Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Jazz woke up from his sleep.

  He didn’t want to, but Emelia did. What she asked, he had to obey.

  He entered Veloshira’s room as she slept and removed her weapons then shut and locked her door. He checked for Destiny. She wasn’t anywhere aboard the ship, excellent. He quickly suited up in his assassin gear, used the cloaking device and exited the Silver Raven. None of the flight deck staff saw his distortion field as he slipped out from its entrance and opened the hanger bay doors. Jazz had no idea how to activate the controls. Emelia however did as she whispered exactly what buttons to push and which passwords to use. Many of the flight deck crew members stared at the doors opening puzzled as to why it happened on its own while Jazz slipped back inside.

  His window of departure was limited as several crew members moved toward main control console. That was until the Silver Raven’s doors shut and its engines powered up. Its azure thrust pushed the craft out into space, nearly hitting people in the process. Jazz was given a new task by Emelia, just in case Veloshira woke up during the commotion and gained access to the main computers of the Silver Raven. He changed all passwords to ensure Veloshira wasn’t able override his lock.

  Now she was truly trapped.

  The Silver Raven entered sub light speeds on a direct journey to the new wormhole.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  ESV Winston Churchill, Uranus orbit, Sol system

  Destiny’s fists hurt. A lot.

  She made a mental note to think twice before punching an armored UNE naval personnel in the face.

  With the battle of Mars in the past, Destiny saw no need for the alliance between the Silver Raven’s crew and the UNE. Earth was saved, the imperial fleet withdrew and was under new management. Radiance, Hashmedai and the UNE knew the truth about the Celestial Order so mission accomplished. And that was a bad thing, as it meant she and Jazz would have to stand trial. Not on her watch. Dollon was dead because an order Jacob Miles gave, there was no way in hell she was going to go to court before she got her revenge. Thanks to the data Eupiar pulled, she was one step closer to pulling it off.

  Transports were constantly docking and leaving the airlocks of the Winston Churchill, some delivering replacement personnel, others relieving crew that were injured and needed to recover in proper hospitals on Earth. And it was Earth she needed to return to. Miles had family there and there were a few survivors from the HLF still in hiding that could help her.

  Had she known Jazz and the Silver Raven took off without notice, thus putting the whole ship on alert, she might have reconsidered attacking her two solider escorts as she tried to run and hijack a transport that was set to travel to Earth.

  Destiny found herself sitting in the brig once again, alone as she waited for what was to come to her next. Ironically a transport to Earth, one that would take her directly to jail.

  Jazz what the fuck man, she thought. You could have at least told me you were gonna bail.

  If it’s not one thing it’s the other, Xavier moaned internally.

  The reports of the Silver Raven leaving and Destiny showing her true loyalties happened right as large conference was being set up in the briefing room. The President along with Crimei was on Earth and had planned to speak via QEC to Avearan who managed to telepathically reach out to Kroshka, the new empress of the empire. Given the fact both Avearan and Kroshka understood English, it would be easier for Avearan to be the voice of the empire for everyone in the conference, though the process of finding Kroshka’s mind wasn’t an easy one from what Xavier learnt. She had to piggyback her telepathic thoughts with another Hashmedai psionic in the fleet. Crimei was to perform a similar task by speaking with a psionic who would relay information back and forth to the Radiance council, what was left of it.

  “Madam President,” Xavier said as President Mariana Salamanca projection appeared above his briefing room table as Crimei stood next to her.

  “Looks like you’ve got more problems on your hands, Captain,” Salamanca said.

  Xavier smiled and nodded as he knew she was referring to the news about Destiny, and the Silver Raven’s strange and sudden disappearance into a newly formed wormhole.

  “The real problem is the Celestial Order,” Crimei said.

  “The intel Major Vaughan and the Silver Raven gave us shows that the order is up to something significant in Barnard’s Star,” Xavier said.

