Ilox Saga 1: Eris Monroe: More Than Human

by Bruce Adams

  “Very well, I’ll give Doctor Xinhao the order…but I want to know what all of this is about once you’ve concluded your investigation.” There was no formal severing of the comm link, no goodbyes – Eris Monroe was all business. T’sell approved. Now I will wait on the data from the good doctor.

  CHAPTER 18

  The bridge of the Sparta was clean and shining as if it had just been spit polished. Even the overhead conduits and pipes that ran along the top bulkheads were dust free and gleaming. As she passed by her crew seated at various work stations, Eris took note of the chatter. Morale was genuinely high and the crew had lofty expectations. The mission on Planoss was mostly successful, which had boosted spirits tremendously; Eris was just waiting for the engineer’s to give the word. She called out again.

  “Chief Saephan, are you ready for the test?” She saw the huge Orvod as he flickered into view - a pint-sized holographic display in front of her captain’s chair.

  “There are few minor problems, but now is good time, yes?” The Orvod, together with Eli Bowman and Lieutenant Commander Tariv had been working on the stealth generator for seven straight hours. Eli’s ability to interface with machines had helped tremendously in overcoming the obstacles and now they were ready to switch the device on for a full power test.

  “Orders, Captain?” said Kizzara hopefully. The pilot’s station was less than six meters from the captain’s chair that Eris was seated at, and the Evene pilot had swiveled her chair around to face her commanding officer. Kizz had been waiting for this moment with nervous anticipation. Kyle Arneson was seated next to her in the co-pilot’s chair as he handled navigation, double-checking the computers computations as a necessary fail-safe. He had been drinking coffee while they waited the last hour and a half for the engineers to be finished.

  “Engage null field,” Eris ordered calmly, “Let’s see what she can do…” Kizzara repeated the command to the engineers as she touched a small blinking red field on her holographic display; as she did so the field turned green.

  “Stealth field activated. Board is showing green - we’re undetectable…” Four technicians were busy at their workstations to the left of Kizzara and four to the right of Kyle. All of them had turned around to watch the Captain as she gave her orders and cheered as Kizzara gave the good news.

  Kizz leaned forward in her chair grinning like a fiend as her tail swished back and forth happily. “Destination, Captain?”

  Eris stood from her captain’s chair and walked to the operations display that showed the ships course in three dimensional space. The display could be interfaced with verbally or using fingers and hands to drag digital images in and out of view. She knotted her fingers together and rested her hands on the smooth cold metal railing curving away in front of her. The tactical display indicated the current location of the Sparta as a small white triangle in the Alphard system. A blue sphere denoted the planet Planoss as a distant orb and a translucent red line showed the course from the Sparta to the nearest jump point. Numerous graphs to the side of the main display presented additional information on the ship’s systems such as power levels, status of the main weapons, the ships shields and other points of crucial data. “Plot a course to the Ekaph system; we will be investigating the mining outpost on planet NSP362. It’s time we put the stealth field to good use.” Eris finally allowed herself to smile.

  “Course computed and locked in to the navigation computer,” said Kyle. “Nine jumps are needed to reach the Hellespont System in the Mirfak quadrant. From Hellespont, conventional FTL drive will be required - which will take an additional five hours to reach the mining colony located in the Ekaph system.” He took a sip from his coffee mug. “There are no known jump points located in the Ekaph system. There is a hydrogen-helium gas giant there so refueling shouldn’t be a problem.” The information displayed in front of Eris immediately changed, expanding outward to show a jagged course through three dimensional space and the jump points Sparta would traverse to reach the Ekaph system. Both Kyle and Kizzara had swiveled their chairs to face Eris – they waited on her command.

  The Captain looked to her navigator and co-pilot. “Mister Arneson, are there any contacts on ladar?”

  Kyle looked over the readouts for deep radar and ladar. “We’re negative on contacts in near space,” he called out. “Far space is negative as well.”

