Spectres (Æthyrium Rising - Spectres Book 1)

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  “The Commonwealth started fighting? Why not stay on the other side of the galaxy?”

  The Captain shook his head, “It wasn’t as simple as all that, the war hadn’t actually been officially declared at that point, it was just very tense, and the Federation were looking for an excuse to go to war. Luckily the UPC had been recreated by that point with the help of some of the first humans, so the old Federation couldn’t simply obliterate the Commonwealth. That’s when the Commonwealth decided to strike first.”

  “Allegedly!” Garrett shouted out accusatorily, “There’s no proof that the Commonwealth actually threw the first punch.”

  “Here we go…” Vyard said wearily.

  I looked between the two excitedly but with a serious brow furrow, which was the best I could manage, “I sense some contention with this issue. Would you mind telling me what Garrett means?”

  “He… It… Ugh, there’s a rather large conspiracy surrounding the incident that started the war. What happened was a Commonwealth transport, roughly the size of a city bus, got into Novasem under the guise of a ‘trade agreement’, and onto one of the core planets in the system, Eyopa. As it turned out, it was barely a transport at all, but rather a bomb that, the moment it touched down in the capital city of Dioytan, blew a crater so large that it swallowed the city and made the planet more or less uninhabitable for half a decade until the terraforming equipment corrected it.”

  “And what is this conspiracy?” I asked when it became clear that he wasn’t going to say anything unless I dragged it out of him.

  “The conspiracy runs on the idea that there was no way a Commonwealth transport could get through Novasem’s security without causing a lot of fuss. It states that the Federation must’ve either let it in so that there could be a war, or that the transport was never sent by the Commonwealth but rather a Federation ship designed to look like one. Either way it’s an absolutely ludicrous accusation. Though the Commonwealth has never taken responsibility, its government has done nothing to dissuade the galaxy of the notion.”

  “Because it’s about the people, Jim, we know that the Commonwealth had nothing to do with it. Why would we choose to go to war with the Federation of ‘Lots-O-Stuff-That-Goes-Boom’? If it weren’t for the UPC there wouldn’t be a single person left in the Commonwealth.”

  “What do you mean?” I cut in before Vyard started a punch-up, “How did the UPC help the Commonwealth?”

  Vyard rubbed his wrinkled forehead and sighed, “They didn’t just save the Commonwealth, they saved us all. The Federation, in the first few weeks of the war, was very quick to use nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. It was heinous, and a very dark time for us. But the Commonwealth weren’t exactly clean, were they? Regardless of whether that first transport was actually Federation or not, your ilk started using it brazenly and without mercy. Autopilot ships that levelled cities, Federation frigates being used to destroy Starports.”

  “But those things weren’t abolished, were they?” Garrett asked, his voice reaching for but not quite hitting anger, “No, it was just your nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that got forbidden.”

  “So who makes up the two sides?” I asked before the argument could escalate any further. Normally I’d never cut people off so often, but I’d never had to either. I thought for a moment that it was perhaps a mistake to have brought these two bitter rivals, but it was making for some alright banter.

  “Pardon?” Vyard asked with surprised, having been clearly building up to some kind of way to berate Garrett or condemn the Commonwealth.

  “What nationalities make up the two sides? Or are you two the only white people in a sea of blue?” The audience laughed raucously and I mentally sighed with relief, I had started to worry they were going to turn on me.

  “Oh… Well, um… Most of the Asiatic countries’ descendants. China, Australia, India, they’re a part of the Commonwealth. There are parts of Japanese culture there, but most of them took an entire system for themselves, it’s basically run on the old samurai and Yakuza tenets. Then America and Africa were split down the middle between the Commonwealth and the Federation. Most of Eastern Europe joined the Federation, which was mostly comprised of Norse and other descendants of the north in the beginning. Other than that it’s scattered racially. We created new worlds, and it stopped being about our ancestors.”

  “Speaking of which, just how far back are these ancestors? A few hundred years, or a few thousand?”

  “More like a 75. The Pathfinders left Old Sol less than a century ago, their journey to Triangulum wasn’t very long at all.”

  My eyes widened to cartoonish proportions, “You can’t be serious! You’ve accomplished so much in terms of society thus far.”

  Vyard chuckled a little and grew slightly red in the cheeks, “Well, it certainly helps that we had quite a head start.”

  I nodded appreciatively and smiled, “It certainly does. And I think that’s where we’ll end today’s show. Thank you very much Field Master Garrett and Captain Vyard, it’s been a pleasure.”

  “It was great to be here.” they said in unison.

  “Join us next week when our topic will be ‘The Mulligan Planet 3’ where we’ll catch up with John Prince and a surprise guest to discuss the progress of the story and their journey. Goodnight everybody!”

  The audience clapped and whooped while I smiled at the guests and waited for Elisha to give me the all clear.

  “Aaand we’re clear. Great job sweetie,” she said as she disappeared the audience and the characters from our plain of existence and walked over to me, “you did really well. How are you feeling?”

  I nodded weakly and rubbed my throbbing head as I got off the chair, “I’m good, I think I’ll just head back to my room though, is that alright?”

