“Do tell,” Jazz said. “I was there, but I had no idea what the fuck was goin’ on toward the end, outside of the stuff I had to take care of.”
“Fiesei, he was an exile that also worked for The Whisper, and assisted the order, basically playing roles on all three sides,” Heurol said. “He spent years on Earth plotting the events you went through as part of a plan to place human ideas and culture into Radiance to corrupt it.”
“Fiesei. That’s a familiar name,” Vaishea said.
“I’d bet,” Heurol said then waved his hand toward the Aryile Whisper agent. In his hands was a handheld device with a clear and empty vial at the end of it. The device was pressed against the back of Vaishea’s arm.
“Hey—”
“It’s just DNA screening,” Heurol said. “There’s a bunker downstairs. They’re going to see if they can use it to bring up your files. You were drawn to this place for a reason, and we’re about to find out why.”
The vial on the device quickly filled up with a sample of Vaishea’s blood. He then walked away out of the booth and toward a hidden elevator just across the booth’s entrance. Jazz, Vaishea and Heurol followed later on. The elevator took them down to a floor beneath the club. It was a small room decorated with dozens of computers, though many of them were inactive.
Some screens displayed video playback of what was happening in the club, other screens had security cam footage from difference cities within the arcology. Heurol led them toward the computer which was analyzing Vaishea’s blood sample, the Aryile from upstairs and Vorcambreum looked at the screen with a puzzled look.
“Well?” Jazz asked.
Vaishea, Heurol and the two Whisper members all spoke in the Radiance language. Whatever was revealed had Vaishea cross her arms with a puzzled face.
“Everything about her DNA is being blocked,” Heurol said to Jazz. “Whoever sent her on this mission wanted everything about Vaishea kept a secret right down to her genes.”
“I can’t really be part of this,” Vaishea said to Jazz.
“It’s what all sleeper agents say when they discover who they really are,” Heurol interjected. “Only having your true memories uploaded back into your head will reveal the truth to you.”
Abyssal Pelican, Oyuri orbit, Barnard’s Star system
Destiny’s screams of agony ceased as Sinzihea broke her psionic grip on her. Destiny’s arms and legs were tied to the chair she was forced to sit on while Sinzihea spent the last several hours administering her advanced psionic interrogation methods. By using her mind to crush Destiny’s internal organs, just enough to cause pain, but light enough not to cause any major damage. Adding to the torment, the organ was randomly selected, the most recent one being the muscles in her legs.
“I’ll ask again,” Sinzihea said. “Why are you, a human, on a Hashmedai ship in Radiance space with Jazz? What did Jazz tell you about the order? Where is he now?”
“And I’ll answer you again,” Destiny said. “Go fuck yourself.”
Destiny’s chest filled with pain. It felt like Sinzihea’s hand was crushing her heart and the arteries around it. Destiny’s screams began to flood the room once again, as Sinzihea laughed hysterically at her.
Silver Raven, Abyssal Pelican docking bay, Oyuri orbit, Barnard’s Star system
Eupiar and Veloshira watched from the shadows as the last group of rangers searching the Silver Raven leave for the night. A small group stood watch outside their ship, patrolling back and forth with their rifles drawn. Three quick laps back and forth provided them with enough confidence that they could decloak and recover battery power. All while avoiding the windows.
“Can your computer skills free us?” Veloshira asked Eupiar.
“Not sure, I’ll need my laptop back and access to this ship’s network.”
Veloshira grimaced. “Then its access you’ll get.”
“Do you even know what to look for?”
“No that’s why you’re coming with me.”
“Me?” Eupiar pointed toward the windshield, hoping that Veloshira would factor in the armed rangers outside of the Silver Raven. “Out there?”
“I can’t protect you if they come back and discover you,” Veloshira said. “And I don’t know what computers to tamper with that will allow you to break into their network.” Veloshira took a plasma pistol from her inside trench coat pocket, and handed it to Eupiar. “We might find where they’ve taken your friend as well.”
Chapter Seventeen
Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth, Sol system
President Mariana Salamanca sat at her desk in her office. The sun was setting in Geneva, reflecting on the waters of Lake Geneva in the distance. General Robert Landis, Fleet Admiral Mohammed Singh sat at a nearby couch next to Viceroy Crimei and the Vice President of Earth, Joseph Xiao.
Salamanca shut down the small translucent holoscreen she was gazing at, containing a detailed report from the data acquired from the Winston Churchill. “There’s no doubt about it,” she said, joining the rest of her guests. “The Hashmedai are using wormholes.”
“How is that even possible?” Crimei asked. “Hashmedai ship power output isn’t any different from UNE and Radiance ships.”
“An external source most likely,” said Xiao.
“Nevertheless, they now have a powerful tool,” Salamanca said to Crimei. “One more fearful than the space bridge. At least your people had an eight year heads up about an attacking fleet if your intel is on point.”
Singh stroked the beard on his face and concluded. “They could be on top of Earth any second now if they wanted.”
“Which begs the question why haven’t they done it yet?” asked Landis.
