“I’m not sensing any ships from Souyila, Infinite Cybernetics, or Fadeyushka.”
Souyila, Infinite, and Fadeyushka were the big three as people called them. Souyila was Radiance’s biggest corporation while Infinite Cybernetics was the UNE’s largest corporation and biggest competitor to Souyila. Fadeyushka Tech was a Morutrin Prime company, one that employed all species across the galaxy. It was also one of the few businesses in Morutrin that was legitimate and not corrupted by the criminals that ran rampant.
None of the three had any influence or interests with the mining platforms around the Rezeki’s Rage.
“Mercenaries it is then,” Peiun said. “The miners must have hired them to watch and defend them from pirates.”
Alesyna laughed. “Mercenaries that aren’t protecting their clients.”
The Rezeki’s Rage drifted in between two asteroids, closing the distance between it and a mining platform. There were two pirate ships next to the platform, their weapons aimed squarely at it, hitting it with a steady burst of red and white lines of light from rail gun fire. White mist ejected away from the mining platform’s main operation center, carrying with it flailing bodies into space slowly crystallizing from the cold. None of them wore an EVA suit.
“Full stop,” Peiun ordered.
Nadevina confirmed. “Coming to a full stop.”
All eyes on the bridge studied the slaughter unfolding via the view screen. Not one owner of said eyes was able to come up with a theory as to why miners would operate out in this region without any protection.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Peiun said.
“I sense other platforms coming under attack,” Alesyna said.
“These platforms have been around for years,” Peiun said. “Why would the pirates attack them now? And why would they operate without protection?”
“I don’t know, let’s ask the pirates why this is so,” Alesyna said to him.
“I doubt they will reply to our hails.”
“I doubt it too,” Uemsu said, then stroked his weapons firing console. “But plasma cannons . . .”
Peiun grinned at the young gunner, and then returned his sights to the viewer before him. “Helm, take us into effective firing range.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Two pirate ships using century-old technology, against the Rezeki’s Rage. Peiun ran the numbers through his head, then into his HNI to confirm as they neared the battle. The results were looking good, unless the pirates received backup.
“Alesyna, how far is the nearest pirate group?”
“At least fifteen minutes should they enter sub light,” she said.
Peiun chuckled softly. When pitted against UNE, Radiance, or Draconian ships, the Rezeki’s Rage was at a disadvantage as far as speed went since they lacked FTL. Most ships in operation within the Morutrin system were built before FTL and were refurbished as time went on. The playing field was even, so long as they weren’t outnumbered. Old and sick Paryo wolves could still kill a lone target if you unleashed enough of them to work in unison.
“Keep your mind on them, Alesyna,” Peiun said. “We’re about to enter combat when in range.”
The image of the pirates and mining platform expanded in size on the view screen when they neared. The pirate ships continued their assault, spraying the platform with a torrent of tracer light from their weapons. None of them wavered. They most likely lacked shipboard psionics to let them know of what existed beyond the two asteroids the Rezeki’s Rage was behind earlier.
Peiun brought up the tactical data with his HNI. Holographic overlays on his eyes sent him relevant figures, such as their speed, estimate time to enter effective weapons range, based off Alesyna’s ESP. Accuracy percentages rose, the plasma cannons primed and powered up, and the shield rating of the pirate ships appeared afterward. It shouldn’t take too many direct shots from the forward plasma cannons to shatter their shields.
“We’re in range now,” Uemsu said, not that he needed to know that. Peiun could see it with his HNI.
Peiun gave the order. “Fire!”
Twin shimmering orbs of emerald colors bolted away from the Rezeki’s Rage. They were hot enough to glass a region of a planet the size of a small city or vaporize the hull of unshielded ships. Its light shone upon various darkened asteroids out of the direct sunlight of the Morutrin star. The plasma hit their intended target, creating havoc on its shields with a light show of blue and green colors, officially commencing the start the battle.
“Direct hit!”
The two pirate ships put an end to their attacks and came about quickly, spraying their rail guns in the direction the plasma came from. The forward psionic overshields of the Rezeki’s Rage flashed purple and deflected the first wave of projectiles, protecting the ship’s main shields from losing power. The rail gun fire from the pirates could have easily filled the ship with holes and vented atmosphere, had it not been for their two layers of energy barriers.
Of course, if the two pirate ships weren’t dealt with in time, such a scenario could become a reality when the overshields and shields fail.
“Shall I engage the MRF?” Nadevina quickly spat.
Peiun was impressed with the fire that was in the voice of the new adult woman, whom was originally destined to be a school teacher, not a helmswoman.
“No, keep the MRF offline,” Peiun said. “I don’t want them to know we have that installed. It will only make us a more lucrative ship to board and raid.”
The weapons exchange continued as both sides refused to yield. Peiun’s orders ensured that the Rezeki’s Rage was always five light-minutes away from the two pirate ships. This way, it would take five minutes for their sensor scans to detect the Rezeki’s Rage, and then another five minutes to return back. The pirate’s combat data was always ten minutes out of date, during which the Rezeki’s Rage would change its location, drift away from the line of fire from their targets, spin then recommence the plasma assault. Alesyna’s mind saw everything in real time and relayed those thoughts into the tactical battle data.
