Order, why is he helping us now? And how did he avoid being captured or killed once the Order had fallen all these years? Radiance had always been the enemy of the Order; one would think he’d be helping the Soldiers of Marduk, not killing them.”

Odelea explained her words to the captain. When she was done, Foster nodded and went to leave. “Wait!” Karklosea called out. “Don’t let her leave yet, I have more.”

Foster returned to the bedside, her arms were crossed as she waited to hear Odelea’s translated words.

“Tell Foster that she made a grave mistake in assaulting the Soldiers of Marduk’s base.”

“She had no choice, the Union is refusing to allow the Kepler to fly,” Odelea said. “She made a deal with them, capture or kill the targets Jainuzei directed them to, and they’ll release the ship.”

“Foster’s Sirius expedition crew killed Marduk, crippled his hold over the system and liberated his Tiamat-worshipping slaves. The Soldiers of Marduk know this and view Foster as an anti-god. If there are any other members of this group left, they’ll be made aware of her actions. She is the slayer of Marduk, stuck in Radiance territory, and has formally attacked his loyal followers. Her actions gave this cult more of a reason to hate her than they already have.”

Foster’s body language grew grim when Odelea translated her words.

“Tell Foster,” Karklosea added. “She needs to leave the planet at once before it’s too late.”

24 Rivera

Rivera’s Hotel Room

Paris, Earth, Sol System

November 2, 2118, 03:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

During the transport ride back to Paris from Baghdad Rivera had a lot to think about. Ruins in the mountains, ancient ruins below Baghdad, and all those containing artifacts that were outfitted with technology superior to what humans and the rest of the galaxy had access to today.

Many historians, as the years went on, argued that the human race first learned how to write, read, and record history in Mesopotamia, the ancient city of Babylon being part of that region. Why there and nowhere else was never explained. Rivera had an idea why now. Someone came down from the stars one fateful night, someone with advanced technology and taught the humans living there how to do just that. Like the Aryile and their three Gods, Tiamat, Marduk, and the other Gods and Goddess mentioned in Sumerian and Babylonian mythologies landed on Earth. Powerful psionic aliens who told the masses they were divine and were to be worshipped.

During that time, according to Doctor Pierce’s laughable book, Tiamat arrived on the coasts of western Africa to spread her influence onto the human race with the Siren Undine from Sirius and probably a dragon or two. It’d explain why dragons were so common in human stories. But dragons weren’t mythical beings; they were alien servants to Tiamat.

Somewhere out there in the cosmos was a nebula where all this probably started. And where all this would end horribly if the Draconians found it, with the Eyes of Tiamat they took from the catacombs under Baghdad.

Rivera wasn’t done with her thinking by the time she returned to her hotel room. Again, it was a lot to think about.

By the time the door to her suite had shut, she realized there was an enjoyable amount of silence in her head. The AI Goddess Sarpanit had little to say after she left the deep pit in the park. It gave her the confidence to review a new qmail message that arrived.

To: Jasmine Rivera

From: Rebecca Foster

Subject: Returning to the JK

Sent: November 2, 2118, 03:31 SST

Hey Jasmine,

Sorry about the loss of your salvage crew. It pains me to see that the Carl Sagan’s last moments will be a place where people searching for its secrets were killed. Anyways, I’m writing to let you know, in case you didn’t get our last messages, that we really need you back on the team. Saressea has been taken into Radiance custody and we’re probably not going to see her around for a while. Her entire Radiance team has been removed as well so we’re without an engineer, let alone a team.

This is your chance to come back to the team, but the window won’t be open forever. We’re currently in the Luminous system, but we got to leave ASAP once Saressea’s replacement arrives. We’ll be picking them up at a spaceport in orbit of Eiri, one of the planets in the system. If you could meet us there, that would be fantastic! Please let me know ASAP, again, we’re running out of time.

- Foster

PS, Chef wants to know if you still have that brownie recipe. He wants to make it again, without the ‘special herbs’ of course.

Rivera closed the message. “Hmm.”

“What do we have here?” Sarpanit’s voice broke her silence, no doubt having read the message when she was.

“Foster needs me back on the Kepler,” Rivera said. “Saressea has been removed leaving them without an engineer … or team for that matter.”

“Ignore her for now as with the last messages sent, we have much to do starting with taking Tiamat’s breastplate.”

“I can’t!”

“You can, and you will.”

“Foster will become suspicious eventually. And as for that breastplate, you really think they’re going to let me walk in and take it?”

“Let Foster think what she wants,” Sarpanit said. “I am not here to please the needs of the one that murdered my husband. What we need to do is keep that breastplate away from the Draconians and find a way to the nebula.”

“I’m all for that, but we need Foster’s help to make that happen.”

“You will not seek that woman’s help! We will find our own way to do this.”

Rivera’s fingers ran through her hair, pulling on it with frustration by the time she reached her bed. The negative vibes she sought so long to rid herself of were returning and building a wall around her made of pure stress and hopelessness. She was trapped within it and unsure how to get out.

Going against Sarpanit meant Rivera losing her life. Obeying meant turning her back on Foster and missing her ticket back to the Kepler, something she needed more than ever since the Carl Sagan’s salvage was more or less done. She needed a way out. She needed a way back to the Kepler, and back to her friends without the new toxic one she had picked up who had made its home in her head.

On the floor was her bong. It was the source of all things happy. A refueling station for positive blissful vibes. The herbs within it made all bad things go away, and sometimes that included dangerous people, the PS of Foster’s email reminded her of just that; the brownies she had Chef Bailey make on the Carl Sagan. An idea popped into her head, and she reached for the bong.

“This does not help us,” Sarpanit said as Rivera came to sit at the foot of the bed, prepping the bong with is cannabis contents.

“No, but it does help me.”

“Stop this at once!”

“Let me hit this, okay?” She stood ready to light it. “I’ll do whatever you want afterward.”

“Very well, medicate yourself,” Sarpanit said in a dejected voice. “When you’re finished, seek that Vorcambreum and her bodyguard Rabuabin. If they won’t surrender the breastplate to you and help us, I want you to kill them and …”

Sarpanit continued to ramble, listing a detailed plan on how Rivera should proceed. What those words were exactly were drowned out by the excitement she felt when she lowered the bong’s tube away from her lips, then exhaled a plume of herbal mist. She began to giggle minutes later, her eyes slowly turning bloodshot as positive vibes returned. Suddenly, the deaths, the AI in her head, the terrorizing discoveries recently made, none of that mattered, and the more she thought about it, the more she started to laugh to herself.

Her HNI flashed a disconnected error message. THC and HNI didn’t work together. And with her brain’s inability to communicate with the implant, meant she was free from the AI Goddess control over her. Now came the tricky part, letting the Kepler know she was coming back while medicated.

She found a wrist terminal. It had been shut off since she got her implants. Once it was powered on, she sent a confirmation message to Foster that she’d meet them at the spaceport in the Luminous system. How she’d hide the fact she went and got HNI, and had an AI living in it, was a problem she’d deal with later. The best idea she had was using the Kepler computers to wipe her HNI’s memory crystals, it should get rid of Sarpanit, though all the secrets she had would be lost as well unless a backup was made. And we all know how well that worked out the last time we did that.

She packed up her belongings, leaving the statue of Buddha last, then booked passage on a transport flying to the Eiri spaceport. It consisted of two transport flights, the first one would take her from Earth to Amicitia Station 14 and, after a brief layover, she’d take a Radiance ferry through the wormhole into the Luminous system.

Rivera couldn’t believe how she managed to do all that while high, and then make her way out to Paris’ starport. Desperate times can make people perform miraculous tasks, even while medicated.

Radiance Arm

Amicitia Station 14, Arietis System

November 2, 2118, 09:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera had heard about Amicitia Station 14, the central hub of this corner of the galaxy, but never spent a lot of time on it. The gargantuan starfish-shaped space station and its five arms rotated in the heart of the quadruple star system as Rivera’s passenger transport made its approach. By the time she awoke from her sleep in her chair and made it into the station via its airlock, she felt the effects of the THC lingering. She didn’t have much time left before her HNI was able to reconnect with her mind.

The large crowd of people she left the transport with dispersed into the station, some going to collect their baggage, others waiting for friends or family, and others, like Rivera, made a quick stop at a fast food restaurant. She had a major case of the munchies and transport meals were far too expensive for her shrinking credit chit balance.

After a greasy burger and fries, Rivera entered the station’s atrium. She stood watching in awe the various species of the galaxy, well, the known galaxy, going about their business. Some moved to and from the shops and malls, others made their way to the countless entertainment establishments with flashing holographic signs over their entrances or sat in the artificial parks. Indoor parks on a space station, complete with dazzling fountains spraying water up into the air, while glass tube elevators rose up or down before them.

She enjoyed watching Hashmedai men and women raise their hands in triumph at a casino she walked past, clearly happy about some game they won. It made her wonder if the yoga lessons she gave the Hashmedai back home in Manila really did help them adjust to human life and not be aggressive.

Those were sad days, back in 2033 when being a Hashmedai living on Earth got you lynched unless you lived in a community like Vancouver or Manila. Back in those days, Rivera spent a good amount of time helping Hashmedai blend in with humans, providing them with shades to cover their eyes, especially in low light situations that would cause them to glow. Some Hashmedai were given gloves to cover the slits on their fingers from where their claws could be deployed, and in some cases, makeup to make their skin tone look more human, especially the blue-skinned ones.

The woman Rivera noticed tailing her from behind fit that profile. Her fluffy chestnut brown hair was most likely a wig, the shades over her eyes were dark enough to obscure the glowing of her eyes, while her hands were wrapped in black leather gloves. The only people that would find the atrium cold and would be wearing gloves, were the Aryile and Javnis, certainly not a human. Especially humans like Rivera who were making their way to a train station that sent people to the Radiance Arm of the station, and the subtropical city within it. All the humans around her were dressed in shorts, T-shirts, and the like.

Rivera boarded the train when it pulled up. The strange woman boarded behind her. As a test, Rivera switched seats midway through the train’s rapid journey through the darkened tunnels of the station. The woman followed behind.

Bright, white light shined down from the holographic sunny skies when the train came to its first stop within the Radiance city on the station arm. All humans aboard the train put on shades as they exited. Rivera did the same as the light, even though it was fake, was bright as the sunny skies of Aervounis as with the heat. Rivera’s sweating skin thanked her when she entered the shade provided by a number of tall buildings. As she made her way from the station, she saw the woman following her and the heat making her stagger.

She was a Hashmedai trying to look like a human and following her. Why?

Rivera’s wrist terminal flashed on when she tapped it. A floating hologram hovered above her wrist displaying the estimated time she had left before she had to head to the airlock and catch the Radiance ferry traveling to the Luminous system. She had a few more minutes left, and probably the same amount of time left before her HNI reconnected. It was time to get medicated again.

She arrived at a lounge, stepping into a deck decorated with tropical trees from the Aryile homeworld. Below the deck was a large swimming pool designed to look like a beach with holographic blue skies in the distance. Most of the people resting about were human tourists. It made sense when living on the station, the best place to go for a vacation was the Radiance arm, and the tropical city in a bubble built into the station. She guessed that most of the humans were single, as Aryile customarily swam naked, had no shame at people looking at their bodies when they emerged from the water, and more often than not, encouraged humans to shed their swimming trunks or bikinis to join them.

Rivera found an empty table and chair on the deck, sat down, pulled her bong out from her backpack, and got ready to take another hit. Cannabis smoke blew up into the air from her lips, delaying Sarpanit’s return for a few more hours.

The woman following Rivera sat at the vacant chair across from her, unfazed at the smell of cannabis that encircled the table. She was holding a bottle of ice-cold water. The closer encounter gave Rivera a better glimpse at her. Apart from the shades, the woman wore a wide-brimmed summer hat, black leather skirt matching her gloves, and white top exposing her midriff. There was a diamond-shaped rose navel ring shimmering in the light from her belly button and the clearly fake-tanned skin.

“Fancy that,” the woman said with an English accent, looking down at the people near the fake beach. “There’s still laughter and happiness in this galaxy.”

The two faced each other, both hiding their narrowing eyes behind their shades. “Tahal ku tu zulka?” What is your name? Rivera asked her in Hashmedai.

“Careful, darling, humans that speak Hashmedai from your generation were often members of the HLF.”

“El oor tulianah Ralum-yel.” Not if I speak Radiance.

The woman grinned, exposing her vampire-like fangs. “You must be Jasmine Rivera.”

“And you didn’t answer my question.”

A Javnis server approached, and the woman ordered drinks off the human drink menu, two Mary Pickfords. The pink and fruity beverage arrived, garnished with an immaculate maraschino cherry. Rivera’s instincts told her not to drink; her new found high told her to mellow out.

The two indulged on the drink, while she tried to visualize what the Hashmedai sitting ahead of her really looked like under the layer of makeup covering her natural skin tone, making it appear as if she were a tanned human.

“The name’s Diamondrose,” the woman said. “Penelope Diamondrose.”

Rivera looked at the cherry floating on her pink-colored beverage, then back up at her guest. She put two and two together. “Maraschino, I’ve read about you people. Elite hackers and data brokers of the galaxy.”

Penelope made a cold smirk, sitting back on her chair. “And I’ve read a lot about you.”

“Why’s that?” Rivera asked as she went to put out the bong. Maraschino pulling her aside meant something was up, taking another hit would have to wait.

“Doctor Pierce’s dossier from EISS ultimately led to reports about you,” Penelope said. “I guess it has to do with your HLF associations.”

“Hashmedai and Radiance are at a ceasefire, but yet they still don’t welcome your people into their planets and cities.”

Penelope flaunted her appearance. “Oh, believe me, I’m aware of that. I’m just a human Essex girl as far as everyone here thinks, as opposed to the Hashmedai one I really am.”

“Why did you follow me here?”

“I was merely trying to board the ferry, and then stopped here for some drinks.”

“That’s my line,” Rivera said with a cannabis grin. “Seriously? Why are you here?”

Penelope waved her hand, and in its wake was a holographic boarding pass floating between the two. “I am serious, this is my boarding pass.”

She pulled the hologram closer to her face, skimming its contents quickly. Penelope was booked to ride on the same Radiance ferry Rivera was. “What a coincidence … you’re hopping on the same ship, going to the same destination, and know all about me.”

Penelope snapped her fingers and the hologram flashed out of existence. Finishing her drink, she asked Rivera. “Enjoying life as an HNI user?”

“I regret going in to get them …”

“You know yours isn’t working correctly, right?”

Being the Maraschino hacker Penelope was it didn’t surprise Rivera at all for her to notice that. Penelope, as with all hackers like her from what Rivera learned, was able to detect, scan, and pull out personal information from people’s HNI just by looking at them. And it was that knowledge that made worrying thoughts return despite the THC flowing into her mind. The AI was still in her head somewhere, just trapped. Penelope’s prodding around remotely might bring out the AI Goddess Rivera was trying so hard to shut down.

“For your own safety, please don’t poke around with it,” Rivera asked her.

“Now, why is that?”

“We need to get going,” Rivera said, dodging the question. “I suppose you also happened to book a chair next to mine?”

“We can be traveling partners.”

“That’s fantastic; you can tell me why you’re following me.”

“I need to get aboard the Kepler.”

Penelope’s body language was cold and mysterious and borderline emotionless, only smiling for a second before she tried to force it away. Rivera couldn’t read her at all. “You want me to put in a good word for you or something?”

“I need to get a hold of them quickly and can’t use the QEC to do so,” Penelope said.

“Why not?” Rivera asked.

“The same reason why I can’t reach the Rezeki’s Rage,” Penelope said. “There are some naughty people monitoring my transmissions.”

“Terrans?”

“Worse than that I’m afraid.”

25 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

En route to Eiri Spaceport, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 10:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)

When Foster got word from the Radiance council that the Kepler was allowed to leave orbit, she yelled loud enough for those passing by the entrance to her quarters to hear. She instructed the bridge to leave and set a course to Eiri, the next leg in their time in the system.

During the voyage, she fired up a qmail message to Rivera, hoping she’d get back to her. After the message was sent, she went to sleep but didn’t get much of it. She woke up the next morning, went to brew a cup of coffee, and then stood looking out the observation windows in her quarters allowing the buzzing sound of her coffeemaker to soothe her mind. Blue light reflected upon the window, it grew in intensity with each second. She looked at her hands; the tattoos on it were glowing. They were reacting to something that wasn’t her tachyon rifle in the armory or the deactivated vortex key in engineering. This was something else, something that wasn’t in range moments ago.

Her first thought was a vortex was opening nearby. And if that were the case, they, and the system, would be in trouble as it meant the Draconians were about to make a surprise attack. No attack came, not according to sensor scans and ESP when she contacted the bridge.

She placed her hands on the smooth surface of the window and focused her mind. After a minute, she wasn’t in her mind, or on the ship, or in the system.

Foster felt as if she was falling through space as if it had gravity to pull someone down. It wasn’t a pleasant thought as every sense in her body told her she was going to be killed when the fall ended. She had been falling for nearly five minutes.

When the feeling of falling faded, Foster envisioned herself floating through pink and purple gasses with dozens of twinkling stars in the distance. She was in a nebula, though, which one, she had no idea. She remained adrift, floating through the nebula’s splendors, moving past a number of star systems, all of them full of young and developing planets. Before the vision ended, she saw a woman with long black hair and a mixture of Asian and European features. She wore an IESA uniform, an older one similar to the one Foster and her crew wore during their Sirius expedition.

“Why didn’t you accept the offer?” the woman said to her. “She’d be alive now if you did!”

Foster cursed, having nearly stumbled when she returned to her body. She was back in her quarters. She went for her coffee which should have finished brewing. It was cold as was the mug it was in. She’d left her body for a lot longer than she thought.

She went to brew a new one, only she was out of coffee brewing disks. She ended up making her way to the mess hall, trying her best to forget about the experience. Chef Bailey always had a fresh batch of coffee ready during this time of the day. Except for today.

Foster’s wide-eyed stare at the coffee container, which was lighter than she thought it would be, lingered until Odelea tapped her on her shoulder. “Captain,” she asked her. “Is there something wrong?”

Foster put the empty coffee container back onto the countertop. “Just need my fix, and I really don’t feel like searching the cargo bay for coffee disks.”

“Care to join us once we dock with the spaceport?” Odelea gestured to Pierce sitting alone, reading data on his holo pad. “There was a tea shop I wanted to show Doctor Pierce, they brew Aryile coffee too, perhaps you could get your fix there?”

Leaving the ship to head to a coffee shop, a Radiance one at that, seemed like a lot of effort for caffeine. So did searching the cargo bay. “All right, I’ll come along,” Foster said. “We still got another hour or so before Saressea’s replacement boards from the spaceport.”

Odelea gave her a cute smile and then went to grab Pierce’s attention, tugging onto her hair with both hands as she spoke to him. Odelea did that a lot, especially when talking with Pierce, probably her way of dealing with sudden pressure. Foster’s guess was sexual pressure in this case since Odelea’s facial expression remained joyful with a smile that continued to stay on her face.

The body of a young woman Odelea found herself in was forcing her to make a move on the smart and handsome middle-aged man.

A Radiance made station could be seen moving out of sight from the mess hall’s windows. The further the Kepler moved from it, the dimmer Foster’s tattoo’s glow became.

“Odelea,” Foster said to her, pointing at the station they were moving past. “That ain’t the spaceport, right?”

“No, Captain,” Odelea replied. “That’s an ethereal refinery. We use it to harvest dark energy from aether space and use it as an energy source.”

“How so?”

“We built the refineries near fissures. They are hard to see with the eye, but just beyond that refinery is a very small rift that we use to pull unrefined dark energy.”

And from what Foster experienced it pulled her thoughts into the middle of a nebula. She made a mental note to have Kostelecky examine her later. Her tattoos being used to access all things Draconian was one thing, but trippy dreams? That was new.

Central Foyer

Spaceport, Eiri Orbit, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 11:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The XSV Johannes Kepler appeared in an empty pocket of space next to the circular-shaped spaceport. Various Radiance space ferries departed or docked with the spaceport which served as the Luminous system’s primary connection for out and inbound interstellar travel among Radiance people.

If Foster were to compare it to Earth of her childhood, then the spaceport the Kepler arrived at was an airport in space, one that was made almost entirely of transparent material. If you looked closely enough, one could spot people boarding or exiting the airlocks from docked ships while others gathered in its central foyer waiting.

With its FTL disengaged, the Kepler fired off a series of maneuvering thrusters to approach one of two dozen docking arms of the spaceport. By the time it neared, the arms extended out, clamping onto the side of the Kepler like a giant robotic hand, creating a passageway through its airlock, and delivering Foster, Odelea, and Pierce into the orbiting station.

It was Foster’s first time walking to the airlock of the Kepler, let alone passing through it. She didn’t even realize there were decorative plants in the corridors next to it.

The central foyer of the spaceport was buzzing with activity and holo signs only Odelea could read. She pointed out to Foster the arrival time of the ferry Rivera said she will be on. It was due to dock with the station within five minutes. Foster’s wrist terminal, however, remained silent, lacking with the follow-up messages she was hoping the council was going to send her in regard to Saressea’s replacement, the one thing preventing them from leaving the system.

A Union liaison officer was a requirement for them to fly. The only reason the council allowed them to leave Aervounis was to pick up the replacement on the spaceport, and to protect Foster and the crew from eating the wrath of the SOM after it was brought to the council’s attention who had been responsible for the attack.

Inside the tea shop, Odelea found a circular table for the three to sit at. They sampled various teas made by the Aryile people from the days when interstellar ships were a thing of science fiction. The teas were more on the fruity side, and at least two different ones Foster tried had an apple like taste to them. She understood why Odelea made the Kepler’s food inventory of apples shrink so fast.

Foster got the coffee she was seeking, which had a strange nutty and chocolaty taste to it. It wasn’t something she could see herself having on a regular basis, but it did soothe her caffeine withdrawal migraine.

The view of the planet Eiri moved into sight, visible by the spaceport’s transparent walls. The planet looked like a giant ball of green and blue. There was a dash of white here and there from the clouds, but green and blue were the dominant colors. The blue Foster could get, as the planet, like Earth and most habitable worlds, had luscious blue skies. The green was plant life, thing was, every large land mass was covered in it, even at the equators. There were no deserts or large mountain ranges.

“Has Eiri caught your attention, Captain?” Pierce spoke up.

“Just never seen a planet covered in so much green,” Foster said.

Odelea’s eyes joined the two looking out the window. “That’s because we terraformed it to be like that.”

“Remarkable.” Pierce’s eyes gawked at the sight. “So, the plant life wasn’t naturally occurring at all?”

“No,” Odelea explained. “This planet is to my people what Mars is to humans. It was the first planet we set foot on when the Gods taught us how to build ships. Eiri was barely habitable when we first landed, so the Gods taught us how to terraform it, and use it to grow the crops our people were in a dire need of to survive. It was also what led to the exile of several members of the council when they were caught in a scandal that involved this world.”

Foster winced. “Members that now make up the leadership of the Soldiers of Marduk.”

Pierce looked lost in thought staring blankly at the terraformed planet. “Something caught your attention, Pierce?” Odelea asked him.

“The Aryile constructed interstellar ships and then acquired technology to terraform a planet.”

“Yeah, pretty sure Odelea just said that,” Foster said.

“Were they really Gods though, Captain? If we, on the Kepler, right now were to travel to a planet with a primitive civilization on it, show off the psionic powers of Tolukei, Nereid, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell, teach them how to use our technology, what would they call us as time went on?”

Foster shrugged. “Gods and Goddesses, I guess.”

“And isn’t that what Marduk did to ancient Earth after Tiamat?”

“Our Gods were real, however,” Odelea spoke up.

Foster looked back at her, hoping she didn’t take offense at their talk. Then hoped none of the spaceport’s Templars heard. Questioning the existence of the Gods landed you in prison in the Radiance Union.

“The people of ancient Earth thought Marduk and Tiamat to be real when they came to us,” Pierce said. “Turns out, Marduk was just a Javnis psionic, and Tiamat, if Foster’s vision from the monolith is correct, was Draconian ruler. Ancient human Gods and Goddesses were nothing but a bunch of aliens. No offense, Odelea, but you being a woman of knowledge and science, have you ever thought to consider that maybe your Gods are the same?”

Foster was ready to facepalm. Pierce just about threw away his chance to get closer to Odelea, and maybe get laid. She looked about, searching for ears that shouldn’t be listening in to the conversation. Pierce being the human man of science was spitting words that might make Radiance folks dial 911, or whatever their equivalent to that was.

“The Hashmedai proposed that our Gods might have been the Lyonria,” Odelea said. “It led to centuries of wars between the Union and the Empire as a result. So, no, Doctor Pierce, I haven’t, and never will—”

“Excuse me,” a man said to the three, drawing all stares at him. Foster was surprised none of the three noticed him walk up.

The man was an Aryile with dark bronze skin, golden hair, and emerald-colored scales on the sides of his neck and arms, as with most Aryile. His vertical iris eyes focused on Pierce then Odelea. “May I ask you two a question?”

“You mean three?” Foster said, pointing out the fact that the three were a group.

The Aryile man ignored her. “I overheard your conversation,” he said to Pierce and Odelea. “May I ask, are you a believer?”

“Yes, I believe in the will of the Gods,” Odelea said, then looked to Pierce. “You must understand, however, that he is human and so—”

“You’re not a believer?” the man asked him.

“I’m a man of science; it’s very hard for me to accept the belief of a higher power without evidence and data.”

“I see,” said the Aryile man. “I recommend you change that if you wish to live.”

His words left little room for interpretation. It was a threat, but to what degree Foster didn’t know. He didn’t look like a Templar, perhaps an undercover Whisper agent? Whoever he was, she didn’t like the idea of someone walking up and threatening her crew members.

“Excuse me!” she called out to him. “Wanna explain what that was about?”

The Aryile man faced her with anger spreading across his face. “I have no obligation to speak to Tiamat’s devotee.”

He stormed out before she could offer a rebuttal. Not because he moved fast. But because Foster’s head added a third possible reason as to whom the man was affiliated. The Soldiers of Marduk. They found her. They knew the Kepler was docked here. They had the power to leave the planet after all. Foster’s heart was trying to punch a hole in her chest.

“Tiamat’s devotee,” Odelea muttered to herself.

Foster stood up quickly. “We got to get out of here, now.”

Pierce looked up as she left the table. “Captain?”

“Let’s go now, we’s about to get a lickin’ if we stay.”

Odelea and Pierce joined Foster on her retreat out from the shop. “What about Rivera?” Odelea asked. “Her ferry should have docked by now.”

Foster stopped in the middle of the foyer. Her head was shifting from left to right, unsure of where to go, or what to do. She couldn’t hear the sounds of the buzzing open space around her, or Odelea telling her where to go to meet up with Rivera.

Or the multiple explosions that ripped through the spaceport.

Troves of Radiance civilians were sent scattering, running and screaming. Two more unexpected explosions made a third of those screaming voices silent for eternity.

“Captain!” Pierce yelled, hands grabbing onto Foster’s shoulders.

She shrugged him off. “Let’s get back to the Kepler!”

The three ran past the carnage, keeping their heads low when gunfire echoed. Those that were unlucky had their bodies blown to pieces, blood and brains sprayed across the walls as if someone threw a bucket of red paint at it. Ruined shops were blazing with flames ignited by the explosions, bloody bodies were lying motionless in the debris and shrapnel-covered floors.

It pained her to see so many innocent lives come to a sudden end in the quick strike that came out of nowhere. The SOM was after Foster, the people around her died because she stepped out for coffee. She was beyond furious, and if Foster couldn’t keep her head straight, she, Odelea, and Pierce might join those lying on the floor.

Bursts of magnetic rifles roared, another set roared back in retaliation, there was a gunfight brewing. One of the halls the three ran through had the horrific display of a lone Radiance ranger dragging his fallen and bullet-covered partner back. Two men wearing long dark robes took aim with their magnetic rifles.

Foster, at that point, continued to run down the halls to keep up with Pierce and Odelea when the bullets started to spray. It didn’t sound like they hit a person with shields still active. The bloody thud of a body in armor hitting the floor also suggested the same.

The airlock that led back to the Kepler came in sight. The three continued running despite its doors being shut. Foster put her wrist terminal to her face. “Foster to Kepler, open the starboard side airlock, now!”

“Cap, what’s going on?” Chang’s voice transmitted back.

“Just do it! Ain’t got no time to explain!”

The doors needed to board and escape to freedom went through their unlocking procedure. It was taking too long, forcing the three to cower next to it, staring back at the halls they managed to run through without getting shot or killed in an unexpected blast.

Yellow light flashed on the walls to the halls. Gunfire and battle cry screams roared. Someone was moving toward the three, killing all those that stood in their way. The footsteps of those armed with weapons grew louder as they neared, as with their blazing rifles in combat with another. The gunfight was set to spread to the airlock outside of the Kepler. If the doors took any longer to open, they were dead. And if they took just as long to shut, so was the crew when the gunmen stormed in.

One of the gunmen, a Linl man, came into view and stepped toward the three with a smug look on his face. Like the other’s she saw, he was wearing a dark robe. As much as Foster didn’t want to see it, the robe was similar in design to the ones Tolukei wore. The realization of that helped take her mind off Odelea’s screaming when the gunmen took aim at the three, or Pierce’s repeated cursing when he put his hands up.

Foster hoped she would be the first to go. And the only one.

Bullets fired. It wasn’t at them. Someone from behind took aim and shot the gunman, making his head explode like someone stuffed a watermelon with an M80 firecracker. The airlock doors opened, she had no idea Pierce and Odelea were able to run so fast when access to the Kepler was made available.

Foster remained.

Someone just saved their lives, and that someone was about to be fighting for theirs as repeated claps of magnetic rifle shots fired. Foster ran for the headless gunman, prying his dead hands away from the rifle and glanced at the words written in the Radiance language on the weapon before seeking out the ranger that saved them.

In the hallways, she found him ducked behind a storage crate. The shields of his combat armor rapidly flickered blue from the onslaught of bullets three robed Aryile gunmen further down unleashed. They didn’t see Foster shoot for the jugular as she peeked out from the corner and took aim, assuming Aryile even had those. A jet of blood squirted out from the neck of one gunman when her bullets exited, evidently, Aryile did have them.

The ranger that saved her, Odelea, and Pierce returned to the fray. His bullets ended the lives of the two remaining gunmen that stood shocked at their friend clasping onto the side of his neck squirting and spraying red everywhere.

The ranger faced Foster, removed his helmet, and stepped out from the cover that obscured his body. And the various weapons and swords he had equipped.

Jainuzei’s smug grin beamed at her when the helmet was finally lowered.

“Weapon’s Master Jainuzei, reporting for duty,” he said.

Foster lowered the magnetic rifle slowly, shocked at her new liaison officer. “The council chose you?”

“Indeed, Captain,” he said, moving toward the airlock. “Permission to come aboard?”

Fuck no, was what she wanted to say based on what Karklosea revealed to Odelea.

“Granted.” Is what she forced herself to say.

Not like she had a choice given their current situation.

26 Rivera

Space Ferry Arrivals Platform

Spaceport, Eiri Orbit, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 11:20 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Anticipation and feelings of anxiety swirled around in Rivera’s body. On the ferry she and Penelope shared, she saw the Kepler docked and firmly held in place by the spaceport’s docking clamp arms. By the time the two left the airlock, she realized she was minutes away from being reunited with the crew and having to explain why she got HNI, why the evil EVE they found in Sirius was living in it, and what were they going to do with her.

That was, of course, assuming her HNI didn’t reactivate and Sarpanit took control again. In that case, she’d probably be dead before she got aboard the Kepler. It was another thing to be nervous about.

Penelope accompanied her on the trip through the densely packed halls of the spaceport. She was dressed like a tanned Essex girl, walking past people that would freak out and call Penelope a demon because she was Hashmedai.

They turned a corner and read a map of the spaceport. The Kepler was docked at an airlock on the opposite end. It was going to take at least fifteen minutes of walking to get there.

Rivera went to break the silence. Another fifteen minutes of it and her travel partner staying silent would make her deaf.

“I read about the incident at Taxah in the news,” Rivera said to Penelope. “Had no idea you were that hacker they were talking about.”

“Sadly, that incident is far from over,” Penelope said. “The UNE was kind enough to let me board one of their ships that was set to dock within an Imperial command ship which was going to take us all back to Amicitia Station 14.” Penelope brought up a small holo photo of a young woman embracing a Hashmedai woman with purple hair. “This is Lisette Bennett; she was arrested by the Empire prior to the arrival of the Terrans at Taxah.”

“She’s human …” Rivera said, eying the holo photo closer as it floated and followed the two. “The Empire doesn’t have a justice system. If you’re arrested, you’re put on death row, no questions asked.”

“Yep, this is why the UNE reached out to Maraschino. They asked us for any data that could help them mount a rescue mission.” Penelope made a wave of her hand and the holo photo vanished. “Me being in the system made me the top candidate for that assignment. It took a while, but eventually I found the ship Lisette was imprisoned on, unfortunately, it was too late. We had arrived in the Arietis system and it had departed. Add in the new growing tensions between the Empire and Earth, and the rescue mission was scrapped.”

“But you held onto the data.”

“Of course, if Earth didn’t want to buy it, someone else on the deep web would,” Penelope said. “Whether or not she violated Imperial laws is up for debate. We in Maraschino have people across the galaxy sharing all the lovely, top-level data we’ve collected from our missions. Have you heard of the Soldiers of Marduk?”

There was that name again, Marduk. It became a source of negativity and unhappy thoughts that she couldn’t seem to escape from. Marduk was a threat in Sirius, and now the AI in her head was obsessed with him. Penelope briefly explained the cult to Rivera, based on Radiance limited intel on them and data Maraschino had. It sounded like the Celestial Order all over again, only they were weaker, smaller, and had no ships.

“The SOM was recently in contact with Maraschino,” Penelope continued. “They were looking to purchase any data involving humans born in the Montreal area between 2003 and 2018 to aid them in some project called Nephilim. We told them at first, we didn’t have any data that we knew of. That’s when I realized I still had Lisette’s profile open. Her name sounds a bit on the French side, don’t you agree?”

She thought back to the photo, visualizing a woman like Lisette speaking French fluently. “I can imagine a girl like her having a background in that.”

“Turns out, I was right,” Penelope said. “After digging deeper into Lisette’s family, I found that she was a descendant of people born in Montreal during that time. Maraschino offered the data to the Soldiers of Marduk. They made a very generous bid for it. A couple of days later, the Imperial navy lost contact with one of their prison barges, of course, they kept silent about that, but you can’t hide such juicy data from us. Days later, the Radiance council was attacked, we lost contact with members of that group, we lost contact with the Rezeki’s Rage, and rumors of a massive Terran Legion reconstruction came up.”

“That’s quite the chain reaction of events,” Rivera said.

“All because we sold data to some people that turned out to be more powerful than we thought,” Penelope said. “I need to get a hold of the Kepler, and it needs to be off all networks.”

Well, there goes that idea, Rivera thought while lowering her wrist terminal which was seconds away from informing the Kepler of Penelope’s arrival. They’ll just have to wait to board it and have Penelope explain things in person with the aid of her HNI.

When they were four minutes out from the Kepler, a robed man stopped them having stopped several groups of Radiance civilians. It looked like he was asking people a question.

“Excuse me,” the robed Linl man spoke in the Radiance language. “Are you two believers?”

Penelope stared blankly at him and then asked Rivera. “What’s he saying? I don’t speak their bloody language very well.”

“He’s asking us if we believe,” Rivera translated.

“Believe in what? The Gods?”

“Are you?” the robed Linl man asked.

“We’re from Earth,” Rivera replied in his language. “Just passing through.”

He nodded. “I see.”

“So, I hope you understand,” Rivera said. “We were just raised differently from those in Radiance.”

The man grimaced and brushed them off. “Carry on.”

They moved further down the halls, looking back at the man who stopped a Vorcambreum couple with the same questions. Rivera moved her face forward, Penelope moved with her but kept her gaze looking back at him. “What an oddball,” she said.

At two minutes away from the Kepler’s airlock, the two arrived at the edge of the central foyer of the spaceport, the top level to be exact, looking down at the sea of people moving back and forth to or from the shops toward arrival or departure airlocks. Penelope stopped to stare down at the level below. Her eyes focused on a number of men and women wearing dark robes, like the Linl man not long ago.

Penelope’s face winced. “They’re spoofing their identities.”

“What?”

“The Linl that spoke to us, I scanned his HNI and it identified him as Sayoei.”

“And?”

Penelope pointed at three robed men. “Their names are also Sayoei.” Then her finger found a robed woman speaking with a Rabuabin man and his three children. “Her name is Nyoea.” She brought Rivera’s attention to four other robed women at the back. “So is hers, hers, hers, and hers.”

“You …”

A cold wave of panic gripped Rivera’s mind. Sarpanit’s voice returned as her HNI flashed a connection established notification over her eyes. The THC had run its course. Rivera regretted not taking another hit or two when Penelope introduced herself. They were wasting time looking at the robed people below, Rivera needed to get back to the Kepler before Sarpanit regained control of her body and made her do something horrible to her or the people around her.

There were hundreds, perhaps thousands aboard the spaceport. The thought of Rivera being forced to harm them because of Sarpanit made her face turn pale. That new shade of pale caught Penelope’s attention as she faced away from the railing, looking back at Rivera.

“Jasmine, you okay?”

“After everything I’ve done for you!” It was Sarpanit’s voice, paralyzing pain traveled through her joints and bones making Rivera lose control of her body. The AI Goddess was angry and punishing her reluctant servant. “You’ll be punished for this!”

Rivera fell to the floor screaming as the feeling of millions of swords piercing her body hit. The pain came to a sudden end when an explosion turned a market kiosk into smoldering bits of metal and body parts. The blast made Rivera, Penelope, even Sarpanit face its source. Spinning clouds of psionic energy appeared in the air, it was like a storm cell made of purple light growing in size. Below, one of the robed men stood with his arms out while rippling blue bolts danced up and down his body.

When he lowered his arms, the psionic energy he summoned exploded. The blast was strong enough to send Penelope to the floor, and half a dozen bodies near the explosion to their red splattering end with arms and legs spiraling through the air. More psionic bombs went off adding to the deadly carnage. A rib cage flew across the floor on the lower level while those that survived ran in fear. It was a sight Rivera will never forget.

Penelope got to her feet when the majority of the psionic bombs finished. She went running to the Kepler’s airlock. Rivera didn’t follow, the pain Sarpanit inflicted on her made her legs and feet numb, its effects slowly dissipating. Her hands came to hold onto Rivera’s frame, forcing her up, while the robed men and women unfazed by the devastation drew hidden weapons out from their cloaks, chanting Marduk’s name, turning those that didn’t run fast enough into bullet-riddled corpses that fell as fast as they tried to run. Those that were lucky to escape paid the price with missing limbs leaving lines of red behind as they limped away.

Rivera wanted to look away. Sarpanit didn’t, forcing her to look at the madness. “What’s this?” Sarpanit said with fascination in her voice. “They, they worship my husband. This pleases me.”

“Okay, love, time to go!” Penelope grabbed Rivera, forcing her to move with her to safety. Sarpanit, in control of her body, flung Penelope back three meters.

“Perhaps I was wrong to punish you,” Sarpanit’s evil voice and laughter echoed inside Rivera’s head. “I should be thanking you. You’ve brought me to Marduk’s followers.” Sarpanit forced Rivera’s feet to move. She was forcing her to the nearest staircase, walking past the troves of fleeing people escaping the blood-soaked carnage below. “I want you to help them. I want you to kill those who aren’t believers of Marduk.”

Every forced step Rivera made brought her closer to the pain those below were facing. Every step made her scream internally, as it was the only thing she was able to do. Sarpanit’s rage was too much. The only saving grace was that her movements were slow. Sarpanit’s control of her wasn’t perfect, which would explain why she never took complete control from the start. Rivera’s freewill was stronger.

Armed rangers charged into the massacre, their rifles seeking out the robed men and women that were killing everyone in sight. Psionic barriers kept most of the robed gunmen and women alive while they fought with the rangers in a violent gun battle. A battle Sarpanit was forcing Rivera to walk into.

A flash of holo screens came into existence around Rivera, orbiting her. The contents of the screens had lines upon lines of computer code all executing various commands. Rivera’s body stopped moving when the holo screens finished running whatever programs they were running.

Sarpanit’s holographic appearance appeared behind Rivera’s stunned body. The AI Goddess looked up and down at Penelope and the four holo screens that she had been interacting with.

Penelope hacked Rivera’s HNI.

Sarpanit didn’t like that.

“What sorcery is this?!” Sarpanit’s irate voice, now audible to those around yelled at Penelope.

“Lights out, bitch!” Penelope spat.

An error message flashed across Rivera’s eyes, and Sarpanit’s holographic image faded, as did her hold over Rivera’s body. The unexpected return of her motor functions made Rivera limp, but eventually, she was able to walk back and away from the stairs that led to the chaos below.

“You must have a lot of questions,” Rivera said to her.

Bullets soared above their heads. The robed gunmen had made it to the upper level, charging at them from the rear.

“Right now?! Not really!”

Animal instinct fear for a Hashmedai and human carried them away from the streaks of gunfire, hiding behind a bench. The bullets that missed turned the transparent walls behind the two into fractured white cracks and dents. No air was leaking out, meaning the rifle’s automatic safety systems were active, and preventing it from firing rounds that would travel fast enough to put holes into the station. It also meant the bench they hid behind could take a few hits before it was time to find new cover.

One of the gunmen approached, a Rabuabin man. He moved to the bench slowly, his eyes and rifle’s sights looking to see if the two didn’t survive the barrage. Rivera wanted to make a break for it, looking back at one of the hallways devoid of life. Penelope was focused tinkering with a tiny holo screen before her, the progress bar to an application hit 100 percent when she flicked the screen away.

The gunman found them, pointing his rifle. Rivera’s eyes were wide, her heart racing, wondering if this was it. He pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Penelope smiled then charged at him, crashing her knee into his balls, kicking the rifle out from his hands, and then delivered another high kick into his throat, not caring that she was still wearing a short skirt when she made those moves. As a final insult, she stepped on his tail when it lowered to the floor.

The gunman learned the hard way that he wasn’t dealing with a human or Linl woman, but Hashmedai, one that moved quickly and deadly like the vampire-like hunters they were. It took Penelope seven seconds after that to get behind him, snap his neck, grab his rifle, shoot it, and make another Rabuabin gunman that was approaching spin around six times before his body full of blood-gushing holes hit the floor.

Penelope returned later holding two rifles, offering one to Rivera. She shook her head no.

“Take it, you silly girl,” Penelope insisted, shoving the weapon to her face.

Rivera swatted the weapon away, standing back to her feet. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“If you’re worried about the bloodstains on the trigger, I assure you Rabuabin blood washes off fairly easily.”

“I don’t like violence.”

“You’re a pacifist?”

“You could say that.”

“And if this bloke over here,” Penelope said, pointing off to the side. “Wants to pass his fist into my face because you’re a pacifist, what will you do to help me?”

Rivera followed where Penelope was pointing. She saw the bloke in question dive into cover, and yell to his friends of the human woman and the Maraschino hacker that were a threat.

27 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Eiri Spaceport, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 12:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Seal the airlock!”

Foster stood and watched from inside the Kepler as its airlock doors shut. Her captured magnetic rifle aimed out, her finger next to the trigger, waiting for any straggling gunmen from beyond. Jainuzei stood with her doing the same. Neither of the two left until the doors were shut locked and no signs of movement were seen beyond its small windows.

The two lowered their rifles when it was deemed safe and Foster strode back to the bridge, slinging the weapon over her shoulder, Jainuzei followed behind. As she turned the corner, she put her wrist terminal to her face and asked. “Why the hell did it take so long to open?”

“The airlock doors on our end opened fine,” Chang’s voice transmitted. “It was the Radiance ones that were slow.”

“Remind me to file a lawsuit against the Radiance engineers that built it if we all die,” Foster replied.

“Uh,” Chang muttered slowly. “How’s that gonna happen if we’re all dead?”

Foster snickered. “Oh, I’ll find a way!”

Foster took her captain’s chair as she returned to the bridge. Nobody bothered to ask why she still had a magnetic rifle with her when she left it on the floor next to her seat. Jainuzei was moving around behind, probably examining the layout of the bridge, and how fast Odelea and Pierce returned to their stations amidst the sounds of alarms blaring.

“Any word from Rivera?” Foster asked, facing the communication station.

“I can’t seem to reach her,” Odelea said after a moment, checking her computer.

“Keep tryin’—” Multiple proximity warning alerts flared. The Kepler was taking weapons fire. “What is it now?”

Chang flicked through several holo screens, keeping his eyes on its contents, and his racing fingers on the helm’s terminal. “Oh shit,” he said. “I’m tracking multiple hostile targets, Captain.”

He updated the view screen. A swarm of robotic-looking objects with twin guns blazing at their front was closing in on the Kepler. “What in the hell are those?” Foster asked.

“Defense drones,” Jainuzei replied, drawing a number of stares when he spoke.

Including Chang, as he spun his chair around and asked. “What’s he doing here?”

“Jainuzei is Saressea’s replacement the council failed to give us a heads-up about,” Foster said.

Jainuzei placed his hand behind his back. “Will my presence be an issue, Captain?”

The Kepler rocked suddenly. The holographic overlay on the view screen showed the estimated strength of the overshields slowly decreased.

“Damn, those things pack a punch,” Chang said as he returned to face the helm. “We’re sitting ducks here, Cap, we gotta go!”

‘Gotta go’ meant leaving Rivera behind if she was even alive. Not many people were when Foster last checked. Rivera not replying to Odelea’s attempts to reach her only fueled that idea. She was either dead, dying, or too busy fleeing. Something she and the Kepler’s crew would be if they remained.

The overshields continued to get weaker as the swarming drones released their rapidly discharged rail gun fire. The primary shields of the Kepler, according to the overlay on the view screen, were listed at 0 percent. Primary shields had to be disengaged in order to latch the airlock into the spaceport safely.

Tolukei and Nereid’s combined psionic powers were their first and last line of defense.

“Chang,” Foster said. “Get us out of here.”

“Yeah about that, Cap,” Chang said, his frantic face eying a flashing holo screen. “Docking clamps still got us.”

“So, unclamp it?”

“It’s gotta be done by Radiance,” he said, throwing his hands up in defeat. “If I force the ship loose, I might rip off half the starboard side.”

“Tolukei and Nereid, overshields to the max, give it all ya got,” Foster said, facing them. “If we lose them, we’re dead, can’t use primary shields until we’re free.”

Tolukei’s cloaked lizard head nodded, focusing his four eyes on Foster. The design of the cloak bore a scary resemblance to the ones the gunmen and women used. “Shall I attempt to rip it with my thoughts?” Tolukei offered.

“I guess that means you ain’t gonna be able to combine your powers with Nereid for the overshield?”

“No, Captain,” Tolukei said. “That will be the sacrifice.”

Foster was ready to shake her head no. The proposal was way too risky.

“Unless someone can get a hold of the spaceport’s staff,” Chang cut in. “Then that might be the only way to break free.”

Foster’s face was back looking at the communication station. “Odelea?”

“I’m trying!” Odelea said, frantically using her terminal. “I’m also trying to contact Union command. These are Radiance drones. They shouldn’t be attacking us.”

“None of the Radiance ships in the sector are under fire,” Chang reported from his computer’s holo screens. “Guess someone programmed them to attack anything that didn’t transmit a Radiance IFF during a crisis.”

The rate of fire the Kepler continued to receive didn’t let up. They were an idle target with thousands of drones buzzing around them like raging hornets that got their nest caved in by a swift kick.

“Chang, target anything that gets too close,” Foster said. “They’s just drones, ain’t nobody living flyin’ em.”

“On it.”

The Johannes Kepler’s forward weapons came online. Streaks of rail gun tracer light propelled away from the ship, turning any drone that happened to swerve into its path into bits of orange glowing slag and mangled electronics. Not enough drones were dropping. They needed to leave the action zone.

After ten minutes of horror and waiting, the giant mechanical hand holding the Kepler in place to dock with the spaceport released its firm grip on the ship. The Kepler began to drift free when its maneuvering thrusters fired.

“We’re free!” Chang said gleefully as his hands took control of various sticks, levers, and whatever else a pilot needed to use to make a ship fly.

Foster smiled facing the psionic work station. “Good job Tolukei and Nereid!”

“That was not me, Captain,” Tolukei said.

“Captain, it was Rivera,” Odelea said, her face beaming with hope. “She got the clamps released.”

“Thank God.” Foster exhaled deeply as she saw the sights on the view screen move. “Tell her to sit tight, we’s coming back!”

“She wants us to leave her,” Odelea reported.

“Why?”

Odelea went to speak with Rivera who was on the line. “I don’t know,” Odelea said, facing away from her screen. “That’s the last transmission I got. I’m getting nothing but static now. She sounded ill, however …”

Did she sacrifice her life to get them free? It was a thought Foster didn’t want to fancy for the time being. The lunatic gunmen and women were still on the spaceport turning it into a shooting range. Rivera staying behind wasn’t good for her life expectancy.

The second wave of drones approached the Kepler from all angles as it continued to slowly maneuver away from the station. Its overshields flashed purple colors with each magnetically accelerated round hitting it.

“How are those primary shields?” Foster asked.

“Got ‘em raised,” Chang said. “Keep in mind, Captain; we’re flying into a combat situation with no engineering team.”

“If you wish, Captain,” EVE said. “I could attend engineering for the time being.”

She nodded to the humanoid android standing with her hands behind her back. “Do it, EVE.”

EVE left the bridge and made her way to the empty engineering room. Once again, the android was living up to the V in her name, versatile. Sending EVE came at a cost, however; her processors were going to be tasked with operating multiple stations in engineering, making her a one android engineering team. The lag would be noticeable for any other ship-wide function, including the weapons assisted targeting or firing. Flying and gunning was up to Chang entirely. Tolukei and Nereid were too occupied with keeping the overshields active during the onslaught.

The luscious green garden planet of Eiri took up more than half of the view screen. Hundreds of larger circular-shaped objects were ahead of the planet, growing larger and sending red lines of light that collided with the overshields. The drones did not want them going anywhere.

Facing the helm, Foster asked. “How soon for an FTL jump?”

“Not soon enough,” Chang said. “Way too much shit out here, the drones, Radiance ships, satellites, and transports. We make a jump; we might end up flying into one of them.”

“I find that hard to believe,” she said.

“I don’t have much space to move around, Cap!”

“That’s the thing, Chang, space is called space for a reason, we got lots of it.”

“Captain, we got Eiri ahead, the spaceport behind, fleeing Radiance ferries, incoming Radiance battlecruisers, and a metric fuck ton of drones swarming us. Everything is way too close.”

Foster snorted. “Rock and a hard place, huh?”

Chang grimaced, keeping his focus on maneuvering the ship the best he could. “More like rock and a hard place, that’s in the middle of a giant ball of fuck. If you really want us out of here, I could chance it.”

“I don’t recommend that,” Pierce spoke up. “We’ll be hitting them at seven billion meters per second.”

“Seven billion, one hundred and ninety-five million, eighteen thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-two meters per second,” EVE’s voice replied on the bridge’s speakers. She was the ship’s computer too. “To be exact, Doctor Pierce.”

Pierce snickered. “Thank you … EVE.”

“Let’s not crash into a large object at those speeds, shall we?” Foster said to Chang. “Even with the primary shields up and the overshields, I doubt they could take a blow like that.”

“Unless Radiance can shut those drones down, we’re gonna have to blast our way free.”

At the rate the overshields were dropping, not likely. The drones were built to defend the system in case the Draconians arrived since the replacement Union fleet was still en route.

“Get us free best you can, Chang,” Foster said. “Punch a hole through the drone’s web if you gotta.”

“Aye, Cap.”

“Belay that order.” It was Jainuzei.

His firm voice drew stares from Foster and Chang. He stepped behind Chang as if he were in charge.

It made Foster rage internally. “’Scuse me?”

“Lower the shields,” Jainuzei said.

Chang spun his chair around, looking up at Jainuzei. “What?”

“The drones were also designed for breaching and boarding a ship,” Jainuzei said to him. “Let’s give them what they want. Lower the shields.”

Chang looked at Foster, gesturing his head to Jainuzei. “I think this here bootleg Rambo has a death wish, Cap.”

“Captain,” Jainuzei said to Foster. “Where is your first officer?”

“He’s in sickbay—”

“Therefore, I am his replacement for the time being,” Jainuzei cut in. “As second-in-command, it’s my duty to inform you of alternative options, and ensure the crew carries out your orders. At least, that’s how it works in the Union.”

This was no time for bickering, it was time for punching a hole and escaping via a slick FTL jump, and Foster’s orders weren’t being carried out. She clenched her fists, raising the tone of her voice at Jainuzei. “Hey! Listen—”

“Your orders are to get us free, best you can, as you put it,” Jainuzei cut her off again. “I’m ensuring those orders are being carried out.” Jainuzei stood behind Chang, placing his armored hand over his shoulder. “Now, unless Foster goes back on her request, Chang, please carry out your orders.”

“Captain?” Chang asked her.

Foster rubbed her face, sighing deeply. “He seems to know more about the drones than us …” she moaned and prepared herself for a leap of faith. “Just do it …”

“Understood.”

“If this were a Union ship I’d have you removed from your post for hesitation,” Jainuzei said to Chang.

Foster couldn’t see the expression on Chang’s face. Though she imagined him silently making mocking gestures with face and lips at Jainuzei’s tone.

“The overshields too,” Jainuzei added when he stood ahead of the psionic duo.

Tolukei and Nereid both looked to Foster for approval, she gave it with a nod. Jainuzei showed disapproval with a frown, especially at Tolukei who was part of Radiance. Jainuzei was the new third-in-command that nobody was going to get along with.

With both the primary and overshields down, violent tremors shook the Kepler. Chang tried to keep the bridge out from the line of sight of the drones’ weapons. One round carried enough firepower to put a massive hole through it, killing those that got hit instantly, and blowing the rest out into space. One round passing through the reactor would result in another set of very bad things happening that would kill them all.

Jainuzei’s plan was like playing a knife game with your fingers.

The last tremor forced a number of critical alert alarms to blast.

“Got a hull breach!” Pierce reported.

“Jainuzei?” Foster said, looking at him.

Jainuzei’s face was still and unfazed at the alarms and devastation the Kepler was taking. That’s when Foster remembered Karklosea’s concern about Jainuzei and her distrust for him. He might have just doomed the ship, tricking them into thinking this was the best way to escape.

“Just wait.” Was all Jainuzei had to say.

“I’m sealing off affected areas,” Pierce said, tapping his computer terminal.

“Intruder alert,” Odelea reported. “The drones are ripping an entry point through the hull.”

Jainuzei grinned, rearmed himself with his rifle and went for the bridge’s exit. “Anyone with combat experience, please assist me,” he said. “We need to dispatch the drones before they do the same to us. Also, Captain,” Jainuzei added, facing Foster. “You were an impressive shot, I’d be honored if you watched my back.”

Foster, Jainuzei, Maxwell, LeBoeuf, and Miles passed through a self-irising force field, separating a corridor within the Kepler that was now exposed to space thanks to a gaping hole in the wall. The holographic HUD in Foster’s EVA suit confirmed that her personal shield had been activated as she followed Jainuzei and the rest through the affected areas on a search and destroy mission for the invading drones.

A cluster of drones was found near the cryo chambers. When not flying through space, they looked like bipedal headless robots with machine guns for hands after they transformed. Both sides needed no introductions before the weapons exchange commenced. The drones had no shields, making them easier to deal with. It was a huge boon when taking into account the safety settings on everyone’s rifles, forcing rounds to move slow enough to not breach the hull, any more than it already had been. In other words, their rifles inflicted less damage when they did hit their targets.

No shields also meant Maxwell and LeBoeuf were able to dish out the good stuff with their psionic powers. Telekinetic throws when a drone got close and pulls when a drone tried to hide in the corner, pulling them out of it. The drones didn’t hit hard either, they were in breaching mode after all, most likely a program executed to capture the crew if needed. It’d explain why they stopped firing at the Kepler when the breach was large enough for them to climb into.

One downed drone’s leg was still twitching and sparking. It was still active, just too badly damaged to be a threat. Jainuzei’s eyes seen from his helmet’s visor zeroed in on it. He looked back at Foster, asking her to, “Cover me!”

Before she could give a reply, he ran into the fray, dodging flying bullets. His armor’s shields flashed blue when he failed to evade. The downed twitching drone was all that mattered to Jainuzei.

“What was Chang’s name for him?” Maxwell asked Foster amidst the weapons fire.

She grinned, while peeking around the corner she covered at, taking aim at a drone down the corridor. “Bootleg Rambo.”

“Yeah,” Maxwell said, his psionic rifle rising to cover Jainuzei. “That he is …”

Jainuzei slid across the floor with his weapon still blazing, clearing the area around the downed drone. Dropping his weapon to the floor, he knelt and reached for the downed drone, pulling apart its exposed wires and circuit boards. A new wave of drones entered via the breach, transforming into the bipedal attackers. Jainuzei stood closest to them. Whatever he was doing, he had to hurry it up. Foster and the rest couldn’t take aim with him in the way.

Jainuzei pulled a data crystal out from the drone and inserted into a terminal mounted into the side of his Radiance combat armor. A small holo screen flashed ahead of him as did a Radiance keyboard that he typed into.

The drones ceased their movement and weapons fire. The flashing lights on their frame stopped as well.

Jainuzei’s helmeted face looked back at the group. “We should be clear,” his voice transmitted over the comms.

“Bridge, status of the drones?” Foster asked.

Chang’s voice replied inside her helmet’s speakers. “A bunch just went dormant.”

“My manual command override codes worked then,” Jainuzei transmitted. “Excellent, instruct your pilot to get us out.”

“Ya think?” Foster looked away from Jainuzei. “Chang, you hear that?”

“Loud and clear, Captain. Destination?”

“You really gotta ask? Just get us outta here!—”

“Captain!” LeBoeuf shouted.

Foster turned around just in time to see the drone Jainuzei tampered with come to life. It shoved him aside and ran down the corridors.

“Jainuzei,” Foster called out to him. “What in the hell did you do?”

Jainuzei looked shocked. “I didn’t instruct it to act further! I have no idea what is going on.”

Nobody’s aim was fast enough to put it down. By the time Foster and the rest caught up with the marathon-running drone, it was in engineering and plugged itself into one of the computer terminals.

EVE curiously looked at the intrusive drone, and then politely asked it to discontinue its actions. When it didn’t, she introduced it to her android strength. There wasn’t much of a functioning drone afterward.

“What was it doing?” Foster asked EVE as she approached.

EVE blinked her eyes as she processed and collected the data. “The drone had accessed the Kepler’s FTL drive, helm, and navigational controls.”

“Great—”

“Furthermore, Captain,” EVE continued. “It has temporarily locked out all bridge functions.”

“Can you fix it?”

“Attempting to do so now, please standby.”

“Bridge to Foster,” Chang’s voice said over her helmet’s speakers.

“Go ahead, Chang,” Foster said. “And yes, I know y’all lost bridge computers, EVE is getting them back up now.”

“Sweet, so you’re also aware that the Kepler just laid in a course on its own, then jumped into FTL without me doing so?”

“That … I didn’t know. EVE?”

“Flight Lieutenant Chang is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “The drone forced the Kepler on a direct collision course with a Radiance ethereal refinery.”

“You can stop it though, right?”

“The drone infected us with a trojan,” EVE said. “I will have to reboot our system in order to remove it.”

“That sounds like she won’t be able to do it in time,” Chang’s voice said. “Please tell me I’m wrong?”

“Unfortunately, Flight Lieutenant, you are correct,” EVE said. “The reboot alone will take approximately five minutes to complete. Our estimated time of impact is in two minutes. We will not have control of the Kepler by then.”

The ethereal refineries. Foster didn’t know a whole lot about them, other than Radiance drilled temporary rifts into aether space to extract dark energy, and then refine it as an energy source for their nation. The refineries were built near ethereal fissures in space, and according to the holo screen EVE created, the Kepler was about to fly directly into it.

She lost track of how long her body had been under never-ending stress, drenched with terror induced sweat.

“Odelea,” Foster said over the comm line. “You’re the expert on these refineries, what happens if we fall into the fissure?”

“I don’t know,” Odelea’s voice replied. “We sent probes in, and they ceased operating. We never attempted sending ships in.”

At thirty seconds to impact, Foster faced away from the holo screen displaying external camera footage of the small glowing rift in space with an orbiting space station next to it, the refinery.

“All hands,” Foster said as the Johannes Kepler approached ethereal fissure. “Brace for—”

A flash of light prevented Foster from finishing. Traveling at full FTL speeds, the Johannes Kepler plugged into the ethereal fissure and ceased to exist.

28 Rivera

Central Foyer

Spaceport, Eiri Orbit, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 11:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera hated violence more than Hashmedai hated sunlight. Her earliest memories were full of violence, back when Imperial forces invaded Earth and made a push into the Philippines, her home country, when Earth was still split into nations.

As much as she tried to scrub her mind of it, she did try violence once. During the Imperial invasion, her family insisted she kept a pistol on her for protection. One day, while searching for supplies, a lone and limping Hashmedai approached her muttering words, at the time, she couldn’t understand. She shot them dead.

Upon closer inspection the Hashmedai woman she killed wasn’t a fighter, she was an Imperial engineer that survived when a small Imperial corvette had crashed. The Hashmedai woman was unarmed and worked to maintain a ship, she posed no threat to her. Turns out the words the Hashmedai woman was muttering was the Hashmedai word for ‘water.’ The woman Rivera shot was begging for water.

Rivera wouldn’t be surprised if the pistol she used was still sitting at the bottom of the lake she threw it in. The lake the Hashmedai woman was crawling to.

After that, Rivera spent countless nights begging her family and friends not to take up arms against the Hashmedai. Countless nights begging captured Hashmedai warriors who were taken by disorganized human fighters not to be violent if she secretly let them escape.

The war was tit for tat in her eyes. The Empire attacked Earth because of the assassination of an heir to the Imperial throne, which at the time was believed to be a result of humans. As for humanity? They fought back because they were unenlightened. Someone hits you, you hit them back. If they hit you again in response, then you do the same.

Radiance didn’t help. They told Earth that the Hashmedai were evil, not because it was true, but because Radiance was in the middle of a genocidal war with the Empire and was open to the idea of another species wanting to wipe them out.

There weren’t enough people in the young eyes of Rivera wanting to throw down their weapons, say sorry and walk away, offering peace to end the killing on both sides. Thousands of years of genocide in the name of religion made Radiance want to encourage Earth to hate the Empire on the same level they did. Thousands of years of being on the receiving end of genocide filled the hearts of the Hashmedai with hate and rage, making them lash out at everyone. Thousands of years of humans killing humans made them ready to leap into a fight the second aggression was shown.

“Let’s go!”

Penelope yanked on Rivera’s shoulder, pulling her out from the memories of her past at the same time. When Rivera got to her feet and stood with Penelope, the gunmen that stood ready to attack lay dead in a pool of blood. Her time-traveling mind didn’t notice the Maraschino hacker use the rifle to take the gunmen down, or the elaborate hacks she used to force the computer in their rifles to switch on its safety, right as they went to pull the trigger.

The duo continued to flee from the chaos around them, past wounded Radiance civilians and rangers. They left the central areas, running through the halls that would eventually take them to the airlock the Kepler was supposed to be docked at. A vicious gun battle prompted them to stop and take cover in a connecting hallway. The passageway to the Kepler was blocked with dozens of cloaked men and women fighting a lone target.

Fear told the two that the Kepler wasn’t an option. They ran through a different set of connecting halls, seeking another way off the spaceport. Every airlock they found either had no connecting ship, or armed men trying to get inside the ship still docked at it. They needed to find a ship still docked but free of attackers. The spaceport’s ops station would hold the location of that in their computers.

Ops was long abandoned when the two arrived, it made Penelope lower her rifle and rip off the wig she had on. Her natural long silver Hashmedai hair was free. It shined nicely when the bright lights above hit it. The shades covering her red eyes kept them protected.

“Now what?” Rivera asked.

Penelope snapped her fingers. Two holo screens appeared full of computer code that allowed her to hack into the computer station she stood at. “Help me find a ship that hasn’t left yet,” Penelope said after she gained access.

Four computer screens flashed on, Rivera ran to one of them interacting with its functions. “Even if we find one, I doubt they’ll let us board it.”

“Well if you pick up a gun, and we both ask real nice, maybe.”

The windows peering out into space and the emerald orb of Eiri flashed rapidly with light. The two saw swarms of drones move away from the spaceport, discharging a barrage of rounds at a target close by.

“Oh, bugger,” Penelope said, checking her hacked computer. “Someone activated the defense drones.”

Rivera brought up a three-dimensional holographic map of the station, it made a full rotation every ten seconds. Its rotating appearance led her to the location of the drone’s target. She made a worrying cringe.

“It’s the Kepler,” she said, holding back the emotions that wanted to escape from her lips. “They’re still docked. If they can’t break free …”

“They’re dead, you can’t use shields when docked,” Penelope said. “And those gunmen racing toward its airlock can’t be good either …”

Rivera strode to another computer, typing away furiously, searching for the commands to release the Kepler. “Help me find the release command!”

“That won’t save the Kepler,” Penelope said, pointing at her screen. “Someone here manually instructed the drones to attack the Kepler. We stop the signal, we save the Kepler.”

“And where are those people controlling the drones?” Rivera continued searching the computer’s contents. “Faster for us to get the Kepler free, we’re in the right place to do it!”

“And where would they go?” Penelope said. “The drones will chase, and they’re too close for a safe FTL jump.”

“Still better than looking for people in a location we don’t even know.”

The hacker behind Rivera hissed like the Hashmedai she was. She pushed a holo screen to Rivera. It showed a cutaway section of the station with a number of flashing red dots, most of them traveling to the bottom layer of the spaceport.

“Those red dots are them,” Penelope said. “That explains why we didn’t find many coming up here. They were making their way down there to control the drones and prevent the rangers from taking control back. Help me take them out, if I can get close to the drone’s primary computer, I could issue abort codes and save the Kepler.”

“And then?”

“And then we find a ship fast before they call their friends.” Penelope rearmed herself with the rifle, making her way to an elevator. “Of course, if you don’t join me and pick up a bloody gun, we can’t save anyone.”

Penelope’s plan, while viable with her hacking powers, still would see a number of hostiles get killed just to get down to the drone control room, with Rivera being forced to participate in that. And then fleeing it? It would see more violence as they made their way to a ship to escape.

There had to be another way, one that wouldn’t force Rivera to fight. If Penelope was going to kill them all, fine, but Rivera would have no part in pulling any triggers. And judging by the number of hostiles, Penelope wasn’t going to last long without support.

“There has to be another way,” Rivera said.

“You have a better plan?”

“Yes! Release the Kepler first, and then we disable the drones with support from the rangers.”

“That’s not a plan. That’s a desire to get them killed with the time wasted! Both you and I know the rangers won’t follow us.”

She waved Penelope’s words off. The release command for the Kepler was here somewhere. She just had to find it, and quick. After that, they could come up with another plan to deal with the drones. There were still lots of rangers aboard. If they could somehow get them to trust the Hashmedai hacker and her, they could do this. And Rivera wouldn’t have to fight.

“Rivera, are you listening to me at all?

She wasn’t. Rivera was focused on her virtual vision, and it displayed her HNI’s diagnostic window using the remote HNI help tools from the computer she was on. Penelope’s hack into her HNI was brief and it showed. Penelope found a means to shut it off, thus keeping Sarpanit silent.

Rivera hesitated while she watched a screen appear over her sight. It asked her to confirm if she wanted to reboot her HNI and undo Penelope’s lockdown of it. She selected the confirm button.

When it rebooted, Sarpanit made her presence felt.

“Ugh,” she heard Sarpanit growl in her head.

“Listen to me,” Rivera said to Sarpanit. “Your followers are about to kill us, and possibly destroy our means to get off the spaceport.”

“Lies.”

She linked her HNI into the projection Penelope gave Rivera, showing the location of the cultists having taken control of the drone control room. “Don’t believe me? Look at this. They’re using the spaceport’s drones to attack the Kepler.”

“Let them.”

“That ship is the fastest in the galaxy,” Rivera explained. “You want to stop the Draconians from reaching the nebula, right? That’s our fastest means there, period. If it’s gone, you run the risk of them getting there before us. We need to get on that ship, and it needs to be in one piece. So, please use your computing, and help me find the lockout for it so they can break free before the drones destroy it.”

“Hmm.”

“Do something,” Rivera said out loud. “Anything!”

“Who are you talking to?” Penelope said, and moved to Rivera having realized something was up.

Rivera kept her face low, buried in the various floating computer screens ahead of her, hoping Penelope wouldn’t catch on. Penelope had the power to hack into almost anything, including her HNI. Penelope had the power to end her plan.

“Oh! For fuck sakes!” Penelope yelled.

She felt her HNI lag, Penelope had hacked it, and no doubt realized the secret exchange Rivera and the AI Goddess within it were having.

“Quickly,” Rivera softly said to Sarpanit. “Quickly, before she locks out my HNI again.”

A screen instantly flashed with a progress bar that moved from left to right in four seconds. A notification appeared on the screen informing Rivera that the docking clamps to the Kepler had been removed. She took the time to make a quick transmission now that her HNI was active again informing Odelea of the details and not to come back for them, at least, not yet.

Rivera had grabbed Penelope at that point. Sarpanit took total control of Rivera’s bodily functions, forcing her to wrap her hands around the Hashmedai girl’s neck, and then squeeze hard.

“Now …” Sarpanit said, forcing Rivera’s gaze to look down at Penelope. “Kill her.”

Rivera was using violence. But it wasn’t her choice to do so. She screamed internally, watching helplessly as Penelope fell to her knees, gasping for the air Sarpanit didn’t want her to have. She begged for Sarpanit to stop making her do it. It ignored her.

A holo screen appeared before the two, it was Penelope’s doing. On the screen, an animated cherry danced and gave Rivera two middle fingers.

Rivera’s HNI started to go haywire.

She screamed, holding her head while the feeling of millions of flaming swords poked her brain. Rivera blacked out before Penelope’s feet.

Space Ferry

Approaching Interstellar Space, Luminous System

November 2, 2118, 17:18 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera’s eyes opened. She saw white and polished floors, walls, and ceilings. Her hair waved about as if she were underwater, she was floating. There was no weight to her body that had been drifting about in the room for hours. How many hours she was out, she didn’t know, her HNI was offline and her wrist terminal was packed away in her bag that floated below her.

She was on a ship, that much she could tell, and it wasn’t because of the weightlessness. It was also the hum of the engines not far from her, the air recyclers groaning, and the stars of space moving from a nearby window. When she felt confident enough to move without her head aching, she flipped her body about to grab her bag, and then brushed her wild floating hair away from her face.

“Morning,” Penelope called out to her. Turning around she saw Penelope sit at the forward helm control. “Feeling better?”

Rivera rubbed her forehead. “Still hurts a bit. You?”

“Peachy.”

“Listen, I’m sorry about—”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, love. I know that AI possessed you when it took control. She’s still in there if that’s what you’re worried about. Don’t worry though; I coded a harder lockout in your HNI. You won’t be able to access it unless I say so.”

“You’re holding my HNI hostage now?”

“Pretty sure your HNI was holding you hostage, love.”

Penelope drifted to Rivera, offering her a silver thermos reflecting the bright ceiling lights from above. “Tea?” Rivera took it pulling its wide straw into her dry mouth. She didn’t care that it was a warm beverage. “It was the only tea I could find from Earth in the storage room. Earl Grey.”

Rivera took a sip of tea and pushed it away from her lips when it scorched the inside of her mouth. “It’s hot!”

The two drifted to the forward helm. Rivera had to back away when Penelope’s floating locks of silver hair tickled her nose. “I dragged you aboard after you blacked out from my hack,” Penelope said, handing her a holo screen map of the galaxy. “We’re on a course to Takarius, the Javnis homeworld.”

Rivera looked away from the galaxy map hologram and back at the hacker turned pilot, though, she probably hacked the computers to follow her commands. “Why?” she asked her.

“While you were out, I took the liberty to poke around inside your HNI,” Penelope said. “You should have told me you had the memories of Marduk’s wife fused with the AI of an old EVE construct.”

“It’s a long story.”

“No need to share it with me. We’ve been en route for a few hours now. Had plenty of time to view the log files, well, the ones that weren’t locked out.”

“You know what Sarpanit knows, then?”

It was hopeful news. Sarpanit not only had encrypted data about Tiamat and the Draconians found at Sirius but knew what happened to the Carl Sagan during its disappearance. If Penelope was the master hacker Rivera hoped, maybe, just maybe she’d be the one to shed light on the sixty-eight-year-old mystery.

