Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 (Splintered Galaxy Book 3)

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Whigli stood behind Kasidey as she conducted a deep scan of each piece of the melted metal war torn derelict ships. One of them caught his attention so he pointed toward it as it came into view from their windshield. “Those look like Radiance ships, or what’s left of them,” said Whigli. He then pointed to another wreckage of an unknown design. “Not sure what that is or rather was.”

  Kasidey’s scan alerted her to the detection of something, something that made her smile. He couldn’t see exactly what it was as he looked over her shoulder and down towards the holo screen. The only thing he could put together was that whatever had fascinated her, existed deep within the hulk a badly ripped apart ship.

  “Feeling adventurous?” Kasidey said with a smile toward Whigli.

  “Not really.”

  “I think it’s cute you think you have an option in the matter.” She stood and started to move toward the exit of the cockpit. “We need to board that ship, keep me company.” Her body once again began to liquefy and her human appearance changed into that of Chidorli.

  They both teleported outside of the transport and engaged in a spacewalk without space suits, they didn’t need it. A psionic barrier kept all the air, pressure, and temperatures they needed to survive around them.

  Telekinesis allowed their bodies to carefully fly through the debris field, and from time to time hurl a chunk of metal away from their path. She led the way toward the ship in question, Whigli followed while observing closer what they floated into.

  It was a graveyard.

  Mutilated bodies orbited many of the ships that were broken up into pieces. Most of them didn’t have a space suit on, suggesting they were suddenly blown out into space when their ship met its end. Many of the victims were of the Radiance navy, judging by the grey jumpsuits, though some of the bodies wore no uniform at all but lab coats and hazard suits instead. Someone must have attacked a ship transporting scientists and it became quite clear which of these ships were the ones holding the scientists, the ship that had Kasidey’s attention.

  They ventured inside the ruined ship, a flashlight lit the way, being telekinetically controlled by Kasidey. As expected, Whigli didn’t see many bodies inside the ship, they were all outside. The layout of the ship’s interior was Radiance in design, though there were several notable differences like the lack of hand bars on the sides of the walls to aid in movement when in zero-g.

  The deeper sections of the ship had bodies floating about, many of them charred like the floors and walls around them. They had to force open some doors with their minds, while others had to be all out destroyed. The fires that burned in this section of the ship were so intense at the time that the doors had melted shut.

  “Here we go,” she said as she floated in some kind of command and control section of the ship.

  Her flashlight shone on a spiraling body wearing armor, human made at that. It was a protect suit, just like the ones EDF use. There were several bodies, human bodies, in the room all of them with protect suits. Kasidey used her psionics to round them all up into one central location.

  “That it?” Whigli asked.

  “No,” she said. “There’s one last thing.”

  She rummaged through damaged computers, the bodies of the humans then later the bodies of Radiance personnel. Floating cabinets were searched then later the floors and ceilings as she beamed her flashlight on those areas. She found what she was looking for at last, a data pad with a small data crystal still inside of it.

  “Now, we are good,” Kasidey said, securing the pad to orbit around her.

  “All this way? For human combat armor and a data pad.”

  Kasidey said nothing more as she approached the pile of corpses she rounded up. She entered the familiar trance like state and began the process of teleporting back to the transport with her newfound loot with her.

  The process was a puzzling one to Whigli. Yes, she took on the form of Chidorli who was a psionic, but she lacked any of the cybernetic augmentation that would have allowed her to tap into the level of power she clearly was able to wield. Psionics without upgrades were typically limited to telekinesis, telepathy and ESP at times, everything else required implants.

  Whigli appeared back aboard the transport seconds after Kasidey’s teleport. Kasidey was found back in the cockpit, her form returned to her human form as she regained control of the ship and flew it toward its next destination, wherever that was. Her hands held onto a red gem whose light began to glow immensely the longer she gripped onto it. A wormhole tore open the fabric of space in front them, forming the gateway toward their next stop in the galaxy.

