Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  No man, Vaishea is gone. Accept it. Must have been a whack ass dream or something, he thought as he took notice of several of his belongings floating about.

  And as he remembered from the previous night’s events, dream, whatever the fuck it was, Vaishea took interest in some of his Earthly possessions, such as his music player. He grabbed it and looked at the holographic UI. 90s R&B playlist was still loaded, and Vaishea during her stay had taken a liking to that genre of music, the two listened to the songs together while they chatted.

  Jazz exited his room after stowing his belongings away in a cabinet. There wasn’t much activity aboard the Silver Raven. Veloshira, Eupiar, Destiny, and Chloe were all asleep. He entered the cockpit and performed a quick systems check to ensure everything was all good. The ship was on auto pilot as it continued its five-day course toward the inner planets of Sol. A growl in his belly forced him to leave his post and make his way into the lounge for breakfast, something he hadn’t had in ages.

  HLF breakfast rations, courtesy of Destiny for thinking ahead prior to them leaving Earth. Tortilla shells and large servings of scrambled eggs floated in front of Jazz as he tore open the grey vacuum-sealed packages. He combined the two together to make a basic breakfast wrap, a tube full of cheese that looked more like orange toothpaste was added over top of the meal to improve its bland taste.

  Chloe floated into the lounge as he took the sixth bite of his meal. He kept silent, not just because he was still chewing his food, but because of what happened last night. She looked and acted like the Chloe he’d known, wasn’t happy to see him, no hello as she went for rations of her own to eat. No way was this Vaishea, it must have been a dream, one brought on by wishful thinking no doubt, as he was starting to like Vaishea after all.

  “What’s wrong?” Chloe asked him as she ripped open a package containing sunny side eggs and bacon.

  What the fuck we had bacon? “Err nothing,” he said, returning to his meal after realizing he had been looking at her the whole time. “You okay?”

  “Having trouble sleeping must be side effects from getting my memories back.”

  She’s talking about getting her memories back, this is Chloe for sure, not Vaishea. I must be trippin’.

  The two of them consumed their meals as the rest of the crew awoke from their sleep and joined them. Veloshira and Eupiar shared Hashmedai rations, consisting of dried meat products, while Destiny found yet another breakfast pack that had eggs and bacon, much to Jazz’s dismay. Not much else happened as they day progressed. Veloshira remained in the cockpit monitoring shipwide systems, Eupiar took to her laptop and analyzed and cataloged the trove of intel that was gathered from Rasi and the Abyssal Pelican.

  Boring? Perhaps, but Jazz didn’t care, R&R was needed for them all. Lunch time was meet with everyone gathered together in the lounge feasting on lunch rations, at least those that partook in lunch. Destiny and Eupiar weren’t too keen on eating as their eyes were locked onto one of the holographic screens from Eupiar’s laptop as a movie played, one of many she had saved to it. He overheard them talk about playing video games on it later in the evening, not a bad idea. Jazz used to spend his free time during his tours in Afghanistan playing games.

  Evening came, according to the shipwide clocks at least. Chloe grumbled about being tired and exhausted and retired early for the day. Probably for the best as she pretty much avoided everyone, even Veloshira started opening up to Destiny despite the language barrier between them. Jazz retired to his room after watching one last movie with Eupiar, Destiny, and Veloshira on her laptop, Star Wars.

  Day one of five was drawing to an end without incident. No Celestial Order ambushes or hidden UNE patrols. This is great, he thought as he began to wrap himself up in his floating blankets and play some music before heading to sleep. He selected 80s hip hop on his music player, reclined, and shut his eyes.

  That was until there was a knock on his door.

  He left his sleep space to open the door. It was Chloe, only she wasn’t acting like her, no this was Vaishea, again. What the fuck is going on? He thought as she entered his room.

  “Hello again,” she said, smiling to him.

  “What’s going on? Chloe or Vaishea. Make up your mind!”

  “I wish I knew,” she said. “I was with you here not long ago.”

  Well this confirms it, I ain’t dreaming or tripping, this is the real deal. Split personalities. Terrific. “Yeah I remember that. We chatted then you left.”

  “I was tired, went to take a nap.”

  “Chloe moaned all day about being tired,” he said moving toward his makeshift sleeping bag. “Perhaps your memories take over when she tries to sleep?”

  “And she comes back when I try to sleep? That’s possible.”

  “This was supposed to be five days of no problems!” He reached over to his music player to shut it off. He needed silence to process what was going on. “Fuck me!”

  “I’m a problem for you now?” she said with concern in her voice.

  “No, sorry.” He paused and took several deep breathes to calm his frustrated mind down. “It’s just . . .”

  “You got anger issues, problems with dealing with stress.”

  “PTSD as we call it,” he said as he turned back around to face her.

  “Relax and tell me all about it,” she said. Jazz’s mouth twisted at the request and gave her a weird glare. “I was a counselor remember? Let me try to help you.”

  He grunted. “I’m beyond help.”

  She wasn’t taking no for an answer and practically forced him to lie back as she floated next to him like a therapist talking to her client. The only thing she was missing was a clipboard and pen to write stuff down and make notes as he began to explain everything about his life. May as well, there was no way he could get shut eye with the new discovery on his mind.

