Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Chloe, Chris, and assassins, now that she thought about it, this wasn’t the first time the empire had done this. On their last days on Lejorania Sanctum, they were attacked and pursed by an assassin. They barely escaped then and a lot of people died during the fray, she hoped things wouldn’t play out the same here.

  “You okay?” Chris asked her as they boarded the elevator. “You haven’t been yourself since coming back.”

  “That seems to happen with me a lot lately.”

  “You looked pretty dizzy when we talked on the habitat ring.”

  “I haven’t talked with you since we were in your quarters.”

  “No, we did speak again,” Chris said. “You went down to the Silver Raven afterward.”

  She said nothing more as the elevator returned them to the main central section of the Winston Churchill. They exited and traveled through the corridors to the aft section of the ship, the location of the elevators that would take them up to the habitat ring. He insisted they sit, eat, and drink in the rec. room. Great now he’s ready to talk when his life is in danger. Men!

  She gave the habitat ring elevator doors an uneasy look as he summoned them. Chris being in a gravity environment would give Veloshira the advantage. And the fact she hasn’t attacked yet meant she could be waiting for them up on the habitat ring. Chloe discretely reached behind to see if she could feel Jazz, she had forgotten to make sure he was keeping up with the two as they made their way there. She felt nothing but air. She moved her hand again, and felt his body. They boarded the elevator and ensured that her body was placed between Jazz and Chris. There were three people jammed into the elevator after all, the impression that two were there still needed to be maintained.

  “What were you doing there?” Chris said finally.

  “I don’t know,” Chloe said as the two somersaulted, in preparation for the habitat ring’s gravity to shift, she hoped Jazz would clue in as to why they did this.

  “Sleepwalking isn’t your thing,” Chris said. “They must have done something to you while you were out there, you should check in with the infirmary.”

  “Already been there after coming aboard, I’m fine.”

  Only, Chloe knew that wasn’t true, something was up, as if she was not fully in control of her body. The last time that happened, Vaishea had complete control of it and had no idea what was going on.

  Eupiar rarely left the Winston Churchill’s lab, why would she? Tasty snacks and drinks were brought to her whenever she requested it. She tossed an empty chocolate bar wrapper over her shoulder, it landed next to a pile of empty energy drink cans as she continued to work on her laptop. Every sleepless hour that passed allowed her to make more and more progress into removing the Hashmedai malware out from the Winston Churchill’s computers as well as code a patch that would remove it from other ships that might have been infected.

  She might have been done too if it wasn’t for Jazz’s request of tracing Veloshira. With EVE still infected, Eupiar used her laptop to hack into the security equipment aboard the Winston Churchill and began the complex task of multitasking. One window had lines of code she was working on, while another showed security cam footage from all over the ship all in thermal scan mode, scanning for Veloshira’s heat signature.

  A camera located on the habitat ring spotted it. Veloshira made it up to the habitat ring and was wandering around without direction searching for her target. “Gotcha!” Eupiar shouted.

  She forgot she wasn’t alone; EVE was in the corner studying the body of the shape shifting Aryile. The android spun around and approached Eupiar, intrigued as to her outburst. “What do you got?” EVE said.

  “Oh err.” Eupiar hit alt-tab, hiding the window that displayed the hacked camera footage as it brought her programming display front and center. “I got progress, is all.”

  EVE looked at her screen. “Your progress is incomplete; in fact you have only added ten lines of code from when I last saw.”

  Eupiar needed to speak with Jazz and let him know that they were walking into an ambush. But with EVE standing over her shoulder, that wasn’t going to happen. EVE needed to get back to her duties on the other side of the lab. Think, think, gotta get this tin can woman out of here! Eupiar pulled out her holo phone and showed it to EVE. “So what does it take to get a phone signal out here? Barnard’s Star was one thing, but I’m back in Sol now, shouldn’t it work?”