Psionic personnel were the key to winning in naval combat, and the sole reason why when the Radiance Union sought to enter a genocidal war against the Hashmedai, targeted psionics. Men, women, children, the sick, and old, any Hashmedai that possessed the mental gifts of psionics were slaughtered by the millions. But like the cunning humans that rose from the ashes of Earth, during the Empire’s failed attempt at wiping them out, Hashmedai psionics continued to prevail to this day. Their numbers may not have recovered, but they still existed, and helped ships like the Rezeki’s Rage outwit their adversaries.
“There’s no change in the movements of the nearest pirates,” Alesyna said as the battle continued, shining its explosive luster onto the dimly lit bridge.
Peiun nodded. “Those ships probably don’t have psionics as part of their crew either.”
He quickly viewed the HNI tactical data projecting over his eyes. It would take an estimated seven and a half minutes for the closest pirate group to realize their friends were under attack, then change course traveling at sub light speeds, half the speed of light to be exact. Another fifteen minutes would pass before they arrived. The Rezeki’s Rage had twenty-two point five minutes before they had to deal with reinforcements. Twenty-two point five minutes to dispatch the two ships and investigate what was going on.
This of course didn’t take into account the amount of time that had already passed since the fighting started, or the locations of other pirate groups within the belt. The range of Alesyna’s ESP was reduced as predicted, in order for her mind to focus on the new duties given to her, like maintaining the collapsing overshield.
Peiun looked down at the asteroid and the mining platform it was attached to. He hoped there was secretly a mercenary base with the Fortune Runner docked inside.
The shields of both pirate ships shattered. A follow-up barrage of plasma caused the reactor of one ship to go critical and explode with anger. Half-vaporized
chunks of metal flew about, and its crew joined the drifting frozen miners now in orbit next to the asteroid mining platform. It was fitting punishment for their actions.
It was debatable if the second pirate ship got off better, the plasma that hit it didn’t cause its reactor to explode. It triggered a number of internal fires that spread from deck to deck. The presence of flames meant there was still oxygen pumping through its life-support systems. Those that survived the blast should still be alive, just trapped, and unable to escape from the flames that would eventually devour them, or they would choke to death from the toxic smoke. It wasn’t like being in a burning house, where one could run outside to escape the flames. Running outside of a burning ship, meant leaping out the airlock.
“Ceasefire,” Peiun ordered. “Remember we are here to speak with them. The pirates on that first ship are incapable of answering our questions. Alesyna, is teleportation an option?”
“No, they have mind shields.”
“I may be able to disable it with an accurate shot,” Uemsu offered.
Peiun adjusted the top of his uniform. “Show me its location.”
Uemsu sent the data to his HNI. It appeared as a projection of the burning ship, data pulled from the most recent ship scans and Alesyna’s ESP thoughts. A flashing yellow icon pulsed. It was near the pirate ship’s reactor.
“Let’s not risk making their reactor go critical,” Peiun said standing up from his chair, proceeding to exit the bridge. “We’ll force our way in with a transport. Have two fine warriors and a guardian meet me in a transport.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Alesyna, you are in command.”
15 Foster
XSV Johannes Kepler
En route to next wormhole jump, Interstellar Space
October 14, 2118, 09:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Sickbay was located on the middle deck, an elevator ride and brief walk down the corridor for Foster. Normally it would have taken one no longer than three minutes to walk there from the crew quarters, but with the colonists recently rescued from the Kapteyn’s Star system occupying most of the free space on the ship, it took Foster fifteen minutes.
She couldn’t bring herself to aggressively shove her way past the weakened, tattered, and soot-covered people. Some of them wept, she hoped it was tears of joy for being saved at last, though she knew that was probably not the case for many. She too was once like these people, having survived the Imperial invasion of Earth, losing her father, some of her friends and relatives in the process. Most of these tears were shed in memory of those left behind.
Foster spotted Saressea, the Radiance liaison officer and jack-of-all-trades girl aboard the Kepler. It wasn’t hard as Saressea was the only nonhuman, a Rabuabin at that, struggling to navigate through the sea of broken colonists.
“Hey Saressea,” Foster said to her as the two neared. “Sorry about the, uh, visitors we’s got.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, unless they’re blocking my way to engineering,” Saressea said. “Or worse, huddled inside of it.”
“I made it clear to them, that place is off-limits.”
“And I’m pretty sure they were too scared to listen, but we’ll find out soon enough.” Saressea waved her hands, creating a holographic list in the process. “Oh, and since you’re here, can you send this to Rivera when you get the chance.”
Foster grabbed the hologram and slid it onto the desktop of her wrist terminal’s holo screen. “What is it?”
“I made a lot of adjustments to the operation of the ship. If Rivera’s going to be taking over as chief engineer, she’ll need to know about these.”
“Rivera might be delayed in that move,” Foster said. “She’s still stuck with the salvage of the Carl Sagan.”
“Any idea how long? I need to give an orientation to the new personnel Radiance navy will be assigning to this ship.”
“Not up for the extra work, Miss jack-of-all-trades?”