“Only what you know,” Penelope revealed, much to Rivera’s dismay. “As I said, many files were locked. I’m guessing those were from the Carl Sagan’s purged databanks. In time, I could crack the encryption, but that will require your HNI to be active and the AI in it. Too much of a risk right now. If you can get it to cooperate, however …”

Rivera took another sip of the tea, and then floated into a seat next to Penelope. She looked at the stars moving by via the windshield. “So much for reaching the Kepler.”

“Didn’t have a choice, Eiri’s orbit was turning into a warzone. Not as bad as when the dragons arrived, but … there were a lot of bodies adrift in space by the time we made it out. Those Marduk cultists are maniacs, which is why I opted to leave the system right away.”

“Why didn’t you take us back to the wormhole?”

Penelope cupped her hand, and a projection popped into existence floating above it. “Managed to decrypt this file.” Rivera looked at the projection closely. It was a map of a group of islands on some planet. “It’s a region on the Javnis homeworld. According to this, there’s something buried in an undersea valley.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t know, the Javnis was the second race to join the Union, all Lyonria structures on their world had long been explored and documented. Clearly, something was missed. Sarpanit was studying this data closely after your run-in with the monolith under Bagdad.”

Rivera stopped herself from asking how she knew of that. Penelope had total access to her HNI and that included her recent memories it recorded. It made her wonder how many lies Sarpanit had told her after that encounter. Rivera reacting to the monolith, the location of the nebula, and now ruins on the Javnis homeworld. Sarpanit stored secrets in her.

“Bunch of ancient structures were found on Earth recently,” Rivera said. “They were undiscovered until the dragon attacks. I wonder if these ruins on the Javnis world are the same.”

She uncupped her hand and the projection faded away. “We’ll find out once we get out of cryo.”

Rivera grimaced. “Cryo …”

“Our trip is going to take six months, and it’s just the two of us aboard.”

A dejected groan left Rivera’s lips. All she wanted to do was get back to the Kepler. Now she was en route to the Javnis homeworld. Demanding for Penelope to turn them back around came to mind until she remembered they were already on course for hours. It’d be that much time before they made it back. Wherever the Kepler was, it was sure to be long gone out of the system.

“I hope this is worth it, Penelope.”

“The Soldiers of Marduk, that AI in your head.” Penelope made a short chuckle to herself. “I bet there’s something of great value to that group there, and they don’t know it, but we do. We need to control it before they do. I sent this data to Maraschino. Give it a few weeks to a month before someone buys it, follows up on it, and digs it up.”

“Remember the last time you guys sold data?”

“I know,” Penelope said as her face became grim. How much, Rivera couldn’t tell with her shades still on. “That’s why I’m doing this. Those people killed back there was my fault. I gave Maraschino data I stole from all ships that were at Taxah, including the Kepler. It got sold to the Soldiers of Marduk. Now they’re a threat, the Rezeki’s Rage is missing, and the Terran Legion is getting jolly over something. I need to fix this. And I’ll start by making sure you-know-who doesn’t get this intel. Explorers, researchers and the like only, I’ll make sure Maraschino only sells it to them.”

“Eicelea,” Rivera said without a second thought. “Get Maraschino to get in contact with Eicelea, we can trust her and that bodyguard.”

“Noted.”

“Any word about Foster and the Kepler?”

“That message to them will have to wait,” Penelope said with a cold wince. “Right now, we really can’t risk sending it as we’ll give away our location and stolen ship. Reaching out to Maraschino already put us at risk.”

“Come with me,” Rivera said as she pushed away, and drifted toward the rear. “We’re in a stolen Radiance ferry; help me disable the transponder so that nobody picks up our signal.”

“Smart, except for one flaw.”

“What’s that?”

“If there’s a problem, and we don’t awake from cryo. Who will find the ship?”

29 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Dark Energy Conduit

November 2, 2118, 13:51 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler was in a place between the normal known universe and aether space. The crew at the time didn’t know it, but Foster did. After the drone that hijacked the Kepler’s propulsion had been put down, Foster’s tattoos began to glow, and she used them to have another out of body experience.

She felt the same way she did whenever she entered the maelstrom, the plane of existence the Draconians used as a means of moving their ships through space. It was faster than FTL and stealthy as you couldn’t detect a fleet of ships that doesn’t exist in the universe. Until a vortex opened and spat them out.

Foster felt the Kepler hurtle through a path above the red and magenta clouds of the maelstrom, it was reminiscent of the strange vision she had hours earlier. Unlike traversing through the maelstrom, there was no way to change direction. It was as if powerful winds swept the Kepler away, forcing it to one specific location in the realm where the laws of physics were different, the realm of aether space. Before she could break from the trance to inform the crew, the Kepler was thrown into a black void. Foster was forced from her trance, and her mind gathered back into her body. Something didn’t feel right about the experience, like she broke a glass cup. It was as if her tattoos and out of body experience did something it wasn’t supposed to do. She felt the rift in space the Kepler exited from evaporate.

When she arrived on the bridge, there was silence with the exception of computer fans blowing and the hum of air recyclers. The sense of fear and high tension was noticeable among the bridge crew. Chang checked the helm’s computers now that EVE had flushed the trojan out from it and other systems. Pierce analyzed data that populated his station. Odelea’s eyes widened as she fought to defeat the panic that controlled her body and trembling hands.

“Okay…” Chang said. “Can somebody tell me, what the hell just happened?”

“What’s our position?” Foster asked as she glanced at the view screen with a grimace.

There was a nebula full of bright stars. It didn’t seem unfamiliar at all, like she was there earlier in the day.

“Unknown, Captain,” Pierce said. “The data’s coming through now.”

Chang pointed at the view screen. “Is that a nebula?”

Pierce followed his finger, looking at it. “It would appear to be, though,” Pierce faced his station, pulling up the various screen about the Kepler’s current location. “This is strange.”

Foster stood behind him with her arms crossed viewing his screens. “How so, Pierce?”

“Nebulas are just clouds of gas, the birthplace of brand-new stars,” Pierce said. “They may look nice when viewing them from afar, but in reality, flying through a nebula should look no different than flying through space.”

“How?” Chang asked, looking back at Pierce. “I’ve seen some colorful nebula pictures.”

“Those pictures are misleading,” Pierce said. “Nebulas are thousands of light-years in size. Put a ship inside, and you’d still be able to see stars and space, maybe the occasional lovely sight here and there, but it wouldn’t be as grand.”

Chang waved his hand before the view screen. “Then why are we seeing nothing but gaseous clouds?”

“Because this is the Hallowed Nebula,” Odelea cut in, with a hint of fear in her voice.

“The what?” Foster asked.

“My Gods,” Odelea’s said, while her trembling fingers typed away at her computer. She created a holographic star map, flicking a copy each to Pierce and Foster. “Captain, I think we’ve arrived in the heart of the Divine Expanse, the Hallowed Nebula.”

“If that is true,” Tolukei said. “Then we may be angering the Gods just by remaining here.”

Odelea nodded to him. “Agreed, we need to leave at once.”

Chang accessed the star map Odelea created. He stroked his chin, making no attempts at changing the Kepler’s drifting course. “Uh, well, shit,” was all he said.

Foster wasn’t up to date on everything Radiance and consulted EVE. Something told her the rest of the human crew was in the same position.

“Radiance believes that their Gods live within the center of this nebula, Captain,” EVE’s voice said over the speakers. “It is considered sacrilegious to enter out of fear of disturbing their three Gods.”

“There were a great many battles fought with the Empire nearby,” Tolukei said. “The Hashmedai believed our Gods to be aliens and tried to enter this region seeking evidence of it.”

Other than the colorful spectacles of the nebula ahead on the view screen, Foster saw no reason to panic. There were no sleeping Gods out there as far as she was concerned. But, drifting about in a region of space that was restricted to even those high up in Radiance wasn’t a good way to say, ‘thanks for giving us the Kepler back.’

They needed to leave as it wasn’t going to get Chevallier the treatment she needed. The SOM actions were really starting to get in the way of what was supposed to be a simple drop off. The SOM also had detailed intel about this nebula, the more Foster thought about it.

She considered the thought that their arrival wasn’t accidental. The drone did force the Kepler to fly into the ethereal fissure.

“Mister Chang, get us outta here, don’t want Radiance to get the wrong idea,” Foster said.

“Well there might be a problem with that, Cap,” Chang said. “We’re a few hundred light-years away from our last position.”

The fissure brought them here. There was no question about that. It worked almost like the maelstrom and therefore could send ships to a location quicker than FTL.

“Any sign of that fissure thingy we fell into?” Foster asked him. “Maybe that’ll get us back?”

Chang shrugged after checking his instruments and various holo screens from his computer. “I’m not sure what to look for.”

Foster faced the Kepler’s communication officer and Souyila researcher. “Odelea, can you help ‘em out? The fissures are Souyila stuff after all, right?”

“That’s what I don’t understand, Captain,” Odelea said. “No ship has ever ventured into the fissures. As I said before, the probes we sent in were all lost when they got too deep, and it was assumed nothing could survive.”

“We did,” Chang said.

Foster looked at the tattoos that decorated her hands. They were still shimmering. “My newfound powers might have something to do with that.”

“This is an interesting find, though,” Odelea said. “I had an idea at the start of the Draconian attacks, that the vortexes led to the maelstrom and our ethereal fissures were the same, or very similar. It would appear I was right.”

The experience of getting pushed forcibly through the conduit from the fissures did feel nearly identical. Foster’s best guess was that it was a layer of aether space that was closer to the normal universe. It’d explain why it didn’t take long to traverse it, or why the Kepler didn’t need the protective goo.

The catch was, from what it felt like, it was a one-way trip, and from what it looked too. There were no signs of a connecting fissure after a quick search of the sector. Every sense in her body and tattoos told her she destroyed the fissure when she tried to interact with it. She made a mental note not to try that again if they found a new one.

“Let’s search for another fissure,” Foster said when the search turned up no results. “Odelea, can you update our database so we know what to scan for?”

“Of course, Captain. I’ll have to grab my data crystal from the labs first.”

Odelea had brought a trove of files from Souyila when she first joined the crew, keeping them in the lab in case they came across something strange. And what transpired over the last thirty minutes qualified as that.

“Do it,” Foster said to her. “In the meantime, Chang, set a course back to the Luminous system.”

“All right,” Chang said drily as he took the helm controls and spun the Kepler in a new direction. “Entering FTL now, we’ll be there in a few years. I hope the galaxy will as well.”

“Should we get ready for cryo then?” Pierce asked Foster.

“Not yet, especially if we find a fissure out here,” Foster said. “That, and the cryo chamber is a bit of a mess right now ‘cause of them drones.”

Twenty minutes had slipped away. Odelea never returned to the bridge, nor communicated what the holdup was. Knowing her and her scatterbrain thoughts, Odelea got sidetracked. This was after all a new breakthrough. Odelea was probably running tests rather than running back to the bridge.

Foster left to fetch her and stopped when she noticed Jainuzei had been standing at the bridge’s exit. He was gazing at the view screen and the gaseous colors of the nebula fly past at FTL speeds.

“Something on your mind, big guy?” Foster said to him.

Jainuzei shook his head, keeping his eyes forward. “No, there is not.”

She couldn’t tell if the news they crossed into the Hallowed Nebula had him worried about their Gods, or if there was something else about it that he knew and wasn’t sharing. Jainuzei did seem interested in the data crystal they brought aboard. The data crystal that spoke of the nebula. If Jainuzei was keeping secrets, now would be the time to speak. They were on the same team, whether he liked it or not at that point, stuck on a ship lost in a nebula.

“You have the bridge, Jainuzei.”

She cringed internally at the thought as she left, walking to the lab. With Williams still out for the count, Jainuzei was the ranking officer on the bridge. This was his chance to prove himself. He’d already lost a few points with the crew, and it hadn’t been a full day since he’d been aboard.

Foster wasn’t surprised to see Odelea sitting and her computer desk littered with notes in the labs. The screen she had active showed a close-up rotating projection of a decorated staff with some kind of jewelry on top of it.

Odelea seemed to be so lost in thought about the two other holo screens full of words in the Radiance language, that she didn’t notice Foster standing beside her.

“… must be a prototype vortex the Draconians used in ancient times,” Odelea spoke to herself, thinking out loud. “The fissures and vortexes are the same things. My Gods—”

“You got lost or somethin’?” Foster spoke up finally, making Odelea leap in her chair.

“Oh, Captain, I’m sorry.”

“Figured this situation had your brain movin’ all over the place.”

“Remember the talk I had with Queenea and her brother? It was about my theory that the vortexes and fissures were alike,” Odelea said. “It was still on my mind when I came down here, and I became curious as to how this is connected. The fissures are small rifts in space that lead to aether space.”

“Right, and you guys extract dark energy from it, refine it, and use it as a power source.”

“I think the fissures were an early test the Draconians, or someone else that was around in the galaxy at the time, used as a means of space travel. Before they had the power to travel using the maelstrom we know today, they must have relied on its prototype vortex, the fissures. They must have formed one-way conduits, perhaps two-way ones, through aether space to fixed locations elsewhere.”

“So basically, a wormhole?”

“No, a wormhole connects two points of space together. The fissure, like the vortexes, sends someone to aether space, then back into the universe. The end result is similar, yes, but it’s not the same mechanics. In any case, Captain, that is how we got here. Someone, many years ago, needed a way to link the Luminous system to the Hallowed Nebula.”

Odelea’s opened mouth suggested she had more to say. And if she was thinking what Foster was, and any Hashmedai that would have heard, then the next words probably would have been along the lines of, this is how the three Gods came to Aervounis and uplifted the Aryile race. But, that would mean accepting the fact the Gods were aliens, and their homeworld was somewhere in the nebula.

Foster kept her mouth shut about that. I ain’t saying it was aliens, but …

Odelea brought up a minimized holo screen, dragging two files off it, handing them to Foster. She accepted the holographic computer files and slid them into her wrist terminal’s desktop.

“Those files contain the energy signatures we need to scan for,” Odelea said. “It should help Chang find a fissure. Whether it will take us back is another story.”

“We’ll take the chance,” Foster said, and then transmitted the files to the bridge. She looked at the primary holo screen Odelea had opened, the one with the rotating staff. “What’s with the pimp cane? New product line from Souyila?”

“Oh this,” Odelea said, her sun-kissed face brightened. “It’s…”

“Don’t say ‘nothing,’” Foster said. “Ain’t this data crystal the one you came aboard with?”

“With a few added files, yes,” Odelea said, facing the projection. “Iey’liwea asked me to look into it. It was the staff of a Radiance patriarch, leaders of our religion.”

“Why would a mega corp like that care?”

“You aware of the Celestial Order, correct?”

Foster spent random hours of her free time reading about the Celestial Order, it was, after all, related to the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword. The Radiance cult that had an extremist interpretation of their Gods and sparked a number of deadly conflicts throughout the galaxy, igniting the Celestial Order war.

What made the Order powerful was their ability to brainwash people into the cause. Something about Lyonria artifacts they collected and learned how to use, gems with orbs in the center, and other weird stuff most people in the UNE found hard to believe and cast aside as myth.

“Yeah,” Foster said, nodding. She remembered most of the details of the cult.

“This staff was given to Patriarchs that were indoctrinated by the Order,” Odelea said. “There was an alien device inside it, an orb with psionic energy. It’s been suspected that’s how they controlled the minds of those in the Order.”

Foster moved closer to the projection and saw the orb on the staff.

Her eyebrows felt like they wanted to crawl into the top of her head.

“That’s an engram,” she said. “At least, it looks like one.”

Engrams were memories of an individual converted into psionic orbs, which could be used to teach others the knowledge of the person it came from. The Undine and Poniga psionics were quite adept at creating them, Nereid too, according to Pierce.

The power of the Order, the engrams from Sirius and the SOM, whose origins, according to Karklosea, came from Sirius. They were all connected. The SOM founders must have been remnants of the Celestial Order that converted to a new faith. They must have been using the engrams from the Marduk-loyal Poniga and Undine to brainwash people into joining their cause.

“Perhaps that’s why Iey’liwea wanted me to have these files,” Odelea said. “She probably figured we’d find the missing clues to it—”

“Bridge to Foster,” Chang’s voice played on the intercom.

Foster pushed a button on the wall mounted intercom and spoke. “Go ahead.”

“You might wanna join us.”

Once on the bridge, Foster noted the gaseous allure of the nebula on the view screen had stopped moving. The Kepler came to a full stop. Jainuzei who sat on the captain’s chair grinned.

“Report,” Foster said, moving forward.

“Using the data Odelea provided, I instructed your pilot to take a different course,” Jainuzei said.

“Yeah,” Chang said drily. “Bootleg Rambo almost got us killed.”

“Y’all wanna elaborate?”

He demonstrated by launching a probe from the Kepler. The crew watched as the view screen zoomed in on the small device soaring ahead of the Kepler through the thin layers of gas in the nebula. The probe flashed white then turned into slag, hitting an invisible barrier. The barrier sparkled with yellow and blue bolts of what looked like electricity dancing across it.

“Had we continued forward, that would have been us,” Chang said.

“This is the center of the nebula,” Jainuzei said. “The great barrier of the Gods and their home lies beyond.”

Foster examined the data that populated a vacant computer station, eying the numbers, diagrams, and flashing pulses of yellow light on the holo screen. The barrier was at least ten light-years in diameter, possibly more. The yellow light pulses were on the other side of the barrier, their energy signatures were the same as the ones Odelea had shared.

“Let me guess,” Foster said. “Y’all found fissures on the other side of the barrier.”

“Found more than that, Cap,” Chang said, interacting with his computer.

A distress beacon transmission played over the bridge’s speakers. The holo screen that Foster was looking at updated with new data, displaying the approximate location of the beacon. It too was beyond the barrier.

She read the name of the ship in distress. “ESRS Gerard Kuiper.”

“That’s an Earth vessel name, correct?” Tolukei asked.

“Yeah, it is.”

“What’s a UNE ship doing all the way out here?” Pierce said. “We’re hundreds of light-years away from Aervounis. Nobody from Earth ventured this far out since it’s controlled by Radiance.”

30 Saressea

Radiance Prison Ferry

En route to Avalon System, Interstellar Space

November 2, 2118, 18:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Saressea was starting to hate prison life, and she hadn’t been officially convicted yet.

Radiance prison ferries were loaded with prisoners either en route to prison, the edge of Radiance space for exile, or accused who were being transported to stand at their tribunal on a selected world. Saressea was a member of the last group, and so was forced to mingle with the hardened inmates on the ship.

The ferry had one window for inmates to look out and see the stars of space move past, along with their freedom. In front of the stars were other prison ferries and navy escort cruisers, all flying in formation. She was certain the designer of the ferry put the window there to torment inmates on their travel.

Unlike other ships, prison ferries had no cryo chambers other than the small number of pods reserved for the ship’s crew and guards in the restricted areas. They rotated in and out during the voyages and sometimes kept an eye on inmates.

Cryo pods were expensive to produce and maintain, and since each ferry held thousands of inmates, it was cheaper to feed them tubes of protein or vegetable paste and water. Nobody received enough paste and water to satisfy their bodies, just enough to live to see the next day, nothing more. Inmates in the central mess were known for shanking others for extra paste unless they gave it up. Saressea was always hungry, especially on those days when she was targeted. She did not want her blood added to the mess on the floor. The condition of the prison ferries, of course, was done to paralyze the population of Radiance with fear. Be good, obey the law, praise the Gods, and you’ll never have to suffer like the inmates on the ships.

It went without saying that prison breaks were nonexistent. Where would you go? Only the crew and guards had access to escape pods or transports. And, in the very unlikely event an inmate stole one, the cruisers in the fleet would move to intercept and recapture you. Or shoot you down, it was their call.

Men and women from Radiance were free to mingle in the central areas, chat when they dined on paste, or use the workout centers. When it was lights out time, they were pushed into opposite sections of the ship reserved for their gender, where their force field cells were. The corridors that led to those were protected by, not only other force fields, but reinforced doors.

In the mess, groups of men and women of a variety of Radiance races formed cliques. At first, it was to protect themselves from the SOM cultists that were brought aboard. Then it was to get in with them. Byikanea was the popular woman, she sat like a queen at her table in the corner, while other inmates pampered her with a mountain of paste and water they collected from those that weren’t with her gang.

Sometimes, the tribute paid to Byikanea had real food, normally reserved for the guards and ship’s crew if they were out of cryo for a prolonged amount of time. Saressea really wanted to know how they got that. Her growling belly could go for something solid.

Had Saressea not been eying the goods Byikanea was given on one fateful day, she could have avoided the bizarre chat with the fiery redheaded Linl woman. She saw her looking at the tribute, smiled and walked over to the table Saressea sat at.

“Saressea? Right?” Byikanea said.

“Amazing,” Saressea said sarcastically. “I have a fan following now. Fuck, yeah.”

“You have no idea.” Byikanea smiled. “May I sit?”

“Knock yourself out.”

Byikanea sat ahead of her and folded her fingers together placing them on top of the table. “I haven’t seen you make prayers to the Gods lately,” Byikanea said.

“Yeah, I’m kinda not on speaking terms with them right now,” Saressea said. Byikanea beamed. “I guess the same goes for you?”

Byikanea held her smile, the black lipstick made her look like a witch humans used to fear. It made her wonder which of the guards had black lipstick marks over their dick.

“Do you know who I am, Saressea?”

“You’re Byikanea.” If she had her HNI active she’d check the network. But newer slave collars, like the one Saressea and everyone else had, created a small damping field that not only disabled psionic powers but HNIs. Strangely enough, the light on Byikanea’s collar wasn’t flashing red. Meaning it wasn’t armed or set to pause. There were probably two guards with black lipstick marks on their dick. “You used to be the Linl rep on the council, right?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Byikanea said.

“I only remember because of that fiery red hair you got,” Saressea said. “So, how’d you end up back here? Last I checked, you and a bunch of other council members got exiled for conspiring with the Celestial Order.”

“I stopped praying to the Gods …”

“Well, that answers my other question.”

“… and started praying to Marduk.”

“You could have at least said one of the human deities,” Saressea said with a grimace, her feline ears sagging in sync with her face. “One of my human buddies from San Diego tells me Jesus is getting real popular again on Earth because of the dragon attacks.”

Laughter left Byikanea’s mouth. “Ancient humans did worship Marduk!”

“Well …”

“And you should too; you’ve already done a great service to him. Let us help you find guidance and peace when he returns.”

Byikanea’s words made Saressea’s tail stiffen, and her chest struggled to keep her heart inside. She looked at the inmates Byikanea was known to hang out with. They were all asking inmates and guards the same questions about whether they were believers or not.

Were they recruiting? Did she want to recruit her? She wanted to say no, naturally. But seeing all the food Byikanea got, and learning of the special privileges, it was tempting. Their next stop was Talsyk after all, a trip that would take just under a year.

And what was that about me doing a service to Marduk? I didn’t do shit for the false dead God or his cult.

Saressea ended the chat with a smile, not a yes or a no, just a ‘let’s chat later’ smile. Byikanea’s power was growing, and sooner or later Saressea was going to have to pick a side. The guards weren’t going to do shit if Saressea’s daily protein paste was stolen every day for a week. They might when she fell over dead of starvation, of course, but that was it. Saressea wished she was on one of the other prison ferries.

Days went by since the chat. And Saressea carried out her daily routine after getting let out of her cell, by hitting the workout area, hoping those around knew the Rabuabin woman was able to hold her own in a fight.

It reminded her of her youth, being the daughter of a ship mechanic. As she recalled, the term was called tomboy by humans. At sixteen she helped her father stitch up ships that got hit by one too many plasma balls from the Empire, or ships that had been spread full of holes from pirates.

That life only continued during her days in the navy, and by the time she started working with humans, she was drinking beer and watching sports at local bars on Amicitia Station 14, or other outposts Radiance sent her to that was close to the UNE. She couldn’t remember the year it was when she dropped her Radiance and Rabuabin culture for a human one. It just happened without notice. Just like when Byikanea appeared, watching Saressea wherever she went on the ship.

At least once a day Saressea caught Byikanea gawking at her when she worked out, when she ate in the mess, assuming she wasn’t shaken down for paste with a shank pointed at her. Everywhere she went, Byikanea was someplace close, and her groupies grew larger. Byikanea must have been upset that Saressea wasn’t one of them. Leading her on might have been a mistake.

One night, Saressea was awakened from her hard bed in her cell. As she rose up from the aborted sleep, she saw her force field flash away. Byikanea, with a devious grin spread across her face decorated with black Linl cosmetics, entered. Behind, were two guards, none of them seemed to care that it was lights out time.

“Hey, sure come on in and wake me up, not like I have to go to work in the morning,” Saressea said, rubbing her eyes.

“Well, since you asked for it,” Byikanea said.

“That was sarcasm, hun.”

“Hun …” Byikanea licked her black lips, approaching Saressea still lying on her bed. There was a flare of hunger in her eyes.

“Seriously, though,” Saressea said. “How the hell did you get the field off?”

Byikanea gestured to the two guards standing outside the entrance to Saressea’s cell. That’s when Saressea’s mind had finally caught up with her body and awoke. Byikanea was in her cell, uninvited, and creeping closer to her. Sweat drenched her body, and Saressea became tense and clenched her fists, ready for her first prison fight.

Byikanea’s hand stroked Saressea’s fist. It made Saressea pull it back quickly, crawling away from her on the bed backward.

“Oh, your reflexes are perfect,” Byikanea said, and then began to strip out of her jumpsuit.

“Oh, okay, no, just stop!—”

Paralysis gripped Saressea’s body.

Byikanea was a psionic, she used her telekinetic powers to hold and control Saressea like a puppet. She made her body float up and hover.

“I don’t want to do this anymore than you do,” Byikanea said. “But the boys are locked up, and I can’t get to them. You’ll have to do.”

Saressea felt the draft brush against her body as her jumpsuit was pulled off almost by hordes of invisible hands. Her body came down onto the bed, and Byikanea in her nude form crawled upon her. She saw that Byikanea had no cybernetic implants, it was strange given the level of psionic powers she had, and what Saressea heard when she attacked the council. A psionic with that level of power needed implants, and the Byikanea that used to sit on the council never had powers to start with.

Something didn’t add up, and she kept her thoughts on it as a distraction when Byikanea raped her all night long. Saressea had no idea it was possible for a woman to do that. But, with psionic powers, anything was possible.

“Oh, Jainuzei … I fucking love you,” Byikanea’s ecstasy-laced voice said as her body quivered. Whoever Jainuzei was, Byikanea was fantasizing about him. “You are amazing.”

Byikanea came back the next night, and the one after that, and that. The guards did nothing but ramble about Marduk. Leading Byikanea on was a terrible idea.

For the first time in recent memory, Saressea wept herself to sleep.

31 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

November 2, 2118, 19:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The threat was over, yet, the crew was still in danger.

The Johannes Kepler remained in FTL long after it left the mysterious energy barrier found in the nebula. They were far away from any place to stop and get repairs after the Kepler left the Eiri spaceport with a bloody nose. The nearest Radiance outpost was years away unless a fissure was found, and with that news came something else to stress about.

Foster sat at her desk, in her office, looking away from her father’s telescope that was displayed next to an observation window. She skimmed through the after-action reports on her computer, listing the damage done to the ship after the battle. Most of it could be quickly repaired with the resources and spare parts on hand, and EVE being an android meant she didn’t need to worry about the lack of air to breathe in those exposed areas.

The biggest issue was the damage done to the cryo chambers. EVE was still assessing it, but it wasn’t looking good. As it stood, cryostasis wasn’t an option. The Kepler was fast, but space was still huge. A trip from Earth to Proxima Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, would take the Kepler roughly two months.

They were years away from the closest means of getting new supplies and had no cryostasis. The crew would be dead from starvation before they reached anywhere. Finding habitable planets was a no-go, as nebulas were home to young stars. If they had planets, they were going through their early formation. They’d be lucky to find a planet with breathable air. Life wouldn’t evolve for several million years on those worlds. That meant food as well, unless the Radiance Gods did exist on some planet in the nebula. In that case, Foster was open to the idea of a religious conversion if it came to it. She imagined the human crew would as well.

She was in the process of reading up on the distress signal from the ESRS Gerard Kuiper. It was an IESA ship that was part of the small fleet that went to Sirius after the Carl Sagan’s disappearance. After it assisted the colonists, it left the system, suffered an accident with its reactor, and was destroyed.

The Gerard Kuiper going from Sirius to the nebula made no sense, especially if it was destroyed. She went to search more about it on her computer when she was interrupted. Her intercom had beeped. Foster took the message.

“Incoming transmission from Aervounis,” Odelea’s voice said.

Must be the council, Foster thought. “Put it through to my office.”

A small blue and white projection of Jainuzei’s son, and Aryile council member, Ienthei appeared floating above Foster’s desk. A notification flashed briefly above the projection stating the QEC link was solid. Ienthei appeared to be sitting on his balcony patio, his sister Queenea swam in the pool behind him while the orange skies of the late afternoon hung above.

“Captain, my apologies for the delay,” Ienthei said. “Had we known the Soldiers of Marduk were targeting you, we would have sent my father to you earlier.”

“I ain’t complaining about the timing,” Foster said. “If anything, I’m surprised you made the selection that quickly.”

“You needed to leave right away, and we had to make a choice from a very limited selection.”

“So that’s why, of all the people you could have sent me, you chose him?”

“Yes,” Ienthei said, while his sister left the pool dripping wet and naked. Foster turned her face away from the screen. “Furthermore …” There was hesitation in Ienthei’s voice, probably wondering why Foster had turned away. “He personally requested it and is a sleepin like you, making him the perfect candidate. He doesn’t have HNI.”

“Him? A sleepin?” She was still looking away.

“He was absent from the galaxy, like you, when HNI was invented, only for the Gods to return him back to us.”

Foster made a quick peek, Queenea was moving out of sight. Ienthei’s eyes were following Queenea’s body off-screen. Foster wasn’t versed on Aryile customs, but she was certain a brother shouldn’t be staring at his naked sister like that, regardless of how hot she was. She quickly flushed out the thoughts of what the two did when nobody was around.

“Right …” she said when she was viewing the screen again. “So, about the attack.”

“We have it under control now.”

“Why did your drones attack my ship?”

“The Soldiers of Marduk took control of the drones’ command center and manually instructed them to attack you.”

“Weren’t the drones new to you guys?”

“Yes, we purchased them from Earth recently to cover the gaps in our defense thanks to the dragons.”

“Don’t you find it funny how this group knew of your new toys and how to hijack them?”

“It is … a security concern we’re looking into, as with the abilities of this cult. The weapons, knowledge of the drones, and the cult’s ability to send their forces into space were all unknown until now.”

His reply didn’t make her feel any safer. Getting off Aervounis wasn’t enough; they followed her to the spaceport, and then sent a drone that contained a virus which made the Kepler fly into a fissure bringing them to the Hallowed Nebula. She kept that knowledge secret from Ienthei of course, as with the vision that was triggered when the Kepler flew past the ethereal refinery.

“One last thing, Captain,” Ienthei added. “Please ensure my father’s transition into your crew is as painless as possible. We just discovered that our dear mother was murdered recently. He took the news hard.”

“You mean Marrea?”

“Yes, that was her name,” he said. “She was vaporized. Lord Commander Karklosea was investigating her before we lost contact with her as well. I fear our loyal Templar might have uncovered something grim.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, reclining back, processing the new info. “I know what it’s like to have a parent killed for no reason.”

“Funny how the Gods work. They took our father from us, only to return him and take our mother in exchange. Well, Captain, good luck with your mission. Please be sure to stay clear of all Radiance patrol ships, and to not interfere with anything. Find the cybernetic specialist you are seeking, get his aid for your wounded member then leave when done.”

Ienthei’s projection turned into the flag of the Union when the transmission ended, three large stars that represented the three Gods on a blue waving flag. She had no regrets about not telling him that Karklosea was aboard as with the data crystal she had. Or that Jainuzei kept both a secret from him. Foster didn’t trust Jainuzei or Karklosea at that point. Jainuzei more so than Karklosea, he did, after all, disable the drone, knew exactly how to do it only for it to leap back to life and upload the computer virus.

Jainuzei wasn’t bad for a sleepin that’s been out of the loop, and shouldn’t know much about the drones, or current century technology.

Before Foster went running her mouth off to the council, it was best to get all the facts first. The last thing she wanted to be a part of, was triggering some kind of civil war within Radiance because she said the wrong thing, to the wrong person, at the wrong time—

Her belly growled. It was a sign she was currently in the wrong place at the wrong time. She needed to be in the mess getting something to eat.

Chef Bailey was cooking something scrumptious. She could smell it the moment she stepped foot on the top deck. In the mess was most of the crew, using food as a means of forgetting the horror they went through, or the fact that every meal consumed made their food stores lower with no means of replenishing them. Or the section of the middle deck that was off-limits until EVE was finished with repairs. Repairs Rivera would have been more than glad to make had she made it off the spaceport.

No humans were found among the dead on the spaceport. It was a thought that comforted Foster all the way to the line the crew formed to get food, with cafeteria meal trays in hand. Normally Foster would have had her meals set up in the captain’s mess, located in a closed off room not far from where the rest of the crew would sit and eat. However, Chef Bailey was busy making a custom meal for someone. She didn’t want him to be tasked with that, plus something for her. Williams wasn’t among the crew standing in line, he was still recovering in sickbay. She made a mental note to swing by with some food for him. He was probably sick of the stuff Kostelecky was feeding him.

She filled her meal tray with lasagna, garlic bread, where the garlic butter spread on it came from cattle native to Taxah. There were other items to select from the buffet Bailey set up, tailored to the multiple species needs of the crew, as small as it had become.

She made her way to the captain’s mess, stopping when she noticed Odelea sitting alone. Normally she’d be sitting with Saressea’s team which had now left the ship, or Pierce who also sat alone. His comment about the Radiance Gods being aliens must have put her off.

Foster was going to make a snarky comment about Odelea having imaginary friends since she was known to whisper to herself as a means of thinking out loud like she was now. Odelea’s out loud thinking was how Foster clued in that Odelea might have taken a liking to Pierce. He’d say hello to her in the corridors, and she’d walk away talking to herself about how much she enjoyed the smell of his aftershave.

Jainuzei’s titan-like body appeared and sat in front of Odelea, placing his meal tray down. Foster was surprised how large and muscular he was and had assumed his armor made him look big. Turns out, he was making his armor big.

His large hands went to season his bowl of leafy green vegetables as he asked. “I presume this is where Radiance personnel dine?”

“Can sit wherever you want,” Foster grunted, then gestured to Tolukei as he finished his meal and left the mess from his usual quiet spot in the corner, alone. “Like him.”

Jainuzei watched Tolukei leave the mess. “Ah, the Muodiry,” he said, then returned to his meal. “This setup is typical of Radiance mess halls.”

Foster grimaced. “Keep the Javnis Muodiry away?”

“Their existence—”

“Contradicts the Gods,” she cut him off. “Yeah, yeah, heard the story, got the T-shirt, read the book, watched the movie. The book was better though.”

She remembered that movie and book quite vividly too, a horror story about a Muodiry that tried to raise an undead army to topple Radiance. The more people he killed the stronger his forces grew. She made sure not to have it played during movie nights for Tolukei’s sake. That, and it was a really scary movie that made her scream a few times.

“I do not hate them, please don’t get me wrong,” Jainuzei said. “Though, I cannot speak for everyone within the Union. Don’t you agree, Odelea?”

Odelea didn’t answer. Foster followed her eyes to find out why. Chef Bailey had left the galley, carrying in his hands a bowl of fruit salad. 85 percent of it was julienned Granny Smith apples tossed in something that smelt tangy.

“Odelea!” Bailey said to her with his Jamaican accent. “Here you go, hope you enjoy it.”

Bailey placed the bowl of fruit before Odelea. Her smiling face was the definition of happiness. “Thank you, Chef!”

“Was wondering who got the custom meal,” Foster said to Bailey.

“Captain,” Bailey said, nodding. “You ready?”

She held up her meal tray and the oversize portion of lasagna she took. “Don’t worry about it, Chef, I’ll stick with this for tonight.” She looked at her meal; the steam was no longer rising away from it. Good thing there was a microwave in the captain’s mess. “I should get goin’.”

She expected Bailey to crack a joke, laugh, smile … do something other than stare grimly at the table before them. Bailey was eying Jainuzei down as if he stole something from him.

Jainuzei noticed it too and waited to finish chewing his food before he asked. “Do I know you, human?”

“Jainuzei …” Bailey said, pointing at him, slowly and repeatedly.

Jainuzei slipped a fork full of the leafy meal into his mouth and then narrowed his eyes at the Jamaican Chef. “Demarion Bailey,” he said. “Forgive me, it has been many years.”

Bailey nodded. “Yes, it has …” He didn’t sound pleased.

“You two know each other?” Foster asked.

Bailey kept his eyes on Jainuzei and revealed. “We met on New Babylon, back in the Sirius system.”

32 Karklosea

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

November 2, 2118, 19:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea waited until the human made elevator doors shut to scream in pain.

She was in no position to leave sickbay. Her healing, but still partially mangled, body reminded her of that. It was the sole reason why she screamed when she collapsed to the floor in the Kepler’s elevator.

The human doctor, Kostelecky, was it? Had left sickbay, leaving her alone with the other human that was recovering, and another frozen in medical cryo. It was the chance Karklosea had been waiting for since coming aboard, a chance to track down and confirm the rumor she had heard, the rumor that there was a Muodiry serving aboard the ship. She wouldn’t be able to sleep until she confirmed it. No sleep meant her body would heal slower.

She prayed day and night for something to be done about the Draconian threat. Muodiry being part of that solution wasn’t one of them, now more than ever since she was on that same ship. The last time she shared a ship with one of their kind she was nearly killed. Karklosea swore on her son’s life to never make the same deadly mistake twice.

Muodiry weren’t just proof of the ancient texts being wrong, they were dangerous, and had the power to indoctrinate those into the Celestial Order. Bad enough a lot of them did join it in the past. Entrusting one as a member of the crew wasn’t a good idea, it was stupidity. It had to come to a stop, and it had to be by her righteous hand.

By the time the elevator arrived at the top deck, ten minutes had slipped past. It took her two minutes to figure out which holo screen to press, and five minutes to get up off the floor to push it. The rest of the time was spent mustering enough strength to actually leave the elevator, onto the deck.

She made her way out into the corridor barefoot, to the humming sounds of the air recyclers above, decorative human plants to the sides, and light low enough to make any Aryile wince. Odelea must have become quite tolerant of human living conditions. Even Karklosea, a Linl who was similar to humans, felt it was too dark.

She heard the sound of voices when a door opened further down the corridor. It was the mess hall she figured, it must have been where the doctor had gone. The crew was dining. She hid around a corner pressing her back against the wall when a lone figure left. The material the medical gown the humans placed her in made her skin itch.

Peeking around the corner, she saw the figure move away from the automatic sliding doors to the mess hall, a Javnis psionic wearing a dark cloak, and an exposed chest fitted with psionic cybernetic implants that were commonly used over a century ago. It was Tolukei; the Gods delivered him to her. They wanted her to make an example of him, she was sure of it.

She followed him down the corridors to a section full of doorways. Crew quarters section she assumed since he entered one of them. Which one, she never figured out. It took her half an hour to find it, ringing the door chimes on them all, not caring if someone else from the crew had answered and saw her in the bloodstained gown that was slipping off her sore naked body. Lucky for her, nobody did.

Tolukei’s voice replied when she rang the chime to his quarters. He spoke in English, so she didn’t know what he said. But the door had unlocked, so she hit the door open command on the small holographic panel, and it slid open.

The lighting levels in his quarters grew dark by the time the doors closed behind her. There was a musky smell that hit her nose. It brought back old memories of exploring the swamps of the Javnis homeworld, Takarius, with its warm and muggy temperatures.

When she turned the corner, she found Tolukei and the Undine girl from Sirius sitting cross-legged on the floor. Surrounding them were candles, providing the only source of light in the room.

The Undine girl’s eyes were shut, while she placed her hands in her lap. Various bottles of water were next to her and, judging by the small puddle of water she sat on and her drenched blue hair covering the gills on her neck, she probably doused herself with them.

Tolukei’s four eyes were shut as she limped closer. Karklosea was waiting for another sign from the Gods to guide her before she acted. The Undine girl, like the Muodiry, contradicted the ancient texts, they had psionic powers that weren’t given to them by Radiance. They also worshipped Tiamat, the deity of the Draconians. Did the Gods want Karklosea to make an example out of them both?

No, there was another reason, so she hoped. Because as she got close enough to touch the Undine, she saw large translucent orbs of water floating in between the two as if gravity had been turned off. The gleaming water orbs were molded into shapes as if an invisible hand was touching them.

“I wasn’t aware you two shared these quarters,” Karklosea spoke in the Radiance language.

Tolukei replied back. “We do not.”

His four eyes opened before he addressed the Undine girl in one of the human languages. English? Chinese? Karklosea never could tell the difference, she just knew it was the two official languages of the Earth and its colonies.

The floating water drifted back into the empty water bottles. One blob telekinetically moved to the Undine girl’s face. Her opened mouth gave it a new home and then smiled after swallowing it. The Undine left, waving goodbye to Tolukei, and leaving the two alone.

“So, it is true, an Undine with legs is part of the crew,” Karklosea said to him.

Tolukei stood up from his trance, sidestepping around the circle of glowing candles on the floor. “She has become my apprentice, for lack of a better term,” he said, moving to a bookshelf.

“Does she offer a prayer to Marduk or Tiamat?”

“Tiamat.”

“You know, I could have you arrested.”

“This ship may have been co-funded by Radiance, but it is still a human vessel first, with a human commander. I have not broken any UNE laws.”

“You are passing your Radiance psionic knowledge onto someone that does not believe in the Gods and offers prayer to a deity that brought the dragons into the galaxy.”

“I am merely helping her better control her powers to become a more valuable member of the crew,” he said, keeping his face and four eyes on the bookshelf, searching for a particular book amongst the hundreds there. “Undine physiology does not permit them to utilize the psionic abilities that we in the Union have.” Looking away from the bookshelf, he faced her and asked. “What have you come here for, Lord Commander? Do you seek to meditate with us?”

“I would never meditate with a Muodiry,” Karklosea said. “Or an Undine, both of your kind speaks out against the Gods.”

“Basing all your decisions on our religion will only lead to more problems, not fix them.”

“The Gods are the only way; those that reject it are evil, like the Hashmedai.”

“The Hashmedai only rejected the Gods because it was forced upon them after we uplifted their kind,” Tolukei said. “They didn’t mind it in the past; they only hated it because of how we approached the topic. In turn, it led them down the dark path of evil.”

Tolukei plucked a large black book off the shelf, human made if she were to guess. It was hard to see it with the low lighting. He started to flip through its pages, making fluttering sounds.

“What is that?” she asked him.

“This?” He stopped flipping through the pages, holding the large book up to her. “This is human literature from one of many human religions, they call it the Bible.”

Karklosea gasped and staggered, nearly falling over thanks to her weakened body. “You read human religious texts?!”

“This book is considered to be very important to many humans for centuries,” Tolukei said. “It helps me better understand some of the various groups within their society.”

It took her some time to form a reply and collect her terrified thoughts. A Muodiry training an Undine, a devotee to Tiamat, who reads the human Bible, was this what the Gods wanted her to know? That they were okay with this? Had they gone mad? Or did they want her to end this? If so, they weren’t giving her power to do so.

“Tolukei, Radiance laws state that—”

“Again, this is not a Radiance ship, it is a human one, funded by them,” he said. “While I always accept the existence of the three Gods, UNE law states one can practice any religion they desire to or opt to not practice one at all.”

She grimaced. “Humans have such a strange way of living.”

“Is it really that strange? In the Empire, if you were to bring text such as the Bible into it, you would be punished as all religious beliefs are forbidden amongst the Hashmedai. In the Union, if you were to bring a Bible, you would be punished for holding a religious text that isn’t in praise of the three Gods. Is Radiance really that much better than the Empire in the eyes of humans?”

An impressed look spread across her face. “A Muodiry that is compassionate and well spoken.”

“We are not a nemesis to the Union, or galaxy for that matter, even if our psionic powers were not given to us by the Gods.”

“The last Muodiry I faced tried to kill me,” she said. “They nearly succeeded in doing that while indoctrinating the minds of fine Union Navy personnel into the Celestial Order.”

“The last Muodiry most of this crew faced was Marduk,” he said. “Yet none of them considers me a threat based on his actions. That’s the thing about humans, not all of them assume your intentions are ill because of the actions of a select few. Perhaps if those in Radiance did not assume all Hashmedai rejected the teachings of the Gods, because their leaders did, the war between our two people could have been avoided.”

As much as she disliked Tolukei, she saw no threat. He wasn’t like the last Muodiry she fought. He wasn’t going to betray the crew. This was the message the Gods wanted her to get. Well, she hoped it was at least.

“You are still welcome to meditate with me,” Tolukei said. “You are the first person from Radiance with psionic powers to board this ship, other than me of course.”

“I shall be fine,” Karklosea said, limping back to the exit. “Thank you.”

A violent pain hit her when the doors slid shut behind her. It was her cybernetic implants. They were acting up, now more than ever thanks to the last battle.

They were killing her.

33 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

November 2, 2118, 19:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster ate way too fast. She was starting to have doubts if she’d have it in her to polish off that bottle of Jack Daniels she bought from Amicitia Station 14 before they left. Paul gave her a very nice discount on it too. Booze made on Earth and shipped out to the stars wasn’t cheap.

She slouched back on her seat within the captain’s mess. The logo of IESA and the Johannes Kepler decorated the wall behind her. To the side was the view of the purple and pink colored gasses of the nebula the Johannes Kepler continued to accelerate through, traveling at two light-years per month.

According to Bailey, the Kepler had a year worth of food aboard, year and a half if they stretched it. Had she known about the cryo situation beforehand, she would have asked him to go easy on the ingredients. She checked her wrist terminal for new messages. Rivera was still silent. She began to wonder if her recent message was the last one she’d ever see.

The intercom beeped when she was debating if she had it in her to stop off at the Kepler’s lounge for that drink. She took the message. “Hey, Captain,” said Bailey’s voice. “Please leave room for dessert.”

“Was gonna pass on it tonight, to tell ya the truth,” she said.

“I was experimenting with a new cheesecake recipe. I’d really like your input on it, and really would like to deliver it to you, personally.”

The Chef sounded insistent. Like there was a hidden message.

“I’d like that, Chef, thanks.”

Chef Bailey joined her in the captain’s mess about ten minutes later. In his hands was exactly what he promised, a gourmet slice of cheesecake, covered with red berries, dripping with a savory crimson sauce that ran down the edge of the pristine white cake. A big dollop of whip cream was behind the berries, garnished with an herb that looked like mint, but sure as hell didn’t smell like that.

“Here it is, Captain,” Bailey said, placing it on the table. “Tell me what you think.”

Foster’s fork dug into the cake and slipped a piece into her mouth. She liked it. “Chef, can we make this a regular dessert item if we get outta this mess?”

His laughter made her smile.

“Captain,” Bailey said, looking back at the shut door. “May I tell you somethin’?”

She wiped her lips clean with a napkin. “Figured there was more to this than this awesome-sauce cheesecake.”

“It’s about Jainuzei.”

The two stood beside one another ahead of the observation window, watching the fluffy gasses move and the young stars spread about.

“He’s Saressea’s replacement,” Foster said.

She saw his arms cross via the window’s reflection. “Me ain’t like it, Captain.”

“That Linl Templar, Karklosea, we picked up doesn’t trust him,” she said. “Gettin’ the feelin’ we shouldn’t either since you did meet in Sirius. What’s the story behind that?”

“Met him in the years following the disappearance of the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword.”

Bailey was part of the Carl Sagan’s crew but had been planetside when it vanished. He was the only member that never disappeared and suffered memory loss. During the sixty-eight-year gap, he received gene therapy, but refused HNI and spent his time living in the Sirius system, periodically going on decades-long spiritual travels with the Poniga on New Babylon.

Bailey meeting Jainuzei during that time was a big deal.

“So, he was in Sirius during our blackout years?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said. “And kept bad company with him.”

She grimaced at that thought. “Radiance said he was a sleepin.”

He shrugged. “I found him sleeping in a Poniga village on my travels. Didn’t think anything at first, until I realized it was impossible for Radiance to be in Sirius.”

“What year was it?”

“Twenty sixty-eight if memory serves me correct.”

Foster had spent a lot of her off hours catching up on what happened in the galaxy when they were gone. Reading up on the fate of Sirius was one of the first articles she fed her thoughts. It was, after all, at the time, the most remote human colony and expedition, one she was in command of, though Williams was the one that officially made the call to settle at Terra Nova first.

After the Carl Sagan vanished with her and everyone else aboard, the UNE returned with a small fleet of ships to search for it and assist the colonists who were stuck with transports as a means of getting around the system. The other half of the fleet that arrived at Sirius went to construct a wormhole, adding the system to the UNE’s wormhole network.

The Gerard Kuiper was one of those ships.

When the wormhole came online, the first Radiance explorers arrived, searching for the Abyssal Sword, which arrived and vanished with the Carl Sagan, and to co-develop FTL technology extracted from the remains of Marduk’s forces and Tiamat’s abandoned ruins. They deposited the infamous missionaries that worked day and night to convert the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak into believing in the Radiance Gods.

“Twenty sixty-eight is when the Sirius wormhole came online,” Foster said.

“Radiance came through the wormhole, yes,” Bailey said. “But when I found Jainuzei it was under construction.”

She ran the scenario in her head. Radiance needed the UNE wormhole to enter Sirius. Jainuzei was there before them. While the Sirius system did have its network of smaller wormholes built by the Lyonria, none of them were able to reach destinations beyond the system.

Therefore.

“Jainuzei was either in Sirius the whole time,” Foster said, and cringed as she selected her next words. “Or he arrived on one of the UNE ships.”

“If he was there the whole time, then how? Was he aboard the Carl Sagan?”

“Impossible, especially if what Karklosea said was true,” Foster said. “We left for Sirius in twenty thirty-three, Karklosea insists Jainuzei was present during the end of the Celestial Order wars, that and the dawn of twenty forty-one in the Barnard’s Star system. We were in cryo in the middle of interstellar space at that time. She was either wrong or …”

“He came with the UNE fleet,” Bailey finished for her. “Or perhaps the Abyssal Sword?”

“No, same deal with that ship,” she said. “The Abyssal Sword vanished from Proxima Centauri around twenty thirty-two and turned up in Sirius after we got there in twenty fifty. So yeah, he had to have snuck aboard one of the UNE ships that came to build the wormhole.”

Jainuzei was also the one that gave the order when Foster left him in command, which resulted in the Kepler’s discovery of the Gerard Kuiper’s distress beacon, a ship that was part of the UNE fleet sent to Sirius. She kept those thoughts to herself for the time being.

With the exception of the humming air recyclers and chatter from the mess hall behind them, there was peaceful silence, just like the nebula’s clouds and stars the two continued to gaze at.

“You’s still standin’ here, Chef,” she said to him. “So, there’s more, ain’t it?”

“Radiance sent missionaries on New Babylon and Meroien, tryin’ to convert the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak to their religion.”

“UNE shut them down with the protected worlds accord.”

“But not before they harassed the locals,” Bailey said. “They were telling them that prayer to Tiamat or Marduk was evil. When that didn’t work, they went after their pickney to poison their minds. Jainuzei was always there when the missionaries were like he was scouting for them.”

“Scouting what? Their villages?” Foster asked. “Because those ain’t hard to find on New Babylon.”

By rights, New Babylon was a hostile world baked by the intense heat, light, and UV radiation from Sirius. Scattered energy domes across the surface with terraformed terrain within them provided the livable conditions for the Poniga people. Just find an energy barrier dome on the surface, and there was guaranteed to be at least one Poniga village.

“The missionaries that I saw spent most of their time speaking with Poniga that prayed to Marduk,” Bailey said. “Jainuzei, I’m sure he was looking for those villages specifically, and whenever he traveled off-world, I’m willing to bet he tried to find Marduk-loyal Undine.”

Bailey had nothing more to report. She thanked him for the intel, and he returned to the mess, he needed to eat as well, and Foster needed to consider her next move.

The Radiance missionaries, according to Karklosea, had a change of heart and praised Marduk, dropping the Radiance religion once they met with Marduk-loyal Poniga. From there, it looked like they secretly brought in exiles to the system to join their cause. It wasn’t hard as Sirius, at that point, would have been connected to the wormhole network. Exiles just needed to be smuggled into UNE space, and then it was a transport flight through the wormhole network. The Morutrin system, being the largest safe haven for all Radiance exiles in the galaxy, was part of that network too.

Adding to that, during the colonization rush, the UNE gave a number of Radiance exiles UNE citizenship to assist in the huge demand for construction laborers to build the hundreds of new cities that were popping up on newly discovered planets, more so after FTL was made standard. Some of those exiles might have found their way to Sirius, becoming the robed gunmen and women Foster, Odelea, and Pierce were nearly killed by. Like the Terran Legion, the SOM was a threat nobody knew was growing until they made their strike.

This is all my fault … Foster groaned internally.

It was her leadership that led the Carl Sagan into conflict with Marduk when they arrived in Sirius. Once he was removed, and the Poniga and Undine that prayed to Tiamat were liberated from slavery, she saw to it that the remains of Marduk’s forces were suppressed to prevent them from continuing Marduk’s work. Apparently, enough survived and went into hiding, just to convince people from Radiance to join their cause, start a new cult, and infiltrate the Radiance Union.

Today, New Babylon’s population views Tiamat as their almighty, and the Draconians as her divine will.

The siege of Sirius was a Pandora’s Box. Foster opened it and misplaced the hope that was supposed to be at the bottom of the box.

Foster really needed that Jack Daniels, now more than ever.

She made her way to the lounge where all the booze on the ship was stored. It wasn’t far from the mess hall, and a trail of blood led right into it. Once inside the lounge Foster found Karklosea, the source of the bloody trail.

She was in pain by the looks.

34 Karklosea

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

November 2, 2118, 19:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The pain in Karklosea’s body distorted her recent memories. She had forgotten the way back to the elevator, back to sickbay. Her body made it abundantly clear she needed to be there and not here. Aimless limping through the corridors of the Kepler sent her in through the sliding door to what she hoped was an elevator. It wasn’t.

She had fallen over when she entered the room. It wasn’t until she pushed herself back up, she noted blood had been dripping out from an implant that came loose from her body. Looking behind, she saw a trail of blood leading right to her. She took some comfort in knowing that perhaps someone might follow it and help her.

Karklosea had to look at her surroundings twice when she was back on her bare feet. The room she had entered appeared as if she was on another planet. It looked like a house made of tree logs, with windows that peered out into a boreal forest. Beyond the forest was a blue flowing river, with clear blue skies above.

She waved her hand through a coat rack, literally right through it. The object wasn’t real, it was a hologram. The pictures on the walls, most of the decorated furniture and bookshelves, none of it was real, she was in a large holographic projection.

There were a few things that were real, such as the leather couch she collapsed into when her body wasn’t able to take much more. Human music played over the speakers, she couldn’t understand what the singer was saying.

She heard the sliding door open and a figure enter. Someone had followed the trail of blood. Help was on the way at last. The human voice that spoke sounded like Captain Foster, looking to the source of the voice confirmed the presence of the human woman in her blue jumpsuit uniform with short brown hair and blue glyphs on her hands. Foster spoke frantically into her wrist terminal, she hoped it was for the doctor to come.

Odelea joined Foster first. The Aryile girl looked at Karklosea, holding her hands over her mouth in sheer panic and terror before rushing to her. For a moment, she thought Foster had called Odelea over the doctor. It wasn’t until Karklosea smelt the scent of apples from Odelea’s mouth was when she realized she had probably arrived from the mess hall which wasn’t far.

Kostelecky did show up a moment later and quickly examined her utilizing a med kit that was stored on the wall. The doctor spoke some human words to Odelea and Foster, then ran out, likely to grab medical tools from the deck below.

Foster spoke next to Odelea, she translated for Karklosea. “The captain and doctor aren’t pleased to see you here.”

“I had to speak with the Muodiry,” Karklosea said. “At the time, I couldn’t believe you allowed him aboard and to walk freely.”

“He’s saved us many times,” Odelea said. “Regardless what the ancient texts say, Tolukei is allied with the Gods.”

Karklosea examined the layout of the holograms around her, reminding herself she was still on the Kepler, not a log cabin on Earth. “This projection is very convincing,” she said.

“This is the lounge,” Odelea explained. “There’s an option to dress it with holograms like this. It’s used by the crew when they wish to forget they’re aboard this ship. As I recall, both Miles and Doctor Pierce use this particular layout to make them feel as though they are back in a region of Earth called Canada. None of it is real, however. Take care to not walk too far, or you’ll run into the lounge’s walls or the bar counter.”

A lounge that could create the illusion you’re not aboard the ship. She liked the concept. A sense of normalcy when one was imprisoned within the three decks of this ship, making long voyages across the stars, waiting in orbit, or stuck on a planet with a hostile environment.

Foster spoke to Odelea again.

“What does she want?” Karklosea asked Odelea.

“She wants to know why you left sickbay.”

Karklosea snorted. “Let her keep guessing.”

“And.” Foster pulled out a bloodstained data crystal from her pocket. “She wants to know why Jainuzei is interested in that.”

There was only one data crystal Jainuzei and Karklosea were aware of, and he would want to know. The one she took from the Soldiers of Marduk’s camp on Aervounis. It was on her when she last checked, stored in the storage compartments of her armor … which lay in pieces in the corner of sickbay.

Foster took it, and she knew of the contents. If she was the smart captain Karklosea hoped she was, she wouldn’t have shown it to Jainuzei.

“I found that at the Soldiers of Marduk camp,” Karklosea said. “I never got the chance to see what was on it.”

The captain of the Kepler inserted the crystal into her wrist terminal. A small holographic projection floated above her wrist, she moved closer for Karklosea to view it.

“I browsed through a copy of it recently,” Odelea said, looking at the projection of a dazzling nebula. “It’s a detailed map of the Hallowed Nebula within the Divine Expanse.”

“The Divine Expanse …”

Odelea nodded, pointing at a red dot within the center of it. “There’s an object labeled Kur—”

“As I said, I don’t know,” Karklosea cut in. “But if the Soldiers of Marduk are drawing maps of it, then there’s something of importance to them there. That region hasn’t been heavily guarded since the ceasefire with the Empire.”

“We’re also currently in the Hallowed Nebula,” Odelea said.

Karklosea forgot she was in pain briefly when she heard her words. “You can’t be serious?” she asked. Odelea nodded and briefly explained how the Kepler arrived in it. “May Livie be merciful to us with his divine cock.”

“What about Jainuzei and his interest with the data crystal?” Odelea asked for Foster.

“He saw me take it. That was it. Given what I discovered, he might know more and is keeping it a secret. He’s already proven himself to be a man that withholds important details.”

“He’s also the new liaison officer.”

“Oh, my Gods …” Karklosea wanted to facepalm but knew it would hurt too much to raise her arm. “Is he here? Now?”

“Yes,” Odelea said with a grimacing glare.

“Does he know we have this data?”

“He’s asked Foster for it, she lied about having it.”

“Keep it from him at all costs.” Karklosea sighed, releasing the tension that had been building up in her. “Whatever this Kur is, he must want it. Maybe that’s why he’s been a nemesis to the cult. Us being in the nebula now will only make it easier for him to get it.”

Odelea and Foster spoke together in the human tongue. Odelea turned to face Karklosea. “Foster understands,” she said. “She wants to know if it would be wise to inform the council—”

“No!” Karklosea roared, maybe a little too loud, her chest flared up in pain. After coughing rapidly, she finished, saying. “Jainuzei is the liaison officer, remember? They might confirm with him, it’s too risky. Nobody must know, except us.” She wanted to say more until her HNI sent her warnings about the state of her cybernetics. “Ugh, my implants will be the death of me unless they get repaired.”

“We can have EVE take a look at them.”

“No, these were custom made since my body was heavily augmented with the older models.”

“Ah, yes, I remember those, they were quite bulky,” Odelea said. “Where can we take you, then?”

“Wenadei,” she said after a pause. It’d been ages since the two spoke. “He’s a cybernetic specialist, the only one in the Union that can tend to them and anyone else that received his upgrades.”

Odelea ran her hands through the waves of her burgundy hair. When she reached the back of her head, the Aryile girl smiled. “Does he specialize in cybernetics that doesn’t require HNI?”

“Yes, he also—”

Odelea leaped up and down before the captain, speaking happily to her in human words. Foster smiled at whatever it was Odelea told her and then spoke into her wrist terminal after shutting down the hologram of the Hallowed Nebula.

“We have a wounded member aboard that needs this doctor,” Odelea said. “Can you show us the way?”

Using her HNI, Karklosea conjured the location in question via a holo screen and pushed it floating to Odelea. She slid the holo window into her head, acquiring the new data.

“He’s on my homeworld, Pria,” Karklosea said. “Have you been there?”

“Not recently,” Odelea said as she sent the location to Foster’s wrist terminal. “Foster will have us en route once we find a means to leave the nebula.”

“I suppose we’ll be entering cryo soon, then? If you don’t find the fissures, it will take years to reach Pria.”

“The cryo chambers were damaged during the attack,” Odelea said with a wince. “We’ll have to remain active during the entire voyage.”

“Do we even have enough supplies for that?”

Odelea shook her head. “I’m afraid not. That’s what makes our current situation grim.”

Not for Jainuzei, this must be exactly what he wants.

The beeping noise of the heart monitor returned to her hearing. She was glad to hear it again. Karklosea stared up at sickbay’s ceiling once again after slipping into a new medical gown. The human doctor Kostelecky’s words sounded negative toward her, very frustrated as she administered painkiller drugs into Karklosea’s body.

When the doctor moved away, she was approached by Foster. The two spoke when Odelea standing next to Karklosea’s bed listened in. Whatever it was Foster told the doctor, it got her worked up and her face flushing. The doctor spoke again when her emotions had simmered down enough to let her speak.

“Oh, my Gods …” Odelea whispered to herself.

“What is it now?” Karklosea asked her.

“It would seem that Doctor Kostelecky is …” Odelea paused. “She’s pregnant.”

Karklosea’s face went through a number of emotions, her hands held onto her belly that housed her womb that had long been sterilized by the Radiance Union. There was a time in Karklosea’s life when her womb held an unborn child. She was one of the few people in Radiance to have memories of that, as she was born and raised just before the old Linl republic joined the Union. When her species became part of the collective, they had to submit to all laws within Radiance, including forced sterilization. It was the will of the Gods to do so.

As devoted to the Gods as she was, she envied exiles, humans, Qirak, and Hashmedai. They could experience the wonders of natural childbirth, a feeling she missed, and a feeling she’ll no longer be able to feel again, like her son whose life was taken away by Imperial forces.

Had she believed in the will of the Gods at that time, he might be alive today.

“Humans aren’t sterile like us,” Karklosea said. “Why is this a concern?”

“Doctor Kostelecky was part of the original Sirius expedition.” Odelea looked away from the two humans. “She wasn’t pregnant then and had been busy once the Carl Sagan returned from being missing for those years. The crew can’t remember what happened during that time; many assumed they were trapped in cryo.”

“If the doctor is pregnant, then they spent quite a bit of time out of cryo. Enough time for her to meet a man.”

35 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

November 2, 2118, 20:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“How the hell did you get knocked up?”

“I don’t fucking know!”

Kostelecky threw her hands up, marching into her office, Foster followed behind. She sat at her desk, using its computer terminal to load a holo screen. It showed the distorted image of the growing fetus within Kostelecky.

“I found out I was pregnant when EISS questioned us after the Draconians attacked Earth,” Kostelecky said. “That asshole Moriston was going to blackmail me with it, thinking that I was withholding information about our disappearance on the Carl Sagan.”

“Blackmail you with that?” Foster crossed her arms. “What’s the big deal about it?”

“Remember the medical exanimation EISS put us through? They didn’t just learn I was pregnant, they also discovered that the father, whoever he is, was Poniga. As far as EISS was concerned, I violated the protected world’s accord by playing doctor with a Poniga. He threatened to have my career terminated by revealing that if I didn’t cooperate.”

“Well, Moriston is dead now—”

“And I thank you for that, Captain.”

“Why did you choose to keep it a secret?”

“Because I have better things to do than admit I was getting off with a Poniga?”

“While we vanished on the Carl Sagan at that.”

“The Draconians took us and the Abyssal Sword away, and I’m the only person that found time to get laid? Come on, Captain; does that sound like something I’d do?”

“No, which means we did more than just sleep in cryo during that time, a lot more.”

“The data package Rivera had sent us from the Carl Sagan’s wreckage confirmed that I wasn’t pregnant at the time of my last medical check,” Kostelecky said. “Since our cryo pods are offline and we might be lost out here for months …”

“Oh, that’s why you freaked out when I told you about our situation,” Foster said. And why you insisted some of us go into cryo during our return visit to Kapteyn’s Star.

Kostelecky pulled at her white lab coat. It did a pretty good job at covering up the growing baby bump on her belly. “I won’t be able to hide the pregnancy, might as well reveal it now.”

And if they didn’t find a means to resupply before they found a fissure, Kostelecky wouldn’t have the power to feed the child after it was born. Foster added that to her growing list of problems and sighed, rubbing her forehead.

She left Kostelecky alone for the time being and returned to the top deck; looking for that bottle of Jack Daniels she had waiting for her in the lounge. She didn’t arrive.

Foster returned to her quarters, stripped out of her uniform, and put on some workout attire, then smiled at her cat Starlet who was curled up in the corner sleeping. She strode into the Kepler’s gym and resumed her previous task at attacking the punching bag. There was nothing else to do while they searched for fissures while flying back to civilization. She was left with plenty of time to get in better shape, learn to fight for herself, and defend those that would put their lives on the line to defend her if she ever lost access to a weapon.

The Jack Daniels could wait. She had, at worst, a year and a half to drink it.

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

May 4, 2119, 09:03 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The multi-month voyage proceeded without much incident. QEC transmission allowed the crew to send messages to friends and family, catch up on news, browse the internet, and even access new holo movies and TV shows.

The crew kept secret about their location to avoid the rage that would come from Radiance. The official word was they had snuck out of the system during the drone attacks, and were en route to Pria, the Linl homeworld. That was only half true. While they were indeed heading to Pria, it was from the nebula. The months since arriving were spent scanning for fissures, and making brief stops in nearby systems, searching for habitable worlds. None were found.

Much of the crew was fine about the fact they had been trapped within the ship for so long. In the end, they were traveling through space, which was what they signed up for in the first place, exploration. Nobody complained, except Maxwell, LeBoeuf, and Miles, they signed up to shoot the bad guys.

Williams made a recovery as did Karklosea. Having two extra bodies helped speed up the repairs that needed to be made on the Kepler. Nereid had aged quickly, it reminded Foster that the Undine lived short lives and aged fast. She looked like a woman approaching her thirties, not the young girl in her early twenties when their voyage began.

Jainuzei spent the last several weeks protesting about how far the Kepler was moving away from the barrier of the nebula, arguing they could have left by now if they found a way past, and discovered the beacon of the Gerard Kuiper. He wasn’t wrong with his argument, and at one point, Foster wondered if she made the right call. Had Jainuzei not been the shady person he seemed to be, she might have been in a more regretful mood.

The Gerard Kuiper was still a mystery, however, one she forgot about as the months went by, as it was the least of her worries.

She established a QEC link on her computer, as she sat in her office after hearing Jainuzei complain about not returning to the nebula’s core for the twentieth time over the last six months. IESA’s data on the ship loaded on her holo screen. The Gerard Kuiper was originally built to colonize the Kapteyn’s Star system before it was suddenly added to the fleet of ships traveling to Sirius to search for the Carl Sagan.

After it did its job in the system, it left, returning to its previous mission colonizing Kapteyn’s Star. It never made it due to the previously discovered reactor problems it had after leaving Sirius. Foster couldn’t find any link to that ship, Jainuzei, or the Hallowed Nebula. She went to view the Gerard Kuiper’s manifest, and then stopped when she heard jubilant cheers cry out from the bridge.

Pierce had scanned and discovered a fissure nearby.

They wouldn’t starve to death, a gateway back to Radiance space was minutes away.

Foster shut down her search and ran back up to the bridge. The feeling of happiness made her forget the search she was conducting.

Had she remained, she would have laid eyes on the name of the captain of the Gerard Kuiper, whose face and dossier flashed on her holo screen before she shut it off and went to the bridge.

The captain’s name was Alisha Levesque.

She looked like the same IESA captain Foster saw in her vision.

36 Rivera

City Limits

Mindoji, Takarius, Hyalur System

May 7, 2119, 21:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The star in Hyalur system shined brightly when the space ferry arrived in which Rivera and Penelope remained in cryo. Like most systems in the Radiance Union, Hyalur was buzzing with hundreds of ships leaving or entering the system or traveling to the numerous planets and moons within it. A gas giant that was four times bigger than Jupiter attracted a lot of space traffic since it was home to hundreds of small moons, each one colonized, mined, or worked as a military base by Radiance.

A fleet of Radiance cruisers made final preparations to leave the system and embark on a long voyage to the Luminous system to help bolster its decimated navy in the wake of the Draconian attacks. The ships would have left earlier, but the shipyards in the system had suffered setbacks in the production of new ships, as with the Inadrai system elsewhere in the Union.

The Hyalur star itself was a G2 subgiant that was nearly double the mass of Sol, had a radius that was almost three times larger as was its luminosity. Hyalur was what Sol would be in the far future, meaning the system, planets, and moons within it were much older than those in Sol. The system had a long history to tell. Given the size and brightness of Hyalur, looking up in the skies on a clear day was a good way for a human to go blind, just like with Luminous. It was no surprise to many that the Aryile prioritized exploration of this system during their early space exploration days. The bright light was the right light for them.

None of that was a problem for Rivera and Penelope. They both came prepared with shades, not that it was needed much on Takarius the Javnis homeworld. 70 percent of the planet was covered in rain clouds, turning its surface into wet and soggy marshes, where the land was often carved up by random rivers.

Leaving the ferry was tricky. Its transponder was still deactivated by the time they awoke from cryo, and the ship itself had been reported missing by Radiance. Turning it on would be required for docking at any of the spaceports. That wasn’t something Rivera and Penelope wanted to risk. Too many questions would be asked. Bad enough local scanners and perhaps psionic ESP would be detecting them.

The two ejected from an escape pod, landing on a remote colony at the end of the system. Penelope had to lead the charge from there, using her HNI hacking abilities to create fake HNI IDs for the two, siphoning random credit chit accounts for credits to pay for meals and various hotel stays.

By the time the two made it to Takarius, two months had slipped by. There were a lot of transports and colonies they had to traverse to keep their journey under the radar, especially when word got out about an abandoned space ferry from Luminous that somehow drifted into the system and was missing an escape pod.

Posing as a group of Linl girls only got weird from there. Takarius was a swamp planet, where every creature Rivera saw had four eyes, even the birds that hid under massive trees when it rained. It went to show how far in the line of evolution of the planet that concept was, right down to the evolution of the Javnis and their four eyes.

Takarius being the Javnis homeworld meant its population, despite being a member of the Radiance Union, was heavy on the side of Javnis. Mindoji, one of its coastal cities at the edge of the northern hemisphere saw droves of the four-eyed lizard men and woman moving about with HNI holo screens following them.

It was pretty easy to point out married couples, as Javnis women traditionally took on four husbands. One for breeding, one for gathering food, one for defense, and one for labor. Sometimes the men fought for mating rights, though that had become less and less as the years went on, since the Aryile made contact with their species.

Somewhere on the planet was a shrine built to signify where the first Aryile ships had landed and revealed to the Javnis people that they had been studying their species in secret, teaching them how to build the same ships their Gods taught them years earlier. After that, the official groundwork for the Union was laid. The Aryile race started on Aervounis, was considered to be the founders of the Union, and made their homeworld its capital of the Union. But officially, the Radiance Union was born on Takarius, when Javnis entered the Union becoming its second member.

Enormous, tall, wide trees blocked out what little sunlight the rain clouds above allowed onto the surface. They were taller than most of the city’s buildings, like the hotel Penelope checked them in to, with another set of fake Linl IDs and stolen credit chit money. The two were given a room to share on the fourth floor, and they entered a room on the sixth, thanks to an HNI hack and a wave of Penelope’s hand by the door’s electronic locks.

The occupants of the room leaped up in fear, screaming, having watched Rivera and Penelope enter uninvited. Rivera was surprised to see who had been staying at the hotel, Penelope, not so much. According to her, she had this planned since they entered the system, Rivera could see why.

“What? Who let you in here?”

The occupants of the suite were none other than Eicelea and Vynei.