  EVE’s gaze looked away from her laptop and toward Eupiar’s phone. Her sleight of hand quickly reached back and tapped a string of keys on her keyboard as the android was distracted. She didn’t need to look at the screen to know what she was doing. She had the keystrokes memorized to gain access to what she needed to do.

  “Holo phones are only able to receive a signal should they be close to a transmission tower,” EVE said. “The closest tower to us is currently is on Titan. And according to my recent scans, it was damaged during the Hashmedai’s assault on the moon.”

  “Shucks!”

  The cryopods that held the Aryile shape shifter and Vaish started to activate. EVE’s attention was once again shifted this time toward the pods. She walked over and carefully examined the situation.

  “Puzzling, why would they activate?” EVE said.

  “I don’t know, why would they?” Eupiar released an innocent chuckle as she returned to her laptop without the android looking at her.

  The pods activating was of course her handiwork. And as long as the malware corrupted EVE’s systems, she’d be unable to read the incident report that an unauthorized user gained access and remotely activated the pods. EVE began to work on returning the pods back into their desired state, while Eupiar alt-tab once again and the window showing the footage from the cameras tracking Veloshira appeared.

  She double-checked to ensure the android was out of hearing range as she transmitted to Jazz. “Habitat ring, near the gym, watch it.”

  Jazz heard Eupiar’s message loud and clear. But there was no way for him to speak with Chloe without blowing his cover. He’d have to go at it alone and hope that Chloe clued in. He gave her a gentle tap on her shoulders then moved like a ninja through the corridors of the habitat as Eupiar whispered and communicated to him vague directions on how to get to the gym.

  She too needed to not tip off the android watching her.

  Jazz was gone.

  That part Chloe could tell, the question was where and why?

  Her senses were heightened as she and Chris walked through the corridors. Had Chloe been armed with her equipment, she might have been able to breathe easier, but that too wasn’t an option unless they were to draw unwanted attention to the fiasco at hand. She looked backward a few times and saw nothing, at least nothing her eyes saw as unusual. To her left was the gym, it was empty by the looks but she wasn’t taking any chances. She kept her eyes on the entrance to it as they walked past, half expecting Veloshira’s translucent body to storm out to make the kill.

  She heard exercise equipment inside the gym get knocked over and tossed about like someone was going on a rampage. It was enough racket to get the two to stop and turn back to see what the hell was going on. The gym was empty after all, how could all that noise just start up like that?

  Don’t be stupid, it’s them! She thought as she stopped to peek inside.

  Treadmills were pushed over, barbells scattered across the floor all in front of the wide windows peering out into space. Chris unexpectedly ran right in to investigate further, it put Chloe on edge. Fuck, fuck, fuck! She should have stood in front of him and prevent him from going ahead, now he’s going to lose his head unless she acted quickly.

  She ran him to catch up with him. Equipment was still being hurled about although only Chloe and Chris were inside. The doors leading back out into the main corridor’s shut and locked. We walked into an ambush, fuck! she thought as she ran back to the door controls. They wouldn’t budge, and her unlock override codes didn’t do much to help. She spun around to check on Chris, he wasn’t mo
ving, his body became numb as he triggered a cloaked stasis mine. Chloe took one step toward him with worry and concern and stayed there as she tripped a second stasis mine. Both EDF soldiers were frozen in time as a blue shimmering aura gripped their bodies in a tableau.

  Veloshira as expected decloaked, her twin plasma daggers glowed brightly with its greenish rue. Her orange eyes locked into the back of Chris while she hissed like an angry viper. She plunged one of her daggers toward Chris; it was deflected by the glowing blade of Jazz’s katana. Veloshira hissed again, this time at Jazz as he held his weapon before him placing himself between Chris and Veloshira.

  Jazz and Veloshira, apprentice and master, they ended their sizing up and stare down and lunged their weapons at each other. Clang, clang, clang, the sound of plasma daggers being parried against a plasma katana. Wiff, wiff, wiff, Jazz’s blade failing to connect with his opponent, an opponent that moved at speeds no human could achieve. She was in front of them, then behind, then to the side then behind then somersaulting over him. Jazz had to run and dodge as her hands rapidly threw her blades at him. Both of them sunk into the floor and melted the surface around it with its intense heat.

