Uprising of the Exiled (Splintered Galaxy Book 2)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Destiny’s finger pulled the trigger of her pistol, ending the TV’s ability to function right. Smoke and sparks erupted from the shattered screen as her face frowned. “All that work for nothing,” she whispered. “Fuck! There’s nothing else to do.”

  “Well…there’s one thing,” Jazz said, turning his head toward Veloshira in the other room. “Our mission.”

  “Bump off the present?” Destiny said, shrugging her shoulders. “One last ‘fuck you’ from the HLF, I’m down for that. The question is how.”

  “Get us to northern Mexico,” Jazz said. “We got a ship chillin’ there in one of the craters.”

  “We’ll have to keep searching for a safe house that hasn’t been hit yet. Each one has at least one psionic strong enough for a planetary site-to-site teleport.”

  “Let’s rest up, then,” he said, while an uneasy look emerged on his face the longer he looked at Veloshira. “We can head out in the morning.”

  Chapter 25

  ►► Location unknown

  ► Sol System

  “You many release her now,” Fiesei said to Whigli. “Don’t think she’ll cause us any trouble.”

  “Wanna make a bet?” Chloe said, still struggling to regain control of her body from Whigli psionic grip.

  With an unsure tone in his voice, Whigli said to Fiesei. “You sure about this?”

  “Yes,” Fiesei replied. “Besides you two still have work to do, yes?” Whigli’s thoughts released Chloe from her aerial shackles, causing her to crash to the cold hard floor. Whigli and Kasidey where nowhere to be seen by the time she was back on her feet. “Have a seat, Vaish.” A cut-eyed glare stopped Fiesei from midspeech. “Very well, Chloe.”

  Chloe sat down in the nearby dust-laden chair Fiesei offered. Her head discretely moved from side to side, analyzing the layout of the warehouse. There were no escape routes, just boxes, and small windows too high up for her to reach. She was at their mercy for the time being. If they planned to kill her, they’d better make it quick.

  “Once we find your memory data crystals, everything will make sense,” Fiesei said. “But I’ll do my best to fill you in the meantime.” His hand dragged a chair over, and he sat in front of her cross-legged. His index finger, pushed up along the underside of his fedora, giving Chloe a clearer view of his face. “You are my partner, and always have been. We were one of the original members of the Whisper, when it was still an intelligence agency for the old Linl republic.”

  A laugh of sarcasm left Chloe’s lips. “You think I’m a Linl?” she said.

  “I know you are one, a sleeper agent.” She laughed louder. “You see, in order to make our cover…believable…we upload our memories to specially designed data crystals, while overwriting everything in our brains with false memories and experiences.”

  Chloe’s memories of growing up in New York City were anything but fabricated as far as she was concerned. Sarah could attest to that. “Listen, buddy, I have a sister. Human parents, I’m from New York.”

  “All fake,” Fiesei cut in with a confident tone of voice.

  “Even my DNA? Linl and human DNA are different despite our physical similarities.”

  “And when was the last time someone scanned your DNA to see if you were human?” She didn’t respond; truth of the matter was she never did. There was no reason to, after all. “Didn’t think so. Besides, even if I were to be wrong about you, you should be thanking me right now.”

  “For what? Taking me hostage?”

  A palm-size holo pad was removed from his inside coat pocket. His hand shook it twice, causing a hologram of a news report to project in between the two. “Look at this. Look at everything that’s going on in the world right now.”

  Chloe glanced at the projection. It depicted recordings of rioting, protests, and people being hauled off by UNE and Radiance military personnel. “All I see is chaos.”

  “Yes!” Fiesei said jubilantly with a finger pointed at Chloe. “Yes, but this chaos, this fear that is growing within the population…will be the salvation of the human race. My handiwork on this world engineered this chaos!” His tone was that of a person who was truly proud of what he did, as if what he did was a great achievement.

  “Those riots? You set this all up?”

