Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Destiny heard how delighted Eupiar sounded and moved her weightless body into the chilly cockpit. “What have you got?” she asked.

  “Seems I still have limited access to the Pelican, communication data mostly.”

  “And?”

  “There’s a transport ship that left Oyuri, they’re interested in it to the point that they ordered most of the Radiance fleet in the system look for it.”

  Destiny hovered next to her and gazed at Eupiar’s findings, translated from Radiance into English on her laptop. “Might be worth a look if we can avoid getting infected by whatever the hell plagued that place,” Destiny said.

  Eupiar moved the new data screen to the right with her right hand, while her other hand lifted a screen containing saved data she downloaded from the knowledge network on Rasi. The last reports of what was happening on the planet’s surface. Pictures of strange zombie-like people were seen attacking fleeing Radiance races in the streets. Those that were slain rose from the dead and became a one of those strange monsters.

  Neither one of them liked people of Radiance, yet the pictures and video that replayed . . . it was horrific, and was spreading across the planet. Eupiar didn’t want to know what would happen should this outbreak make its way back to Vancouver and the rest of Earth.

  She shut off the window and returned to the previous screen that continued to siphon communication data from the Pelican to them, namely the transport. “If this transport doesn’t lead us to Jazz . . .” Eupiar said.

  “We’ll have to leave the system, there isn’t anything else for us,” Destiny said, finishing what she was going to say. She then tilted her head toward Veloshira who sat in her seat with her arms crossed catching forty winks. Eupiar envied her. None of them had got any real sleep since this whole fiasco began. “Let . . . her know too.” Destiny brushed away the floating ginger hair that got into her eyes.

  “Vel!” Eupiar yelled to her in the Hashmedai language.

  Veloshira’s orange eyes shot open with an ‘I wasn’t sleeping’ look on her face. “What?”

  “Sorry, change of plan,” Eupiar said, then flicked a small hologram of Rasi to her, “back to Rasi for one last look.”

  Veloshira’s sigh formed white mist from her mouth as she reached up to input a new course into the navigation system. The stars in view from the windshield of the ship shifted as the Silver Raven spun around toward its new destination, Rasi, and entered sub light speed.

  “Tell me . . .” Veloshira said to Eupiar. “Are you good at hacking credit chits?”

  “That’s a tough one, but it isn’t impossible. Why?”

  “I have a feeling myself and my family will need to live in the Morutrin System after this . . .” she said. “Credit chits will be required to survive.”

  “I think we will all be living there once we get out of this.”

  The Silver Raven arrived at Rasi one and a half hours later. The windshield treated them to the spectacular but unfortunate image of several Radiance ships that surrounded the planet. Some of them were on an intercept course toward the Silver Raven.

  “Multiple ships in orbit,” Veloshira said from her computer terminal. “I’m sure their psionics have been alerted to us by now.”

  “I don’t see the transport though these scans, it must be on the other side of Rasi,” Eupiar said, checking her screen. “The Pelican set a course to follow the transport after the transport entered sub light. They should be arriving in a few minutes.”

  “Which brings us to the next point, they could be sending more ships at us right now and we won’t know about it until they get close.”

  Veloshira was right, while most of the Radiance ships in the system were around Rasi, the Pelican and a few smaller ones were outside of the Rasi sector. Any one of those ships could be making last minute adjustments to their courses and heading toward the Silver Raven.

  The ships currently in orbit were going to be problematic enough. Toss in the Pelican which would be in the sector in a few minutes regardless and they would need more than slick flying skills. They needed a way to not be seen or targeted while they conducted their search for this mysterious transport that would hopefully lead them to Jazz.

  Hopefully.

  “How well can this ship handle underwater?” Eupiar asked Veloshira.

  “How should I know? It wasn’t built for swimming.”

  Eupiar raced her hands across her holographic keyboard and a large 3D projection of Rasi appeared in front of her. She used both of her hands to adjust the position of the hologram, placing it between her and Veloshira.

