Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Because exterior systems were all alone, each had two or three command ships in orbit around each planet. In addition, each system was required to have a minimum of three ship yards and be one hundred percent self-sufficient, reducing the need for cargo ships to create congestion within the space bridge network. Onatiasha saw firsthand the primary source of the systems resource independence as the transport she, Zhinbryo and Di’aria rode on emerged from their two-month re-materialization limbo from the space bridge. A purple gas giant was not only home to helium-3 mining, but its five moons all were large enough to have an atmosphere warm enough for farms, underground mines, and manufacturing plants.

  The planet Taxah was the next planet up as their transport zipped past the gas giant at sub light speeds. For a split second, Onatiasha was reminded of Earth, as the two worlds looked very similar. Blue in color, white clouds and colossal oceans keeping its continents separated from one another. The average surface temperature was slightly cooler than it was on Earth according to the holographic display Onatiasha peered at as the world came closer to them. In other words, warmer than most Hashmedai would like, but much cooler than she had to endure during her time on Earth. It goes without saying, the vast majority of all the cities on Taxah were located around the south and northern poles of the planet. Its capital city, Muro was located at the South Pole, the final destination of their large transport ship.

  The transport slowly lowered toward a landing pad in the frozen courtyard of Lord Hasiv’s manor. Most of the sunlight from the bright blue sequence star was blocked out by the immense alien trees that decorated the courtyard. The branches were almost as big the trunks of the trees themselves. Onatiasha, Zhinbryo, Di’aria, and dozens of other Hashmedai exited the transport as its doors swung upwards. With their belongings in hand they walked toward the manor while the other Hashmedai aboard the transport went toward their assigned posts. They were greeted by four blue skinned young servants, two male, and two female all wearing their red servant uniforms.

  One of the female servants stepped forward and extended her arms outward to greet them. “Welcome to Taxah,” she said. “I am Kezea, and I shall be your guide.”

  Kezea nodded toward the two male servants, and they took the baggage Onatiasha, Zhinbryo, and Di’aria was carrying. Onatiasha shamelessly took a peek at the male servant’s chests as their tops weren’t fully buttoned up. Eye candy for her and Di’aria she figured, Hasiv always insisted on his guests being amused in every way imaginable. “Is Lord Hasiv available to speak with us?” Onatiasha asked as the male servants carried their belongings away.

  “He is currently having his first meal,” Kezea said. “He will, however, be more than happy to meet with you three afterwards. In the meantime, please allow us to show you around.”

  “I would rather eat first,” Zhinbryo said with a grunt.

  Hunger was all but invisible to Onatiasha until Kezea mentioned Hasiv enjoying his first meal. “I suppose we all could have a meal before familiarizing ourselves with the palace.”

  “As you wish,” Kezea said, and addressed the remaining female servant. “Cinuia, please inform the chef we have three hungry guests.”

  Onatiasha sat on a chair facing a large oval window inside of the ward room of Hasiv’s manor. It was small dark room with a square shaped table at the center, dozens of chairs surrounded the table, sans one of course, being the one Onatiasha dragged toward the window, which was also the only source of light in the room. She partook in her first hour of watching the snow fall while waiting for Hasiv to appear. Something she was quickly growing tired off, watching snow while waiting for people.

  The reflection of the withered yellow eyed man appeared in the glass before her. At last, she thought and spun in her chair to face Hasiv. “I’ve kept my end of the bargain,” she said. “You have your protection.”

  “Yes, yes, this is much appreciated,” Hasiv’s aging voice said.

  “Intel, all of it or we leave.” Stern, direct, to the point, Onatiasha’s concern was the Celestial Order, not protecting an old lord overdue for retirement.

  “Come, come,” he said, beckoning her. “I am much too old to be speaking to someone so far away.”

  Reluctantly, she stood from her chair, walking toward one end of the table where Hasiv sat. She looked down toward him, ensuring that he was nowhere near enough to grope her. He frowned upon seeing she was out of range then jerked his head in a come-closer-dear motion. “This is close enough,” Onatiasha said.

  “Well—”

  “If you want to continue to have the power to stroke the smooth skin of the women in your harem, you will stay there, and I will stand here.”

  “You are a fiery one!” he said and began to chuckle, a chuckle that later transformed into three deep coughs. “Well here’s what I got so far,” he said and conjured a hologram. “As you know the order is building something big.”

  “Yes, and shipping all the deserters they recruited from the failed Earth invasion toward it.” The hologram finished loading, Onatiasha’s semi-orange glowing eyes analyzed the projection between them. “A ship?”

  “Not just any ship.” The hologram zoomed in closer to the massive battleship, while another image loaded of a command ship. “A dreadnought super-carrier hybrid, it will be the largest ship known when completed.”

  “Pointless,” Onatiasha said. She quickly noticed that it was longer than the command ship hologram being presented. “You can barely fit that inside a command ship.”