  Jazz dodged again, this time to avoid being vaporized by Veloshira’s plasma rifle as it explored with a burst of green energy. She didn’t aim her rifle toward Chris, his head needed to be brought back to the empress, not the ashes from his vaporized body. Veloshira kept on firing at Jazz, putting him on the defensive as she crept toward her daggers still stuck in the floor.

  If she gets to those it’s over, Chloe thought.

  Then it hit her.

  She thought, she’s in a form of temporal stasis she shouldn’t be able to process thoughts. Yet there she was, witnessing Jazz and Veloshira go at it. And there was nothing she could do until the stasis effect wore off. From the intel that was gathered the last time they encountered them, it’s duration was random.

  Jazz and Veloshira’s battle raged on, she was winning as her foot tripped Jazz to the floor. She climbed on top of him, then reached over to grab one of her daggers and held it to his throat. The two exchanged some heated words in the Hashmedai language. Memories that weren’t Chloe’s started to trickle into her mind. Those memories turned into emotions, fear, sorrow it was as if someone else was inside Chloe and that someone had a strong emotional attachment to Jazz.

  Vaishea. These were her thoughts and memories. She wasn’t out of Chloe’s head, and the two of them must have been sharing the same body the whole time. It would explain the sleepwalking, and possibly the lack of sleep.

  Jazz’s hands gripped onto Veloshira’s fist that was wrapped around one of her daggers. She was pushing down while he was trying to push her fist back up. Hashmedai speed versus human strength, the speed was winning as she jerked her hand from side to side to throw him off. Jazz was possibly facing his end again. He walked away from a lot of stuff, but a severed head from a plasma dagger wasn’t one of them.

  He’s not going to make it, it was Vaishea’s thoughts. She was able to see what Chloe was able to see, must be the stasis field, it would explain why Chloe was able to remain aware, Vaishea was still in her head, and it must have triggered a strange side effect.

  Chloe could sense Vaishea’s feelings. She was falling in love with Jazz and apparently the two of them were fucking not long ago. Great, well at least I’m finally getting some. Or should that be we? She’d have to keep this secret from Chris.

  She wanted Chloe to save him. But how? She was stuck in the stasis net and was unsure she could get to her side arm fast enough; even then with the close proximity she could hit Jazz. Vaishea reminded Chloe of the sedatives, the ones that were in her pocket, the ones they had used to keep Vaish out. How did they get there? No matter, it could do the trick, leap, and jab Veloshira with it no friendly fire innocents would take place. Chloe waited for the stasis field to end. Jazz and Chris’ lives rested in her hands provided Jazz can keep Veloshira at bay.

  Chloe felt her body able to move again, the blue aura around her sights dissipated, she was free. She quickly grabbed onto one of the sedatives stored in her pocket, charged, and tackled Veloshira. She didn’t care if her dagger hit her, she didn’t care what Veloshira would counter with. Chris had to live as far as her thoughts were concerned. Jazz had to live as far as Vaishea’s thoughts were concerned.

  Veloshira became limp as they fell over, Chloe managed to inject her, it wasn’t a full dose however. But it was enough to slow the Hashmedai down and weaken her movements. Chloe grabbed a hold the device again and forced the rest of it to enter Veloshira’s body. She passed out seconds later as her limp arms flailed about trying to claw at Chloe’s face.

  It was over and as long as nobody heard the commotion go on they’d go about their day. The damage to the gym was another story; then again much of the ship was still blackened by the battle, who could tell the difference?

  Chloe stood as she wiped away sweat from her forehead and said. “That was a little more insane than I had hoped.”

  Jazz did the same and stood above Veloshira and tapped his communicator. “Eupiar, if that was you with the doors, thanks.”

  “Hey!” Chloe showed Jazz the sedative pack. He had some explaining to do, and lots of it. “I recall we left those in the cryo chamber of the Silver Raven, why do I have them now?”