  “Most of Rasi is water, but there’s a thick layer of ice above it.” She double-tapped the projection, triggering it to show a 2D cut away picture of Rasi's surface. It showed a layer of snow, then a thick layer of ice, an ocean warmed by undersea volcanoes, then the surface of the ocean. “Transports are the only ships Radiance has that can fly though an atmosphere.”

  “They can target us with plasma missiles should they have them loaded.”

  “But how about when they are under water? If we boost our shields to max, shoot our way down into the ocean, they won’t follow.” Eupiar’s index finger slid across the cut away picture, it passed the upper layers representing Rasi’s surface unveiling in small popup windows the amount of heat needed to melt the snow and ice followed by the power the shields needed to be at for the Silver Raven to splash down into the ocean. “Even if they do follow us, their shields won’t be strong enough to last down there without modifications and the accuracy of their missiles will be affected.”

  Veloshira’s orange shimmering eyes gleamed over the data before she said with a resounding and firm. “No.”

  “Really?”

  “We’ll take our chances in the air,” Veloshira said, and began to pilot the Silver Raven toward Rasi and the Radiance ships creeping over its horizon. “Prepare yourself.”

  Transport, Rasi orbit, Barnard’s Star System

  Chloe’s transport rumbled as it sped up, narrowly avoiding slamming into a Radiance ship. The Radiance blockade was hesitant to fire upon her at first, just a few warning shots passed. She feared however the next shots that came toward her wouldn’t be warning shots. But she had to try; she had to keep pushing and get near the planet’s surface without being shot down.

  Computer scans showed several cruisers break away from the blockade and travel toward the opposite end of Rasi. There was something going on there that was deemed more important than her. Whoever or what it is was, she’d have to send her thanks when this was all over. With fewer ships to deal with, Chloe could slip through a newly created wide gap in the blockade, evading what plasma fire she could.

  Now the hard part.

  She made preparations to outrun a swarm of plasma missiles, they were no doubt under control of several psionic telekinetic minds. The horizon of Rasi slowly rose into the view of her windshield as the missiles behind her gained on her fast, tracking her movement. She hoped that perhaps the missiles would break up in the atmosphere during her dramatic descent, she after all still had her shields up missiles on the other hand had no shields to protect them from reentry, but with psionic tricky at work bending the laws of physics in their favor, you never knew.

  Silver Raven, low Rasi orbit, Barnard’s Star System

  “Hang on!” Veloshira yelled as she dropped the nose of the Silver Raven toward the surface of Rasi.

  Not a bad idea, Eupiar thought and sat in her chair, adjusting her seat belt. Gravity would be taking a hold of them very soon. And if Destiny didn’t do the same, she’d face-plant on the floor like she did the last time.

  Three Radiance cruisers were clearly seen up above the horizon somewhere, firing plasma in their general direction while the lead ship’s missile ports opened up and launched hundreds of missiles toward them.

  The first salvo of missiles hit the shields of the Silver Raven as it entered the upper stratosphere of the planet. Heat from the explosions and rippling s
hields caused the falling snow around them to vaporize into scalding hot steam as they lit up the dark skies like a lightning storm.

  Transport, skies of Rasi, Barnard’s Star System

  Chloe got the answer to her inquiry, the plasma missiles remained intact. Two of them crashed into the rear of her transport taking out the aft shields in the process. Several more were poised to do the same until she saw her new means of escape, the tall jagged mountains of Rasi. She commanded the transport to fly between some of the mountain peaks; the missiles couldn’t keep up with her as they smashed into the mountains instead. As powerful as psionics were, controlling missiles from a ship in orbit was no easy task given the distance and so many factors they had to account for like gravity and wind direction.

  Forcing them to follow the exact path Chloe’s transport took would have required them to either be planet side or just be a prodigy at their job. Neither scenario was the case. Chloe was free for the time being as she piloted the transport away from the mountains, though she knew that this wasn’t going to be the end of her pursuers. They could shoot plasma missiles toward the surface and would likely continue to do so until they got lucky.