  “It won’t need a command ship. Its fire power output is said to be equal to half a fleet. It can launch three times as many fighters as our current carriers can, and as you can tell by its size it has more than enough room to hold thousands upon thousands of ground forces.”

  “A single command ship with a fleet worth of ships could still out perform that.”

  “Yes, but it takes a command ship at least eight years to rematerialize after passing through the space bridge. This ship can appear within hours.”

  Nonsense, she thought. The length of time it takes for a ship going through the space bridge is based on its size and mass. “How? Yes, it’s a single ship, but the mass of it alone will still result in it taking years to appear much like the command ship.”

  “Ah but remember, the Celestial Order isn’t just here in the empire, but in the Radiance Union as well. The Linl before joining the union discovered a means of reducing mass within an object. Radiance never integrated this tech into the union, deeming it against the will of their gods. The order however, has a very different interpretation of the Radiance gods and their holy texts.”

  Onatiasha grimaced at the statement, advance technology in the hands of religious zealots meant that a lot of people were going to lose their lives very soon. “So, they see this mass reducing technology as okay to use?”

  Halfheartedly Hasiv answered her. “Yes.”

  “And this ship has it. Wonderful.”

  “Not quite. Humans have it right now.” Hasiv took a deep breath, then continued to speak. “The mass reducing device was stored away at Lejorania Sanctum, a former Linl colony. The human refugees that fled Earth during our invasion made a new home there, and formed a military group to protect themselves. That group was given the technology and a few others to use since humans don’t follow the word of the Radiance gods. As long as that tech stays in the hands of humans, this ship will never be fully operational. Though I don’t think it will remain like that forever. The planet Foicanta is an order stronghold and it’s not far from Lejorania Sanctum.”

  “If the order attacks the human base on Lejorania Sanctum.”

  “They could get their hands on this, yes, and I’ve heard rumors humans have settled on Foicanta as well. If that’s true it will only make the order’s job easier.”

  Onatiasha once again looked at the holographic projection of the massive dreadnought and said. “They could then reduce the mass of the ship, send it through the space bridge and appear in any
system of their choice throughout the galaxy in a matter of hours opposed to years.”

  “A fleet of these ships could bring the Hashmedai Empire and Radiance Union to ruins with ease,” Hasiv said while he waved his hand across the hologram, causing it and the blue and purple light it generated to vanish.

  “And the empress is supporting this project, thinking they’ll use it in her name.” Facing Hasiv, she asked. “What else do you have on this?”

  “That’s all I have, remember I am not with the order anymore. The contact on Paryo I told you about will have the latest details, including if they finished building this. Though, I’m fairly certain they did not.”

  Zhinbryo shook his head as he walked through the halls of the manor. He was surprised at how everyone living here took advantage of the many pleasures to be found, while producing very little work. Yes, this was Taxah, a colony founded on the idea of Hashmedai returning and embracing the old ways of lust, pleasure, gaining material items namely ordinates for your home, more lust, and dominating the cold lands outside of the city.

  But there was a war going on.

  One that could result in exterior colonies like this being the last remaining Hashmedai strongholds should Radiance or the order become successful in their campaign. These people should be preparing for the unexpected, not bathing in fornication.

  “Zhinbryo, we need to talk.” Onatiasha’s voice echoed from his ear communication implant.

  “What do you wish to discuss?”

  “Not over the comm, let’s speak in person.”

  “My quarters should be fine then. I plan to retire for the evening.” The sun may be shining, but the day night cycles on this world were very different. If this was Paryo, or Earth the sun would have set hours ago.

  As planned, they met within Zhinbryo’s quarters, a small resting area with a bed at the back where he sat, and a desk and computer workstation on the opposite end, in which Onatiasha took a seat. A single dim light on the wall provided just enough illumination to see what was directly in front of them. Onatiasha finished bringing him up to speed regarding her latest discovery about the order.

  “How do we stop such a force?” Zhinbryo said after ten minutes of silence.

  “I don’t know,” said Onatiasha. “We still need to remain silent about how we conduct things. The order still believes that we know nothing of their existence.”

  “We need an army.”

  “Good luck with that, bad enough we lost most of our support in this matter. Jazz is back on Earth. Phylarlie is being useless as always and Kroshka...”

  “We should not bring the princess into this.”

  “Right, but as it stands, it’s just us two.”

  “An army of two.”

  “An army of two because nobody else in the empire can be trusted, because the order has infiltrated too many sections of it—” Onatiasha paused mid speech. An idea slapped into her mind. “Wait that’s it.” She spun around in her chair to directly address Zhinbryo.

  “Infiltrate the order?”

  She nodded. They were indeed on the same level of critical thinking. “We cut out its heart from the inside.”

  Muro, Taxah, Uelcovis system

  The city of Muro was located at the base of the hill on which Hasiv’s manor was built. Taxah being a colony founded on the old ways of Hashmedai life featured smaller buildings with a simpler design. Many of them were built with wood and bricks and went no higher than three stories. The streets were made of marble, sometimes it was hard to tell with all the snow. Heavily populated areas like markets were plowed by laborers when people slept, so that they could walk freely when their day started.