Penelope grinned at them and spoke with her charming English accent. “I let myself in, love.”

Eicelea pointed a finger at Rivera and Penelope. “Vynei! Do something about these intruders!”

Vynei shrugged looking at Rivera and then smiled. She returned the gesture. “Boss,” Vynei said. “Isn’t that the IESA lady we met on Earth?”

Eicelea waddled her dwarflike body to Rivera, looking high up at her, placing her hands on her hips. “You … if you wanted to tag along as my assistant, you could have asked!”

“Oh, simmer down, you should be thanking us,” Penelope said, and sat cross-legged on the couch as if this was her place. “It was us that discovered the ruins you’ve been studying.”

“The undersea ruins in the ocean to the east?” Eicelea said. “A Maraschino data leak unveiled them.”

Penelope smirked. “And who do you think made that possible?”

“It was you two, wasn’t it?” Eicelea groaned. “Why?”

“We needed your brains figuring it out,” Rivera said. “Someone that wasn’t directly working for Radiance or the SOM.”

“Ah, so you recognize my greatness,” Eicelea said.

“We recognize your previous exploration of the Lyonria ruins in the Barnard’s Star system, the discovery of the first wormhole, and your escapades into the ruins on Jacobus,” Penelope said.

Eicelea waved off her words with her tiny hands. “All of which have been curses the Gods failed to tell me in advance about!”

“I’d imagine you’ve gotten here a few weeks before us,” Penelope said. “You’ve had time to poke around the ruins, yes?”

“Yes, I have.”

Penelope spread her arms across the top of the couch. She really seemed to like its material. “Don’t you feel there’s something, oh I don’t know, not Lyonria about them?” she said. “Certainly not consistent with the other ruins in the system.”

Eicelea facepalmed, shaking her head. “Oh, Gods please, don’t—”

“This is it, Eicelea,” Penelope said. “This is your moment to discover another breakthrough in the history of our galaxy.”

“No, this is my chance to walk away from this and let someone else do it!” Eicelea said. “I was lucky to survive Barnard’s Star and Kapteyn’s Star. If these ruins lead to more trouble, I will see myself out!”

Rivera had nothing else to add. In truth, she had no idea they were going to encounter these two in this hotel, or how Penelope would get them onboard with their plan. That plan being gaining access to the ruins, and seeking out what Sarpanit, who was still locked away in Rivera’s HNI, knew about it and the connection to the nebula.

Penelope’s hand waved in a circular motion, in its wake was multiple holographic files and typed reports written in the Radiance language. She pushed them to Eicelea. “Recognize these, dear?”

Eicelea’s yellow eyes scanned the holo documents and then pushed them aside facing up at Penelope. “These are my unpublished reports from Earth …”

“You have a lot of unpublished material in that HNI of yours,” Penelope said to her. “You know, I could sell it before you write them.”

“You wouldn’t!”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t, easier to delete it.”

“Get out of my implants!” Eicelea yelled, holding her head.

“I just infected your reports with ransomware,” Penelope said. “Take us to the ruins, show us what you found, and I’ll release them back to you. Deal?”

“Oh fine! I accept,” Eicelea said. “But I warn you, there isn’t much to see once we get to the far chamber.”

“Oh please, do tell.”

Eicelea extended her tiny cupped hand upward. In it, a small projection displayed recorded HNI video from her mind. The video showed her standing along with several people excavating the ruins shining their flashlights on a shut ancient door.

“We can’t seem to open this door,” Eicelea said. “It’s receiving power … somehow from someplace else.”

Undersea Ruins

Takarius, Hyalur System

July 17, 2119, 13:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The ruins on the Javnis homeworld, first discovered by data Penelope extracted from Sarpanit, were buried deep below the ocean where the city of Mindoji sat next to. Like most early Radiance controlled worlds, all known Lyonria ruins had been discovered and studied to death, sometimes literally. The Hyalur system was no exception, every planet and moon that had shown signs that the Lyonria had once made it their colony, had been discovered and explored.

The reason the undersea ruins at Takarius went undiscovered for so many years, was because of that, they were undersea. Like Earth, and many other worlds with vast oceans, nobody had gotten around to exploring its deepest and darkest depths, especially when quakes were known to rock the ocean floors. It wasn’t worth the risk unless they knew something of interest would be there.

The ruins had been remarkably preserved for countless years, protected by a robust energy dome that had been buried by a number of quakes as the centuries and millennia passed. During the months when Rivera and Penelope were making their way to the planet, Radiance engineers constructed long tubes that launched rapidly moving elevators up and down from a platform floating on the calm waters above, through the ocean, and into the ruins deep below.

Exploration of the ruins had come to an end for the time being when the crew packed up and made their way home to rest for the night. It was a perfect chance for Eicelea and Vynei to lead Rivera and Penelope in with few questions being asked. Rivera’s wrist terminal pulsed with a notification by the time they made it to the large elementally withered door that puzzled Eicelea and Vynei and others.

“Transponder codes,” Rivera said, picking up the messages her equipment was pinged with. “It’s coming from there.” She pointed at what lay beyond the door.

Eicelea’s eyes narrowed, following Rivera’s finger-pointing. “As in there’s a ship inside?”

Rivera double-checked her wrist terminal. She’d check her HNI too if Penelope hadn’t locked most of it down. She couldn’t believe what the screens were telling her. “It’s a UNE IFF, the signal’s faint, but it’s there.”

“UNE signals.” Even Penelope looked and sounded confused gazing at the large door. “There’s no way a ship could fit in there.”

“Let alone be this far underground,” Eicelea said. “What ship is it?”

“Not sure it’s a ship,” Rivera said. “More like equipment.”

“But human equipment,” Eicelea said. “This still would have required a ship to bring it out here.”

They stood confused. While humans venturing this deep into Radiance space wasn’t uncommon, the likelihood that someone discovered the ruins before anyone else had and sent teams down with transmitting equipment was highly unlikely. Not, unlikely, impossible. Penelope had taken great steps to ensure Eicelea would be the first person from outside of the system to visit the ruins.

Of all the pondering as to how UNE transmissions were coming from the door, Vynei asked the one critical question neither Penelope nor Rivera asked. “Is there a reason why it’s only now we’re learning of this?”

“Because we discovered this section the other night,” Eicelea said. “And we were busy conducting archeological business, not scanning for human IFF signals.”

“None of you are from IESA or the UNE for that matter, anyways,” Rivera said. “I doubt you would have picked it up like I did unless you were on a ship.” Rivera stood ahead of the door, running her fingers across its surface covered in dust. “How do we get inside?”

“Bomb, maybe?” Vynei suggested.

“Vynei!” Eicelea spat at him. “Don’t give the humans stupid ideas.”

“Humans?” Penelope laughed.

“Linl?” Vynei asked as the two were dressed like them.

Penelope lifted her shades up allowing her red eyes to glow in the low lighting of the ruins, removing the wig in the process.

Eicelea took a step away from Penelope in shock. “Godsdamn it!”

“This going to be a problem, love?” Penelope said with crossed arms.

The Vorcambreum woman nodded no, though Rivera suspected it was out of fear that a Hashmedai made it this far into Radiance space.

An hour slipped by as they tried and failed to force the door open. They tried every idea that came to mind, nothing worked, not even open sesame. Only a control panel to the right side of the door provided clues, however, its parts and design were completely alien. It reminded Rivera of the time she, Williams, and Tolukei found an intact Lyonria structure in Sirius. EVE was able to access the electronics of the structure and use her computing power to learn how it operated.

She grinned.

They might have been light-years away from the nearest EVE unit, but they weren’t from a reprogrammed one that held the memories of Marduk’s wife.

“Sarpanit,” Rivera said, facing Penelope. “She had info on this place, right?”

Penelope’s lips twisted. “Hmm, yes, that is true.”

“Let’s let her out?” Rivera suggested. “She might be able to help us with this panel.”

“She may hurt you.”

“And you got the kill switch,” Rivera said as she stood before the door’s alien made control panel. “We might have the key to opening this in my head.”

Penelope’s hands danced across a floating holo keyboard, interacting with two screens in the process. When she was done, Rivera sensed her HNI once again take on a life of its own and Sarpanit appeared as a blue and white holographic EVE with emotions and a frowning face.

Before Sarpanit could rage, Penelope said. “Okay, no funny stuff.” She pointed at the panel. “You know where we are, right?”

Sarpanit looked around and then smiled. She then faced the panel in question, narrowing her eyes at it. “You’ve been browsing my files, I see.”

“Can you open it?” Rivera asked.

“You’re with the archeologist,” Sarpanit said. “I presume you wish to study this rather than destroy it.”

“Of course.”

“Rabuabin,” Sarpanit said to Vynei. “I want you to shoot everyone except my chariot if they breach this agreement.”

He scratched the back of his head raising one eyebrow. “Uh.”

Eicelea did the same, asking Rivera. “Chariot?”

She beamed as Sarpanit’s holographic figure vanished, entering the complex electronics of the panel. “It’s a long story, guys.”

Rivera and Penelope took turns explaining to Eicelea and Vynei what was going on, why they were there, and the Draconian’s mission to venture to the nebula with the Eyes of Tiamat stolen from Earth. When they finished their story, a loud rumbling sound roared.

The floor began to vibrate. At first, Rivera thought a quake was about to strike, they were, after all, in the hot spot for one. Turning around, she and the rest found their answer to the source of the rumbles and sounds.

“Sarpanit, you cheeky little bitch,” Penelope said, reading one of the holo screens.

“What’s wrong?” Rivera asked.

Penelope pointed at a diagram with computing processing spikes coming from Rivera’s HNI. “The level of activity Sarpanit is putting your HNI through is exactly the same as the activity that was going through your HNI at the time of the monolith encounter you found under Baghdad.”

“Meaning what exactly?” Rivera asked as the door slowly slid open.

“Meaning Sarpanit lied to you, Rivera,” Penelope said. “The monolith wasn’t reacting to you; Sarpanit was interfacing with it but failed to do anything else. Whoever designed the monoliths built this door.”

The four stood and peered out into the blacked space beyond the opened ancient door, where the source of the UNE IFF signals were.

37 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Pria Orbit, Inadrai System

July 17, 2119, 23:06 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The ethereal fissure worked, throwing the XSV Johannes Kepler closer to Radiance civilization. After two months of space travel, having left the nebula, the Kepler dropped out of FTL within the heart of the Inadrai system.

Inadrai was, in reality, a trinary system consisting of a K-type main-sequence star Pria orbited around, and two brown dwarfs, taking turns circling around the primary orange glowing orb of the system.

Pria was like Earth, which was no surprise to the humans that looked at the Linl for the first time. If the Linl race were carbon copy humans, then their homeworld shouldn’t be any different. The ruins of a lost Lyonria city were spread across the surface of Pria’s moon, made visible when the Kepler went to enter the planet’s atmosphere. From what Foster was told, it was the ruins on their moon that encouraged the Linl to build ships to explore it and the rest of their system in search of the Lyonria.

That, in turn, led to the development of the Linl’s early sub light engines and their expansion into space. Unlike the other members of Radiance, the Linl achieved space flight on their own, though some argued that the Linl reverse engineered, in secret, pieces of lost Lyonria technology.

Finding what remained of the Lyonria had always been their driving force, which they believed were the creators of their species. One could say, the Linl were searching for God. What they found after building colonies in the local stars was Marduk in Sirius, and then the Hashmedai Empire just a few light-years away. Shaking hands and saying nice to meet you didn’t work very well for the two groups. The conflict that brewed after that forced the Linl to find a new God, rather Gods, being the three Radiance Gods after the Union made the offer to help the Linl defeat the Empire at a price. Complete cultural assimilation when they became the fifth race in the Union.

When the descent through Pria’s upper atmosphere was complete, and the red rippling waves of heat let up against the Kepler’s shields, Radiance command unexpectedly instructed the Kepler to wait for landing space at one of the starports in Jondia, the planet’s second largest city. The wait was expected to be at least an hour.

Jondia was apparently a port city, shipping goods to and from not only the rest of the system but exterior Radiance colonies located in Proxima and Alpha Centauri, and at one point, Earth, back before the wormhole network came online since it was only twelve light-years away. After that, it was faster to travel to the Luminous system, then through the wormhole there to get to Earth controlled space.

At twelve minutes into the wait, Foster retreated to her office and stood ahead of its massive floor to ceiling window up front, viewing the metropolis with a mug of coffee in hand. She went over in her mind what the crew’s next move would be after getting Chevallier the treatment she needed.

The investigation into the Hallowed Nebula and the ethereal fissures topped that. The fissures weren’t just a means of supplying the Union with energy; it was also a long-forgotten mode of transportation only the Kepler could use. Why only the Kepler? Nobody knew, it could have been due to Foster’s presence, or perhaps the vortex key, even though she didn’t use it and it was offline. Perhaps both.

She needed to figure out how, and they needed to figure out how the SOM knew. That drone’s mission was to force the Kepler through, she was sure of it. And the data crystal was the only proof that there was something going on in the nebula the cultists wanted, as did Jainuzei. She quickly drew up plans to head back through a fissure and find out, but first, they needed supplies, and the cryostasis chamber operational.

Karklosea was planning to take her leave once they made landfall, it was a liberating thought. Jainuzei didn’t seem to like her, and she didn’t like him. Knowing that one of the two conflicting people they picked up in Luminous was finally getting off helped soothe her mind. Now, if there was only away to get rid of the other.

The okay to land was transmitted by Radiance. Foster went to sickbay, smiling at Chevallier’s body perpetually frozen in medical cryo.

She’ll be back on her feet soon.

Eastern District

Jondia, Pria, Inadrai System

July 18, 2119, 00:28 SST (Sol Standard Time)

An orange orb hung in the clear skies. The early afternoon was in motion when the Kepler came to land at the starport’s platform and its entry ramp lowered. The first to leave the Kepler was Foster, Odelea, and Karklosea, pushing an antigravity trolley that held Chevallier’s medical cryo pod.

She paused after taking two steps onto the platform’s surface and shut her eyes. It was the first time in eight months Foster felt natural gravity pull at her limbs and fresh air blow across her brown hair. When she opened her eyes, she saw the clear blue skies that looked so much like Earth’s it might as well be it. And she didn’t need to wear sunglasses.

She needed another minute to enjoy the liberating bliss and then told the rest of the crew to do the same. They had all been stuck on the three-deck ship for months, a quick walkabout was in order. They just needed to be back in time for dinner, and it was rib night. Chef made amazing ribs.

Karklosea guided them away from the starport, into the urban jungle that awaited them. Behind, Foster saw teams of Radiance personnel refueling the Kepler, restocking its vital supplies, and hauling aboard replacement cryo pods for the cryo chamber. Their next trip into the nebula wouldn’t feel as long whilst they were asleep and frozen for several months, and the fear of dying of starvation could be thrown out the airlock.

The city of Jondia had a similar look to cities found on Morutrin Prime, which was once a Linl colony before Radiance came into the picture. Tall structures that looked like cylindrical or rectangular shapes arched up from the streets into the skies. None of the buildings Foster saw had real edges to them. They were all curved and smooth, reflecting the orange glow of the sun above from its pearl-white material and glass windows.

Two trains and a thirty-minute walk later and Karklosea guided the group into a basement-level unit below a skyscraper that looked like two ovals stacked on top of each other covered in windows. A door hidden behind a holographic wall gave them access, Foster came up with two words to describe the place, and shady was one of them, awesome was the other because of the holo wall. The front door was behind a holographic wall.

Linl, and probably some humans, as Linl wouldn’t be wearing baseball T-shirts, sat in the waiting room. Foster saw two Hashmedai in the corner, rambling about the heat. Given the space traffic and close proximity to Earth and the Empire, it was clear that the people in the waiting room were smuggled on the planet to see the good cybernetic specialist that didn’t care where in the galaxy you came from, and then secretly leave.

As they waited for the specialist, Foster glanced at the numerous cybernetic parts that were on display in a glass case. Robotic hands, arms, legs, psionic brain chips, and other wires and components she had no clue where on the body you’d shove them into, were laid out. It was like being in a jewelry store, only the super expensive items were implants and upgrades cyborgs and psionics needed.

Twenty minutes later and they were waved into one of the back rooms, pushing the cart that carried Chevallier’s cryogenically frozen body. A Linl man with short brown hair approached, his white coat waved about when he walked past a fan that sat next to dozens of operating tables, many of them held idle bodies of people undergoing cybernetic augmentation for the first time.

Odelea and Karklosea spoke to the man, pointing a finger at Chevallier in her pod. The man nodded at them then looked down at Chevallier after his hand removed a layer of fog off her pod’s glass case.

The three spoke again, and then when finished, Odelea faced Foster, saying. “This is Wenadei. He’s the specialist we’ve been seeking. He says he’ll accept the job and wants payment up front.”

Foster pulled out a credit chit, a special one for the Kepler’s operations. All transactions made with it were billed to IESA and the UNE government. Tax payer’s credits were being used to help Foster save the galaxy. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, though.

After the transaction was complete, Wenadei hauled Chevallier’s pod into the corner and activated a number of scanning devices that outputted their findings via holo screens. The holo screens followed him around the workshop slash lab slash operating room.

“How long will it take?” Foster asked.

“Wenadei’s technique is old,” Odelea said. “Cybernetic augmentation with these parts might take as long as a month.”

“Damn.”

“And that’s for psionic augmentation,” Odelea explained while making quick translations. “Chevallier needs the implants for survival and to replace her missing arm which he’ll need to design and build with custom parts. Furthermore, there’s a small waiting list, her recovery might be longer once everything is done.”

Foster released a dejected groan.

“To be fair, Captain,” Odelea continued. “We’re still in Radiance territory, where we travel to next via FTL will still take months. Longer, if we investigate the fissures and the connection with the SOM.”

Odelea was right, much to the letdown that punched Foster in the gut. They had a mission to get back to, and a nebula to investigate. By the time the Kepler arrived wherever the hell they were to go next, Chevallier should have made a recovery. As for getting her back aboard the Kepler, that was another story.

Last time Foster checked, the two weren’t friends anymore. She only brought her here because the Kepler would have gotten to Pria faster than any other ship, and Foster wasn’t one to leave people hanging. Back during the invasion of Earth, you didn’t do that. A dead human was one less person to help people, one less person to fight the Hashmedai, and one less on the total population of the human race, which at the time was dropping rapidly. True, Foster did leave Boyd behind, but she had no choice. To go after him would have put the whole crew, and possibly the UNE, at great risk.

Foster did her duty and gave Chevallier the quickest means of recovery. The rest was up to her once that day came.

“So,” Foster said, offering a farewell handshake to Karklosea. “Guess this is it then, Karklosea?”

Odelea translated for the two. “She says yes, Wenadei will fix the problems with her cybernetics.”

“Tell her farewell then, and thanks for the help,” Foster said. “Let’s go, Odelea, we’s got some poking around ethereal fissures to do.”

38 Rivera

Undersea Ruins

Takarius, Hyalur System

July 18, 2119, 01:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Fascinating, your HNI and that port are compatible.”

It took Rivera two minutes to realize Eicelea had spoken to her. She was lost in thought at the newly accessed chamber that was beyond, access granted by the AI Goddess Sarpanit when she interfaced to the ancient door’s control panel.

She didn’t even notice Penelope, Eicelea, and Vynei stand next to her, as they all pondered what their next move would be. And where the UNE signals were coming from.

Rivera shook off the shocked and spaced-out look and gave her delayed response. “That’s because the technology behind it is similar.”

“How is that possible?” Eicelea asked.

Rivera replied as the group moved forward, even Sarpanit’s holographic appearance followed, though it wasn’t necessary, she was in Rivera’s HNI. “Humanity mostly reverse engineered technology acquired from Radiance, the Hashmedai, Lyonria, and Sirius ruins, adding it to our own.”

“The technology found in Sirius turned out to be lost Draconian technology, right?” Penelope asked.

Rivera nodded yes. “And what Marduk had used. I guess the tech in HNI and the tech inside that panel, at one point, were one and the same.”

The newly accessed chamber the group stepped into was dark, only flashlights revealed its contents. It was built by a high-tech civilization, but not the Lyonria based on Rivera’s previous venture into their structures. The layout of the chamber’s floors and walls around her looked exactly like how Foster and Tolukei described the layout to Marduk’s ship back in Sirius. It was a fusion of Draconian technology from the age of Tiamat and his own designs if she were to understand it correctly.

At the center of the chamber were cylinder-shaped objects lying horizontally on the floor with way too many tubes and wires connected to them. There were sixteen in total, all aligned against the walls, and a bulky computer idling in the middle of it all.

Eicelea and Rivera ran EAD scans of everything, watching in awe as the small holo screens filled with data about the chemical composition of the equipment, and its estimated age. Everything in the chamber was well over five to six thousand years old, predating the existence of the Radiance Union, and the Aryile’s first contact with their Gods.

Rivera flipped to the next holo screen her EAD made. Her lips rolled into an O shape when she read the data. “Lot of psionic activity from these sixteen cylinders.”

Eicelea tapped one of the cylinders, and it opened up from the top to bottom. She took a closer look at the inside of it. “They look like psionic creation tubes,” Eicelea said.

“Say what?” Rivera said to Eicelea.

“She’s a sleepin, boss,” Vynei said. “Human psionics didn’t exist when she left Earth.”

“Those with psionic potential enter tubes like these,” Eicelea said. “They spend a number of hours, sometimes days, while it brings out their powers. If you have what it takes, you leave as a psionic.”

“I was under the impression you were born as one,” Rivera said.

“That’s another way, and the only way for Hashmedai,” Eicelea said. “The technology to build these tubes was lost to them during the war without end. The Hashmedai were forced to turn to breeding and controlling psionics as a direct result. Lucky for you humans, we in Radiance liked you, and shared the technology with you, modifying it to work with human physiology.”

“You see, this is what I don’t get,” Penelope spoke up. “According to Radiance religion, psionic creation tech was given to you by your Gods.”

“Of course they did,” Eicelea said. “They taught us how to build them as with interstellar ships.”

“According to these scans,” Rivera said, pushing her EAD’s holo screen to her. “These tubes, well, this entire chamber for that matter, predates the Aryile’s first contact with the Javnis as with your Gods.”

The shaking of Eicelea’s head and rolling of her yellow eyes suggested she didn’t believe Rivera and went to perform her own detailed scans. A pair of frustrated tiny fingers ran through her hair when the data opened on the holo screen.

“I think our instruments are wrong,” Eicelea’s denial voice said.

Sarpanit laughed, reminding everyone that her holographic form remained standing with the group.

“Something funny?” Penelope said to the AI Goddess.

Sarpanit’s flickering hologram crossed her arms. “Let’s see how long it takes you to figure it out.”

“My scans concur with yours,” Eicelea said. “No, there must be an error. Maybe there’s something in this chamber affecting our EAD—”

“It’s no error,” Rivera cut in. She couldn’t deny the data any longer. “Someone here on the Javnis homeworld was creating Javnis psionics before the Aryile had the ability to when they assimilated them into the second member of the Union.” She took a step back, eying the computer in the center and the sixteen tubes near the walls and the cabling attached. “This is where all Javnis Muodiry originated from.”

Panic made Eicelea’s feet skitter about as she cried. “No, no, no!”

“Tolukei’s ancestors were dragged in here and given psionic powers,” Rivera said.

“And?” Sarpanit asked Rivera.

“And …” Rivera finished. “Marduk, he got his powers here. And then whoever built this place gave him a ship.”

“Very good,” Sarpanit said. “This is where true Gods are forged.”

As interesting as the discovery was, there were still no signs of the UNE signals. Those answers lay further up in the small connecting chamber. Penelope wasn’t sure of what to make of the oval-shaped object, the one thing in the new chamber when the group arrived and stood before it.

Rivera did, she didn’t even need to scan it to know it was, “A wormhole. It’s just like the ones we found in Sirius.”

Eicelea didn’t seem to be surprised at the discovery as she tilted her head up at the device. “Vynei and I found these in the Barnard’s Star system many years ago.”

“I thought those were created by the Lyonria?” Vynei asked her.

“They are.”

Rivera ran her EAD scanner along the edge of the oval-shaped ancient wormhole gate. She read the data that outputted onto the screen. “This was built before the stuff in the other chamber or anything else in this room. Its age is consistent with most Lyonria ruins found in the system.”

“So, the Lyonria made this wormhole,” Eicelea said.

“Then someone else came in and built this place around it,” Rivera finished.

After a lengthy search, no other chambers were found let alone the source of the UNE signals. The wormhole oval was active and had been since they arrived. And just like with matter, communication signals can be sent through wormholes.

Rivera stood before the wormhole and her EAD’s scans confirmed the sources of the signals were coming from the direction of the gate, wherever the hell it went to.

“You’re not seriously considering walking through it, are you?” Penelope asked Rivera.

Rivera took a step forward, trying her best to make out what was inside the darkened room beyond the oval-shaped gateway. “At the end of the day, Penelope,” she said. “I’m a space explorer first, engineer second.”

Rivera stepped through the gate. In an instant, she was flung somewhere else in the galaxy. Looking back, she saw Sarpanit’s holographic image vanish, interference with the gate she figured, not that it mattered, she still felt the AI Goddess in her HNI. Eicelea and Vynei joined her next, and then Penelope after an unsuccessful protest.

Their flashlights powered on making multiple streaks of white light in the pitch-black area, while Rivera led the charge forward, viewing the contents of her EAD’s holographic window.

“… And right now,” Rivera added. “There are explorers from Earth here, that shouldn’t be.”

39 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Ethereal Refinery, Inadrai System

July 18, 2119, 12:37 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler’s cryo chamber was reported to be fully operational again by the time Foster had awoken. After refueling and resupplying had been completed, the ship was free to leave the planet and continue their investigation.

Foster glanced at the data crystal Karklosea had gifted them. She still kept its existence secret from Jainuzei, though took the time to copy its contents and leave it with Karklosea. She hoped that her continued investigation while on Pria would turn up something new if they didn’t because, as it stood, most of the files were still encrypted. Even EVE with her quantum computing was having a difficult time breaking it over the past eight months.

With Odelea’s help and influence with Souyila, she convinced Radiance to allow the Kepler to orbit the refinery and its small void in space where it harvested dark energy. After scans and analysis of the fissure was complete, the Kepler dove in again, and hoped nobody from Radiance was watching.

Because at that point, they were willfully returning to the forbidden region of Radiance space via the fissures which was considered impossible and suicidal, until now.

As predicted, the Kepler finished its trip through aether space, arriving back in the depths of the Hallowed Nebula. Three things were learned about the experience. One; fissures being harvested by Radiance always connected to the nebula. Two; nebula fissures always linked to refineries. Three; Foster was right, using her abilities caused the first fissure to collapse. Odelea wasn’t far off when she suspected that the fissures were nothing more than forgotten tunnels bridging Radiance space and the nebula together.

The Kepler spent the next day traversing through the nebula on a course that made Jainuzei’s face light up. It was a course toward the nebula’s core and the source of the UNE distress beacon. Their recent fissure journey placed them beyond the barrier. It was truly unexplored space. All because Radiance religious beliefs forbid it.

Odelea and Tolukei weren’t comfortable with the idea of disturbing the Gods. But with Jainuzei being their Radiance superior, and Foster’s growing concerns about an IESA ship of exploration lost in the nebula, they carried out their orders.

Williams was in command on the bridge when Foster arrived. He pulled her over to one of the rear computers. Something on the holo screen had him concerned.

“What are we looking at, Dom?” she asked him.

“Remember those drones that boarded us?” he said.

“Yeah, I do, you shouldn’t though, you was still restin’ in sickbay!”

Williams enlarged a hologram showing the remains of one of the drones left in storage in the cargo bay. They never did get rid of them as some of them had parts that could be salvaged for future repairs.

“According to EVE,” he said. “One of them started broadcasting.”

“I thought they’s were as good as dead?”

“They no longer pose a threat, Captain,” EVE’s voice played on the speakers. “However, the last wave that boarded us was not destroyed, just deactivated by Jainuzei. The ones that were intact have recently received a signal.”

“Great,” Foster grunted. “They ain’t gonna start shooting the place up again, are they? Or try to infect us with another virus?”

“No, Captain,” EVE said. “Jainuzei’s code still has them rendered inoperative. However, there is an external force requesting them to join a new network and acquire new programming operations.”

“Can you dumb it down for us humans, EVE?” Williams asked.

“The drones were developed by Earth and sold to Radiance to help cover the gaps in their defense of the Luminous system,” EVE explained. “Although they have been modified to suit Radiance’s needs, their basic programming remains. They connect to a central drone control and become part of a local network cluster that issues orders to the connected drones.”

“Luminous is light-years beyond us,” Foster said. “Those drones don’t have QECs, right? There’s no way it could be gettin’ a signal this far out.”

“That is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “This new signal is coming from a source close to the Kepler’s current location.”

“How does that work?” Williams said. “We’re in the middle of the nebula which should be free of all Radiance ships and colonies.”

“Pierce,” Foster said, looking directly at him and his station. “What do you got?”

He checked his computer, its holo screens flashing bluish light across his face. “Nothing Captain, except a fissure.”

“Show me.”

A large hologram depicted the Kepler’s estimated location in the nebula and the nearby fissure. It gave Foster an idea.

“EVE,” she said. “Possible you can show us where these wake-up signals for the drones comin’ from?”

A yellow dot flashed over the location of the fissure on the hologram. The signals were coming from it. Foster’s lips twisted at the thought.

“Someone’s on the other side of that fissure, sending signals,” Williams said.

“So, like,” Chang said, cutting in. “Am I the only one worried that there’s someone else out there trying to talk to our sleeping drones?”

“We all are worried, Chang,” Williams said.

“Yeah, well here’s the thing,” Chang said. “Those drones were provided to Radiance to cover the defense of the Luminous system, and only that system, right?”

“That is correct, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said.

“Then why does someone else have a drone control center somewhere on the other side of the fissure?” Chang said. “Didn’t we just determine that the fissures in the nebula link with fissures being harvested by Radiance? That someone who has the codes needed to transmit to the drones we got in the cargo bay is stationed aboard a refinery.”

There was an eerie silence while everyone processed his words.

“He’s right,” Williams said, stroking his beard. “The only people that should be able to talk to the drones would be in the Luminous system or …”

“Someone from the UNE …” Foster finished for him. “Even then, Radiance changed the codes to suit them. Mister Chang,” Foster called out to him. “Set a course to that fissure and take us in.”

“Understood, Cap.”

“Is this really necessary?” Jainuzei said. “This will delay our journey to the Gerard Kuiper’s beacon.”

“Small price to pay if these drones act up again,” Foster said.

“You know, we could just push ‘em out the airlock,” Chang said.

“I’d rather we keep ‘em for the parts,” Foster said. “Besides, those things pack a punch, might come in handy since we’s just one ship. Can’t do that though if someone has the keys to get in.” And more importantly, why do they have the keys?

XSV Johannes Kepler

Approaching Ethereal Refinery, Interstellar Space

July 19, 2119, 00:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Kepler dropped out of FTL, almost magically appearing out of nowhere when it exited the small and invisible fissure. Ahead of it was a small space station, an ethereal refinery adrift in interstellar space, what was left of it.

Half of the station slowly drifted apart, leaving behind mangled hulks of debris, the place had seen battle. The slag in orbit of the refinery station, that was once drones, was likely the reason why the place got shot up in the end. Either the operators of the station picked a fight they thought they could win, or someone out there in the darkened abyss really didn’t want anyone operating in these parts.

Foster reclined back on her captain’s chair. “Any signs of life?” she asked.

“Nothing that I can see,” Odelea said.

“Please be advised, Captain,” EVE added. “The damage the station has taken is consistent with tachyon weapon fire.”

Foster grimaced. “The Draconians were here.”

“That would be my assessment, Captain,” EVE said. “As with the trace amounts of the protective gel that has been ejected into space.”

“So not just a lone Draconian ship,” Williams said. “A fleet with a Charybdis nearby. Must have gotten close for it to get a bit of the goo on it.”

“Furthermore” EVE added. “There is a mind shield present if you are planning to board it. It is only accepting psionic usage from Radiance.”

She gazed at the dead, torn-in-half station on the view screen, wondering where inside it the drone control was. Why did they have it when it was to be shipped to the Luminous system, and why, of all the places in the Union the Draconians could have emerged from their maelstrom vortexes, did they hit the lone refinery?

The Draconians and their devotion to Tiamat would hate the SOM. And the SOM had already proven to know more about the drones than they should. Somewhere on that station, was an operation being conducted by the Marduk cult, and it pissed off the Draconians.

“Becca,” Williams said to her. “You want to take a look inside, don’t you?”

She smiled at him as he stood next to her chair. “How’d you know, Dom?”

“’Cause I’ve known you since I was ten.”

“Tolukei, EVE, and Odelea,” Foster called out as she leaped from her chair. “Let’s suit up, we’re going in. Dom, you got the bridge.” Foster stopped before the bridge’s exit.

“Captain,” Jainuzei called out to her when she was seconds away from the exit. “Please allow me to accompany your team.”

Foster wanted to say no, and then noticed the sudden change in his tone. Jainuzei was against investigating the source of the signals. Now after watching what happened to it, he became concerned, like there was something important on the station, and if she were to guess, he wanted to see if it was still intact.

She smiled at him. “Sure, buddy, come along.”

This was Foster’s chance. The chance to get Jainuzei to oust himself for who he really was.

40 Rivera

Draconian Ruins

Unknown Planet, Unknown System

July 18, 2119, 15:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The old crumbling structure Rivera and her team of reluctant explorers found themselves in, bore a similar resemblance to what lay behind the wormhole they crossed. Old, lifeless, and hints of Draconian and Lyonria influence. Someone from the horde took enough interest in the Javnis to build, not only a lab to create the Muodiry, but another base, elsewhere in the galaxy for easy and direct access to it via wormhole. Well, that was the leading theory as they pushed forward with their flashlights.

At the end of the chamber were opened and dust-covered containers with the logo of IESA printed across it. Dormant portable lights of Earth origin were across from them, and power cables connected to Earth made batteries, long depleted of their power. At the entrance leading outside to a darkened world, was a portable computer. It had a screen, an actual computer screen, not a holo screen. Twenty-first-century technology. Earth explorers from the last century were here.

It was nighttime outside, either that or the planet the wormhole put them on just orbited a really dim star. The skies weren’t full of stars as one would expect. It had a few, but the main celestial spectacle was the gaseous clouds of a nebula. It was something to look at.

Ahead on the rocky and rugged landscape was a transport ship, also of Earth origin proudly displaying the flag of the UNE and the logo of ISEA under its layers of dust Rivera had to brush off with a stroke of her hand. Like the previous Earth made objects behind, she recognized the design of the transport. It was the same class of transports the Carl Sagan used. She wouldn’t be surprised if it came from that ship. It might explain where she and the crew had been during that sixty-eight-year blackout period.

“Think you can get it working?” Penelope asked Rivera as they slipped into the cockpit.

“This came from my century,” Rivera said, stroking her fingers across the powered down flight dashboard. “It shouldn’t take long to get it running again. In fact …” She lowered herself and pulled apart an access panel below the dashboard, fidgeting with the electronics with her tools. After fifteen minutes, the humming noise of a computer sounded. “That did it.”

Lights from the computers flashed with life once again. Computer screens had rebooting progress bars that slowly moved from left to right.

“Excellent,” Penelope said when the first terminal booted up and sat to interact with it. “Bloody hell, this is ancient.”

“From my point of view, it’s from the future as well,” Rivera said as she used one of the computers in the cockpit. “Looks like it was built maybe ten or twenty years after we left for Sirius.”

Eicelea moved forward, her yellow eyes fixed on the nebula viewable from the windshield. “If you can, please do get its navigation systems operational.”

“Was more interested in its logs,” Rivera said. “I’d like to know why a human ship is out here.”

“I think this is the Divine Expanse,” Eicelea said, pointing up at the nebula. “That’s why.”

“The what?” Penelope said, turning away from her screen.

“The Divine Expanse,” Eicelea said. “That nebula, it looks like the same one the Gods reside in. The Hallowed Nebula as we in Radiance call it.”

“I’ve heard about this place,” Rivera said as her eyes joined Eicelea observing the dazzling sights ahead. “Radiance had created a blockade to prevent the Empire from exploring it.”

“Defiling it,” Eicelea corrected her. “When the Gods made contact with the Aryile, they told them of the nebula and not to enter it since it was their domain. We honored it as the Union grew … but the Hashmedai, they believed our Gods were aliens. When the war without end broke out, the Empire sent ships to the Divine Expanse searching for what they believed was the homeworld to alien species pretending to be Gods.”

“Did they ever succeed?”

“Of course not!”

“The Union, at one point, had more ships defending the expanse than Aervounis,” Vynei said, joining the two in the cockpit.

“The Empire controlled a number of planets near the expanse but was never able to enter deep into the nebula. Our fleets were too big for them,” Eicelea continued to explain. “With the ceasefire, though, most Imperial forces had withdrawn, and because of that, the Union withdrew most ships patrolling it.”

“That might explain why that UNE ship made it here undetected,” Penelope said. “Fewer Imperial and Union ships in the region mean fewer eyes to spot it—” Penelope cut herself off when the computer she was working beeped. She faced it grinning as the red glow from her eyes reflected off the screen. “Oh!”

The ‘oh’ was big and loud. Rivera stood behind her to see what was up. “Got something, Penelope?” she asked.

“Codes and recent logs,” Penelope said. “This transport is registered to the ERSR Gerard Kuiper.”

“Gerard Kuiper …” Rivera grimaced stroking her chin. “That must be the source of the transmissions we got from the wormhole. It has to be in orbit still for the signals to be that strong. Anything else?”

“This transport was used three times ever,” Penelope said, reading the data that outputted. “It was used to land on New Babylon and Terra Nova, then its third use was what we see right here … wherever here is.”

Vynei crossed his arms. “Isn’t Terra Nova and New Babylon in Sirius?”

“Yeah it is, and New Babylon is Poniga homeworld,” Rivera said. “That ship … and this transport was in Sirius at one point.”

“Any idea why it went from there to here?” Vynei asked.

“I don’t know much about the IESA ships that left Earth after the Carl Sagan and the others we left with,” Rivera said. “All I know is the Gerard Kuiper didn’t exist when we left in twenty thirty-three. It had to have been built and launched years after we left.”

Penelope was unable to find anything else useful on the screen. She sat back with the same puzzled face everyone else had. “I’d say check the internet, but we’re far from a QEC relay.”

“Or access to a knowledge network node,” Eicelea said.

“Yeah,” Penelope said slowly. “We’re looking at a twenty-year communication delay at least unless we go back to that wormhole.”

“Which I am in favor of,” Eicelea said, moving for the transport’s exit. “As fascinating as this discovery is, we are leaving behind many other fabulous finds that must be studied.”

Rivera stood her ground. “We have to get aboard.”

“What?!” Eicelea looked up at her, giving her a cringing stare. “Are you mad, human?”

A lost IESA ship in the middle of a holy nebula to Radiance. Rivera put the facts together quickly, remembering what Sarpanit had said about the Draconians making a push toward it, and the dangers that could happen if they arrived.

“Sarpanit,” Rivera called out to the AI Goddess. “Isn’t this the nebula you spoke of?”

She sensed her HNI process a large sum of data, and then the holographic evil EVE appeared into existence, casting her bluish glow on the cockpit’s chairs, looking up at the nebula.

“This is it,” Sarpanit said.

“And Marduk’s origins backtrack to here,” Rivera said. “And Radiance claims their Gods sleep within the nebula, and now this ship is here adrift. Sarpanit, you said so yourself, if the Draconians get here we’ll all face our end.”

Penelope beamed at Rivera. “You want to board it don’t you, love?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Someone on board must know what’s going on.”

“Assuming anyone is alive,” Eicelea interjected. “Have you even tried to contact them?”

“This transport has been active and transmitting since Jasmine got it running,” Penelope said to Eicelea. “Nobody from the ship has tried to communicate with us.”

“The crew must be dead.”

“Or in cryo.”

Eicelea made her usual gesture of disapproval, placing her tiny hands on her hips and looked up toward Rivera. “You are seriously thinking about going up?”

“We’re here now,” Rivera said, sitting before the cockpit’s controls. “Might as well.”

“Vynei and I will be taking our leave then!” Eicelea spat and returned to the transport’s exit.

“They might need our help, boss,” Vynei said with a shrug.

“Not our concern!”

“Tell me,” Penelope said, smirking at the two Radiance companions. “Did you forget about the ransomware?”

Eicelea’s face twitched suddenly. “Oh Gods …”

“Rivera,” Penelope said to her. “Take us all on an adventure with this transport.”

The Gerard Kuiper idled in orbit of the unknown rocky and dark planet. The nebula’s view in the background became more prominent as the transport left the planet. Rivera was half tempted to cut the engines and drift with their momentum to the derelict ship, just as an excuse to take in the view and the positive vibes it gave her. The lack of gravity only enhanced the feeling. If it were an appropriate time to hit her bong, she’d do that too.

To her surprise, the Gerard Kuiper’s transport docking bay doors swung open with little problems once she inputted the command codes Penelope pulled out from the ship’s database. The transport lowered and landed inside the Gerard Kuiper once clear of the large doors and self-irising barrier.

Breathable air greeted the group when they drifted out and away from the transport, while the ceiling lights flickered on in the connecting corridors. The ship was in sleep mode for lack of a better term. Its power and life support were shut down while the crew slept in cryo, only to activate when the presence of life not in cryo moved through the ship.

Watching the ship slowly come back to life hit Rivera’s chest with a warm sense of nostalgia, remembering the days voyaging on the Carl Sagan. “Oh, this brings back memories,” she said, smiling.

“Is the gravity offline?” Penelope asked.

“No, artificial gravity didn’t exist when this ship was built,” Rivera said. “Habitat ring should have gravity, however.”

The first hour was spent searching for the crew, floating from corridor to corridor, room to room. Nobody was found. This was a ghost ship. Rivera considered the thought that maybe Eicelea was right to want to leave.

“Crew might be in cryo,” Penelope said. “We should split up.”

“I’ll check on engineering,” Rivera said. “The rest of you, head to the cryo chamber and bridge.”

The four spread out, drifting and floating through the various maze of corridors of the ship of Earth origin. Rivera’s journey to engineering triggered brief flashbacks of her last trip to the crash site of the Carl Sagan. The Gerard Kuiper’s interior wasn’t that much different. And, just like the Carl Sagan, the ship was lifeless with a slew of mysteries within it, none of them good and all of them probably malicious in nature. She also had broken away from her team to venture into engineering during the Carl Sagan’s final salvage mission. That choice didn’t work out very well in the end.

She took a moment to stop floating, holding onto a wall handlebar to slow her momentum. She looked up at the Gerard Kuiper’s green shimmering reactor after she drifted into engineering. Animal instincts told her not to investigate the AI core up above.

The voice in her head served as a reminder to that. “This reminds me of the first time we met,” Sarpanit snickered.

“At least you’re no threat to anyone,” Rivera said as she floated over to a computer console, typing away at its terminal.

As she waited for her request to view the engineering logs load, she made a quick peek behind her up at the AI core again. She kept seeing the mistake she made and kept wondering who the hell was it that put Sarpanit back into the Carl Sagan in the first place during their disappearance.

“You know,” Sarpanit said to her. “If you want to be free of me for good, you could transfer me into there.”

“Why? As wonderful as it would be, you’d be trapped in another ship.”

“I won’t though. Doesn’t this ship use the android EVE models?”

Sarpanit was right. Android EVEs would be in service on a ship like this. When the Carl Sagan had left Earth, the first ship to use them was already in development.

“Give me control of that EVE unit,” Sarpanit said. “And you’ll never have to worry about me again.”

“Until you try to kill us with your new physical body.” Sarpanit, as a ship AI, was going to leave Rivera with bad dreams for years to come. Sarpanit in control of an android had the power to make her have nightmares within a nightmare until the day she died. “Sorry, I’ll pass.”

The computer she floated in front of finally booted up. Its logs showed that the Gerard Kuiper was low on H3 fuel and ended up in orbit in search of a means to resupply.

Before Rivera could read more into the mystery, Penelope’s holographic face appeared in Rivera’s HNI virtual vision. “Oh, Jasmine,” she said to her.

“Oh, Penelope,” Rivera replied, smiling. “Did you make it to the cryo chamber?”

“I think so.”

“You think? What do you see?” Penelope flipped the holo screen she was using to transmit to Rivera, using it as a camera to show her the Gerard Kuiper’s shut cryo pods. “Yeah, that’s the cryo chamber.”

“Can you see why I’m using my terrified voice?” Penelope said.

“You call that a terrified voice?”

“Yes, love, I don’t normally convey strong emotions.”

Rivera took a closer look at the cryo pods Penelope was showing her in the projection. They were full of skeletons.

“Guess we know what happened to the crew,” Penelope said. “Something tells me whoever left the transport on the surface is probably a pile of bones elsewhere too.”

41 Foster

Darkened Corridors

Ethereal Refinery, Interstellar Space

July 19, 2119, 00:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Extremely bright and blue light flashed within the pitch-black interior of the station. When the light subsided, returning the area back to its previously darkened state, the figures of Tolukei, EVE, Odelea, Jainuzei, and Foster materialized.

Foster and Odelea activated the magnetic boots on their EVA suits, the station lacked gravity and basic life support. Jainuzei donned his Radiance combat armor complete with a helmet while his large back worked as a portable weapons rack.

Tolukei did exactly what most psionics in his position did in the vacuum of space or other hostile environments and covered himself in a psionic bubble with breathable air inside. Tolukei had to do it, the implants on his body were old and required the user to have them exposed to prevent overheating and increase its output. The days of psionics wearing brief attire to expose most of their body were over, with the exception of relics like Tolukei and his partially topless lizard body, save for the cloak over his head.

Alarms blared as they made their way through the darkened halls, not that they could hear it. Foster had fallen behind the group quickly, it had been a while since she used magnetic boots on her EVA suit. She had to move, taking one step at a time, allowing the magnets to cling down to the surface. Her left boot wouldn’t release its cling until her right boot had come to a rest, and vice versa. It was just the way they were designed to operate. It was very disorientating, especially knowing the rest of her body had no weight.

Helmet-mounted lights lit the path, guiding them to push aside floating dead bodies and pieces of an air vent that drifted aimlessly. Some of the dead, upon closer inspection, wore the dragon scale armor of the Draconians. The Draconians didn’t want the station obliterated. They were searching for something then met resistance from the Radiance personnel aboard.

Foster approached the tumbling body of an armored Draconian soldier. There was light emitting from the inside of her EVA suit, partially visible from her helmet. Her mysterious tattoos had lit up, and she touched the armor of the Draconian. It came apart with a thought of her mind when the tattoos were in sync with the armor, freeing the dead humanoid dragon from within it.

“I can see why you insisted on coming, Captain,” Jainuzei said.

“If Draconians were here, then there’s clues their abandoned tech might have,” Foster said.

Nobody else said it, after an hour of exploring, but Foster knew the story the bodies wanted to tell, especially the ones wearing robes. This was a secret Soldiers of Marduk outpost. She was sure of it. They must have killed the Souyila crew long ago and were attempting to do something with the fissure, perhaps see if it was possible for them to enter it and use it as a short-cut to the nebula. Then the dragons said fuck that.

The clangs of the four sets of magnetic boots with a floating Javnis psionic pushed deeper into the station, stopping to climb up an elevator shaft. Neither of the four could see what lay at the end even with their lights shining up it. Odelea’s EAD insisted the central operation center was at the top of the shaft, EVE’s scans agreed.

Tolukei went up into the shaft first, his psionic powers made it easy, levitating up with telekinesis. The rest disabled their magnetic boots, floated into the shaft, and waited for the telekinetic grip of Tolukei’s thoughts to pull them up. One by one, they were forced up to the top. Tolukei’s cybernetic augmented chest dazzled with blue light.

The twisted metal that was once the elevator doors were pushed inward with a flick of Tolukei’s wrist. The two hulks twirled about into the newly accessed hall, crashing into a wall at the end, their trek continued.

The five broke up when they reached the ops station. Like the dark halls, various bodies spun around in the weightless environment, some of them were missing upper or lower bodies. Floating ash proved the reason why.

EVE worked to repair damaged systems, and Odelea read the computer screens, using her Souyila access codes. The SOM didn’t change them when they took over the refinery. When EVE confirmed there wasn’t anything else for her to do, she left for the airlock, performing a spacewalk along the hull of the station to access its second half that became separated during the battle.

“Not sure what any of these say,” Foster cut in amongst the Radiance chatter, between Odelea, Tolukei, and Jainuzei.

“We were right in our suspicions, Captain,” Odelea said. “The SOM sent members to attack and take control of the refinery. Months later, they took critical damage from multiple targets.”

Foster smirked at the floating bodies of the Marduk cultists. “Karma’s a bitch,” she snorted.

“They were boarded; most of the crew were called into escape pods,” Odelea revealed.

“Don’t recall seeing those on our way here,” Jainuzei said.

“I do not sense the presence of them outside,” Tolukei said.

Odelea moved to another computer terminal, her helmeted head facing down at its contents. “According to this,” she said. “All escape pods are still in their tubes. So Tolukei is right, nobody made it off the ship.”

“The Draconian boarding party must have seen to that,” Jainuzei said. “Anything else?”

Odelea moved closer to the screen, its light reflecting off her visor blocked out her face to Foster. “Two cryo pods are active with positive vitals.”

“Survivors,” Jainuzei said with a hopeful tone of voice. Foster was quick to make a mental note of it. “Unless there is someone else hidden within the deeper confines of the station.”

“I do not believe that would be the case,” Tolukei said. “All areas of the station have been exposed to space.”

Foster gave EVE the heads-up of their next move, locating the two cryo pods, and the remaining four moved out. EVE confirmed and went to restore life support in the cryo chamber, using the exterior of the station to gain access to critical sections via access hatches. After that she planned to continue her trek to the severed half of the refinery, still floating away. According to Odelea, the refinery’s primary data recorder was there.

The cryo chamber of the station was like the ops station with a maze of corridors linking to it. The room was dark, weightless, silent, and full of partially vaporized bodies of men and women of the five Radiance races, with one difference. It had life support thanks to EVE and an airlock serving as its entrance in case of an emergency, like this Foster figured. With life support active in the cryo chamber, Foster, Odelea, and Jainuzei removed their helmets and took in the breathable air, conserving their suits’ limited oxygen supplies. Gravity was still an issue, but the four were able to manage with that.

Odelea stood at a wall panel, thumbing a number of Radiance made commands to start the cryo pod revival sequence. The two pods in question lowered from their storage racks up top. Tolukei stood with Jainuzei as he looked down at them, Foster observed his actions the best she could. There was something in the pods he knew about, something that was important to him and keeping secret. Jainuzei brushed his armored gloved hand across the glass surface of both pods, unveiling the people inside.

One had the young face of a Linl woman, the other, a Javnis man. His lizard face was gold, most likely a result of cosmetic alteration. It was a popular trend among wealthy Javnis back in the 2040s, according to Odelea.

“Strange,” Odelea said, her face still looking at the panel’s interface screen. “Nephilim is the name of the occupant in the pod ahead of you three. Armuzei is the name of the other …”

“Armuzei …” Tolukei said as his four eyes looked down at the pod containing Armuzei, the gold-faced Javnis. “It is a familiar name.”

Odelea concurred. “Indeed.”

Armuzei’s pod opened first, a plume of white mist rose away from it. The gold-faced Javnis man floated up and away from it. He opened his eyes, all two of them, the other two had been lost.

Before Armuzei could speak, Jainuzei rushed to Foster, as fast as his magnetic boots could carry him, pushing her back. Odelea and Tolukei ended up exchanging words with Armuzei in their language.

“Captain, you must leave now,” Jainuzei whispered to her. “He’s the former Javnis council representative and one of the leaders of the SOM. If he knows we brought you here—”

“That’ll piss ‘em off good,” she whispered back.

“And he might not be cooperative. Armuzei believes Tolukei is a Muodiry that came to rescue him, and you should know by now how much the SOM revere the Muodiry.”

His words left her conflicted. He was right, on one hand, Foster had gained demon-like status among the cult for her actions in Sirius. Leaving the cryo chamber, before Armuzei realized she was there made sense until they got him aboard the Kepler. But that also would leave Jainuzei alone with everyone else. She thought of fifteen different ways how that could go bad.

Foster placed her helmet back on and went for the cryo chamber’s airlock. If Jainuzei was going to betray them he could have done it already she told herself with every magnetic step she made to the exit.

In the life supportless corridor, Foster noticed her tattoo’s glow flare up, more so than they were when they arrived at the refinery. She felt a storm coming. She was right.

Moving to an observation window revealed why.

Red-and magenta-colored clouds of an ethereal maelstrom were growing from a vortex in space. It looked like a storm in space. It looked like a Draconian fleet was approaching.

42 Rivera

ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System

July 19, 2119, 00:43 SST (Sol Standard Time)

All official reports from both IESA and the UNE government stated that the Gerard Kuiper was destroyed by an accident with all hands lost. A critical structural failure in its reactor core was the reason according to its last QEC transmissions. It happened so fast its onboard EVE wasn’t able to react in time.

What Rivera saw around her as she pushed away from a computer station on the Gerard Kuiper’s bridge, said otherwise.

“The colonization habitat ring is gone,” she said with arms folded, staring at the computer screen.

Penelope floated next to her. “Is that bad?”

“Well, yeah, it is,” Rivera said. “The one on the Carl Sagan held thousands of colonists, this one is slightly bigger. This ship was supposed to colonize the Kapteyn’s Star system but went to Sirius to help search for us.”

Penelope eyed the screen displaying the ship’s status, narrowing her red semi-glowing eyes in the low light. “Maybe it dropped them off there?”

“I’m not an expert at what IESA did after we vanished, but I’m almost positive they didn’t,” Rivera said. “Those colonists signed up to make Jacobus their home, and I’m sure Earth wanted that project to move forward. It’s one of the reasons why this ship left Sirius shortly after it arrived; it was just a detour to Kapteyn’s Star.”

“Let us check with the knowledge network,” Eicelea said, her dwarfed body floated high enough to make direct eye contact. It was the only way a Vorcambreum could without standing on a stool. “I’m sure your government shared the details of that vessel with us.”

Rivera nodded. “Good idea—”

“We can’t connect it here!” The feisty Vorcambreum cut in. “So, now that we’ve determined that. Perhaps it is time for us to depart?”

Researching the ship made sense, even though Rivera knew Eicelea was scared and wanted an excuse to leave. Neither of the four was versed with the details of the Gerard Kuiper exactly. The knowledge network or internet, however, was quite versed on everything. Going on a search for missing colonists, when in reality they could have been dropped off in Sirius, was pointless. They needed facts before pushing forward.

Rivera drifted to the communication station. Her quick hands fingered its cold and idle terminal, searching for its QEC command interface. The Gerard Kuiper’s QEC had been deactivated locally and intentionally according to a prompt on the screen.

She was denied six times to reconnect the QEC to the network. Understandable, considering the ship was thought to be destroyed, and its connecting QEC node would have been repurposed. Attempting to access the QEC network was a waste, learning that someone turned it off on purpose, however, wasn’t. She began to wonder if the critical error codes, the last messages the QEC had transmitted, were sent on purpose as well.

Given the extreme remote distance to the rest of the galaxy, it would take years for a standard communication signal to reach anywhere. Revealing what they discovered and searching the knowledge network or the internet for facts, required the four to return to the planet’s surface and back to Takarius via the wormhole. That and Rivera was really tired.

With no further clues to find, the four made plans to leave the bridge and float back to their transport. Rivera took one last fleeting glance at the bridge, and how similar in design it was to the Carl Sagan, wondering if this ship had become a victim to the disappearing act the Draconians pulled on them when they had vanished from Sirius years earlier.

The sound of a weapon powering hummed from behind. It was a soft two-second humming noise. It sounded like an ePistol, a common weapon found in the twenty-first century, the century Rivera was from.

“Who the hell are you?” the voice of a woman called out to the four.

The four spun to face the newcomer who floated up from the captain’s office, directly below the bridge, aiming their pistol at them. They knew the drill and put their hands up to surrender after a second or two of panic.

“I’m from IESA!” Rivera felt beads of sweat roll and float away from her face.

The woman with the pistol floated closer, keeping her hands wrapped around it, and finger close to the trigger. Her long black hair floated wildly like she was taking a swim. Rivera had a hard time figuring out her background, on one hand, she saw Asian features in the woman, but also saw European as well. She wore an IESA uniform, the same type Rivera had worn when she was on the Carl Sagan. The flag of Canada was stitched onto the shoulders of the pistol-wielding woman.

“How did you get on my ship?” the woman asked.

A closer look at the woman’s uniform showed the rank pins of a captain. It made Rivera relax a little. It was the surviving captain defending her ship. She wasn’t there to kill them and take hostages.

“Please, Captain,” Rivera said to the woman. “Just put the gun away. We’re friends, we discovered a transport that belonged to this ship on the surface and rode it up.”

The captain of the Gerard Kuiper lowered her weapon. “IESA, huh?” she asked. “What ship?”

“Name’s Jasmine Rivera. As for ships? I’m kinda in between them at the moment, was on the Carl Sagan, and kinda in the process of transferring to the Johannes Kepler along with its crew.”

“The Carl Sagan?” The captain’s eyes widened, and she made a small grin afterward. “So, you guys finally turned up, huh?” The captain gave Rivera a quick top to bottom look. “Your uniform is different … how long have we been gone for?”

“Well,” Rivera said. “That’s a long story … Captain?”

“Levesque,” the Gerard Kuiper’s captain answered for her. “Captain Alisha Levesque.”

43 Foster

Darkened Corridors

Ethereal Refinery, Interstellar Space

July 19, 2119, 01:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Human instincts. It didn’t matter if you were on Earth or in space. The moment you came across a threat that might act in a way you really didn’t want them to if they heard you, you learned to shut your mouth and stay silent until it passed.

Foster found herself doing that exact thing when she saw the ethereal clouds from the maelstrom spill out into the black star-cluttered void of space from the vortex. She kept radio silent, then drifted through the darkened stations corridors, too bad she never got the chance to tell anyone else what was up. Though the moving silently part was probably unnecessary, the section of the station she was in was still exposed to the vacuum of space. Nobody was going to hear anything, especially if they too were wrapped up in a space suit, or combat armor rated for a spacewalk.

Like the Draconian scout team she saw drifting about.

She counted three Draconian soldiers. They were dressed head to toe in their armor with metallic looking dragon scales, and nightmare-inducing dragon horns at the tops of their helmets. Mounted lights on their tachyon rifles lit the way as they searched for whatever they came back for. The last glance through the windows saw the lone fleet continue to emerge from the vortex. The three Draconians most likely had stayed behind after they hit the station. Then noticed the Kepler arrive and called for backup.

The floating Draconian soldiers hovered in the next room full of tables and chairs spinning above. Foster assumed it was the mess hall for the refinery. Uneaten meals, trays, and Radiance cutlery littered the area, all flung up suddenly when gravity was lost, and the violent chaos began. Had Foster not bumped into a spinning tray, and sent it tumbling into the back of one soldier, she might have been able to follow them further. Instead, the soldier flipped around and highlighted Foster in her EVA suit with the light from his rifle. His finger pointed at her and his head jerked, probably frantically shouting to his friend over their comm line that they had company.

His friends never did get the chance to see what that company was. Foster’s tachyon rifle was already aimed forward. Multiple shots vaporized two of the soldiers. She didn’t have much of a choice, it was them or her. Six brief flashes of blue light cocooned Foster. Her suit’s HUD reported her shields had taken four direct shots to the chest, and two to the head. A warning blared afterward. Her shields had fallen to 13 percent, as the words TAKE COVER flashed on the holographic display.

She ignored it. Taking cover, when floating, was no easy task. Besides, she was too busy lining up the perfect shot against the last remaining Draconian. When she finished pulling the trigger, its body turned to vapor starting from the stomach out. It was like someone took a thin paper napkin and set it on fire with a lighter from the center. It was visible for one second, then not three later.

“Foster to Kepler, end radio silence.”

“Aye, Captain,” Williams’ voice replied over her helmet’s speaker. “Uh, you guys good?”

She floated and drifted ahead of two wide observation windows that were letting in soft red light from the storm in space ahead. The bio-ships of the Draconian fleet were larger, and the fluttering wings of wyverns, while faint, could be seen in the distance.

“Nope!” She shook her head, not that Williams could see it.

“Ah, dragons,” Chang transmitted. “I was really starting to wonder when those assholes would show up.”

“Tolukei, sorry for the silence,” Foster said. “Draconians were still aboard. What’s your status?”

His voice replied after a brief two-second delay. “I have returned to the Kepler with everyone else.”

“You left your captain behind …”

“We couldn’t reach or find you, and assumed the worst when the Draconians arrived,” Tolukei’s voice continued on the comm line. “I had to make a choice.”

As mesmerizing as it was to watch the maelstrom, the fleet of bio-ships, and dragons that weren’t affected by the harness of space, fly in a formation from the windows, it didn’t do Foster any good when it came to her life expectancy. She pushed off the glass, spun her floating body around drifting over the bodies and tables, and made her way back into the corridors. She activated her magnetic boots and made her escape.

“Captain,” EVE’s voice chimed in. “It would appear a vortex to the maelstrom has opened.”

Foster snorted. “You’re very observant, EVE!”

“I have obtained the black box data recorder from the refinery and am currently on the exterior of this station,” EVE said. “I do not have any means of returning to the Kepler. My unit here will be damaged or destroyed should the wyverns or weapons fire come in contact with it.”

Foster was about to ask how close the threat to EVE was when she felt soft vibrations along the hull of the station. If she were to guess, the nearest Draconian ships dropped off a boarding party, and probably a few wyverns to circle about. She hoped she was wrong, very, very wrong. Combat during a spacewalk was not something she was qualified for.

“Hang tight, EVE, I’m comin’ for ya!” Foster said as she made her way to the airlock. “Tolukei, meet us on the refinery exterior!”

Her natural human instincts wanted to scream as she looked out the opened airlock doors. Ahead was the growing storm in space and its bio-ships still closing the distance, and below was what seemed like a bottomless pit full of stars. Every sense in her body told her she’d fall if she took another step forward out the airlock.

But she knew better. She knew the magnetic boots were making her body think there was still gravity pulling on her, she knew she could just as easily walk on the exterior walls of the refinery. She was in space, there was no up or down. Falling down into the abyss wasn’t her fear. It was getting knocked off the station while her boots had nothing to cling to.

An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. It was Newton’s first law in motion. And the scourge of wyverns circling the station, and the Draconian soldiers walking on its exterior with their magnetic boots, were the objects that had the power to push Foster off and make her drift away. The thought was terrifying, forcing her to take several deep breaths before she continued, and slowly marched in the direction of EVE’s signal. It kept her mind off the fact tachyon beam strikes from the nearing Draconian fleet could end her if they hit the station, and the fact many of those beams were directed at the Kepler.

“Williams, have Chang take cover behind the refinery,” Foster transmitted. “I don’t think they want it destroyed, use it as a barricade.”

“Understood.”

Standing on the exterior of the refinery allowed her to see the Kepler in action for once on the outside. Chang’s skills as a trained fighter pilot were at work, steering the Kepler to make quick, evasive moves. Hard turns to the left and a dive saw it escape from six white-hot beams of tachyon fire, while three beams made the Kepler’s overshield ripple with purple waves.

Weapons fire from the Draconian fleet let up after two minutes when the Kepler pulled itself behind the station, using it as cover. Foster was right, they didn’t want the station destroyed. There was something valuable on it to them. Or someone. The black box EVE carried no doubt had those answers. Foster continued the slow drag of her magnetic boots across the refinery hull to the location of the lone android.

Four minutes into her trek and she saw the bio-ship fleet fan out in various directions, all looking to reposition themselves to reacquire the Kepler as a target from an angle that wouldn’t damage the station. Time was ticking away. EVE needed to be recovered ASAP, and the Kepler needed to not be in the sector anymore.

Foster stood at the edge of the refinery where an explosive blast had split it in two from the previous assault. Mangled wires and debris spun aimlessly as she looked at the second half of the station where EVE was seen making her escape. From Foster’s point of view, EVE was walking upside down on the exterior of the second half of the refinery.

Bolts of white light flashed near EVE. Foster made out two, maybe three Draconian soldiers taking aim at her. They didn’t see Foster’s rifle rise to aim at them. The vaporization of their bodies ended at the waist, while their magnetic boots remained clinging to the hull. The soldiers that sought to end EVE were now just pairs of legs still standing.

A bunch of legs, seemingly standing with no upper body attached, wasn’t the frightening thing, however. It was when Foster had to make the leap off the one half of the refinery she stood on, and float over to the next. She had to deactivate her magnetic boots, use her EVA suit’s jets to send her upward, then hope she could spin her body around fast enough to reactivate the boots and get a grip on the second half of the station before she bounced off it and drifted off into space.

Foster wanted to cheer when she felt her boots cling to its surface after the leap and float across was complete. But she knew her recent actions only attracted the attention of the remaining soldiers and patrolling wyverns. The countdown to bad things happening jumped ahead a few minutes.

“Tolukei, where the hell are ya?!” Foster frantically cried out.

There was no reply at first while Foster used a small communication array as cover when four Draconian soldiers marched into view. The weapons exchange between her and the four went on without end. It was a gunfight during a spacewalk, her training as an explorer did not cover that topic. Foster was forced to drift to new cover when the one she hid behind melted into slag from repeated tachyon shots.

Tolukei made a late-as-hell appearance midway into the fray. His hovering presence made him look like he was a floating sorcerer. His cybernetically augmented chest glowed blue, and the cables and parts that covered his fists turned orange, conjuring purple orbs of plasma. Tolukei hurled the orbs of psionic plasma at the Draconians below him. His psionic barrier flashed purple in retaliation by those that weren’t vaporized by his powers, and the wyverns that swooped in with psionic plasma spraying out their mouths. Tolukei was drawing their fire, and it allowed Foster to move closer to EVE.

Two soldiers were knocked into space and tumbled aimlessly from telekinetic pushes delivered by Tolukei. Foster pointed and laughed at their flailing arms and legs, until one of them faced the hull, aimed their arm at it, and fired a grappling hook. The tumbling Draconians were back on their feet and shooting at Tolukei, Foster, and EVE. Foster stop laughing and pointing at that moment.

Knocking them off into space wasn’t going to help, if anything, it made the battle more complex. Drifting soldiers gained a height advantage, taking aim at Foster or EVE who remained on the hull, and then used the grappling hooks to stabilize themselves. Some soldiers used the large hulks of debris orbiting them as cover. It was a tricky battle with way too many things to account for. Swooping wyverns, Draconian soldiers that might drift up above Foster, all while making sure Foster herself didn’t drift away when the refinery’s hull started to come apart below her feet, thanks to missed tachyon shots.

She needed fewer things to worry about. Looking up, she found a means to make that happen. A Draconian soldier floated behind a large piece of flesh, probably the remains of a bio-ship that didn’t survive the first ambush. The soldier behind the floating flesh aimed his rifle at the Javnis psionic waving his hands about, continuing to unleash his psionic light show. Foster cut her magnetic boots and fired her jets. She blasted off aiming her body in the direction of the fleshy hulk, blindsiding the Draconian soldier behind it with the butt of her rifle. A zero-g fistfight broke out.

It didn’t last long, however, when Foster felt her body get warm with her tattoos attempting to interface with the Draconian’s armor. With her mind at one with the Draconian’s armor, she forced it to disable all safety protocols, and the helmet to loosen and open. Dragons might be able to thrive in space, but their half-dragon brothers? Not so much.

With the Draconian soldier’s body now permanently adrift in space, Foster removed its grappling hook and then grabbed her rifle. She felt her tattoos link with the device, and it automatically merged with her EVA suit’s right wrist. She now had the advantage the soldiers had. It made her smile. Foster took the grappling hook for a test run, shooting it at floating metallic debris ahead of her.

The device magnetically clung to the hulk of metal, and retracted, pulling her to it. She liked it. Foster used the debris as cover, took aim with her tachyon rifle, and sniped the various unsuspecting soldiers below. When a wyvern put Foster in their sights, she let the hook yank her body away from the torrent of wyvern plasma breath, taking cover behind another spinning hulk of metal. She liked that too.

Had the situation not been as dire, she might have tried to communicate with the wyvern like she had with a drake, using her tattoos’ powers. Convincing a wyvern to protect and fly with her would have been bad ass. Maybe next time.

“Tolukei, get to EVE,” Foster said over the comm line. “I’ll cover you.”

His voice replied back. “Are you sure that is a safe idea?”

She held up her wrist that had the hook attached to it, not that Tolukei could see. Foster had been bouncing about all over the place to the point where he had no idea where she was.

“I’ll be fine if I get knocked off,” she said.

Tolukei folded his arms across his chest, shutting all four of his lizard eyes. Blue light enveloped him and turned him into a quick-moving stream of psionic energy landing behind EVE. Tolukei’s appearance reformed seconds later, casting a protective purple barrier around him and EVE. His timing was perfect as three wyverns came to swoop down, green waves of plasma leaving their mouths, forcing the barrier to flash and ripple its beautiful lavender colors.

Large shadows darkened the hull of the refinery, blocking out the red and magenta light from the maelstrom and its flickering thunderbolts. Foster saw the source of it as she looked up. The Draconian fleet was over top of them, dispersing the organic drop pods Draconian soldiers were known to pull themselves out from once they landed. Other ships adding to the darkening horizon spewed out dozens of wyverns.

Time was up.

Her rifle rose to shoot at the wyverns that were focused on shattering Tolukei’s psionic barrier. The fewer things trying to kill him, the easier it would be for him to teleport them to safety. Bad enough the newly arrived soldiers were seconds away, shooting.

When it became clear to the wyverns and soldiers that the only one shooting at them was Foster, they ignored Tolukei and EVE. Foster, not so much. She found herself back on the hull of the refinery thanks to the hook. The floating metal she had used as cover turned into red glowing slag a second later.

There was a bright flash, visible from the corner of her helmet’s visor. Tolukei must have escaped with EVE. Her HUD reported EVE’s signal had changed location, she was aboard the Kepler. Now it was Foster’s turn to be rescued.

“Tolukei,” she said in a panic. “Any time now!”

Foster retreated as far as she could get from the horde of Draconians and the randomly dropping pods of flesh around her. Everyone wanted a piece of her. The extra mobility her captured grappling hook gave her denied them that as she used it to pull herself closer to a source of cover or pull her out of range of an attack she couldn’t evade.

A streak of blue light flashed, and Tolukei’s presence appeared. A telekinetic pull forced Foster into his embrace, and then the two became blue energy vanishing from sight. Four seconds later, so Foster guessed, as it was impossible to tell the passage of time when your body was psionically taken apart atom by atom, then quickly put back together. The two rematerialized from the quick jump port and appeared inside the refinery, safe from the threat outside. There was enough darkness and silence that covered the two for Tolukei to focus his mind, making his implants glow with blue light and teleport the two off the refinery.

When the bright light that covered Foster’s eyes vanished, she saw the various metal crates and the lone transport that remained idle inside of the Kepler’s cargo bay.

“All aboard?” she asked Tolukei.

He nodded. “Yes.”

“Bridge, we’s good,” Foster said. “Get us out of here!”

The Johannes Kepler maneuvered away from the refinery. Its overshields flickered purple as the ship ate a barrage of tachyon fire from the bio-ship fleet. The Kepler positioned itself opposite of the growing maelstrom behind, shining its light on the sector, and then vanished from sight with a dive into the ethereal fissure the remains of the refinery was orbiting, leaving the dragons and their bio-ship fleet behind.

And the questions as to what they were doing in Radiance space that was so important that they couldn’t risk destroying that one particular refinery.

44 Saressea

Tribunal Halls

Vinpavis, Talsyk, Avalon System

July 19, 2119, 01:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Avalon system was studied heavily by the young Radiance Union when it only consisted of the Aryile and Javnis races. The system, in reality, was a binary system with two bright white stars. However, unlike most binary systems, where there was a considerable amount of distance between the pair, the twin stars of Avalon shared an orbit so close to each other, those looking at it from telescopes would have argued it was just one star. It took thirteen days for the stars to make a complete orbit around each other. The twin stars of Alpha Centauri, known as Lejorania to the people in Radiance, took eighty years to complete an orbit.

Radiance came to the system to study this rare star, not the Rabuabin civilization on the planet Talsyk, one of its orbiting planets, though, they ended up doing that as well when it was discovered. Saressea wondered if the brief view of Talsyk in orbit she saw, when she was escorted in cuffs to a transport, was the same one the early Radiance explorers saw when they took a break from studying the star.

By the time the transport she was forced on came to a landing near the tribunal halls in the city of Vinpavis, it was the pearl hour. Nobody remembered why it was called that, probably because the stars of Avalon looked like a massive white gleaming pearl in the skies, shining white light across the planet’s surface experiencing daylight.