  “Not just that, the HLF actions, the president’s aggressive push to join the union. The influence of the Whisper is strong, my friend,” Fiesei said. “It was you who told me this, and it was you who gave me the idea carry out this plan before you went to your sleeper state.”

  “I can’t wait to see that smug look on your face vanish when you learn I’m not your fucking friend,” Chloe said, causing his facial expression to become neutral. “So let me get this straight, the actions of the HLF were your doing? Why?”

  “It’s because of fear; it is the greatest motivator in the galaxy. It was fear of change that made the Hashmedai reject the Radiance gods. It was fear of the gods retaliating that drove Radiance to go to war with the Hashmedai. And it’s that very same fear of their gods that drives Radiance to continue the lives they live. Fear is what caused the Linl republic to join Radiance. Fear that humanity will become like the Hashmedai is fueling Radiance to push for humans to become the sixth member of the union. And it’s the fear of a second invasion of Earth that will drive the human race into the arms of the Radiance Union.”

  “So you’re going to send all of Earth into political chaos?”

  “It’s necessary for the greater good!”

  “Between you and Hannah, I’m not sure who’s crazier. You won’t get anything useful done by doing this!”

  “I am saving humanity. Is that not useful? I am giving the human race the chance, the opportunity the Linl did not get, the chance for an idea to stay alive, the idea that religion and politics have no place together. They need to be separated; people must be given the freedom to choose what to believe. The HLF main operations may be gone, but the idea still lives; what you see before you is that idea spreading throughout the masses. An idea that will live on for hundreds of years, an idea that will make its way into the union when it consumes this world along with the rest of the human race, and an idea that will spark a revolution when the time is right, when my exiled friends from outside the union make their voices heard.”

  Fiesei stood up from his chair, his fist rolled into a ball, and his posture changed to that of a dictator giving an epic speech. His other hand continued to hold on to the small holo pad as it replayed the footage of chaos and unrest across the globe.

  Fiesei continued to speak. “A civil war will start, one that we exiles could win, one that we can convince other members of the union to join. The only reason they won’t join our cause now is because of…fear. Our numbers within the Radiance Union are too low, those who want to see change would rather side with the heretics than our cause. After all, the heretics…the Celestial Order…has far greater numbers.”

  Chloe’s eye shut, her head shook, and her mouth tried to hold back another laugh while he continued his speech. “The Linl never had this chance. Most of our ideas were…weak and quickly erased by the power of the Radiance religious indoctrination. But this? No indoctrination can override this. Even if it could, there are far too many minds committed to this idea. Some will remain, and continue to do what the current exiles cannot do, influence people within the Union to start an uprising. This happens to be the sole and original purpose of the Whisper. Whispering the idea of an uprising to the masses!”

  “Well you just answered my next question; you aren’t with the order, by the sound of it.”

  Fiesei cocked an eyebrow at her statement. “The order has Whisper agents working for them much like the Hashmedai Assassins’ Guild has some of its members working for them. My loyalties, however, lay with my exiled people, people like you.” Whigli, Kasidey, and another unexpected body returned from behind a stack of cargo boxes. “Ah, I do believe you and Michei have met.”

  Just like that, Chloe felt a telekinet
ic hand weight down her body. Whigli’s psionics were at play once again. Michei stood between Kasidey and Whigli. Kasidey held a data pad, while her fingers interacted with its touch screen. Kasidey looked away from the data pad toward Fiesei. “I’m all done here,” she said.

  Fiesei walked over to the three, toward Michei to be exact, with open arms. “Michei, like you…Chloe is a sleeper agent.” Kasidey handed Fiesei a uniquely designed data crystal. “His memories were locked away within this. And like you, his memories were fake. He’s a Whisper sleeper agent.” His gaze returned to Chloe. “And we restored them.”

  Chloe stared at Michei, not knowing what to think or expect. There must have been some truth to this story, Michei wasn’t resisting, or saying anything. His body language was that of someone who wanted to be there, someone who felt an obligation to do something he or she wasn’t going to like.

  “Michei?” Chloe said, wanting to see how he would react to her calling out to him. His head tilted toward her, and he did nothing else.