  “Let’s go,” said Eris forcefully.

  Kizzara turned her pilot’s chair back around as her hands flew over the controls and then took the stick to engage Sparta’s anti-gravity thrusters. The ship began to maneuver. A spacecraft behaved much like an airplane in a normal atmosphere in how it moved through space – primary controls on the control yoke governed the spacecrafts roll and pitch as well as yaw. However, unlike an aircraft, there was little to no gravity influencing its speed and no drag to speak of. Velocity was set by holographic throttle controls at the pilot’s workstation. A secondary manual control was also available in case of primary equipment failure. Sparta sped through normal space at an accelerating rate of velocity and would soon arrive at the first navigational destination…a jump-point of weakened normal space that would allow for the jump engine to engage and create a wormhole for the ship to fall into.

  “Kizz, I’ll be in my quarters. Keep me apprised if anything unusual happens,” said Eris as she rose from the command chair and left the CIC.

  “Aye aye, Captain,” came the silky reply from her pilot.

  Eris took the main elevator down to deck two and walked briskly to her cabin. She crisply returned the salutes of a few crew members that passed her by. With the soft click of her door locking she sat at her desk, crossing her legs.

  “Computer, link me through directly to Dominic Gray,” she called out. She had told her cabin computer to always stay in standby mode, and only be activated with her voice imprint. A few minutes had elapsed before Mr. Gray’s countenance appeared as a small holographic projection. He was wearing an expensive tailored charcoal colored suit with a white necktie.

  “Captain Monroe, you have news?” His demeanor was sanguine.

  “We’ve got the stealth field working on the Sparta. It’s operational right now,” said Eris.

  “Excellent, I knew that Hasephrey would be able to solve the square inverse problem.” Dominic rubbed his chin with his left hand. “How long until Sparta sets course for the Ekaph system and you get underway?”

  “We’re already en route there… the voyage should take nine total jumps – roughly thirty five hours. Assuming the null field generator continues to cloak the ship, we will achieve complete surprise.” Eris explained in an even voice.

  “I’m sending you everything I have on NSP362. By the way, the local miners call the planet Furnace…for obvious reasons I’m sure. A fascinating world, it was only discovered six years ago – a veritable goldmine of valuable metals and minerals.” Dominic Gray smiled. His perfect teeth shone white.

  “What can we expect in terms of Alliance or Vortex forces?” said Eris.

  “My intelligence reports estimate that the Alliance has put at least three brigades…roughly nine thousand men, down on the surface. They’re scouring the planet looking for the Initiator throughout the mines. I believe they are using the miners own digging MEKS and machines to create more tunnels in their explorations. Vortex forces are harder to estimate, but you should expect they have at least a thousand operatives scattered all over the planet.”

  “What about Chol Cuxa? Is he there?” She had set her mouth in a tight line. If he is, I will find him and kill him, she thought silently.

  “He keeps his itinerary and location well masked and hidden. I doubt he would personally oversee an operation of this size. The only way to be sure is to land on the planet and find out. You best put any thoughts of revenge far from your mind, Captain. This mission is paramount. Remember, the Alliance has multiple efforts underway to extract Valdren technology from various planets and systems. This is merely one of their many operations
, though they have dedicated tremendous resources there,” said Mr. Gray. He adjusted his tie with both hands, straightening an imaginary crease.

  “Alright…is there anything else we need to know about Furnace? Just how do you come by this information of yours?” Eris had wanted to know the answer to that question for some time. “A lot of these missions seem to be high risk, without much chance of reward…”

  “Yes…these are calculated risks – but there are most certainly rewards. There is nothing else to be distressed about. As for how I acquire the information I give you…that is frankly none of your concern. Let me just state that the information you have been given is true.” Dominic appeared to move his hand to shut off the comm.

  “Captain Monroe, you are off to a good start. Just remember what is at stake. The reason for all of this… Good luck down on Furnace.” His visage faded as the connection was terminated.

