“I’ll get it,” Lyir offered, and then he shut his eyes to focus. The door unlocked and swung open…with the aid of telekinesis from Lyir’s psionic mind.
His uncle Dollon stood behind the door. Rainwater dripped off him as if he showered with his clothes on. Dollon’s hair was much like Lyir’s father’s, cut short and white. His skin was a darker-cream color, and he wore a black suit and pants that covered his psionic cybernetics, which would probably explain why he didn’t just teleport in as usual.
He stepped inside as Lyir’s mind shut and locked the door behind Dollon. Then he walked toward the fridge, rather than the dinner that Lyir was expecting. “Sorry I’m late,” Dollon said, removing a bottle of vodka from the fridge. “Had some things to take care of.”
Lyir’s mother arose from her seat to confront Dollon, acting like she was going to wash dishes, but Lyir knew better. Washing dishes is the very last she does at the end of long day; it was too early for her to be doing that. Lyir slowly picked at his food and kept his ear toward the kitchen to listen in.
“Are those ‘things’ the same ones that took your brother’s life?” she asked in lower tone of voice.
“Those things allowed me to get you some more food,” Dollon said. “And pay your bills.” His hands poured a small glass of vodka to drink and handed her an Earth-based credit chit.
“Our bills are all up to date.”
“Then you can use this credit chit to replace that awful TV,” he said, then downed his drink. “Maybe get those Holo TVs the rest of the world has upgraded to.” Lyir’s mother remained silent as Dollon snorted and then took a seat at the dinner table. “So, Lyir, what are you learning in school this month?”
“Romeo and Juliet, written by a human named William Shakespeare.” Lyir said.
“Is that so.” Lyir could sense that Dollon didn’t care. “Hey, Eupiar how’s your schooling coming along?”
“I dropped out yesterday,” she casually replied.
“You what?” Pernoy snapped her attention to Eupiar.
“Really.” Dollon said, this time with a certain level of interest in his voice. “So what you’re saying is you’re free to help me out more often?”
Pernoy shouted toward Eupiar who never once removed her eyes away from her screen. “Eupiar! Why…couldn’t you have at least told me?”
“School is boring.”
“You were getting good marks!”
“I’m part Hashmedai. They’ll never give me the marks I worked hard for.” Finally, her slim teenage body looked away from her screen. “And yes, Dollon, I could help.”
… … …
►► HLF Headquarters, Northern Canada
► Sol System
Hannah Grey’s slender body rested on the soft and comforting feel of her queen-size bed. She wore a black gothic nightgown. Then again, everything she had in her wardrobe had some kind of Loltia gothic look to it. Her gown perfectly blended in with her long raven black hair and the black satin bedsheets, pillows, and blankets. She had spread her arms out from side to side, and her fingers were pointed upward to the ceiling.
And then her lips slowly began to move.
Another one of her clairvoyant chants was incoming. Tetsuya Ishihara was ready to take notes as per Hannah’s direct orders, on the rare chance she forgot what was said.
“Forty trillion kilometers one way, forty trillion the next, eighty trillion in total. Right ascension for A, fourteen hours, thirty-nine minutes, thirty-six point four, nine, four zero, zero seconds. Right ascension for B, fourteen hours, thirty-nine minutes thirty-five point zero, six, three, one, one seconds.” Hannah took a breath, and then continued, with no emotion in her voice. “Into the Explorer they went, on the Seeker they returned. Five travelers: the first one, the second, the lover, the jealous one, and…an unknown.” Hannah paused as she tried to process the identity of the unknown. “Who is she? Why is she there? I don’t recall her existence. Life or death? She is an unknown.” Her body dashed upward to sit up, with her eyes wide open; she took a long deep breath and then said, “They…have arrived.”
“Who has?” Tetsuya asked.
Hannah’s head little by little tilted toward Tetsuya. With a smile on her face, she revealed their names: “Chloe, Sarah, Chris, Gavin and the unknown.” Her face twitched somewhat as she brushed her hand down her neck, slowing reaching down between her breasts, then her belly. The unknown needed a name, any name. Ah yes, that name will do for now. “Ella, yes, her name is Ella.”