  Jazz took it from the top; he had no money to go to college and joined the Canadian armed forces as a means of paying for it. He was shipped to Afghanistan as a result to participate in the war on terror. He didn’t want to be a fighter he just wanted to not have money issues in life. The war cost him his marriage with Alisha as he was away too long and didn’t speak with her. He had hoped to get back with her, prove to her that he was still worth it, but it never happened. Alisha ended up meeting Jason, their relationship flourished quickly as Jazz ended up lashing out at everyone that angered him, especially thugs in Toronto and the likes. His life as deranged vigilante turned him into a drifter, one that ended up in Las Vegas where he spent money he had saved on escorts like Destiny, her line of work before the invasion and the creation of the HLF. The Hashmedai invasion of Earth came later, triggering his quest to recue Hannah and Alisha, only for them to slip away into the arms of the order. It was his biggest failure in life yet.

  “I’m a fuck up, yo. Can’t get shit right half the time.”

  Vaishea shook her head and said. “You’re blaming yourself for things you can’t control.”

  “If I hadn’t enlisted, we’d still be married.”

  “And you believe that was the best course of action?”

  “Hannah and Alisha shouldn’t be a part of this mess,” he said looking up at the metal bulkheads on the ceiling. “I could have steered them away if we were still close. Hell if I had only managed to get them off Earth with me, they wouldn’t be in this mess. But Jason . . . Fuck! Fuck that guy, he had to mess it all up.”

  “Is that why you killed him?” Jazz faced her, and did his best to refrain from another outburst as a result of her calling him out. “Or was it because you were jealous that he was with her and you wanted him out of Alisha’s life?”

  “You’re lucky I like you.”

  “You’re obsessed with Alisha, Jazz.” She folded her hands together and continued her discovery. “The ending of your marriage combined with what war did to your mind hurt you. You refused to move on like she did, kept yourself single on purpose in hopes that you two will get back together
one day. Sex workers took care of your needs in the meantime.”

  No you got it all wrong! Is what he wanted to say. But, she was right.

  Lying to himself was a trick he picked up god knows when, and it allowed him to go through life feeling a little better. If the truth hurts, just keep it away from you. That way you can't be hurt. Everything Jazz did he told himself it was for the greater good and that he was not wrong, even killing Jason. At the time he told himself it was the right thing to do.

  “And now you blame yourself for failing to make it happen,” Vaishea said, “by arguing that the mess she and Hannah are in was a result of you not being good enough.”

  “Still, what if it was different?”

  “Like what? You two still being married?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We’d all be in trouble.”

  How so? He thought, then began to critically analyze the last long list of events he went through in life.

  Had he and Alisha still be married, they would have been together living on the east coast, the invasion would have broken out and they would have been amongst the two billion lives killed worldwide as the east coast was obliterated. Sure she was in LA at the time of the attack, and it was possible he would have been there in Jason’s place. In which case they both probably would have left for Lejorania Sanctum.

  Jazz wouldn’t have achieved the things he did to fight the order. “There’s a whole bunch of ways this could have ended,” he said.

  “And most of them would have been worse than were we are now.”

  “Hey,” Jazz said, moving his floating body right side up. “Thanks.”

  “Glad my fake counseling skills were of use to someone.”

  “Don’t say that, pretty fucking real to me. Ironically this was the type of counseling Alisha wanted me to get.”

  Vaishea moved away from Jazz and started heading toward the door. “You heard what they said back there though.” She stopped just before the door and said. “I’m a fake; I never existed, created in a program.”

  “And here you are still kicking.”

  She remained silent for several seconds, her head was staring up at the ceiling. “For now . . .” she said. “What if Chloe finds out I’m still in her body?”

  Jazz said nothing, the answer to her question was something she probably wasn’t going to like. Knowing Chloe she would push hard to have her head examined and find out why both of their memoires existed together. Once a solution was found and she’d push hard for it to be made, it would result in Vaishea being purged from her head like what was originally planned.

  Tiny translucent pearls began to float away from Vaishea’s face. Jazz moved closer to her as saw her sobbing. He couldn’t blame her. Not every day you wake up and discover your whole life was fake and people want to condemn you to a form of death to set things right.

  “You gonna need some counseling now?” he asked her.

  “Sorry, just started to realize I’m still in danger,” she said. The two looked at each other, words didn’t need to be spoken to communicate that neither one of them wanted to be part of a reality where she was gone forever. “If she figures it out—”

  “She won’t.”

  “I don’t want to be wiped out like that.” Vaishea held onto Jazz. “Promise me you’ll keep this from her?”

  “I’ll do what I can,” he said. “You helped put things back in perspective for me, something ain’t nobody done for me.”

  Her hold on him turned into a hug that felt as if she did not want it to come to an end as she never let go of him.