  “We recently learned that the order has compromised one of our dreadnoughts, the Abyssal Pelican,” Crimei said. “They also attempted to take control of another one of our ships, while destroying another that knew the truth.”

  “The order according to the new empress and Captain T’esih’s observations has control over several ships in the imperial navy and was secretly influencing them to attack Earth,” Avearan said.

  “Smart I’ll give ‘em that,” Xavier said. “While we all fought and bickered, they grew stronger. They didn’t care if their members were human, Hashmedai or Radiance races.”

  “The empress wants order activity to stop in Barnard’s Star,” Avearan said. “And she is concerned about Jazz and the Silver Raven.”

  “Is it possible they were secretly working with the order?” Crimei asked.

  “Doubtful, they left Eupiar and Destiny behind, and they’re both shocked like the rest of us that this happened,” Xavier said.

  “The empress agrees,” Avearan said. “Jazz had been diligently investigating order activity in the empire prior to his return to Earth.”

  “He also mentioned something about not wanting to play a role in helping the order when he hesitated to kill me,” Salamanca said. “What do we know about the situation in Barnard’s Star other than what the Silver Raven crew provided us?”

  “We know that EDF is still alive and are hiding inside the Leviathan,” Xavier said. “That alone makes me say we enter that new wormhole.”

  “The council agrees,” Crimei said. “We managed to take control of our ships in that system, but the Pelican is formidable, they wouldn’t be able to defeat it alone. And now that the Leviathan and order loyal imperial ships are there . . .”

  Xavier internally laughed at the use of the word council. Two people running a nation isn’t exactly a council. “Entering Barnard’s Star will allow us to take a short cut to Rasi,” Xavier said. “The marines there should have arrived by now, they might need backup, and backup that wasn’t an option until a few hours ago.”

  “We should take the fight to them,” Salamanca said.

  Xavier said, “Agreed, I’m tired of always defending, let’s be the ones attacking.”

  “The empress is more than willing to send the ships here into the wormhole to assist,” Avearan said.

  “Imperial ships in Radiance territory,” Crimei said, with a cringe in his face and voice.

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Xavier said to him. “It’s bloody Celestial Order territory now and they’re planning something that could end all three of us. The order became strong because they worked together with Radiance races and Hashmedai. Let’s show ‘em what an alliance of ships from Radiance, the Empire and the UNE can do.”

  “We’ll be contacting our forces to expect you,” Crimei said.

  “Avearan can you communicate with the two psionics assisting EDF?” Xavier asked.

  “Di’aria and Noylarlie? I’ll try but there’s a lot of psionic minds on that ship I have to sift through.”

  “We got Michei back so you’ll have fewer psionic duties now.”

  “Which brings me to my next point. Captain T’esih has no shipboard psionic,” Avearan said. “I’d like to help her crew.”

  “Seriously?”

  “You know what it’s like to go into battle without one,” Avearan said. “And she’ll be taking command of the imperial fleet as an acting admiral.”

  “Very well then, nevertheless keep trying to reach them, our signal back to EVE will take some to reach.”

  All hands aboard the UNE and Imperial ships we
re buzzing with activity in preparation for the battle. Human and Radiance crew personnel made last minute repairs and upgrades to all UNE ships. Medical supplies were dropped off on all infirmaries thanks to Radiance along with additional doctors to be placed on standby. Additional rangers aboard were assigned to defense duties in case of a boarding party, while others grouped up with marines in preparation to head to Rasi once they entered the system.

  Solaris fighters were all repaired, refueled, and rearmed. Those that were outfitted with plasma cannons made the much-needed swap to rail guns for increased protection via shields. Red Lotus and several members of her squadron insisted on staying with the fleet, while the rest returned to the defense of Titan. Given the losses all UNE ships took, they were glad for the extra fighter support that would accompany them.

  Orbital looked to the stars out from the mess hall observation window. His eyes locked onto the brightest star Sirius as he muttered to himself. “Gonna make you proud Rebecca.”