  The reason is to avert an all-out war where the Alliance and their allies destroy the Republic and sweep through the galaxy. We must win…Eris thought as she returned to the corridor outside her cabin. She walked back to deck one using the curved stairs found in the bow section of deck two. Stairs and gangways were found on the Sparta both fore and aft of the ship and were always built in case of power failure. An elevator could be disabled with loss of power, but not stairs. She arrived on the bridge just as the ship arrived at the jump-point in n-space.

  “Jump point in twenty-nine seconds,” said Kyle, sitting beside Kizzara. “Ready to engage jump-drive engine, Captain,” came Kizzara’s familiar voice as Eris walked up to the slightly elevated bridge platform.

  “Engage jump drive,” said Eris as she sat at her command chair. The viewscreen turned purple and then black as the ship generated the tunnel that would take the ship to the Matar system. From there, they would then jump to the Latross system, and so on, until arriving at their final destination. At the juncture that the jump-drive engine was engaged - a Lindstrom tunnel formed that the ship fell into…and it continued the voyage at incredible speeds. Sparta initiated the jump at the predicted time and continued on its way. To the people inside the ship, it was as if nothing had changed. Gravity, light, heat, air - all those things that a person could see or feel didn’t change at all…yet the velocity in real time was a billion times faster than what the ship had been traveling at in normal space.

  The CIC was a hum of steady activity as crew personnel came and went about their duties. Starships that traveled to distant star systems had to maneuver through normal space for minutes or hours until finding the exact weak point in the fabric of space-time, after which the jump-point engine was engaged. At that instant, space was collapsed into an artificially created and stable wormhole that became a shortcut between two distant points throughout the galaxy. However, jump-points always came as pairs - a singular point in one star system coincided with a paired point in a different star system. The distance between the two was never greater than two hundred light years. Traveling through a Lindstrom tunnel jump could take anywhere from thirty minutes to six hours, depending on how far the end-point distance was from the first jump-point and how much power the jump engine had access to. Thus, travel to systems that were extremely distant required multiple jumps and maneuvering through normal space. Total trip time to their destination was estimated at thirty-five hours by the ships computer.

  The vast emptiness of space is generally devoid of anything that could slow the velocity or alter the trajectory of a starship. Occasionally, there are clouds of interstellar dust that could cause a slight deflection in velocity or direction but the changes were so miniscule they would be negligible. Hayles-Zinder shields could absorb a fair amount of kinetic punishment as well and all military starships were equipped with such. Sparta was equipped with shields that were considered standard for a heavy cruiser in Earth’s Republic Fleet. One fairly common navigation hazard came from isolated charged particles and hydrogen atoms. Sometimes these particles formed clouds over a billion kilometers wide called nebulae and any ship impacted by the ionized gases could have their sensors distorted or warped. There were no nebulas indicated through their projected course; if there had been, the computer would have given a warning in blinking red and a verbal recommendation to alter course.

  Three hours after the ship made its first jump of the planned nine Eris found herself in her cabin attending to neglected but routine duties. She was sitting at a small fold out table cleaning her gauss assault rifle when a soft chime announced that someone was at her door. Various parts of the gun were arranged in a pattern on the tabletop, the black hardened durasteel of each part seemed to absorb all light giving each piece a dull finish.

  “Come.” She didn’t look up as her executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Malik, opened her door and walked in. He saluted and stood at attention. Wearing a dark one piece jumpsuit similar to what his team wore, he seemed alert. He noticed that she had her back to a wall and a clear view of the cabin door and the corridor that lay beyond.

  “Captain, I wanted to bend your ear about our upcoming missions. We haven’t really had occasion to discuss these events in any detail,” he said, still standing at attention.

  “At ease…Arnav, come sit.” Eris laid her weapon down on the small rectangular table near her and gestured for him to sit at the chair opposite her.

