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 face-palmed. “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 non-human 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.
The Siege of Sirius Page 18