  The downtown core was almost free of any signs of snow as far too many people needed to cross the streets in order to get to where they needed, especially the infamous entertainment districts. Every corner had some form of live performance on display. A strong blue-skinned man wearing nothing but a small loincloth dazzled spectators as he lifted heavy cinder cubes with one hand. Another man juggled five glass bottles flawlessly with his nimble hands and Hashmedai speed. A trio of young women danced in union, wearing nothing but black strips of ribbons that hung off their shoulders and dangled down toward their legs.

  Trios of women were a common sight, if they weren’t performing they were standing with their male partner in life, whom they all shared. Women who were single typically grouped together with two of their closest female friends and attempted to lure strong and independent alpha male men, whispering promises that their trio would make the perfect mates for him.

  Di’aria wondered what life would have been like had Radiance ships not landed on Paryo thousands of years ago offering the Hashmedai people technology to travel the stars. Would they still live like this? Or was the old doomed to become an act that only a small percentage of the population participated in.

  She walked into an auction house, several well-off nobles sat inside the darkened building, offering to exchange goods for a new young selection of servants and slaves. One by one, young men and women with various shades of blue skin were made to walk on the stage, while the auctioneer listed their status and skills as the buyers shouted what they were willing to trade to get the servant or slave in question. At times it was hard for her to understand what was being said, Taxahan Hashmedai spoke using the old Hashmedai language.

  Di’aria however, wasn’t interested in what was being offered. No, she was here for another reason. A man sat in the back row, he wore a black low cut V-neck shirt, his skin was a dark pink with short purple hair, and his eyes glowed a deep orange. Di’aria sat next him, and acted as if she was interested in purchasing a servant.

  “Is this your first time in a Taxahan city?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she whispered. “I’ve studied this world many times when I was younger. The planet that was a partial snapshot of the old Hashmedai ways.”

  “I’d ask if you were going to partake in some lust on the side but we have to accelerate our plans.”

  “I was a breeder. I’ve had my fair share of cocks in life anyways.”

  “The last human atomic weapon has been found.”

  “That’s a shame. I was hoping to spend a few days here before things got out of hand.”

  “They won’t get out of hand if we do our jobs correctly.”

  Di’aria conjured a small holographic window and forced it lower toward their legs, away from unauthorized eyes. The projection was one of both Onatiasha and Zhinbryo. “They have potential, the two I came here with”

  “I need proof.”

  “I’ll give it to you, just don’t get in my way,” she said, terminating the hologram. A tall muscular dark-blue-skinned naked man was brought on the stage. The auctioneer mentioned something about him being the perfect pleasure slave for women. “So, this is where Phylarlie and Noylarlie were born. I can see why Noylarlie has such anger issues. I’d be upset if this city was taken away from me.”

  Two classy women in front of Di’aria giggled and whispered to each other, before offering what they were willing to pay for the slave on stage, a cargo transport full of Kejnoran wine. Or was it two transports? Taxah had different words for numbers.

  Chapter Ten

  Imperial execution camp, Paryo, Uemaesce system

  Empress Y’lin stood in the center of a grimy boxed shaped camp. Hashmedai guardians armed with plasma pole arms stood side by side her as another group stood next to a small and cramped jail cell, the only one on the planet. Y’lin’s white hair blew backwards in the wind as the chilly winds brushed across the deep red make up on her mature face.

  Kroshka sat in a chair behind Y’lin, her hands trembled as she debated how she was going to get through this ordeal. She had her long platinum blonde hair hanging loose and wore a white translucent gown, much like the one Y’lin had on. Kroshka’s guardian Eeladen sat next to her donning the typical guardian heavy armor, shield and plasma sword holstered to his side.

  “Bring fo
rth the next group,” Y’lin said. A group of prisoners were immediately yanked out of the jail by the armed pike men. Their faces and ripped clothes were covered in dirt. Some of them didn’t have any clothes on at all, especially the women. Kroshka didn’t want to know what the guards were doing with those women the night before.

  “You have all been convicted of the following crimes.” Y’lin began to read a holographic list that projected in front of her and addressed them respectively, “Theft, unauthorized murder, hiding a psionic within your household, theft, theft, desertion, refusal to perform assigned career path, hiding a psionic within your household, wait sorry, three counts of hiding psionics within your household.” She pushed the hologram away and stepped closer to the group. “The empire treats you well, protects you from the lunatics of the Radiance Union and any other danger the galaxy may place in your path. All I ask for in return is your loyalty and total devotion but the crimes you have committed clearly show, however, you are not loyal or devoted to me.” She walked past them, one by one, shaking her head in disgust, unaffected by the weeping noises some of them made. “Do you regret what you have done? Do you wish you had been loyal and devoted to me?” There was no reply. “Very well, none of you deserve to live!”