“Your orders?” Tetsuya asked, shutting off the recording feature of his holo pad.
Hannah’s smile transformed into a malicious grin. “Kill them all!” she shouted and then returned to her resting position. While examining her waving hands, she added, “Chloe and Gavin must survive, however.”
Chapter 2
►► Abyssal Seeker, En Route to Earth
► Sol System
The eight-year, ten-month journey from Lejorania Sanctum in Alpha Centauri to Earth was entering its final stretch. The Abyssal Seeker was a Radiance Union cruiser built solely for war; as such, while the exterior of the ship was similar to that of the Abyssal Explorer, it contained no science and research stations or any scholars. Like all Radiance ships, the main bridge was the only area of the ship to have gravity, thanks to the hard work of its bridge psionic crew who generated gravity below the floors. The rest of the ship was subject to the effects of zero gravity, and if it weren’t for the aid of cryostasis, its human passengers probably wouldn’t have lasted long, as their bones would have suffered from the negative effects of being weightless too long.
Another four hours remained on this journey, and another four hours of planet gazing for Chloe as she floated before one of the few windows aboard the Abyssal Seeker, wearing her black EDF jumpsuit with her name and rank printed on it. A hulking blue orb appeared off into the distance of the void she was looking at—Neptune. Almost there, she thought. Her heart was full of anticipation upon being revived from cryo. She heard of the numerous changes to life on Earth since the Hashmedai invasion and the Radiance uplift of humanity.
Her last memoires of Earth—well, when it wasn’t on fire and being glassed—was the unpredictable lifestyle of 2018, and everything that came with it, such as being prepared to protect America from terrorist threats overseas as the marine that she was. Then Radiance showed up, proving to humans that they weren’t alone and that the Hashmedai Empire wanted a fight with humanity. A fight that ultimately started and cost the lives of billions worldwide, a fight the Hashmedai lost thanks to the aid of one well-timed nuclear bomb.
There were mixed feelings about the return to Earth. On one hand, the EDF was set up as a means of early warning detection and possibly interception of alien threats to Earth, namely the Hashmedai Empire. Of course, the limited number of humans who came to Alpha Centauri meant that the bodies within the EDF would also be limited. Keeping Chloe and her team at Alpha Centauri, while transferring new recruits from Earth back to Alpha Centauri, would have been a better choice in her eyes.
However, the higher-ups within the United Nations of Earth (UNE) insists on having the EDF’s presence not just in Alpha Centauri, but stationed at the edge of the solar system as well. And so the call was made for training to start at Earth, then recruits transferred to Alpha Centauri, Pluto, Uranus and six proposed military and science platforms within the Oort cloud. Worst of all, the human refugees weren’t invited to return to Earth. No one quite understands why, just that a few higher ups with the Radiance Union insisted on them staying until the newly built Earth ships travel to Alpha Centauri to pick them up. A move that had Chloe and other Radiance Union members scratch their heads.
“Quite the view, isn’t it?” It was Gavin Chambers, former USAF fighter pilot. Chloe’s thoughts must have masked the fact that he entered this white and brightly lit hallway.
Her face shifted away from the view into space and on to him, she was surprised to see how well he had recover
ed from his injuries. “How you holding up, Chambers? I figured you’d still be in the infirmary with that head wound,” she said while brushing her brown weightless hair away from her face.
“I stayed out of cryo for the first year of our trip,” he said, floating toward the window, gazing into the sea of stars. “Didn’t make sense to be revived only to have to get patched up when we had that huge gap of travel time.”
“I saw a ship fly by earlier, an Earth one,” Chloe said as she returned to her observation. “Probably one of those construction transports laying the groundwork for the Oort cloud defense platform.”
“We’re going to be so fucking out of place when we get there,” said Gavin.
Chloe grinned, not knowing what to say. He was right, after all; a solid twenty-two years had passed since they unexpectedly left Earth. Out of all those years, only five of them were spent out of cryo and so they only aged five years…well six for Gavin. Space travel in some strange way was also a form of time travel.