  The transport landed in the middle of a snowy field that was in process of being buried by a torrential blizzard. As it came to a landing Chloe got up from her chair and moved toward the rear section of the transport, her hands searching for tools among the pile of equipment she didn’t leave behind on Oyuri. More of Vaish’s cunning thinking as a secret agent pushed into her mind along with more of her true personality while Chloe’s was pushed back.

  She wondered how much longer it would be before she’d stop thinking of herself as Chloe and start thinking herself as Vaish.

  Silver Raven, skies of Rasi, Barnard’s Star System

  The Silver Raven descended from the blizzard clouds, snow slowly started to build up on top of its blue flickering shields as it continued to fly toward the surface. In its wake, plasma missiles fired from orbit as it left behind a contrail of exhaust from its thrust.

  “No transports are behind us,” Veloshira said. “Radiance knows they aren’t to be used at fighters, we are safe so long as they don’t send psionics after us.”

  A hologram displayed exterior camera footage from the rear of the ship, plasma missiles fired from the Radiance ships followed them via telekinetics. “Did you account for that?” Eupiar said, pointing to the video. Veloshira’s mouth let out a loud feral like hiss.

  The Silver Raven accelerated then spun around to face the missiles with its forward plasma cannons. An immediate dogfight broke out, the Silver Raven versus psionically controlled plasma missiles. The distance between the psionics and the missiles under their control slowed the performance of the missiles however and it showed. A ship like the Silver Raven shouldn’t be able to perform a spectacular waltz in the skies with missiles as its dance partners, but there they were. Plasma missiles became adversaries equal to fighter craft on a kamikaze run.

  Snowy tundra, Rasi, Barnard’s Star System

  It wasn’t hard for both Jazz and Vaishea to see the Silver Raven in the dark blizzard skies. The lights from the plasma fire, light from its engines, its blue shields as it got hit by the explosive force of plasma missiles. The display went on for a few minutes until there were no plasma missiles left then it zipped through the skies, past the mountain the two just left and into the never-ending snow storm.

  “So that’s what was causing the avalanches . . .” Jazz said, watching its afterburners vanish from sight.

  “I don’t recognize that ship,” Vaishea said.

  “It’s our ride outta here, let’s leave it as that.” Jazz began running toward the direction he saw the Silver Raven fly to. “We just ain’t got no means of talking to them right now. Maybe they landed, let’s check it out.”

  Jazz lead the way and took the two on an adventure through the snow and ice in the blizzard. Their life support monitors on their HUDs continued to show signs of it depleting, causing Jazz to grimace with each new notification. If the Silver Raven did indeed land, it would be their ticket off this rock and access to air and heat they were going to be losing if they continued to say outside.

  Minutes passed and the two saw nothing but snow, ice, hills, mountains in the distance and more snow slowly dumping on top of them. The extreme cold began to make the joints in their suits freeze up due to all the ice and snow build up. They did their best to ignore it and continued onward, knowing that was their only chance at survival. The trek back to the city would have resulted in them running out of air just before they got there, at least this journey had at best a chance the Silver Raven finding and rescuing them—And at worst, presented an option for Veloshira and the others to know that he didn’t make it, and that they should leave the system.

  Aether space, upper vortex

  Hannah’s astral projected form materialized within aether space. She was surrounded by a river of magma that dripped down around from the floating islands above her. Amber-colored clouds of gases painted the horizon obscuring the pale orange stars in the distance. She walked across the flat and solid rocky surface between the hot magma as it created ripping heat waves, heat that she paid no mind to.

  The sounds of her heels clinked with each of her foot steeps, echoing into silent world around her. There was a magma waterfall directly in front of her intended destination. She raised her hands in front of it then moved them to the sides, parting the magma like drapes, unveiling what lay beyond, a bottomless void below and a hovering disk-shaped platform across.

  Hannah began to walk once again stepping off the floating rock she was on across the void. Cuboid, crystalline objects rose from the void and lined up one by one, forming a bridge from the rock toward the platform. As Hannah crossed the bridge the cube shaped objects returned to the previous location below, amongst red gasses and clouds. Lightning flashed in the distance on Hannah’s arrival at the platform.