  Avearan arrived at the Scathing Hand and took her post as their shipboard psionic. After getting used to the layout of the bridge and the strange looks from the crew, she sent telepathic message to Di’aria who then passed it on to the rest, EVE, and the rest of the EDF team. “Help is on the way,” was the message.

  Chloe was amazed to see how fast humanity and Radiance returned to working together while a group of engineers worked to strengthen the hull plating as her transport docked with the airlock of the Winston Churchill. Chloe had arrived back via the last transport sent from Earth, it was also the last transport planned to leave before the move to the wormhole began.

  As the airlock opened she saw droves of nonessential personnel wait to board as she pushed into the corridors of the ship. And discovered Eupiar was among those in the line up to board the transport with her laptop and bag slung over her shoulder.

  “Where the fuck are you going, kid?” Chloe said to her.

  “Back to Earth.”

  “Says who?”

  “Says the Captain, ‘war isn’t a place for a kid’ or something like that. Besides I’m still a minor, they won’t charge me with terrorist related crimes like they planned to do with Destiny and Jazz after this is over.”

  “That’s what you think.”

  “I was just a hired hacker, if anything EISS will give me a job, I know of all of their weak security protocols for some parts of their network.” Eupiar sighed and began to move toward the airlock as the last call to board was made. “They left me behind anyways.”

  Chloe held onto Eupiar shoulder. “That’s why I need you stay.”

  “I’d really like to see my mom and brother again.”

  “And if I’m right you might not ever again. Unless you help me. Help us find out what happened to the Silver Raven.”

  Chloe could see Eupiar’s thought processes roll, she looked toward the airlock then back toward Chloe and the airlock again. Her hands began to fidget. Stay or leave. Chloe hoped it was going to be the latter, for the sake of the galaxy.

  Twenty minutes later, Chloe entered the lab of the Winston Churchill. Behind her was Eupiar who went back to her original place and activated her laptop. She patted Eupiar on her shoulders as she flicked through the holographic displays that appeared.

  “Are you able to access the Silver Raven’s internal cameras from here?” Chloe asked.

  “We’re too far away.”

  “But if you were close you could yes?”

  Eupiar grinned while her hands typed quickly on her holographic keyboard. “I might have slipped a backdoor into it.” Her grin triggered some mild giggles.

  “Then I assume when the Silver Raven was still here you were getting regular updates from it?”

  “Nothing major since I wasn’t actively connected.”

  “Show me what you got from it. Anything before you lost contact.”

  A projection full of a long list of tiny words written in Hashmedai appeared. “Nothing that we didn’t hear from the eye witness accounts and sensor scans,” Eupiar said. “Once the hanger bay doors opened, the Silver Raven closed up and took off.”

  “Anything else before that?”

  “Well . . .” Her finger slid across the hologram and it caused it to scroll the text as she read on. “Main passwords were changed just before contact was lost and . . . What the fuck, a door was locked.”

  “It was the two of them aboard.”

  “Someone locked one of them out,” she said studying the logs. “It was either Jazz or Veloshira, and Veloshira was always at the stick. She must have gone after Chris after all.”

  “Only there’s a problem with that,” Chloe said. “How would she know where to find him? That wormhole appeared out of nowhere, we didn’t even know it existed when they left.”

  “The Silver Raven’s sensors wouldn’t have pinged it while still docked in the Winston Churchill.”

  Chloe (technically Vaish) was a host to one of the goddesses. Jazz was too if their encounter back in Vancouver proved anything. She remembered losing control of her body and mind for a moment, and nearly killed Odelea. The gem and the goddess linked with it made her do it. And according to Avearan, Ella did something similar and was still out their spaced out, surrounded by someone she described to fit the appearance of Hannah.

  It had to have been Jazz’s turn, Chloe experienced it, Ella did, Jazz was no different from them, he too was a host. The Silver Raven upped and left without warning and Eupiar’s logs showed signs of something shady going on prior to it vanishing and traveling to the wormhole. Jazz was heading to Oyuri against his will. Destroying the Celestial Order’s fleet wasn’t going to be enough to secure victory, she had to stop him.