Pearl hour was a special time of the day to the Rabuabin. Talsyk had most of its solid land on one side of the planet, while the opposite end of the world was covered in an expansive ocean. Pearl hour meant that the rotation of the planet got to the point where 100 percent of all solid land was seeing some form of daylight, while the rest of the planet, which was experiencing night, were the oceans, nothing else.

Because all of Talsyk’s land mass was clustered together on one half of the planet, it took the Rabuabin centuries longer, when compared to humans, to discover their world was round. The Rabuabin that tried to sail across the oceans never returned, leading to rumors that they fell off the edge of the planet. In reality, the oceans were way too big for wooden sailboats to cross with the limited stores of food they could bring.

The city of Vinpavis was located in the mountains, all Rabuabin cities on the planet were. The sight of a sprawling metropolis that covered the sides, insides, and tops of arching high mountains always made human tourists lose their minds. Saressea overheard a tour guide explain to a group of humans, as she was escorted away from the starport, the origins of the mountain cities. The tour guide reminded her of the lectures her school teachers gave her in the classrooms located out in grassy fields.

In the early days, Rabuabin only left the mountains to hunt or gather food. Floods from hurricanes were the leading causes of death among Rabuabin. The size of the ocean allowed hurricanes to grow to sizes that were two to three times more devastating than what hurricanes on Earth could deliver. If the storms didn’t kill the Rabuabin, then the destruction of livestock and farms did after the hurricanes left the region. It’s the sole reason why monitoring and celebrating the changes in the seasons was important to Rabuabin, knowing when hurricanes were coming to batter the world led to longer lives for everyone.

Because of that, it didn’t take a lot of convincing for the Rabuabin people to accept the word of the Radiance Gods when the Union’s ships landed and made first contact. Radiance offered them a means to travel the stars, and escape from the deadly hurricanes or build structures that could withstand them. Just build temples, get on your knees and pray, and Radiance will handle the rest with the blessing of the Gods.

Praying was something Saressea wished the armored Templars behind her would let her do. She was on her way to a tribunal and spent the last couple of months giving the Gods radio silence. The least they could have done, as far as she was concerned, was allow her to have a quick one on one session with the men in the Hallowed Nebula now she was ready to talk.

She thought she got her wish after they entered the generously lit tribunal halls and she was pushed into an empty room. She was still chained at the legs and wrists when she approached a small desk with a Rabuabin man sitting at it. His back was turned to her as he read various holo screens.

She cleared her throat, and the man spun in his chair looking up at her. His hair was soft and light brown, and his hands and arms were dressed in cybernetics. He was a psionic from what she could tell, and an old one at that, judging by the type of implants he had. Celestial Order war era, just like Tolukei.

He offered her a chair. The only place she was able to sit at for the past couple of months was the bed in her cell and the prison ferry mess hall chairs. Byikanea was always around whenever she got comfortable sitting, waiting to do something to her body. Saressea felt safer standing.

“Za Saressea,” the man said, reading what she guessed was her dossier via a holo screen. “You are the only child of Tessei and Ryliea. Born and raised here on Talsyk, happy pearl hour by the way.” The man continued scrolling through the contents of the flickering screen. “You left Talsyk to pursue a career in space, working in the Union Navy as a combat engineer. Is that correct?”

“Well,” she said slowly with a smirk. “Someone did their homework.”

“I’m with the Whisper, I have to,” he said. “My name is Michei. I hope you don’t mind if I ask you more questions?”

“Knock yourself out, pal,” Saressea said. “The longer you do, the longer it takes for the tribunal to start.”

“I don’t have many, actually,” Michei said. “Your life and career are pretty straight forward, too straight forward if you ask me.”

“Why’s that?”

“Given your age and the time you spent in the Navy, you should have had at least one encounter with the Celestial Order.”

“I got lucky, spent most of my time at the edge of Radiance space, far away from what is now Earth controlled territory. You know?”

“Some of those planets are hundreds of light-years away.”

“Yeah and?”

“FTL technology has been around for about fifty years,” Michei said, and reached for his tea sitting at the edge the desk. She could go for one herself, it had a sweet scent. “The ships in some of those colonies are only now receiving FTL updated ships. How did you make it to Amicitia Station 14 to become part of the Kepler’s testing team so fast?”

“You know, some remote colonies built their FTL drives from scratch, right? Psionics gave them step-by-step telepathic instructions.”

On that note of scratch, she wanted to scratch an itch behind her left horn, and then realized the chains that bound her wouldn’t allow it. It made her tail twitch with frustration.

“Like the Degar system?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Michei sipped his drink reclining back, allowing his tail hanging off the edge of his chair to relax. “What ship were you on, Saressea?”

It took her a while to recall the name of it as she felt her tongue brush up and down the inside of her left cheek. Referring back to her HNI wasn’t an option since the slave collar rendered it inactive still. She had to rely on her two hundred plus-year-old memory.

“The Abyssal Circle.”

She saw him wave his hand, creating a new holo screen and keyboard. His fingers typing away brought up, what she suspected, was a listing of the Abyssal Circle’s records.

“Which was nowhere near that system according to this,” Michei revealed. “And about the Degar system? That was a system that didn’t build FTL drives from scratch as they lacked resources or trained personnel. The Degar system was stuck with sub light drives until FTL capable ships delivered what they needed. Two years ago.”

“I was on the Abyssal Circle before coming to Amicitia Station 14,” Saressea reiterated.

“Sure, you were,” Michei said mockingly, and she was 90 percent sure there was a smile spreading across his face. “Who are you? Really? Engineering takes years of training and education, even combat engineer rangers.”

“Which I have.”

“Who was the name of your first-year instructor?”

Saressea couldn’t answer. The names and faces of those she went to school with, almost two hundred years ago, was a blur. Her HNI might have those answers, but again, with it disabled all she had was fuzzy faces and names so vague, even if you were to say it to her, she still wouldn’t remember.

Out from Michei’s side pocket came an oversize data crystal. There were several long and sharp prongs sticking out of it. He placed it ahead of him on the desk and then pointed at it. “You know what this is, right?”

She looked at the crystal, thankful she was at least able to remember that it was a Whisper memory crystal, used to insert fake memories into a body. She nodded with a smirk. “Yeah, I heard Maraschino got hold of your toys. Wait. Is that what this is about? You want to know if Pierce told me something that wasn’t mentioned in our reports?”

Michei’s cybernetic hands folded while he leaned forward. “What did he tell you?”

“That Maraschino uses those memory crystals to back up their memories before going on a dangerous mission.”

“And?”

“And …” she paused fighting for the right words to use. “He thinks his memories and the Carl Sagan’s crew were erased using memory data crystals like that.”

“The implication being, we were responsible for Foster and her crew for losing their memories after they vanished from Sirius, months after they defeated Marduk.”

She shrugged, and the chains binding her made jingling sounds. “I was light-years away from Sirius when that happened.”

Michei’s eyes covered with tiny holo screens that looked like black-and gold-colored rectangles and squares. He was closely examining HNI files he didn’t want her to see via larger holo screens. Silence fell upon the two for six minutes. Michei wasn’t just checking files. He was transmitting and receiving data, perhaps a lengthy private communication with another Whisper operative.

When he was done with all that, he put the crystal away and said, “My mistake, sorry for wasting your time, I thought you were someone else.”

He stood up from his chair, calling for the Templars to take her away.

“Wait,” Saressea said to him when she felt the armored grip of two men pull at her arms from behind. “Wait, what do you mean, Michei?”

“You aren’t who I’m looking for,” Michei said. “A shame really, I could have had this tribunal canceled and you set free. If you do remember something, contact me before it’s too late.”

The Templars escorting her back into the halls were quick, making Michei’s idle body standing behind the desk vanish from her point of view. She looked down at her reflection on the polished tiles. Her wincing face, free of makeup and jewelry on her horns looked back. She wanted to ask the woman in the reflection, what was the meeting about?

Did Michei believe she was an operative with programmed fake memories? No, it wasn’t possible, Saressea remembered her past life. She had vivid memories of the sights, sounds, smells, and emotional bonds, everything that happened from her childhood to now. Just being on Talsyk had triggered past memories of her being a school girl, fake Whisper memories weren’t that exact.

This had to have been about Doctor Pierce and his suspicion the Whisper removed the Carl Sagan’s memories, and that the Maraschino hacker, Penelope, was in possession of the Whispers’ prized tech.

What really bothered Saressea the most when she asked a question to the woman in the floor’s reflection looking up at her. Was why couldn’t she remember the name of the university she got her engineering education from?

Or how did the Abyssal Circle deliver her to this region of space via FTL a decade ago when it only received FTL upgrades two years ago.

45 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

July 19, 2119, 03:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler cleared the fissure and was once again thrown into the gaseous clouds of the Hallowed Nebula. When no signs that the Draconians followed them through the fissure, the Kepler vanished in a flash of light as it’s FTL drive powered on.

EVE had gone to work on studying the contents of the refinery data recorder the moment she, Foster, and Tolukei made it back. It didn’t take her long to discover vital data within it.

Foster never returned to the bridge when she learned that. She threw her EVA suit in the corner, climbed up the ladder in the cargo bay, and went for the elevator, demanding that Odelea come with her. Foster wanted answers and she wanted them before she sat down with Armuzei and that woman he called a Nephilim, who were both brought to sickbay for observation. That and Kostelecky had to be awakened from her sleep to tend to them. Kostelecky sounded really pissed over the comm line. Foster needed to avoid sickbay for the next ten minutes.

Foster asked Odelea to let her into her quarters to talk, away from Jainuzei’s ears. Odelea yawned when they entered, she’d never adjusted to the twenty-four-hour cycles humans used, still clinging to the nineteen-day cycles of Aervounis. It was rare for Odelea to be ready for sleep when the human crew was, like now. The door to her quarters shut behind them and killed the light from the corridor beyond, covering them in darkness, until Odelea switched on the lights from a wall terminal.

Warm, humid air moistened Foster’s body the longer she remained in her quarters. It made her wipe away the sweat that was growing on her forehead. It had to have been at least 30 degrees Celsius.

Data pads, crystals, and the odd book made a mess of Odelea’s floor. The walls were decorated with pictures of Aervounis’ sun setting from the surface of the planet, and university degrees from the various educational facilities Odelea had attended when she was younger.

“Odelea,” Foster said to her. “You still got a copy of the data crystal’s contents Karklosea had, right?”

“Yes, Captain,” she replied, nodding.

“Open it up.”

“What’s this about?”

“It’s about what EVE whispered to me.”

From a drawer in her coffee table, Odelea pulled out the bloodstained data crystal and inserted into her personal computer that was part of her desk, sitting next to decorative plants. Her personal computer recognized her presence and activated automatically, shining holographic light across her face.

The files that appeared on the holo screen had padlocked icons, heavily encrypted files. Not much progress had been made over the last eight months they had it. It was time to change that.

“Everything is still encrypted,” Odelea said with a yawn.

Foster smirked. “EVE, you reading this?”

“Yes, Captain,” EVE’s voice replied over the speakers. “It would appear that I am correct, the refinery’s data recorder also received backup files created by the SOM personnel onboard.”

“EVE might have come across the decryption codes of the data crystal,” Foster said.

“Ah, I see why the secrecy then,” Odelea said.

“Jainuzei can’t know this,” Foster said. “Not after what we know of him and how I saw him react when we were aboard the refinery.”

Odelea brought up all the encrypted files on the data crystal, making their holographic icons spin slowly. “This should be everything, EVE,” Odelea said. “Let’s see what they contain.”

The padlock icons vanished, and the files and their secrets were decrypted. Reports and holo diagrams appeared with words written in the Radiance language. Odelea scanned them quickly with her eyes and translated.

“Most of this is inventory the cult was keeping track of,” Odelea revealed. “And secret funds for their operations.”

“Funds,” Foster said, wincing at the projection showing the multi-million credit balances the group had. “So, they weren’t operating alone.”

“An outside source was funneling credits to them,” Odelea said. “Unfortunately, this is just a copy of the reports. We have no way of backtracking and checking where it came from or who sent it.”

“What about all the stuff about the nebula? Why is it important to them?”

Odelea double tapped an icon at the bottom of the holo screen’s list. A three-dimensional projection of the majestic and holy nebula rotated before the two women.

“Not much else, just the facts we already know. They have a map of the nebula, star charts, and that there’s something called Kur within the center of it, beyond the barrier we encounter—” Odelea paused suddenly, leaning her face closer to the holo screen.

She accessed a new projection, it was a ship, a gigantic one that easily dwarfed the size of the larger dreadnaughts the Empire and Union had ever made. Neither of the two recognized the strange design of the ship.

“This is Kur,” Odelea said. “Kur is a ship.”

“EVE does the specifications of the ship, Kur, match anything in your database?” Foster asked.

“Scanning data and cross-referencing, please standby,” EVE said, then replied three seconds later. “Negative, there are no records of anyone in the UNE, Empire, or Union encountering a ship of this design.”

“The Hallowed Nebula is supposed to be home to the Gods,” Odelea said. “Perhaps … this is a ship that served them?”

“Or Lyonria,” Foster said. “Ain’t nobody seen their ships intact.”

“There is another list of decryption codes I found on the data recorder,” EVE said. “Would you like me to show them to you?”

Odelea yawned and said. “Yes please, EVE.”

The final file was unlocked. It contained a list of schematics, blueprints, and holographic notes made by Saressea.

Odelea’s fatigued face looked at the screen with her arms crossed as its blue and white light shined on her young face. “The vortex key specs?”

Foster made a fierce scowl at the projection. “Well, son of a bitch,” she grunted.

“According to this, the SOM wanted to build one as well,” Odelea said. “These look like Saressea’s files too, every single one of them.”

Confirming Odelea’s suspicions, she played what appeared to be recorded HNI video seen from Saressea’s point of view. She was in the Kepler’s engineering, pulling apart the vortex key, and then retreating rapidly when tentacles reached out to her. One of the tentacles pulled her tail when she had turned her back to it.

“How would the SOM have these files?” Odelea said, reclining back on her chair.

Foster put it together quickly. She remembered the last day Saressea was aboard, and that she refused to save her updated files about the vortex key into the Kepler’s computers out of fear Maraschino would hack it. She kept everything saved in her HNI and had made plans to back them up to a data crystal at the end of the night. Only, she never returned to the Kepler, she was arrested, right when the threat of the SOM was made apparent.

“Someone copied the contents of Saressea’s HNI,” Foster said.

“That’s to be expected, the files on it would be used as evidence for her tribunal,” Odelea said. “But …”

“But what was stopping someone high up in Radiance sending a copy of it to the cult? Hell, Saressea’s arrest might have been planned to steal the files from the very start. This was a setup Odelea.”

“It couldn’t have been the council though,” Odelea said. “They were attacked by the SOM.”

“Yeah, and then Jainuzei showed up miraculously, claiming to magically know where the group was hiding, he’s now conveniently our new liaison officer, and wants this data crystal. Then he did something to a drone that boarded us that forced the Kepler through that fissure.”

The evidence stacking against Jainuzei grew larger. The enemy walked among the crew of the Kepler. It was a very disturbing thought when factoring in they were alone once again in the nebula with no means of receiving help.

Odelea continued, this time accessing the newly recovered data files EVE obtained from the refinery. The Soldiers of Marduk’s were planning to construct their own vortex key, and the refinery they took over was to be the source of that. Video logs loaded, illustrating the group’s newfound ability to send signals through the ethereal fissures, and direct them to the maelstrom, luring Draconians to them. It was confirmation that Odelea was right, the fissures connection to aether space and the maelstrom were one and the same. Using the maelstrom as a means of travel meant traveling through one of the layers of aether space.

The refinery had defense drones brought aboard. The purpose of the drones was to attack a Charybdis ship, board it, and take the device that would serve as the foundation for building their own vortex key. Doing so would have caused the Draconian fleet to withdraw like past encounters the UNE, Empire, and Union discovered. The Charybdis was the Draconians’ entrance and exit into the maelstrom, losing it meant the fleet would be stuck in whichever sector they ended up in.

The group hoped that the drones disabling a Charybdis would make the Draconian flee, leaving the refinery alone to build a vortex key with Saressea’s files. After that, according to the data logs, the plan was to enter the maelstrom and bypass the Hallowed Nebula energy barrier, entering its core. At the center of the core, was the alien ship Kur.

“Clearly, their plan to build a vortex key while repelling a Draconian attack failed,” Foster said.

“Armuzei had pushed their plans ahead prematurely,” Odelea translated as the video log continued. “One of his psionics received a telepathic communication from elsewhere in the Union. Something about ruins being discovered on the Javnis homeworld. Armuzei and his team on the refinery weren’t ready, nor did they have enough drones operational, but he insisted that they acted right away. The ruins on the Javnis homeworld changed everything.”

“What I’d like to know is,” Foster said. “If they had succeeded, who in the hell was gonna use the key? Obviously not me since they want to avenge Marduk.”

“I think we both know who could answer that, Captain.”

Foster and Odelea stood next to the medical bed Armuzei recovered on in sickbay. Jainuzei joined the two from behind, it couldn’t be avoided. He had been searching for the two ever since Foster pulled Odelea away from the bridge. After viewing the contents of the data crystal at last, plus the refinery’s black box data recorder, Foster could understand why.

Jainuzei was either a member of the group or was plotting something else that required him to know what the cult was doing.

“Jainuzei, what’s up?” Foster asked, playing dumb.

“This is part of my investigation, Captain,” Jainuzei said. “We have one of the leaders of the SOM in captivity. I must interrogate him and report my findings to the council.”

“Well since I was here before you,” Foster said. “I’m gonna ask the questions first, if you don’t mind.”

“I do mind, Foster.”

She waved him off. Foster was the captain, not him, and the gold-faced Javnis man recovering on the medical bed ahead, more or less painted a target on Foster, amongst other things.

Foster nodded to the pregnant Doctor Kostelecky. She was due soon, and that didn’t make Foster feel comfortable knowing the ship could be placed in grave danger at a moment’s notice. She admired Kostelecky for sticking with the team, regardless.

Kostelecky injected a device into Armuzei’s neck, pumping him full of chems that revived the sedated two eyed Javnis. From what Foster was told Armuzei went into a frenzy when he realized he was brought aboard the Kepler. Miles had to be brought in to hold him down while Kostelecky sedated him.

By the time Armuzei awoke, he looked up at everyone, laughing in a conceited manner.

“Rise and shine, buttercup,” Foster said to Armuzei.

“Rebecca Foster,” Armuzei said with his broken English. “You killed the king of Gods, Marduk. You, you face punishment soon, human!”

Armuzei continued laughing. Jainuzei grabbed him by the collar, forcing his face to stare at him. “Do we amuse you, Javnis?” Jainuzei said.

“Jainuzei,” Armuzei spat. “You look good for, dead man, eh? You Celestial Order favorite soldier boy, no?”

Jainuzei muttered a curse in the native Aryile language. “I’m not with them!—”

“Anymore!” Armuzei finished.

“I was never a member!”

“Who the fuck you fooling, Jainuzei?” Armuzei raged. “I should be the one that says that.”

“You, Dienei, Byikanea …” Jainuzei said. “You were all exiled for your links to the Order.”

“Hey, Jainuzei,” Kostelecky said to him. “You finished man-handling my patient?” She pointed at the fact he was still holding onto Armuzei’s collar. He gritted his flat teeth and released him.

“Lies, all lies” Armuzei said. “We three innocent!”

“They’re all gone, you know,” Jainuzei said. “Marrea, Dienei are dead, and Byikanea is probably on her way to prison or execution.”

“You went and did it after all, huh?” Armuzei said, his two remaining Javnis eyes staring up at Jainuzei. “Kill off our leadership, even Marrea. You make me supreme ruler now you know? Should I fear you, or thank you?”

Jainuzei looked away. There was a hint of sorrow in his eyes. “I had unwanted help, Marrea …”

Foster cut in at that point while Jainuzei was emotionally distracted. She did say she was going to ask questions first.

“You were trying to lure the Draconians to the refinery,” Foster asked. “How did you know the ethereal fissures could connect with the maelstrom?”

“Odelea figured that out after the dragons show up,” Armuzei said. “She never followed up on it. Souyila did since they own the refineries.”

And from there, someone leaked the intel to the Soldiers of Marduk. “We know you were planning to build a vortex key of your own,” she asked. “How did you get Saressea’s files?”

“Foster,” Jainuzei said to her slowly. “How do you know this?”

She ignored him and pressed on with the interrogation. “Where were you planning to go with it? And who was going to operate it for you?”

“Divine Expanse, and the Hallowed Nebula in it,” Armuzei shifted his face, looking at Jainuzei standing next to her. “You could have asked Jainuzei, he knew that. He also would have told you we had the Nephilim, the last objective in our quest.”

Foster glanced at the other end of sickbay, where the girl they brought aboard from the refinery with Armuzei recovered. “All righty, pal don’t leave us hangin’, go on, tell us more. I promise not to tell the Gods on y’all.”

“The Gods,” Armuzei snorted. “They don’t listen to prayers. If I’m going to pray to silent Gods, it will be Marduk. At least there’s proof he existed, and when we done, he’s gonna come back from dead, fuck you up good, Foster.”

She rolled her eyes, folding her arms across her chest. “Right, buddy.”

“If you smart, you’ll let me go, eh?” Armuzei said. “Like it or not, Marduk or Tiamat will see their return soon. Get me and Nephilim to Kur and we prevent Tiamat’s return. Maybe I put in good word to Marduk. Spare you when he returns. Keep me here, and Tiamat will fuck us all.”

A dreadful silence fell on everyone, while the heart monitors, medical equipment, and air recyclers continued on as if no unbelievable information had been revealed.

“And that girl resting in the corner there is the key to it all?” Foster asked.

“That Nephilim? Yes,” Armuzei said. “You want to save lives? Make sure Draconians never capture her alive.”

“What about the ruins on the Javnis homeworld?” Odelea asked. Foster was glad for that, as she had completely forgotten about it.

“That’s where all Muodiry were created. I going to be one too when I get there.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“A gift for Marduk when he returns,” Armuzei said with a smirk, looking up at the ceiling. “He’ll need a new body. Me going to offer mine to him.”

Jainuzei sighed, shaking his head, and moved away. “This is nonsense, I have nothing more to say.”

“That’s a shame, Jainuzei,” Armuzei said. “You could have told her who was going to use the vortex key.”

Foster looked back at Jainuzei. “How would he know?”

“Because he one of us!”

Jainuzei cursed again in the Aryile language, with balled up fists. “Your lies bore me, Javnis.”

“This man joined our cause when he discovered the Marduk Poniga tribes like the rest of us,” Armuzei said.

Jainuzei crossed his arms and gazed at the smooth walls of sickbay and asked, “If I was a member of the SOM, then why would I slay your members and leaders and rescue the council?”

“That’s a good question,” Armuzei said, grimacing. “You were the first to join us. And the first to turn your back on us.”

The agitation in Jainuzei’s voice was of a guilty man that got called out, stumbled, and fell in his own complex web of lies. The story also perfectly matched Bailey’s story and the one Karklosea told. Finally, everything made sense. Jainuzei was a former member of the group. Something happened, and now he was seeking revenge. The data crystal, and refinery, Jainuzei must have been worried that someone mentioned his name, revealed that he was once a member of the Celestial Order turned SOM fighter, before splitting with all groups and went rogue.

Jainuzei was either a useful weapon to defeat the group or a ticking time bomb that would end the Kepler.

46 Saressea

Tribunal Halls

Vinpavis, Talsyk, Avalon System

July 19, 2119, 03:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Radiance justice system was always mocked by humans. Funny considering few humans mocked the Imperial ways, where you were guilty until your beheading. At least in Radiance, there was still a system to determine if one should be set free or punished. Saressea was about to experience the system humans laughed about.

She stood in the center of the tribunal room, wearing the same Radiance prisoner jumpsuit, with hands and legs bound. The layout wasn’t different from the one she stood in back on Aervounis for her pre-tribunal, only this time, the stakes were real. Whatever judgment came from this would be final.

Radiance tribunals were in some way popularity contests. Her advocate and high-ranking enforcer presented their evidence first. Both sides created elaborate holograms to help illustrate the arguments they made, telling a dramatic reenactment how both sides thought things happened and to show evidence. The public was invited to watch in the audience, like it was a theater, especially for big cases like Saressea. Drone cameras floated overhead recording everything, broadcasting it throughout the planet and system for those that couldn’t attend.

As the advocate and enforcer bickered and argued, flaunting their holographic recreations, two judicators oversaw the tribunal. One judicator represented the highest rank of the Templars, and another who spoke for the Radiance religion authority, to ensure what happened during the tribunal would not upset the Gods.

The crowd in the audience was free to cheer or boo. Those watching the broadcast were free to transmit, via HNI, their approval or disapproval in what they saw. The audience played a major role in determining one’s fate. Red-handed criminals were known to be set free or given lighter sentences because the crowd cheered them, regardless of the evidence brought against them. No need to spark public outrage or riots because a person was sent to prison when the public believed they were set up or the criminal acts they committed were justified.

Saressea’s fate was about to be placed in the hands of the judicators and the public watching. Radiance tribunals system was a popularity contest. The Earth justice system was not. The Hashmedai had no system. Humans laughed at the Radiance system because they had a system to be laughed at.

The enforcer stepped forward silencing the crowd with their hands raised. The tribunal was in session. Everyone wanted to hear the story of Saressea, the careless former liaison officer of the Kepler that took command of the ship to kill humans not allied with the Terran Legion during the battle at Taxah.

He made his case when the room darkened, giving better contrast to the holographic reenactment his HNI displayed. It felt like being an invisible third party, standing on the bridge of the Kepler during the moment when Saressea had been in command, and then back to the city of Vinpavis where she grew up, and various other jobs, ships, and bases Saressea worked on in her youth as the hologram changed.

The holograms painted her as a rebellious woman that had sex with her teachers to get passing grades and was not qualified to be in command of the Kepler during a combat situation when faced with human targets. The transmission Foster made with her wrist terminal when she was held captive on the Marcus Antonius, the lead Terran flagship that was leading the attack at Taxah played. Foster ordered Saressea to withdraw. She didn’t listen.

By the time the enforcer’s projection was over, Saressea was portrayed as a stubborn hot-headed woman that disobeyed orders to show off her abilities, taking the Kepler into a deadly combat situation. Adding to that, it was brought up that Foster in the end, with the aid of EDF and a Maraschino hacker, managed to end the conflict without the need of Saressea to storm in.

The only thing the Kepler needed to do was relay data and then get close enough for Foster and her team to teleport aboard safely, which was what ended up happening. The assault against the UNE fighters was pointless and had the potential to draw Radiance into a conflict as predicted by the council.

The crowd booed furiously at the projection to Saressea’s surprise. The boos weren’t aimed at her, they were at the enforcer. The crowd hated the negative way Saressea was portrayed. It gave her hope.

She looked back at the crowd that had her back, while her advocate stepped up to play their holograms and make their arguments. She saw Michei stand within the crowd, watching. His augmented arms were behind his back and his facial expression neutral. She had a feeling Michei wasn’t there to watch and be entertained like everyone else. He was a member of the Whisper, Radiance intelligence, and had a secret sit down with her prior to the tribunal. Michei was up to something. What that something was, Saressea couldn’t figure out, not while her future was in the process of being decided.

It was time for her advocate to get rolling. She stood with anticipation, hoping for the best. The watching crowd gave a standing ovation when the advocate began to speak. It forced him to pause and smile for a brief moment, waiting for the claps, cheers, and roars to simmer down. When the crowd grew silent again, he began to speak and make his case.

According to her advocate and the reenactment hologram that played, Saressea was portrayed as a brave woman that came under attack by the enemy, plain and simple. When in combat, you have to make a choice and stick with it. The lives of you and your crew depended on it. The holograms were quick to note that Saressea was in the captain’s chair, it was Chang who was piloting and manning the Kepler’s weapons. He was the one that pulled the trigger officially, not Saressea. Human lives were ended by another human, making it a human problem, not Radiance.

With a wave of his hands, the hologram changed, replacing Saressea with Williams. It began to play, showing everyone what could have happened if Williams was in command. The same UNE fighters were shot down. Another wave of his hand replaced Williams with Foster, and the same result happened. It didn’t matter who was in command, the Kepler had to defend itself and that meant taking hostile actions against aggressive enemy targets. Other holographic scenarios played, showing what could have happened if the Kepler broke away and fled, they predicted Foster would have been killed. And for what? To make Radiance look good in the eyes of humans?

The advocate wrapped up his argument, bringing up that Saressea should be praised for her actions as it saw Foster and her team rescued and an Imperial colony, which did get booed when mentioned, saved in the end. Had the Terrans won, there would have been a very good chance the new Empire that arose from the ashes would have broken the ceasefire with Radiance and resumed the war without end. Something the Union couldn’t afford thanks to the Draconians still being a threat and the SOM still running rampant in the Union.

The crowd went wild. They really liked Saressea. The judicators had to let her off, she knew it. With that many cheers, there’d be riots for weeks.

After a lengthy break, judgment came. She stood ready to hear it with a smile born of confidence and renewed vigor. Her tail wagged slowly left to right.

“Za Saressea,” the judicator said. “Please step forward.”

She took a step forward into the spotlight. With the exception of a dozen whispering voices behind, the crowd was silent, eagerly waiting for the verdict. She wondered how many people were gathering around their holo monitors in the system watching the broadcast live.

“Both sides have presented an interesting case,” the judicator said. “It’s quite clear the people are in agreement with your defense.” Cheering and clapping from behind her confirmed his words. “If we were to exile her, how would you all feel about that?” The crowds’ reply was a loud and resounding boo. “I agree, but …”

There it is, she thought. The ‘but.’

“But … the council had voted for Saressea to be here and were the ones that aggressively pushed for this to happen,” he continued. “Furthermore, we cannot deny the fact that you were asked by Foster to stand down, and that in the end, it wasn’t necessary to engage the human ships. And so, we find you guilty—”

There was outrage erupting from the crowd behind. How long and loud it was she wasn’t sure. The shock, devastation, and disappointment quickly drowned out all sounds from her thoughts, erasing the pride smile she had seconds earlier.

When she came to and looked back at the furious crowd, she saw Michei shake his head and storm out. If he was planning something, it failed.

The two judicators whispered back and forth to each other, nodding their heads. It took them two minutes to get the crowd to settle down for them to continue speaking. By the time they did, half the audience had made their exit.

“But, but … it’s clear you people like Saressea, so she will not be executed.” The crowd that remained cheered. “She will not be exiled either—” More cheers, even louder than the previous. “She will be sent to a penal colony, low security until the humans have moved on from this. I will personally pester the council to mend the damage between us and the humans quick. After that, Saressea will be released.”

Lukewarm response from the remaining crowd came afterward. The lack of boos or outrage meant there wasn’t going to be any rioting, to her disappointment. This meant she wasn’t getting out of the penal colony sentencing.

Two Templars stood at her left and right, grabbing onto her arms and dragged her out. If her hands weren’t bound in chains, she’d wave goodbye to the holographic Kepler bridge that was still active.

The ship she worked so hard on to test and help develop will have to move on without her.

47 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

July 19, 2119, 04:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Odelea left sickbay first, looking to fetch stims to keep her awake. Foster wished she had stuck around longer and translated the words that Jainuzei and Armuzei exchanged in the Radiance language. It was a long ramble using alien words she never bothered to learn. She tried to visualize subtitles appearing at the bottom of her view to amuse herself as if she was watching a movie recorded in a foreign language.

Not much was spoken after Armuzei made what sounded like a snarky comment toward Jainuzei, stopping him in his tracks for a moment, before he returned and looked down at Foster. She had to look up to make eye contact, wondering what the hell he ate that made him so tall and muscular. Aryile were herbivores, vegans for lack of a better term. Odelea had the perfect body of a vegan, a petite skinny person. Jainuzei had the body of a man that killed lions with his bare hands and then ate them.

“Captain,” Jainuzei said with his butter-melting voice. “May I have a moment alone with you?”

“In a minute,” Foster groaned “If that’s all right with ya?”

Jainuzei grimaced. “Very well …”

Lisette came to sit at the edge of the medical bed she was on when Kostelecky lowered her scanner. Foster approached the two as Jainuzei left.

“How’s she doing?” Foster asked.

“Her pod was listed as Nephilim,” Kostelecky said. “Apart from her psionic abilities, she’s far away from being a fallen angel as you could get.”

“So, Nephilim ain’t your name?” Foster said to her jokingly.

“Oh, fuck no, my name is Lisette Bennett. I was a psionic student undergoing training on Titan,” she said, then looking down with saddened eyes she added. “I was vacationing with my girlfriend on Taxah when the Empire arrested me.”

“Lisette,” Foster mumbled to herself. She remembered the story Phylarlie told her. The story of a Hashmedai psionic named Avearan and her human girlfriend Lisette that got into trouble with Imperial laws the two weren’t aware of. “Phylarlie mentioned something about you when we were there.”

Lisette’s face reacted quickly, looking at Foster. “You were at Taxah?” she asked excitedly.

“Yeah, barely escaped with our lives.”

“What happened?”

“Terran Legion hijacked a bunch of UNE ships and tried to nuke the place,” Foster said. “We stopped ‘em, though.”

Lisette leaped off the bed grabbing onto Foster’s arms, practically begging her to tell her more. “Please! Does the name Avearan mean anything to you by chance? She’s my girlfriend.”

“Aye,” Miles chimed in from behind. “She’s the one that patched Williams, I think? Told us about that cybernetic doc that could help Chevallier too.”

Lisette’s eyes widened with hope staring at the Marine standing guard. “Avearan’s alive then?”

“When I last checked, yeah,” Miles said. “I had passed out after wrestling a dragon. She gave us the slip when I came to. Why did the Empire have you arrested anyway?”

“Better question,” Foster cut in. “How did you end up on the refinery? That’s no Imperial prison barge—”

“Svatý Kurva! Guys, this isn’t an EISS interrogation chamber,” Kostelecky bellowed. “You mind saving your questions for later? Whoever had her captive didn’t treat her very nice as you can see.”

Lisette smiled up at Kostelecky. “It’s okay, Doc—”

“Do not!” Kostelecky exclaimed.

“Call her Doc,” Foster finished for her. “Ever.”

Lisette looked confused at the fuming doctor and asked. “What’s the big deal about Doc?”

Foster shrugged. “My guess is she ain’t a fan of Bugs Bunny.”

“Anyways,” Lisette continued. “I was on an Imperial prison ship. It was attacked and everyone was killed, except me.” Her finger aimed at the gold-faced Javnis. “That man led the assault; they called me Nephilim then took me aboard their ship. Not sure what happened next, like the Hashmedai, I was their captured target. Arrived at the station, refinery, whatever the fuck it was, where they kept me locked in my quarters until we were attacked. He insisted we hid in the cryo pods.”

“Then we revived you,” Foster said. “He said you were the key to either Marduk or Tiamat’s resurrection. Did they happen to explain why?”

“Look, I’m just having the worst fucking vacation of my life, nothing more.”

Dead space deities coming back to life to enslave the galaxy in their own image. Foster wasn’t sure which one to resurrect if the choice boiled down to her, there was no third option. Jainuzei stood impatiently waiting for Foster on the bridge, next to the opening to her office a deck below it. Whatever it was he wanted to talk about, it needed to be in private.

She took a seat at her desk, mused at the empty coffee mug ahead of her computer. She forgot to put it in the dishwasher. Jainuzei took a seat at the opposite end of her desk, shuddered a bit since human room temperatures were considered cold to Aryile.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“Armuzei is our enemy, not me,” he said. “You must believe me.”

“I don’t doubt that he is, that’s why we’s heading back to Radiance space. Gonna hand him over to your government.”

“That’s why I’m here, Captain. Can we delay that?”

“Why?”

“This was my mission,” he said. “I need to redeem myself, and these Marduk cultists tried to have my son killed. I’m a man of honor, and it is my duty to restore it to my children who are now the most powerful Aryile in the galaxy by undoing the dishonor I brought to the Radiance Union. Let me have this, let me be the one that brings him in and takes the credit. In truth, I only offered to join this crew because this ship and its mission was the only way to complete mine. Now, I’m close to that. Let’s place him in cryo, it’s the closest thing we have to a brig. When the time is right after we return to Radiance space, you can surrender him to me, and I will be the one that brings him in.”

“Only, ain’t none of that will be the truth, we all played a role in capturing him.”

“And you played a role in hindering a Radiance investigation.”

“In what way?”

“Karklosea removed a data crystal from the Soldiers of Marduk hut,” Jainuzei said. “It’s here on this ship, and you have been keeping it a secret.”

She winced slightly trying her best to put on a poker face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“That,” Jainuzei cut in, jamming his finger at her. “That is a lie. I found blood near the data crystal slot on the transport. I had the doctor run a DNA scan and compare it to Karklosea, it’s a match. You took the data crystal, studied its contents, and lied to me about it. What you said in sickbay to him was proof of that, how else would you have known those facts? EVE has also been working on examining the refinery’s data recorder and I’m willing to wager only you were told of its contents. So please, Captain, stop lying to me or I’ll inform the council that we’ve been trespassing in the nebula—”

“Stop,” Foster said, holding the palms of her hands out to him. “Stop, just stop, you lost me two sentences in.”

“Would you like me to repeat it?”

“Oh goodness gracious, no! I gots the gists of it.” Foster took a deep breath, rubbing the side of her head. “But jammin’ your finger at the commanding officer of this ship, calling her a liar, in her Goddamn office. That ain’t cool, man.”

She made sure the last words were strong and firm. She was in command. This was her ship and her show, not his. If Jainuzei had any problems with it, he could exit the way he came in, through the airlock.

“So, Captain,” he said, keeping his gaze at her. “What will your decision be?”

Since Jainuzei’s return from the dead, according to Radiance, he’d done nothing but clash with the SOM. Whatever it was he did in his past must have been something really bad, and now he just wanted to make things right by getting rid of this group and putting an end to their plans to resurrect Marduk.

“Very well,” she said with hesitation.

It was the quickest way out of the situation that would make all parties happy. Jainuzei got his target, the council wouldn’t give her grief for entering the nebula, and the last free leader of the SOM would go nowhere with his plans.

And the best part, they could continue on course to locating the Gerard Kuiper, the primary reason they returned to the nebula. Handing Armuzei over to Radiance would require a lengthy detour and return to the nearest Radiance colonies, after finding a fissure that could take them there.

Foster had Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf accompany her to sickbay where Armuzei remained in his on again off again sedated state. He was developing a resistance to the chemicals, Javnis physiology was at work. There was no brig on the Kepler. Foster typed a quick note on her wrist terminal to have one installed. Yes, it wasn’t a warship, but on the other hand, it was probably going to be needed if they were going to keep running into bad people every step of their journey.

The four brought Armuzei to the Kepler’s newly restored cryo chamber. As Foster prepared a cryo pod for him, Jainuzei strode in behind the group. Armuzei’s face was neutral while his arms and hands remained bound behind his back.

They looked at him, expecting him to say something of importance, he didn’t. That was until he took several steps forward, his Aryile eyes glancing at the numerous cryo pods hanging on the walls.

“Jainuzei,” Foster said to him. “Ain’t you’s a bit early to grab Armuzei?—”

There was a struggle behind the two. Armuzei was resisting Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf, jerking his arms and legs, doing everything he could to prevent the three from forcing him into the cryo pod. Foster was surprised LeBoeuf or Maxwell didn’t knock him out with their psionic powers.

She caught Jainuzei fingering the command terminal for the cryo pods. It was unnecessary as they had already prepped and activated the one needed for Armuzei, and Jainuzei knew that. She began to regret accepting his terms and placed a hand on his shoulder to yank him back.

Jainuzei delivered a swift backhanded blow across Foster’s face. It made her eyesight flash.

She stumbled from the sudden burst of pain in her head, using a nearby cryo pod to steady her balance. Miles had seen the attack and ditched his task of getting Armuzei into the pod to confront Jainuzei.

“Okay!” Miles roared at Jainuzei. “That’s enough, pal—”

She heard fists swing through the air and sounds of two brawny men wrestling and tossing each other about until someone’s skull cracked against a cryo pod. Jainuzei was betraying them, Armuzei liked it and used the unexpected distraction to leap out from his pod and attack Maxwell and LeBoeuf.

When Foster shook off the ringing in her head, she saw Jainuzei rapidly smashing his fists into Miles’s red-soaked face and beard when he was on the ground. After the ninth blow, Miles wasn’t moving. Foster didn’t catch what happened to the psionic duo, LeBoeuf was on the floor back first with her head cracked open, and Maxwell just finished eating a boot to the face by Armuzei, who held a blood-dripping extinguisher in his hands. He then took the extinguisher to Maxwell’s head. Like Miles, Maxwell wasn’t moving anymore.

It was Foster’s turn.

She faced Jainuzei first who was closer and demonstrated to him that her workout routine over the last eight months had been paying off. Foster held her ground, exchanging punches and kicks with the behemoth-sized Aryile weapons master. She even managed to catch him off guard and tackle him to the floor like she was a superstar MMA fighter.

Had she been watching her back, instead of drilling her fists into Jainuzei’s face, she would have seen Armuzei come up from behind with the fire extinguisher.

Her vision went black.

When it came back, she saw the glass casing to a cryo pod close and snap shut before her. Her crimson and sticky hands hit the glass that imprisoned her, while the start-up phase for cryostasis began, freezing her inside the makeshift brig that was meant for Armuzei.

Seconds before Foster went to sleep, for God knew how long, she saw Jainuzei go to release the set of cryo pods on the top rack in the chamber.

They were in use. And likely had been the moment they were brought aboard to replace the old damaged ones. Someone from Pria smuggled unwanted guests aboard the Kepler.

She felt stupid for not checking the contents of the new pods, then again, why would she? Especially the pods on the top rack where you couldn’t see the glass casing very well.

Those were the last thoughts Foster had when her body became frozen in time.

48 Rivera

ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System

July 22, 2119, 09:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Gerard Kuiper had become a second home to Rivera since its discovery. She slept in one of its many vacant quarters, while teams from Radiance were brought aboard via the wormhole on the surface to help restore the ship and solve its mystery.

She kept her belongings in her backpack, including Buddha, and the bong. Both items came out after her shifts, and back in when it was time for work. It was a means to remind her she wasn’t going to be on the ship long. Just another day and she’d be heading back to the Kepler, she told herself every morning.

Penelope, Eicelea, and Vynei all became residents on the ship as well, though they were using it as a means to explore the planet and its ruins. It was quicker to drop down from orbit than travel back and forth from the hotel and into the ruins.

Penelope spent her days locked in her quarters, sifting through data she collected from the knowledge network during their brief time returning back to Takarius. There was a greater link to Marduk’s origins with the planet than what everyone else was able to find. Penelope was determined to figure out. It was something to be concerned of when factoring in the growing presence of the SOM throughout Radiance. Unconfirmed reports made it to Takarius that the group was seen in large numbers at Pria.

Then there was the Gerard Kuiper itself. According to Alisha, the captain of the ship, it vanished mysteriously after they changed course to travel to Kapteyn’s Star system. Alisha had awoken from cryo seconds after Rivera and the others had boarded the first time, activated by the Gerard Kuiper’s EVE as a precaution. Only, Alisha was the only survivor.

Alisha wasn’t able to explain the cause of the failed cryo pods which killed the crew, the ship’s QEC transmitting false data that it was in grave danger, or why it was disabled internally afterward. Sabotage Alisha suspected, someone on the ship wanted the galaxy to believe the Gerard Kuiper had been destroyed so nobody would search for it. Which was exactly what happened.

As the days went on, Alisha was quick to get along with the Radiance teams, like Rivera, Alisha was fluent in the Radiance language. Turns out she used to work for Radiance R&D back in the early 2040s.

Every section of the ship had repair crews floating before opened wall panels or computers making various repairs or upgrades. They were eager to see the ship on its way, it was after all inside the Hallowed Nebula, holy territory to Radiance, and forbidden for anyone to enter. It was the reason why the planet and star had no name, let alone had been explored. This was the land of the Gods. She wondered how Eicelea and Vynei brought themselves to explore the planet regardless of those facts. Their devotion to their Gods must not have been as strong as others in Radiance she figured.

Rivera was about to finish her shift for the day as the acting chief engineer for the Gerard Kuiper, when her computer screen flashed errors. Then forgot the computer station she worked on had some of its parts guttered to restore another, its fan to be exact. It was overheating.

She drifted into the cargo bay seeking a replacement fan for the computer. Then saw a number of cargo boxes opened, all of them missing their contents. She was certain nobody brought aboard recently accessed the cargo bay. A quick check of the requisition logs confirmed that. The ship was brand new, and its cargo bay had never been accessed according to logs and shouldn’t have.

The section of the cargo bay she was in was reserved for spare parts and raw materials. She floated into the machine shop next, if anyone took parts from those crates, it’d end up in there to build something. The tools and equipment in the machine shop showed visible signs of usage. She scanned it with her EAD, and its glowing holo screen reported the equipment was most likely used before the ship vanished.

Computer logs reported that a crew member by the name Lieutenant Yale was the one that logged in to use the shop. Yale was probably the one that took the materials from the cargo bay back when the ship was still in Sirius and had not filled out a requisition report.

Rivera went to access the Gerard Kuiper’s manifest. Yale’s name wasn’t on it, and she triple checked it to make sure. There were quarters on the habitat ring assigned to them, however. Her curiosity took her up the elevator to the ring, weighing her body down with artificial gravity from its constant rotational spin.

She used her HNI to establish a one on one link with Penelope, whose holographic likeness appeared over her eyes. “Hey, Penelope,” she said in greeting.

Penelope in the projection was lying on her bed and pushed away a number of holo screens around her. “Yes?”

“Have you come across the name Lieutenant Yale at all since coming aboard?” Rivera said.

“Yes,” Penelope said. “There’s a cryo pod with their name on it.”

“Do you see their name on the manifest? ‘Cause I don’t.”

“No, I don’t,” she replied after a quick search.

“Lieutenant Yale used the machine shop when this ship was in Sirius, and probably took stuff out from the cargo bay, without filing a requisition report. Oh, and he has quarters assigned to him.”

“I’m going to pay my respects to his skeleton in the cryo chamber,” Penelope said. “Care to join me?”

“I’m on my way to Yale’s quarters now.”

She saw Penelope leap up from her bed in the projection. “Don’t!”

“Just going to take a look.”

“Wait for me, I’d hate for you to walk into a room full of sleeping dragons. This ship did vanish like the Sagan and Sword, both due to the Draconians.”

Penelope met Rivera in the corridors of the habitat ring, and the two strode to the quarters of Yale. The door to Yale’s quarters wasn’t hard to find, it was not only locked but had extra security locks attached to it. Either someone didn’t want people entering, or someone didn’t want what was on the inside from leaving.

“Well, fancy that,” Penelope said, looking down at the locks.

Rivera faced her, grimacing. “You can get it open, right?”

A wave of Penelope’s hand turned the red flashing lights on the first set of locks green. “This is vintage tech to me,” Penelope said. “The security encryption is weak compared to today’s standards.”

All red lights on the door and the external lockout devices turned green. Penelope flicked away her holo screens and their malicious codes as the two went to remove the external locks, and then opened the door.

What they saw when the doors opened didn’t look like quarters that would belong to an IESA officer. It was devoid of all furniture, and heavily modified with computers along the sides of the walls and had something that looked like a large aquarium in the center of the room. The machine shop had to have been used to build it, and the opened crates in the cargo bay supplied the materials.

The two looked back, nobody was in the corridors. They entered, shutting the door behind them, and closely examined the room. Rivera activated her EAD app in her HNI and ran a scan of everything starting with the central aquarium. It was shaped roughly like a cube made of glass and had a door on its front side that swung open when pulled.

It was tall, a lot taller than Rivera, with crude cables connected to the bottom of it that created a trip hazard for anyone that walked in between the aquarium and the computers at the side. There was nothing inside the aquarium, and Rivera had a sinking feeling it wasn’t used to store goldfish or study aquatic life. The lab on the ship had more than enough equipment to pull that off.

Large vats of a chemical substance were placed next to the aquarium, they had connecting pipes which looked like they were designed to pump in some form of liquid. Three sets of pipes at the back of the aquarium traveled across the floor into the walls. Rivera and Penelope took deep scans of those.

“These pipes seem to end at the outer hull of the ship,” Rivera said, analyzing her EAD’s data on a holo screen. “Whatever gets pumped through these pipes goes out into space, just outside the exterior of the habitat ring.”

Rivera upped the scanning power of her EAD. It allowed her to see through the walls, the insides of computers and their complex wires, data crystals, and electronics. She confirmed that the pipes from behind the aquarium to the walls, and the vats, were all connected. Someone used the vats to fill the aquarium up with a liquid and then pumped it out through the rear pipes.

But not before allowing someone, or something, to enter the aquarium via its front door.

She scanned the vats next, attempting to learn what was inside. The data that outputted in her virtual vision made her take a step back, and then two more after she confirmed traces of the vat’s contents were inside the aquarium and the three pipes going into the walls.

“What’s wrong?” Penelope asked.

“It’s the protective goo,” Rivera said. “The same goo we needed to survive inside the maelstrom.”

“That explains how the Gerard Kuiper got here then,” Penelope said. “It went through a maelstrom.”

Rivera backed away in a haunted manner, taking in the full view of the room. “These were human-built though. The crew did it on purpose; they knew they needed it to survive.”

“I see nothing wrong here,” Penelope said. “They were trapped and probably figured out the goo would protect them and built a system to administer it.”

“And kept its construction secret? While the Captain lied to our faces about it? And it was built while they were in Sirius. That means they knew a maelstrom trip was coming. I wonder—”

“If their memories were wiped like you guys’?”

It was possible. The Gerard Kuiper officially vanished from Sirius, not destroyed as previously thought. What happened to it could very well have been the same thing that took the Abyssal Sword and Carl Sagan.

“You still got the location of Yale’s cryo pod?” Rivera asked.

Penelope nodded, making her EAD’s scanning holo screen flicker away. “Yes, I’ll take you to it.”

Beyond numerous cryo pods that held the remains of the crew was the one pod that was assigned to Yale, a member of the crew that didn’t appear in the manifest. Rivera and Penelope floated next to it and flipped it open. It was empty, like it was never in use to start with. EAD scans showed otherwise.

“Two different people used this pod,” Penelope said, after reading the holo screen’s result. “An Aryile and an Undine. Why would nonhumans be using it?”

“Shipboard psionics back in the day were Radiance before human facilities were created,” Rivera said.

“The first facilities came online ten years before this left Earth. Wouldn’t its psionic be human by that time?”

“That’s true.” Rivera’s eyes narrowed looking down at the opened cryo pod she floated next to. “And there was an Undine inside. That’s unexpected—”

Rivera’s HNI beeped. It was receiving an incoming transmission from the planet’s surface. She accepted the link and Eicelea’s face appeared over her eyes. A notification on the corner of the projection informed her there was a five-second communication delay. “Rivera …” Eicelea said drily.

“What’s wrong, Eicelea?”

After ten seconds, Eicelea replied. “Why is the Johannes Kepler requesting we leave the premises at once?”

49 Karklosea

Wenadei’s Cybernetic Clinic

Jondia, Pria, Inadrai System

July 22, 2119, 18:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea felt little guilt when Wenadei chose to examine her first over everyone else, including the human, Chevallier, sleeping in her cryo pod. What Wenadei did for the people which visited him in secret, would have gotten him in trouble with the Union.

Performing work on Radiance citizens is okay, helping exiles, humans, and Hashmedai that sneak into the Union is not. Karklosea, being a lord commander of the Templars, used her high rank in the past to discourage anyone from following up on reports of Wenadei’s activity. In return, he placed her above the needs of everyone else whenever she needed upgrades or work done.

In the past her body was heavily augmented with, what was considered at the time to be, state of the art shipboard psionic implants, with a few of them being experimental. When she made the career switch to a Templar, she had to drop most of them to utilize the new combat armor Templars were required to equip. There were several implants from her old life that couldn’t be removed without killing her. And it was those old redundant parts that became damaged in the recent battles she found herself in that needed maintenance.

With Karklosea’s battle-damaged cybernetics repaired, and her life expectancy significantly higher, work on Chevallier began. She was curious to see what had become of the mortally wounded human fighter and stopped by the cybernetic workshop for a visit. Mathilda Chevallier was expected to be revived today, after months of resting in medical cryo.

She heard muffled screams when she entered. It made a number of worrying thoughts cloud Karklosea’s mind. The loud bangs, thuds, and what she guessed was a table being thrown or flipped over didn’t help.

The sounds of screams and furniture being tossed about guided Karklosea to the workshop and recovery room Chevallier’s body had been resting in. She wasn’t sure what to expect as she approached the door and gazed at the frost-tinted glass windows beside it.

Did the Soldiers of Marduk infiltrate the building? She hoped not, bad enough there were rumors some of their fighters operated on the planet. It would reflect poorly on her abilities as lord commander of the Templars if they had snuck in and attacked. Chevallier was part of the team that helped defeat Marduk too. Chevallier, in her state, would have been a perfect target.

Another violent group perhaps? But who? The Terran Legion? Karklosea had no idea but was about to find out as her finger tapped the entry key code on the side wall mounted terminal. The doors swung open, unveiling the interior of the workshop. A terrified Wenadei came running out with the ends of his Linl made lab coat rustling behind him.

She reached for her redeemer as the doctor hid behind her.

“Wenadei, are you okay?” she asked him.

“Yes, yes, yes, I’m fine!” Wenadei pointed into the room he ran from. “She isn’t.”

“Who else is in there?”

“The human woman I was paid to mend.”

“And?”

“Just her,” Wenadei said with fear in his voice. “She’s the one making the noise.”

Karklosea entered the room slowly, keeping her hand just above the hilt of her redeemer. There were no further sounds heard other than the clanging footsteps of her armored boots, and the deep panting of Chevallier, cursing randomly in the human tongue.

Chevallier turned suddenly when she heard Karklosea enter. The human woman placed her hands on her hips, the right one was made out of metal and wires. There were a number of other smaller implants on Chevallier’s body, mostly around her abs, visible from the brief tank top she wore. Karklosea guessed there were many more underneath her skin, now heavily patched up when Wenadei had to cut into her body to install them.

Words of human origin left Chevallier’s lips, directed at Karklosea. She couldn’t understand them.

“You must have a lot of questions,” Karklosea said to her, not that she would understand, like all humans she dealt with recently.

Or so she thought.

“Who the fuck are you?” Chevallier said, speaking in the native Linl language. “And where the fuck am I?”

It took Karklosea a moment to process the words. It had been years since she had spoken the primary language of her species. Like all species Radiance assimilated into their collective, they were expected to speak the Radiance language first, and the language of their homeworld second.

“You speak Linl?” Karklosea asked her.

“My ex-boyfriend was Linl,” Chevallier said. “Tried learning the language to impress him. What a waste of time that was. Though, it did come in handy when I was in Sirius.”

“My name is Karklosea, Lord Commander of the Templars.”

“Master Gunnery Sergeant Mathilda Chevallier, EDF-1.”

Karklosea performed the Radiance greeting. “Your acquaintance is recognized. And I’m pleased to see you on your feet at last.”

“Whatever,” Chevallier groaned, rolling her eyes. “Now tell me why the fuck am I here?” Chevallier lifted her artificial arm to her face. She didn’t look impressed. “And my arm? Fuck …”

“The Radiance crew of the Kepler told me you were ambushed and mortally wounded,” Karklosea said. “They made the choice to bring you here to receive unique cybernetic implants to save you.”

“The Marcus Antonius …” Chevallier ran her fingers through her auburn hair, stopping when her left hand touched the side of her head. The hair there had been shaved off, most likely to install another life-saving implant. She didn’t look impressed at that discovery either. “That mech, yeah, I remember that. It’s blank after that. Where is here?”

“This is Pria, the Linl homeworld.”

“Fuck me! And Foster? The Kepler?”

“A lot has happened since you were injured.”

Chevallier demanded to know what happened over the last few months. Karklosea gave her a rundown the best she could, given the language barrier she was faced with on the Kepler, and that she too spent a few months recovering from injuries suffered in battle. The sentence Chevallier strung together after Karklosea explained it to her, was laced with enough expletives to make even the most hardened sailor on a Radiance cruiser cringe.

Karklosea’s explanation ended with her last known intel regarding the Kepler. It traveled to one of the ethereal refineries at the end of the system then vanished when it suddenly flew into the fissure. Nobody in Radiance to that day was able to find the ship or hear from it. Earth wasn’t able to either. And as of two days ago, the Kepler’s QEC had been shut off.

“I lost almost a year of my life,” Chevallier drily said, taking a seat on a chair she threw across the room during her fit of anger. “Guess I should be thankful it wasn’t another sixty-eight.”

“Are we done?” Wenadei called out from the door, peeking his head into the room like a timid child.

Karklosea nodded to him. “If she’s good to leave, then, yes.”

“Excellent,” he said. “I’d like to get back to my clients.”

“I’d still stay low,” Karklosea said. “There might be Soldiers of Marduk members at large in the city.”

“I should have charged that human extra …” Wenadei made a dejected sigh. “Or took to a month to restore her like I said I would.”

Chevallier stood facing the wall, looking at her new arm. “My arm …” she groaned slowly and then struck the wall with three quick strikes. The first strike made a dent in the wall, the two follow-up ones turned the dent into a hole. Chevallier’s cybernetic arm looked like a blacked blur of colors when she made the punching strikes into the wall. “My fucking arm is gone!”

“That was the biggest challenge of Wenadei,” Karklosea said, watching as Chevallier continued to put dents or massive holes into the wall. “He had to custom build that arm for you.”

“I don’t want a fucking mechanical arm; I want the one I was born with back!”

“It’s gone, I’m sorry.”

She punched the wall one last time, driving her metal fist through it so deep Karklosea thought Chevallier had broken her new gift. There were no visible dents, scratches, or any other form of damage on her new arm when Chevallier pulled it out from the wall.

“Fuck this!” she screamed.

“He knew you were military and designed it to be lightweight, but robust,” Karklosea explained.

Chevallier approached a computer half the size of her, and probably the same weight. She picked it up and threw it across the workshop, using her new arm. It had enough momentum to keep moving through the air until it hit the wall and broke apart with a loud crashing sound. Both women grinned at the newfound destructive power her arm had.

“And probably strong enough to kill someone with one punch,” Karklosea finished.

As abrasive as Chevallier turned out to be, she was honorable. After leaving Wenadei’s clinic, she offered to pay for the damage she did to the workshop and have the computer not only replaced but upgraded to a faster one. Chevallier had months’ worth of credits on her chit, more than enough to pay for the damages.

Karklosea led her to the UNE embassy located across the city. It was the best place to take her with the Kepler missing and Chevallier now healed and stuck in Radiance territory. It would also keep her safe from possible ambushes from the SOM if they learned she was there.

The trek to the UNE embassy was a risky one, as both Chevallier and Karklosea were out in the open. Thankfully, Chevallier was still in her armor when she was placed in cryo, and so she wore it. It was damaged of course, but was still functional and provided some protection, certainly a lot better than the tank top and shorts she had on earlier.

Chevallier was guided inside the embassy with little questions after they confirmed her Earthly origins. Karklosea opted to stick around in the front atrium looking at the plants from Earth that decorated it. She was not surprised by how similar they looked to plants from on Pria. Her plan was to leave after another hour, just in case the two were followed by SOM agents and were waiting for her to step outside the boundaries of the embassy.

By the time the twenty-minute mark hit, uniformed personnel from Earth approached her, speaking in the Radiance language. “Excuse me, ma’am,” the uniformed human said. “Can you please follow me?”

She nodded in agreement and was escorted to one of the various back offices. The embassy was Earth territory after all, and subject to Earth rules. It wasn’t her place to reject a simple offer.

“Is there a problem?” Karklosea asked.

“Just a security check, ma’am,” the uniformed human said. “With the recent Soldiers of Marduk attacks, we got to screen all nonhumans here. I hope you understand.”

“Of course, do what you must.”

“Please enter here, the men inside will handle the rest. If there are any problems just let me know, I’ll be right here.”

The human stepped aside, pushed on the wall-mounted door access panel, and the door slid open. Karklosea walked inside the room but saw no men. Just a table and chairs around it and the smell of human made coffee.

The door slid shut behind her, manually if she were to guess since she didn’t walk far enough away from it to automatically shut. A second after the doors shut, she heard the clanging sounds of its internal locking mechanisms.

She knew right away she was led into a trap. And if it wasn’t for the fact someone hit her over the back of her head with a blunt object, she would have pulled out her redeemer and fought her way out, or perhaps unleashed her psionic powers.

A second blow to her head ensured her head was in enough pain and confusion to prevent any use of psionic powers. By the time the third blow hit, she was on the floor, turning to her side in hopes of getting a better view of the people that stood on the opposite ends of the door, waiting for her.

Her first thought, which was hard to put together thanks to the pain, was that the men were secretly working for the SOM. But they spoke human words to one another and were armed with human weapons.

They also wanted her alive. The SOM wanted her dead, she imagined. These were not their men.

50 Rivera

ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System

July 22, 2119, 20:39 SST (Sol Standard Time)

It was hard to see at first thanks to the nebula’s colorful wonders. But the Johannes Kepler had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and made a slow approach to the Gerard Kuiper circling in orbit around the unknown rocky planet.

Five minutes after its arrival, it swung about to latch its airlock into the Gerard Kuiper. What happened after that only Alisha and the small Radiance team aboard knew as Penelope and Rivera weren’t on the bridge and weren’t able to provide any explanation to the people on the surface as to why they had to leave back through the wormhole.

Penelope floated out of the cryo chamber first as she did have long delayed business with the Kepler. Rivera floated next to an observation window in the corridor, looking at the ethereal nebula in the distance, and asked the question to herself nobody else did, to her knowledge. How did the Kepler get into the nebula?

And why?

She made a note to inform Alisha about the secret project in the quarters of a crew member that didn’t exist later. The Kepler was here, the ship she was supposed to be on months ago. She was about to be reunited with lost friends.

Rivera arrived at the deck where the airlock was and counted eleven Radiance personnel drift out from it, all guiding large crates from the Kepler onto the Kuiper. Penelope floated ahead of the airlock with her long silver hair floating and waving about. It didn’t appear she made it aboard the Kepler despite getting the head start. Rivera had a feeling the Radiance personnel leaving the ship might have played a role in that. They were led by a large hulking Aryile with combat armor, and way too many guns and swords strapped to his back.

Rivera floated forward to the airlock, peeking inside. There were no signs of the Kepler’s crew coming to greet her or moving about in the Kepler’s corridors visible from across the airlock. It was an odd sight. The large Aryile man directing the Radiance personnel drifted in between her and the airlock, using his imposing body as a cover, blocking out her view of the interior of the Kepler.

“Excuse me,” he said to Rivera with his butter-melting voice, examining her uniform. “IESA correct? Are you from the Gerard Kuiper?”

“No, name’s Rivera,” she said. “Why I’m here … is a long complex story I’m sure you’ll hear about soon once we’re done.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about you,” he said. “I know your story, you were a member of Foster’s team that got separated during the SOM attack at Eiri.”

“That’s right, how did you know?”

“I am Weapons Master Jainuzei,” he revealed. “I was brought aboard as Saressea’s replacement.”

Rivera pivoted to the side, allowing the Radiance team to haul the large crates off the Kepler. Jainuzei remained floating before the airlock door like he was a bouncer. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. “You’re from the Kepler then, Jainuzei?”

“That is correct; we are here to assist in your operations.”

“How did you and the Kepler end up here? Let alone know Gerard Kuiper was—”

“I would love to stay and chat with a gorgeous woman such as you,” Jainuzei interjected as a second group pushed another crate into the weightlessness of the Gerard Kuiper. “But I have much work to be done. Foster made it clear she wants this equipment transferred over.”

“I don’t understand,” Rivera said. “Why would—”

“Please, I must get back to my duties.”

“Of course. Just—”

“Hey, Jasmine,” Penelope called out from behind.

Rivera faced her while Jainuzei drifted past the two into the corridors of the Kuiper with the second group of Radiance personnel and the crates they pushed. Penelope motioned with her head to Rivera, she wanted her to get close, close enough to whisper something.

“Sayoei and Nyoea are here, sweetie.”

It took a while, thinking back to the time Rivera first heard those names. It was the fake HNI ID names SOM men and women used to mask their identities. And judging by the movement of Penelope’s face, she was probably scanning every Radiance personnel that floated past the two in the corridors, all of them originating from Jainuzei’s team from the Kepler. Rivera understood Penelope’s hesitation to board it.

“Actually …” Jainuzei called out to Rivera further down the corridor. “Rivera, you are an engineer, correct?”

She nodded. “I am.”

“Perhaps you can accompany me to engineering?” Jainuzei asked. “I could use your assistance.”

Uncomfortable vibes tugged at Rivera’s chest. She looked at Penelope for approval, as she was the one that could scan an HNI with her hacking mods. Penelope nodded, and Rivera drifted ahead catching up with Jainuzei and his team and floated to engineering. The uncomfortable vibes increased, she really hoped it was just THC paranoia.

A text-only message flashed ahead of her vision sent via HNI. It was a message from Penelope.

He’s not one of them from what I can tell, which isn’t saying much since he doesn’t have HNI. The other men are so be careful.

A second message appeared when they neared the entrance to engineering.

I’m going to board the Kepler. Now would be a good chance to deliver my message and see how many Soldiers of Marduk people are here.

There were three crates in total removed from the Kepler. One of them was pushed into the elevators traveling up to the habitat ring, the other, which she followed along with Jainuzei and his team, floated into engineering. The third vanished somewhere down in the lower decks. After a suitable place was selected to rest the crate, the four huge panels that boxed in what was inside the crate came off and were placed aside as with its top.

Inside the crate was a large cylindrical object. It was alien in design with a number of modifications clearly made with Imperial-based tech.

Rivera floated ahead of it, giving it’s peculiar shape an up and down look. “What is this?”

Jainuzei tossed a data crystal toward her. It flipped and drifted into her hands as she reached to catch it. “Read the files on that,” he said. “Use its knowledge to install this device into the Kuiper’s power supply. Can I leave you in charge of this project?”

She agreed, only because Penelope confirmed that his name wasn’t Sayoei. A computer screen that outputted the data crystal’s contents populated one of the monitors in engineering. Rivera committed most of the data to her HNI’s limited storage space, including the name of the device that was brought aboard. It was called the vortex key.

Saressea’s name was mentioned several times in the files and diagrams that appeared, many of which seemed incomplete, probably because she was arrested before she could finish them. The feeling that lingered in her body wasn’t paranoia. It was her animal senses telling her to get out before it was too late. The files on the data crystal were taken from Saressea, probably without her knowledge. The files and the vortex key were her project for the Kepler.

Why was it being transferred here? And where was the rest of the Kepler’s crew? It’d been ages since she had seen Foster and the rest. Not one member coming out to greet her was out of character, regardless of the situation at hand.

Engineering was behind her when she drifted away, assigning another team to look after the vortex key. Rivera wanted answers. She tried to connect with Penelope via HNI, there was no reply. Same went for the Kepler. Jainuzei didn’t reply to any of her hails via the intercom, neither did Alisha. Eicelea and Vynei HNI’s couldn’t be reached, according to the error screen that flashed over her eyes. They weren’t on the planet and most likely stepped back through the wormhole, either that or the Gerard Kuiper’s orbit put it on the opposite end of the planet.

Radiance guards stood next to the airlock doors, the same ones that were brought aboard from the Kepler. The rifles in their hands sent a nonverbal message to those that floated past, this place is off-limits. Rivera had no other choice but to travel up to the habitat ring, hoping to see what became of the other packages taken from the Kepler.

Once up in the ring, with gravity holding her down, she searched for signs of the Radiance team. She found none but heard Jainuzei grunt and speak in the Radiance language. He mentioned something about missing locks and asked the personnel around him to find out what happened.

She crept forward, moving slowly over to the source of Jainuzei’s voice, making little to no sounds. She found him standing next to the locked down quarters she and Penelope discovered. Jainuzei dismissed the men that were with him and pulled out from the crate behind him the limp and motionless body of Nereid. At least, it looked like her, a few years older by the looks, but it was the raven-blue-haired Undine girl with legs Rivera knew.

Every urge in Rivera’s body told her to run. Get off the ship, steal a transport, and get to the surface. Nereid’s body in Jainuzei’s arms forced her to stay. The thought of knowing Jainuzei might do something horrible to Nereid, while Rivera just turned and ran wouldn’t sit well with her for years to come.

As Jainuzei entered the quarters with the aquarium, Rivera moved behind him, careful to not make a sound. She watched him open the front glass door of the aquarium, gently placing Nereid’s body in it, and then shut it. From there, he stood before a computer terminal and began to key in a sequence of commands.

“How long do you plan to stand there?” Jainuzei said.

Rivera’s chest tightened. Her thumping heart wanted to burst from her chest and run, much like how she now wanted to burst out from the ship and flee. She was caught spying on him. She should have known better than to sneak up on a trained warrior like Jainuzei.

When she collected herself, she stood up straight and faced him while he continued to face the computer station. Jainuzei didn’t attack or call for help. If he wanted her dead, he could have done so already.

“How long are you going to keep secrets from me—”

“I wasn’t talking to you, Rivera,” he cut in, and then faced the door she stood behind.

His Aryile eyes didn’t make eye contact with her.

An unexpected voice behind her said. “He’s talking to me.”

It was Alisha.

Rivera spun on her heel to see the captain of the Gerard Kuiper pushing the barrel of her pistol into Rivera’s chest. The firm solid feeling of the pistol’s barrel sent a shiver across her body, forcing Rivera’s hands into the air.

Jainuzei grabbed them, pinning them behind her. The pain that came from his firm grip made her squirm. Alisha lowered her pistol at that point, it gave Rivera the courage to try and fight Jainuzei’s binding grip off. He was too strong. Rivera’s body getting flung backward crashing against the aquarium was proof enough.

Alisha looked down at her, laughing. Jainuzei stood with Alisha, embracing her romantically and kissed her with passion.

“What took you so long?” Alisha asked Jainuzei when the kiss was over.

He smirked. “There were many unexpected turns.”

Facing Rivera, who managed to get back to her feet, Alisha asked. “What do we do with her?”

“She’s an engineer,” Jainuzei said. “She should follow orders and get to work.”

A pair of fists banging and thumping against the glass of the aquarium startled Rivera. She looked behind and saw Nereid standing in the aquarium having awoken, banging against the glass repeatedly, screaming words that couldn’t be heard, probably pleading for help.

Rivera saw why a second later, looking down at the floor of the aquarium. It was filling up with the goo, covering Nereid’s feet inching upward to her ankles fast.

Nereid was about to experience whatever it was the Gerard Kuiper’s crew did to the Undine they secretly brought aboard from Sirius.

51 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System

July 22, 2119, 21:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Awakening from cryostasis, when you had little to no memory of entering it intentionally, made Foster shudder. Her racing thoughts expected the worst when she crawled out from her opened cryo pod after it sent the cocktail of stuff that made people wake up and thaw from their cold sleep.

Her head was still in pain, preserved from the injuries, dried blood covered her hands. She paused for a moment, trying to remember what happened, it was another thing she feared happening the moment you came out of cryo, not remembering what happened. Though, in her case, the fuzzy memories she had was due to head trauma.

By the time she mustered enough strength to walk, rather than crawl, on the cold floor, it all came back to her. Jainuzei, he was the cause for this. He betrayed the team, and the drone that ran off and infected the Kepler with malware months ago, probably was his doing after all. He and Armuzei were working together. If they were still aboard, they needed to be stopped and thrown out the airlock.

She checked the time once her wrist terminal reactivated and synced with the Kepler. Only a few days had passed. Better than sixty-eight years. She sighed in relief as the sounds of additional cryo pods behind her powered, revived their occupants, and slowly opened. One by one the rest of the Kepler’s crew joined her in the ship’s cryo chamber. Like her, many of them had been injured, like they were caught in an ambush.

There was yelling and screaming in the corridors outside the cryo chamber’s door. The voices were in the Radiance language. And they sounded like someone pissed in their coffee.

Losing days’ worth of time, being held captive in your own cryostasis chamber, getting betrayed … The whole situation sucked. Plus, her head really, really hurt. A lot.

“EVE …” Foster groaned. “What’s our status?”

There was no reply from the Kepler’s AI. After asking three more times, she called it quits and assumed the worst. EVE was taken offline. Jainuzei, Armuzei, and the stowaways that were secretly brought aboard were good, really good. She stood waiting for the rest of the crew to awake, especially Maxwell, LeBoeuf, and Miles. Last time she checked before getting tossed in cryo, they were covered in blood and not moving. People who were dead typically looked like that—

Gunshots echoed from the corridors outside the door. The pissed off Radiance voices were engaged in combat with another group of pissed off Radiance voices. A new concern grew in her thoughts, the concern for the ship. And the fact Nereid and Lisette weren’t amongst those in cryo pods.