  She gave me a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek, “Take all the time you need. Love you.”

  “Love you too.” I said, giving her the best smile I could muster before leaving the set and heading to my room as fast as I could.

  My head felt like it was on fire, the high concept bull crap was starting to get to me. But I just kept chuffing along, pretending all was good in the world.

  I pushed through my dressing room’s door and half-heartedly shut it behind me as I lurched toward my desk where a half full glass of scotch awaited me. I downed it in almost one go, and pulled another bottle out from beneath the table and poured it into my glass.

  I looked into the mirror and saw you standing behind me and started to tear up.

  “Just go,” I said to the overfilled glass in my hand, “just read the book and leave me alone.”

  A Rough Day

  I walked briskly into the hallway and past my parents, my hand firmly pressed against my right side, “Nǐhǎo ma and pa.” I said as respectfully as I could without stopping.

  I couldn’t tell if they’d responded, my ears were still ringing, and I wasn’t in much of a mood to get into a long conversation seeing as my wound refused to stop flowing regardless of how much pressure I put on it.

  It had taken everyone in my squad car by surprise when that húndàn had decided to pull out his archaic revolver.

  A single droplet of red slipped through my fingers and I caught it with my free hand, wouldn’t want to destroy mother’s fine white carpet. I wiped it off on my black uniform pants and started gasping for air for some reason. I needed to get into my room.

  After several failed attempts I finally managed to push the green button and the door gave way into the empty room which I’d abandoned, completely bare bar the small circular kitten mat that sat upon the hard red wood. Normally I’d have taken this opportunity to prepare for my meditation, but my vision had started to double and performing self-surgery was hard enough when there was one body.

  I collapsed to my knees and shifted the mat to reveal the small metal hatch before punching the code into the panel, resulting in a heavy and satisfying thunk. The hatch lifted into the air and revealed t
he fire-fighter style pole. I grabbed it long before the hatch had finished raising and did my best to slide down, leaving a long red streak all the way down the fifteen metre long pole before landing ungracefully on the cushioned floor.

  The walk through my short hallway and into the kitchen of my underground space was filled with blackouts, but I’m sure no more than ten minutes had passed by before I’d gotten the bullet out and had started stitching up the surprisingly clean hole.

  After that I decided it’d be best to sit for a while, take some time to recuperate, maybe even have a cup of tea.

  My father had other plans though, “Kurleida?” he called through the crackling intercom, “Kurleida? Are you alright?”

  I tossed my bloodied uniform and bra into the bin under the sink before flicking the open-comms switch on. I built as much confidence up as possible before opening my mouth, “Yes father, just had a busy day at work, needed a cup of-”

  “You’ve been shot again, haven’t you?”

  A silence rang through the point-to-point wiring for a long while before I responded, “Yes.”

  My father’s sigh crackled and popped through the rusty speaker, “Kurleida, you’re fifteen years old and you can’t stitch a wound to save your life, let alone clean one properly. Point is you’re an adult now. For goodness sake, you’re the sheriff. You have to start asking for help.”

  Another painfully awkward silence buzzed through me, “Can we have dinner down here tonight father?” I could almost hear him smile. We hadn’t eaten together in weeks, our work schedules just refused to coincide. Funny that it only took me getting shot.

  “Of course, but we’re not using that silly pole thing of yours. We’ll be using the shed’s lift. Oh, and we have a surprise for you.”

  I started sifting through the pile of clothes draped across my burgundy couch, “Sounds fantastic father, and… if you wouldn’t mind-”

  “Yes princess, I’ll bring the med-kit.”

  Dinner

  My father patched my wound up easily enough while my mother tsked at regular intervals from the comfort of my couch. Something felt different about her disapproval that time though, there was something else lingering behind the sound other than her standard dislike of my line of work. But we got through the mostly painless process without mentioning it.

  We took to sitting in the middle of my carpet in front of the couch and got straight into dinner, home-made dumplings and sweet pork buns. Maybe this was the surprise, I told myself, something other than steamed rice and vegetables. Father had even brewed up his special blend of tea and was ensuring that neither my mother nor I had an empty cup.

  “This is amazing ma, thank you. Exactly the kind of surprise I needed.” I said with a grateful smile.

  She went to open her mouth, but stopped and simply returned my smile and nodded. It was obvious that she didn’t want to be the one to correct me.

  I looked to my father who kept making significant glances over his bowl at my mother who refused to dignify them with any form of response, “Father?”

  He shot my mother one final look before sighing and putting down his bowl, “This is not the surprise Kurleida.” He said as if it was enough.

  I waited for what felt like a reasonable amount of time before putting down my own bowl, “Then what is it?”

  He pulled something from his back pocket and kept it hidden before handing it to me.

  It was an envelope, “You ship off-world tomorrow.”

  In that moment the envelope suddenly weighed as much as a thousand suns, “Wh-What? Why?” Fear started to swell inside me, the last time I’d gone off-world was to get my sister from Furdin so she could be buried in the family plot, “Is it Shen? Is he alright?”