  “I prefer to stand, ma’am.” His gaze never left her eyes as he relaxed his stance, hands behind his back. Eris was wearing her DSD uniform, all black with blue trim at the collar and sleeves. It fit her like a glove, showing off her curves but his eyes never left her face.

  “Fine, I hope you don’t mind if I keep sitting,” said Eris as she shifted in her chair. “Tell me what’s on your mind, XO. I realize we haven’t had much time to talk.” She had taken the assault rifle apart and picked up the positive conducting rail. She cleaned it with a soft silicone impregnated cloth…moving slowly back and forth using her left hand. The metal was hard under her hands.

  “Captain, I’ve read all the reports that Dominic Gray has supplied. The information we’re getting is detailed, sourced and outstanding…I’m curious as to your intentions concerning me and my team in the upcoming mission.” He sighed – his chest visibly moving as he did so. Eris knew body language and she knew people – human people at least…very well.

  “Spit it out. What’s bothering you?” She met his brown eyes with her blue - neither blinked for at least three seconds. He finally turned his gaze away from hers for a moment. He is not hard to look at, and so different from Kyle, so dark, quiet and commanding…she might have to slake her appetites, she thought.

  “Captain, I’ve read your file as well. I’m sure you get this kind of attention all the time…but you are the most accomplished solider I’ve ever met.” He managed a tight grin. “I know what you’re thinking! I’m not flirting with you…I have nothing but genuine admiration for your abilities and accomplishments.” His brows furrowed. “I mean, you are a beautiful woman, I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t,” he hastily added. “It’s just that you’re the most famous soldier alive in the Republic.”

  His eyes took on the glossy sheen of someone remembering the past. “Eris Monroe, the youngest soldier ever to receive the Republic’s Cross of Honor. What you accomplished at the battle of Sydrus, at the age of eighteen, it’s unbelievable.”

  She stood up and came face to face with Arnav. He smelled musky, like he had just shaved. She leaned in close. “Maybe I want to flirt with you,” she whispered in his ear while putting her right arm over his shoulder and drawing him tight to her body. She noted that he had a definite reaction and she smiled. He shook his head.

  “Captain…” He didn’t pull away from her. The muscles in his neck were taut.

  “Don’t say anything.” She put her lips on his. His mouth opened welcoming her probing tongue. They kissed fiercely. Finally they parted, and Arnav then took her by the shoulders gingerly…tenderly.

  “Is this what you want?”
He asked.

  “Yes.” She had begun to take her clothes off. They soon were scattered on the floor in a heap. He was naked before she was and his clothes mixed with hers on the floor of her cabin. She ordered the lights to minimal, well enough to see but not as harsh as before. They lay down together on her bed. They tangled their legs as he feverishly sucked on her nipples until she cried out, mostly in pleasure but with a hint of pain. His hands were all over her and his mouth never stopped kissing her…on her mouth, her breasts, and her belly. As he went lower, she was already sopping wet. As his mouth found her slit, his tongue delved deeply inside her. A shudder ran though her body and she convulsed in waves of pleasure. She gyrated her hips, grinding into his probing tongue. She forgot about Sparta. She forgot about Kyle. She forgot her mission. The only thing that mattered was his tongue, his hands, his cock.

  He took her after pleasuring her with his mouth for a solid fifteen minutes. His cock was as impressive as his muscles and he fucked her until she screamed, and then he kept at it again. He came three times inside of her – each orgasm was monumental. He gripped her tight, thrusting harder after each one peaked. She had five orgasms, each one building on the last. The pleasure so intense she cried out and tears came from her eyes. They had spent an hour making intense love and she finally was satiated. Arnav lay on her bed, spent as well. She got up and took a quick shower that lasted only five minutes. When she stepped out into the small cabin, she saw that Arnav was fully dressed once again. Only his hair…and the smell of sex in the room gave anything away. She opened her closet, rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a new pair of panties and a bra. Eris slipped into her underwear first then chose a black jumpsuit. Arnav watched her dress silently. She walked to him and drew her nails across the fabric covering his chest.