Foster peeked outside into the corridor when she approached the door. Dead bodies of various Radiance races littered the floor and painted the walls with blood. Some wore combat armor, others grey jumpsuits, all of them killed by Radiance made weapons. The SOM was aboard, likely the same ones she saw coming out of cryo. It looked like rangers and Navy personnel from the Union found out, tried, and failed to do something about it. She retreated into the cryo chamber before anyone saw her, plus, she didn’t have a gun.

“Captain …” Williams’ tired voice called out to her.

“Dom, what the hell happened?” Foster asked him.

“Jainuzei, Armuzei, and a bunch of other assholes came after us,” he said. “None of us saw it coming.”

Tolukei was brought out of his pod last. He needed the help of Chang to keep him steady and on his feet before he crashed to the floor. Williams turned away, addressing Foster, “They took him out first.”

“Tolukei, the largest threat after Miles and the EDF team,” Foster said, noting that they were already out of the picture by the time Jainuzei and Armuzei’s team made their move. “Where’s EVE, Nereid, and Lisette?”

“I don’t know, they probably got to them as well,” Williams said. “As for EVE, I guess they figured out how to turn her off.”

Chang snickered. “Wrong choice of words there, Commander.”

“You are most certainly correct,” a woman with an English accent said over the cryo chamber’s intercom. “Well, about EVE, not the choice of words. Chang, you cheeky little bastard.”

Chang shot a confusing glare at the intercom. “Who the fuck is this?” he asked.

“Diamondrose, Penelope Diamondrose at your service,” the voice said.

Pierce stopped limping, his face bore the look of surprise at the name reveal. “Penelope?”

“Is that you, Travis?” Penelope’s voice said. “Why, yes, it is you! Wave to the security cam on the ceiling. Oh, darling, how have you been?”

“Penelope, are you on the Kepler?” Pierce asked.

“Me, a couple of Marduk-loving arseholes, and a failed squad of Radiance rangers.”

“Where are you?”

“On the bridge,” Penelope said amidst the sound of loud noises in the background of her intercom voice. “For how long? That’s up to you lovelies. I got the door locked and the Marduk boys and girls know it. Act quickly and you might be able to stop them from cutting their way in.”

“All right,” Foster said to the crew. “Y’all heard the gal, let’s move!”

Those that weren’t in pain or being treated by Kostelecky nodded and went to rally with Foster. Kostelecky gave her a disapproving glare, marching over to Foster to closely examine her head injury.

“Captain,” Kostelecky said, pulling Foster forward. “Don’t be reckless.”

“I’m fine—”

“The hell you are!”

“I ain’t gonna sit here while these dickheads take over my ship!” Foster spat, pulling away from Kostelecky’s grip. “Take care of the rest, especially our psionics. I have a feeling we’s gonna need their minds.”

Kostelecky’s arms folded. “Psionic powers don’t work when the user is suffering from head injuries.”

That’s when Foster thought back to Tolukei’s injuries and the opening attacks Maxwell and LeBoeuf suffered. Jainuzei and Armuzei went for everyone’s head. The mind is the powerhouse that makes psionic powers go boom, without it, or with it in a lot of pain, they had nothing to flash. And with Nereid MIA, Foster was asking her crew to fight armed enemies with no armor, guns, or psionic support. She failed to see how standing around in the cryo chamber was a better plan of action. She left with Williams and Chang to retake the ship, and a limping Miles, the Marine that refused to quit.

Blood-soaked Radiance magnetic rifles were acquired from the dead, arming the four as they covertly made their way through the corridors of the Kepler. Voices further up led them to the Kepler’s airlock, discovering it was opened and connected to another ship. Foster wasn’t sure what ship it was exactly, though, its walls looked a lot like the Carl Sagan.

Blood spilled on the floor of the airlock poured across into the ship, only to float away as it exited past the Kepler’s artificial gravity field. The ship ahead had no gravity. It also attempted to feed two Aryile men and one Linl onto the Kepler. They didn’t look happy to see the four humans staring back at them.

The bullet exchange was brief. Foster and her team had the gravity advantage and watched as the three hostile targets flew backward, slamming against the wall behind them, spewing weightless blood out from their chests and belly, that looked like oversized cherries.

Chang darted ahead to shut the airlock doors. Foster and Williams covered him while Miles checked their six. Then they waited, and waited, for the process to finish as Chang returned to the group. With the airlock doors shut and locked, the four backtracked to the Kepler’s cargo bay. Miles insisted on getting into his exosuit and using an Earth made rifle. Williams and Chang wanted the security of the new personal shield generators. Foster did too when she remembered they had them in stock.

Foster counted six SOM fighters patrolling the cargo bay while she and the team stood on top of the catwalk that hung over top. None of the six below noticed the four rifles take aim at them, or the spray of bullets that hit them, and soaked the cargo crates and floor with gore and blood.

With the cargo bay clear, they climbed down the ladder into it. Miles sprinted ahead first for the armory, throwing the magnetic rifle to the floor. He really wanted his suit and gun for this.

“If you’re wondering,” Penelope said via the armory’s intercom, as the four rummaged through the lockers. “EVE has been deactivated and thrown in engineering.”

“Noted,” Foster said.

Miles suited up into his exosuit quickly, displaying the decades of experience he had as a Marine with his speed. Foster glanced at him, having realized he brought aboard several types of exosuits. Some were large, others were of the typical modes she had seen Marines use, while the one he slipped into was smaller and lightweight. A different suit for every occasion she figured, in this case, Miles probably jumped into the smaller one as it was quicker to equip.

“I’d hurry up,” Penelope’s voice added. “Looks like they know you four got out. You got another group incoming.”

“Anything else we should know?” Williams asked.

“You guys are doing a smashing good job! But it’s not enough to deter the men from cutting their way into the bridge, so please hurry.”

Foster found a crate that was used to store the personal shield packs. She tossed one to Chang, and another to Williams, before clipping hers to the side of her uniform and powering it on. The mechanized joints of Miles’ exosuit whizzed when he approached, holding his assault rifle of Earthly origin. He gave everyone a nod and smiled through his thick ginger beard. Foster went for a rifle of her own, one of Draconian origin.

“Now what?” Chang asked.

Penelope’s voice laughed and then said. “You guys come save me!”

“We need EVE back online first,” Williams said.

“No, you really need to come get me first,” Penelope reiterated.

“Yeah, yeah, that too. Don’t worry.”

Radiance voices grew louder beyond the armory’s door. The second group Penelope spoke of arrived. The hulking Marine took point, peeked out into the cargo bay, then held up four fingers gesturing out into the cargo bay. They had four bad guys.

Miles counted down with his fingers when everyone was in place with their weapons ready. When he hit zero the Marine stormed out first, acting like a human tank, drawing the bullets of the four unwanted personnel. His shields flashed and flickered blue, and his assault rifle, thirsting for blood, went seeking it.

Foster, Chang, and Williams leaped out when the body count increased, taking cover behind various cargo crates. When it was over, three bodies of Radiance origin flew backward over cargo crates, the fourth was vaporized by Foster’s tachyon beam.

A similar act repeated near sickbay, liberating it, and giving Kostelecky the chance to bring the rest of the injured crew inside for better treatment. And others that might fall if things went bad. It was time for their next move.

“Williams,” Foster said to him. “You and Miles take back the bridge. Chang, you’re with me, we’s gonna get EVE back online.”

The team of four broke up, forming into two teams of two, sprinting in opposite directions. Foster heard a fury of gunshots bang from behind when engineering’s doors came into sight. Williams and Miles met the SOM personnel cutting into the bridge. She hoped they were safe.

Taking back engineering turned out to be easier than she expected. Most of the hostile targets were busy staring at holo screens or working on computer terminals. She almost felt guilty for shooting them all. Chang reminded her that these could have been the same group that murdered hundreds of innocents at the spaceport. Foster’s guilt vanished slightly when she processed that thought.

EVE’s deactivated body was found lying in the corner. Foster and Chang had to find the instruction manual on how to get her operational again, and then later her second intelligence onboard the Kepler. By the time EVE was up and running, Foster noticed one of the vortex keys they had was missing. She checked the remaining vortex key and noted the burn marks on it. Of course, Jainuzei would steal the working one, and leave them with the fried one.

“We got engineering back and EVE,” Foster said, speaking into her wrist terminal. “Dom, what’s your status?”

His stressed voice yelled back after ten seconds. “Just finished here, we’re good.”

Foster’s mind relaxed. It was over.

Quick multiple sweeps of all three of the Kepler’s decks were made, verifying that no other hostiles were aboard. During that time, Chang took the helm, disengaged the docking clamps that held the Kepler to whatever ship its airlock was linked with, breaking them free. Their timing was impeccable, as another team from the ship was preparing to override the locks and storm the Kepler.

Penelope stood with opened arms when Foster returned to the bridge. Foster was surprised to see the British hacker girl that locked herself on the bridge was a Hashmedai woman with long, shiny, silver hair and flawless glittering jewelry. And if what she read about Penelope was true, the jewelry was nothing more than secret computer mods and data crystals to enhance her hacking power.

“Aw, Captain, good morning and welcome back,” Penelope said to her. “I suppose you’re wondering what the devil is going on?”

“Naw,” Foster said, sitting on her captain’s chair. “I was wondering what the fuck is going on.”

The Kepler’s shields flashed blue from its aft and starboard sides. Plasma missiles launched from the ship they pulled away from were fired. By the time the alarms roared and screamed, a second salvo was launched.

“They’re firing at us, Captain,” Chang said.

“I’ve noticed,” Foster said drily. “Who are they?”

Pierce checked his terminal. His face looked shocked. “It’s the Gerard Kuiper.”

Suddenly it became clear to Foster why Jainuzei was gung ho about finding the Gerard Kuiper, and probably how he conveniently gave an order to Chang that led to the discovery of its beacon. He knew it was beyond the nebula’s barrier. It was one of many things he was searching for.

Foster grimaced. “Was wondering what the hell became of that ship.”

“Long story,” Penelope said then waved her hand, creating a holo screen with a list of coordinates and pushed it to Chang. “Take us to the planet’s surface and get us closer to the ruins. It’s on the other side of the planet, it will take them time to come about and retarget us, and there are people down there that will need our help.”

The Gerard Kuiper had come about at that point facing the Kepler. Behind the Kepler was the planet they orbited, making an FTL jump was going to take a few as Chang maneuvered to get clear. Fleeing to the planet’s surface was faster and safer considering the Kepler lacked overshields without Tolukei or Nereid.

“Take us to that location, Chang,” Foster said.

“Aye-aye, Cap.”

Chang worked quickly, making the Kepler flip and face the surface of the planet. The sight of the Gerard Kuiper firing its weapons was pushed off the view screen as the planet came into view and grew larger as their atmospheric entry continued. The Gerard Kuiper looked like a newer model of the Carl Sagan, and so was too large for atmospheric flight.

“So, about that long story, Penelope?” Foster asked her.

The Hashmedai hacker conjured various holo screens with her abilities handing them off to Foster. They showed security camera footage she had taken from the Kepler.

“The Kepler unexpectedly arrived in the sector and linked with the Gerard Kuiper,” she explained. “Turns out your friend Jainuzei started moving a lot of freight off it with help he had aboard, I take it they weren’t part of your crew.”

“No, we had our cryo pods replaced recently,” Foster said. “Someone slipped us a bunch of stowaways in ‘em.”

“Didn’t think so,” Penelope continued. “Jainuzei said he was working under orders of you, Captain. But I knew better, a lot better. SOM uses poor spoofing tools to mask their HNI’s IDs. I realized quickly something was afoot and went to investigate.”

Penelope rambled on for a bit, long enough for the view screen to show the horizon of the planet, the nebula in the skies, and the ruins of an ancient fortress below getting larger as the Kepler positioned itself to land. The story Penelope explained consisted of her meeting Rivera and escaping to the Javnis homeworld, the ruins found, and the discovery of the Kuiper. It warmed Foster to know Rivera was still alive; it pained her to know she was still aboard the Gerard Kuiper.

“Damn,” Foster said. “Does Rivera know any of this?”

“I dropped a hint,” Penelope said. “But again, Jainuzei wanted her to assist him and I didn’t want her getting shot at. Did you know that girl won’t pick up a gun to save herself? It’s absolute bollocks.”

“What did he take off the Kepler?” Williams asked.

“What I can tell from the cameras,” Penelope said, viewing the holo screen she made. “He snatched the vortex key, some other stuff I can’t make heads or tails of, and then stuffed Lisette and Nereid into crates to hide their presence from us I guess.”

“Weren’t the SOM interested in the vortex key?” Williams said.

“Yeah, they were,” Foster said, having realized Jainuzei brought it aboard another ship. One they control. “They wanted a quick and easy access to the nebula.”

“Well, looks like they got it,” Williams said. “Jainuzei was a mole working for the group.”

“Still don’t make any sense,” Foster said. “If he’s workin’ with the group, why in the hell is he offing their members?”

It was a question nobody had a reply for. And one that would have to wait as the Kepler touched down on the planet’s surface. In the distance was a small battle being fought. SOM, versus unarmed researchers and Radiance Union rangers.

52 Karklosea

Transport

En route to Interstellar Space, Inadrai System

July 22, 2119, 23:10 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea recovered faster than she predicted. That meant a doctor tended to her wounds, a psionic one at that used their powers to keep the blood inside Karklosea’s head, release any pressure and readjust her HNI and psionic brain chip implant, which might have been dislodged during the attack.

By the time she opened her eyes and looked around, she realized she was brought aboard a transport of human design, chained to the wall, and had a slave collar on. Her armor had been removed, leaving her wearing not much else other than a blanket. Being a prisoner to humans didn’t make sense, nor did the medical professional that approached. She was Hashmedai, dressed as an Imperial servant with the red blouse and skirt and purple hair cut short, with a small braid of it dangling over her left eye.

After the Hashmedai servant doctor finished scanning her with her tools, she went for the door and allowed a familiar face from the cockpit to enter and join the two, Chevallier.

Chevallier and the Hashmedai spoke, human words at that, and then stood next to Karklosea. The two began to unchain her arms from the wall, handing her a jumpsuit to wear.

“That’s the look the Soldiers of Marduk were expecting Lisette to have I bet,” Chevallier said to her as she got dressed.

“What do you mean? Who is Lisette?”

“Lisette is the Nephilim the Soldiers of Marduk are going nuts looking for,” Chevallier said. “Back on Earth, there were legends of Nephilim, fallen angels.” She pointed at Karklosea’s exposed back and the network of old cybernetic parts before it was covered with the jumpsuit. “Your back looks like it once had angel wings, like a fallen angel.”

“I had cybernetics there that folded out to enhance my powers,” Karklosea said.

“Yeah, I’ve seen fully upgraded psionics from Radiance,” Chevallier said. “They have similar attachments to their backs. When active, they look like wings with weird-looking wires and shit like that.”

She understood the reference Chevallier made. Lisette should have wings that looked like they had been clipped.

“What’s the story behind it?” Chevallier asked her.

“Behind what?”

“You not having the implants.”

“There was a time when my planet wasn’t part of the Union.” Karklosea finished dressing and faced the two, not that the Hashmedai woman would understand them. “I was born and raised during that era, became a fighter when the Hashmedai sought to invade our homeworld and others we controlled.”

Chevallier listened, arms folded. Her interest in the story expanded, judging by the intrigued look on her face. “I found an old Linl exploration ship in Sirius during my time there. That shit was almost older than written language on Earth. You must have seen a lot of history.”

“Read,” Karklosea corrected her. “I’m here today because of constant cryostasis; it allowed me to live long enough for gene therapy.”

“So, go on, this story is getting good.”

“Do I amuse you now?” Karklosea moved away from the two, standing ahead of a small window watching the stars of the black vacuum slip past in their FTL flight. “I got tired of fighting, tired of using my newfound gifts from the Gods to slay our enemies. I became a shipboard psionic for a ship of exploration, only to find myself fighting a war again.”

“So after, whatever that war was, you had your parts ripped out and became a Templar,” Chevallier said. “You wanted to escape from a life that was forced on you and felt that nobody would be able to pull you back if you did that.”

She didn’t reply, though Chevallier was right.

A large gathering of ships came into view, as the transport made a turn to approach them. There were two types of ships, one group she didn’t recognize though it did have a slick design that suggested they were built by Radiance. The presence of the other type of ships in the small approaching fleet confused her more than the fact they were on a human transport. Though, the presence of the Hashmedai servant doctor now made sense.

“Chevallier,” Karklosea said to her. “Why are we traveling to Imperial warships?”

“That’s the thing …” Chevallier said. “Those Hashmedai ships, and the command ship, are operated by a separate Hashmedai faction that allied with the Terran Legion.”

Karklosea moved away from the window, looking back at Chevallier and the silent Hashmedai woman. “The Legion is here? In Radiance space?”

“I’m as surprised as you are,” Chevallier said. “Turns out they know me. An EISS spook named Moriston had put in a good word for me before I knew he was with the Legion. They had members at the embassy, and they reached out to me once they realized who I was and wanted to know if I was interested in joining them.”

“Please tell me you didn’t!”

“I did, well not truthfully,” Chevallier continued to explain. “That’s why you’re free to go for the time being. Avearan here.” Chevallier gestured to the Hashmedai woman. “She was the one that made the connection and told them where Wenadei was operating since he worked on her in the past.”

Karklosea snorted, resisting the urge to rage. “So, we have her to thank for our capture?!”

“Easy there,” Chevallier said to Karklosea, putting her hands up to her. “She did it because she needs our help, and we need hers. The Rezeki’s Rage is one of the ships in the fleet, its captain and crew are in the brig since they refused to cooperate with the Terran’s alliance. She can’t get them out alone, she needs our help. We do that, and we got new allies and a ship to back us up.”

She gave Avearan a long stare, still puzzled as to why an Imperial servant had psionic powers, implants to aid her in healing, and wanted their help. This begs the question. “Why does she want our help? Is she not allied with the Terran allied Imperials?”

“Not by choice, she’s looking for her girlfriend that went missing from Taxah, take a guess who that is?”

“Foster?”

“No!” Chevallier blurted and took a minute to recover from her laugh. “Foster likes men and has a terrible choice in them at that. Trust me; I’ve seen pictures of her ex-boyfriend.”

“Then who?”

“Lisette Bennett …” Chevallier revealed. “Avearan came aboard the Rezeki’s Rage hoping the ship would point her to Lisette. The crew that hijacked it and the Terran overlords think I’m on their side since Avearan convinced them she could get us to aid them. That and my protect suit’s internal cameras recorded me giving Foster a good beating.”

“Why would you attack Foster?”

Chevallier scratched the back of her head, looking away when she gave her reply. “Long story … Look, just know that the Terrans and their friends now have evidence to think we’re on their side. We had convinced them to have you set free on the condition you cooperate with them.”

“I will not assist a group like that!” Karklosea yelled, quite possibly loud enough to make the crew in the cockpit hear. It forced Avearan to leave, probably checking up on them ensuring they would be able to continue their secret conversation.

“Don’t be stupid!” Chevallier retorted. “We’re going to be on one of their ships that the galaxy doesn’t know exists, and they aren’t trying to kill us. We need to take advantage of this edge and figure out what’s going on. So, you in or not?”

Karklosea agreed, swallowing her pride. It left a repulsive aftertaste. “What have you learned?”

“The obvious part, being Foster and the UNE didn’t capture everyone from the Legion,” Chevallier said. “The Rezeki’s Rage was hijacked by Hashmedai from Taxah and those Imperial ships? They all came from Taxah as well, being the planet the Terrans were trying to nuke.”

“That’s the part I don’t get. I was under the impression the Terrans were humans that hated nonhumans? Isn’t that why they were trying to destroy that world?”

“Their main plan was to overthrow the Imperial throne, wipe out the line of succession, leaving one person to take control as the Empire’s new ruler.”

“A puppet government,” Karklosea grunted.

“Which is exactly the same plan they have with Radiance,” Chevallier said. “The Terrans are funding the Soldiers of Marduk. They’re using them to take over the council. This fleet we’re approaching? It’s all part of an alliance manned by the Terran Legion, Soldiers of Marduk, and Taxah Hashmedai.”

“Did the Terran commander you spoke to know anything of Jainuzei?”

Chevallier shook her head. “Not that I know, and the briefing they gave me was extensive.”

The two came to watch the fleet via the window after an hour. It gave her a better glance at the mysterious ships that looked Radiance in design but were of a class she never saw.

“Those ships,” Karklosea said, pointing at them. “They aren’t part of Radiance, then?”

“Nope,” Chevallier said. “These are the Terran ships I spoke of. They were built at a shipyard in the Inadrai system. A fusion of Radiance and human tech, they look like Radiance on the outside but human tech on the inside. It’s part of their plan to bring down the Union from the inside out.”

“You have a plan?”

“Yeah, figure where Lisette is. She’s important to the Soldiers of Marduk, so the Terran alliance is helping them locate her.”

“My Gods …”

“They were waiting for the rest of their forces to gather before leaving the system. Only reason they haven’t left was because Avearan dropped the dime that she knew where we were hiding out. Turns out you were right, the Soldiers of Marduk were looking for the two of us.”

“Even if we find her, then what? Where would we go?”

“This is that part where you help them. They know you’re a lord commander, they want your command codes.”

“They’ll have no such thing.”

“They need it for some op in the Avalon system,” Chevallier said. “The way I see it, we give it to them, we enter that system then we make our move and free the crew of the Rezeki’s Rage while they’re distracted with whatever operation they want to carry out.”

“The Avalon system …” Karklosea whispered to herself.

“Not sure what’s so important to them there,” Chevallier said, shrugging.

“There’s a very large penal colony there. And the Rabuabin homeworld, Talsyk.”

The command ship came into view next, blocking out the black void of space. Command ships were massive vessels, shaped like giant metallic spheres, capable of storing one fleet within its hollowed out interior, a mothership for lack of a better term. Tractor beams along the interior of the command ship held all ships that flew inside of it in place to dock.

It was the common method of how all Hashmedai fleets traveled, as it allowed a space bridge to easily teleport them across the stars, rather than target each ship individually, which would be too stressful for the crew of the space bridge. They simply needed to send the command ship and everything inside it would come along. Throw in MRF to reduce its mass, and a command ship could materialize anywhere in the galaxy after a few weeks, a month at the longest.

The transport was deep in the command ship by the time its shields dropped to allow the tractor beam to hold it in place. Twenty minutes later, the fleet began to enter the command ship, single file, with the guidance of multiple tractor beams.

“This is how the Taxah Hashmedai got here,” Chevallier said. “A space bridge jump that put them outside of the Inadrai system where Radiance wouldn’t detect it.”

Karklosea paused to wonder why the ships were entering the command ship. If this were Imperial space, it’d be understandable as the command ship would be moving to the nearest space bridge and request a jump. This was Radiance space, there were no space bridges, and there were no wormholes that networked Earth controlled space, and command ships, like all Imperial made vessels, did not have FTL technology. It would take the command ship, and the fleet sleeping inside it, decades to reach the Avalon system.

Before the gigantic doors of the command ship shut, as the last ship entered and docked, Karklosea and Chevallier saw the flash of the vortex open, tearing a swirling hole in the fabric of space, spewing out red and magenta clouds from the maelstrom.

No alarms sounded, and no panic-stricken voices from the cockpit’s crew were heard. She had a feeling the same could be said for the ships inside the command ship as with its crew.

A single ship exited the maelstrom. It wasn’t Draconian. It was of human design, an old one at that, with a rotating habitat ring to generate artificial gravity.

The Terran Legion with the alliance with the Taxah Hashmedai and Soldiers of Marduk mastered the ability to traverse the maelstrom.

53 Foster

Draconian Ruins

Unknown Planet, Unknown System

July 22, 2119, 22:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster felt the surface rumble, seconds after Miles threw a plasma grenade. She came up from her cover with her tachyon rifle shifting from left to right, then right to left. The only people left standing were the Radiance rangers.

After the Kepler made landfall, she and Miles had come storming out via the entry ramp to assist. Maxwell and LeBoeuf came behind ten minutes later, against the wishes of Kostelecky. However, the EDF psionic duo was able to power their psionic rifles, meaning they managed to regain some mental focus back.

They stormed inside the ruins Penelope had told them about, assisting Radiance to retake it from the last of the SOM personnel that got a ride into the system from the Kepler, the ones that didn’t remain aboard the Kuiper. She found the Lyonria wormhole that was being studied by the research team. Looking at the oval-shaped device sent flashbacks of the Sirius expedition. It was no surprise to Foster that the ruins they stood in were responsible for the development of Marduk’s powers and the Javnis Muodiry. And the crew of the Gerard Kuiper knew all about it having visited the ruins after they somehow arrived at the planet.

It made her wonder if the Draconians and the Lyonria were once allies tens of thousands of years ago, playing God and Goddess to the primitive human race and other species of the galaxy.

Maybe the Hashmedai were right, the Radiance Gods were just powerful alien psionics.

“Foster!” a woman’s voice yelled at her. It caused her to spin on her heel, and then lower her tachyon rifle. “Of course, you’d be here!”

Eicelea and Vynei arose from a statue of a dragon they hid behind. The tip of Vynei’s rifle glowed red, he earned his pay as a bodyguard for a month. The two approached Foster stepping over the bodies of two SOM members.

“Y’all should be safe to head back into the wormhole,” Foster said.

“I refuse,” Eicelea said, pointing at the oval gateway and the garrison of rangers standing watch next to it. “That is what the SOM were trying to take. I’m not convinced it’s safe.”

“How do you know that?” Maxwell asked.

Eicelea pointed at the lone surviving adversary, the golden-faced Javnis Armuzei being held by two rangers. “He sacrificed all his men to get this far!”

Foster and her gang approached Armuzei, he was beaten and bloody and jerked his arms about in defiance, looking at the chambers that lay beyond the wormhole, and the psionic creation equipment that was used to create Marduk and the first Muodiry.

“Human and Radiance won’t stop me,” Armuzei said. “I’ll become Marduk’s new host—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Rage augmented LeBoeuf’s voice. Her hand rose up, and Armuzei’s body floated up above everyone. The two rangers spooked by LeBoeuf powers backed away. They knew not to get in the way of a pissed off cybernetic warlock. “This is the asshole that gave me the worst headache ever, right?”

“Yep,” Maxwell said, cracking his fists. “Me too, can I kill him, Captain?”

“I’d rather he spill the beans on what’s goin’ on first,” Foster said.

“I tell you nothing more, human!” Armuzei roared.

His screams filled the interior of the ruins. Foster wasn’t sure what LeBoeuf was doing with her telekinetic powers, but Armuzei was suffering.

“Answer Foster’s questions!” LeBoeuf demanded.

With her arms crossed, Foster looked up to the floating Armuzei and asked. “How did y’all know the importance of these ruins?”

“Elders of our group know all …” Armuzei coughed, it looked like his neck was getting crushed in a vise-grip. “They found Marduk Poniga tribes. Engrams taught us his knowledge; we shared it with exiles and Order remains that joined us.”

“Who are the elders?”

He coughed more. LeBoeuf was squeezing the intel out of him with her mind. Foster loved it. “Jainuzei and Levesque … Jainuzei no like our plan to bring Marduk back. He let Terrans give us credits and try to change our leadership to please them. Too bad for him. If he no make rash change, he could have got Undine and Poniga psionic powers transferred from engram. Just ask Byikanea, she the first.”

“Wait, I’m confused,” Maxwell said. “I thought Jainuzei and golden boy here were friends?”

“Me no see eye to eye with Jainuzei,” Armuzei said. “But, we had same goals; get to human ship in orbit, then to Kur with the Nephilim. Made nonabrasive agreement.”

In other words, it was a gentleman’s agreement. Jainuzei and Armuzei were stuck on the Kepler and wanted off to pursue their own plans. Jainuzei, being a man of honor, probably suggested they not fight until they reached the Kuiper. It’d explain the brief chat the two had in sickbay in their language, they probably made the agreement at that moment Foster figured. And the stowaways? That was probably Jainuzei’s planning too. Him making a deal with the Terrans probably won him a few supporters in the SOM to back him.

Jainuzei wasn’t just a weapons master. He was a very strategic and manipulative person, one that set Foster up from the start and adapted quickly to changes in his plans.

“And Lisette?” Foster asked. “The Nephilim, what does she have to do with all this?”

Armuzei gagged, and when he mustered enough strength to talk, he simply told the group to. “Fuck off. Me done talking, human.”

LeBoeuf flicked her wrist, and Foster heard Armuzei’s neck snap. “Wrong answer,” she said, and allowed gravity to drop his body to the ground.

When everyone turned their backs to Armuzei’s body, Maxwell pointed his psionic rifle at it and vaporized him. He walked away from the pile of ash and glowing embers with a smug grin.

There was officially no one from the cult pushing to get into the wormhole. Foster gestured to Eicelea and the wormhole. “Well, you two are free to head back now—”

Foster’s tattoos pulsed rapidly, its blue glow casting its light along the darkened walls and floors of the ruin’s chamber. Something nearby was triggering them to react, something that was high above them. She charged out of the ruins without muttering a word. There was no time to explain.

Looking up into the night skies, and the alluring nebula the planet and its orbiting star drifted through, she sensed it. It felt like a vortex open, a gateway to the maelstrom had formed. That could only mean one thing.

“Draconians!” she shouted into her wrist terminal. “Everyone off the surface, now!”

Chang’s voice replied. “Uh, Captain—”

“Not now, Chang, prep the Kepler for launch, figure out a course that’ll get us clear for an FTL jump fast.”

She got word that the remaining rangers fled the planet via the wormhole, taking the Radiance research team with them. Foster was the first to run up the Kepler’s entry ramp, Miles, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell followed behind. She was seconds away from closing it when Eicelea and Vynei came running up panting and pleading to be taken aboard.

She wanted to say no but figured Radiance would have had the wormhole powered down by now. The Kepler was their only means for escape. She made plans to grill Eicelea for not going with her people when they left.

The Kepler launched into space with little problems to Foster’s surprise. She sensed the vortex opening very close to the planet. Draconian forces should have been attacking by the time she made it to the bridge. They weren’t.

When she took a seat on her chair, she glanced at the view screen, only seeing the nebula in the distance as they broke away from the world’s gravity.

“Where’s the dragons?” she asked.

“I was trying to tell you, Cap,” Chang said. “Nobody was leaving the maelstrom.”

“Then who?—”

The Kepler approached the source that triggered Foster’s tattoos to brighten blue, the vanishing sight of the maelstrom, and the lack of any other ship in orbit other than the Kepler. The vortex to the maelstrom opened for the Gerard Kuiper. It plunged into the ethereal clouds and thunderbolts and then vanished when the vortex shut.

Foster made a half smile sitting back on her chair. “Well, sonovabitch!”

Williams stepped forward watching the viewer. “Someone on that ship used our damn vortex key and gave us the slip.”

The Gerard Kuiper was gone, taking with it Nereid, Lisette, Rivera … and their working vortex key. She gave her tattooed hands that now dimmed from the glowing light a long stare, wondering who else on the Gerard Kuiper had the markings she did.

Downtime arrived for the personnel aboard the Kepler. It was inevitable now that they were stuck in an unknown system, orbiting an unknown planet deep within the Hallowed Nebula, beyond its barriers. As expected, the wormhole on the surface was powered down from the other end.

To Foster’s delight, her cat Starlet was still alive. According to Penelope, Jainuzei took the time to feed it. As much of an asshole Jainuzei was, he followed a strict code of ethics; evidently one of those codes was to not bring harm to animals, cats included. Foster didn’t know if she should hug him or kick him in the balls the next time they met. Probably both.

Kostelecky had her hands full treating everyone’s injuries. Foster felt bad for the lone pregnant doctor to be tasked with so much work. Chef Bailey couldn’t take it anymore and offered to help Kostelecky any way he could. She was glad to see it.

Back on the bridge with her head patched up, Foster had EVE compile as much data as possible about the region of the nebula they arrived in thanks to Jainuzei. Eicelea and Vynei explained their story as Penelope continued hers, bringing the crew up to speed.

Afterward, Penelope mentioned the primary reason she came searching for the Kepler in the first place. Intel about the SOM’s interest in the Nephilim, and the disappearance of the Rezeki’s Rage. And Rivera went out and got HNI, kept it secret, and now the rogue EVE AI from the Carl Sagan took over her HNI, and started calling itself Sarpanit, Marduk’s wife.

Foster left the bridge and went for the Kepler’s lounge. There was a bottle of Jack Daniels she needed more than anything after hearing that. The Kepler wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Ending her shift early shouldn’t have been an issue.

Foster awoke the next day ready to try again, now that the stress in her body had faded a great deal. She returned to the bridge to find Penelope, Williams, and Pierce sitting at one of the rear computer stations, sifting through data and a number of holo screens. She stood with them. It was time to sort out the mess they had fallen into.

“Seems to me,” Williams said. “Like everything lately points back to Marduk, the nebula, and Lisette.”

“Agreed,” Foster said. “EVE, compile everything we learned so far.”

“Understood,” EVE said. “Please standby.”

“Rebecca,” Pierce said. “You might want to take a look at this.”

Foster stood behind Pierce at his station, staring over his shoulder at the screen. “What’s up?”

Pierce pushed a button and the screen changed to a rotating projection of the Gerard Kuiper. “I was searching through the Kepler’s database about the Gerard Kuiper since it’s one of our own ships.” A portrait of the Gerard Kuiper’s captain appeared. Alisha Levesque. Levesque was the name of one of the founders of the SOM. “As we know, the Gerard Kuiper went to Sirius to help search for us on the Carl Sagan after word got out we vanished.”

“And then it vanished afterward,” Williams said.

“Well reported destroyed in an accident,” Penelope added. “The captain of the Gerard Kuiper was Alisha Levesque—”

“Levesque …” Odelea cut in, loud enough for the three to look at her from her communication station.

“You know her, Odelea?” Foster asked.

“Yes,” Odelea said, then joined the group staring at Alisha’s portrait. “Karklosea might as well. Alisha was one of the human refugees that fled Earth during the Imperial invasion and spent time on a ship Karklosea and I both worked on. As I recall, Alisha ended up working as a researcher for Radiance.”

“She’s right about that,” Pierce said. “Says here after the Celestial Order wars, Alisha returned to Earth, joined IESA, and moved up the ranks quickly.”

“That would make sense,” Odelea said. “She worked closely with Radiance and was one of the first humans to leave Sol. She probably had a lot of knowledge and experience about space travel learned from us that got her so many promotions.”

“What else you got about her?” Foster asked. “A ship that transmitted data that somethin’ bad happened when everything was perfectly fine seems fishy to me.”

“Not to mention bolted with our vortex key, Nereid, and Lisette,” Williams added.

“Alisha was married to her third husband at the time of the Imperial invasion, living in Montreal,” Pierce said, reading the new holo screen that appeared. “She got lucky and was on vacation at the time of the attacks but got separated from her daughter and husband.”

Something in Pierce’s words caught Penelope’s attention. She leaned closer to him narrowing her red eyes. “How old was her daughter?” she asked him.

“Doesn’t say, just that she was a young girl.”

“Born in Montreal? Between 2003 and 2018?”

“That would be my guess.”

“A Nephilim …” Penelope said, moving away from the screen. “Alisha’s daughter was a Nephilim.”

There was an odd silence, broken when Williams asked the million-credit question. “What the fuck is a Nephilim?”

“I don’t know,” Penelope said. “But the SOM does, and so do the Draconians.”

“Captain,” EVE’s voice said over the bridge’s speakers. “I have finished analyzing the data from our scans of this region of the nebula.”

“Let’s see it, EVE.”

Foster and Williams approached a nearby station behind them as a three-dimensional hologram loaded. The projection showed a map of the system they were in and the location of close by systems within the nebula.

“As you suspected,” EVE said. “This planet and its parent star are deep within the Hallowed Nebula of Radiance, beyond the barriers we encountered earlier.”

“Kinda figured that part out, EVE,” Foster said.

“I have extrapolated data, based on the position of the stars, that we are approximately twenty-five light years away from the edge of the barrier. The barrier is estimated to be at least fifty light-years in diameter. That would put us near the center of it.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning,” Odelea said before EVE could reply, as her Aryile eyes glanced at the projection. “Meaning we are near the center of the nebula. The home of the Gods.”

“And we are near the location of Kur as indicated by the data acquired from the Soldiers of Marduk,” EVE added.

Foster watched as Odelea made the hologram zoom out. The system they were in was close to the center of the nebula. The estimated position of Kur was added to the projection, a five-light-year distance. The unknown planet they orbited could very well have been the closest habitable world to the center of the nebula and Kur. The Gerard Kuiper’s arrival there was no accident.

“Williams, gather the crew and our guests for a meeting,” Foster said. “We’s got a lot to talk about …”

54 Saressea

Radiance Prison Ferry

Leaving Talsyk Orbit, Avalon System

July 23, 2119, 12:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Leaving Talsyk on the same prisoner transport Saressea came to the surface in wasn’t exactly how she imagined waving goodbye to the planet of her birth. Rejoining the inmates aboard the prison ferry she had left days earlier wasn’t any better.

It felt to her like the detour to her tribunal was just a formality. Like someone in the Union had plans to ship her out to the penal colony, no matter what and shipped her to Talsyk, parked the prisoner ship in orbit, sent her to the surface, waited, then picked her up. Because by the time she was unloaded off the transport onto the prison ferry, it promptly left orbit, heading straight for the penal colony at the edge of the system.

And if that seemed unbelievable enough, there was conveniently a lot of inmates aboard that was also fated to be deposited there before the ship delivered the rest of the prisoners to mining camps, prisons, execution prisons or to exile them from the Union. She really hoped she wasn’t mistaken for execution after all that.

As for the accused that left for Talsyk for their tribunals the same time she did? They all got off or weren’t sentenced to a penal colony. It wasn’t a coincidence, it was planned. And it pissed her off as she was led back into the block she thought she escaped from.

It was mealtime by the time the ship broke orbit, venturing to the distant penal colony. She didn’t want to eat but knew if she didn’t now, she’d have to wait until the morning for another meal. Reluctantly, she entered the mess, stood in line for a tube of protein paste and water, and hoped Byikanea and her gang wasn’t around. Her nerves relaxed a bit when no signs of the bat-shit crazy redheaded Linl woman were seen.

The line shrunk enough for her to get the tube of paste and water. Looking from left to right, Saressea saw nothing but rugged inmates squeezing the brown goo inside the tubes into their mouths, talking, laughing, sharing stories of what they did that got them arrested. Then there was the special group in the corner, huddled around their own tables and chairs claimed for them, the group of SOM members or supporters. If Saressea hadn’t stopped to stare at them, she might have been able to avoid making eye contact with Byikanea. She groaned having realized this was the second time she did that.

Mind-altering flashbacks of Byikanea quivering with orgasmic lust, while Saressea lay back a paralyzed victim of rape, wouldn’t stop. She tried looking away, but thoughts of being violated prevented that. Byikanea’s gaze into her eyes was soul piercing.

Two large inmates dragged Saressea to the table Byikanea sat at with their cronies, like she was the queen of all prisoners aboard. The two murmured something to Saressea as they forced her to sit before Byikanea. The words were nothing more than fading sounds in the background. Saressea couldn’t shake the psychological trauma of what Byikanea put her through during the multi-month voyage.

“We meet again,” Byikanea said for a second time, or was it a fourth? She didn’t know, it wasn’t until Byikanea snapped her fingers that Saressea came back to the world of the present.

“Guess we both got pissed on by the Gods,” Saressea said.

“Gods …” Byikanea scowled at her words. “What was your name again?”

“You fucked me every other day and you don’t remember?—”

Byikanea laughed, it was the same evil laughter like the first time they met. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I was with Jainuzei and you know that.”

Byikanea gave her a quick wink and a smile.

“Well, sorry that the Gods screwed with your shitty memory,” Saressea said. “They must have been busy pissing all over me when they did that.”

“Gods …” she scowled again at the word.

Discharged protein or vegetable tubes littered the surface of the table. Saressea had a feeling she should eat hers before the guards took it away when it was lights out time. She went to leave and was firmly pushed back down to sit on the chair by the two large inmates behind. She squirmed, trying to shake them off with the jerking of her shoulders. It didn’t work.

“Sit with us, Saressea,” Byikanea said. “I have a very important question to ask you.”

Saressea remained still, ending all attempts at resistance. Her tail lowered during the process. “Okay, shoot.”

Byikanea leaned forward across the table and discarded tubes. “You mentioned Gods twice.”

Saressea lifted an eyebrow; it made her right feline ear stiffen during the process. “Yeah … and?”

A devious smile spread across Byikanea’s face. “Are you a believer, Saressea?”

“Well, yea—”

“Choose your words carefully.”

Her tongue pushed against the side of her mouth, anxiety prevented her from answering too quickly. Saressea had a feeling the wrong reply might see her not arrive at the penal colony. Byikanea would probably see to that, and if not her, then the dozens of inmates grouped around her watching Saressea’s ears sag from the stress.

“We are believers,” Byikanea said. “Are you?”

“She hasn’t answered your question,” one of Byikanea’s cronies, an Aryile woman, said.

“Saressea, do you want to be here?” Byikanea asked her.

“Stuck on this rust bucket ship with you wackos?” Saressea said. “I can think of about ten other things I’d rather be doing right now, so no.”

“You want to be set free, then?”

“Sure? Legally preferably, but yeah, that’d be nice.”

“Then you are a believer?”

“Uh … sure,” she lied, scratching the back of her head. She had nothing else to lose at that point. People living in penal colonies weren’t known for their truthfulness. “Yeah, sure I’m a believer. That’s right.”

Byikanea stood up, gesturing to the people around her. They gave her their attention, and she gave them a speech. “The three Gods have abandoned us all,” Byikanea said as if she was a preacher. “It’s not because of what we did or didn’t do. It’s because they left us, left this galaxy, left the universe. We pray to a force that can’t hear or see us.”

What the fuck did I agree to? Saressea thought as an uneasy feeling rippled throughout her body and across her tail. As Byikanea continued, Saressea repeatedly told the Gods sorry, over and over in her head, in hopes of the slim chance they were mind readers.

“ … Marduk, the king of all Gods never left us,” Byikanea continued. “He just never got the chance to show himself to the people of Radiance. He was exiled in the Sirius system by Tiamat’s minions, killed by Captain Foster and her crew. As long as we keep his devotion in our thoughts, we can bring him back, we can bring the Radiance Union into his protective arms and save our people from the vile dragons of Tiamat’s creation.”

Byikanea’s speech was drawing all eyes in the mess at her. Even a number of the guards standing watch nodded their heads in agreement. Saressea quickly figured out who had been slipping Byikanea special privileges. Saressea also knew the beginning of a mutiny when she saw one. And she saw one. She needed to get out, and fast.

“Hey, guys quick question,” Saressea said to her.

Byikanea looked down at her with the same lustful stare she couldn’t erase from her thoughts. “Speak, Saressea.”

Saressea bit her lip and then said. “I gotta pee, is it okay if I step out for a sec?”

“You’re going to miss the fun if you do.”

“I could imagine, but I really, really got to go—”

Three sets of clicks removed the electronic bindings that kept her hands and legs restricted. Her slave collar loosed afterward, so did everyone else’s at the table. Behind, Saressea saw a number of inmates experience the same unexpected freedom, and the guards standing watch? They stood watching as if it were a form of entertainment.

Byikanea climbed up onto the table, raised her hands in the air, drawing the attention of everyone including the prisoners that did not have their collars and bindings removed. With a loud brimming voice, she shouted. “Believers of Marduk will be set free tonight!”

With the slave collar powered off and removed from Saressea’s neck, her HNI booted up again. She never realized how much she missed the implant in her head until that moment. She imagined everyone else’s HNI was rebooting as well, including the inmates that suddenly converted to the faith of Marduk when they saw the deal they could get.

A text-only message flashed over her eyesight, it was sent minutes after her slave collar had deactivated.

Get to an escape pod, now!

- Michei

It didn’t surprise her that Michei, a member of the Whisper, got the heads-up of what happened. What did surprise her was the surge of violence that erupted when Byikanea unleashed her psionic might, now that the damping effects of the collar was gone, upon the guards that didn’t stand with her.

Three sets of alarms blared, two of them she recognized. One of them was to let guards know that the prisoners were rioting. The other alarm she had no idea what it meant, and the last one? It was a battle stations alarm; the ship was under attack by another.

Multiple psionic blasts followed, rupturing the walls, vaporizing those that got close, flinging guards that didn’t stand with the rioting inmates from wall to wall with brutal telekinetic force or pulling magnetic rifles out from the hands of others. Byikanea wasn’t the only inmate with psionic powers, but she was the only one that conjured the devastating psionic bombs that blew apart the walls and ceilings.

Saressea kept to the floor crawling on it as weapons fire between guards loyal to Byikanea exchanged bullets with guards loyal to the Union. She wasn’t looking forward to crawling across the floor that flowed with blood, brains, and fragments of arms and fingers when she approached it. Crawling over the two dead Javnis bodies and halved Vorcambreum was hard enough.

A hole in the wall gave her access to a hallway full of guards and inmates busy shooting and bludgeoning each other to death. Blood sprayed across the side of her face when she tried to slip past an inmate stabbing a guard in the neck seventeen times in the same spot. Three times could have done the trick, seventeen was just fucking hatred.

Her instincts told her to keep moving. The opening of a maelstrom in the middle of space seen via a window made her stop and look. Out from the maelstrom came a Hashmedai command ship. Leading the command ship was an Earth vessel with a rotating habitat ring. She had her HNI verify what she saw was real. Last time she checked, only Draconians could exit the maelstrom.

Her HNI sent a visual confirmation back after it scanned the imagery from the window. The ship leading the charge was an IESA ship from the twenty-first century; the massive sphere behind it was an Imperial command ship, and the fleet of ships exiting it? Half were Imperial warships, the other was of a class of Radiance ships she had never seen before. And they were all opening fire on the Radiance cruisers escorting the prison ferry—

An inmate’s head exploded when a high-velocity round hit it. The insides of their head drenched the window she was looking at, blocking the view of the incoming fleet. The chunks of pink mixed with a splash of crimson that used to be their brains slid down the glass. It was a grim reminder she had something important to do.

Right, the escape pod.

Saressea continued her search for it amidst the chaos.

55 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System

July 23, 2119, 13:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The crew and guests that found themselves aboard the Kepler sat around a circular table with the logo of IESA painted on it. Above the table was the large projection of the nebula, showing the Kepler’s approximate location inside the barrier and the estimated location of Kur. The colors the nebula depicted on the hologram cast a light pink hue on all those in attendance as the lights dimmed, and Williams gave everyone a recap.

Eicelea and Vynei squirmed in their seats when the projection changed to Alisha’s IESA portrait. They recognized her too. Eicelea pointed at it with her tiny finger.

Foster’s eyebrow rose. “Don’t tell me you y’all know her as well?”

“We do,” Eicelea said. “We were roommates for an extremely short time on Rasi, in the Barnard’s Star system.”

“That proves this is the Alisha I know,” Odelea said. “She transferred to a research outpost on Rasi when I last saw her.”

“Barnard’s Star,” Foster said, putting things together. “Didn’t Karklosea say Jainuzei was there?”

“She insists he was, yes,” Odelea said, nodding.

“And now hijacked our ship, ran off to the Gerard Kuiper with our vortex key, Nereid, and Lisette.”

“Jainuzei and Alisha must have met,” Williams said. “Then, when she returned to Earth, he came with her in secret.”

“Then went to Sirius, something happened, they created the SOM, then the Gerard Kuiper left with Alisha faking its death,” Pierce finished for him. “It ended up in the nebula, and—”

“Jainuzei knew about it,” Penelope said, reclining on her chair. “Been browsing through your logs, Jainuzei spent quite a bit of time reading news reports via QEC about the ruins found on the Javnis homeworld. He also sent encrypted messages via QEC back to someone in the Luminous system, probably speaking to his allies.”

“The SOM on the refinery made a big deal about the discovery of those ruins too, didn’t they?” Williams said. “They knew it was a backdoor into a planet in the nebula.”

“And the origin of Marduk and the Javnis Muodiry creation,” Foster said.

Williams stroked his beard, keeping his eyes on the projection. “I still don’t get it,” he said. “The vortex key, I get, they got it working and used it to leave, which is what the SOM was trying to achieve. So, on one hand, it looks like Jainuzei is pushing their plans forward. But if that’s the case, why was he killing their members? And why bring Nereid into all this?”

“We can debate all we want,” Foster said. “But our questions will only be answered once we capture the Gerard Kuiper.”

“Agreed,” LeBoeuf muttered. “We need to go after them.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Foster said, nodding in agreement. “They opened a fresh vortex, I can sense it. We’s just need to get the Kepler in it and I should be able to navigate us to wherever they went. Of course, that’d be the easy part.”

“And the hard part?” Penelope asked.

“Gettin’ the Kepler there,” she replied. “We’s need to get the vortex key working. Those fissures ain’t gonna cut it since they link with other fissures. We need to follow the path the Gerard Kuiper’s makin’.”

“But he took it …” Chang said drily.

Foster smiled at him. “There’s a backup one, remember? The first vortex key we got that blew out.”

Originally, there were two vortex keys, one that was in the possession of Amicitia Station 14, the other in control of the Empire. The first key came from Amicitia Station 14 and broke down after testing, the second, and working key, on Gerard Kuiper, came from the Empire. The burnt-out key was left aboard.

“That’s right,” Pierce said. “He left that one since it wasn’t working.”

“During her downtime Saressea tinkered with both keys and learned a helluva lot more than we did at the time,” Foster said. “Her files should still be on that data crystal we found. Let’s put ‘em to use, get that busted key back online and runnin’, and we got this.”

The remainder of the day was spent studying Saressea’s recovered HNI files about the inner workings of the vortex key, using the encrypted data from the data crystal taken from the SOM hut by Karklosea. EVE worked for hours on it, making repairs that Saressea didn’t know how to make at the time of it breaking down.

By the time everyone finished dinner in the mess, EVE reported she got it working again. And the best part? The tentacle creature inside the key was long dead, most likely killed when it got fried the first time. If the theory was right, and it was a psionic tracking device, it shouldn’t be able to do it now.

It put a smile on Foster’s face. Gerard Kuiper was using the vortex key that telepathically transmitted to the Draconians its location. They were the ones that were going to have to scratch their heads wondering why they kept getting attacked.

Her smile faded when the faces of Rivera, Nereid, and Lisette came into her thoughts. They were still aboard the Gerard Kuiper. They needed to be pulled out before the dragons pulled the ship apart.

“Everyone ready?” Foster asked as she gave the bridge crew a quick look.

Chang nodded double-checking his helm’s controls. “Ready and waiting, Captain.”

“Y’all know the drill then.” Foster went for the exit to make her way to engineering. “Dom, you got the bridge, Tolukei rub the hull down with that creepy goo.”

She marched to engineering, looking at the tattoos on her hands, knowing that the strange wires under them that fused with her body was able to once again give her the power to commune with the alien device.

Similar to their last attempts at venturing through the maelstrom, Tolukei used his telekinetic powers to control and spread the goo the Kepler had in storage along the hull, preventing it from vanishing. The technique wasn’t reliable, as Tolukei struggled to keep it adhered correctly, all while it proved to be a taxing task to his mind. How the Gerard Kuiper managed to pull it off was a mystery to all. Foster hoped their pursuit of the Gerard Kuiper wasn’t going to end with them finding the partially faded away hulk of the ship adrift in the maelstrom because Jainuzei and his company didn’t know any better.

Foster reached up and touched the restored vortex key in engineering when she arrived, and the crew gave their all clear. In a flash, she felt her mind lift away from her body, like a form of astral projection, sensing the presence of a shut vortex, and ripping it open. With Williams in command, he ordered the goo-covered ship through and Foster allowed her powers to close the vortex behind. She returned to the bridge when the task was finished.

The Kepler was once again flying through the red and magenta clouds. After an hour, the first test was completed, no dragons swarmed them. Now came test number two, keeping the ship together while Tolukei used all his psionic might to force the goo to remain on the hull. The Kepler followed the direction the Gerard Kuiper went, with Foster’s guidance.

By the time the second hour passed, the Kepler picked up the presence of an Imperial command ship. Tolukei wasn’t able to confirm it since his mind was still focused on his task at keeping the goo still, only making very brief ESP scans.

The command ship had the same goo protecting it and was being led by another ship the sensors couldn’t pick up when the Kepler got close. The large size of the command ship was blocking it. Foster guessed it to be the Gerard Kuiper, they were after all still following the path it made through the ethereal clouds.

As they neared the slow-moving vessel, more ships appeared on scanners.

Draconian bio-ships, many of their weapons ports were opened and charging.

The race was on.

56 Saressea

TLS Prometheus

Terran Alliance Fleet, Interstellar Space

July 24, 2119, 05:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Saressea thanked the Gods fifteen times when the escape pod she managed to board wasn’t fired upon after it was ejected from the prison ferry. She wasn’t sure when it was recovered, or by who as she had fallen asleep after it drifted aimlessly for six hours. It wasn’t until she heard a recovery team outside cutting into it that she had awoken from her slumber.

Her body had weight by the time the personnel outside got a hold of her body. The escape pod was picked up by a ship that had artificial gravity. A human doctor waved a medical scanner around her body as she was placed onto a stretcher and taken to the ship’s infirmary. It felt good to be resting on something comfortable, so she put her head back, and shut her eyes.

What humans were doing in Radiance space did raise an excellent question. Her first thought was that they were Terrans, but then she cast it aside when she noticed they were concerned for her health and wellbeing. Later she cast away the thought that they were humans to start with, as they all spoke in the Radiance language. That discovery forced her up from the medical bed she was placed on to double check the environment she was in.

The interior of the infirmary was indeed of human design as was the equipment in it. The personnel she saw all wore uniforms clearly designed by humans. She just didn’t recognize them. They weren’t UNE military or IESA uniforms. The patches on their uniforms read ‘TLS Prometheus,’ the name of the ship. TLS wasn’t something that rang a bell, though she had a feeling the T and the L stood for Terran Legion.

Once she was cleared by the doctor, a man in an officer’s uniform escorted her to the bridge, giving her an interesting trek across the ship’s corridors. Like the infirmary, everything about its design looked human, like a warship. Her Rabuabin ears, however, picked up the soothing humming noise of what she concluded to be the engineering hall not far from them. She identified the sound of a reactor powered by ethereal energy. Only Radiance had that tech.

The bridge had a slick and aesthetically pleasing look, oval-shaped with a crew of dozens buzzing back and forth from various workstations and holograms displaying the ship’s status and their location. Once again, the crew looked human but spoke Radiance and none of them seemed to care about the traces of blood splatter on a few chairs and computers.

At the central station of the bridge stood a Rabuabin psionic, standing before a large work station with a massive 3D hologram of the galaxy rotating. Labels on the hologram were written in English listing various systems in Radiance space.

Saressea’s escort brought her to the Rabuabin psionic, and he turned around facing her with a grin. It was Michei. She wasn’t surprised to see him at all.

“Ah, Saressea, welcome aboard,” he said. “I suppose you’re wondering why there are Linl dressed as humans.”

“I was more curious about the bloodstains on the floor, the computers too. You know how much of a pain in the ass it is to clean that shit off the electronics inside?” He laughed. “Oh, yeah, and the human uniform thing raises excellent questions too.”

“I’ll try and be brief,” he said, directing his focus back to the holographic galaxy map. “The Terran Legion is funding the SOM.”

“No shit, eh?”

Michei pointed at the crew. “We are all Whisper operatives, most of these people were sent to UNE space as spies, pretty easy since Linl looked exactly like humans. When the Terrans made their threat known at Taxah, Morutrin Prime, and Amicitia Station 14, we had our Whisper spies secretly join the group to learn more. Turns out there was a member of the SOM that wanted to make a deal with the Terrans.”

“Terrans hate nonhumans, why would anyone from the Marduk cult want to ally with them?”

“Because those people knew that with the Terran’s support, they could take control of the cult, its members, and use it to their advantage. All they needed to do was topple the Radiance council, take control of the Union, handing it over to the Terrans.”

“And this ship?” Saressea said, eying the layout of the bridge again.

“It was built in secret at the Inadrai shipyards,” Michei said. “They look like a new class of Radiance ships, but on the inside, as you can see here, it’s a human design. A handful of the Terran forces in Sol traveled here in secret to take possession of these ships. Little they knew we put forth a lot of effort to ensure that most of the crew of the Prometheus were the Whisper agents we sent to infiltrate the Terrans. Those that weren’t, well …” He pointed at the bloodstained equipment where a few Terran brains were blown out.

“Sir,” one of the bridge officers called out to Michei. “The fleet is requesting for us to board the command ship.”

“Do it, they still think we’re with them,” Michei said.

“Command ship?” she asked him with a strange glare. “As in the Imperial one I saw on my way to the escape pod?”

“Yeah, forgot that part,” he said. “The Terrans have their hands on Taxah Hashmedai and got them to send a command ship with Imperial warships inside to assist in the operation.”

“And what operation is that?”

“As per their agreement, the Soldiers of Marduk, now under new management, will disrupt the Union from the inside out, allowing a new government to rise that will be loyal to the Terrans. In return, the Terrans will help them enter the center of the Hallowed Nebula.”

She grimaced. “The home of the Gods … But, that place is hundreds of light-years away.”

“And the Gerard Kuiper will lead them there,” Michei said. “It recently got an operating vortex key installed. They’re going to use it to get beyond the sacred barriers within the nebula.”

The view screen showed the fleet that attacked the Radiance ships escorting the prison ferries slowly drift inside the confines of the massive sphere-shaped command ship. One of the ships was the prison ferry she had escaped from. Byikanea and her followers must have captured it in the name of Marduk.

The Gerard Kuiper remained outside of the command ship. It was an old IESA ship with a habitat ring, a ship that vanished years ago due to an accident when she last checked. Clearly that wasn’t the case, and clearly, it was on the Terran Legion’s payroll.

“That’s an old IESA ship,” Saressea said. “Habitat ring and all, built before artificial gravity.”

“And that’s the ship that’s going to lead the way into the maelstrom,” Michei said.

“That old ass thing? How? Hell, how is this whole fleet going to survive? They need the protective gel, which I don’t see anywhere.”

“They seem to have that figured out.”

“Well then, we need to do something before the Gods slap the shit out of us with their cocks.”

“We’re one ship, Saressea. One that’s not allied with them truthfully. We can’t take the risk and lose our cover.”

“Oh Gods …” Saressea said, sighing and facepalming as her feline ears sagged. “So, you guys are just going to do nothing?”

“For now, yes,” he said. “I’m sure the Gods will be furious if we acted too quickly and lose our advantage. If we’re discovered too early, then there’s little else we can do to stop this.”

“Have you contacted Radiance command?”

“We have but …” He pointed at the view screen, showing the wide doors of the command ship shut, cutting the Prometheus’s view of space off. The Gerard Kuiper was still outside of the command ship when a vortex flashed and opened, spewing out the clouds and thunderbolts of the maelstrom. “They won’t reach us in time, especially after we vanish through that.”

The command ship’s doors closed, only the massive interior of the sphere-shaped mother ship could be seen from the view screen. What happened next, only the command ship’s crew and the Gerard Kuiper knew. But if Saressea were to guess, both the command ship and the Kuiper entered the maelstrom, vanishing from normal space and time. The Prometheus couldn’t transmit to Radiance in secret when it left the known universe.

“Wonder how they’re operating the vortex key,” Saressea said. “Foster and her tattoos were able to on the Kepler … but what about the Kuiper?”

Michei brought up a holo screen containing scans of the Gerard Kuiper before the command ship’s doors shut, blocking further ones off. The glow from the blue and white flickering screen made his eyes narrow.

“Looks like there was a lot of psionic energy coming from the Gerard Kuiper when the maelstrom appeared,” he said.

“How much are we talking?” she asked him.

He pushed the holo screen to her. Her tail became firm when she read its results. It was a lot, more than what the Kepler put out during its test voyages into the maelstrom. “Holy fuck.”

“What’s the status of the command ship?” Michei asked one of the officers.

“Seems to be running fine,” a Whisper bridge officer replied with their eyes focused on their computer’s holo screen. “But we are on the inside, sir, what’s going on the outside is what we should be worried about, according to Saressea.”

Saressea nodded. “If the command ship isn’t protected, we’re all dead unless we reach their intended destination soon.”

“This isn’t an Imperial ship,” Michei said. “It can’t link with the command ship’s computers.”

She grimaced, making eye contact with Michei. “You’re a psionic. Can’t your ESP tell what’s up?”

Michei stood back, relaxed his muscles and eyes, entering an ESP trance, making the psionic cybernetics on his body shimmer with purple and blue light. When the trance finished, he said. “Everything seems fine …”

“Bullshit,” Saressea spat.

“Maybe the maelstrom is interfering with my ESP.”

A voyage through the maelstrom, without the protective gel that normally came from Draconian Charybdis ships, was suicide. The clouds and the wired laws of physics made all matter from the normal universe simply vanish slowly over time. If the command ship wasn’t protected, then all the ships inside, including the Prometheus, were at risk.

Saressea stormed to the bridge’s exit. She didn’t survive this long over the last year to vanish because the Terrans and their friends were too stupid to learn about the risks maelstrom travel carried.

“Which way is it to the airlock? I wanna take a look myself,” she said.

“I’ll come with you,” Michei said, following behind.

Saressea didn’t look down once as her EVA suited body drifted away from the Prometheus’s airlock. The powerful jets on the EVA suit propelled her past the sleeping fleet, below, beside, and above her, within the command ship. She left like she was flying over a city without a ship or vehicle through the night skies. Only the lights of the fleet, and a few lights lining the interior of the command ship’s gravityless storage space for the fleet reminded her where she really was.

Michei was behind, using a psionic barrier to keep himself alive, moving his body forward with telekinesis. He kept his eyes shut to focus during the voyage, his ESP working as a sixth sense to follow Saressea as she drifted past various idle Imperial and Terran ships on her way to the nearest wall. She called him a show-off. He didn’t reply, his psionic trance was something else.

Her HNI directed her to a maintenance hatch, and she followed the superimposed navigational point that appeared over her eyes. She cursed in the Rabuabin language when her hands failed to open the hatch. It was locked. Michei’s telekinetic powers were the key to opening it, crushing the locking clamps with a thought and a wave of his hand.

The pitch-black Hashmedai crafted tunnel took the two through a maze of smaller tunnels until they arrived outside of the exterior of the command ship. A layer of the protective goo was covering the doorway they forced open to the exterior. It was good news; the command ship was protected. The question was, how? Saressea had to find out.

The two floated through the layer of goo, drenching Saressea’s EVA suit in it and Michei’s psionic barrier. Her gloved hand wiped away some of the goo that smeared her helmet’s visor, unveiling what existed beyond the command ship.

She saw the colorful splendors of the maelstrom. The command ship was flying through it with the Gerard Kuiper leading them. Her magnetic boots clung to the exterior of the command ship’s hull, and she walked across it, leaving behind a trail of footprints in the goo.

Her footsteps stopped when she arrived at the forward section of the command ship, staring ominously at the Gerard Kuiper which was now ahead from her point of view. It too was covered in the goo, and six strange tendrils made of the goo exited beyond the Gerard Kuiper and touched the command ship. The tendrils touching the command ship began to spread the protective goo across it.

It looked like the goo was growing in size, multiplying, and spreading out. Someone from the Gerard Kuiper was controlling it. Someone from the Gerard Kuiper figured what the Kepler couldn’t do, use the goo to their advantage and send it to other ships. The Gerard Kuiper became an advanced form of the Charybdis.

A shadow from behind darkened the surface of the command ship Saressea and Michei stood at. She always wondered where the light in the maelstrom came from as there were no visible stars if they even existed in this universe.

She looked with concern to see what was creating the shadows above.

Bio-ships were descending upon the command ship and Gerard Kuiper.

The Draconians found them.

57 Rivera

ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Terran Alliance Fleet, Dark Energy Maelstrom

July 24, 2119, 06:52 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera couldn’t believe it.

She floated in the Gerard Kuiper’s engineering bay, watching as Alisha briefly touched the vortex key Rivera was forced to bring online. Alisha had tattoos, the same ones Foster had, and they glowed blue like Foster’s, they just weren’t present on her hands. Rivera was able to see the light shimmering from the rest of the tattoos that were likely on Alisha’s body, covered up by her jumpsuit.

The remaining SOM crew Jainuzei brought aboard were tightlipped about why Alisha had them. They said that it was the will of Marduk and continued with their duties. An Aryile woman dressed in the cult’s robes pulled Alisha’s floating body away from the key as alarms blared. There was a combat situation brewing, and nobody wanted to explain to Rivera how and why they were about to come under attack while they were still in the maelstrom. Alisha drifted out of engineering to the bridge.

Rivera managed to make a nearby computer workstation display what the various external cameras of the Gerard Kuiper saw. It was hard to see it at first since the goo was smeared across them, but when she looked closer, she made out the faint glimpse of a Draconian fleet on approach. A cold shiver traveled up her back when she saw goo-soaked wyverns fly away from several bio-ships quickly closing the gap.

“They’re fools if they think Marduk wishes this,” Sarpanit’s voice echoed in Rivera’s HNI.

“I could have told you that,” Rivera snickered.

“Those tattoos weren’t meant for a human,” Sarpanit said. “She stole them and is using them for her own gain. Alisha and Jainuzei are misleading my husband’s loyal servants into a trap.”

“Own gain, as in the two aren’t serving Tiamat?”

“I doubt it; they would have treated that Nereid better if they were. Alisha and Jainuzei do not serve Tiamat or Marduk. We’ve been tricked; we have to get out of here.”

She mused at that statement. She and Sarpanit had to work together.

“Penelope’s hack is still restricting my power,” Sarpanit said. “Free me of your restricting HNI so I can get it back.”

Rivera looked away from the screen, and up toward the AI core, remembering Sarpanit’s previous proposal. And the last time the AI Goddess was in control of a ship like this.

She grimaced. “You still want me to put you in the EVE of this ship?”

“It’s the only way now,” Sarpanit said. “The Draconians are following this ship and the fleet it commands. What do you think they’ll do when they enter effective weapons range?”

She wasn’t wrong. Wyverns had been deployed, meaning the Draconians were minutes away from attacking. Adding to that, the Gerard Kuiper lacked FTL as did the command ship. Outrunning the Draconians wasn’t going to happen, especially when dealing with FTL weapons. The Carl Sagan tried and ended up swimming on Lake Geneva.

As much as it pained her to admit it, Sarpanit was right. Rivera wasn’t going to be able to escape alone, not after what happened when the Kepler was briefly docked with the Gerard Kuiper. Sarpanit was her only ally, one that was useless sitting inside Rivera’s HNI, limited by the hack Penelope installed. Whatever had become of Penelope? Probably dead.

Rivera had a tough choice to make.

She made it after two minutes of silence.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s get you a new body.”

In the end, Sarpanit leaving her mind for good was just too good an opportunity to pass up. She hoped she’d live long enough to regret any negative actions that might come about as a result of her decision.

“Thank you,” Sarpanit said. “You won’t regret this, I promise.”

She floated up to the AI core, hoping the rest of the staff below assumed she was just going up to perform maintenance checks. Just like before with the Carl Sagan, Rivera pulled out from the walls the inner workings of the Gerard Kuiper’s EVE and transferred Sarpanit’s programming into it, overwriting its matrix and taking control.

It was as if a heavy weight was removed off her head when the transfer had finished. Sarpanit was no longer in Rivera’s HNI, though she did leave behind a number of files. Data from the Carl Sagan. Rivera wasn’t sure if it was a parting gift or an error.

Twenty minutes later, the ship’s EVE unit entered engineering, with its magnetic boots clinging it to the floor. The EVE looked up at the AI core where Rivera stood looking down at it and smiled at her. Normal EVEs don’t smile. After the smile, the EVE made its way up to the AI core, discreetly.

“It worked?” Rivera asked.

“Not completely,” Sarpanit said, now in her new android body. “The EVE AI of the ship remains active; you only took control of the android. I can’t connect with it.”

“You might not have the programs needed,” Rivera said. “When the android models came out, they rolled out a new OS for it that could dual sync with the computers and android. The Carl Sagan’s EVE which you are based off, just had a hologram that was generated by the ship.”

“This is still a step in the right direction.”

“And will make this harder,” Rivera turned to the computer screen and looked to ensure the crew wasn’t watching the two. They weren’t. “I’m disabling the EVE for the ship, she’ll still be able to track our movement and report that she can’t control her physical unit. Of course, this is going to make things harder for us. We have to disable the ship from the inside out, rather than you taking control.”

“Wait,” Sarpanit said, looking down at the drop to engineering. “Delay it for two minutes.”

“That’s way too long; someone will know something isn’t right.”

“And if you shut it down the second we make our escape; the crew may clue in.”

The sound of the air recyclers accompanied them as they left engineering. Getting Nereid free was a priority, plus she was a psionic, her powers might come in handy for defense. After that it was escape. She didn’t get around to figuring that part out, and as it stood there was no time. Thinking on your feet was part of a spaceship engineer’s job description.

Rivera and Sarpanit arrived at the habitat ring first and charged into the quarters nobody was supposed to enter, but she did anyway. Inside, they saw Nereid floating inside the aquarium-like tank. It was full of the goo that protects ships from the maelstrom’s clouds. Nereid was in a trancelike state, swimming within the goo, her body shimmered with purple ripples of psionic waves. EAD scans showed that the goo Nereid swam in was being pumped out of the pipes at the back of the aquarium, likely coating the exterior of the ship.

“They must be using her powers to stimulate the goo and control it,” Rivera said, stepping closer to the aquarium.

“You are indeed correct,” Sarpanit said. “This is how this ship arrived in the nebula according to the logs this EVE unit had. They kidnapped an Undine from Sirius and forced it to use the device until it died. That’s why they got stuck at the planet; they had no means of continuing their voyage, plus they were low on fuel.”

“How did they enter the maelstrom in the first place?”

Sarpanit faced the aquarium, giving Nereid’s body an inquisitive glare. “An existing vortex was found at the edge of Sirius and the Gerard Kuiper slipped through.”

As Sarpanit spoke, Rivera’s hands and eyes searched for a shut off command to free Nereid. With her not controlling the goo might make the Gerard Kuiper vulnerable to the maelstrom. They’d be forced to return to normal space. It was a better escape plan than drifting through the maelstrom alone on a transport.

“The Gerard Kuiper,” she continued. “Goaded the Draconians to appear after learning about the dragon songs from the Marduk Poniga and Undine. They sent false messages into the vortex claiming to know the location of the artifact on New Babylon.”

Rivera paused in her search when she remembered the small silver artifact found on the hellish landscapes of New Babylon, outside its protective energy shields. Nereid had led them to it. She was able to sense it with her psionic powers. It was lost when the Dragon Maiden showed up to claim it.

A haunting look spread on Rivera’s face as she faced the android next to her. “Alisha knew about it?”

“Yes, because she ordered it unburied after it fell and left it on the high grounds as proof. When the Draconians returned to Sirius, Alisha ordered the Gerard Kuiper through the vortex. The fleet, in a rage, left the artifact to chase the Gerard Kuiper.”

Giving the hell-like conditions outside New Babylon’s dome shields, seismic activity probably caused the artifact to be lost, only to come loose as the years went on until Nereid led them to its location. Whatever the artifact was made of was tough, having spent all those years in the heat, radiation, and volcanic chaos and retained its shiny luster.

“Why would the crew help Alisha with crazy plans like that?”

“The crew tried to form a mutiny after it arrived in orbit of the planet we found it at. To quell it, she lied and offered to take them back. Then ordered the EVE to shut down everyone’s cryo pods, but not revive them. Then went into stasis herself when she realized she’d be stuck.”

Rivera stopped with the questions. She was getting off track. She needed to find a means to get Nereid out who continued to float inside of the aquarium full of the goo. Rivera began to wonder if the face Nereid had was the same as the Undine Alisha had captured and forced into the aquarium before it died.

“Will Nereid die if we leave her, then?” Rivera asked, not that she had any plans to do so.

“Probably not,” Sarpanit said. “Nereids are stronger than normal Undine. She might live, she might not.”

“The EVE you took control of have anything in it about deactivating this?”

“Still searching,” Sarpanit said, and then her eyes blinked twice. “Oh, well this is interesting. Turns out Alisha was obsessed with the Carl Sagan’s mission. She knew everything about it, and its disappearance was the reason why she demanded this ship to go to Sirius. She knew exactly what to look for when they arrived, Marduk-loyal Poniga. She also had Jainuzei smuggled aboard, that would explain the cryo pod with nonhuman DNA.”

“Oh my god,” Rivera said as the third computer console in the room showed no means of giving her access to the aquarium.