  My father raised his hand at me calmly, “Your brother is fine Kurleida, he hailed us today after you left for work… Remember the enrolment form we threw away after… Well, I sent it off to The Council a few weeks ago and-”

  “I got accepted!?” I shouted elatedly.

  My father nodded while my mother continued to stare blankly into her food.

  “When do I leave?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow!?”

  “Calm Kuleida. Yes, tomorrow. Oh-five-hundred hours. They’ll come to the house, and if you’re not here they’ll ship off without you.” Each of his measured sentences came out more reluctantly than the last, his eyes shooting up to the digital display that hung over my stove which read ‘07:43’ in a glowing red against the black background.

  I wanted to jump around and scream like a giddy child, but I knew I needed to show at least some remorse, “Are you sure?”

  My mother wiped away a tear before it properly formed and nodded, “It hurt when we found that form, your sister had barely been gone a year and you were already… But you’re an adult and the decision has to be yours.” I went to hug her but she stopped me and struggled out a smile, “No. We haven’t the time for all this. You’d best get some sleep, big day ahead of you.”

  I knew that feeling, that need to switch over to logic and reason in order to block out emotion. It was hard, but it needed to be done. So I did the only reasonable thing in response, I stood, thanked my parents for the beautiful meal, and practically dove into my silk hammock.

  I sometimes think I should’ve finished that meal with my mother.

  Growing Up

  Sleep eluded me that night, I was simply too excited. I tossed and turned for hours, normally I had such control over my mind, but tonight it refused to leave the stars. Every time I closed my eyes images of the glory of battle barraged me, storming trenches and carving my way through Feddie lines while laser bolts tore the ground and sky asunder. These were the naïve thoughts of a girl unfamiliar with the horrors of war, I knew that in my heart, but it was fun to imagine.

  I’d had the same type of thoughts when I first joined the force. I’d expected honour and justice, and instead I’d got corruption, greed and a system based on fear. However, as I rose through the ranks over two years, due in no small part to an investigation that ended with most of the original higher-ups in jail, I was able to turn it around. Turn my dreams into a reality.

  ‘Could I do the same for the military?’ I happily wondered, ‘Not from this bed I can’t.’ With that I was up and about, irrational emotion trumping logic and reason for the first time in my life.

  It took me less than ten minutes to pack my large tactical green duffel with the clothes, which I’d already gotten months ago, that the acceptance form requested, two black track pants, two black turtlenecks, underwear, three bras, two white t-shirts, five pairs black woollen socks, combat boots, slippers, and three of my dad’s old t-shirts. Okay, so maybe the form didn’t request that last one, but I felt it an important addition regardless. I wouldn’t be able to sleep otherwise.

  I also packed my side-arm and badge as sort of mementoes of where I’d come from and where I was going.

  That left a lot of time to ponder my future while trying to squeeze in my meditation ritual, something that I’d normally have done the second I’d gotten home.

  But I couldn’t be still for long enough to get into the head-space. I needed to move. Something needed to happen, anything.

  I must’ve brewed and forgotten at least six pots of tea between listening to smooth jazz from Old Sol and the latest hard rock I could find on my orb-speaker. It was quite uncharacteristic.

  Eventually I surrendered to the energy balled up inside me and decided I wasn’t going to feel comfortable in the house knowing I was going to leave soon anyway. I put my hair up in a bun, grabbed my bag and, after taking one last long look into my house, switched off the light and went to the gutter in front of my parent’s home.

  It was difficult to get comfortable on the old and cracked curb, but I was too excited to care. I was really going to do it. It still didn’t feel real. I turned my eyes up to the stars that were slowly creeping away.

  “No turning back now…” I whi
spered to the stars with my heart full of hope.

  I looked back to the house as a light came on and then returned to the early morning twilight. Dawn was well and truly on its way, but my skin was still crawling with impatient anticipation. So much so that I didn’t hear the front door open and close.

  I didn’t even notice that my father had come outside until he sat down beside me, “Hey princess, couldn’t sleep?” he asked with a smile. He hadn’t even taken the time to shave before coming out, his five o’clock shadow more appropriate than ever as the first beam of orange daylight glowed on his face.

  “No,” I said as I took note of the steaming bowl in his hands, the handle of the fork inside it rolled around the rim as my father shifted it in his hands, “did I wake you?”

  He shook his head, “I couldn’t sleep either, but I saw you out here and thought that you might like something to eat.” he said as he handed me the bowl, “It’s dinner, well, what you had left. I thought we had some more rice but-”

  I took the bowl gratefully, “It’s perfect, thank you.”

  We both enjoyed the silence for a while, me eating the food while father did his planet hunting exercise, counting each one as he’d done when he was serving and figuring out how far he was from home.

  That’s when a thought hit me, “The station!” I shouted in panic before dropping my volume, “Who’s going to take over? Do they know? How ar-”

  My father’s smile silenced me, “Don’t worry about the law here. Your brilliant mother managed to convince the governors, based on her record, both military and criminal, that she could remain mayor and take over as the sheriff without being accused of having a conflict of interest.” My father smiled at his slippers and looked back to the house where ma was still sleeping, “I still don’t know how I got so lucky.”