  She knew the answer, or at least had a pretty good idea. What she wanted to know was his side of the story. And how many times had Vaishea allowed him to get into her pants.

  “Help me get her back to the Silver Raven.” was all Jazz had to say. “Discreetly.”

  “Discreetly?” She pointed at Chris. Wait, he’s still in stasis, he didn’t witness any of this. As Chloe thought that, Jazz cloaked Veloshira’s body and his own and dragged her back down to the Silver Raven.

  Chloe stayed behind and waited for Chris to revive, then she weaved a long story of bullshit regarding what happened in the gym. Chris had no idea that two assassins nearly fought to the death in front of him or that Eupiar had access to the Winston Churchill’s systems and cameras. The footage from the rumble would never see the light of day.

  Silver Raven docked aboard ESV Winston Churchill, Pluto orbit, Sol system

  Chloe let herself back on the Silver Raven, both armed guards standing were oblivious that a cloaked Jazz carrying Veloshira’s cloaked body was following behind her. He had the doors shut and they all made their way top side into the lounge. The two of them decloaked as Jazz used a long string of rope and tied Veloshira up to chair magnetized to the floor. He wasn’t going to take any chances once she awoke.

  Afterward Jazz called for Onatiasha and Zhinbryo to join them in the lounge. An extra level of insurance Chloe figured. Jazz, Chloe, Hashmedai guardian and warrior, Veloshira wasn’t going anywhere should she break free from her restraints.

  “Okay my part of the bargain is done,” Chloe said to him as she tossed the pack of sedatives his way. It tumbled and flipped as it neared him. “Now explain, Johnson, you obviously know more than what you’re letting on.” Jazz grunted, having never taken his eyes off Veloshira. “Vaishea is still in my head, I figured that part out.”

  That got his attention, he faced Chloe and grimaced. “Did ya now?”

  “Who do you think told me about the sedatives on me?”

  “Seems you got a split personality now.”

  Like Dr. Lynn and Avearan, she thought. No those two just had their minds swapped; I’m just a two in one deal by the sounds of things. “How long did you know about this Johnson?”

  “Since you started having problems sleeping.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  He mumbled as his gaze looked away from her. “You know damn well why.”

  Chloe nodded, having remembered the fight Jazz put up when he learned that removing Vaishea from her body meant her memories would be wiped out, thus killing her persona.

  “And no I didn’t plan this if that is what you’re thinking,”
Jazz said, “it just happened. Probably a side effect since you’re human and all this mind swapping tech wasn’t designed for use with humans.”

  “So what do we do with her?” Chloe said, gesturing toward Veloshira. “She going to be a problem?”

  “We’ll deal with her,” he said. “If there’s going to be a future issue, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “Don’t fuck this up, Johnson.”

  “You gotta promise me the same. If you got a sense of Vaishea’s mind, then you probably know how important she is to me.”

  You have no idea how important you are to her. “For what it’s worth, the tech that can fix my head exists in the hands of The Whisper,” Chloe said, to reassure him, as she knew now of the pact Jazz and Vaishea made without her knowledge. “Not much can be done out here, besides the war is more important right now. With that said, if she disrupts my duties.”

  “She comes out when you sleep and vice versa,” he said. “Hence the sedatives.”

  “Guess I’m going to need to stay awake longer too.” Caffeine, stim packs, the works, the longer Chloe stayed awake, the longer she could remain in control of her body and not have to hope Vaishea would hold up her end of the bargain. “Fucking eh, now I’m a stim pack junkie.”

  An hour passed, or was it two? Jazz couldn’t remember. Chloe had left to return to the Winston Churchill. Jazz, Onatiasha, and Zhinbryo hung around in the lounge chatting and catching up. It helped take his mind off the fact that once again he felt like a failure as he promised Vaishea to keep this under wraps. Now Chloe knew and was probably planning to inject all sorts of chems into her body to keep her mind normal.