“Alisha and Jainuzei discovered something on New Babylon. It doesn’t say what, but when Alisha returned she had the tattoos, as you call them, over her body and then left with an Undine in captivity. Jainuzei wasn’t there; he stayed behind to search while she left seeking a way to Kur and found it via the maelstrom.”

Kur, it was the destination the Draconian fleet was searching for, and apparently, the same for Alisha and Jainuzei. It would explain the growing fleet of bio-ships around the Imperial command ship they were escorting. Jainuzei stole the Kepler’s vortex key to continue Alisha and the Gerard Kuiper’s quest to Kur.

Why there was a command ship following she couldn’t answer, and at that point, didn’t care. They needed a new plan and fast. They needed to get the ship back into normal space quickly and ideally far away from Kur. As far as Rivera could see, she stood as the one and only person that could prevent either faction from taking Kur.

The pressure for her to end the situation intensified.

Desperation kicked in. Rivera tried kicking the glass, it wouldn’t break, not even when she had Sarpanit with her newfound android strength punch and kick it. It was made from robust material, probably a transparent metal alloy.

Sarpanit pulled all data pertaining to the aquarium’s functions and wirelessly transmitted it to Rivera’s HNI. She pulled up the files in her virtual vision, and with the guidance of her EAD scanner, Rivera found a maintenance hatch in the corridors outside the room. She had Sarpanit pull it open and they crawled inside. If they couldn’t stop the goo, plan B was to make the ship fall apart with critical system failures, starting with the small access panels Rivera opened and began cutting wires.

When she went for a sixth panel, Sarpanit pulled back on her shoulders. “They are restarting the AI core,” she said.

Rivera’s lips twisted. “That will bring it back online; they can use it to track us.”

Going back to the AI core to shut it back down wasn’t an option. They had to finish up their internal sabotage of the ship’s systems while searching for the panel that controlled power to the aquarium Nereid was in.

The clock was ticking.

58 Karklosea

Rezeki’s Rage

Terran Alliance Fleet, Inside Imperial Command Ship, Dark Energy Maelstrom

July 24, 2119, 07:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Something wasn’t going according to plan.

At least that’s what Karklosea’s guess was when she heard the footsteps of Imperial warriors and navy personnel run across the lower decks of the Rezeki’s Rage. There was a time in her past when she understood the Hashmedai language. But like all things, if you don’t utilize it enough, it fades away.

Karklosea, Chevallier, and Avearan had spent the entirety of their time aboard the Rezeki’s Rage in its infirmary. The Taxah Hashmedai crew didn’t trust Karklosea and Chevallier outside of it. Avearan had finished a conversation with the leadership of the ship that hijacked it from Taxah via her wrist terminal. She reported that the Draconians had found the command ship and the Gerard Kuiper, and at the worst possible time. The Gerard Kuiper, according to what Avearan was told, was suffering major operational failures throughout.

The Rezeki’s Rage, as with all ships part of the Terran alliance, inside the command ship, were put on alert and had their crews prep for combat with the dragons. Her suspicions that things weren’t going according to plan was right.

“Avearan says now would be the time to act,” Chevallier translated for Karklosea.

Karklosea glanced into the dimly lit and bitter cold corridors of the Rezeki’s Rage, noting that the number of Imperial personnel passing through them in a panic had reduced.

She turned back to face Chevallier. “I agree,” Karklosea said. “These are the lower decks; all vital crew would have been called up to vital locations.”

A sudden vibration made the ice-cold floor below rumble. Something struck the ship without its shields.

“What’s happening?” Karklosea asked.

Chevallier spoke with Avearan, who then checked her wrist terminal reporting back to Chevallier.

“Avearan doesn’t know, and doesn’t have HNI like me,” Chevallier said. “The terminal has limited data too.”

Imperial ship design didn’t change much from the last time Karklosea boarded and raided one. The upper decks during a time like this would be crawling with the ship’s crew attending to their duties. Lower decks held the barracks for warriors, guardians, riflemen, the medical team, and the brig. There was no need to have personnel that had no role to play in ship-wide operations on the upper decks.

They left the infirmary, an easy task as Avearan was the only medical personnel aboard. The rest were in the brig along with the Rezeki’s Rage’s true crew and captain, a man named Peiun from what Karklosea was told. Chevallier took point, grinning at her new arm. It was the strongest weapon they had until they got armed. Karklosea’s psionic power, without her armor, was limited to telekinesis. It made her once again miss the old psionic sorcery she had when she was younger.

Avearan used her wrist terminal to help guide them through the corridors, searching for the lockup room where Chevallier and Karklosea’s equipment was held. It was a long trek in the darkened corridors, at one point, Karklosea had to use her HNI’s night-vision mode. Hashmedai were the opposite of Radiance, they loved the dark and cold.

She watched as Avearan and Chevallier stood before a large door, speaking in the English language, pointing at it. It wouldn’t open, not even when Avearan inputted a sequence of Hashmedai numbers on the door’s control panel. Chevallier pushed her back gently, clenched the fist on her new arm, and punched the door, each blow leaving a deep imprint of her fist.

Chevallier’s blows against the door were followed up with loud bangs. They were loud enough to get unwanted Hashmedai attention from elsewhere on the deck. She had to hurry, someone wanted to know what the sounds were.

Footsteps came from a distance. They grew louder as did the Hashmedai voices. Chevallier wasn’t finished punching a hole through the door. Karklosea kept her mind clear in preparation to push any unwanted guests back with telekinesis.

A voice shouted. Karklosea looked ahead and saw two pairs of red glowing eyes in the dark corridor. They were spotted. She didn’t wait for them to act and extended her hands forward. One of the Hashmedai flew backward as a result, and the other fired a plasma rifle. It was both a good and bad thing. Good because Hashmedai gave rifles to those that were deemed too young and or weak to hold a sword, bad, because plasma could still vaporize unshielded targets, like them.

The green bolts of light soared down the corridor, illuminating the dimly lit walls with its radiant colors. Dodging would be pointless, the Hashmedai fired with the intention to spray the narrow hall they stood in with plasma. She waited for her death. It never came.

The plasma ended up crashing into a small dome-shaped lavender barrier Avearan’s powers created. They were safe for now, but not long, Avearan’s face cringed with agony. The simple act of using her powers to create the barrier to deflect plasma was too much. She lacked the implants needed for the job.

Chevallier’s indestructible fist finished. A sizable hole was formed in the door, allowing her to pull on it, using the strength of her arm, forcing the door open. The three darted in as Karklosea sent another psionic push against the two Hashmedai, hurling them back. They’d be back on their feet soon. She and Chevallier needed to hurry and find their equipment.

Karklosea found her redeemer first and promptly switched it to its rifle mode. She heard the two Hashmedai get back to their feet, and ensured her redeemer was aimed at the ripped-open doorway. Two pairs of glowing eyes attempted to enter, screaming with their plasma rifles in hand. Two shots of psionically charged plasma left Karklosea’s weapon and vaporized them.

Karklosea and Chevallier slipped into their respective armor as quickly as they could. Word had to have gotten out that they were betraying the trust of the Terrans and their alliance with the SOM and Taxah Hashmedai.

When they were fully reequipped, they made their way to the brig. The guards there weren’t happy to see them storm in. Chevallier made it clear she didn’t care and sprayed the walls with Hashmedai blood with her rifle. Hopeful cheers roared from the holding cells, Captain Peiun and his loyal crew were brimming with excitement for their long-delayed rescue.

Karklosea grimaced and took a step back while Chevallier and Avearan worked to deactivate the force fields. She had a hard time believing she was actually helping Hashmedai, the people that took her son away from her, the people that forced the Linl to give up their culture, in order to survive the Empire’s need to conquer them. It was even harder to accept the fact that Peiun, with his white hair, wild beard grown from his imprisonment, and pale skin, approached Karklosea first wanting to thank her.

After the crew was free, Avearan and Chevallier worked as translators for the group. It was a complex task. Avearan could speak English and Hashmedai, but not Radiance. Chevallier couldn’t speak Radiance either but did speak Linl and English. Peiun spoke English and Hashmedai. In the end, it was Chevallier that had to tell Karklosea they needed to arm the newly freed crew.

The Taxah Hashmedai that controlled the ship was all aware of the fiasco brewing in the lower decks by the time the group left the brig. Karklosea, along with her newfound friends, didn’t walk to the Rezeki’s Rage’s bridge, they fought their way to it in close quarters combat within the corridors. A few warriors and guardians surrendered when they saw Peiun was ready to take back his ship, especially when they took back upper decks, engineering, and the bridge.

Peiun holstered his plasma sword to his side and took back his captain’s chair, while what remained of the crew loyal to him returned to their duties, unfazed at the tall Templar from Radiance that helped make it happen.

The view screen on the bridge displayed the vast nebula, upstaging the black and star-filled void of space behind it. The Rezeki’s Rage and the Terran alliance fleet was back in normal space, having left the confines of the command ship. Tachyon beams shot past the view screen at random. The Draconians followed the fleet into normal space.

Peiun and his Hashmedai crew communicated frantically, trying to assess the situation, or so she assumed and hoped. Because, at that point, it was up to them to get the Rezeki’s Rage out of the situation safely, Karklosea had done what she could.

“This is a fucking mess,” Chevallier said. “Draconians, Terran ships allied with the SOM, and Taxah Hashmedai … And one of these ships has Lisette aboard.”

Karklosea sighed, and then winced at the cold mist that left her lips. “Why do I get the feeling we aren’t going to flee and let the dragons end this for us?”

“We need to protect the ship with Lisette, get her off, and then we can go.”

The Rezeki’s Rage was engaged in combat, unleashing the fury of its anti-capital ship plasma cannons at Draconian bio-ships when Chevallier’s wrist terminal beeped. Saressea’s hologram floated over her wrist when she picked up the call, and the two spoke in English.

She found it odd that Saressea was able to reach Chevallier at a time and place like this. She should be in prison unless she was found not guilty. Even then, it didn’t explain her presence here. That was until Karklosea remembered the codes she surrendered to the Terrans. They wanted to know the location of a particular prison ferry in the Avalon system and the command to deactivate slave collars using her codes. Suddenly, Saressea’s presence made a bit more sense.

Chevallier spoke with Peiun after she finished talking with Saressea’s hologram. Afterward, she faced Karklosea and said. “One of the ships here is controlled by the Whisper, they want to help us.”

Karklosea watched the view screen as the Rezeki’s Rage repositioned itself to defend a strange ship that looked like it was designed by Radiance, but of a class she had never seen.

“That’s the ship if you were wondering,” Chevallier said, pointing at it on the viewer. “It’s called the Prometheus.”

“This better not be a trick,” Karklosea said. “We’re in a confusing three-way battle, and I’m certain nobody has their IFFs correctly configured.”

Chevallier nodded in agreement. “Friendly fire is going to be a bitch.”

59 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Terran Alliance Fleet, Near Hallowed Nebula Center

July 24, 2119, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Gerard Kuiper created a rip across the clouds of the maelstrom by the time the Johannes Kepler slowed to approach it. The command ship it was escorting was encircled by the large Draconian fleet that descended upon it. With the Gerard Kuiper leading the way, it pushed through the newly formed vortex, arriving back in the known universe, close to the direct center of the nebula. The command ship followed it then later, the Draconians and their vengeful wyverns.

The Johannes Kepler managed to slip through as the vortex was shutting, Foster thanked Chang for the quick moves as it saved her a run down to engineering to interact with the vortex key.

A raging battle ignited with the nebula as the backdrop. Draconian bio-ships spread out to meet the ships that emerged from the sphere-like command ship. Half were Imperial ships, and the others looked like Radiance built that used UNE technology, such as the particle cannons that singed the fleshy hulls of the bio-ships.

The Kepler’s sensors auto-flagged one of the ships as being friendly once it read its IFF. It was the Rezeki’s Rage. And if Penelope’s intel was correct, it was probably hijacked. It was also spending a lot of time defending one of the Radiance Earth hybrid warships.

Foster had no idea what to make of the situation by the time the Kepler entered effective weapons range.

“That, ladies and gentlemen,” Chang said as he pointed at the view screen. “This is what we call a triple A cluster fuck.”

“Tolukei, get the goo back inside then give us an ESP assessment,” Foster said.

Tolukei followed his orders though he gave no verbal confirmation he heard or understood. His face grew tired and agitated when the request was completed, and the Kepler’s protective goo had been brought back inside with his mind.

Williams stood facing the Javnis psionic. “Tolukei, you gonna be alright?”

“This experience has been extremely taxing on my brain,” Tolukei said, holding onto the edge of his station to support his weakened body. “I may need to rest before I use my powers further.”

Foster frowned when she faced the tactical readout floating ahead of the view screen. “That means no overshields or any other psionic support.”

“Standard shields are at max,” Chang said, checking his instruments. “We should be able to take a few hits at least if we jump in.”

“If we jump in,” Foster said. “EVE’s already overtasked in engineering and we’s gonna need her weapons assist more than ever without Tolukei.”

“I could help.” She faced the bridge’s exit to see Vynei standing before it, having entered unexpectedly. “I was in the Radiance Navy once.”

She looked at him grinning, thinking back to the time when Vynei manned the Rezeki’s Rage’s guns, during their escape from Kapteyn’s Star, the first time around. He was a good shot then. He should be the same now.

“Man the weapons then, Vynei,” Foster said to him. “Chang, focus on flyin’ and nothing else.”

Chang pushed his targeting holo screens to the side. “I got ya, Cap.”

“Tolukei, take five and gather your strength,” Foster said. “Everyone else, get ready, ‘cause we’s goin’ in.”

Vynei manned his newly assigned post while Chang pushed the Kepler into the explosive lightshow within the nebula. With the MRF active, the Kepler’s mass reduced giving it more freedom to make hard turns and rolls, dodging tachyon blasts from the barricade of bio-ships. Wyverns scattered when Vynei made the Kepler’s rail guns roar, and then a quick turn to the left brought the command ship and the fleet that was inside of it into view.

“Penelope,” Williams asked her. “How good are your hacking skills?”

She spun in the chair she sat in at a rear computer station. The hacker’s red eyes looked up at him with a colder than ice glare. “If it’s got a computer, I can take control.”

The smirk on Williams’ bearded face said it all. He liked the idea. “Think you can disable some of these ships?”

Penelope turned to the computer, her fingers, adorned with glittering rings, typed away on its keyboard. “Not sure about the Draconian ones, but everything else? Easy.” She cracked her knuckles, waved her hand conjuring six holo screens full of computer code. “Ships further away will take some time due to lag.”

A ship two light-minutes away would take Penelope two minutes just to hit the login screen, then another two minutes for her to see it. Then another two minutes for her passcode cracking, and another two for the new screen to load … The only ships Penelope could take out in a reasonable amount of time were the ones the Kepler got close to.

There was a gauntlet of Imperial ships, Radiance Earth hybrid ships near the Gerard Kuiper. Chang was going to have to get real close to them for Penelope to disable their guns. Chang was up for the challenge.

An elegant dive pushed the Kepler toward its targets that were sure to shoot at them when they neared the Gerard Kuiper. Hit and run tactics were utilized, the hit being Penelope’s hack that saw the hybrid ships’ weapons disabled, the run being the quick moves to evade Draconian attacks as the Kepler flew past an Imperial carrier, delivering malicious computer code from the galaxy’s most elite hacker.

Some ships veered off course when their propulsion systems engaged when they weren’t supposed to, others had their reactors powered down. The longer the Kepler remained in close range of a ship, the more chaos Penelope was able to unleash. Foster was thankful none of the ships had an AI like EVE aboard. Otherwise, Penelope would have been locked out the second she hacked in. It went without saying, the Gerard Kuiper which did have an EVE AI, wasn’t going to be hacked as easily.

As predicted, Penelope couldn’t do anything about the Draconian ships. She knew nothing of their language. There was nothing Chang could do if the Kepler entered the bio-ships’ line of sight. Tachyons traveled faster than light, you can’t dodge that. The only defense was to not be there when the Draconians wanted to take a shot.

The shape of the command ship took up a third of the view screen by the time the Kepler leveled off and made it past the gauntlet of hybrid ships. The Gerard Kuiper, Rezeki’s Rage, and another hybrid ship was near it, working hard to keep the diving wyverns and their breath of plasma away from it.

“Captain,” Odelea said. “Incoming transmission from the Rezeki’s Rage.”

Foster faced the view screen. “On screen.”

The view screen turned into a projection of the Rezeki’s Rage’s bridge, with Peiun sitting in command. He had a wild platinum beard growing out from his vampire-like face. It made it hard to see the half smile that he made when the connection was established.

“Captain,” Peiun said.

“Captain,” Foster replied.

Chang rolled his eyes. “Seriously?”

“It would appear we yet again meet in combat,” Peiun said.

“Be nice if we could meet someplace nice and playful,” Foster said.

“Promise me we are victorious, and I shall make it happen.”

“You got a plan for that?”

“Indeed,” Peiun said. “The Terran ship next to us, the Prometheus, is controlled by the Whisper. They are not hostile; do not fire on them.”

“Terran …” Foster said drily. She was going to ask for more details but decided not to. They were after all having a conversation during the middle of a battle. She made a note that the hybrid ships were Terran loyal.

In the background, she saw Karklosea and Chevallier. She decided not to ask about the details of how they got there too. But at the same time was glad to see Chevallier was on her feet, with a new arm too.

“We’ve discovered that there is a human woman named Lisette aboard the Gerard Kuiper against her will,” Peiun said. “She’s important to a servant that helped me retake my ship; I’d like to recover her before it’s too late.”

“We know all about Lisette,” Foster said. “Rivera, Nereid, and our stolen vortex key are also on the Gerard Kuiper.”

“Then our goals are the same, Captain,” he said. “We need to board it, but I do not have a psionic aboard.”

“Doesn’t matter if he does,” Williams said. “Mind shields would block them from boarding or using their powers once on it.”

“Can you hack it, Penelope?” Chang asked her.

“I can’t, the shipboard EVE will kick me out the second I enter.”

“The reason this fleet exited the maelstrom was because of critical failures on the Gerard Kuiper,” Peiun said. “Now that you mentioned Rivera is aboard, she might have taken it upon herself to sabotage it.”

“And if that’s the case, she ain’t gonna last long when they find her,” Foster said. “Chang, get us closer to the Gerard Kuiper, we’s gotta protect it from those dragons!”

“Aye, Cap.”

“Is it possible we could have LeBoeuf teleport aboard since she’s human?” Foster asked.

Williams shook his head after reading the data on his holo screen. “Negative, according to this, their mind shield is blocking everyone that isn’t a member of the crew.”

The Gerard Kuiper’s size expanded on the view screen. It was large enough for Foster to see its side airlocks that were once latched to the Kepler.

It gave her an idea.

“Then we need to physically force ourselves aboard.”

60 Karklosea

Rezeki’s Rage

Terran Alliance Fleet, Near Hallowed Nebula Center

July 24, 2119, 08:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Peiun wants to board the Gerard Kuiper,” Chevallier translated for Karklosea. “Teleportation isn’t an option right now.”

It took Karklosea a moment to process what was said. The battle outside the command ship had gone on so long with only Hashmedai voices being heard, she forgot she had been standing on the cold dark bridge, in the corner with Chevallier. It wasn’t until the brief communication Peiun had with Foster, via the view screen was when she snapped out of it. That’s when Chevallier spoke with the Hashmedai captain, then came back to her.

“Peiun, as in the Kepler isn’t?”

“Rivera’s going to need help and fast,” Chevallier said. “We get in, support her, take out the mind shields, and Foster and company can teleport aboard. Hopefully, they’ll be able to handle it, some asshole named Jainuzei attacked Miles, LeBoeuf, and Maxwell.”

“Jainuzei …” Karklosea said slowly, the mention of his name triggered a surge of rage in her head. “So, he’s aboard the Gerard Kuiper?”

“From what they’ve gathered, yes.” Chevallier powered her rifle and stood at the bridge’s exit. “We’re going to form the boarding party with what remains of Peiun’s warriors.”

Which wasn’t much, from what Karklosea saw during the recapture of the Rezeki’s Rage earlier. Her guess was a lot of the crew was killed or forced to work with the Taxah Hashmedai, who ended up getting killed when they took it back. Adding to that, Karklosea wouldn’t be able to use psionic powers once aboard until the psionic damping field of the mind shield was taken care of. The blade on her redeemer was still sharp enough to kill, however, not as well as a blade infused with psionic energy, but it would get the job done. Using the redeemer’s rifle mode wasn’t an option, she needed her powers active for that.

With the assistance of the Kepler and the Prometheus, the Rezeki’s Rage made the closest pass it could to the Gerard Kuiper, taking weapons fire from all angles, the blue ripples of its shields kept its hull safe for the time being.

Chevallier and Karklosea entered a small Hashmedai transport with eight young warriors inside armed with two-handed plasma swords, and two guardians. She never felt so uncomfortable in her life, especially when its doors shut and the transport left.

There was no turning back at that point. She was trapped on the cramped transport, full of members of a species that tried to force the Linl into becoming their subservient slaves, tried to topple the Radiance Union, tried to invade the nebula centuries ago in a foolish attempt to show that the Gods were manipulating aliens.

Now she was helping them win a battle in the nebula.

The transport wasn’t fast enough. It paid the price when wyverns flew next to it, breathing punishing waves of psionic plasma from their mouths. The transport’s shields were falling rapidly. They weren’t going to make it to the Gerard Kuiper’s airlock. They needed a new plan and fast.

The team aboard prepared for a spacewalk, placing their helmets on, and double-checking their air supply. Karklosea had her suit switch to its EVA mode, and her helmet materialized over her head, and its HUD reported she was good to go.

Violent tremors rocked the transport when its shields shattered. Sparks sprayed from electronics, cables, pipes on the ceiling came apart, and fires ignited filling the cabin with blackened smoke. The sight of the Gerard Kuiper spun in and out of view from the transport’s cockpit windshield. They were spinning out of control.

One warrior depressurized the transport before opening its door and leaping out. Chevallier and Karklosea joined him, and then later the rest of the Hashmedai. The doomed and spiraling transport became a distraction as the wyverns continued to assault it, not realizing nobody was aboard. It was quite convenient. They needed it, as they were now floating in the vacuum aimlessly. Karklosea couldn’t see the Gerard Kuiper, or the Rezeki’s Rage, just the nebula’s colors, and the random flashes of white light that looked like flashes of lightning, which came from the endless battle below her.

She used her psionic powers to spin her body and face the Gerard Kuiper. It would be the last time she’d be able to use them, once she got aboard the Gerard Kuiper, she’d be on the same level as the warriors.

The group made a zero-g push to the airlock, using the jets of their suits, or in Karklosea’s case, telekinesis. The transport they rode in exploded, hurling chunks of slag in every direction. The wyverns that ended the drifting transport faced them, seeking new targets. Getting vaporized by stray weapons fire from a ship became the least of her worries at that point.

The wyverns closed the gap between the spacewalking group. Chevallier and Karklosea became the only two that could slow them. Chevallier used the particle beam mode on her rifle, shooting white-hot beams of energy at the winged beasts. Karklosea aimed her redeemer, now transformed into its psionic rifle mode to assist. She made a note not to forget to leave it in that mode once they boarded.

If they boarded, she was starting to have doubts about that. Two warriors had their heads taken off by the talons of a wyvern that got close. The headless bodies of the unlucky warriors continued to drift out of sight, with their jets still active. They left behind a trail of orbed Hashmedai blood, shiny enough to reflect the discharge of weapons exchange from the battle below, above, everywhere around them.

Four additional warriors were lost to space by the time they made it to the airlock. Chevallier was quick to avenge them by vaporizing red glowing holes through the heads and chest of the wyverns that attempted to fly away with mangled torsos, with half of a spinal cord attached in their claws.

The surviving Hashmedai placed breaching plasma charges onto the airlock door, then drifted away to get clear of the impending blast. Meanwhile, Chevallier and Karklosea, the only two of the group armed with ranged weapons, defended their position from the lingering wyverns as their magnetic boots kept their feet clung to the goo-covered hull of the Gerard Kuiper. The duo stood back to back aiming their weapons up, firing a relentless torrent of psionic plasma and particle beams at the dragons. The beasts that weren’t hit had to rethink their choice to attack.

Karklosea didn’t realize the charges went off at first. There was no sound in space after all, and her attention had been focused on keeping her aim steady and her psionic mind pumping her redeemer full of power. It wasn’t until she saw at the corner of her eye, the slagged remains of the two airlock doors eject into space and the nebula, that she realized it was time to enter.

She had to wait for a dozen bodies that got blown out into the vacuum to pass before they entered. From her point of view, standing on the hull of the ship, staring at the airlock entrance, it looked as though a geyser had erupted, spewing everything upward. The robed men and women of the SOM crystallized instantly, white mist gusted from their mouths as they gasped for air that didn’t exist in space, eventually crashing into the surviving wyverns, tossing them off course.

Emergency shutters tried to isolate the corridors that were exposed to space after the breach. The Hashmedai warriors swung their plasma swords through it, cutting holes large enough for the group to continue. Depressurized corridors meant no enemy contact unless they grabbed an EVA suit. The floating dead bodies Karklosea pushed out of her way suggested they couldn’t find them in time.

The next deck they arrived on changed those rules. It wasn’t exposed to space. SOM fighters attacked with their magnetic rifles. The warriors, as expected, struggled, melee combat with no gravity or psionic support was always the Empire’s shortcoming when it came to boarding ships back before artificial gravity was invented.

Karklosea experienced that shortcoming firsthand. Her psionic powers were sapped by the mind shield’s damping, limiting her redeemer to its blade form without the psionic imbuement. It was all up to Chevallier and the numbers advantage they had, and the fact SOM rushed into battle wearing robes. Blind faith in Marduk she figured.

One by one, the fighters turned into spinning bodies spraying gobs of orb-shaped blood from the holes or parts of their body where a limb used to be connected. Once clear, Chevallier had the group follow her to an intersection in the corridor. She took off her helmet calling Rivera’s name over and over. A section of the ceiling floated away, and down came a human woman with dark silky hair floating about, with a bag over her shoulders, and human tools in her hands.

She spoke with Chevallier, nodded, then offered a hand to Karklosea. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jasmine Rivera.”

“I am Karklosea,” she replied. “You speak Radiance I see.”

“I used to be the language expert on the team until we picked up Odelea.”

Rivera’s guidance put them in the Gerard Kuiper’s engineering. None of the crew expected a Radiance Templar, human soldier, and Imperial warriors and guardians to enter. Rivera turned away from the slaughter and body dismemberment of the SOM members and then asked for someone to remove a floating hand that drifted next to a computer workstation she needed to attend.

When she was done with it, Karklosea felt her mind become clear, her psionic abilities had returned. It felt as if they were never gone to start with. Rivera disabled the mind shield. Three minutes later, there was a flash of bright blue light. When it faded, Foster, Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf floated, all were armed for combat.

Foster’s face fixed in on the vortex key. She floated next to it as the tattoos that covered her hands, arms, and whatever parts under her uniform glowed blue. She didn’t look pleased.

“Foster’s here to shut that thing down,” Chevallier said. “Hopefully ending this conflict.”

Karklosea nodded to her. “Where do we go next?”

“We need to find Lisette and Nereid first. Rivera?”

Rivera flicked her wrist, and a small holographic map of the Gerard Kuiper appeared and hovered above the palm of her hand. “They’re both being held in the habitat ring, follow me.”

She repeated for the rest of the team in a language they understood, leading the way to an elevator that traveled up a long shaft. The elevator, as with the shaft it traveled through, was covered in windows allowing those aboard to peer out into space and watch as the elevator moved away from the primary fuselage of the Gerard Kuiper, up to its arching rotating habitat rings.

Beyond was the battle and signs that the Draconians were making progress, as two bio-ships pushed past slag and wreckage that used to be Imperial and Terran ships. The Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage were still operational, though both ships had no overshields, the shiny blue barriers of their standard shields were the first and last line of defense they had. The Rezeki’s Rage’s were on the verge of shattering, as indicated by the blackened burns on its hull where it lacked shield coverage.

The Gerard Kuiper wasn’t in a better position. Debris from a downed Terran ship smashed into it, sending a vibrating ripple powerful enough to be felt in the elevator. The second impact of slag and debris made the elevator’s joints flash with sparks. It stopped moving five seconds later.

Rivera floated to the elevator’s controls, pulling its panel apart. “Not good!”

“What’s wrong?” Karklosea asked her.

“I disabled the shields long ago,” Rivera said. “These elevators traveling up to the habitat ring aren’t the most structurally sound spot of the ship.”

The emerald hues of a wyvern’s plasma breath reflected off one of the windows. Karklosea faced it and saw a group approach the unshielded ship.

“One hit from them and we’re done,” Rivera said, looking away from the elevator’s wires and cables spilling out from the panel.

Karklosea holstered her weapon to her side and channeled her psionic might. It made her body shine with psionic light under her armor. The elevator pushed up slightly, her telekinetic mind was in play. Her eyes shut and she focused, erasing all thought of the nearing doom the wyverns might bring.

Her brain worked like unseen hands that forced and pulled against the elevator making it slowly move up to the habitat ring. It wasn’t as fast as it was before it had broken down. She hoped it would be fast enough to get them to safety before the dragons were in range.

61 Foster

ESRS Gerard Kuiper

Terran Alliance Fleet, Near Hallowed Nebula Center

July 24, 2119, 09:07 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The urge to crack a snarky comment that there were too many people in the elevator traveling to the habitat ring crossed Foster’s mind. She counted four Hashmedai from Peiun’s ship, Rivera, Chevallier, Karklosea, who was doing an amazing job at using her powers to bring the elevator to the top. Then there was Foster and the combat specialists she brought from the Kepler, Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf. That was a lot of people jammed into one spot, and a lot of mass for it to carry.

Gravity took hold of her body by the time they reached the ring. Foster could tell, not just by the fact her body fell to the elevator’s floor, but because she was able to feel the rumbles of the shaft come apart thanks to the wyverns outside making a pass.

The elevator’s door didn’t open on its own. So Chevallier forced it open with her new arm. A Rabuabin member of the Marduk cult had his back turned at that moment and turned around just in time for Chevallier to punch him in the face. The blow twisted his head backward and flung him into the wall.

“I’m really diggin’ that arm, Chevallier,” Foster said to her as they all left the elevator.

Chevallier looked down at her metal hand balled up into a fist. “I still wish I had the one I was born with …” she said. “But, we’d be dead now if I didn’t have this.”

Foster had the group split up and sent the Hashmedai team to watch the remaining elevator doors throughout the ring, creating a choke point to prevent further enemy backup. Chevallier took her EDF team to search for Lisette who was confined to one of the quarters. That left Foster, Miles, and Rivera with Karklosea as psionic support.

They stopped briefly at the nearest observation window on the ring when the view of the Rezeki’s Rage drifted past charging its mighty forward plasma cannons. Tachyon beams were cutting holes into the Rezeki’s Rage’s hull, its shields were down. One direct hit through its reactor and it was done.

“That’s not good,” Foster said, shaking her head at the sight.

Miles joined the view. “How in the hell are their shields down already?”

“They don’t have a psionic,” Rivera said after she spoke with Karklosea. “They went into this without overshields.”

“So did we,” Foster said. “Tolukei is stressed. The Kepler is going to be taking extra fire if we lose the Rezeki’s Rage.”

To its credit, the Rezeki’s Rage was a tough ship. If it were the Kepler it would have been adrift at best in its current situation, then again, if the Rezeki’s Rage was the Kepler it would have meant its end almost a year ago when the Draconians made their first strike against the Empire. The Rezeki’s Rage should still be able to hold up a while longer under the heat, but not much. They had to escape soon, or it would be destroyed, and fleeing the battle wasn’t going to be an option for it.

The Rezeki’s Rage only had sub light engines, and the Draconians and the Terran ships had FTL which could be used to chase it. Foster returning to the Kepler and activating the vortex key was the Rezeki’s Rage’s and Kepler’s only means of escape. The Rezeki’s Rage remaining in the fight was the Kepler’s only means of staying in one piece long enough for Foster to return to it and staring out the window wasn’t going to fix that problem. They continued moving, searching for the room Rivera found that held Nereid.

Foster went for her wrist terminal. “Foster to Kepler, what’s your status?”

Williams’ hologram appeared sitting on the captain’s chair of the Kepler floating above her wrist.

“It’s getting hot out here, Becca,” Williams said. “And the Rezeki’s Rage is taking too many hits for my liking.”

“We’ve noticed, Dom, almost done here.”

“The Whisper ship, the Prometheus, can only do so much,” he said. “The Terrans still think it’s loyal to them. So, the Prometheus has to shoot at us and the Rezeki’s Rage sometimes to make themselves look good. And sometimes, we got to shoot the Prometheus back to make it look believable.”

“Well, that’s awkward.”

“Tell me about it.”

She cut the comm link with the wrist terminal when the group ran into armed guards standing watch over the quarters Rivera led them to. Both sides retreated, using the bend in the corridor as cover. Except for Rivera, she hunkered down behind a pot of decorative plants further back, not that it would protect her from high-velocity rounds.

Miles quickly established dominance, pushing forward with the protection the shields from his exosuit gave him, laying down covering fire. Karklosea joined him, charging forward with her glowing psionic shield on her wrist like the space knight she was. The furious Templar and UNE Marine created enough of a distraction for Foster to enter the quarters Nereid was held in.

“Go get her, Captain,” Miles said to her. “We’ll cover you!”

She grabbed Rivera’s trembling arm with one hand, keeping the other around her tachyon rifle, and bolted into the heavily modified quarters. Standing in the center like Rivera predicted was an aquarium filled to the top with the goo that protects ships from the maelstrom. Nereid was still floating in it, and her psionic powers were doing something strange to it.

Rivera ran to a computer console, her fingers danced across its keyboard. “Let’s see if I can pick up where I left off.”

“You mean you don’t know how to shut it down?” Foster said drily.

“I tried earlier with not much luck,” Rivera said. “But roaming around in the access conduits, I found the power distribution cables to this and cut them.” The lights inside the aquarium darkened, making a smile spread across Rivera’s face as she looked at it. “That did it; they had aux power keeping it active, which I can disable from here—”

A strike to the back of Foster’s head threw her to the floor. A second hit made her vision daze, while her tachyon rifle spiraled across the floor out of reach. She rolled across the floor, instincts told her it was the right thing to do. The fist of her attacker drove into the floor where Foster once was.

Getting back to her feet quickly, she saw a woman with Asian and European features, wearing a twenty-first-century IESA uniform with the Canadian flag on her shoulders. Her name tag read ‘A. Levesque.’ The Gerard Kuiper’s Captain Alisha Levesque had a mean fist. She also had the same blue glow of alien tattoos on her body shimmering, just like Foster.

“At last we meet, Foster,” Alisha said with a smirk.

Alisha eyed Rivera when she went to drain the aquarium of the goo and free Nereid. She wanted to stop Rivera, Foster had to stop Alisha. Alisha went for Rivera. Foster went for Alisha. The two women came crashing to the floor with a leaping tackle from Foster and wrestled each other.

Foster hoped she was buying Rivera enough time to get Nereid out, it was hard to see. She saw the ceiling, the floor, the wall, Alisha’s face, Alisha’s black silky hair, the floor again. Then stars, Alisha socked her good. But Foster’s workout routine for the past eight months gave her the strength to get back up, with her tattoo-glowing fists ready for round three. Alisha did the same. Neither of the two made a move. Perhaps it was time to talk things over, she figured.

“Look, Levesque, we’s both got the same uniform on,” Foster said, then ducked from a left swing. “Though I think we had a better tailor than yours.” She blocked a right swing and countered with a head butt that knocked them both back. “Seriously, I had that IESA uniform back on the Carl Sagan, made my shoulders itch, which is why I opted to not use it when we arrived.”

Alisha removed a stream of crimson that rained from her nose with her sleeve.

She went after Foster again, this time swinging her legs for a wide kick. Foster wasn’t the only IESA captain that had been working out a lot. Alisha’s moves were swift, majestic, full of quick takedowns, kicks, flips, and rolls. Foster wasn’t sure what her style was. Karate? Jujutsu? Whatever it was, Alisha had a black belt in it, and it hurt.

“Not one for small talk, huh?” Foster snorted as the two continued to brawl.

“You want to talk?”

Foster’s hands came to hold Alisha in a headlock. “We both wear IESA uniforms, both carry the rank of captain, both served on ships that upped and vanished from Sirius, and both are cursed with these tattoos. We’re like twins, Levesque, twins that never had a slumber party together.”

A hard elbow from Alisha forced the headlock to break. “You’re a fool, anyone ever tell you that?”

Backing off was the best thing to do at that point. It gave Foster a chance to catch her breath, size up Alisha better, and grin at the sight of Rivera removing Nereid out from the aquarium.

“Yeah, the slumber party thing was probably pushing it a little—”

“You turned down Marduk’s offer,” Alisha said rapidly, closing the gap between them. “He wanted to make you a Goddess; he offered you the power to bring your father back. You could have shared that power with the galaxy!”

“I miss my papa more than anything, girl, believe me! But selling out to Marduk wasn’t goin’ to help anyone in the long run.”

A high kick from Alisha sent Foster leaping back. “You never know unless you try. And that’s where I come in.”

“How?”

“The Soldiers of Marduk was created to find the technique Marduk was going to share with you, Foster.”

“And then the cult gave y’all the boot,” Foster said, keeping her distance. “I’m guessing that’s why you had Jainuzei kill its members.”

“Kill? We created the group; it deviated greatly from our goals. Jainuzei was taking corrective action, getting rid of the leaders, and placing the two of us back in charge. The way it was supposed to be.”

“I take it you don’t give a rat’s ass about Marduk coming back?”

Alisha laughed. “No, something greater.”

“Tiamat?”

“Even greater,” Alisha said, gesturing to the corridor from the opened door. “Those morons out there have no idea, they’re just tools. Same with the Terrans and Taxah Hashmedai—”

A telekinetic throw made Alisha fly out of Foster’s sight. Alisha tumbled through the air like a ragdoll until she hit the wall. Nereid stood, holding her hand out, dripping with the residue left behind from the goo bath she was forced in. She looked pissed.

With a beaming smirk, Foster stood over Alisha’s motionless body. “You talk too much, anyone ever tell ya that?”

Foster recovered her tachyon rifle, and then with the aid of Rivera, helped guide Nereid’s weakened body to the door quickly. She went for her wrist terminal again and made a face when she noticed it had been recording, probably activated accidentally during the brawl.

“Foster to Kepler, what’s your status?”

“We got to go now,” Williams transmitted. “The Rezeki’s Rage is about to get Swiss cheesed and our shields just shattered!” The corridor outside the quarters was empty. Miles and Karklosea were nowhere in sight. “Miles, status report?” Silence was the reply. “Chevallier, can you read me?”

“We got Lisette, Captain,” Chevallier transmitted. “We’re linking up with the Hashmedai team now.”

“Come to my signal after you’ve done that. I lost contact with Miles and Karklosea, and we’s gotta jet.”

“We’re on the move.”

“Miles!” Foster shouted into her wrist terminal, trying again to get a hold of him. “Miles, can you read me?”

“I can, Captain.” The voice that replied wasn’t the one she expected.

It was the voice of Jainuzei.

Hidden at a four-way intersection deeper in the corridors was Jainuzei standing ahead of a dozen robed cult members. They were all armed with weapons pointed at the back of the heads of Miles and Karklosea who stood with their arms up in surrender. They probably bit off more than they could chew when they went gung ho to let Foster and Rivera into their quarters.

Behind Foster, Rivera, and a weakened Nereid came Chevallier, her EDF team, and the Hashmedai they came aboard with, and a liberated Lisette. Everyone that held a weapon pointed at their opponents, entering a large Mexican standoff in the four-way corridor intersection.

If escape would have been as easy as LeBoeuf teleporting everyone away, they would have done it. In truth, it wasn’t, there were too many bodies with them. Had Tolukei been well enough to use his powers, and came for the ride, maybe as it would have been two psionics that could teleport. Tasking LeBoeuf with teleporting the whole group away was going to take a lot of focus on her part, and possibly half a minute just to muster the psionic energy needed. A lot of bad things could happen in that half-minute.

“You have no place to go, Captain,” Jainuzei said.

“We’s got the psionic advantage, Jainuzei,” Foster said, while her tachyon rifle took aim at his head. “Let us go, this ain’t worth it.”

“Your ship and the Rezeki’s Rage is about to meet its end,” Jainuzei said. “I know you plan to use the vortex to escape. But think about the risks, Captain. Think about what would happen if you were to use it now. There are too many ships close by, including the command ship. The gravity well will rip it apart sending its remains onto your two fleeing ships. And the Draconians? They will follow behind you.”

“We’ll take the chance,” Foster snorted.

“You need to create some distance, preferably while the two groups are still fighting. I can change that.” Jainuzei’s rifle lowered and pointed at the floor, a peace offering. “Make the Nephilim stay, and I’ll personally request our fleet to change position.”

“Bull-fucking-shit,” Chevallier said as she kept her rifle aimed at his head. “Captain, don’t listen to him. Finish the job!”

“I am a man of my word, Captain,” Jainuzei said. “Bringing dishonor to myself is not something I could easily live with, and you know that. I can give you safe passage out of this and turn my back on the fact you maimed my beloved wife.”

Foster lifted an eyebrow. “Levesque’s your wife?—”

Williams’ voice and hologram returned to Foster’s wrist terminal. “Captain, we’re going to lose the Rezeki’s Rage!”

His warning of the fate of the Rezeki’s Rage forced Lisette to step forward, away from the protective grace of the EDF team. She stood in the middle of the standoff, unfazed at the number of weapons pointed at her front and back by both sides.

“Avearan’s aboard the Rezeki’s Rage, right?” Lisette asked.

Foster’s teeth gritted. She knew where this was going. “She is,” she said, reluctantly.

Lisette clenched her fists and shut her eyes. “Let me stay, then.”

“Lisette!—”

“Tell Avearan—”

“I ain’t tellin’ her shit,” Foster roared. “Whatever it is you wanna tell Avearan, you do it yourself face to face with her. But you gotta come with us for that to happen, ya hear?”

Lisette faced Foster, and she saw tears streaming down her cheeks. “Get her out of here. I know Avearan came out here to find me, to rescue me. Now it’s time I saved her.”

Jainuzei moved forward, wrapping his large hand over Lisette’s shoulder. “A wise choice, Nephilim.” He pulled her away and had two robed Aryile secure Lisette. “You are free to leave now, Foster.”

Foster didn’t want to leave. Not without the woman that continued to be held against her will. First, the Empire arrested Lisette, then the Soldiers of Marduk took her, Jainuzei took her back, and was about to do it again. The cycle had to end. But was it worth forcing the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage to hold out until they met their ends?

“Lisette,” Foster pleaded to her.

“I’d rather die than let Avearan go through it,” Lisette said while the two Aryile dragged her out of sight. “You guys don’t know her like I do; she went through worse things in life. She’s the one that needs a chance to be happy for once. To be free.”

Two minutes later, Foster was on the bridge of the Kepler, not realizing she stood still long enough for LeBoeuf to teleport the large party back to the ship. She tossed her rifle in the corner and left the bridge without saying a word and entered engineering.

When the all-clear was given, she went to touch the vortex key and stopped when her wrist terminal beeped with a text-only message. It was from Saressea, she managed to get aboard the Prometheus, mentioned something about the Whisper helping her get out of prison, before wishing her, the Kepler, and Rezeki’s Rage good luck.

The Prometheus still had to maintain the look they were loyal to the fleet. Saressea was stuck with them until further notice.

The Terran alliance fleet pulled away just as Jainuzei promised, dragging the Draconians along. Foster opened a vortex just small enough for the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage to escape from the battle.

As much as Foster hated Jainuzei, she had to respect him for keeping his word.

62 Rivera

XSV Johannes Kepler

Dark Energy Maelstrom

July 24, 2119, 11:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Nobody aboard the Kepler cheered after they made their escape with the Rezeki’s Rage. You cheered when danger was behind you. The Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage were still in it. The clouds of the maelstrom were eating away at both ships as they traversed through it. The only saving grace was there were no other ships in pursuit of them.

Tolukei was still weak and mentally exhausted from his previous attempt at covering the Kepler with the goo using telekinesis. He wasn’t able to return to those duties. It left the crew of both ships with one option; leave the maelstrom at once, before it was too late. But where would they end up if Foster created a vortex for them?

To Rivera’s knowledge, traveling through the maelstrom was like taking a subway in a city. If you got off at the wrong station, you’d find yourself in a part of the city you might not be familiar with, too far away from your intended destination, and the original location you began your journey. Leaving now might put them in a restricted area controlled by Radiance, or it may put them in the deeper regions of the nebula no mortal was allowed to visit. Or in the middle of a star. It will be a risk they’ll have to take.

Being rescued from enemy captivity was supposed to make you feel safer. Rivera felt the opposite since coming aboard the Kepler. She had to change that, and the schematics she had in her HNI were the key to making that happen.

Rivera left the Kepler’s engineering, walking past Foster who had been attuned with the vortex key they had. Foster looked just like Alisha when Rivera watched her touch the one aboard the Gerard Kuiper. One hand was placed on the cylinder device, while their tattoos shined with blue light. Like Alisha, Foster stood in a trancelike state, like she was spaced-out, asleep on her feet. Psionic energy from the device made her hair flutter about like it was caught in a brief windstorm. It was both majestic and terrifying.

The Johannes Kepler’s bridge seemed a lot different by the time Rivera arrived, granted she never spent much time on it after Foster took command. After kicking the dragons out of Sirius, Rivera helped with a few minor repairs and then went to Earth to poke around the insides of the Carl Sagan.

Music from the 1980s played; it was hard to hear at first unless you made your way up front to the helm where Chang sat. She caught a glimpse of Odelea eye flirting with Pierce when she asked him a question. Williams was in command, and he looked bitter as hell. She heard about the dreams he’d been having, triggered by PTSD that he never had problems with until they awoke from cryo almost a year ago. Chevallier shooting him didn’t help. There was an increase in bad vibes when Chevallier and Williams were in the same room. Those two needed to share Rivera’s bong when their shift was over and mellow out. She made plans to pester them to do that.

But first, she had something important from her HNI to share with Williams.

“Commander, can I show you something?”

“It better be a solution to our problem,” Williams said. “We’re about to evaporate, already lost a layer of the outer hull.”

Rivera found the files in question in her HNI and opened them. A small rotating hologram of the aquarium Nereid was held in floated in-between the two.

“The Gerard Kuiper kept together in the maelstrom because they captured an Undine and forced it to use its psionic powers to affect the goo,” Rivera explained. “I’m not sure why, just that Undine psionic abilities can simulate the goo, and make it move, expand, and grow. It’s how they got the whole fleet through the maelstrom, and it’s how the Gerard Kuiper made it to the planet with the ruins on it. They only got stuck there because the Undine they had died because of the aquarium. When they had Nereid in the aquarium, it seemed like she had the power to make the goo not only cover the Gerard Kuiper but spread to cover and expand across the command ship.”

Williams glanced at the projection and the various notes attached to it. “So basically, the Gerard Kuiper became a Charybdis ship?”

“Yes,” Rivera answered. “Alisha discovered the technique after exposing herself to an engram from the Marduk Poniga and Undine as with the engram experiences she had from a monolith.”

He grimaced. “Another monolith …”

“Somewhere on New Babylon was a monolith like the one Foster touched,” Rivera said. “And on Earth too … Eicelea and Vynei discovered it deep underground Baghdad.”

“Baghdad being the location of the ancient city of Babylon,” Williams said. “That can’t be dumb luck.”

“Or the fact the Dragon Maiden dug a hole to it,” Rivera said.

“So how does this help us?”

“Sarpanit uploaded the designs for the aquarium into my HNI before we got separated. I can build a similar device for Nereid to use here.”

“Didn’t you say the Undine they had died?”

“Sarpanit seemed convinced that Nereid would be able to survive given her mutant nature.” Rivera’s gaze shifted about, searching for the Undine girl. “Where is Nereid right now?”

“In sickbay,” Williams said as he got up from the captain’s chair and went for the bridge’s exit with Rivera. “Pierce, you have the bridge.”

Rivera’s hands came over her mouth when she and Williams stepped into sickbay. The surge of joy and happiness helped remove the sour mood the fate of the Kepler was facing. Kostelecky was pregnant. Rivera’s HNI estimated the doctor was due in less than a month.

“Doctor! Congratulations!” Rivera said to her.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Kostelecky said drily.

“The positive vibes this crew had are gone,” Rivera said, placing her hands on her hips. “We got to fix this once this is over.”

“Whatever it is you’re planning on smoking, I’ll pass …” Kostelecky said.

Nereid was on her feet when they moved to her, Tolukei not so much.

“Everything good with her?” Williams asked.

“Other than elevated stress, nothing is wrong with Nereid,” Kostelecky said. “If this was Nereid from the past, maybe. Undine’s psionic powers grow with age and repeated use. And thanks to the medical logs Rivera found on the Carl Sagan, I got proof to show it. Nereid is more powerful now than she was when we met her.”

“It’s why they age so fast,” Rivera said. “Side effect from their powers or something like that, right?”

“So,” Williams said, his eyes squinting and his hands stroking the thin facial hair on his chin. “If we were to build that goo tank aquarium thingy, and have Nereid slip in it, she won’t die?”

“Unlikely,” Kostelecky said. “If anything, it made her stronger.”

Rivera looked at Nereid who had looked tired and remained silent. “Nereid, what do you think about that?”

“May I have time to recover?” she said. “As the doctor said, it was stressful.”

“I’ll need time to gather the materials and build it anyways.”

“Consider this a green light, Rivera,” Williams said. “How long will it take?”

“We got to have Foster pull us out, ASAP. Between the battle damage us and the Rezeki’s Rage took, we can’t remain in the maelstrom any longer.”

“We should be far enough from the Draconians and Terrans, right?” Kostelecky asked.

“Depends on where we end up when we leave the maelstrom,” she said with a wince. “They could easily catch up with us, which is why we tried to stay inside as long as possible.”

“I’ll pass the message onto Foster,” Williams said. “Rivera, get started as soon as you can please.”

XSV Johannes Kepler

Edge of the Divine Expanse, Interstellar Space

July 24, 2119, 11:38 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage accelerated away from a vortex, spilling out the storm clouds of the maelstrom. The two ships weren’t in the nebula, though if you were to look behind, you’d catch a stunning glimpse of it obscuring half the stars and the void of space behind.

For the first time in days, Rivera felt calm, relaxed, at home with the crew she had been separated from for so long. The maelstrom wasn’t a threat, and the dragons weren’t around, nor the Terrans and their newfound friends of the SOM and Taxah Hashmedai variety. She could feel the positive vibes grow, and she hadn’t hit the bong yet.

It was a great feeling, one that motivated her to hustle within the Kepler’s machine shop not far from engineering. Rivera utilized life-sized design holograms of the aquarium the Gerard Kuiper had, allowing her to visually see exactly what she needed to build, and where she could throw in a few improvements on the device with her own ideas.

Penelope was a big help as she used one of the computers to code. The aquarium was going to need a specialized program to help run it, so Penelope offered her computer programming talents.

“Glad to have you back, Rivera,” Foster said from behind.

Rivera turned away from the yellow and orange holograms and saw Foster standing at the machine shop’s door. “Glad to be back,” she said. “I’ve seen too many frowns, however, Captain.”

Foster shrugged. “Been a stressful ride.”

“Negative thoughts bring negative things into your life.”

“And HNI in your head goes against the plan.”

“Sorry about that,” Rivera said, then bit her lip. “I got the implants before you were given command of the Kepler.”

“Shouldn’t be an issue since there’s a handful of folks here that do have the implants,” Foster said. “Was just hoping that if the Dragon Knights show we’d have an engineer that would be able to stand on their feet.”

“She might be able to,” Penelope cut in, turning on her chair. “Rivera’s case might be different since Sarpanit was in it and made changes. Maybe, just maybe, she might be immune to the disruption, maybe not.”

“In any case,” Rivera said. “My HNI contains the files Sarpanit left behind, including the missing data from the Carl Sagan. It will still be worth keeping me around, Captain.”

“Wasn’t thinking of kicking you out!” Foster held her hands out in a slow down motion. “You’s still part of the family, no matter what you jammed inside your head. Ya hear?”

“Thanks, Captain.”

“We’ll be landing on Riylor, the Vorcambreum homeworld, in a few days,” Foster said. “There’s a large Radiance fleet in the system, figured the Terrans and Draconians would think twice about chasing us there. We’ll be getting repairs and supplies once we arrive, so if you need any materials to build this, let me know.”

“I’ll have that list for you in the hour.”

“Also, if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d like you to help with the repairs on the Rezeki’s Rage. Gonna be hard to convince Radiance to board and fix up an Imperial ship … and since you speak their language.”

Rivera smiled warmly. “Happy to help.”

She really was. Finally, Rivera was able to do the job she signed up for. She felt like a space engineer once again, one free of the insane AI Goddess that was in her head, driving her mad with its negative influence.

The Gerard Kuiper had her now, in her android form. They were the ones that had to put up with the headaches.

63 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Renterious Base, Riylor, Devaguai System

July 29, 2119, 15:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The star of Devaguai cast light strong enough to force all windows aboard the Kepler to auto dim, preventing sudden blindness to those that might have been looking out. It was a white main sequence star with a hint of blue, making it very similar to Sirius A. Chang had cracked a joke about the Kepler finding its way back to the system that made their lives change forever.

An expansive asteroid belt had to be crossed in order to gain access to the inner planets of the system. That alone took days since the Kepler was forced to travel at sub light speeds to match the maximum speed of the Rezeki’s Rage that flew alongside it. The Radiance Navy protecting the system wasn’t happy to learn an Imperial ship entered with the Kepler. Foster kindly reminded them she was given the power to run the mission her way, which included bringing the Rezeki’s Rage into the system for repairs.

The Devaguai system was the closest and most populated Radiance system to the Divine Expanse, the location of the Hallowed Nebula. So, it wasn’t surprising for anyone, including those on the Rezeki’s Rage, of Radiance’s disagreement of its presence in the system. In the past, the system, and its nearby colonies, was always on high alert when the Empire sent its fleets into the nebula, searching for proof that the Radiance Gods weren’t divine. The war without end might have been in ceasefire mode, but the bad blood between Hashmedai and Radiance in these parts was still in go-fuck-yourself mode.

Once clear of the asteroid belt, four Radiance heavy cruisers escorted the two ships to the Vorcambreum homeworld of Riylor, which in reality was a large moon orbiting a gas giant. The Kepler dove through the clouds of the moon, landing at Renterious base, a Radiance military base sitting at the basin of a wide open and rocky plain. The Rezeki’s Rage remained in orbit while orbiting repair crews from Radiance bickered and drew straws as to who had to repair the evil Empire ship because Foster demanded it.

Half the surface of Riylor was covered in xen ethereal crystals, the power source of Imperial and UNE ships, and at one point, the Union until they switched to refined dark energy, AKA aether. Riylor was the only place in the known galaxy to get the crystals and was heavily mined and distributed them throughout the galaxy for a price.

Nobody knew exactly where the XE crystals came from. Some believed one of the asteroids delivered them to the moon during ancient times, and others suspected it had to do with the planet’s close proximity to the nebula. Some believed that the system’s stellar drift through the galaxy, at some point, saw the Devaguai system pass through the nebula. And if you were to ask any of the Vorcambreum, they’d tell you that a higher existence put the crystals on the moon, an existence that came from the nebula.

When Radiance made contact with the Vorcambreum and told them the story about the three Gods, both sides drew the conclusions they were speaking of the same divine force. Little else was needed to convince the dwarf people of the Vorcambreum race that assimilation into the Radiance Union was the best thing for them. And so, more fuel to the belief that the three Gods lived in the center of the nebula had begun.

The tension that gripped the crew reduced when the Kepler’s entry ramp lowered, giving the crew access to the Radiance base and the city beyond. The first thing Foster did when she left the ship was snap a few pictures of the skies. The gas giant the moon orbited dominated half the view of the blue and clear skies.

Up above was the blue and white sunlight of the Devaguai star. It looked smaller than the sun back on Earth, from her point of view on the moon’s surface at least. In reality, it was five times bigger than Sol. Nevertheless, its light was bright enough that all humans, and Hashmedai, needed to wear protective shades or risk going blind. It went to show how bright and powerful the star was, as the moon of Riylor was eight AU away.

After that, Foster staggered when she marched away from the Kepler. The surface gravity for a moon was stronger than she thought it would be. She began to understand why Vorcambreum evolved to be so short, even the mountains in the distance looked pretty sad compared to mountains you’d see on Earth.

The crew spread out from the entry ramp with their assigned roles. Some were tasked to help with repairs, and others went to the base and city beyond searching for supplies. Chef Bailey had the fun job, grocery shopping. Vorcambreum ate insects, and with Eicelea aboard there wasn’t much on the mess hall’s menu for her to eat. Thankfully, despite this being the Vorcambreum homeworld, lots of people from Radiance made it their home. It gave Foster hope Chef would come back with more than crawling bugs in a container.

Foster got a notification that resupplying and fueling the Kepler was almost complete by the time the evening rolled around. The dimming bright star allowed the dry summer-like heat to dissipate. Her body liked it. She came to stand on a patio deck used by Radiance rangers during their off hours. The railing was small as were the tables and chairs, all designed with Vorcambreum height in mind. Foster felt like a giant walking through the base and city at times, a giant with sore bones thanks to the heavy gravitational pull the moon had. She watched the shine of the crystal plains beyond the base and city’s walls and mused about their situation.

She and the crew, like it or not, were in a race. A race to the center of the nebula, the location of Kur, they were losing and had to make a long pit stop to continue. They had to get there before the Draconians did and carried out their plans and before the SOM did with the assistance of the Terrans. And what a mess that was. If what Alisha said was true, then she and Jainuzei and Alisha weren’t even on board with the cult’s plans and were just using the Terrans’ power.

The SOM wanted to resurrect Marduk and were convinced that Alisha and Jainuzei wanted that too after removing their leadership and probably spun a bunch of lies. That’s the thing about cults, they’ll blindly follow anyone that preaches what they want to hear. But in reality, the husband and wife duo wanted something else. But what was it? Not the resurrection of Tiamat, that’s what the Draconians wanted from Kur, and evidently were following the path Alisha and Jainuzei were making.

It was somewhat of a comforting thought, as it meant the Draconians themselves didn’t know the way to Kur, which would explain why they didn’t beat everyone to the race already. They were following the psionic signals the tentacle creature inside the vortex key Jainuzei stole from the Kepler, sent. The SOM were the ones that had the knowledge of Kur, most likely obtained from the Marduk Poniga. Who knows, maybe that’s why the Draconians arrived in Sirius at first, back in 2050 when the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword were there. They must have thought both ships had obtained that knowledge from the Poniga.

The artifacts played a role too, the more Foster thought about it. In what way, she didn’t know, just that the Eyes of Tiamat were taken from Baghdad while a monolith was found. And Alisha found one as well on New Babylon that probably gave her the tattoos Foster had. The Dragon Maiden also had the tattoos and had most likely interacted with the monolith under Baghdad. Things were starting to make sense, monoliths gave people the tattoos needed to use Draconian tech, and it was a onetime deal. That’s why the Dragon Maiden called her a thief; Foster accidentally stole the tattoos and an engram from the first monolith.

Therefore, Foster, Alisha, and the Dragon Maiden all had the same abilities.

“Enjoy the visuals while you can, human.” Foster’s musing ended when she turned and saw Eicelea stand next to her. Her yellow Vorcambreum eyes joining her in the view of the crystal-covered plains. “Not many humans have been this deep into the Union, let alone seen the beauty of the XE crystal fields.”

“Really?” Foster said, looking down at Eicelea.

“Too long a trip, though with that vortex ability of yours, I fear that may no longer be the case.”

“Unless someone can figure out how my tattoos work and to transfer them, then we’s the only ship that can get here faster than FTL.”

“And the Gerard Kuiper.”

“And the Gerard Kuiper … but I’m hoping they ain’t gonna be a thing once we’s done.”

“What was going through your mind when you were looking at the crystals?”

“Just thinking about the situation we all found ourselves in,” Foster said. “The SOM, Taxah Hashmedai, and the Terran Legion working together.”

“The worst of our three factions have teamed up,” Eicelea said drily. “Yet Earth, Hashmedai, and Radiance keep butting heads. Squabbling over things that aren’t important.”

Foster snapped her fingers. A surge of inspiration hit her mind. “Yes …” she said. “That’s it, Eicelea. You’re a genius.”

“Of course I am! You believe I inspired you?”

“The Terrans are supporting the SOM; only because they think they’ll topple Radiance, take control to be used as a puppet government.”

“I thought we covered this?”

“We did but …” Foster pushed away from the tiny railing of the patio. “Alisha, she told me they were misleading the Marduk cult, trying to steer it in the direction she and Jainuzei originally wanted it to be. She said the SOM and their alliance was just a tool to get what they wanted.”

“And that is?”

“Not Marduk, which is what the cult members think Jainuzei and Alisha are going to deliver them,” Foster said, and looked up at the gas giant in the horizon. “They’s united because they think Marduk is gonna come back when they get to Kur. The Terrans’ funding makes them strong, and in turn, they were going to hand Radiance over to them.”

“But Jainuzei and Alisha seem to have taken control,” Eicelea said.

“And have no plans on delivering what the Terran alliance or SOM want,” Foster said. “This is why you’re a genius Eicelea, you gave me an idea. Let’s put that alliance in the same position as our failed one between the Union, Empire, and UNE. We’s gotta get the word out that Alisha and Jainuzei got secrets.”

The Vorcambreum woman nodded her tiny head. “I see …”

“Once support for the SOM fails, the Terrans will pull out; the Taxah Hashmedai will be forced to do the same. And if we can get proof of the Hashmedai’s loyalty to the Terrans back to the Empire—”

“The Emperor and Empress will make their heads roll.” Eicelea chuckled softly. “Don’t give me credit for that,” she said, looking up at Foster. “That was the will of the Gods, they were speaking to you.”

Foster beamed. “What makes you say that?”

A tiny Vorcambreum index finger pointed to the plains and the crystals growing out from it like they were plants. “When I was younger,” Eicelea said. “I gazed into this field, from this very same spot. I wondered what plains looked like before these crystals came? How did they get there? What was ancient Vorcambreum life like? There was proof we never had the crystals at the time. That’s when I realized I needed to become an archeologist and uncover all the ancient secrets of the galaxy. The Gods spoke to me because I looked out here, lost. They did the same for you just now.”

“That was …”

“The nicest thing you’ve heard me say to a human?”

“Yeah.”

“And it shall be the only time I do so! So, treasure this moment, human, it won’t happen again.”

It took Foster awhile, but by the time nightfall came, she was able to make out a faint glimpse of the nebula in the night skies. Somewhere in there was Kur. Somewhere in there were the Draconians getting closer to it. Somewhere in there was the Terran Alliance helping the SOM, who think they’re about to resurrect Marduk, but in reality, are going to bring something else back.

Foster had to get back into the race. The pit stop needed to end yesterday.

64 Saressea

TLS Prometheus

Terran Alliance Fleet, Hallowed Nebula Center

July 30, 2119, 04:20 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Saressea had a dream about her past. She was young, probably nineteen or so, magnetizing the glares of men she greeted at the front entrance to a restaurant serving Rabuabin cuisine.

The food was great, you could smell it outside the establishment, its aroma was powerful enough to lure in people who weren’t Rabuabin unless you were Aryile or Javnis. Even then, there were plant-based items on the menu, like humans and Linl, Rabuabin were omnivores, though they did lean more to the carnivore side compared to the other two.

The young Saressea wore a striking glittering dress and chatted with her friend until the dream turned into a nightmare. Byikanea showed up in the dream and started melting people with her psionic powers. SOM fighters ran in with rifles turning people’s heads into bits of red and pink chunks. It wasn’t pleasant.

She tried to run but couldn’t and was forced to watch the Linl psionic float in the air with her powers raining down hellfire, as her red hair fluttered like she was submerged in water. Saressea’s father ran and pushed her to safety. He was the chef of the restaurant, and that wasn’t right at all. Her father was a mechanic.

By the time she got to her feet, she noticed her hair had become a mess, and some of it covered the side of her face. It was strawberry-blonde hair, with highlights. A very human look, that wasn’t right either. Saressea’s hair was a dark caramel-like color. That’s when Byikanea appeared ahead of her, used her telekinetic powers to paralyze the young Saressea. From there, Byikanea tore off her dress, held her down and raped her, over and over while the bodies of the dead burned with psionic fires around them.

Byikanea moaned Jainuzei’s name in an ecstasy-laced voice.

Saressea leaped up from her bed screaming from the dream turned nightmare. Her body, feline ears, and tail drenched with terror sweat, even the edges of her horns close to her head had been dampened by it. Annoying sounds blared. She couldn’t figure it out. Her disorientated mind tried and failed three times to keep her head straight. Her fast beating heart wouldn’t stop. At one point, she thought she’d die of a heart attack. When her heart finally relaxed, she tried to make sense of the noise. It was an alarm.

Something was happening to the ship. But what? They had returned to the command ship after the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage escaped, before the Gerard Kuiper did the same, opening its own vortex. Perhaps they stayed in the maelstrom too long, she thought. With Nereid back with the Kepler, meant no protective goo for anyone, just a short trek through the maelstrom.

She went to get dressed, and then screamed when she saw Byikanea. A second later, Byikanea was gone. Saressea’s mind was playing tricks on her. Byikanea must have done more than violate her body, she did it to her mind as well. She was raped physically and mentally at the same time with psionic powers. Why else would she have a dream like that?

On the bridge, the Linl Whisper crew chatted and manned their stations. The alerts continued to make their racket. It made her miss the ones on the Kepler, she designed them to be less intrusive.

“There a reason I need to be here? Or can I go back to sleep?” Saressea asked, hoping the answer was yes. She had a lingering thought that the imaginary Byikanea was going to be waiting for her in bed.

“Terrans are getting ready to exit the maelstrom,” Michei said, stroking his Rabuabin horns. “We’ve been told to go into high alert since the Draconian fleet isn’t far off.”

“Took them long enough.”

“Their ships are organic, they needed to stop to sleep and regenerate the battle damage they took.”

“I meant the Terrans,” she said. “We can’t stay in the maelstrom long without the goo.”

“There was enough residual goo to keep us in longer.”

“Great, anyone got any dragon bedtime stories we can tell? Maybe they’ll nod off again when they awake.”

Saressea went to attend a vacant station, hoping that the act of keeping busy would calm her head. The data that outputted reported that the command ship’s doors had opened to the view of the nebula. They were no longer in the maelstrom. They were approaching the center of the nebula. Kur was hours away.

With the Gerard Kuiper in the lead, the remaining ships of the alliance flew out in single file and entered a formation, embarking on an ethereal voyage of the nebula’s center. Young stars twinkled in the pale glow of the clouds when the alliance of ships pushed in. In a few million years planets will develop around them. She wondered what the Gods planned to do with them.

The wreckage of old Hashmedai ships were seen scattered about in the distance. It was a mysterious sight. Saressea had to double check that the view screen was working right, and then double check her computer that it was as well.

She scratched her head, stopping when her fingers hit her left horn. “I thought nobody could get past the barrier?” she asked.

“The Empire probably got these ships in via a space bridge jump,” Michei said.

She looked closely at the old Imperial ships. They all met a violent end. “Doesn’t look like they lasted long.”

“Nope, guess that would explain why they focused most of their attacks trying to enter the nebula, in hopes of seeing whatever it was that destroyed their fleets upon arrival.”

She counted at least four junked command ships adrift as they flew past, and one of them managed to release the ships that were inside, though those ships had all been turned to piles of floating slag, lost forever to the nebula’s grand luster.

“I’ve always thought it was the Gods that made the Imperials lose contact with these fleets,” Michei said as he glanced at the ship graveyard.

“Thought?” Saressea said, “It’s pretty clear they did.”

“Look at the sensor data,” he said, pushing the holo screen to her. “The Gods didn’t do this.”

Saressea pulled the holo screen closer to her face, reading its data, and viewing its diagrams of the old and dead Imperial ships.

“You know how I know now?” he asked.

“Yep,” Saressea said. “Two reasons, one the Gods didn’t give us tachyon weapons, or any weapon remotely close to its firepower. Two, we’re still alive …” The ancient sleeping ship Kur appeared on the view screen when the fleet passed through a wave of gaseous nebula clouds. The ancient ship was like a sun emerging in the aftermath of a rainstorm. “Three, they aren’t doing much to stop us from approaching Kur.”

With the lingering fear that the Draconians would emerge from a vortex, the Gerard Kuiper ordered the fleet to spread out and take up a defensive position, circling Kur with a mixture of Imperial and Terran ships, while the Gerard Kuiper moved closer. The Prometheus had complied, of course, still pretending it was a ship run by a human crew that pledged their allegiance to the Legion.

The Prometheus made its closest approach to Kur when it entered its assigned defense position around it, an hour later. The scans that came back were mind-numbing. Imperial command ships were big enough to fit an entire fleet inside. Kur was big enough to fit a city or three inside stacked up on top of each other.

The Gerard Kuiper and other ships that were ahead of the Prometheus were nothing more than tiny specks on the view screen. Kur was a colossal beast that floated dead center of everything. And the nebula around? It was just beautiful now they were in the center. The work of the Gods was something else.

“Incoming transmission,” an officer reported from their station.

“All right, everyone get into character,” Michei said, it generated a dozen laughs from the crew.

Michei moved to a corner of the bridge that wouldn’t be viewed when the video communication link was made. He grabbed Saressea as well. This was supposed to be a Terran ship after all with a human crew.

The Linl Whisper members began to speak English and dropped their Radiance accents. A Linl man stepped forward with his hands behind his back. He wore a captain’s uniform and gave a nod to Michei, he gave one back.

The view screen changed and Byikanea appeared, sitting cross-legged on one of the chairs in the prison ferry’s bridge. A wave of terror paralyzed Saressea when she heard her voice speak.

“Captain,” Byikanea said, her English wasn’t bad. “Do you still have Saressea in your brig?”

“Yes, yes we do,” said the Linl man acting as a Terran captain.

“May I request her presence when we board the Kur?”

“We’d still like to beat some sense into her for her actions at Taxah.”

“I’d rather you didn’t do that,” Byikanea said, her voice turning sour. “Saressea is the reason we made it this far. Her HNI, her actions at Taxah, none of this would have happened without her. This was the lingering will of Marduk, his will wants us to bring him back into the universe. I want her at our side; it’s her destiny to be here when he comes back from the dead.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” the pretend captain said. “Let me get back to you.”

“Thank you.”

The view screen returned to its previous image, Kur adrift in the nebula with a number of dots around it, being the fleet spreading out to defend it.

“Can we come out?” Saressea asked.

The pretend captain snickered. “Yes.”

Once out of the shadows, Michei asked her. “What the hell was that about?”

“Byikanea thinks I’m in with the SOM,” Saressea said, shrugging. “She just wants me around.”

“She doesn’t just want you around; she wants you on the team that ventures through Kur.”

“That bitch is crazy, what can I say?”

“You can say, you want to go with her—”

“Fuck that.”

“Remember the last transmission we received from the Kepler,” Michei said. “Alisha and Jainuzei have plans that go against them.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Saressea said as she tried her best to ignore the growing anxiety in her chest. “We gotta get some infighting started.”

“Byikanea, however, is the last of the SOM leadership,” Michei said, his eyes narrowing while his head put together a plan. “She and the others still think they’re here to get Marduk back. This is the chance we need to prove that Jainuzei and Alisha aren’t looking out for them and get the group fighting. If we can get Byikanea to turn against them …”

That’s how the Whisper operated she mused as he continued to talk. The organization was called Whisper for a reason. They infiltrated groups, sending agents with fake preprogrammed memories to whisper lies, exaggerated intel, or the truthful things that certain people weren’t supposed to know, into the ears of their targets.

The Imperial Assassins’ Guild sent assassins to kill or track VIPs. The UNE EISS sent agents on black op missions to conduct espionage, sabotage, interrogations, and the odd hit-and-run with a sniper on a high-valued target. The Whisper? They told people what they wanted them to hear, then sat back and watched said organization crumble from the inside out.

“I want you to go with them, Saressea,” Michei said.

She crossed her arms and raised her tail. “Remember when I said, fuck that?”

“You earned her trust, you’re close to her.”

“For reasons I’d rather not remember. Besides, it’s just my word against theirs. What the fuck am I going to do?”

“Be the person that can deliver the Kepler’s proof when they arrive. Once they get in range, we could have them send it to you via HNI.”

“She could also send back intel via HNI since we’re here,” the pretend captain interjected.

Michei nodded to him, liking the idea. “That too.”

Saressea wanted to flip him the bird for suggesting that idea, not that he’d get the human gesture. She was probably the only person aboard that acted more human and less of a woman from Radiance.