  Kasidey offered Fiesei second oddly shaped data crystal. “This should be it, her true memories,” Kasidey revealed.

  Fiesei took the crystal from her hands, raised it before his eyes. The sight of it caused him to grin as he stepped over to Chloe. “I assure you, this won’t hurt…that much,” he said and then spun the crystal around. Three long shape prongs pointed outward from the round device mounted to it.

  Chloe wasn’t an expert on this technology, but a sinking feeling in her chest told her those three prongs were to be stabbed into one’s head. How else would it transfer memories into another person’s brain?

  He stopped and then asked Michei, “Did it hurt you?”

  “I have the worst headache in the galaxy right now,” Michei grumbled.

  “Well, I take that back,” Fiesei said to Chloe. “This will hurt, a lot.”

  Michei’s arms rose up and extended forward, launching a heavy telekinetic push across Fiesei’s back. The impact sent him flying into a crate on the other side of the warehouse. Whigli and Kasidey both received a similar trip half a second later, Chloe’s body became free the instant Whigli hit his head.

  “Major!” Michei shouted as he ran toward Chloe.

  “Just like that, you turn sides?”

  “I can explain. We just need some time.” The cybernetics mounted to his exposed chest began to shimmer as his eyes closed to focus. “Time…alone.”

  Teleportation light carried them out of sight.

  … … …

  ►► ESV Winston Churchill, Earth Orbit

  ► Sol System

  Chloe and Michei’s bodies appeared from his teleportation, back aboard the Winston Churchill from what she could tell. She was in someone else’s quarters, by the looks—too many Radiance bedroom ornaments lying around.

  “Power is back, thank the gods,” Michei said, looking up at the overly bright ceiling lights. “Kasidey sabotaged the power grid, took most of the ship’s systems off-line, including the mind shield.”

  “That would explain how Whigli was able to get aboard,” said Chloe. “Fuck me. You had me going. There I was, starting to think that nonsense was true.”

  “It is,” he said, sitting down on his bunk. His tail shifted toward the side of his body and became limp. “I am a Whisper sleeper agent. We became suspicious of several of our members a few years ago. The fiasco on Foicanta confirmed to us that most members of the Whisper had indeed become loyal to the order.”

  Her arms crossed. She was not impressed with the reveal. “So the attack on Foicanta was a setup.”

  “I was then sent here to observe Fiesei. Prior to coming to Earth, he took part in a Whisper operation that may have had assistance from the Celestial Order.”

  “Great…and that shit about me?”

  “I don’t know anything about that. Guess we’ll never know for sure since those memories were never uploaded.”

  She was OK with that answer. Now for the next challenge. “We need to tell the captain what happened.”

  “No, we need to stay low,” he said, stopping her from reaching toward the wall-mounted intercom. “Remember this Deep Throat character proved himself to be a trusted and reliable source of info. He could be sending a message right now to the crew about us.”

  Chloe’s hands slapped across her face as she signed dismally and said, “He played us all.”

  “He fed information to EISS, the UNE and HLF, got all groups to butt heads, and created the problems on your world.”

  Her hands slid down from her face, forcing them into fists augmented with fury. Hashmedai glassing Earth was bad enough, now this Radiance government spook wants to hand it over to the Union as a means of corrupting the union for his own personal vendetta. “This ends now.” She looked directly at Michei with vigor in her green eyes. “Who can we trust now?”

  His hand stroked the side of his left horn, clearly lost in thought. He finally spoke. “My partner in the Morutrin system, we need to contact him and see if there are any leads he can give us.”

  “All right and how do we do that?”

  “I wish I knew…easiest way would be for me to send a telepathic commutation, but I don’t know of any Whisper psionics out there. Rather, I don’t know of any who aren’t on the Celestial Order’s payroll.” He stood up from his bunk and proceeded toward the exit. “Unless.”