“They don’t have confidence,” Salamanca said and loaded a three-dimensional hologram. Within the hologram, it showed a map of the solar system, she highlighted with her hands the areas that were hit by the Hashmedai. “Look at this, all the targets they’ve hit with this advantage they have. Lightly guarded transports and stations, Uranus being their most ambitious target as it also resulted in them probably taking the H3 mines.” Everyone watched the hologram, drawing their own conclusions internally. “I don’t think they have what it takes to hit Earth with all the protection we have.”
“Or they’re softening us up,” Landis said. “Those transports we lost had crew on training missions or were transporting mined product to be used throughout the system.”
“And Uranus was our largest H3 mining operation,” said Xiao.
“Exactly,” said Salamanca.
“The next attack will either be in the asteroid belt hitting the mines there, or at Jupiter, Saturn, or Neptune,” Singh said.
“Shall we assign two ships at each of those locations?” Xiao suggested.
“That leaves Mars, Earth unprotected, not to mention our assets at Mercury and Venus,” Salamanca said.
“Before you push forward,” Crimei said. “I’m still under strict orders to withdraw my people from your ships.”
“Ah yes,” Landis said to Crimei. “The ever-helpful Radiance in this great time.”
“If it wasn’t for my people you all would be on the endangered species list, or worse.”
Crimei’s comment triggered a lot of displeased faces from everyone in the room, except Salamanca who cut in right away. “Enough,” she said, then faced Crimei. “Viceroy do what you have to do, but know this. If Radiance refuses to help, then we cannot share any further knowledge of the wormholes or the situation here. Feel free to let your government know of that.”
Without saying anything else, Crimei got up and proceeded toward the exit. There were no goodbyes or good luck spoken from any of the parties as they watched him step out of view.
“Well then, I think a much-needed break is in order here,” Salamanca said.
Radiance transport ship own route to Caribbean, Earth, Sol system
The night time aerial view of the Caribbean was painted inside of Crimei’s mind as he used his ESP gifts to
get a glimpse of the area. After all he sat at the back of the transport, away from any windows. When the Radiance fleet came to Earth to cast out the last Hashmedai, they established bases throughout the Caribbean then later an embassy in Jamaica. Two factors came into play that made them choose this location over everything else.
The first reason was due to the climate, Aryile and Javnis loved warm or tropical climates as per the evolution on their respective home worlds. The second was the conditions of the Caribbean compared to the rest of the world. It was one of the few regions that never got hit, Hashmedai viewed it as tactically unimportant. Every city, every bit of land remained unchanged from the harshness of war. Because they were islands means that the Hashmedai left behind after the war never quite made it over as they all ended up on the mainlands throughout the globe.
Today, those Radiance outposts and the embassy were the only places on Earth you could find members of Union after the recall order was issued. Thousands of Radiance races all gathered together in this one region of Earth, avoiding human contact, and eagerly waiting a ship from Lejorania Sanctum to take them back to Radiance controlled space.
There were just a few people missing from the ‘party’. Those that never got the invitation as of yet. Namely the psionics serving aboard the UNE fleet. Crimei sat back and allowed his mind to connect with all eight shipboard psionics in the fleet to deliver his telepathic message. An update on the last few hours and the council’s ruling. He then arranged to have a transport ship travel to each UNE ship to pick up their recalled psionic, then sighed in frustration. This was not what he signed up for, turning his back on the human race. Radiance was handing over the entire Sol system to the Hashmedai. All while being ignorant about the survival of the recalled Radiance forces, which had no means of leaving for another eight years.
The council has way too much pride.
ESV Winston Churchill, en route to Saturn, Sol system
The Winston Churchill and the Wilfrid Laurier had been in sub light speeds for almost two hours since meeting up with each other. Their destination? Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. The fast as light sensor scan continued to provide the two ships with an update in regard to the situation at Uranus. More Hashmedai ships arrived, completely annexing the sector. The shipboard psionics on both ships received their recall notice and orders to stop helping the crew, sensor scans were the only things the two ships along with the rest of the fleet had to work with in terms of knowing what was happening outside in space.
Inside the rec room, Gavin, Hijinks, Orbital and Aura sat a lounge table with grim faces on their heads, bottles of beer in their hands. Aura lifted her bottle high above her head and said. “To Greg ‘Hammer’ MacTavish.”
Four bottles clanged together to make a toast to their fallen brother in arms.
“Let’s keep him alive in our thoughts,” said Hijinks.
There was a silence afterwards when the level of beer in their bottles fell to the halfway mark. A silence Gavin didn’t want to be a part of so he got up and walked toward the observation window, ducking his head under some Christmas decorations. Directly outside was the Wilfrid Laurier as it flew slightly above the Winston Churchill while Saturn and its glorious rings slowly got larger in size as they closed the distance. Aura joined sometime later both peering out into the abyss and the sister ship.
“We need more ships than this,” Gavin said.
“There’s only so many that can be built with the resources we have,” Aura said.
“If the Wilfrid Laurier was with us during the attack—”
“Stop,” she said firmly, holding onto his shoulder.
“It’s just, he’s alive,” Gavin downed the last of his drink, and stared at the cold and empty bottle in his hands, “then gone. How many more of us are going to be gone by the time this conflict is over?”