“After what your pilot put this ship through? We’re going to need someone skilled enough to work in engineering and make sure that oversized FTL drive doesn’t fly apart. Not to mention repairs.”
“I’ll see what I can do to fast track it.”
“Thank you, I’m fine with engineering duties. I’m not fine with doing that plus being the ranking Radiance officer and all the administrative bullshit that comes with the job.”
Foster made her way into sickbay, musing at what the ship would be like once it was fully staffed with a crew of half UNE and half Radiance personnel. As she suspected, sickbay was filled with the survivors that needed medical attention, forcing Foster to carefully sidestep around those that had to rest on mats on the floor. Kostelecky opted to frantically yell at people that got in the way. She followed the sound of her voice and found Kostelecky overseeing a medical bed Nereid had been recovering on.
Foster approached her from behind and with a gleaming smirk said. “What can I do for you, Doc?” Kostelecky faced Foster, giving her the look of death. “Tor?”
“You need to stop socializing with Williams,” Kostelecky scowled.
“You brought me down here, to tell me that?”
“No, it’s the matter with Nereid.” Kostelecky stepped aside to allow Foster to look down at Nereid.
“How ya feelin’, Nereid?” Foster asked her.
“Much better now thanks to the doctor,” Nereid spoke softly with a hint of exhaustion in her voice. “A little different, but better.”
Foster crossed her arms. “Different, in what way?”
Kostelecky tapped the screen on her medical scanner. It conjured a projection of Nereid’s brain from its scans. “Nereid’s brain, for lack of a better term, has undergone some drastic changes.”
“Such as?”
“I can’t say for sure, most of my medical records of her were lost with the Carl Sagan,” Kostelecky said. “But I’m certain these readings right here, are different from when I last scanned her. I just don’t have the data to have a clear and exact comparison.”
Foster looked at the projection unable to make sense of its labels and various colors that highlighted different parts of Nereid’s brain. She bit her lip. “So, what are we looking at, Kostelecky?”
“As you know, psionics are unique people that have unlocked the full power of their brains.”
“Yeah, and then the cybernetics plus a chip in implanted in their head takes that power and doubles it.”
“Nereid, like all the species we found in Sirius, is different. Not only are her abilities unique, but she doesn’t require the implants, humans, Hashmedai, and Radiance species needs.” Kostelecky changed the holographic projection into one that that displayed numbers and stats about Nereid’s psionic output. “And according to this, her powers might have grown further, there’s a lot more psionic brainwave activity. Whatever torment you put through her yesterday, is changing her.”
Nereid sat up slowly facing the two. “This would explain why I am feeling different.”
“Could this be a result of the training Tolukei had been giving her to become a better shipboard psionic?” Foster said.
“That training from what I understand is just meditating and practice, it shouldn’t change her brain like this,” said Kostelecky. “Again, I could be wrong since I don’t have any data to compare this to, but I’m certain she has changed. I wouldn’t be a good doctor and xenobiologist if I had an awful memory.”
“Wish I could help, Doctor, but last I checked, all data on the Carl Sagan had been tampered with.”
Kostelecky stroked her chin as her eyes narrowed. “Flight data, yes, but what about medical data?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure about that,” Foster said. “Rivera is still sifting through the wreckage. I could put in a word for her to check it out.”
“What about the human medical staff that examined us on Earth?” Nereid asked.
Foster thought back to the previous summer when and she and her team crash-landed the Carl Sa
gan and were briefly taken into custody by EISS. EISS doctors conducted detailed scans and medical examinations on them.
“I suppose they might have something,” Foster revealed.
“Do you really think EISS is going to share that information with us?” Kostelecky said drily. “I’m sure that asshole Moriston has it in for us.”
“We’s the spearhead of this mission. Whatever we need, I’m sure they’ll give it to us, regardless if it’s classified or not.”
“Well, see if you can get them to cooperate,” Kostelecky said, shutting down the hologram. “I don’t ever want to speak to EISS personnel again!”
Kostelecky pushed past Foster, nearly shoving her to the floor. The blonde and feisty European woman stormed off into her office out of sight. Foster heard the sound of her scanner being slammed onto her desk. She may or may not have cracked it. Something about that conversation got Kostelecky triggered and thinking back to Moriston’s interrogations. If Foster remembered correctly, Kostelecky was very silent for a long time after EISS had released them.
“Am I free to leave?” Nereid asked.
“Um?” Foster looked to Kostelecky’s office. She didn’t exit or give a reply. “Doctor, can Nereid go?”
“Yes, yes, you’re fine, leave!” Kostelecky shouted back.
She may be fine, but you aren’t, Doc. Foster entered Kostelecky’s office, and watched as she sat at her desk, running her fingers full of frustration through her long blonde hair.
“Hey, everything all right with you?” Foster asked.
“I just have a lot on my plate as you can see.” Kostelecky’s face came to rest in the palms of her hands.
“I see that, and I also see that you got pretty worked up the moment EISS was mentioned.”
“I don’t like EISS, at least not in this century.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You know, I’m here to help and talk if ya need.”
Unsanctioned Reprisal Page 13