  … … …

  ►► Muro, Taxah

  ► Uelcovis system

  Nearly two weeks had passed since Zhinbryo and Onatiasha arrived at Taxah to provide extra protection to their source of intel on the Celestial Order, Lord Hasiv. Two weeks of waking up and meandering around the manor while Hasiv attended to his duties, whatever those were. For a person who was supposed to oversee the colony, Onatiasha never once saw him do anything of importance. No meetings with subordinates, no planning of future projects, no political stuff, nothing. The whole manor as far as she was concerned was one big pleasure palace.

  During her patrols, she heard servants and the like gossip about who was copulating with whom. Some laborers after three hours of work complained it was too much and wanted several days off to recover. Three hours? None of these people would last long on any other Hashmedai world.

  Both Onatiasha and Zhinbryo were invited to a gathering in one of Hasiv’s larger dining halls. Typically, at the end of a day the staff would get together, eat the finest meals on the world and drink until they couldn’t stand up straight, and in some cases, regurgitate the meals they just finished consuming. Onatiasha and Zhinbryo had little to no interest in such events. Too risky. Should the order make a strike, then what? They fight while they drunkenly held onto their weapons?

  Nevertheless, the staff insisted that every day they attended the get together, ignoring Onatiasha’s resounding ‘no’ as her response every time she was asked. Tonight, was the exception. “If I say yes will you refrain from asking me again?” she said in reply to the request this time around.

  Everyone sat in front of a wide gold-plated oval table. Every attendee held large goblets of wine, while shimmering silver plates holding an assortment of meats kept everyone’s bellies full. Soft music played in the back, created by a duet of two young topless males wearing loincloths and playing wind instruments. Behind them, a trio of exotically clad female dancers, their bodies moving in sync with the music.

  The music was the only sound that kept Onatiasha sane. The other sounds in the room were nothing more than load drunken roars from the men, while the women followed up with drunken howls as a means of competing to see who could be the most annoying.

  I should have said no... Onatiasha thought as she pushed her goblet away, still full to the brim after being here for an hour.

  A firm elbow rammed Onatiasha on her side. “Drink more my friend!” It was Sev, one of the male servants, the very same one she locked her eyes onto when arriving.

  “Is this all the nobles here do?” she asked him.

  “Drink and fuck, it is the Taxah way,” he said. “Happiness is good for the body and mind, there’s a reason stress levels are the lowest here compared to the rest of the empire.”

  And quite possibly the laziest people. “Where I come from happiness comes from working hard.”

  “Now, now, don’t fuss over lust!” He then pointed toward Zhinbryo, who was smiling and chatting with Kezea. “Look at your friend Zhinbryo, at least he’s enjoying himself.”

  Onatiasha’s mouth twisted the longer she looked at Zhinbryo. She had no problem with him fraternizing with women, in fact it might just have improved his mood for once with all the years of built up sexual frustration he had inside of him. But it was not the time and she had told him before they stepped in here they were just going to be
here as a formality, nothing more, and that included not having a good time.

  Now they’d continue to ask them to come, rather they’d pester him. They were a team. She needed him to be ready for anything. “I should go,” she said.

  “Wait,” Sev said, holding onto her arm. “At least finish your drink.”

  Onatiasha’s eyed the untouched goblet and its dark pink contents. She brought the drink closer to her nose and took in its sweet and fresh aroma. Paryo red wine, 1981 vintage. That was a good year.

  Very well, just one drink...

  … … …

  Hours after the party died down Zhinbryo returned to his room with Kezea. They both wobbled from side to side as their heavy drinking hampered their ability to walk correctly. The second the doors slid shut, Kezea yanked her red blouse off and attacked Zhinbryo’s lips with her tongue. Zhinbryo’s pants hit the floor shortly afterwards as he firmly held onto her hips and his tongue glided down her neck and down toward her breasts.

  “What you say your name was?” he asked as the last of his clothing was cast away, unveiling his muscular, war-torn body.