When she didn’t give her reply, the bridge crew looked at her. The ones behind her too if she were to guess. They were all trained Whisper members who acted like she was one of them. The one that could get them home safely. And the only way to do that was to finish the mission.

Her ears sagged and her hand came up to facepalm. “Damn,” were the only words she muttered through her palm.

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 05:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

A transport carried Saressea to the prison ferry, only for her to transfer to another one that flew down to the ancient starship Kur. She was accompanied by Byikanea and several men and women wearing prisoner jumpsuits or prison guard uniforms. Byikanea’s ability to convince people to worship Marduk was on par with the Celestial Order’s ability to indoctrinate anyone that got too close to the group. Saressea figured it had to do with her psionic powers, which by rights weren’t something a Linl or anyone else from Radiance, the Empire, or Earth should have.

The transport came to rest on top of Kur. The ship was so big it looked like they were on a planet made of metal and alien designed structures where the skies were the nebula’s colorful splendor. EVA suits and magnetic boots were needed at first as they left the transport. A second transport came down from the nebula skies, one of human design from the Gerard Kuiper. Out from that came Jainuzei and Alisha with a team of bodyguards from the SOM and a human woman introduced as Lisette.

Byikanea faced the second group looking puzzled. “Where is Armuzei? Marduk will need his body.”

“He’s … coming later,” Alisha said with a smirk.

They passed through what Saressea figured was an airlock and dipped into the bowels of the megacity-sized ship. It was dark, gloomy, and smelt like ass, built by some long-dead advanced civilization. There was breathable air surprisingly enough allowing all personnel to remove their helmets. Flashlights lit the way through the corridors and then came off when a light source ahead got closer. Byikanea couldn’t keep her eyes off Jainuzei. She also didn’t like it when he held Alisha’s lower back as the trek continued.

Saressea’s HNI had been set to record and had been since they got off the transport. The Prometheus was still in range to receive her signals, though there would be a couple of minutes of lag in between each data package she sent to them. She went over in her head when would be the right time to reveal Jainuzei and Alisha’s true plan, and how. She didn’t have much proof to show, just a brief message the Kepler sent, she needed more.

Alisha stopped suddenly. Blue light bled away from the neck part of her EVA suit, it was like her body on the inside of the suit was a Christmas tree.

“There’s a vortex opening …” Alisha said.

Saressea held back a gleeful beam. The Kepler must be arriving. The cavalry was coming, the time to reveal the truth was now.

Saressea went to speak.

“It’s the Draconian fleet!” Alisha shouted before she had the chance to open her lips.

“Let’s keep searching for the chamber,” Jainuzei said to the group. “They’ll be dropping their forces inside soon. Byikanea, contact the fleet with your mind, have them take up a tighter defense around Kur. They got to reduce the pressure we’re about to get.” Turning to the group and Alisha, he added. “Go ahead, I shall examine the corridors and see where we should deploy any backup.”

Saressea kept her lips shut and moved with Alisha and their SOM fighters. As much as she hated doing it, she’d need their support if the Draconians sent their soldiers in. Dropping the dime on them now was a very bad idea.

Looking back, she saw Byikanea exit her telepathic trance and pull on Jainuzei’s large armored arms. He looked down at her, she looked up at him with lust, the same lust she used to rip apart Saressea’s body, mind, and soul.

“I missed you so fucking much,” Byikanea whispered, and stood on her toes to kiss him.

Jainuzei held onto her back, pulling her closer for a deeper and longer kiss. “How much?” he asked.

“I had to fuck that Rabuabin and pretend it was you,” Byikanea said then tickled the side of his cheeks. “I love you—”

“Jainuzei,” Alisha, who was further up, called back. “How much longer?”

Saressea turned around and power walked back to the group she was supposed to be with, hoping Jainuzei and Byikanea didn’t see her. She grinned, having remembered her HNI was still recording.

“Who is she?” Byikanea spat.

“Just a business partner,” Jainuzei’s voice said.

More words were whispered, but at that point Saressea was too far away, moving quickly down the ancient halls of the ship.

The ship that might be the end of all life in the galaxy.

65 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Renterious Base, Riylor, Devaguai System

July 30, 2119, 00:06 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler felt like a quiet house, sitting calm as the night skies darkened it. The crew inside were like members of a family taking part in evening activities before they went to bed.

For Foster, that meant receiving an update on their status, having spent the last day or so landed at the base, touring the ship, and inspecting the work that had been done. The bloodstains that made a mess of the cargo bay had been scrubbed clean, and the bodies of the SOM members and rangers were handed off for Radiance to do whatever it was they did to the dead.

Her wrist terminal beeped with a notification from the Rezeki’s Rage in orbit. Peiun’s face appeared.

“Captain, you will be pleased to know our repairs have been completed,” Peiun transmitted. “Rivera was a major help.”

“Good to hear it,” Foster replied. “So, tell me, how did y’all end up in this mess?”

“Manzo, he has been trying to undermine my leadership since I took command,” he said. “After we defeated the Terrans at Taxah, Manzo left for the surface and made contact with the Hashmedai there that allied with the Terrans.”

“Guess the rumor was true, there was a group trying to overthrow the Imperial throne there.”

“That was our guess as well,” he said. “When Manzo returned, he brought help from the surface. I was forced to surrender the ship to him, and he ordered it into the command ship we now chase. The Emperor and Empress will be made aware of what happened once we return and launch an investigation.”

If you return, we ain’t in the clear yet, she thought after the chat came to an end. The Rezeki’s Rage needed to survive, along with the proof in its databanks and witness accounts of its crew. The Taxah Hashmedai faction would fall once the Imperial throne started making heads roll.

Foster hoped the repairs they got, thanks to Rivera, were going to last. She was bouncing back and forth from repairs of the Rezeki’s Rage to working on the aquarium for Nereid to control the protective goo. She began to wonder how much sleep the poor girl was getting, probably not much.

But the smile Rivera’s face had every time Foster saw her said she didn’t care and enjoyed doing what she loved. Either that or she was just higher than a kite, but that only happened when she retreated to her quarters at the end of the day.

Kostelecky was reading up on parenting guides in her office during the downtime. Foster couldn’t blame her as the doctor would be a single mother soon with no memory of who the Poniga father was.

Foster caught a glimpse of Nereid scoping out the completed aquarium in the machine shop and the 3D printers used to produce its parts. Tolukei stood with her, talking, probably helping her mentally prepare for what was to come.

Pierce and Miles were in the lounge on the upper deck using that Canadian log cabin hologram living room setting. They sat on one of the couches with a can of beer in their hands, laughing, talking, and watching sports games via QEC with one of the holo TVs on the wall. She thought about joining them but remembered she didn’t eat all evening and opted to grab some leftovers in the mess.

She bumped into Chevallier who was on her way out of it.

“Foster,” Chevallier said.

She nodded. “Chevallier.”

Chevallier grimaced, looking away. Her cheeks turned a shade red. That was a rare sight. “Hey, um. Listen.”

“What’s up?”

“Eh, thank you,” Chevallier said, struggling to say the words. “Thanks for not leaving me behind after what happened back at Taxah.”

“You were angry, and from what I read of your past, you do silly things when you get pissed,” Foster said. “How’s the arm working out?”

“Good, Rivera says she can make some attachments for it since the doctor left a bunch of expansion ports on it.”

“That could be handy.”

“She also remodeled my protect suit,” Chevallier said. “This arm will be exposed when I’m in it.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Foster asked.

“It’s just wires and metal now, doesn’t matter if it’s exposed to space or radiation. It does matter if it’s wrapped up inside my suit, I won’t be able to use it or any of the attachments.”

“Fair point.”

“Did anyone get back to you about Boyd?”

“Still MIA and presumed dead,” Foster said grimly. “You’re the leader of EDF-1 now until we get back to Earth controlled space.”

Foster’s words made Chevallier pause. She was processing what that meant. And what it meant was that Chevallier was the leader of the first and most prestigious of the EDF teams. It was the one that always formed the tip of the spear when it came to protecting Earth’s interests in deep space, the team that had to get things done, no matter the odds.

She left Chevallier with that and entered the mess. Williams sat alone, then again there was nobody else in the mess hall except for Chevallier who left earlier. She hoped Chevallier had been in the mess to patch things up with Williams, she did shoot him after all.

There were no leftovers for Foster to munch on, except for that savory cheesecake Chef Bailey made for dessert. There were three slices left. Foster took two of them and declared it her dinner for the day. She caught a glimpse of Bailey in the galley cleaning up and putting his kitchen knives away, and gave him a smile and a wave, he waved back.

Afterward, Foster pulled up a chair and sat with Williams at his lonely table for one, now turned into two. He glanced at her, and then went back to reading his holo pad.

She spooned two chunks of the cake into her mouth and then asked. “Everything okay, Dom?”

“I’m fine, Becca.” His eyes were still on the pad’s screen shining its light upon his dark face and beard.

“Any new paintings?”

“You saw the last one already, so no.”

“That was months ago,” she said. “Before.” She was going to say before he got shot by Chevallier but caught herself just in time. “ … Before we got the vortex key.”

“So, Chevallier is the leader of EDF-1?” he asked, finally looking up at her.

“Yep, it’s good for her.” His asking meant the two didn’t talk at all. The mess hall must have been really awkward when the two were there, keeping to themselves, not saying a word.

“That tone,” she said. “Haven’t heard you like that since we were livin’ in LA, back when we were younger.”

“Those were tough times.”

“Yeah.” She finished the first slice of cheesecake and prepared her hands to guide her spoon for the second. “You lost your parents, I lost my father. What was the name of that hospital we met at again?”

“Cedars-Sinai.”

“Y’know, still can’t get over all them refugees across the country that were packed in there during the war.”

“And of all those people, you singled me out.” He managed to muster a half smile.

Foster did the same. “I saw a ten-year-old boy crying and alone,” she said. “Had to do something’, ain’t nobody else would.”

“Hundred and one years later … here we are, in the stars. With a big fucking gap in our memories between 2050 and 2118.”

“We’ll figure it out, Dom. Seems like you’s starting to remember … something with those paintings.”

Bailey came to sit with the two by the time Foster finished her cheesecake slices for dinner. How he managed to keep his white chef coat and hat clean while making food for the crew was mind-blowing.

“Hey, Chef,” Foster said to him. “Headin’ out for the night?”

“You about to take us into battle,” Bailey said. “Me ain’t gonna get any sleep!”

“That makes two of us,” Williams grunted.

“That Jainuzei mon, though,” Bailey said. “I knew he was trouble when I saw him. I should have done something about him sooner. Funny how that works, I could have prevented this.”

“Attacking people ain’t your thing, Chef,” Foster said.

“I know, I know.” Bailey laughed.

“Kinda glad you didn’t, Jainuzei would have killed you,” Foster said. “Then, we wouldn’t have you or your guidance. Or be here right now.”

“All this Marduk talk got me thinkin’, though,” Bailey continued. “The Poniga’s stories were more than a myth. As primitive as they are, they know more about this universe we live in than Radiance, Hashmedai, or Earth. Captain, when this is over, can I make a request?”

“Sure thing, Chef.”

“I want to go back to Sirius.”

The eyes of Foster and Williams widened when they heard his words. Was the Chef requesting to leave? She was afraid to ask, Williams, however, wasn’t. “You’re going to leave us?”

“No, mon!” Bailey erupted with laughter again. It was surprisingly soothing to hear. “But I want to pick up some of my notes I left there. I was exposed to a lot of the Poniga teachings over the years. Those stories they told me might be the map we need to figure all this stupidness out that we have to deal with.”

“I think we can grant that, Chef,” Foster said with a smile.

Foster strode onto the bridge the next morning full of energy from her coffee. She took a quick glance at the crew, noting they were ready at their stations. Even non-crew personnel like Penelope and Vynei operated the computers that EVE normally would have.

Odelea notified Foster of an incoming transmission, its source was from the base they spent the last day or so at. She accepted the communication and hoped some good news was about to come in.

The view screen switched to a holographic projection of a Vorcambreum man, with the grey skin and white hair all members of their species had.

“Greetings, Captain, my name is Teuei, I’m a Whisper psionic.”

His English was flawless.

“What can we do for you?” Foster asked.

“I received a telepathic communication from the Terran ship currently controlled by our agents,” Teuei’s projection said. “They wish to let you know that Saressea has infiltrated a group of SOM members that boarded the Kur recently.”

Foster slapped the side of her chair. “Damn it, so they made it?”

“It would appear so and the Draconians.”

“Shit, we got to go!”

“According to them, they have the human woman, Lisette, and are about to reach their target within the ship,” Teuei said, tapping through a number of holo screens that appeared before him. “I’m sending you data, converted by my thoughts I received from Saressea’s HNI via a psionic on the Whisper controlled ship, Prometheus.”

Odelea eyed her computer’s holo screens. “It’s coming through now, Captain,” she reported.

“It’s a rough map of Kur from what Saressea was able to learn and our last known tactical assessment of the area,” Teuei said.

Odelea pushed a copy of the recently received intel as a holo screen to Foster. She caught it and brought it closer to her face, noting the maze of zigzagging halls and chambers that made up the inside of Kur. Teuei wasn’t kidding when he said it was rough. She handed the map to EVE to clean it up and compare it to what they knew about the size and shape of Kur.

“Good luck, Captain,” Teuei finished. “We are all counting on you to please the Gods and end this chaos.”

I ain’t doing this for your Gods; I’m doing this to prevent the return of one. Or a Goddess …

The projection faded when the comm link was cut. It was time to leave and return to the race she hadn’t given up on.

But they needed a plan first.

“Odelea, can you get a hold of Peiun?”

Down below the deck of the bridge, and adjacent to the captain’s office, sat the entire crew and guests aboard the Kepler’s briefing room, along with Peiun who came down from the Rezeki’s Rage. Rivera was running late according to the message left on Foster’s wrist terminal. Last-minute checks of the aquarium. Foster went on with the meeting anyway. Time was running out.

They needed an attack plan to end this. The galaxy was about to have something awful and ancient unleashed upon it in the next few hours unless something was done.

Foster stood and tapped the controls ahead of her. Floating above the circular table flashed a spinning three-dimensional hologram of Kur, updated with the intel Saressea sent to the Whisper.

“This is a rough map of the interior of Kur,” Foster said, then loaded the next holographic slide, a fleet of ships battling for control of it. “And this shit here is the gauntlet we’s gonna have to punch through to get inside.”

“Punch through …” Maxwell said, eying the hologram. “So, I guess opening a vortex over top of it isn’t an option?”

“If we open one too close, we run the risk of flying into the crossfire, or a stray shot entering the vortex we’re tryin’ to exit,” Foster said.

“Keep in mind this data is out of date,” Williams added.

Pierce nodded to him. “That too, the position of the ships and numbers might have changed.”

“We need to do what the old Imperial forces should have done back when they were at war with Radiance,” Foster said. “We need to enter from afar and assess where all the ships are, that means arrivin’ outside of it. This is the part where I’m glad those Hashmedai jumped in and got themselves killed all those years ago …”

She changed the holo slide, and the ruined remains of old Imperial command ships appeared.

“ … Cause we’s gonna need those drifting Swiss-cheesed ships for this to work.”

66 Rivera

XSV Johannes Kepler

Renterious Base, Riylor, Devaguai System

July 30, 2119, 06:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera ran into the briefing room in a skittish manner, taking a seat at one of the vacant chairs. A few eyes of the multispecies crew looked at her. Normally, she’d be embarrassed at being the person that caused the interruption. But today? She was ecstatic. Nobody probably noticed it, but those gathered around the table represented almost all the sentient life in the known galaxy.

Human, Aryile, Javnis, Rabuabin, Vorcambreum, Linl, Hashmedai, and Undine. Half Poniga if you included the bun in Kostelecky’s oven. They were just missing a Qirak, but good luck getting them to do something heroic without paying them huge sums of money.

“Sorry I’m late,” Rivera said. “I had to make sure the aquarium was working correctly.”

“And is it, Rivera?” Williams asked.

She nodded with a proud smile. “Good to go, Commander.”

“Excellent work, Chief.”

Foster continued, updating the hologram that spun and floated above the round table. It switched to a top-down view of the nebula’s core, listing the location of old Imperial command and warships. They looked older than the first human sailboats.

“For those that don’t know, long ago the Empire sent ships via a space bridge jump into the middle of the nebula,” Foster said.

“I was not aware of this,” Tolukei said.

“It is true,” Peiun said. “Psionics in the Empire were never able to reach the psionics that served aboard those ships. It forced the rulers of the Empire, at the time, to change tactics.”

“That’s because those ships were destroyed the moment they arrived,” Foster said. “Saressea suspects it was Kur that did it. I’m thinking, we use that debris as cover once we exit the vortex.”

“I like it,” Chang chimed in. “There’s enough debris to eclipse the Kepler.”

“And block all direct sensor scans as we see what’s up,” Foster said.

Williams eyed the projection when it showed a simulation of the Kepler taking cover behind the wreckage of a command ship. “Wouldn’t that block our scans too?”

“Not ESP,” Foster said. “Though, the same can be said for the bad guys as well. I reckon their shipboard psionics will be too distracted by the battle going on to notice us.”

Tolukei’s four eyes glanced at the hologram from his hood. “It might be hard for me to sense what’s going on from that distance, Captain,” he said. “I will be forced to enter an extremely deep trance, one that will prevent me from doing much.”

“We got Nereid back, she can take over.”

“Only, she’s gonna be in the tank controlling the goo,” Kostelecky said.

“We won’t need it once we arrive,” Rivera said. “We could pull her out, clean her up then send her back to the bridge.”

“Are you up for that, Nereid?” Foster asked her. “You looked stressed when you last used it.”

“It was taxing on my body,” Nereid said. “But I will do my best to get back to the bridge quickly.”

“That means there’ll be a gap before she’s ready,” Williams said. “Shields will be the only thing that will help us. If we’re detected and lose them before she makes it back …”

“We’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Foster said.

“What about the Rezeki’s Rage?” Pierce added. “Aren’t they supposed to come along?”

“Indeed,” Peiun said. “How will we protect my ship from the maelstrom’s clouds?”

Foster looked at Rivera. “Shouldn’t be an issue, right, Rivera?”

“Just like with the Gerard Kuiper,” Rivera said, changing the hologram to a cutaway of the Gerard Kuiper. “Nereid should be able to make the goo jump to other ships. The Rezeki’s Rage, just like the command ship the Terrans control, will need to be close while we’re in the maelstrom.”

“Out of curiosity, how does that work?” Peiun asked.

“I don’t know but I suspect that the psionic powers of a Nereid and a Charybdis ship are on the same level. Tiamat did play a role in the Undine’s evolution, there’s probably a connection.”

“You cool with that, Peiun?” Foster asked.

He nodded. “If you are confident this will work, then yes.”

With that out of the way, Rivera saw Foster change the hologram to Kur, showing its size compared to the Kepler. It was massive, the size of a large city, maybe even larger.

“As you can see, Kur is big, big enough for the Kepler to land on,” Foster said. “Once we assess what we’re up against, and punch through, we’s need to make a landing on it fast and breach our way inside.”

“So, we’ll be sitting ducks while we land on it?” Chang asked.

“Kur is too important to the Draconians and Terran alliance,” Williams said. “I doubt they’ll risk shooting at us at that range, they might miss and hit Kur.”

“They will blow us away if we’re not on it though,” Chevallier said.

“Yep, that’s why we’s gonna have to punch through the fleet hard and fast, and land quickly,” Foster said. “The Rezeki’s Rage can cover us and the Prometheus too.”

“Wouldn’t that blow their cover?” Chevallier asked.

“Ain’t got no choice.”

“The Rezeki’s Rage won’t last long without their support,” Peiun added. “Remember, we were separated from our shipboard psionic and will be operating with shields only.”

“Keep in mind, the Rezeki’s Rage has to make it back to the Empire in one piece,” Foster said. “It and its crew are the only proof that exists that’ll expose the alliance the Taxah Hashmedai made. Needless to say, this is gonna be an all-or-nothing push once we move out. No matter what happens, we keep going and don’t look back.”

“Chang, you think you can do it?” Williams asked him.

Chang’s reply was slow as he analyzed the hologram, carefully looking at the distance he had to force the Kepler to cross and the Draconian and Terran alliance ships that will be shooting.

“As long as I don’t have to worry about weapons, yeah,” he finally said.

“Vynei can man them again to help out,” Williams said. “And with Rivera back, EVE won’t have to hold down engineering solo.”

Vynei sent his agreement with a nod.

The hologram shifted again, changing into a top-down image of Kur, the estimated locations of the halls below and the estimated landing zone.

“Kur has a number of small entrances along its top section, I’m guessing some kind of airlocks,” Foster explained. “According to Saressea, the SOM used them to enter, so we’s gonna do the same and push our way to her last known location. We take back Lisette and Saressea, expose Jainuzei and Alisha to their friends, then expose the Taxah Hashmedai to the Empire and make ‘em panic and flee out of fear for what the Empress and Emperor will do to them. After that, the Terrans lose their friends and the dragons muck them up.”

“Sounds like we won’t be teleporting in then,” LeBoeuf said, her face motioning to the hologram of Kur.

“They have a psionic with them,” Williams said. “We port in, they’ll detect it. We sneak in the backdoor, and they won’t unless we run into them.”

“What about Kur itself, eh?” Miles said. “What’s gonna stop ‘hem dragons from takin’ it?”

“I’d say nuke the fuck out of it,” LeBoeuf said. “But we don’t have any of those.”

“A ship that big must have a powerful reactor,” Rivera said. “Set it to overload? Do some damage to it so it would meltdown and explode?”

“We’ll have to figure that out,” Foster said. “But Lisette seems to be the key for the Draconian’s victory and the SOM. If they don’t have her, they got nothin’.”

“How do we make this all happen?” Penelope spoke up. “I mean, look at the map of that place, it’s a bloody maze.”

“This is all one big race,” Foster said. “Landing on Kur is the first lap, getting through it is the other.”

“We’re going to have to break up into teams,” Williams said.

“Good idea,” Foster said. “I’ll lead the main team; if there’s Draconian tech, my tattoos might be able to access it. And based on the intel from Saressea about Alisha, that will be the case. Dom, you can take command of the Kepler while I’m gone. It will be a sitting duck and vulnerable to boarding parties. Need your leadership in keeping things together for our return—”

“Wait,” Chevallier cut in. “We got a lot of people here, we should split our boarding teams. One to protect the Kepler from boarding parties, Foster’s team, and a third fire team to draw out enemy forces, make them think twice about attacking your team, Foster.”

Rivera saw Foster’s face go through the motions, building three teams on the spot. She wondered which team she’d be a part of. As much as she understood the critical nature of things, she would not pick up a gun and shoot, no matter what was at stake.

Foster revealed the teams. “Williams, Nereid, Chang, Pierce, Doctor Kostelecky, Eicelea, Vynei, Rivera, EVE, and Bailey. You guys stay aboard the Kepler, Williams in command, Pierce back him up. Nereid handles psionic support for them, and Vynei you know how to shoot, right? You can assist Chang and EVE who does as well. Rivera, Eicelea, Kostelecky, and Bailey support the team with whatever you can do.”

“Bailey, want to be my nurse?” Kostelecky asked him with a snarky tone. “There’s only so much I can do in my state, and as much as it bothers me to say this, I’m expecting casualties.”

Bailey laughed. “Just tell me what you need.”

“Y’all need to hold the fort so that we can come home,” Foster said. “And if things get really bad, Chang …”

“I’ll pull away and take everyone to safety,” Chang said. “Don’t worry, Captain.”

“What? Oh, hell, naw, y’all come get us! Then you leave,” Foster spat. “I’m the only one that can get us back home anyway.”

“I’ll lead the assault team with EDF,” Chevallier said.

Foster shook her head. “Don’t like the name of that …” she said. “Assault team is so aggressive. We ain’t EISS black ops operatives.”

“Also,” Chevallier added and faced the silent Linl Templar. “Karklosea is tough; I’d like to have her with us.”

There were no objections to that as Odelea translated to her, Karklosea agreed. Rivera could have translated as well, but she was too busy laying out a game plan for her to keep the Kepler’s engines at maximum efficiency during the burn to Kur.

“With Karklosea there, Chevallier’s team is going to have a lot of psionics,” Williams said.

“Of course it is,” Chevallier said. “We need to make a lot of noise and have the biggest boom. Anyone that comes after us won’t survive long.”

“I’m still open to suggestions for a nonaggressive name,” Foster said drily.

“TSTAR,” Miles suggested. “Threat Suppression and Terrain Assessment Recon.”

“Whatever,” Foster said with a grin. “So TSTAR team one, being my team will be, me, Odelea, Miles, Tolukei, and Penelope. Miles, you’ll be the guns, Penelope you can hack anything, might be useful against resistance that has HNI and other computers we might encounter. Tolukei, psionic support and teleportation to escape if things get bad, and since they’re pushing deep into this, maybe your Muodiry powers will come in handy. Odelea, we’s gonna be the team that pushes in deep, and ain’t none of us speak the languages on that ship. Gonna need that amazing brain of yours to read monitors.”

“Your teams will need to be quick,” Peiun said. “As said earlier, the Rezeki’s Rage is, what you humans would call, a glass cannon in our state. The Prometheus won’t be able to support us forever. If we’re lost or forced to retreat, you will have more enemy forces dropping into your location.”

“Peiun is right, speed is everything here folks,” Foster said, and then faced everyone. Rivera saw her take a deep breath.

“I know the last while has been stressful, we’ve all been through a lot,” Foster said as she shut off the hologram. “But we need to get this done; the galaxy is depending on us, now more than ever. The Terran Legion, the Taxah Hashmedai, and the SOM, they all represent the worst humans, Hashmedai, and Radiance races have to offer. Xenophobia, the need for conquest through violence, and blind fanatic faith through false Gods. But one thing they do right is work together, unlike the UNE, Empire, and Union.

“Make no mistake, today, that’s gonna change, today we’re going display a show of force in our Earth built ship, cofounded by Radiance, with a human Radiance crew, and our Hashmedai guests, while an Imperial warship, and a ship controlled by Radiance intelligence backs us up. We’s gonna break up this group and do it in front of the dragons and show we mean business, show them that we ain’t gonna lose. This galaxy, as splintered and divided as it is, is our home and we prefer peace than war. If the dragons want to live in it, then they’s gonna have to learn to talk with us rather than fight.”

She paused and looked at the team. They looked back at their brave leader.

“Everyone understand their role?” Foster asked. Everyone nodded. “Then let’s get moving. Dismissed.”

Rivera remained sitting as everyone cleared the room. She felt uneasy about the coming conflict. That uneasiness was on the same level when Sarpanit had been living in her HNI. And that was because nobody mentioned Sarpanit. Regrettably, she wished she did.

Sarpanit, last time she checked, was in her new android body aboard the Gerard Kuiper. Was she still a player in all this? Where did she fit in all this? Would she be a threat? The current intel said no, but Rivera’s experiences said, maybe.

67 Foster

XSV Johannes Kepler

Riylor Orbit, Devaguai System

July 30, 2119, 07:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The Johannes Kepler joined the Rezeki’s Rage in orbit of the large habitable moon, its parent gas giant eclipsing the star-filled void behind. In engineering of the Johannes Kepler, Foster stood ahead of the vortex key, waving away the white mist the mysterious alien device released.

Opposite her was the aquarium Rivera crafted, it looked nearly identical to the one found on the Gerard Kuiper, complete with storage vats for the goo. Nereid stood before that as Rivera opened the aquarium’s door for her. Nereid had a bath towel draped over her frame, she was naked underneath it.

According to Nereid, the process of her swimming in the goo and merging her mind with it was a daunting task that required a tremendous amount of focus and determination. Clothing was always a burden for Nereid, her people naturally spent their lives not wearing much, if at all. Entering the tank in the nude supposedly would help with her concentration. Foster was quick to turn away when Nereid pulled the towel off her frame, allowing the artificial gravity of the Kepler to pull it to the floor.

She heard the aquarium’s door shut and lock. Nereid gave the okay to turn it on, played from speakers installed on the aquarium’s side, a modification Rivera added. The transparent cube-shaped construct Nereid entered in pumped full of the goo. After two minutes she was completely immersed in it, swimming about. From there she entered the psionic trance and her body remained still, stimulating the goo to bend to her will, making it multiply and pump into the pipes, and spread across the hull of the ship.

It was Foster’s turn. She touched the vortex key and felt the circuitry and wires that were under her tattoos link with her nervous system and merge with it.

She wasn’t in her body anymore.

Like an invisible guardian angel, Foster saw the Johannes Kepler in orbit with the Rezeki’s Rage nearby. The plan was working. Foster was able to see the Kepler become covered in the goo, obscuring its glossy paint job. Tendrils formed from the goo and reached out, touching the Rezeki’s Rage, spreading the goo onto it. It was by far the weirdest thing she ever saw in space, and Foster had seen quite a bit. She wasn’t looking forward to writing the after-action report.

With both ships protected, she created a vortex just beyond the orbit of the moon and the two ships accelerated into it, vanishing within the sea of storm clouds and white flashing thunder strikes, into a universe with its own set of rules.

XSV Johannes Kepler

Debris Field, Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 07:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The journey to the nebula wasn’t long, like riding an express subway during non-peak hours. The maelstrom took the Johannes Kepler and the Rezeki’s Rage just a few hundred kilometers away from the old destroyed Imperial command ships floating in the nebula’s core.

One could see Kur off in the distance surrounded by specks of dots and flashing pulses of light. That was until the Kepler pushed into the densely packed field with the Rezeki’s Rage behind. After that, it was twisted metal, old slag, and halved Imperial warships drifting around inside of a battle-torn sphere that was once an old command ship.

Rivera had pulled Foster’s hand off the key at that point, sending her mind back into her body within engineering. Kostelecky was monitoring Nereid’s vitals as she drifted with her arms outward in the tank like a dead body. Rivera began the aquarium’s shut down routine in preparation to recover Nereid.

On the bridge, the crew was tending to their duties, while the amazing view of the nebula’s core was blocked on the view screen by the insides of the old command ship wreckage they entered.

“Welcome back, Becca,” Williams said, offering her chair back.

When Foster took command back, she eyed Tolukei who was motionless at his station like a monk in deep meditation.

“I take it Tolukei is doing his ESP thing?” Foster asked.

“He started the moment we returned to normal space,” Williams said, taking his post.

“All right, everyone, stay sharp,” Foster said. “We’s vulnerable until Nereid gets back.

The overshield rating on the view screen had Foster worried as they continue to drift within the debris inside the nebula’s clouds. It was at 0 percent and would remain that way until Nereid was revived. Standard shields were the only thing they had, Rivera managed to get a 108 percent rating out of it by cutting power to parts of the ship they didn’t need. If anyone needed a coffee break, they were screwed until this was over.

With the ship hidden from direct sensor scans, all that was left was to wait for Tolukei to conduct his wide ESP sweep. What was happening over at Kur entered Tolukei’s mind, and with it merged with the Kepler’s systems, he updated the map of the region. Slowly as each minute slipped away, a holo screen populated with red dots scattered around a large central object. The state of the situation did not change. There was still a raging battle for the control of Kur.

Two red dots flashed on the holo screen when Tolukei updated it. They weren’t part of the battle for Kur, they were moving away from it.

Proximity alerts roared when updated ESP data was transferred to the Kepler.

“Two Draconian scout ships just dropped out of FTL!” Chang said.

Foster kept calm, she had to. Mistakes couldn’t be made this early. “Heading?” she asked.

Williams adjusted the hologram and had EVE plot an estimated trajectory of the two stray dots, the Draconian scout ships. “Heading right for the vortex we just exited,” he revealed.

“They must have detected our vortex open and shut,” Foster said, and then established a comm link with engineering. “Bridge to Kostelecky, how much longer ‘til we get Nereid?”

“She’s a bit tipsy, Captain,” Kostelecky’s voice played over the speakers. “She’s walking like she was binge drinking.”

“That’s not good …” Williams said with a hard grimace.

“Give us more time,” Kostelecky said. “This aquarium took a greater toll on her body than we predicted.”

“Should we snap Tolukei out of it?” Pierce asked.

“No, we stay the course,” Foster said, and faced the view screen and the spinning wreckage ahead. “Mister Chang, keep us out of their scanning range with the debris, make sure there’s something in front of us at all times.”

“I’m on it!” Chang said and swiftly took the helm controls, piloting the Kepler as per Foster’s instructions.

The best way Foster could describe the situation was that it was a game of cat and mouse. The two Draconian scout ships were the cats; the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage were the mice that wanted to leave their hole in the wall. When the Draconians neared, the Kepler moved to hide with the Rezeki’s Rage following behind. Careful steps had to be made to ensure Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage drifted at the same speed as the wreckage and debris. Radio silence had to be enforced, and chatter between the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage became nonexistent, only further making their actions challenging.

The Draconian scouts came to a stop near where the vortex had shut. They waited for what seemed like five years, probably taking scans. The two organic ships split up, pushing into the field, they knew something was up. Nereid needed to hurry up. Foster began to worry if Nereid was stalling on purpose, she was after all a devotee to Tiamat and their mission was to prevent her resurrection. Now that Foster thought about it, Nereid had been really silent on the subject. Like, did not utter a word about it since it was made public. Not assigning Nereid to a team boarding Kur was a good idea upon second thought.

The two scouts didn’t stop their search of the field. One ship neared a mangled and twisted Imperial carrier, shining white rays of searchlights upon it. On the opposite side were the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage. ESP data showed the scout lowered to examine the underside of the carrier. At the speeds it was moving at, it could find itself in sensor range of the two in seconds.

Chang was way ahead of it, however, pulling the Kepler up to hover above the top of the carrier, the Rezeki’s Rage followed suit afterward. By the time the scout came up to check, the two ships were long gone, coming to a stop behind the wreckage of what was once the side of the old command ship they were in.

What became of the second scout was anyone’s guess at that point.

“Chang,” Foster said, beaming. “Has anyone told you how amazing you are?”

“My ex-girlfriend did, once.”

“That was more than I needed to know.”

Chang snickered. “Hey, you asked.”

“Captain, Nereid is on her way back now,” Kostelecky said via the speakers.

She acknowledged the doctor, and then faced Pierce who was compiling all tactical data at his station. “How’s that ESP data?”

“I think we have enough to work with for now,” Pierce reported.

The fog of war cleared. Tolukei’s ESP provided the crew with enough data to enter the fray without flying in blind. A copy of it was sent to the Rezeki’s Rage, officially breaking radio silence. It was go time, and Foster sent Chang their flight path to the battle.

“Get ready, Chang,” Foster said. “Odelea, contact the Rezeki’s Rage, and tell ‘em to follow our lead.”

“Aye, Captain.”

Nereid arrived on the bridge, her body was covered in the goo’s residue, and her outfit loosely fit on her body, her left shoulder was completely exposed. She clearly jumped into it at the last second. Nobody objected, of course, appearances were the last of anyone’s concern.

“Nereid, take over,” Foster instructed. “Tolukei, take five and rest up your mind.”

Tolukei gasped like he had been holding his breath, staggered, and stepped away from the psionic workstation, allowing Nereid to take control, merging her psionic brain with the Kepler. The overshield rating went from 0 to 100, quickly. Then dropped to 98 three seconds later, the second scout ship found them.

“Want me to make a break for it?” Chang asked.

Williams shook his head. “We might want to do something about these scouts first.”

“Agreed,” Foster said. “Rezeki’s Rage only has sub light, they won’t be able to outrun ‘em. Tell the Rezeki’s Rage to form up, we’s gonna go loud.”

Weapons powered on, MRF devices activated, and the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage flew side by side in a coordinated strike against the organic scout ship. The Rezeki’s Rage made the first strike with a barrage of plasma. Tachyon beams were the response from the scout, forcing the Kepler to dive in and take the blows, the Rezeki’s Rage didn’t have overshields. A spray of particle beams from the Kepler turned the scout into what looked like overcooked meat in space. A follow-up barrage of plasma sent the scout into an uncontrolled tumble and it crashed into the wreckage of a frigate.

Coming about, the two came to face the remaining scout. It opened fire first, sending beams of tachyons at FTL speed. None of the two ships were able to avoid it. The Kepler’s lavender overshield flashed and rippled, the Rezeki’s Rage’s primary shield sent waves of blue colors across its hull. The scout’s attack locked onto the Rezeki’s Rage, ignoring the Kepler, they did their homework. The Rezeki’s Rage was the hardest hitting and least protected ship without its overshields.

Vynei’s past experience in the Union Navy was put on display once again. Using the rail guns, he sent a steady stream of high-velocity rounds that punched gaping holes through the fleshy hull of the bio scout ship. He didn’t let up, turning the Kepler into a Gatling gun that continued to put holes into the singed flesh of the scout where plasma from the Rezeki’s Rage hit. It stopped operating after two minutes. Foster assumed its crew was killed by the bullets.

“Nice shootin’, Vynei,” she said warmly to him.

“It’s what I get paid for,” Vynei said.

“Mister Chang,” Foster said with her smile still spread on her face. “Take us in once clear of the field.”

Chang followed the path given to him, and the Kepler arrived at Kur via sub light, entering the fray at the least cluttered point. Exploding ships flashed randomly, white beams of tachyon light crossed ahead of the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage’s path sporadically. A burning Terran ship rammed a Draconian bio-ship as a last-ditch move. The explosive blast turned the view screen white for ten seconds before it returned to the view of the gaseous clouds of the nebula, the megacity-sized Kur, and the remaining Terran alliance ships exchanging shots with dragons and bio-ships. It was hard to tell who was winning.

The Rezeki’s Rage broke off, sending multiple orbs of green light into a bio-ship that was approaching the Kepler. Peiun’s message was loud and clear, go, we’ll cover you. A hard burn sent the Kepler flying to Kur, making its presence enlarge on the view screen. By that point, the Prometheus informed them they had begun to target Terran and Taxah Hashmedai ships since a number of them picked up the Kepler.

The combined fire of the Prometheus and Rezeki’s Rage helped take off the pressure. Any ship that locked onto the Kepler had to think twice if they really needed to shoot it and not at the Rezeki’s Rage and the plasma bombardment it dished out, or the hailstorm of particle beams from the Prometheus. A few Terran and Taxah Hashmedai ships stopped shooting altogether or had engines shut off. Penelope chuckled to herself whenever that happened.

At fifteen minutes into the burn, Kur took up 80 percent of the view screen. There were fewer Terran and Taxah ships at that distance, but a lot of wyverns and smaller bio-ships. Vynei manned the guns again, shooting a path to Kur. EVE provided electronic support for the weapons, making it a lot easier for Vynei to get a weapon lock. Chang made impressive rolls to dodge wyvern breath attacks, zip around bio-ships that refused to move out of their way, or the odd slag from a doomed ship.

The burn down to Kur was almost complete. It looked as if the Kepler was flying above an alien city that happened to be floating in a nebula. The Kepler’s overshield rating dropped off steadily with each second, at that point, only the wyverns were a threat. A few wyverns exploded into chunks of meat when rail gun rounds hit them as retaliation. As Foster predicted, none of the ships above wanted to risk hitting Kur with the Kepler close.

“I’m picking up a few HNI signals,” Penelope said, and waved her hand. In its wake came a holo screen with a map of Kur and several flashing dots. She passed the screen to Foster.

“That must be them, keep tracking them, Penelope,” Foster said, eying the data.

“This will limit my ability to muck up the Terran’s alliance ships still in range,” Penelope said. “My hacks have really helped the Prometheus and Rezeki’s Rage quite a bit.”

“We’ll take the chance,” Foster said. “Kur is huge, we’s gotta land as close to them as we can.”

Penelope directed Chang to the source of the HNI signals within Kur. He made a quick course correction, and the Kepler continued to burn toward it. A horde of wyverns fell upon them. It looked like a flock of birds at first swooping down until their dragon mouths opened.

“Wyverns!” Chang said.

“Stay on course!” Foster ordered.

The Kepler pushed. The wyverns got up close and personal, not caring for their own wellbeing. Despite the frustrated face on Nereid, and the fact she had to use so much of her power to get them there, she remained standing, determined to see this through, and the overshields holding at 76 percent showed it. It was proof that her psionic powers had grown significantly, she might have been stronger than Tolukei.

Speaking of Tolukei.

“I’m feeling better, Captain,” he said. “Shall I assist Nereid?”

“Save your strength, Tolukei,” Foster said to him. “We’s gonna need it all once we land.”

The Kepler broke through the cluster of dragons, making a hard turn to the left then plummeting fast. It came to a rough landing on the surface of Kur, using the magnetic locks in its landing gear to keep it still.

Foster wanted to breathe in relief, celebrate because they made it alive and with overshields still active. But they weren’t finished, not even close. The flock of wyverns they flew through wasn’t finished either.

She stood from her captain’s chair. “All right, y’all suit up, we’s going in. Dom, you got the bridge.”

Foster went from the exit, stopping when Williams held her arm. “Becca,” he said, and she faced him. “Stay safe.”

She nodded, happy to hear the voice of her childhood friend express concern. “You gotta promise me the same thing, Dom.”

68 Karklosea

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 08:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The human special forces team called EDF, from what Karklosea recalled, gathered in the Kepler’s cargo bay having finished grabbing their equipment from the armory behind.

Their leader, Chevallier, said a few words to the two psionics, Maxwell and LeBoeuf in their language, then double-checked the status of their assault rifles. The weapons used by Maxwell and LeBoeuf were of a different make than Chevallier’s. They were able to channel their psionic energy into them and fire blasts of energy, almost like Karklosea’s redeemer when it was in its rifle mode.

The entry ramp lowered while the four got their helmets on. They were about to step foot onto the exterior of Kur. Despite its city-sized looks, it was still a ship and its outside was exposed to space and lacked gravity. Self-irising shields activated near the opened entry ramp, allowing for the atmosphere of the Kepler to remain.

“Our team is moving out first to clear the path for Foster’s,” Chevallier said in Karklosea’s native tongue.

“Understood,” Karklosea replied with a nod.

“I want you to take point, and Captain America the shit out of anything that gets too close.”

“Who’s America?”

“It’s … er, never mind.”

Karklosea lifted an eyebrow to Chevallier not that she could see it with the helmet on.

The four stood shoulder to shoulder. They were covered in battle armor with helmets pumping breathable air to survive the vacuum they stepped into as they passed through the irising shields with a blue hue. Magnetic boots powered on, and they made slow and steady steps across the surface of Kur.

It was hard to believe they were walking on the surface of a ship. Karklosea couldn’t see the edges of it from her position. It looked like it went on for hours like they were on a planet already. Up above was the nebula, battling Terran alliance ships, and remaining Draconian bio-ships. Two ships had exploded, spreading their glowing slag in every direction.

As they marched toward an airlock, or Kur’s equivalence of one, wyverns dropped to the surface, unaffected by the lack of gravity or vacuum. They roared like the winged serpent beasts they were, not that she could hear them. Pods made of flesh crashed around the dragons with Draconian soldiers clawing out from them and deploying their magnetic boots.

Karklosea drew her redeemer, said a quick silent prayer to the Gods, powered her psionic shield on her wrist, and charged in. She kept her left arm with the disk-shaped psionic shield forward. The Draconian forces saw her as an easy target, her psionic powers were up for the challenge of deflecting their tachyon rifle shots.

The first wave of wyverns was of little concern, as Maxwell and LeBoeuf swatted them away with their minds, and then vaporized them with the psionically generated incendiary bursts of their rifles. The second wave diving in was an issue to be dealt with later.

A cluster of Draconian soldiers was broken up when Karklosea charged them with her redeemer swinging high and low when she saw the chance for a kill. She retreated behind her shield when the Draconians thought they could get a kill. Arms floated away when cut, she had to shove one to the side when it blocked her view. A headless soldier’s body simply stood still, with his magnetic boots still holding him in place, and the lack of gravity making his body stay upright. A ball of boiling blood pooled up where its head would be.

The soldiers that dispersed were gunned down by Chevallier. Those that got close to her ate her newfound arm in the face, cracking a hole in their helmets, making their air hiss away into the vacuum. The modified suit Rivera made for Chevallier was a worthwhile investment.

New soldiers crawled their way out from the second wave of flesh pods. At that point, LeBoeuf and Maxwell were concerned with the diving wyverns coming from above, spraying them with cryonic rounds that turned anything they touched into solid ice. Floating frozen wyverns turned out to be an excellent roadblock to slow their movement.

With fewer targets shooting at her, Karklosea was free to use her other psionic abilities. She flicked her wrists, focusing her mind to grip onto the bodies of the newly arrived soldiers in an attempt to make them float away with telekinesis. It wasn’t working, when they floated away from Kur, they turned and faced it, firing grappling hooks to pull themselves back down.

Lifting them up and then following up with a heavy push did the trick, as the sudden kinetic thrust against their body made them tumble away, and out of range for their hooks. Chevallier put their tumbling bodies, lost to space, out of their misery.

One newly arrived soldier was out of range for telekinesis, he wasn’t for a jump port. She turned into blue light that streaked over to the soldier, and she appeared behind it. Three rapid stabs released large orbs of boiling dragon blood from the soldier. A wyvern that got missed by the psionic duo swooped down, breathing its plasma at her. A jump port carried her back, and a shot of her redeemer in its rifle mode vaporized its face.

When the path was clear, the EDF team placed plasma charges on the airlock hatch, and then cleared from the blast when it detonated. The four stood looking down into the darkened circular hole with its edges glowing red. Motion sensors detected movement. The three humans aimed their rifles into it and fired. Karklosea’s redeemer joined them, just to make sure.

No further movement from within the airlock tunnel was detected.

Karklosea entered first, shutting off the power to her magnetic boots, floated above the darkened entrance, and used her psionic mind to push her body in with telekinesis. Chevallier and her team followed behind. The tunnel she entered from the airlock was dark and long, her helmet activated its lights to illuminate the way. Two minutes into the trek and her HUD reported gravity, not much, just enough for her to slowly fall like she had leaped from a cliff on a small moon and fell like a feather.

She came to land inside a corridor and felt her body increase in weight the second she crossed the threshold from tunnel to corridor. Her HUD updated with holographic overlays, reporting gravity equal to one G. Chevallier and her EDF team floated down from the ceiling one by one afterward.

They made it inside and scoped out their surroundings within the ancient corridors, built by an intelligence that couldn’t have been the three Gods. No, this place was constructed by demons as far as Karklosea was concerned.

Breathable atmosphere graced the exterior of their armor and helmets. What was keeping it from escaping up into the tunnels they passed through was unknown, not even her HNI scans were able to provide those clues.

The helmets of the four came off, no need to waste their limited air supply. They fanned out, pushing deeper into the silent corridors with their weapons drawn, expecting an ambush. Chevallier and her team exchanged words back and forth in the human language. Karklosea continued to keep her mind focused and calm, ignoring the primitive instincts that told her she entered the nest of a predator and the tingling sensation at the back of her neck, the deeper they went.

“This feels somewhat familiar,” Chevallier said. “The layout of the halls … it’s just like the inside of that wyrm.”

“Wyrm?” Karklosea asked. She wasn’t familiar with that term.

Chevallier told her a story of the Draconians attack on Earth when they first arrived. A dragon called a wyrm, the size of a ship, appeared, and she and her team found a way inside it, discovering it wasn’t just a living breathing creature but had cybernetics and corridors built inside it with a crew of humanoid dragons.

The Draconians used the larger dragons as vehicles and it was suspected their bio-ships, at one point, were born as dragons, that they altered genetically and technologically to become the warships they know today.

“Only, this ain’t organic,” Chevallier added. “This is a Draconian ship that isn’t a bio-ship.”

“Whoever built this must have come from a region of space not far from the Draconians and had similar tech.”

Foster’s team followed behind the four, once the all-clear was given for them to enter. Penelope sent everyone a small holo screen displaying the map of Kur and the pulsing yellow dots that indicated the estimated location of the HNIs she found on their approach. Following the signals, the two teams came to a stop at a door, a locked one. Chevallier’s fist surprisingly wasn’t able to force it open.

Foster, on the other hand, got it to open with a simple touch that forced an aura of blue light out from the neck of her EVA suit.

The two teams entered a chamber with three walls, shaped like a triangle. At one wall was the entrance to the corridor they passed through, in the middle of the two remaining walls were other doors. They arrived at a fork. The ceiling of the triangle-shaped chamber was high, like five stories high. A strange apparatus was mounted to the ceiling, and it hummed with soft noise and glowed yellow, then orange, then white, then back to yellow.

The center of the room had cylinder-shaped consoles with holograms floating above, she assumed they were computers. Odelea did as well and scampered over, attempting to translate them. Gunshots echoed, and Odelea’s body dropped.

Panic ensued.

Out from one of the doors stood men and woman from the SOM, directing their followers to storm into the chamber with their rifles blazing.

Karklosea drew their fire. It gave Chevallier and her team the chance to rush forward to where Odelea had fallen, using the cylinder-shaped computers as cover. Once they arrived, she joined them, strafing and shooting psionic plasma with her redeemer.

“Don’t go charging in,” Chevallier said to her.

Karklosea peeked at their enemies beyond her cover. “Wasn’t thinking about it,” Karklosea said, lowering herself as a barrage of bullets flew over her head. “There’s clearly a few HNI users that hacker didn’t detect.”

Odelea groaned and trembled. Karklosea saw no visible damage done to Odelea’s EVA suit, the personal shield emitter attached to it probably saved her life.

Maxwell and LeBoeuf stood up at random times and returned fire, or used their psionic thrusts, pushing enemies to the floor that failed to stay mobile in the face of a psionic. Chevallier joined them after, shouting to Foster and her team. Karklosea’s redeemer added a third psionically powered weapon into the exchange.

“Foster’s team is going to slip through there,” Chevallier said, pointing at the third door in the room. “This is the part where we make lots of noise and get them to focus on us.”

Odelea got to her feet, joining Foster’s team as they retreated to a door behind. It opened like the last with a touch of Foster’s hand. Alisha had to be close Karklosea guessed, how else would the SOM fighters have opened the door they stood at for their ambush?

The battle was going surprisingly well, considering it was just the four. Whatever material the computers they hunkered down behind was made of was tough. The high-velocity rounds of magnetic rifles only made tiny dents in it. The walls were tough too, missed shots from Karklosea’s redeemer only left small burn marks, rather than vaporized holes, the same could be said about Maxwell’s fiery bursts of psionically charged shots or the ripples of lightning LeBoeuf was able to shoot.

“Shit!”

The rage in Chevallier’s cursing made Karklosea’s chest tighten. She saw the human woman shift her rifle’s sights back to the corridor they had used to enter the chamber. Karklosea’s eyes followed. Draconian soldiers had gathered. One of their leaders waved his arms to direct more of his men through.

The battle in the chambers turned into a three-way one like the space battle outside. The safest place for the four was where they hid, running to Foster’s team now meant getting shot by either SOM magnetic rifles or Draconian tachyon rifles. Even with full shields and psionic barriers they wouldn’t survive the trek if the flashes of light created by weapons discharge were of any indication.

“What now?” Karklosea asked, gritting her teeth.

Chevallier ducked back behind her cover, swapping out the drained battery pack of her rifle for a new one.

Slapping the fresh battery pack in, she yelled. “Hold the line!”

69 Saressea

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 09:24 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“I hear shooting.”

“Foster’s here.”

Saressea looked behind the group noting there were fewer SOM fighters among them. Alisha had jogged back, having left suddenly and without warning. Whatever it was she did, Saressea couldn’t figure it out, let alone secretly transmit it back to the Prometheus via HNI.

Though, the news of Foster making it to Kur was satisfying to hear. They spent way too many hours meandering through the interior of Kur, evading patrolling Draconian soldiers that managed to board. Help was on its way. Soon Saressea could drop the act that she was a believer of the cult’s goals. She could also start sending HNI data to a member of Foster’s team that had them. They needed the intel more than the Whisper at this point.

“Is everything okay?” Jainuzei asked Alisha.

“The Kepler’s here and sent their crew behind us,” Alisha said. “I sent some of our fighters to deal with them, but I don’t know how long they’ll last, the Draconians’ numbers have gotten bigger.”

“We need to move faster, come on!” Byikanea yelled. “We’re close to the center, we cannot lose this race!”

Like a kid that didn’t want to go to school, Saressea dragged her feet moving with the group, shooting fake smiles, and muttering words of encouragement to play her role. Lisette too, more so than her, as she was dragged by force. It was a shame Lisette was still a psionic in training, her powers could have helped them get free if she was strong enough. The best Lisette had was mild telekinetic powers, and telepathy with a limited range. She made three attempts to break away using her powers. She got as far as a meter before getting recaptured. They didn’t even bother slapping a slave collar on, she wasn’t a threat.

Saressea hated every second of her acting like she was friends with the group and cool with the treatment of Lisette. But it was clear the Whisper had taken an interest in her. She wondered if this was how they got new recruits, grab someone they like and toss them to the wolves. If they live, they’re in.

Being in with the Whisper wasn’t what she was gunning for in life, however. But when factoring in she was found guilty and Rivera was back on the Kepler, it wasn’t a door she was going to shut and walk away from. As it stood, her life on the Kepler wasn’t coming back once this was over let alone working with the Radiance Navy. A secret agent life might be the next thing to add on her resume.

The SOM group, led by Alisha, Jainuzei, and Byikanea, stopped in a room where a sphere-shaped device floated above the floor. It glowed with indigo light, released a cloud of mist, and made soft humming sounds. It was encircled with computer terminals, none of them worked until Alisha waved her hand around them, forcing their screens to populate with alien numbers and text.

“What is this?” Jainuzei asked.

“I think it’s the reactor,” Alisha said. “At least one of them.”

Byikanea moved forward like she was following the flow of an invisible force. “Oh, yes,” she said, “I think this is it; I can sense the power being distributed throughout Kur from here.”

Byikanea shut her eyes, putting herself in a psionic trance. After a minute, she pointed at the top left section of the spherical reactor, and then snapped her fingers. A loud thump sounded, and a dent that looked like someone took a sledgehammer to the side of the device impacted. The reactor shuddered violently, releasing a discharge of energy that forced everyone except Byikanea to brace themselves, expecting the worst.

Nothing happened, which made Saressea exhale with relief. Until her HNI flashed with an emergency warning.

“It’s leaking radiation,” Saressea said, looking up at the source of the radiation, the damaged section of the reactor.”

“I know,” Byikanea said with a smirk then snapped her fingers. A protective psionic energy dome flashed around the group. The radiation warnings ceased once the lavender psionic barrier was formed. “The radiation should deter Foster from following.”

Humans were more vulnerable to the harmful effects of radiation compared to those from Radiance. If the reactor was leaking enough radiation to kill Radiance races, Saressea didn’t want to know what would happen if a human had direct exposure.

The group’s journey continued, this time with Byikanea standing within the center of the psionic dome she created, protecting those within it from the rising levels of radiation flooding the halls of the city-sized ship. And what a ship it was.

They walked across a bridge when their destination neared. Saressea looked down, but couldn’t see the bottom, only darkness, lights, and several other bridges hanging above it, all connecting to various doors on the walls leading to other parts of the ship. She couldn’t figure out why the designer of Kur had to make it so large. Imperial command ships were big because they had to fit a fleet worth of capital ships inside it. Kur, from what Saressea was able to see, didn’t have ships, or fighters inside.

It was like it was made big for the sake of being big. Nobody would be that stupid to design something like that given the number of materials that would have been required to build and power it. Like the command ships, there was a reason for it, it just couldn’t be found within the short stroll the group made.

“Exactly how long is this going to take?” Saressea asked after they finished crossing the bridge into the next area of Kur.

“Don’t know, not like anyone has ever resurrected a dead God,” Byikanea said.

“I only ask because we’re about to irradiate most of the ship at this rate,” Saressea said. “I doubt you’ll be able to keep this barrier up the whole time.”

“I did an ESP scan earlier; the next area should be shielded.”

Saressea winced. “Should be …”

“We will be fine,” Byikanea said. “Marduk’s lingering will made us get this far.” With a smile full of lust, Byikanea looked at Jainuzei. “Don’t you agree?”

Jainuzei grunted, keeping his eyes forward. “Yes …”

And Alisha? She couldn’t hide her body’s uncomfortable body language within her EVA suit or the distraught look that grew across her face. Saressea wasn’t sure if it was because of all the affection Byikanea was showing Jainuzei, stroking his large armored arm, or the fact he said yes. After all, he and Alisha weren’t really here to resurrect Marduk, like Saressea they were playing their roles like an actor and actress duo.

The walk to the next chamber was long and gave Saressea more than enough time to complete a new data package to be secretly transmitted via HNI back to anyone in Foster’s group that had it. Later, she received a message from a Maraschino hacker Foster brought, her name was Penelope.

Penelope sent Saressea a video file recording from what looked like Foster’s wrist terminal. It was a shaky video like Foster and Alisha had been fighting. Partway into it, Alisha had mentioned her and Jainuzei’s true plans, and that the SOM and their Terran Legion allies were just tools.

Another video showed LeBoeuf and Maxwell kill Armuzei, meaning Alisha lied that he was going to follow behind, meaning Marduk had nobody to be resurrected into. Saressea had to suppress the smile that tried to force its way onto her face, the videos were going to make Byikanea and their SOM escort lose their shit once they saw it.

Saressea just needed to wait for the right time to get everyone squawking, ideally, when they were in the shielded room Byikanea spoke of, away from the radiation and possible Draconians. By the time they arrived, Saressea prepared the video files and waited for the right moment to hit play.

The group stood at the wide decorative door with a picture of a woman standing in her natural form, covered with elaborate cloth hanging off her wrists, and gold chains dangling around her neck. She had wings on her back, small horns peeking up from her long dark hair, claws for fingers and toes.

Is this Tiamat, she thought? Nobody had the answer.

Alisha placed both her palms upon the door, and her tattoos glowed. The image of the Goddess that decorated the door, split in half as the door opened, the left side pulling to the left, and the right side moving to the right.

Beyond the door was the final chamber, a large room full of white gleaming orbs lined up perfectly along the walls. The floor was transparent, made of glass by the looks and had several dragon statues lined up on top of it. As they walked across, Saressea could see a single footbridge under them, and below that a river made of a white liquid. Her scans weren’t able to identify what it was made of.

Like the previous chambers, this one was nearly three-stories tall. At the end of the chamber was a decorative altar, it was huge and comprised of three sections. The bottom, a statue of the woman on the front door stood, behind the statue was a staircase that led to the upper levels of the altar that had a disk-shaped platform, surrounded by more of the glowing white orbs.

Alisha disappeared with Jainuzei for a moment, browsing through the hundreds if not thousands of white orbs like they were in a library, looking for a specific book. The doors behind shut, protecting them from the radiation and other threats, while Byikanea’s psionic barrier faded.

Saressea readied her HNI bombshell files.

As they loaded, Alisha returned carrying one of the orbs, then nodded to Jainuzei. He grabbed Lisette by the arm, pulling her by force to Alisha.

“Come with me, Nephilim,” Jainuzei said. “It is time.”

“You make it sound like I have a fucking choice,” Lisette snorted.

Saressea’s HNI video player opened. She blinked her eyes, forcing the imagery that had been superimposed over her eyes to enlarge into a life-sized hologram for all to see.

“So, hate to break it to you guys, but,” Saressea said, then hit play. The videos Penelope sent took center stage. “Jainuzei and Alisha are full of shit—”

Lisette screamed, holding her head and went limp. Jainuzei stepped away with an I-didn’t-do-it look on his shocked face. Something wasn’t going according to plan, because even Byikanea started screaming, as did the SOM bodyguards, all holding their heads and passing out from the pain.

Saressea did as well. She felt pain in her head, horrible pain, worse than someone drilling a hole through your head when you were also suffering from a powerful migraine. The video she had loaded vanished, as did all of her HNI’s functions.

Before Saressea lost consciousness a blue light flashed. A psionic teleportation had completed.

The Dragon Knight and Maiden emerged from the burst of blue light when it faded. They laughed at everyone in the chamber that had HNI, then faced Jainuzei and Alisha, the two that didn’t.

70 Rivera

XSV Johannes Kepler

Kur Exterior, Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 09:44 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera put her hands to her lips when the connection lost error message flashed on one of the bridge’s computer terminals. She felt the sudden surge of worry hit everyone on the bridge.

“Commander,” Rivera said to Williams. “I’ve lost Saressea’s signal.”

“The Whisper reports the same,” Pierce said, after glancing at the communication station.

Everyone feared the worst as a comm link was established with Foster. They waited for three seconds, which felt like three years, until Foster’s face flashed on the view screen, she was speaking into her wrist terminal. Hearing Foster’s voice was a relief. The team was still alive, just something was wrong with Saressea. They gave her the rundown on their discovery.

“The HNI’s we were tracking just went dark too,” Foster’s projection replied.

Williams grimaced. “Are they?—”

“We don’t know that,” Foster said. “We’s almost to their last known location, gonna check it out.”

“Don’t forget the radiation—”

The Kepler’s proximity alarms started to roar. Its loud sounds startled Rivera, nearly throwing her off her chair. Her fingers danced on the keyboard, and she brought up a holo screen displaying the external cameras of the Kepler. Draconian pods from above were landing around Kepler as it remained idle sitting on top of Kur. The dragons hadn’t given up yet.

“Kepler?” Foster’s projection said with concern in her voice and face. “Y’all okay up there?”

Rivera pushed the holo screen to Williams, his relaxed composure crumbled slightly when he saw the video. “We got incoming, standby,” Williams said.

Foster’s hologram vanished, and the view screen’s contents switched to the threat growing outside. Multiple Draconian drop pods were crashing into Kur, with their armored humanoid dragon fighters floating out from them with tachyon rifles in hand. The leader of the group pointed at the Kepler and, soon after, two wyverns dived breathing hot waves of plasma onto the Kepler.

The overshield rate lowered and then continued to do so when the soldiers outside began shooting their white beams of FTL energy, adding it to the mix of new attacks the Kepler received. Nereid stood at the psionic work station, using her mind to keep the overshields up, clenching her Voelika staff within her hands, allowing the Sirius crafted weapon to enhance her psionic powers.

Rivera doubted she’d be able to last long enough for Foster’s and Chevallier’s teams to finish up and get back. Nereid’s head was put through a lot since the aquarium trance to protect the ship from the maelstrom, only to run back to the bridge to relieve Tolukei so that he could rest from the deep ESP trance.

“Rivera,” Williams said to her. “I want to cut the overshields in five. It’s draining Nereid’s power, I’d rather she save what she has left for combat.”

“Understood,” Rivera said and went for the bridge’s exit. “I’ll get to engineering; I might be able to give the onboard shields a bit of an extra kick, more so than they already have.”

“Nice, that should buy us a few more minutes.”

Rivera powered her computer workstation when she arrived in engineering, working its controls to cut more nonessential power from the ship. EVE manned another station helping her out as they coordinated their efforts. Weapons were useless, they weren’t flying, so those went first. A few lights on the top deck went dark, as with various other rooms that didn’t need to have power.

She punched in a new command and a holo screen appeared, giving her a report of ship’s status. The overshield was at 0, Nereid had officially been pulled off psionic duties, and the primary shield rating bumped to 120 percent, but was dropping 5 percent with each hit. The only thing left was to improve the reactor’s performance, but she doubted there’d be time for that.

“Rivera, are you going to be fine if I borrow EVE for a bit?” Williams’ voice spoke over the intercom.

She sighed looking at the android, realizing she’d have to do everything in engineering alone. “Taking her into combat, Commander?” Rivera asked.

“We need to deal with this threat one way or another.”

Rivera nodded to EVE. “Do it.”

EVE left engineering and left Rivera’s mind racing for a new plan. The Draconians could afford to throw wave after wave of dragons and soldiers at the Kepler, they couldn’t, there were a limited number of personnel that could go outside and fight. If they were killed or injured, then they’d have even less. Shield strength, as long as it continued to take hits, was limited as well. Unless Foster finished up now, they were only delaying the end of their journey. They needed another option before it was too late. Rivera had to find it. Nobody else was going to as far as she was concerned.

Improving the reactor’s efficiency came to mind, the more power she could squeeze out of it, the longer the Kepler could hold out, and, Williams wouldn’t order people into senseless violence. But with EVE gone, it was unlikely she’d get much out of that. She searched engineering for another solution, something, anything. She had the tools, equipment, spare parts, there had to be something she could do.

She found the discarded attack drone that boarded the Kepler, back at the Eiri spaceport, tossed in the corner gathering dust. With tools in hand, she pried off its top and examined the parts within it. They were of a simple design, and the best part, they were originally Earth developed. She brought up files about the drones from a computer, then dropped and dragged the holographic file icons into her HNI.

“Commander, may I make a suggestion?” she said, speaking into the intercom.

“I’m all ears.”

“Let them board.”

“What?”

“No time to explain, but you got to trust me on this!”

Rivera ran to the cargo bay and nearly fell to her face having skipped a few steps on the ladder going down from the catwalk. She had to work fast with the tools she had in hand.

When the time was right, Rivera gave Williams the okay. The Kepler’s shields lowered. It made the heads of a dozen Draconian soldiers tilt, as they knew it was dropped intentionally rather than shattered by their force. The entry ramp lowered next giving them access while what was left of the shields power kept a barrier next to the entrance, preventing the atmosphere from leaking away. Rivera watched the holo screen’s display the external camera footage, and hoped their gamble wasn’t for nothing. The Draconians had two options at that point, continue the assault and destroy the ship, or board it and capture it. A dive and a breath assault from the wyverns above suggested they choose the first option melting the top aft section of the ship. She pulled at her hair leaping up and down and was ready to tell Williams to get the shields up.

She caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers lead his men up to the entry ramp. The act made the wyverns above stop and remain idle above the Kepler, like circling vultures waiting. It was working, the Draconians saw value in the ship that looked like it surrendered. The wyverns weren’t going to destroy it while the half-dragons boarded it searching for prisoners.

The Draconians had fanned out in the cargo bay first as they arrived. One soldier stood next to the transport and tried to look through its windshield. The crew aboard were inside the transport, hunkered down, staying out of sight, keeping its lights off. Only Rivera was able to see what was going on, as she had the camera feed its images into her HNI. And she saw the Draconian soldier take continued interest in the transport. It walked circles around it. It touched it, searching for its entrance. It called out to its partners when it couldn’t find it, most likely asking for help, or worse, it knew everyone was inside.

Sounds of human chatter drew its attention away, making it hold its rifle steady. The other soldiers did the same and followed the sounds, pre-recorded sounds of course. She watched the security camera’s feed, play over her eyes as the soldiers climbed deeper into the Kepler following the chatter.

The first group entered the bridge, saw holograms of Foster and the crew diligently working. They failed to see the newly reprogrammed drones Rivera had placed in the corners. Bubbling and steaming blood and body parts made a mess of the floor near the entrance to the bridge. A similar grisly image played out on the camera overhanging in engineering when the drones shot the soldiers that arrived, hoping to figure out how to operate the ship. The remaining soldiers fled in a panic, running into the final drone trap that sprung loose from empty cargo crates.

Only the wyverns flying above the Kepler remained while the crew aboard the Kepler exited the transport, looking at the carnage.

“All right,” Chang said and whistled. “That was slick.”

“Entry ramp was a choke point,” Rivera said. “You guys would have had a hard time getting down there to face them head-on—”

The Kepler rumbled. Whatever it was the Draconians used to communicate with the wyverns, had let them know the boarding party had failed. The raging winged dragons resumed their assault, diving with searing breaths of plasma upon the Kepler with its shields down.

“Got a plan for the wyverns?” Williams asked.

Rivera brought up a holo display screen listing the status of the drones and various commands that could be issued to them. She flicked through the options and selected they enter sentry mode, taking watch outside the Kepler.

When the display vanished, the drones transformed from their bipedal walker mode and began to hover and fly. They gathered in the cargo bay and then exited via the opened entry ramp. With no soldiers to shoot them down, the drones went to swarm and harass the circling dragons with unrestricted high-velocity rail gun rounds.

Williams laughed. “Aren’t you all about no violence, Rivera?”

“All I did was ask the drones to protect the ship,” she said, shrugging. “How they do it is out of my hands, just like what you guys do with the weapons I repair and maintain.”

Rivera might have been a pacifist, but she knew she couldn’t stop others from fighting. As long as she wasn’t the one pulling the trigger, she was fine with it.

“All right, everyone, let’s get back to it,” Williams said. “Rivera, how soon can we get the shields back up?”

She waved her hand, forcing her HNI to link with the status of the Kepler. The damage to the hull wasn’t something she could ignore. “That’s not good …” she said grimly.

“Talk to me, Rivera,” Williams said.

“Plasma from the wyverns did a number to the hull,” Rivera said, grabbing her toolbox. “Got a ruptured plasma conduit just above where engineering is and we’re leaking air in another part. I gotta patch it up or we’re not leaving, ever.”

“Yeah, so,” Williams said with a touch of snark. “How long for the shields?”

Rivera grabbed an EVA suit from the lockup. “I can’t fix it from inside, I gotta go out, that means we got to keep the shields down so I can work on it.” She dove into the EVA suit quickly, while her head looked about for a helmet.

“Rivera, it’s still a gong show out there.”

“It shouldn’t take me long, Commander.” With a smile pointed at his direction she added. “Feel free to cover me.”

I must be out of my mind, Rivera thought when her magnetic boots took her to the damaged top aft end of the Kepler.

Behind her was Williams, Vynei, Chang, EVE, and Nereid, all with EVA suits on, except Nereid and EVE. Nereid, like most psionics, floated with a protective barrier and EVE, she was a machine, and she didn’t need a suit. Rivera was the only one that didn’t have a weapon in her hands unless a toolbox counted as one. She kneeled next to the sparking and half-melted hull, her hands shifting back and forth, from the toolbox to the burning plasma conduit that was minutes away from exploding and doing further damage to the Kepler.

Above, the remaining drones battled with the wyverns, their numbers were getting fewer and fewer. Sadly, the wyverns had more flying in from their bio-ships above, still engaged with the Terran alliance ships, the Prometheus, and Rezeki’s Rage. She tried not to think of the battle damage those two ships had. The Kepler was in this state just by the attacks of wyverns and soldiers, the Prometheus and Rezeki’s Rage had to face attacks from the Draconian bio-ships, Terran, and Taxah Hashmedai warships. The race to Kur became the race to finish the job and escape.

If sound had existed in space, she would have heard the rifles of Williams, Vynei, Chang, and EVE blaze, as Williams yelled over the comm line. “Incoming!”

Rivera looked up and saw a wyvern had broken through. It was diving toward them.

“Where’s the rest of the drones?” Chang asked.

“They can only do so much,” Rivera said, returning to her work, weightless sparks flared from her torch’s touch. “All the more reason to fix this now, this is as safe as its going to get.”

Rivera worked, not just on the repairs, but keeping the pain and anxiety at bay, placing all faith that those behind her would keep the dragons off her. Every sense in her body told her to run, every sense told her to brace for death when a wyvern neared, every sense told her to tense up when the flashes of light from weapons fire, or Nereid’s supportive psionic powers flashed. It was no surprise to anyone that Nereid avoided harming the wyverns. Her devotion to Tiamat was strong. The thought made the back of Rivera’s neck feel like insects were crawling up it.

She was finished with the conduit and moved slowly with her magnetic boots to patch up the next wound on the hull.

“Rivera?” Williams’ intense voice played on the comm.

“Almost done,” she said, and reached for a pair of pliers that floated out from her toolbox.

When Rivera was done, she put her floating arsenal of tools back into her toolbox and stood to grin when her HNI’s scan showed that the Kepler’s atmosphere wasn’t bleeding away. The repairs were finished, she did it. They could get back inside.

Rivera turned and gave everyone the good news, and slowly made her trek across the hull of the Kepler back to the entry ramp. Williams, Vynei, Chang, EVE, and Nereid were on the surface of Kur below the Kepler taking aim at the wyverns that broke past the failing defense of drones above, moving underneath the Kepler for cover. Ahead of Rivera, EVE quickly floated down. It didn’t make sense. EVE was with the group under the Kepler. How did she also float down from above?

The second EVE stood, blocking Rivera’s path. It smiled at her. “Jasmine …” it said, having hijacked the comm line. “It’s been brought to my attention you and the crew of this ship are working against the resurrection of Marduk.”

“Sarpanit …” Rivera said.

Sarpanit, in the body of the Gerard Kuiper’s EVE, nodded. Rivera suspected she left the Gerard Kuiper, which wasn’t far away from Kur as it had to deploy the transports Alisha, Jainuzei, and their company brought.

“Who the fuck are you talking to, Rivera?” Chang asked.

“Uh, little help here!” Rivera said in a panic.

Sarpanit stomped to Rivera. She backtracked and was happy the limitation of the magnetic boots and no gravity made the two move at the same speed. Still, the feeling of trying to escape from a pursuer that walked after you did nothing to keep Rivera calm and focused, nor the fact she couldn’t run, no matter how hard she tried.