  “Eupiar, when we enter the system, I want you to keep reaching out to the Silver Raven. Once you learn of something, anything, tell me and only me, right away. Okay?

  Chloe traveled to the armory on the opposite section of the habitat ring. She began to suit up in preparation for the coming storm with her protect suit. Gavin slid in as she adjusted her tactical visor, it was the first time she had seen him since his return from the dead. Bald head, cybernetically wired arms and chest. He was a walking symbol of how future soldiers might look like if they have psionic powers.

  “Chambers, love the new look.”

  “Care to join me and make a fashion statement?”

  “I’m not cool enough for that,” she said, smiling.

  “You might be,” he said, his voice was of a serious tone. “That gem—”

  “Not another word about that fucking thing.”

  “That fucking thing, gave me the potential to develop these gifts, just like Dr. Lynn. And you, you had that thing before I did.”

  Vaish technically had it, though Chloe was the one who held onto it after Anna passed. “I’m a psionic?”

  “You probably got what it takes to become one,” Gavin said. “When this is all over pay the Titan black site a visit.”

  “You came up here tell me all that?”

  “No I came for a side arm.”

  “You’re a psionic, you don’t need a gun.”

  “Fuck that.” He reached for an ePistol in the lock up. “I don’t have all the upgrades anyways. I’m still a work in progress.”

  Chloe sat in the armory long after Gavin left. She stared down at the pistol in her hands and tried to move it with her mind. As expected it remained in her hands. Is this what Hannah had meant in the first dream? She said I had to take the gem, was it so that I could become a psionic?

  ESV Sun Tzu, on approach to wormhole, edge of Sol planetary system

  The Sun Tzu came to a full stop before the mouth of the wormhole. It was the point of no return for the UNE and Imperial fleet as the ships behind also came to a stop. Through the wormhole one could see Oyuri and faint light from Barnard’s Star and the Leviathan, Pelican and order loyal imperial ships clustered together.

  Admiral Stone stepped up to her central hologram, happy she was able to do without ma
gnetic boots thanks to the return of her Radiance psionic. She took a deep breath, cleared her mind of all doubt, and knew that, win or lose, the galaxy would forever remember this day. The day the human race singlehandedly forced the Hashmedai Empire and Radiance Union to stand together with the UNE and take a stand to fight for freedom.

  “Take us through Ensign and tell the rest of the fleet to follow.”

  Scathing Hand, on approach to wormhole, edge of Sol planetary system

  “The human ships are entering first,” Delin said.

  T’esih looked at Avearan, the Hashmedai salvager who controlled a human body, who was her new replacement psionic. Most of the crew was worried about Avearan’s performance given her lack of cybernetics. T’esih was happy to have a replacement for Martop and happy to have a chance to avenge his unnecessary death at the hands of the Yominv.

  Yominv, she shook her head at the thought of him. “Let’s go, have all command ships release their ships and enter,” T’esih said.

  Abyssal Liberator, Barnard’s Star system

  Karklosea’s ESP sent imagery to her thoughts of a fleet entering the system via a strange singularity. It consisted of Hashmedai ships and human battleships. They all were appearing at an area of space near Oyuri.

  “The council wasn’t kidding,” Karklosea said. “Set a course to Oyuri, have all of our ships follow behind.”

  “Already on it,” the helmsman said.

  Leviathan, near Oyuri, Barnard’s Star system

  “Admiral—”

  “I see it,” Yominv muttered as he watched the situation unfold before his eyes.

  Human and Hashmedai worships loyal to Kroshka poured out of the wormhole, a wormhole Yominv requested to be shut down after the Silver Raven and the remaining order allied ships came across.

  “I somewhat wished I didn’t see it, however . . .” Yominv said. “Prepare for battle.”