  “Don’t you remember me from your arrival?”

  “Yeah, er um.”

  Zhinbryo’s mind wasn’t its regular calm self. He suspected it was all the booze, or perhaps the fact that this was the first time he’d been this close to a female in he couldn’t remember how long. It was years, and that was not counting all the years spent in cryostasis or space bridge limbo.

  Their frisky hands and tongues resumed their previous actions, exploring each other’s bodies as they finally fell onto the bed. Kezea had nothing on except her skirt. Not that he cared. Everything he was looking for was under that skirt, prominently displayed when he spread her legs apart.

  “Man of few words?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  His head lowered while he put his tongue to use yet again, Kezea’s head flicked backwards while both of her hands stroked through Zhinbryo’s short hair. He felt her hands start to twitch after a minute then later her claws deploy, fueled by the ecstasy he was providing her.

  He lifted his face and tongue away from her. Looking down he saw that she was breathing heavily, not moving, not saying a word, and not responding to his presence. She was paralyzed in pure mind-blowing pleasure, and taking her time recovering from the intense rush. It was now his turn.

  He moved his hips, resulting in her experiencing another wave of pleasure. He felt his sides rip slightly while her claws dug into the flesh, making her territory. Never in his whole life had he had a woman lubricate him in this manner as he kept on pumping. His vision started to blur and his mind slowly became clouded.

  He passed out.

  … … …

  Onatiasha’s one drink set off a chain reaction of events she couldn’t have foreseen. She and Sev’s naked bodies rolled, twisted on the bed in her room. For a servant he was quite brawny, however the soldier in her established dominance in the end as she placed him on his back, made his chest glisten in the aftermath of her mouth and tongue gliding across it. Her hand later reached back to see if he was hard enough for what her intoxicated body wanted next.

  He was. She guided him in and moved her hips up and down while continuing to pin his shoulders to the bed with her claw deployed hands. Her vision slowly became obstructed. At first, she thought it was her long purple hair that was now untied and partly in her face. No, something else was at work, something she would have to worry about later. Right now, she needed focus on the intense growing pleasure between her thighs, and accept the fact that she wasn’t any different from Zhinbryo. A hardworking soldier with built up sexual frustration.

  Her claws dug into Sev’s skin as the first of four climaxes hit. She kept moving up and down relentlessly, giving him no time to catch his breath, no time to recover from his first release. She felt his soft hands hold onto her waist, bracing for the moment when her Hashmedai womanly body lost control and tore his flesh with her claws, scratching the top of his chest. She couldn’t help but wonder what Jazz’s reaction was when they got drunk and entered a fierce bout like this. She still to this day never could remember the details, just that she was just as wet now as she was back on that human made couch.

  They wrestled for a bit in a playful manner, she experienced another release during the one moment he managed to get on top. His back paid the price later thanks to her still deployed claws. The result was her on top once again, just much closer to his body. Her tongue seconds away from his chest, while she felt the warmness of his second release. Or was it third? She couldn’t figure it out.

  She passed out moments later.

  Onatiasha’s head was spinning in ways she never thought possible the next day. To her surprise, she awoke on the floor next to her bed, still naked from the night before, not that she had much memory of it. Drinks, Sev and his firm cock, that was about it. An hour later and she was still on the floor, it was taking much longer for her body to recover than she remembered the last time she had too much to drink. And as she remembered she ended up bedding Jazz. No, this was more than just a hangover, a strong warrior woman like her shouldn’t be struggling this much.

  Another hour passed, Onatiasha was finally able to muster enough strength to get her uniform back on and limp over to the intercom next to her bed. Zhinbryo was no doubt looking for her assuming he wasn’t experiencing the same problem.

  “Zhinbryo,” she mumbled into the intercom. “Please tell me you didn’t drink too much like I did.” There was no reply on his end. “Zhinbryo are you there?”

  Just one drink, great idea and you wonder why you got demoted?