She looked back and didn’t see anything else, but bullets spray about and psionic barriers flash. The wyverns must have gotten close, Rivera was on her own. She continued to not run but walk away.

“Force this crew to assist the SOM members inside Kur,” Sarpanit said. “Slay the dragons and Jainuzei and Alisha.”

“Go to hell!”

“Hell?” Sarpanit laughed. “This is Kur, it is heaven and hell!”

Rivera made it to the edge of the Kepler, shut off her magnetic boots and floated away, pulling herself down, past its aft engines.

“Williams?” she asked.

“A little busy here!”

She was still on her own, and fresh out of options while she drifted down to the surface of Kur.

“Do I have to start executing your friends now?” Sarpanit said. “Distract the Nereid so her powers can fail? Subdue the android? Break the helmets of those that need air? Take your pick, Jasmine.”

71 Foster

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 09:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster’s wrist terminal beeped with never-ending warnings of rising radiation levels, as did her personal shield that was draining quickly because of it. She imagined the notifications Penelope, Miles, Odelea, and Tolukei had were just as bad if their worried faces were of any indication.

They pushed on regardless, following the holographic map of Kur. The holo map floated ahead of them, with the flashing navigational point over a chamber, the last known location of Saressea before her vitals vanished.

“This must be the hot zone she talked about,” Foster said. “Tolukei?”

According to Saressea, Byikanea used a psionic dome barrier, protecting them from the radiation. Tolukei did the same, forcing everyone to walk in a tight group close to him while the mesmerizing lavender colors of the barrier shimmered, deflecting all the radiation, and taking the pressure off everyone’s personal shields, and ears. The blaring radiation alarms were annoying and loud.

Foster spoke into her wrist terminal. “Chevallier, what’s your status?”

“Mopping up the last fighters now,” Chevallier’s voice said as echoing gunfire, psionic powers, and explosions discharged.

“Have LeBoeuf save her power, you’ll need a barrier from her to cross this radiation,” Foster said.

“Understood, we’ll link up with you soon.”

Technically shields could protect them, but it would only drain them faster. Like overshields it was better to let psionic protection soak up what it could before resorting to your shields. If they got into a firefight with partially drained shields due to radiation that would be bad. That, and only Miles had robust shields since the batteries from his exosuit provided them. Foster, Odelea, and Penelope all used the personal shield packs which used smaller less powerful batteries to make them lightweight.

Foster whistled when the group approached the reactor of Kur, looking up at the dented section spraying out the radiation. There were computer stations around it, all of them dormant, until Foster touched them just like Alisha did. The screens flickered on, and a crawl of text appeared that looked like scratches in the dirt a drunken chicken would make.

“Odelea?” Foster asked her. “Any of this makes sense to you?”

Odelea moved forward, her vertically irised eyes shifted about, scanning the text. With a flick of her wrists, she made an HNI screen appear and then ran her slim EVA-gloved finger around it and the words that appeared.

“It’s the Draconian language, well some kind of variation of it,” Odelea said, and read more. “Fascinating, I’d say this is probably an older form of it, it uses a lot more verbs, it’s very poetic in some way, even though it’s just a—”

“That’s interesting and all,” Foster cut in. She hated poetry, and hearing about dragon poetry was the last thing she wanted right now. “Can you shut this down?”

Odelea scrolled through the text translating its words internally. “I can’t …”

“I can,” Penelope said as she created holo screens of her own. “There’s a wireless connection I can gain access to. I just haven’t the foggiest idea of how to read their language.”

“Odelea, tell her what means what,” Foster said.

Odelea and Penelope worked together, Odelea translated, and Penelope took that knowledge and hacked her way into the computers, uploading computer code, deleting files, and all the other stuff hackers do. If their situation wasn’t so dire, Foster would take a photo of the two. Two girls, an Aryile and Hashmedai were working together, putting aside thousands of years of genocidal bloodshed for a common cause, saving the galaxy.

“Heads-up!” Miles yelled, while his rifle rose and aimed back down the corridor the group had passed through. “Draconians comin’ at us.”

The exosuit that covered Miles’ body whizzed as he charged to the edge of the psionic dome barrier. Foster couldn’t see anything but trusted his judgment. Miles was a UNE Marine and was probably using military grade HNI, custom made and full of apps to assist Marines in combat, like being able to detect enemies creeping up from a corridor you passed.

Foster joined him at the barrier’s edge, and her tachyon rifle came out to search for unwanted half-dragon commandos. The barrier flashed and rippled with various colors as white tachyon beams collided with it. Miles was right, the Draconians were following, a group must have slipped past Chevallier, either that or came from another corridor, Kur was a maze of them.

“Captain …” Tolukei groaned amidst the repeated shots his barrier was taking.

“Can’t hold it, eh?” Miles asked Tolukei.

“We will need to dispatch them soon,” Tolukei said. “If not, my mind will tire, and this barrier will shatter.”

“And the radiation plus the Draconians will fix us good,” Foster said.

Penelope and Odelea were still working on the reactor. Even if they did stop the radiation leak there was still going to be the issue of the radiation that already escaped lingering around. Tolukei’s barrier had to hold out, no matter what.

“Miles, how long can your shields last in this radiation?” Foster asked.

“About thirty minutes, assuming nobody shoots me, then it’s less.”

“That means mine is …”

“You’ll have less time, Captain,” Miles said. “Maybe five, ten minutes.”

Foster looked ahead now that the Draconian soldiers were visible. They didn’t use shields, she wondered if they had high resistance to radiation, or their armor that looked like it was made with dragon scales was really good at keeping it out.

“I count ten of them,” Foster said. “That means you and me need to drop one soldier a minute.”

“Not bloody likely from this position!”

She sighed. “I know.” Foster was an inch away from the edge of the psionic dome when she said. “Let’s go!”

She stepped out and heard the ringing of high radiation warnings from her wrist terminal and EVA suit. Miles cursed and joined her, and the two ran into the fray, shooting. She quickly glanced at her wrist terminal, noting the level of her shields. Tachyon beams soared, and she dove and rolled across the floor for cover behind a pillar. Miles did the same at a second pillar ahead of her. His rifle blazed next, the speed of his exosuit made him peek out of cover, take aim, shoot then retreat. Foster, on the other hand, had to use extreme caution when she returned fire. Sometimes she had to aim around the pillar and shoot blindly.

The plan was working. The Draconians were more interested in the two humans outside the barrier. They spent more time trying to shoot at the two when they peeked from cover than Tolukei’s barrier. Foster really hoped she and Miles weren’t laying the groundwork for a heroic sacrifice for the team because it was starting to look like it.

“How much longer, Penelope and Odelea?” Foster yelled into her wrist terminal.

“Almost in,” Penelope transmitted back.

Miles pulled back into his cover with a grin spreading within his ginger beard. “Got three, you?”

“Two,” Foster said, then peeked around with her rifle when the rate of Draconian weapons fire diminished. She took aim quickly and pulled the trigger. “Correction, three.”

“Five,” Miles gloated next. “I have taken the lead!”

Foster pulled back into cover after watching a soldier’s armored body turn to slag, embers, and vapor. “Four!”

“Oh, this is gonna be close!”

She glanced at her wrist terminal’s screen display the status of her shield pack.

32 percent.

“Tell me about it!”

She saw Miles peek out and shifted his rifle to the left. Foster did the same, taking in the sight of a lone Draconian soldier. The half-dragon snapped frozen, with ice crystallizing its body from the back going to its front. Its movement slowed to a halt, becoming an unmoving sculpture of ice.

Before Foster and Miles pulled the trigger, the frozen Draconian shattered, raining the icy chunks of its remains onto the floor. Exiting from the corridor behind it was Maxwell, Karklosea, and Chevallier while LeBoeuf stood in the center using her powers, like Tolukei, to maintain a psionic dome shield. LeBoeuf’s holographic bracelets twirled around her wrists, glowing with psionic energy.

Foster and Miles lowered their weapons facing each other. “Guess that makes me the winner, eh?”

“Naw, rules were all ten had to be dropped! Interference ruined the match.”

“We never set up a rule!”

“We did just now!”

The two passed through the irising psionic barrier, regrouping with Penelope, Odelea, and Tolukei whose mind could relax a little. The two women stepped away from the computers, and Penelope made a motion of her hands like she was dusting them off.

“Got it,” Penelope said. “The place is still irradiated, but I have the vents pumping most of it out.”

Foster nodded to the two. “Nice work, you two.”

“Oh wait, there’s more,” Penelope said. “I’ve installed a virus into the reactor’s computers.”

“What for?”

“You wanted to blow this place to kingdom come? Well, this is it. Just say the word and I’ll make the virus disable all reactor cooling. The explosion should take this place out and any ships too close.”

Foster’s team pushed on ahead without waiting for Chevallier’s team to catch up. Waiting for Chevallier’s team to catch up, or better yet, push ahead and make sure the path was clear made sense. Covering lost ground as quickly as possible made better sense. If Saressea and Lisette were dying and bleeding, then every second counted. Waiting would only bring the two closer to death.

A massive sliding door blocked their path. There was a carving of a naked woman with wings and lose hanging jewels and cloth hanging off her body. Beyond the door, according to the map, and the navigational point, plus the last images Saressea’s HNI transmitted, was her last known location.

The door wouldn’t open, not even when Penelope tried to hack it after Odelea gave her some translations. Of course not, Foster had the key. Foster touched the door and her tattoos glowed brightly. It slid open.

Rushing in turned out to be a mistake when Penelope, Odelea, and Miles fell to their knees, holding their heads screaming with pain, then passed out.

Foster and Tolukei were unaffected.

“Oh, hell,” Foster said, eying the battle Alisha and Jainuzei were engaged in. And the two targets she hadn’t seen in ages.

“The Dragon Knight and Maiden,” Tolukei said.

Foster hid behind a statue of a dragon, speaking into her wrist terminal. “Chevallier, the Dragon Knights are here!”

“You shouldn’t have told me that,” Chevallier’s voice replied with a hint of vengeance.

“Get your team to stay back, their HNI disruption covers this room!”

“We’re holding position,” Chevallier said. “Me? I’m coming in whether you like it or not!”

Like Foster and Tolukei, Chevallier didn’t have HNI. Neither did Alisha and Jainuzei. The Dragon Knight and Maiden had the ability to scramble HNIs, taking the user’s brains along for the ride and it showed. She noticed Byikanea, Lisette, Saressea, and robed SOM fighters, all laid out across the transparent floor of the chamber, with Miles, Odelea, and Penelope’s bodies adding to the pile.

It was hard to guess who was alive and dead.

The Dragon Knight and Maiden duo flashed about with their psionic jump porting abilities. Jainuzei stood with a two-handed Hashmedai plasma sword swinging and lunging, hitting the air. Alisha remained behind him with an ePistol shooting at a target that was quick to teleport away. Foster wasn’t sure if it was a miracle that kept the two alive or a curse. They were the bad guys, after all.

With both parties distracted, Foster and Tolukei moved in silently, moving their bodies to the direction of Lisette and Saressea. Tolukei jump ported to Lisette first and went to collect her body. He was knocked back when the Dragon Knight appeared behind with a hard whack of its orange glowing Voelika staff. Tolukei floated in the air using his abilities, and rolled his hands into a fist, making them glow orange. He hurled purple balls of plasma at the Dragon Knight, and soon afterward the two went at it.

Their cover was blown at that point, Jainuzei, and Alisha spinning to face Foster, looking at the idle body of Lisette. Alisha’s bullets forced Foster to run for cover, firing with her tachyon rifle, there wasn’t much left to her personal shields. Jainuzei swung his blade, deflecting the staff attacks of the Dragon Maiden, who prevented him from recovering Lisette. The chamber turned into a three-way cluster fuck, and it only grew more complex when Chevallier ran in screaming at the Dragon Maiden. A fury of unfocused bullets left her assault rifle.

Foster slid like a baseball player, narrowly avoiding the bullets from Alisha’s pistol and the reckless firing of Chevallier’s assault rifle. Once behind the dragon statue, she looked into the battle and noted the floating presence of two disk-shaped objects near the end of the chamber. The Eyes of Tiamat, the artifacts that were supposed to be buried under Baghdad, if the report from Eicelea, Rivera, and Penelope were correct, though Foster had no means of confirming.

The three-way battle became less of a concern while Foster tried to figure out, on the spot, the importance of Kur, Eyes of Tiamat, and what existed under Baghdad. Alisha’s bullets grazed Foster’s arm. It made her consider that perhaps the battle was more important than the floating glowing artifacts.

Alisha dove for cover of her own, and continued shooting at Foster, she returned the favor. Tolukei and the Dragon Knight’s body flashed in and out of existence like battling cybernetic wizards. Jainuzei swung his sword into the Voelika of the Dragon Maiden, who did an impressive job jump porting back and forth between him and Chevallier, whose continuing reckless bullets aimed at the Dragon Maiden, made it nearly impossible to leave cover.

Jainuzei changed his tactics, swapping his sword for a plasma polearm, being the walking weapons rack he and his heavy combat armor were. The extra reach allowed him to strike the Dragon Maiden down before she had the chance to jump port. Foster didn’t see what happened next, she had to retreat behind cover when Alisha started shooting at her again and then went to shoot back at the dragon statue she was behind.

The Dragon Knight looked like he was in a panic, and by the time Foster moved to the other end of her cover, he jump ported to his fallen comrade. Tolukei took advantage and blasted him with two pairs of psionic plasma, shattering the Dragon Knight’s barrier, and melting his armor to his flesh. He screamed, and Chevallier laughed with pleasure and then aimed her rifle to finish the job.

The wounded Dragon Maiden smashed the butt of her Voelika on the floor, cracking the glass it was made of, sending a shock wave that threw everyone back, even the idle bodies on the floor, and those in cover like Foster and Alisha. Foster saw a surge of blue light, and then the Dragon Knight and Maiden were out of sight. They never reappeared.

That was one battle over.

The next one began.

Like zombies rising from the dead, the scattered and displaced bodies of those that fell to the Dragon Knight and Maiden came to their feet. Everyone lost their weapons, even Foster had no idea where her tachyon rifle spun to. Only Jainuzei was armed, he may have lost his polearm, but had plenty of Hashmedai blades and Radiance guns to brandish.

He chose a magnetic rifle. Foster chose to place her hands up in surrender when it pointed at her face.

“Now, Jainuzei, you’re a man of honor and all that,” Foster said. “Is this the way you thank someone for savin’ yer hide?”

“You are indeed a worthy adversary, Foster,” Jainuzei said. “It’s a shame we’re not on the same side, we could have used your skill set—”

Byikanea got to her feet speaking to him in the Radiance language. He replied, then she did, they didn’t sound like they were friends anymore. Byikanea tapped her head and a hologram appeared. It was the video files Foster provided Penelope to send Saressea. Byikanea saw it, she knew what was up, as did the robed men and women of the SOM who watched Alisha, in the projection, reveal the truth. The video switched to the death of Armuzei, who as Foster recalled was an important factor in the resurrection of Marduk. The SOM journey to Kur was a waste after Armuzei died, and they had the lies spat by Jainuzei and Alisha to thank for that.

Jainuzei growled fiercely and backed away to Alisha. Byikanea had the remaining SOM fighters gather with her, arming themselves with whatever weapons they found scattered across the glass floor of the room. Foster winced when she saw the cracks grow.

During the split among the SOM, Saressea, like a ninja, found Lisette’s weakened body and went to drag her back. This was it, they were almost out of the mess and Foster too tried to back away, back to the exit hoping the arguing amongst the SOM personnel would last.

Sadly, it didn’t.

Before Saressea, holding Lisette, had the chance to get clear of the group, Byikanea faced her. Tolukei tried to intervene, jump porting before them and deflecting Byikanea’s psionic wrath. The fighters in the SOM reacted, pointing their weapons at Tolukei and his barrier, those that couldn’t find any guns ran at them.

Foster was powerless. Something had to be done, and Chevallier knew it. Like Foster, Chevallier lost her rifle during the knockback. She did, however, have her new arm. Chevallier ran into the fray smashing her fist into the cracking glass floor like a superheroine. The floor shattered sending all SOM fighters into the white glowing river below.

Had Chevallier used a little less strength, she wouldn’t have destroyed the floor to 70 percent of the chamber. The shattering of the glass floor was a like a sinkhole forming, first, the hole Chevallier punched formed, then it spread growing larger, sending thousands of shards down below, and the unlucky people that stood on it. Foster was one of those.

Gravity pulled her down when the floor beneath her gave way. She tumbled, protecting her face from the glass cutting away at her face. Her hands came to reach onto the footbridge below the chamber, breaking her fall into the white river, whatever the hell it was made of. The bodies that fell into it didn’t rise up.

She pulled herself up onto the bridge, cringing at the feeling of three or four pieces of glass stuck in her face and the stream of red that dripped. Ahead of Foster, Alisha’s body fell, a white glowing orb rolled out and away from Alisha’s EVA suit. It looked like an engram, memories of an individual in the form of psionic power. In fact, all the white orbs that decorated the inside of the chamber looked like engrams.

The engram that rolled away caught Alisha’s attention. She panicked and cursed, jumping to her feet running for it. It was important to her, something that could be bargained with if Foster got to it first. Alisha ran for it, the orb rolled to Foster as she ran for it. Behind leaped Jainuzei, unfazed at the long drop, and didn’t hesitate to charge after Foster. He was moving faster than the two. Alisha getting the engram back first would be the least of Foster’s worries. Jainuzei was ready to rip Foster in half. The engram didn’t just become a means for forcing Alisha to stand down, it became a means for Foster to bargain for her life.

Alisha leaped and dove for the engram with her hand out. Foster did the same and felt its warm solid touch when her hand came to rest on it. Alisha’s hand fell on top of Foster’s.

A loud clank sounded from behind, another joined the three on the bridge.

After pulling the engram away and getting to her feet, Foster saw who the fourth was. It was Karklosea, and she waved her redeemer in the air, flowing with psionic energy, screaming to Jainuzei, challenging him to face her.

And face her he did.

Just as Alisha stood to face Foster.

72 Saressea

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 10:28 SST (Sol Standard Time)

The chamber with its shattered glass floor was chaos, utter chaos. Saressea managed to pull back to the remaining 30 percent of the floor that was still together, though the white cracks on the remaining glass floor, looking like spider webs were stretching outward, was making her question its stability. It was like standing on thin ice, it was going to give way soon. Byikanea fighting with Tolukei and Chevallier didn’t help. The repeated blasts of psionic powers sent vibrations that only made the glass crack further and crumble slowly.

Saressea and Lisette had to escape to the entrance, too bad it was on the other side of the new hole in the floor. They tiptoed around the hole in a slow attempt to reach the main entrance with Chevallier. They stopped when Byikanea jump ported and appeared floating above the hole, lifting her hands into the air, and gathered a torrent of psionic power. Above her was a swirl of lights rotating like clouds in a hurricane. The infamous psionic bomb was forming, and if it exploded, the blast would send the two hurtling down.

Saressea led Lisette back, and the two ran up the staircase into the three-story altar. A violent explosion sent them flying, and the sound of glass shattering echoed. They got to their feet and climbed the stairs; the altar was the only safe place until Tolukei jump ported in to retrieve them. If he was alive after that.

The second floor of the altar was full of the same white orbs displayed around its outer edge. Saressea established a comm link with her HNI when she and Lisette hid behind an ancient podium.

“Please don’t tell me I’m the only one alive here,” Saressea transmitted.

“We’re still up,” Chevallier’s voice played. “Not sure about Foster or Karklosea.”

“Where did they go?”

“They fell down after Jainuzei and Alisha.”

“Why the fuck did she run in?”

“Foster fell and Karklosea went in running to get her,” Maxwell cut in, and then paused. Gunfire echoed in the background. Chevallier must have gotten her rifle back. “I told her to stop, but I can’t speak her language, only Chevallier could who was busy.”

“Saressea,” Chevallier said. “Can you get to us?”

“Not easily, Lisette and I had to run into some damned altar up ahead—”

LeBoeuf cut in. “Got Draconians coming in from behind!”

“Guess this would be a bad time to ask for LeBoeuf or Tolukei to come get us?”

“Ya think? We can’t even get to the captain or Karklosea,” Maxwell said. “You guys gotta come to us, there’s too much fucking shit shooting at us!”

Saressea snorted. “You guys sound busy, how about I call you back later?” she cut the comm link, stood and faced Lisette. “Yeah, so I don’t have a plan for what happens next.”

Lisette rolled her eyes. “Great …”

Saressea returned down the flight of stairs observing the growing battle. At her feet was an ePistol, the one Alisha was using. The recent blast must have sent it flying back to her. It was an Earth made weapon but followed the same rules of Radiance magnetic pistols. Point it at someone you don’t like and pull the trigger. If the bullet hits, they’ll probably die, or will be showing you a new level of respect.

Byikanea flashed ahead when Saressea went to return up the stairs. Her tail stiffened with fear, and then her whole body when Byikanea’s mind paralyzed her with the crushing feeling of telekinesis. Byikanea threw Saressea up the stairs like a ragdoll, and she landed face first then rolled across the floor.

Byikanea appeared again, this time floating above Saressea, flicked her wrist and sent her body flying into a dragon statue. Lisette came running to Saressea, pushing her hand out to Byikanea. One of the pillars in the altar cracked and a piece of it shot away hitting Byikanea, she flipped over backward. Lisette wasn’t that bad a psionic after all, though it probably took all of her power to do that.

Saressea got to her feet, drew the pistol, and inched her finger closer to its trigger. Flashbacks of Byikanea violating her raced through her head, it made it hard to pull the trigger, as much as she really wanted to. Saressea shook it off and pulled the trigger. Her bullets crashed into a psionic bubble Byikanea threw up as she leaped to her feet.

“Two against one, Byikanea,” Saressea said. “Just give it up.”

“Jainuzei and Alisha didn’t have Marduk on their minds …” Byikanea murmured.

“Yep, they played you all, killed the whole leadership except you,” Saressea said. “And I did too, in case you didn’t figure it out.”

Byikanea’s body turned to blue light and that carried her away somewhere. Saressea wasn’t sure where just that she and Lisette needed to run, it didn’t matter where they just needed to stay mobile. A moving target can’t be picked up by psionic thoughts easily.

“I knew he was killing the leadership,” Byikanea said, appearing ahead of the two. Lisette pushed her back slightly with a telekinetic push. Saressea dodge-rolled behind a statue of the naked woman that was on the front door. “I allowed him to do it; he promised we would rule Radiance as king and queen after we brought Marduk back!”

When Byikanea jump ported again, Saressea moved, and then turned to shoot when the chance arose. The large size of the statue was perfect, running around it, or using it to stay out of Byikanea’s line of sight, forcing her to sense her presence with ESP, draining more of her power in the process. Byikanea was growing tired, and her mental state wasn’t helping. It gave Saressea an idea.

“Since Marduk isn’t coming back, why not just give it up?” Saressea taunted. “The SOM is finished and Jainuzei is a sleazy cheater.”

“We were lovers,” Byikanea groaned. “Jainuzei lied to me, Alisha was his wife …”

The more Saressea taunted, the more Byikanea became disturbed and haunted. Psionic powers were all in the mind, if a psionic user was going nuts and became mentally unstable, it would take their powers along for the ride. Jainuzei lied. Alisha lied. The SOM was a lie. Rubbing it in her face was driving her insane.

The last jump port Byikanea made put her in front of the statue. She fell to her knees, the look of defeat forced her eyes to moisten, her fist smashed against the floor. Saressea slipped behind with Lisette, placing the pistol at the back of Byikanea’s head. Byikanea was finished, Saressea was not.

Lisette pulled on her arm. “Leave her, let’s get out of here!”

Saressea ignored her. Byikanea was a lunatic, a murderer, a rapist, someone that put a level of psychological trauma into Saressea’s head she’d never be able to recover from again. Saressea wanted to see her brains splatter across the statue. Make the naked woman with wings coming out her back, whoever the fuck she was supposed to be, see what happens when someone worships false deities.

“I have to finish this …” Saressea groaned.

“Come on!” This time Lisette pulled Saressea with her mind.

The feeling that went through Saressea’s body was the same fear that hit her when Byikanea gripped Saressea with her mind for the first time. A flood of traumatic memories returned, distorting reality. Saressea was reliving that moment. When she looked at Lisette, she saw Byikanea.

She went to shoot her, and her hand holding the pistol stiffened. Another telekinetic mind took control.

“I have to finish this,” Byikanea said from behind. “I’m so close … I can bring Marduk back right now, he doesn’t have to have Armuzei’s body. He can have another. And I’ll see to it his first duty after his return is to punish Jainuzei and Alisha, the Terran alliance … everyone in the fucking galaxy that opposes me!”

The Byikanea ahead of Saressea became Lisette again when her mind calmed. Being paralyzed by telekinesis left very little else for one to do. Behind her was the real Byikanea and she did something, she wasn’t sure what, just that it was enough to make Lisette back away, looking up. Byikanea was floating most likely. Lisette ran. It was something the two should have done.

“And you … Saressea,” Byikanea said. “You also misled me. I’ll see to it Marduk takes you first, unless …”

Unless? Saressea couldn’t open her mouth to speak.

“Answer a question for me,” Byikanea said. “Are you a believer? A believer of the three false Gods of Radiance? Or the one true God of Gods, Marduk?!”

Byikanea partially released her grip over Saressea’s head. It allowed her to reveal. “I believe that you are one crazy fucking bitch.”

With Saressea’s head free to move, she looked up and saw the swirling waves of psionic energy, the makings of a psionic bomb. Her plan backfired, Byikanea’s disturbed mental state turned into rage. An angry psionic mind was like giving a gun to a kid. If Saressea pulled the trigger, this could have been avoided. If she and Lisette ran, this could have been avoided. Someone was going to die for all this, and she hoped she would be the one to suffer.

Byikanea pulled a large white orb from the statue of the woman and made it float before her. Byikanea’s eyes searched the altar, her mouth open with fury.

“Where is the Nephilim?”

“She kinda dipped when you were rambling.”

Byikanea raged, screaming and yelling, making the interior of the altar shake and rumble. Her loss of focus released Saressea from her telekinetic grip, and she fell to the floor. Beside Saressea was the pistol, she took it back, and looked up at the psionic bomb growing in size. If it exploded, it might take out the whole chamber, it was fueled by Byikanea’s anger and sorrow.

There wasn’t enough time to take aim. Saressea simply pointed the weapon up and started shooting, hoping one of the bullets would end Byikanea. The first two bullets hit her psionic barrier, the third hit the ceiling, the fourth hit the orb.

Everything went white. The world around Saressea started to fall, the floor wasn’t together, neither were the walls or ceiling. The altar crumbled and fell to the bridge and white river below the chamber.

73 Karklosea

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 10:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea eyed her opponent, Jainuzei, the large powerfully built Aryile man, with a heavy suit of armor covered in the weapons he collected over the years. She approached him with her redeemer in its blade form in hand and her psionic wrist shield on her left wrist. Jainuzei was true to his word, replacing his firearm with an equivalent weapon. From the back of his suit, he drew a plasma katana, powered it on, making its blade glow with a bright green light from the plasma that illuminated the blade.

The bridge they stood on had very little in terms of cover. Karklosea needed this fight to be on her own terms, she needed to not be shot at. She needed to win.

Her feet carried her to him as she made four rapid thrusts with the redeemer, thrusts that were parried by Jainuzei’s control of the katana. She retreated behind her shield, deflecting his strikes as he handled the weapon as if he were an ancient human warrior of the bushido. Samurai as she recalled the term was.

The energy shields of Jainuzei’s armor were still active, blocking her attempts to lift, pull, or push him off the edge of the bridge with telekinesis. It was a shame, as he remained still enough at times for her mind to get a lock. She had to take down his shields, after that she could flick him away into the white river below.

“Have I ever told you the story of a man that refused to die?” Jainuzei said as their blades, full of energy, clashed.

Karklosea jump ported behind him, hoping to blindside him. Jainuzei’s parry was quick. “Can’t say you have,” she finally replied.

“He was an evil man,” Jainuzei said as their dueling blades fought. “He worked hard to bring down the Celestial Order. During our final encounter, we dueled like this over a bridge. As a matter of fact, this katana belonged to him.”

“So, you admit it at last.”

“Yes, I was part of the Order, indoctrinated by their sorcery, as was Alisha.” Jainuzei made a vertical slash. Her jump port put her two feet out of its reach. “After the defeat of the Order, Alisha and I retreated into the darkness, praying to Gods that don’t truly exist, for a means to seek vengeance. As time went on, the effects of the indoctrination faded, and we discovered how it happened in the first place.”

The Celestial Order used ancient gems to warp the minds of people. The old Patriarch Radiance during that dark era had a staff with an orb inside it, just like the gems. Karklosea remembered watching fine sailors turn to the aid of the Order when a Muodiry wielding the staff and the ancient alien object used in it.

“I’m aware how your minds became weak,” Karklosea said.

“Then you must be aware that the staff, Order gems, and the white orbs in them are one and the same as with the engram.”

She grimaced, thinking about the white orbs in the chamber above. They looked exactly like the center of an Order gem, and the orb inside the Patriarch’s staff. Kur, Marduk, the Celestial Order, Sirius, there was a connection. Her will to live increased and she had a feeling nobody saw the connection she did. The galaxy had to know.

Her making the connection nearly cost her life when Jainuzei made a threefolded slash. Her armor got singed, a plume of smoke rose away from the damaged metal and electronics inside. Her psionic wrist shield deflected the two remaining strikes.

“The Poniga and Undine are able to create engrams,” Jainuzei revealed. “It’s a technique the Lyonria developed, converting thoughts, memories … one’s entire conscious into psionic energy that can be transferred to another. Alisha and I searched for the truth about the Order’s ability to indoctrinate people, it led us to Sirius, which led us to the reports of Foster, which led us to the discovery of the Marduk-worshiping Poniga tribes and Undine clans.”

She flashed four feet away with a jump port, and felt her mind grow tired, and saw the purple glow of her psionic shield dim. She had to conserve her mental strength.

“The SOM … so it really was your creation,” Karklosea said, and waited for him to make the next move.

“Yes,” Jainuzei said, charging at her, resuming their dance of the blades. “But not to bring back Marduk, but to take advantage of the gifts he offered, the gifts Foster turned down when she was in Sirius. My love for Alisha is strong, stronger than any woman I met. I pledged my life to do anything for her, even stay behind on Sirius to build the cult and send it on the mission Alisha wanted. Unfortunately, the leadership turned their backs on us, pushing for Marduk’s resurrection instead of the one we wanted. So, you see, Karklosea, that is why I have been slaying their members and leaders sparing Byikanea. She had the potential to side with us when our true plans were to be revealed. My cock was quite good at making her do whatever I wanted.”

Jainuzei wouldn’t yield, the battery pack he used to power his suit and weapons had a while to go. Meanwhile, repeated use of jump ports weakened Karklosea’s mind as did retreating behind her shield and keeping the psionic energy flowing through the blade of the redeemer.

If her mind grew tired now, she’d lose the shield and the sword’s psionic plasma. Jainuzei, on the other hand, he just needed to have a full battery. Even then, he had various guns on him that could be used to finish her, none of which he was using because of his honor code. If she had switched to rifle mode, he’d pull out his. If she lost her weapon, he’d use his fists. Jainuzei wanted to beat her in a fair fight.

So, what would happen if we weren’t fighting?

Karklosea made a jump port away, the final one she’d make in the bout. Jainuzei spun, readied his plasma katana, and prepared to charge and slash. He stopped when Karklosea threw her redeemer to the bridge below, and then got to her knees placing her hands behind her head.

“I yield,” Karklosea said, her eyes looking down in case he wasn’t the man of honor he claimed to be. She just gave him the power to behead her and would rather not see it coming if it came to that.

“Continue the fight!” he demanded.

“I yield, my mind is weak. I cannot continue,” she said. “You have defeated me.” She saw the glow of his weapon fade, and his feet marched to her. Looking up at him, she added. “I offer myself as your prisoner.” And then looked behind Jainuzei, directly ahead at the other end of the bridge where Foster and Alisha were in conflict. She hoped her efforts were buying Foster enough time.

“Very well, I accept,” Jainuzei said. “But first …”

He picked up her redeemer, lifting it several inches away from his eyes that gawked at it closely. “We did not have these redeemers when I was a ranger. It will make a fine addition to my collection.”

There was an explosion from above. It was loud enough to make everyone on the bridge look up to the chamber they fell from. The altar exploded, and its remains came crashing down upon the bridge.

Karklosea couldn’t see what happened next. It looked as though the altar fell on top of Foster and Alisha. The fact she couldn’t hear any of the two women made it seem like that was exactly what happened.

Jainuzei ran to the remains of the fallen altar, calling out Alisha’s name, holding Karklosea’s redeemer. If Foster was still alive, she was on her own now.

74 Foster

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 10:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster forgot about Alisha’s ability as a fighter. When she wasn’t able to pull the engram away from Foster, she got to her feet and unleashed a fury of kicks. Foster lost the engram and watched it slowly roll toward the edge of the bridge.

Alisha switched her focus to recover it, Foster tackled her. The two rolled around on top of each other, punching and pulling on each other’s faces, tugging on the flesh. It wasn’t an easy task when taking in the fact both still wore EVA suits. Jainuzei and Karklosea had been dueling further up the bridge, it was a welcome distraction. She had doubts Jainuzei would sit back and allow Foster to drill her fists into his wife’s face.

The two pulled every dirty trick they could use. Alisha bit Foster’s finger. Probably would have bitten it off if it weren’t for the gloves. Foster spat in her face. Alisha head-butted her. Foster grabbed Alisha’s long hair and pulled, and at one point flung her by a fist full of her hair across the bridge. Alisha called her a whore, Foster called her a bitch, then reached for the engram which by some crazy luck, didn’t roll off the bridge during the struggle.

She held it up high for Alisha to see.

“If there’s a shred of humanity left in you,” Alisha said. “You’d drop that.”

“What’s that?” Foster said, taunting her. “Sorry can’t hear ya over the sound of me winning, twin!”

“Twin? Ha, you still think we’re doubles?”

“C’mon, Levesque, you know I’m not the enemy.”

“If you destroy that engram, I swear …”

“Oh?” Foster looked at the engram she held and pointed at it mockingly. “You mean this engram right here?”

“Drop it, Foster!”

“This ship is full of engrams, why is this one so important?”

“That engram is all that’s left of my daughter, Rebecca,” Alisha said. “This ship, Kur, is a place of the dead. The underworld of the ancient Babylonians, the place Marduk would have brought you if you accepted his offer!”

Foster was sure Marduk wanted to take her into aether space to become a Goddess … Then again, aether space and the maelstroms were one and the same. Was this what he meant? Use it to travel to the nebula and board Kur? Find her father’s engram that somehow ended up here? Then what?

“I cried for weeks when I learned you turned down Marduk,” Alisha said, slowly stepping toward Foster, keeping her eye on the engram. “You could have taken those gifts; you could have become a Goddess that gifted us with the power to bring back the dead by grabbing their memories stored as engrams on this ship.”

It was crazy talk. Foster was sure of it. There was no way this one ship could have the memories of everyone who died in psionic form. She could see it happening if certain conditions were met, but for regular people? Not possible, billions of humans alone died over the years humanity existed. You couldn’t fit all their engrams onto Kur, even though it was a huge ship. And what of other races? Hashmedai and Radiance races, were their copied memories stored here as an engram? That’s billions of minds. It wasn’t possible. Alisha was crazy and Marduk was manipulative.

“Why did you turn it down?” Alisha said. “Why?!”

“It was the right thing to do,” Foster said, backing away from the distraught woman. “Ain’t no way Marduk was gonna treat people fairly. I saw what he did to the Tiamat-loyal Poniga; Doctor Pierce saw what he did with the Undine. The man was pro-slavery.”

“I would have taken his offer,” Alisha said, continuing to creep over like a stalker. “Bringing my lovely daughter back, the only person I gave a shit about in life. I would have used my powers as a psionic Goddess to work with Marduk to bring peace to the galaxy and fight him if necessary, like how he fought Tiamat to stop the dragons from taking control. Because, unlike you, Rebecca, I’m not a fucking coward.”

“So, all the people that have died, the ships destroyed, the damage and chaos, the bodies maimed … All this madness so you could bring your child back into this universe?”

“She wasn’t just any child! She was my fucking daughter and a Nephilim.” Alisha lunged forward, guiding her hand to the engram. Foster’s reflexes pulled it away, seconds before she took it. “So fucking give it to me!”

“That’s why you needed Lisette,” Foster said. “She was a Nephilim like your kid.” Looking at the engram, Foster made the connection. “You were going to put her mind into her body.”

“She was the only viable host for her new body,” Alisha said after making another failed attempt to pry the engram from Foster. “I’m not sure of the origins of the Nephilim myself; my guess was my first husband wasn’t human, as with several other men and women living in Montreal. Radiance was, after all, exploring Earth in secret since WWII. Something … not human or Radiance, must have infiltrated them and slipped into Earth, bred with humans to create Nephilim.

“You understand now why I must do this, Rebecca? The universe has been without true Gods and Goddess since you killed Marduk, even when he was trapped in Sirius. We can fix your mistake you made there, just give me the engram back. Let my daughter have a second chance at life and be given the powers of a Goddess to rule over us and bring the peace we need!”

Foster stopped backpedaling, realizing she was about to back into the fight Karklosea and Jainuzei were having. Alisha was ahead, and to her left and right was the edge of the bridge. She was trapped, and Alisha knew it with the grin she shot.

She looked down at the white river. She had what Alisha wanted and it didn’t matter now if she lived or died. Alisha couldn’t be allowed to finish this. She was crazy, after effects of the tattoos? Foster hoped not, because if so, she was looking at her future.

“The engram!” Alisha said as she made her strike, wrestling Foster for it. “Give it to me, right fucking now!”

“What’s the magic word?”

“Don’t fuck with me, bitch!”

“Bzzt, guess again!”

At some point during the struggle Foster felt her grip of the engram come loose. It was a tug of war for control of the memories and conscience of a dead girl. Foster pivoted her body to the edge of the bridge, while still holding the engram, and briefly debated if leaping off and pulling herself along with Alisha and engram was the only way out of this.

After a two-second debate, the answer was yes.

An explosion from above changed all that.

It was enough to startle Foster, and she lost grip of the engram. Alisha had won but was so wide-eyed at her victory she failed to notice the remains of the altar above crashing onto the bridge. Foster ran past Alisha, who stood with tears running down her cheek, petting the engram as if it were a pet, oblivious to the rubble that was darkening the section of the bridge the two were on in its shadow.

The altar’s remains came down with a loud crashing noise and a vibration that sent Foster to the ground. She turned around expecting to see Alisha turned into a meaty pancake but saw nothing but a section of the collapsed altar, and the rest of it fell into the white river. Whatever the river was made of, it didn’t like solid objects as Foster saw other parts of the altar splashdown and vaporize.

Someone was still alive from the rubble. A gloved hand crawled up from the debris, then a head with Rabuabin horns. Foster ran over, unburying the figure that survived, it was Saressea. She was bloody, and covered in dirt, but alive—

The gravity yanked on the bridge. Foster saw that the bridge had become damaged from the fall, it was about to break in half from where the altar’s remains fell. She pulled on Saressea’s body, it wasn’t moving. The bridge cracked and she felt it bend.

Saressea’s EVA suit was caught, forcing Foster to move the rubble away as the bridge slowly came apart. Jainuzei was on the other end, clawing away, searching, and calling Alisha’s name. She had a feeling he wasn’t going to help her out if he recovered her first.

When Saressea was finally free, Foster pulled her out and away quickly and made it to a stable section of the bridge before the damaged end snapped and plummeted into the river below. She didn’t see Jainuzei. He must have stayed until his section of the bridge crumbled and fell. Karklosea stood ahead, alive and well, having stood at the opposite end of the bridge that was far from the collapse.

Foster pointed to the top and what remained of the glass floor in the chamber above and hoped she got the message. Saressea wasn’t moving or talking, there was no way for Foster to verbalize that she needed to escape. Karklosea was the only one down below that could take them to safety with a jump port.

75 Rivera

XSV Johannes Kepler

Kur Exterior, Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 10:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Rivera pushed away from an access panel located on the underside of the Kepler and drifted down to the topside surface of Kur where the Kepler remained. When she powered her magnetic boots, Sarpanit drifted down from the Kepler’s top, continuing her pursuit.

Behind, Chang, Williams, EVE, Nereid, and Vynei continued to defend the Kepler from the rampaging wyverns. None of them, despite their best efforts, could reach Rivera. She had to get to them, and they had to get back inside and raise the shields. The drones had fallen according to a holo screen that flashed over Rivera’s eyes. This was their last stand to hold the fort. If they and or the Kepler was lost, Foster and her team had no means of coming home.

Slowly, Rivera marched away from the aft underside section of the Kepler across the exterior of Kur, making her way to her friends and the lowered entry ramp. Sarpanit followed, Rivera adjusted her path hoping the android would. Her plan wasn’t going to work if she didn’t.

“I’m really enjoying this new body you gave me,” Sarpanit said. “Had the Carl Sagan had one, things would have been much different when I first took control of that ship.”

It was hard to believe after all this time, Sarpanit was originally the Carl Sagan’s EVE AI. It got copied and reprogrammed by Marduk, evidently receiving Sarpanit’s engram memories. It jumped into Foster’s EAD and was brought back to the ship.

Had Rivera, back during the Sirius expedition, known this would happen, she would have deleted it with or without Foster’s approval. Emmanuel would still be alive. Rivera’s team would be too, and they all had a family. It was the reason the salvage took so long, they stopped to visit them after the Draconian attacks. And for what? To die to a vengeful AI Goddess. Deleting the data crystal when she had the chance, that’s all she needed to do.

Sarpanit’s magnetic footsteps guided her on the path Rivera needed her to be on. Rivera looked up at the underside of the Kepler the two were under. Sarpanit was almost in range. Just a few more steps. Two more steps. One more step.

Rivera floated to her knees and made a bowing motion.

“Marduk is eternal,” Rivera said.

Sarpanit stopped and grinned, looking down at her. “You’re just trying to deceive me.”

“I’m being truthful.”

“Rivera?” Williams said over the comm line. “We’re almost in the clear here, what the fuck are you doing?”

“Go back inside, guys,” Rivera said. “We can’t fight her, let’s cut our losses.”

“What the fuck? No!” Williams shouted. “We’re coming for you; just hold on we’re almost done with this last dragon.”

Sarpanit took a step forward. Rivera remotely established a communication link with the Kepler’s bridge. “Pierce! Do it now!”

The Kepler’s landing and launch thrusters activated.

A pillar of blue-and white-hot flares shot down upon Sarpanit, who stood directly under one of the thrusters. The heat shattered her shields and then turned the android’s body into a charred metallic one that remained clinging to the exterior of Kur. She had Pierce back on the bridge shut down the thrusters before the heat got to her or the rest, and then took a glance at what remained of Sarpanit.

Rivera tapped her finger on Sarpanit’s melted head, nothing happened, the blackened android was just a piece of melted rubble still attached to the surface via magnets. She was glad Sarpanit wasn’t monitoring the text-only message Rivera had sent to Pierce beforehand of her plan or noticed the quick adjustments she made to the thrusters.

“I really hope you were joking about that Marduk stuff,” Chang said to Rivera as she rejoined with the group.

She laughed. “Of course …”

The remains of the last wyvern drifted away, adding to the pile of wings and bullet-ridden wyverns floating around the Kepler, spewing orbs of yellow in every direction. Williams, Chang, and Vynei made triumphant sounds as they proceeded up the entry ramp, EVE, the legit one followed behind saying nothing. And Nereid? Rivera saw her look back at the dead dragons after she finished restoring the thrusters to their normal settings. Nereid looked sad, disturbed, and kept silent, and then kept to herself even after they all returned inside.

Rivera tried talking to her. Nereid shrugged her off. There was talk about how Nereid might snap one day and betray the crew because her devotion to Tiamat forced it. As far as Rivera was concerned, her devotion to Tiamat wasn’t going to force it, it was going to be the continuous orders the crew gave her to defend against the dragons.

“Foster to Kepler,” Foster’s voice played over the bridge’s speakers.

“Go ahead, Captain,” Williams said.

“We’re finished here …” Foster said grimly. “Get ready to receive the survivors …”

Survivors. Someone didn’t make it.

76 Foster

Kur

Hallowed Nebula Core

July 30, 2119, 10:38 SST (Sol Standard Time)

“Where’s Lisette?” Foster said.

“I can’t find her,” Chevallier said.

Foster had arrived in the corridor leading to the chamber with the aid of Karklosea’s jump port. In her arms was Saressea’s stiff body, behind her was the now floorless chamber and a destroyed altar.

Chevallier and her EDF team hunkered down behind barricades made of psionic energy by LeBoeuf, taking turns exchanging fire with the Draconians beyond. Miles had joined them, so did Penelope, having stolen one of the SOM magnetic rifles. Foster would have helped as well had she not lost her tachyon rifle. Thankfully she had a spare on the Kepler, assuming it was still in one piece.

“Did anyone see where Lisette went?” she asked.

“She went with Saressea into the altar,” Chevallier said. “That’s the last we saw her.”

“I can’t pick up any other HNI signals,” Penelope said.

“Maybe the Dragon Knights are scrambling them?” Odelea suggested.

“Then why y’all standing?” Foster said. “Ain’t nobody left these chambers, right? And I know only Saressea came out of that crashing altar.”

Foster placed Saressea’s body on the ground running back to look at the chamber. There was no place else to stand other than the broken-in-half bridge below. The Rezeki’s Rage had reported their shields had dropped, and the Prometheus wasn’t far off. Williams said the Kepler had beaten off a group of wyverns but had another wave coming in. Meanwhile, the Draconian soldiers ahead, with their blazing tachyon rifles had their numbers grow in size. They were entering from other entrances to Kur and were not going to let anyone stop them from resurrecting Tiamat. Lisette was gone, and they were running out of time. They had to leave.

Foster returned to the group and noticed Saressea’s breathing had stopped. She wanted to perform CPR, but that would require her to pull Saressea out from the EVA suit first while ducking her head from weapons fire and the advancing Draconians.

Being a captain was all fun and games until you had to make a very hard decision. And hope it was the right one.

Foster’s team gathered with Tolukei. Chevallier’s team gathered around LeBoeuf. Everyone with a gun laid down as much fire into the corridors, hoping to reduce the pressure and stress on LeBoeuf and Tolukei’s minds. Miles stood ahead of Tolukei acting as a human shield, with the aid of his shields, which were at great risk of dropping with each shot. Chevallier and Maxwell did the same for LeBoeuf. Foster held Saressea’s body in her arms, wishing the teleport would hurry, and kept her eyes on the chamber doors, expecting Lisette to run in at the last minute.

The Draconian numbers increased, laying on too much weapons fire. Odelea offered to take care of Saressea’s body, allowing Foster to swipe a magnetic rifle off the floor and join everyone on the frontlines. She fired the Radiance made weapon, laying down as much pressure into the incoming Draconians, while Odelea peeled off Saressea’s EVA and began CPR.

Miles’ shield shattered and he fell over backward. Tachyons normally vaporized unshielded targets. Foster assumed the blast hit him directly as his shields were shattering. Meaning he could be dead, just not vaporized dead.

Chevallier joined Miles half a minute later, and the act forced Tolukei to lose focus and retry the teleport. Maxwell kept his eyes on the situation, using his psionic powers to protect his body from the attacks. When LeBoeuf’s teleport completed, he jump ported out of range.

Foster brought her wrist terminal to her face. “Foster to Kepler,” she said.

“Go ahead, Captain,” Williams’ voice replied.

“We’re finished here …” she said, looking down at Saressea’s body. “Get ready to receive the survivors.”

Karklosea, LeBoeuf, and downed Chevallier made it back to the Kepler. Maxwell sacrificed his ride back to defend Tolukei with his powers. The human ravager psionic refused to move and refused to end his barrier. Blood dripped from Maxwell’s nose, he was about to have an aneurysm from overusing his powers. He stood his ground, and when his body finally shut down, Tolukei covered them with the grace of blue light, and they dematerialized.

Foster was back aboard the Kepler, standing on the bridge, still carrying the rifle. She looked down and saw Miles, Chevallier, and Maxwell with Odelea refusing to give up on Saressea. She frantically called for someone to take the downed personnel to sickbay. Kostelecky was going to have her hands full, she hoped Bailey and Eicelea would work out well as the untrained nurses they got suckered into being.

“All aboard?” Foster asked.

“Yes, Captain,” Odelea said, returning to her station, her hands covered in Saressea’s blood and dirt.

“Get us out of here, Chang!” Foster said, taking her chair back from Williams.

The Johannes Kepler’s thrusters fired, and its landing gear demagnetized and retracted. It lifted off, pushing past the next wave of wyverns that were eying them. Once clear, the ship returned back to the battle above Kur in the nebula. The SOM failed to resurrect Marduk. Alisha and Jainuzei failed to resurrect her daughter. The Draconians, however, now had free reign over Kur.

“Penelope?” Foster said, spinning in her chair to face her.

“Activating my virus now,” Penelope said as she attended to one of the bridge’s rear computer workstations. “We got five minutes to get clear of Kur.”

“Tell the Rezeki’s Rage and the Prometheus to form up with us, now!” Foster ordered.

“Contacting them now,” Odelea said.

Everyone had their jobs. Once the Rezeki’s Rage and the Prometheus broke away from the battle, entering a formation with the Kepler, Foster and Nereid ran to engineering. Nereid stripped naked and entered the aquarium, Rivera, standing at its side, powered it on filling it with the goo. Foster touched the vortex key, felt her mind leave her body, and then sliced open a hole in space ahead of the escaping Kepler, Rezeki’s Rage, and Prometheus.

The three ships plugged through into the maelstrom at sub light speeds, leaving the remains of the Terran alliance to deal with the Draconians, and then later Kur as it was expected to explode within the next minute with enough force to destroy all ships near it. Foster was disappointed to learn that the vortex had shut twelve seconds before Kur exploded, blocking out all sensor and ESP scans. She was looking forward to seeing the fleets that remained get their comeuppance, and at twelve seconds, it was unlikely they would have cleared Kur fast enough to escape the blast.

C’est la vie, as Chevallier would say.

Epilogue

XSV Johannes Kepler

Riylor Orbit, Devaguai System

August 8, 2119, 19:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Karklosea sat down wearing a robe having finished a relaxing shower in the quarters she was assigned on the Kepler. She was about to sleep, with every intention of sleeping in the morning, when EVE informed her she had a high priority message come in from Aervounis, via QEC. She took the message at her computer, and the holo screen displayed the faces of the Radiance council, sitting at their table within the newly restored delegation chamber.

“Lord Commander, it is good to see your face after so long,” Ienthei greeted.

“I was not expecting a call from you so late,” Karklosea said to the projection. “Have you read my report on this matter already?”

“Yes,” Ienthei said. “We have.”

“And? There hasn’t been anything on the knowledge network news about it,” Karklosea said.

“While we appreciate what you have done,” Ienthei said. “We cannot praise you when your actions led to the death of Marrea.”

“She attacked me, and I have HNI proof of it and her involvement with the SOM.”

“Yes, and you stabbed her first,” Iey’liwea chimed in. “You could have knocked her out with psionic thrusts.”

“Furthermore, her computer was damaged beyond repair,” Ienthei added. “We have no way of knowing that the recordings you saw were real or not.”

“And so,” Zealoei said, following a deep sigh. “We regret to inform you that we will be stripping you of your Lord Commander title, discharging you from the Templars, and ask that you turn yourself in and face judgment at a tribunal.”

A surge of anger made Karklosea slap her hands against the desk. “I saved the Union! And this is the thanks I get?”

“You—”

Before Hanei spoke Karklosea cut the communication. She knew she did nothing wrong, this was just Ienthei pushing the matter since Marrea was his mother, and now his father Jainuzei was also dead, again. Even though the two were evil, Ienthei, and no doubt his sister, who was probably using her influence, wanted to see both Marrea and Jainuzei, their genetic birth parents arrested, not dead.

Ienthei’s abuse of power and his twin sister, Queenea’s, reach into Radiance politics was reaching a boiling point.

They had to be removed.

Rivera put her tools away for the day. Repairs to the Kepler had finished at last … again. The Rezeki’s Rage’s repairs were completed the other day, while the Prometheus was next up. Though it being a captured Terran made ship, Radiance was more interested in learning how its technology worked. A lot of human technology was reverse engineered from Lyonria ruins, and much of that tech was never shared with the rest of the galaxy. This was Radiance’s chance to get ahead.

Foster approached Rivera as she turned to leave engineering for the day and hit the bong. It’d been a while since she got a good medication session.

“Hey, Rivera,” Foster said to her.

“Captain,” Rivera said, smiling. “You’ll be happy to know the reactor is operating at 95 percent efficiency, and I’m about to install a vital monitor into the aquarium for Nereid, this way we can keep track of her stress levels.”

“That’s awesome—”

“Also, let Chevallier know I’ll fix the rattling noise the air vents in her room are making, and I’ve drawn up plans to finally make that pool in Nereid’s quarters so she can feel right at home. Oh, and Miles will be happy to know I’m almost finished with the exosuit he was shot in, should be good to go in the—”

“Jasmine!”

“Yes?”

“I wanted to talk to you about that HNI in your head.”

“Captain, I know the Dragon Knights are still a threat that can show up at any time but—”

“I ain’t’ kicking you off the ship, girl, relax!” Foster said, holding her hands up in defense. “I wanted to know about the data Sarpanit left in it.”

“It’s still there, most of it locked, but there …” Rivera ran her hand across the side of her head. “Except for.” She waved and created a small holo screen. In it was a single file pulled out from Rivera’s HNI, left behind by Sarpanit. “Penelope managed to decrypt this file.”

Rivera tapped the file’s icon, opening it, and pushing it to Foster. “Looks like a star map,” Foster said, glancing at the image.

“It was made by the Carl Sagan during our blackout years,” Rivera said. “You see the distances between those star systems?”

“That’s … pretty damn small.”

“Average distance is zero point four light-years,” Rivera said. “Only place you’ll find star systems that close together, is Omega Centauri. When the Draconians took us and the Abyssal Sword from Sirius, they hauled us there.”

“Hmm, we kinda suspected that,” Foster said. “But with this … well hell, this is solid proof we were already there.”

“I was going to pass it on to Pierce but.”

“Got sidetracked by all these projects?”

“That and Maxwell keeps tricking me into playing videogames with him and Chevallier. Sorry about that.”

Foster smiled, patting Rivera on her shoulder. “It’s all good.”

“Saressea.”

“Look, the whole prison break thing wasn’t my idea.”

Saressea was back on her feet having spent the last days since the Kepler’s escape from the nebula in sickbay. Her bones and joints were sore, and the horns on her head had been chipped. Don’t get her started on her tail or the bandages on it.

Ienthei was on her computer screen in her quarters, connected via QEC. She was surprised to see all her belongings were still in place, it was like Foster and the crew expected her to come back.

“That’s not why I’m here,” Ienthei’s projection said.

“Oh? Then what?”

“Effectively immediately, you will be reinstated as the liaison officer of the Johannes Kepler.”

“But … I was convicted,” Saressea said. “Why the sudden change in heart?”

“Records here show that wasn’t the case,” Ienthei said. “There are even eyewitnesses to your tribunal that report you were acquitted.”

“But the prison ferry.”

“Moving on,” he said. “We’d like you, when you have the chance, to place Karklosea under arrest, and deliver her back to Aervounis.”

“The Lord Commander of the Templars? What the fuck? Why?”

“She’s been relieved of her duties and will stand and face her crimes. She took a number of poor steps in her investigation that must be answered for—”

“Oops, my finger slipped,” Saressea said to no one in particular as she ‘accidently’ cut the communication.

Too much wasn’t adding up. Yes, she heard about the death of Marrea, which would explain why Ienthei wanted Karklosea’s head. She also fought with Jainuzei who also ended up dead minutes later. But Karklosea wasn’t in the wrong, and as far as Saressea was concerned none of them would be alive if it wasn’t for Karklosea. She was the one that grabbed that data crystal, and saved Foster’s life, twice.

Saressea stood from her chair at her computer desk and went to crawl into bed. The lights were out, and she didn’t want to risk tripping and falling with her weakened body. When she turned them on, she saw Michei sitting on her couch with his hands folded together, it was like he had been sitting there in the dark the whole time.

“Vindaul carlo sagganuga!” Holy fucking shit!

Michei pointed a finger at the Whisper memory crystal on the coffee table.

“When I was younger,” Michei said. “I was given fake memories of a liaison officer working aboard an Earth battleship. I wanted a transfer and was denied it, couldn’t figure it out, until I got my real memories back, and realized I was a Whisper operative, working undercover.”

“Cool story,” she said sarcastically. “Now what the fuck are you doing here?”

“You probably have a lot of questions,” Michei said.

“Tell me about it,” she said. “Was it you guys that got me off the hook with my tribunal?”

Michei didn’t reply, just pointed at the memory crystal. Saressea went to pick it up, and a flash of blue light briefly lit up her quarters. Michei was gone by the time she held the crystal in her hands and looked ahead to find him.

If she were to guess, Michei teleported back to the Prometheus which was in orbit along with the Kepler and Rezeki’s Rage. A frighteningly cold shiver traveled up her spine. The Whisper was so advanced they could bypass the Kepler’s mind shield.

She stood holding the crystal a while longer, looking at its large design, and the prongs at the end of it that were designed to bore holes into your brain, and transfer fake or backup real memories into a user. It made her wonder if she was a member of the Whisper, and everything in her life had been fake, a cover she didn’t know about. And within the palm of her hands, were her real memories and mission.

If that were the case, what was her mission? Was she there to secretly watch the personnel from the Carl Sagan? Pierce drew the conclusion that the Whisper might have been behind their missing memories. And if she were to remember correctly, Whisper agents with fake memories had hidden triggers that would make them spring to action when an objective was near. Was she going to get triggered if the crew made it to Omega Centaur and retraced their steps? The crystal could reveal that.

Fear made her stuff it in her drawer, and she walked away from it, hoping to forget about it in the morning. Saressea knew her past, she knew her parents, and the memories on that crystal were either fake or someone else’s, not hers.

She told herself that over and over until she fell asleep.

Ienthei’s Apartment

Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

August 8, 2119, 22:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Night had fallen on Veromacon. Ienthei stood on the balcony to his high-end and expensive high-rise suite with his twin sister, Queenea, staring at the big, brightly lit city in the clouds. A city he and his dear sister Queenea’s parents would never be able to see again. And the person responsible for it all? Karklosea, and there was nothing else they could do but bring her in and make her pay.

It was clear Saressea wasn’t going to, and the Whisper refused to share the location of the Kepler. Rumor had it they made it to Riylor, but every ship and base contacted said otherwise. They were either not there, or Whisper worked fast to convince the population in that system to lie.

“Whisper’s actions are treason,” Ienthei said.

Queenea nodded and said. “But at the same time …”

“Whisper works for the Union, and our actions were personal,” Ienthei finished.

Behind the two were the first and last gifts their father Jainuzei gave them. It was a flickering holographic projection he made during the days he had the Kepler under his control. Queenea held the hologram to her face, the light from it made the glitter she covered her shoulder scales with shine.

“What are you thinking, dear sister?” Ienthei said.

“The dragon eggs Foster had,” Queenea said. “What was she thinking of entering our space with them?”

Jainuzei found dragon eggs aboard the Kepler’s labs. The projection showed him placing them in small portable cryo containers and had them shipped to Aervounis on a secret courier ship.

“The Terrans had eggs,” Queenea said.

“The Taxah Hashmedai do,” Ienthei said.

“It’s time Radiance did. Both said factions were the corrupted halves of the UNE and Empire.”

“Radiance will be the righteous faction that will have an army of dragons bred to serve them and fight off whatever new tricks the Draconians or Terran Taxah alliance will have.”

“And if things go really well.”

“We wipe out the Hashmedai and force humans to join the Union?”

“Yes, something that should have happened years ago.”

“What shall we do in the meantime, while we wait for our gifts?”

“I am too tired to think about it, and too tired to go back to Iey’liwea’s place,” Queenea said. “Would it be okay if I stay the night?”

Ienthei nodded. “Of course.”

Queenea went inside, leaving Ienthei alone on the balcony as he returned to gazing at the city.

“Can you fuck me as well before we head to sleep?” Queenea called out to him.

“I suppose I can fit time in for that,” he said after a minute of thought.

“Thank you, dear brother.”

Before Ienthei went to indulge on the dark secret he and his sister shared since they were younger, he went to make an HNI call to the Vorcambreum representative on the council. He didn’t pick up, understandable given the time. Ienthei opted to leave a voice message.

“I will make this quick. Do something stupid like feeding the SOM intel again, and I’ll fucking kill you. Not by my hands, of course, we haven’t forgotten your little secret. But, in case you did, just remember, you’re alive because I and my dear sister allow it, and you will die if we tell people the truth about you.”

XSV Johannes Kepler

Riylor Orbit, Devaguai System

August 9, 2119, 09:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Foster stared blankly when she pulled open the cryo storage drawer in the Kepler’s lab. Doctor Pierce did too when he went to stand next to her. His lips twisted at the sight.

“Pierce …” Foster said. “Where did the dragon eggs go?”

A lengthy check of the security cameras unveiled the truth. Jainuzei broke into the lab when he had the crew captured and forced into cryo. When the Kepler had linked with the Gerard Kuiper briefly, Jainuzei, in a rush, grabbed as many eggs as he could, leaving one behind. The way he frantically moved on the video feed suggested he was on the clock. It would explain why he didn’t bother to come back for the last.

“Well so much for that plan …” Foster said, facepalming. “Any idea where they might have ended up?”

Pierce shrugged. “If he brought them to the nebula battle, then they’re gone, and we don’t have anything to worry about.”

“And if he shipped them off-world?”

Pierce faced the small observation window in the lab looking out into the stars beyond the orbit of Riylor and its parent gas giant. He grimaced. “Then, somewhere out there is a ship with potentially dangerous items in its cryostorage.”

Foster put in a request for Penelope to scour the web and Radiance networks for clues in regard to the missing eggs and whatever cargo ship they ended up on. If they were still in one piece. Foster’s plan had been to nurse them, then return them to the dragons as a peace offering. Now, someone else in Radiance had them and might be starting up a breeding program, like the Terrans attempted to do.

On the bridge, the crew was ready to depart, and the Rezeki’s Rage was ready for a maelstrom lift back to the Empire. Staring at the blackness of space on the view screen made Foster wonder what their next destination would be out there in the cosmos.

“Pierce,” Foster said to him as he took the science officer station. “Did you ever get a chance to go over that star map of Omega Centauri?”

“I did …” he said, and with a push of a button, a three-dimensional map of a tightly packed cluster of stars appeared. “And I don’t like it.”

“Why’s that?”

He waved for her to come closer. When she did, Pierce tapped random stars on the hologram, and they enlarged to show their planetary systems. The data he had wasn’t just a star map; it was a map of hundreds of systems, planets, gas giants, and moons.

“While this is only a small region of Omega Centauri,” Pierce said. “According to this, every system has at least one habitable world.”

Pierce sounded concerned, which was odd. A man like him should be excited to learn the discovery of unexplored habitable planets.

“And that’s bad because?”

“It’s impossible,” Pierce said, flicking through a dozen random systems within the star map hologram. “With so many stars clustered together in that region, there’s going to be increased levels of radiation, not to mention greater chances of planets or entire systems crashing into each other.”

“But according to this,” Foster said, eying the floating hologram. “We traveled here and found these planets …” Another system appeared in the projection, a system that was mapped by the Carl Sagan. “… and we have no memory of it.”

“Or the space-traveling civilizations,” Pierce said, pointing out the location of a space station of alien design and orbiting ships. “Captain, this makes searching for the Draconians homeworld … harder. There are an estimated ten million stars in Omega Centauri, and if this data speaks true for the other regions of it, there’re going to be at least ten million habitable planets. And only one of them is the Draconian homeworld.”

The search for the Draconian homeworld wasn’t going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It was going to be like looking for a needle that fell into the Pacific Ocean.

Pierce continued. “Ten million plus habitable worlds jammed inside that globular is impossible.”

“You also said a habitable planet with life orbiting Sirius was impossible,” Foster said.

“So, Cap,” Chang said, spinning on his chair to face the two. “I take it that’s our next destination after we get the Rezeki’s Rage back to the Empire now that we used the maelstrom without problems?”

“Nope,” Foster said, shaking her head. “We’s going back home, folks.”

Chang’s eyebrows rose, as did Pierce. “Uhh, what?”

“Exploring Omega Centauri is gonna be one hell of a camping trip,” Foster said. “Let’s head back to Amicitia Station 14 and make sure we’s prepared for that trip.” Foster went for the bridge’s exit. “Dom, you got the bridge, I’m gonna do my thing with the vortex key.”

Imperial Palace, West Spire

Imperial Capital, Paryo, Uemaesce System

August 9, 2119, 22:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Empress Kroshka of the Hashmedai Empire sat cross-legged on a large soft chair. Her red-orange glowing eyes were moving about, taking in the contents written on a floating holo screen. It was the only major source of light in the temporary suite Lord Phylarlie was staying in.

Phylarlie had read the article Kroshka was reading twice. It was a report from the recently recovered Rezeki’s Rage, stating that Hashmedai from Taxah had taken control of it and a command ship, pledging their allegiance to the Terran Legion. Maraschino had also confirmed the report and sold data one of their hackers obtained from the Johannes Kepler, regarding it.

Kroshka pushed the holo screen away and eyed Phylarlie who sat across from her in the dark living room.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Phylarlie said. “That was a third party operating behind my back.”

“For months,” Kroshka said. “I was wondering what happened to the Rezeki’s Rage and what became of you when the Terrans were about to launch atomic weapons onto Taxah.”

“I assure you, Empress, I was busy during that crisis,” Phylarlie said, then sipped her wine. “Manzo hated Peiun, and it was stated in that data leak that he felt you and Eensino’s leadership was weak. He tried to replace Peiun as captain during the Draconians first attacks, and you know that. This was him trying to get his way after being denied it for so long.”

“I do hope you are telling the truth, Phylarlie,” Kroshka said, keeping her glowing eyes fixed on her. “Or else.”

“Or else what? You’ll have me killed like your mother killed mine?”

Kroshka pulled out a plasma dagger from her highly decorated handbag, placing it on the table that divided the two. “You know where this dagger came from, correct?” Phylarlie looked at the old blade and remembered an age in her life when she worked as an Imperial assassin. “Do not make me send it back to you while my hand is wrapped around its hilt.”

Phylarlie beamed and sipped her wine. When the Empress left, she clapped her hands twice, summoning her most loyal servant from the darkness who just recently returned to Imperial space.

“Avearan,” Phylarlie said to her. “Thank you for not revealing the truth to anyone on the Rezeki’s Rage.”

“Maybe I should,” Avearan said drily. “I only volunteered to be a servant there to find her.”

“And you will find her.”

Avearan looked away, brushing a single braided hair away from her face. “Lisette is gone, you read the reports.”

“No, she’s not. I’ll get her back or point you in the direction of someone that can.”

“How do you know?”

“Because Kur wasn’t destroyed,” said a rough voice in English. “One of our ships survived the battle and explosion.”

Out from the spare bedroom stepped a decorated human general from Earth. He approached Avearan offering his hand to shake. “You must be Avearan?” he asked.

Phylarlie motioned to him. “Avearan, this is General Derek Irons of the EDF.”

Avearan snorted. “You mean Terran Legion.”

“Another secret I must thank you for keeping a lid on,” Phylarlie said.

“Avearan, I assure you we will find Lisette,” Irons said. “Just keep cooperating with Phylarlie’s wishes. When the new Hashmedai Empire rises, we’ll be sure not to forget you and Lisette.”

“Avearan, do you mind fetching us some wine? The general and I have much to talk about.”

She left to carry out Phylarlie’s request. Phylarlie stood at the window, watching the dark skies blanket the Imperial capital and its high-rise structures with a fresh batch of snow. Irons stood with her.

“We lost a lot of assets in the nebula,” he said.

“As with me,” she said.

“I’m cutting off all funding to the SOM; this operation has been an expensive and colossal failure for both of us.”

“A wise choice,” Phylarlie said. “Is there anything left of them?”

“Not much, and without our funding or their leaders, Whisper will dismantle it very quickly. We’ll have to find another way to topple Radiance, now more than ever.”

“I know … Even if I take the throne here, Radiance will use it as an excuse to break the ceasefire.”

“If we hadn’t taken losses at Taxah and the nebula, that wouldn’t have been that much of a problem … but now.” Irons rubbed his face and then blew warm air into his cold hands. Humans and their inability to handle the cold, it made her smile. “Now we’re going to have to put things on hold until my new plan goes into motion.”

“New plan?” Phylarlie said with intrigue. “Oh, please, do tell.”

“Can you pick up local Earth news stations from here?”

“Sometimes, provided the QEC relay isn’t lagged.”

“Keep your eyes on it in the future.”

“Oh, by the way,” Phylarlie said while she stepped away from the window. “What do we do with Boyd’s body?”

“Keep it,” Irons said, keeping his gaze at the skyline. “We might need it in the future.”

Kur

Leaving the Hallowed Nebula, Interstellar Space

August 10, 2119, 23:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

Life came back to Jainuzei’s face. He coughed violently and felt unwanted fluids within his lungs. After a minute, he coughed it up spitting it out on the floor. It was white. His body had been resting on a rectangular-shaped rest, or perhaps it was a medical bed. Or an experimentation table.

He looked closely at the room he awoke in, recognizing its design, as with the smell, this was Kur. Next to him was Alisha, lying on an adjacent rest, she awoke to cough as well, spitting up the same white substance he did. She embraced him when she got up, her touch made the grim situation and the feeling of defeat easier to accept.

Footsteps echoed in the distance, someone was approaching the two. It was Byikanea.

Byikanea’s prison jumpsuit had been torn to shreds. Her breasts were exposed, and the lower half now resembled a loose-fitting loincloth. She stood ahead of the statue of the woman with wings on her back. From the position Byikanea stood, the statue’s wings had looked like they were hers.

“Welcome back,” Byikanea said, placing her hands on her exposed hips.

“Byikanea …” Jainuzei said to her. “What happened to your accent?”

“Byikanea?” she said. “You must be referring to the woman that once had control of this body.”

Her voice, composure, and the words she said and the way she looked at Alisha and Jainuzei. It sent a frightening tingle across his body, it was a feeling he hadn’t felt in decades.

“You’re not Byikanea anymore, are you?” Alisha asked.

“No, I am not.”

“Byikanea must have been exposed to a conscious engram,” Alisha said to him. “Someone else’s mind overwrote Byikanea’s … someone that’s been dead for eons.”

“Who are you, then?” Jainuzei asked.

The woman in control of Byikanea’s body walked circles around Alisha and Jainuzei, scoping their form, from top to bottom. “I’m the one that prevented this ship’s destruction, I’m the one that brought you two back. I’m the one that will make a request of you two as payment for my mercy.”

Tiamat, he thought. This must be her; the dragons were victorious in the end. “What sort of request?” he snorted.

“The Nephilim you came here with has taken refuge with the dragons,” the woman said. “I will not be able to remain in control of this weak body forever. I need that Nephilim. I need loyal devotees that will serve me and carry out my orders. Bring me the Nephilim, and with it, I can rebuild your daughter’s body, you can have her back the way you last saw her. So, do we have an agreement?”

“Jai,” Alisha said to him. “Let’s at least consider it.”

“Very well,” he said, not like the two had a choice, their weapons and equipment were no place to be found. And whoever it was that was in control of Byikanea’s body most likely was able to use her unique psionic abilities.

“The Draconians plan to use the Nephilim’s body to resurrect Tiamat. So, whatever it is you do, you need to act quickly.”

Jainuzei gave her a confused glare. Tiamat’s memory engram was what he began to suspect had entered Byikanea’s mind. If it isn’t Tiamat … then who? “I presume you are not Tiamat then?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then who are you?”

The woman kneeled on the floor, examining what looked like the charred remains of an android EVE unit. A snap of her fingers made its data crystals and CPU lift from its body via telekinesis. She grabbed the floating crystal and CPU, spun on her heel, facing Alisha and Jainuzei with a devious smirk.

“My name is Ereshkigal.”

Next time on Splintered Galaxy …

A new frontier awaits.

Foster, her crew, and friends venture into the mysterious globular of Omega Centauri, narrowing their search for the dragon’s homeworld. New worlds, alien civilizations, and clues to what became of them and the Abyssal Sword await the crew. But are they prepared to learn the truth on what goes on at the edge of the Milky Way?

Empyrean Stars: Edge of the Splintered Galaxy book 4.

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Also by Eddie R. Hicks

Cyber Witch: 2082

Cyber Witch

Specter Protocol

Digital Coven (June 2020)

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.