  She waved her hand from left to right and winds began to blow through her long black hair and black Victorian era style outfit, while holographic pictures appeared. Each one showed her possible outcomes in the galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy to be exact. She saw different choices, different historical paths, knowledge of the future, or the future that could be created provided that certain events happened at certain times.

  Hannah needed answers. She needed to know where things were going. In the past, this place gave her a clear and consistent listing of events to come and ways to manipulate those events to mold a galaxy that fit the needs of her and the three goddesses. But as she looked, the imagery around her became blurry. The images flicked on and off. The longer she remained, the more distorted everything became. She had to remember what little information she could gather and make a best guess as to what predictions to make, which minds to influence, and which dreams to conjure in the minds of people of interest.

  One projection stood out. She shut her eyes to take it in, and memorized it second by second. The wraiths, they would enter aether space as expected during the celestial ascension. But the gods, they know of everything. They would launch a counter attack, then pass through into normal space and unleash their wrath, punishing her, the goddess, and the order. And for good measure all life within their corner of the galaxy to ensure the Celestial Order doesn’t rise again. No, this cannot happen, how could it be prevented?

  She replayed the projection in her mind repeatedly. They didn’t have enough wraith to defeat the gods. Had they had more at their disposal, the gods couldn’t enter normal space. Hannah would have enough power with the assistance of the wraith to push the gods back and create a defense line. From there, additional wraith could be created and ascend.

  The gods would be defeated. The goddesses would rise as the rulers of aether space and the greater Lyonria. The rest of the galaxy in normal space would be forced to worship them and allow the Lyonria to achieve their next stage in evolution.

  But . . . but. They need to hold the
line first and the wraith at their disposal was not enough. Hannah began to laugh as her eyes opened and searched for more imagery, more information that would help her on her new task. The projections were gone. GONE.

  She spun around for she felt that something wasn’t right. There was someone else here in her secret area away from the gods, away from the greater Lyonria. A beautiful Hashmedai woman with blue skin stood behind her, like Hannah the winds blew across her long and elegant psionic dress adorned with orange and grey ribbons.

  The woman was angry, hateful. The woman was Iolysta Frosttouch, mother of Phylarlie and Noylarlie. And was once a dear friend to Hannah.

  Lyonria structure, Oyuri, Barnard’s Star System

  “I can’t see the complete outcome!” Hannah yelled with rage as her body and mind returned to normal space.

  Nivrui and Aviuheart walked circles around Hannah with no emotion on their faces, gazing at the distraught seer. “Unfortunate,” Aviuheart said.

  “But . . .” Hannah added. “The gods, they know of our stance. The activation of this structure alerted them.”

  “They will strike us first,” Nivrui said to Aviuheart.

  “We will fail.”

  “We will be knocked from the path.”

  “The Hannah must rectify this at once.”

  Hannah’s face began to twitch, her twisted mind began to utilize what information she could acquire from aether space, she then revealed. “Only human wraiths can defend us; other species are too weak.” Hannah’s voice changed, and said. “Yes but we won’t have enough until humanity is forced to join the union.” Her voice once again changed, this time to her normal tone Hannah was having a conversation with herself. “That process will take years! We don’t have that time we need it now!” Her accent changed to South African. “Humans that escaped from the Rasi complex then.” It then switched to Australian. “We don’t know where they fled!” Then English. “Let’s search for them in the meantime.” Russian. “Yes, with their numbers . . . we could build a defense strong enough.” Southern American. “I reckon if we infect every living thing in the system we won’t have enough for a solid defense, but with infected humans . . .” Bronx. “The ones that escaped will be enough, the gods assault will fail.” Irish. “Aye, our position will be fortified.” French. “'Then we wait until the Hashmedai bring the human race to its feet . . .” German. “The rest of the humans will be brought in like cattle for their born task, conversion to a wraith.” Finally, her voice and accent returned to normal, and her plan was finalized. “The Pelican has an extra task!”