As the hours passed by, Chloe and Gavin were joined by Chris Boyd, former Navy SEAL; Ella Lynn, newly recruited doctor and xenobiologist for the EDF; and Chloe’s sister Sarah, former US marine like Chloe. All five of them floated in front of the large window looking at the celestial sights before them. The asteroid belt had dozens of mining platforms, extracting precious ores. Small space stations were built just outside the asteroid belt, which severed as a base of all mining operations. They were large cylinder objects with four outer rings surrounding each one, rotating constantly to create artificial gravity. The rings were held on to the central cylinder section by a series of large elevator shafts. A large cargo ship was docked at the space station, waiting for its stores to be filled with the mined goods before being deployed, most likely to Earth or the colony on Mars.
Ship activity became an increasingly common sight, as the Abyssal Seeker got closer to Earth. Dozens of transport ships flew toward Earth from Mars or vice versa. Some were clearly Radiance transports, while others were Earth military, which were literally the same design as Radiance transports, just a different paint job, white with sky-blue strips along the lower end of the hull. The UNE flag was stamped on it. The flag was similar to the old UN flag; rather than an imagine of Earth surrounded by olive branches, it was eight rings, representing the orbital paths of the planets in the solar system. The third ring, being Earth’s path, had a miniature version of Earth from the old UN flag on it. Larger transport ships were also seen. Judging by their size, Chloe figured these were passenger ships—similar to passenger planes one would fly from one airport to another “back in the day.”
The Abyssal Seeker’s course led them to an orbit around the equator of Earth. Several Earth battleships were seen there next to a shipyard constructing a new Earth-based ship, as well as several other transport ships carrying crew back and forth from Earth and the ships around. The Earth battleships all had a similar design, like the many space stations, there was a central cylinder-shaped section. Up front, at the nose end of the ship, was the main bridge, which looked somewhat similar to the front of the old NASA space shuttles, just a lot wider. At the aft end of the ship were four large elevator shafts that extended outward to connect to a massive ring. As with the space stations seen earlier, the ring spun around to create gravity. The middle of the central cylinder had various weapons mounted to it, guns and missile launchers, by the looks. The underside of the ship held a rectangular-shaped hanger bay.
Five Radiance ships appeared in orbit over the horizon as sunlight reflected off the shiny hulls of those ships. Gavin’s eyes lit up at the sight of one certain Earth-built ship. His finger tapped on the window repeatedly; his mouth opened wide in shock.
“Look at that!” Gavin shouted, pointing at an Earth battleship. “Can you read the name of that ship?”
Chloe’s gaze zeroed in at the ship in question as they flew by it. Her eyes squinted to make out the name of the ship. ESV Enterprise.
… … …
►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit
► Sol System
A transport ship departed from the Abyssal Seeker as it sat in Earth’s orbit. Flying past construction and orbital defense platforms, it approached its destination, the newest addition to Earth’s battleship fleet, the ESV Winston Churchill. The Radiance transport’s engines powered down as it spun to latch itself to the airlock, allowing its passengers, Chloe, Sarah, Chris, Gavin, and Ella, to depart with their duffel bags in hand to their new assignment.
The airlock doors swung open, revealing to Chloe her first view of the interior of a fully functioning Earth starship. Radiance clearly had some influence over the design of the ship; the layout of the airlock was the same as the ones found aboard Radiance ships. The Radiance words were replaced with English and Chinese. They floated through into the ship, instantly felt a wave of cooler air, and detected slightly lowered light levels. It was standard for humans, but chilly and dark to most Radiance crew members, namely those of the Aryile and Javnis races.
Two humans wearing UNE Navy officer uniforms greeted the group. Each wore a dark-blue jumpsuit with the flag of the UNE on the shoulders, name tag on the left breast, and rank insignia above it. A black belt separated the top from the pants, and on the belt were several slots in which one could attach different trinkets and a holster for a sidearm. On the back of the uniform, just below the neck, was the flag of the country of origin for the wearer.
Chloe raised her hand to salute the two officers, and her team behind followed suit. “Permission to come aboard, sir.”