“It’s war.”
“I know, I know,” he said. “I just lost so much since we discovered we aren’t alone in the universe. My wife, my unborn kid. When I learned that we had ships of our own plus Radiance, I thought that was it. Hashmedai would never step foot in this system again. Just needed to focus on protecting those that lived outside of Sol.” He paused having realized what he had just said. “I need another drink.”
What Gavin really wanted was the red gem back, twisted alien artifact or not it had a means of keeping him calm and clearing his head of negative thoughts. But it was gone, from what he heard it was in the hands of Chloe, wherever the hell she is.
“Fuck that,” Aura said. “Come with us. Hijinks has some holo movies in her quarters.”
“Well...”
“Funny stuff too, blokes from the old world doing standup comedy, we all need some laugher right about now.”
Movies, friends, and snacks... might not be a bad idea, he thought. Laughter was the best medicine as the old saying went, kicking back with some funny entertainment might be the pick me up he needed to stay focused on the coming trials ahead. The four off duty pilots walked toward the exit, as the doors slid open, Michei coincidentally was about to enter the rec room. Both he and Gavin made eye contact.
“Ah, Chambers,” Michei said as his left ear pivoted to the side.
“What’s up?” Gavin asked
“Free for a moment? Wanted to talk.”
Gavin looked at the rest of his flight team as they proceeded further down the hall. Aura looked back at him and said. “Chat with him, Hijinks needs to find the vids anyways. We’ll keep a seat warm for ya.”
He followed Michei back inside the rec room, taking note of the odd glares Michei shot toward the numerous Christmas decorations and the small Christmas tree in the corner. Seconds later both Chris and Sarah entered, both wearing off duty attire like Gavin.
“Ah perfect,” Michei said, wagging his tail.
“Chambers too?” Sarah asked.
“May as well. He was with you all during your time at Lejorania,” Michei said.
Gavin was puzzled at the situation and asked. “You invited them?”
“Let’s all have a seat,” Michei said as eyes returned to the Christmas tree. “Sorry, I’ve seen so many of these around, is there a reason for them?”
Everyone took a seat, while Chris explained to Michei. “It’s a Christmas tree. I take it your people never briefed you when you were assigned to work with our race?”
“They might have, but those memories are fuzzy right now,” said Michei. “Which brings me to why I asked you all here now. No unwanted ears around. You three are the only ones I can trust at the moment, now that Major Vaughan is missing and Dr. Lynn is being held at Titan.”
Gavin saw distressed frowns grow on Sarah and Chris’ face. Sarah ended up breaking the silence by muttering, “Oh boy...”
“During the incident two months ago,” Michei said. “I discovered I was a Whisper sleeper agent after my real memories were uploaded back into my head.”
Sarah asked. “Is that why you and Chloe—”
Michei cut in “Yes, and it’s probably the reason I was never punished for my actions by my superiors, someone high up wanted me to stay.”
“What was your mission?” she asked.
“To take care of Fiesei and other Celestial Order members that might be in the system. That mission, however, is finished, yet here I remain, haven’t gotten new orders. Word has it, most of The Whisper has been compromised by the order or exiled rebels. And now the council is requesting all Radiance personnel to withdraw from your people.”
“Right,” Chris said and nodded.
“I can’t do that, I have to stay here. My superiors if they’re alive have probably gone into hiding which is why I haven’t gotten new orders. Then there’s Dr. Lynn and her link with that gem... Something that warrants further investigation on my part, something I need your help with.”
“You want to come to Titan?” Chris asked.
“I need to vanish from the Winston Churchill, make it look like I’m following the Viceroy’s orders
. But really, I need to remain separated from the rest of my people. At least until I get new orders from a trusted source from The Whisper.”
“Any ideas on how to pull something like that off?” Sarah asked, looking at Gavin and Chris.
“You really want to go through with this?” Chris said to her.
“My sister put her whole career on the line to work with him,” she said. “If she did something like that, it was for a good cause. So yeah, I’m in.”
“All right then,” Chris said, leaning in closer to Sarah and Michei.
“Well I’ve already been confined to quarters once,” Gavin said, leaning in closer as well. “Why the fuck not? Now what’s the plan?”
“The transport is expected to meet us at Titan. They plan to take me and the Wilfrid Laurier’s psionic back with them,” said Michei. “So that gives us two more hours to figure something out.”
Earth Cube, Geneva, Earth, Sol system
“How much longer?” Salamanca asked.
She along with Vice President Xiao, Admiral Singh and General Landis sat at the large table within the war room of Earth Cube. The lighting in the room dimmed slightly as a massive hologram appeared in front of them.
Singh raised his hand to explain the imagery before them. “We have a few more hours. The Winston Churchill and Wilfrid Laurier are the furthest ships out and therefore will be the last ones with Radiance psionics aboard until the transport arrives to take them off.” He continued. “This is going to weaken the whole fleet, no ESP, no psionic guided weapons, no teleportation, no over shields. If there’s a Hashmedai ship forty light minutes in front of a ship it will take them—”
“Yes, yes. I get it,” Salamanca said.
Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 Page 28
