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 fish-like 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 fish-like 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 exte
nded 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.”
The Siege of Sirius Page 17