  The rest of the five-day journey to the inner Sol worlds played out in a similar manner, everyone waking up to eat and go about their free time activities. Chloe groaned about being unable to sleep as she became Vaishea in the evening after she retired for the night. This resulted in Jazz and Vaishea spending the remainder of the afterhours chatting, listening to music, star gazing, and getting close. Perhaps a little too close. It was indeed an awkward feeling for Jazz knowing that in the morning, Chloe would take control and have no memory of what Vaishea did. Even more awkward was the fact the two kept what they were doing secret from the rest of the crew as they all slept for the night.

  Jazz entered the cockpit after he overheard the Silver Raven’s computers beep. It being day five meant signs of UNE patrols, stations and scanners were about to become common place as they neared the end of their journey through the Kuiper belt. A small display appeared in front of Veloshira as she analyzed the newly acquired data.

  “Strange,” Veloshira said.

  Jazz hovered behind her and watched the projection that had her interested. “What do you got?”

  “A debris field.” She enlarged the screen and showed a holographic image of the debris field in question. “It’s of Hashmedai origin.”

  “Hashmedai?” Jazz said. “Left over from the invasion?”

  “No way,” Eupiar said, having overheard their conversation in the Hashmedai language. “Debris from the command ship was salvaged and studied by the UNE.”

  “The command ship was in orbit around Earth anyway, right?” Veloshira asked.

  “It was yeah,” Jazz said.

  “This isn’t anywhere near Earth,” Veloshira said as she interacted with the hologram with her hands. The projection zoomed out slightly, and showed them the debris field’s location in the system. The ass end of it. “It near this dwarf sized planet.”

  Jazz recognized the world in question. “Pluto.”

  “Looks like the remains of a scout ship.”

  Eupiar moved closer to them and eyed the projection carefully. “Those weren’t in the system two months ago. Where they?”

  “No,” Jazz said, shaking his head. “Was just the UNE, the Crimson Arrow and the ship Hannah was on.”

  “What are you guys yapping about?” Destiny said as she entered the chilly cockpit adding English to their conversation.

  “Destiny check this shit out,” Jazz said to her in English. “Hashmedai wreckage near Pluto.” He pointed to the hologram as Destiny floated over to them and gazed at it. “HLF hiding stuff from ya’ll?”

  “That’s new,” Destiny said. “And no, we were mostly limited to Earth, well, probably prison cells now for those that are still alive.”

  “Some of it might be salvageable,” Eupiar said. “We could use parts from it to make repairs.”

  “Any UNE ships in the area?” Jazz asked Veloshira.

  “None that I can detect keep in mind long range scanners are still not operating correctly.”

  Good enough for me, he thought. “Let’s check it out, and get this boat patched up.”

  “Changing course,” Veloshira said as she keyed in a course correction into the flight controls.

  ESV Winston Churchill, Saturn orbit, Sol system

  “Commander.”

  Benally turned away from the bridge’s central hologram and looked toward Matsushita who called out to her from his station on the bridge.

  “What is it?” she asked, walking toward him with the aid of her magnetic boots.

  “Sensors are picking up a ship heading toward Pluto,” he showed her a projection of his tactical scans. A hologram of an unknown ship entered the system. “If I didn’t know any better . . .” He waved his hand across the projection to make it zoom in closer to the ship. “Looks familiar, doesn’t it?”

  Benally recognized the design of the ship, and frowned. “The ship from the Geneva fiasco,” she said.

  “Vanished two months ago, now back in the system?”

  Benally spun around to face Chavez. “Helm, set a course to Pluto.”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Inform the captain of our discovery,” she said, before establishing a communication with Weerasinghe via the central hologram. “Chief please tell me we’re good to fire up the sub light engines. You were given two days, it’s been almost five.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Silver Raven, Pluto debris f
ield, Sol system

  Two hours later the Silver Raven exited sub light speeds and came to a full stop outside of the debris field. Chunks of metal from the imperial ship slowly spun around what remained of a larger piece of the fuselage of the doomed ship. Further out other pieces of debris followed of Earthly origin, while Pluto remained idle in the distance. A battle took place here, no doubt about it and it was that fact that put an uneasy feeling the guts of everyone aboard.

  “It’s Hashmedai alright,” Veloshira said as she looked at the debris via the cockpit’s forward windshield.

  “I’m guessing we’re going to have to go outside and haul it in,” Jazz said, crossing his arms.

  “Well, if you do.” Eupiar flicked her hands across her keyboard rapidly. A hologram appeared depicting an image of computer parts Jazz knew nothing about. She pushed the hologram over to him. “Look for parts that resemble that, I can use it to fix the computers.”

  “Will do,” he said holding onto the hologram as he moved to exit the cockpit, and back toward the rear of the ship. “Could use some help with this, I ain’t no astronaut.”

  “I’ll go,” Chloe said, and moved behind to accompany Jazz.

  “Like hell you will,” Destiny said, and held onto Chloe’s shoulder. Hard.

  The two women faced each other, distrust and fury clearly visible from their frowning faces. “Still don’t trust me eh?” Chloe said to Destiny.

  “Your face lit right up about the idea of contacting the UNE,” Destiny said.

  “I thought we were all in an agreement?” Chloe said. “Only the UNE can get those people to safety.”

  “That’s not what I’m concerned about,” Destiny said, then looked toward Jazz.

  “You think I’m going to unplug his Oxygen tank or something?”