  … … …

  Michei left his quarters and jogged down the hallways of the habitat ring. Chloe followed behind while trying to think of an excuse to bellow should someone see her breaking her confinement order. Both of their voices were silent at this point. Michei was in deep thought, while Chloe, knowing that if someone heard and recognized her voice, that would end this stroll through the maze of hallways, leading away from the section that held crew quarters and toward the section that held the brig and armory.

  There was no staff, thankfully; this revelation calmed her breathing slightly as they entered. Only from it to rise again as the two entered the brig, and saw two armed guards standing watch over Ella. The guards pivoted around in shock at Chloe and Michei’s unexpected visit.

  One guard flew back and then upward via a telekinetic push, hitting his head against the top of the ceiling and then falling to the ground knocked out, or so Chloe hoped. The rifle of the second guard rose toward Michei, causing Chloe to initiate a grapple that forced the barrel away, then a takedown that placed the back of the guard to the floor. Her fist from above drilled into his face, and his movement stopped there afterward.

  “This a jailbreak?” Ella asked from her cell bed.

  Michei walked toward Ella’s cell, stopping before the force field that kept her there. “The Rabuabin woman you saw on the train,” he began, “you said she had blue eyes?”

  Ella’s back rose up from her bed, and then she approached Michei to make eye contact. “Yeah and.”

  “And hair styled like a human,” Michei added. Ella nodded. “That’s her. My gods, we are so lucky right now.”

  “That’s who?” Chloe said, stepping over toward the two.

  “Just before I went back into cover and had my memories wiped, my partner spoke to me via a psionic and told me about his daughter Kalis’s new hairstyle. It was based on a human style, and she stood out in crowds because of it.” Michei grinned at Ella who was clearly confused at this point. “So, Dr. Lynn, still interested in heading back?”

  … … …

  ►► Silver Raven, Northern Mexico

  ► Sol System

  Hours later and three safe houses later, Destiny was able to locate an HLF cell, one that had gone into deep cover since the raids began. They were quite happy to see that someone who worked at the main base didn’t get her ass handed to them, especially Uemaria, the Hashmedai psionic assigned to the safe house.

  Their stay at the safe house wasn’t very long. They acquired weapons, supplies, and then a teleport out toward the northern Mexico as per Jazz’s request. The Silver Raven was waiting for its
owners, Jazz, and Veloshira and its two new passengers, Destiny and Eupiar.

  “Home sweet home,” Jazz said with a grunt as the four entered the Silver Raven from its cargo bay entrance.

  Veloshira scurried up the ladder leading to the upper deck to enter the cockpit, while Jazz helped Destiny and Eupiar get situated with their new place of operations. Destiny whistled after two minutes of a long stare down of the interior of the ship. Eupiar silently made her way up, taking a seat on a chair within the lounge, and pulled out her laptop.

  Jazz saw Veloshira was at the controls of the ship in the cockpit as he made his way topside. She was performing a system check surrounded by holographic windows displaying the status of the Silver Raven in the Hashmedai language. She was ready to get this mission started; the glare of death she shot back toward Jazz as he watched her was a good indication of that.

  “We’re gonna to have to act quickly,” he said to Destiny and Eupiar. “Once we take to the skies, it won’t be long before the UNE detects a UFO in their airspace.”

  “Then let’s get ourselves organized,” said Destiny. “Eupiar, can you use these computers?”

  Eupiar looked at the dazzling display of lights and holograms from the cockpit and then stepped in to take a closer look. The holographic screen of her laptop followed behind like a pet. “They look like an upgraded version,” Eupiar finally said after eyeing the hardware and interacting with a few panels. “But yeah, it shouldn’t take too long to figure it out.”

  Destiny entered the cockpit afterward and said, “See if you can hack into UNE’s networks. Find out where the president is and anything else that could give us an edge.”

  Veloshira’s orange eyes fixed in on both Destiny and now Eupiar as if they were imposing on her territory. A frown began to stretch across Veloshira face; a frown Jazz wasn’t fond of seeing. “Easy, Vel, they’re going to help us,” he said in the Hashmedai language.