“Granted,” one of them said—with an English accent, at that. He returned the salute. Chloe saw his name printed on his uniform, “Xavier,” and two gold stars above it as his rank insignia with the United Kingdom flag on his back. He had a mature appearance, gray hair, a thin mustache, and a stern look across his aging face. At one point, Chloe thought he was shorter than she, until she looked down. Despite the lack of gravity, he and the woman next to him stood firmly on the floor, locked in place by magnetic boots, Chloe merely floated slightly above him. All those years in space, and Radiance never thought to invent those?
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet the heroes of Earth,” the female officer said. She had short black hair and dark olive skin. Chloe figured she was probably around the same age as Sarah. Her name tag listed her has “Benally,” with a single gold star as her rank, and the flag of the United States on her back.
“Indeed,” Xavier said. “I am Captain Martin Xavier, commanding officer of the Earth Space Vessel Winston Churchill.” He extended his hand toward Benally. “This is my executive officer, Commander Cassandra Benally.”
Chloe began introducing her team, “I’m Major Chloe Vaughan, Sergeant Sarah Vaughan, Sergeant Chris Boyd, and Dr. Ella Lynn,” she pointed at everyone respectively. “And finally, Major Gavin Chambers, who will be heading the EDF fighter pilot division once we get it off the ground.”
“Commander Benally will show you to your quarters,” said Xavier. “After that take the time to familiarize yourself with the layout of the ship. She’s a big one.”
Benally’s hand extended toward the corridor in a welcoming fashion. “Right this way,” she said.
As they traversed down the weightless corridor, Chloe saw various crew members tinkering with cables and pipes along the walls. The mechanics wore bright orange coveralls and held strange tools and scanning devices she had never seen. The soft slapping sound of Benally’s magnetic boot footsteps prevented her from floating away as she guided the five to the end of the corridor. A glass sliding door was directly ahead, leading into the engine room and to the wall beside it with an elevator. The doors opened as Benally fingered the panel next to it. She then reached down to interact with a switch on her boots. Suddenly she began to free float and entered the elevator along with everyone else. Before the elevator to departed, she spun her body around so that the black floor that was once below her was now above her head.
&nb
sp; “You’ll want to flip around like I did,” Benally explained and pointed to the black floor. “Once this elevator hits the centrifugal gravity, the floor will become the ceiling, and the ceiling will become the floor. Rule of thumb, make sure the black title is above your head, while the white one is below you.”
Everyone complied, tossing their floating bodies upside down, before Benally activated the lift. The elevator hummed as it launched up through the shaft, leaving the central section behind as the rotating ring got closer. Sunlight began to trickle through the elevator’s tinted windows and transparent shaft. Chloe saw a breathtaking view of Africa from the window next to her. Areas on the continent appeared as large dark circles, most likely glass craters left behind from the Hashmedai invasion.
The elevator arrived, and almost instantly, everyone fell to the white titles below as the doors slid open. Gravity—or at least something like it—held everyone in place to walk out and onto the next area of the ship. “This is the habitat ring,” Benally explained. “Here you’ll find crew quarters, secondary infirmary, rec rooms, gym, armory, and mess hall.”
… … …
An hour had passed since Chloe and her team came aboard. The quarters were extremely cramped and featured a single bunk bend, holo projector, computer terminal, and two storage trunks next to the bed. A small sliding door to the side led out to the main hall and other quarters. Firmly holding a holo pad in her hands, Chloe slowly learned how to use the device and access the Internet with it. A holographic browser window hovered above the pad, and Chloe used her hands to interact with the links and content before her.
Most of the articles she read and videos she watched were old news reports, dealing with the aftermath of the invasion. Radiance had come to Earth to defeat the remaining Hashmedai forces unharmed by the nuke she and her team set off. Humanity was uplifted afterward. New ships and major advances in technology came as Radiance shared knowledge with the people of Earth. The nations of Earth had united to form a single human-run power, the UNE. Much of this she knew thanks to the Radiance psionics in Lejorania’s sanctum telepathically communicating with the Radiance psionics deployed to help Earth. Hell, it was how she was able to get promoted and have the EDF become a recognized force, by playing a game of telephone with psionics, relaying a message from her newly appointed superiors at Earth and vice versa.
Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2) Page 3