  The doors to her room slid open, and the disturbing sight of butchered bodies in the halls put her senses on high alert, the best her weakened mind would allow. That goblet had much more than just wine in, no doubt about it now. She quickly returned to her room, this time taking the time to arm herself with her combat armor, sword, and shield. She hoped her body was up to the task of a fight should she encounter one. Whatever was in that drink was still partly affecting her.

  She moved past streams of blood and more bodies from the manor staff as she made her way through the halls to Zhinbryo’s room, hoping he hadn’t joined the unmoving dead around her. She entered his room through unlocked doors, not something he would do overnight that was for sure. On the floor, was a familiar sight, a naked Zhinbryo struggling to get up. She moved toward him quickly, offering him his uniform and helping him up to his feet. Out of the corner of her eye, through his window, she saw the shadow of a transport ship land outside. In the distance, she saw several groups of riflemen, warriors, and guardians exit two transport ships. Judging by their uniforms they were part of the Taxah militia, and by the green hue radiating from their weapons they were ready for a raid on the manor.

  … … …

  ►► Shade Flare, Uranus orbit

  ► Sol system

  The Hashmedai carrier, Shade Flare was getting a lot of praise after it single handily took control of the Uranus sector, its assets and pushed out the human ship that came to interfere with their plans. Hours after the battle, additional Hashmedai ships from the fleet passed through the wormhole, setting up shop around Uranus. Smaller ships surrounded the helium-3 mining platforms to prevent the humans there from escaping as they figured out what to do with them. Slave labor? Or execution? I’ll let the empress figure that one out, Yominv thought as his transport docked with the Shade Flare.

  Yominv floated away from his transport as the doors opened, revealing the transport docking bay and the three brothers who successfully returned alive from the special task he gave them. Iekia Gorar and Tenery.

  “And?” Yominv asked as he floated toward them.

  “It is done, Admiral,” Iekia said.

  “Splendid!” Yominv said with happiness in his tone of voice. “Return to the Scathing Hand, at once, I have a greater task for you three.”

  The three brothers nodded and pro
ceeded to move to a transport preparing to transfer crew members to the Scathing Hand. Yominv continued to tour the vessel giving his praise and congratulations to the crew as he passed them in the corridors. Nobody aboard this ship knew of his secret allegiance to the Celestial Order, which injected a smug feeling into his thoughts as he smiled and gave his thanks to them. Soon, they would all learn the truth, and know that an order member had no ill intentions toward them despite the fact that they all do when it comes to the order.

  He entered the interceptor bay, dozens of interceptor fighters hung from the ceiling like sleeping bats. In the far section of the bay, a small manufacturing plant was hard at work building new interceptors to replace the ones that were destroyed fighting the humans. Neviana floated next to an interceptor, her cybernetics glowed blue as her hand brushed across the cold and smooth hull of the craft that had red stripes painted along it.

  “Neviana,” Yominv said as he got close to her. “How does it feel to fly again?”

  Neviana was a former pilot of the psionic fighters which had all but been phased out of the imperial navy. The population of Hashmedai psionics still posed an issue as more were killed each year in combat, compared to the number born. Psionic breeding camps just couldn’t keep up with the demand, so psionic fighters like Neviana were all resigned. Yominv however, had other plans, place a psionic in the cockpit of a normal interceptor and see what happened, an unorthodox way of using psionics, as psionics in the old psionic fighters were nothing more than co-pilots, used as a means of extra fire power. A psionic in the cockpit of an interceptor gained all the ESP advantages capital ships had and increased survivability.

  “I belong out there,” Neviana said to him as her mind continued to probe her interceptor.

  “I can see that,” he said. “Shipboard psionic duties aren’t for you, slaying those that oppose us are.”

  “Most impressive, Admiral,” Empress Y’lin’s said from behind him.

  Turning around Yominv saw her float in the sea of weightlessness as two of her armed bodyguards hovered next to her shoulder to shoulder.