Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Because I’m a Muodiry?”

  “Yeah, I read the reports about why you were sent to Earth to fight the Empire when they tried to invade it. Radiance just didn’t want you around.”

  “And when I survived, they sought to dispose of me by having me join the Carl Sagan’s crew,” Tolukei said, showing very little emotion. “But to answer your question, no, none of the Radiance personnel aboard has, as you put it, given me a hard time.”

  Tolukei was Saressea’s largest concern among the Radiance crew. He was a Muodiry, a breed of Javnis psionics that existed before they joined the Union. It contradicted the ancient texts that psionic powers were a gift from the Gods, given to the Aryile first, and then spread to the rest of the galaxy because of them.

  Select members of the Javnis people having those powers before they made first contact with the Aryile weren’t met well, as was the fact that Muodiry literally translated as necromancer. They had psionic powers that allowed them to mind control the dead, and Captain Foster and her expedition into the Sirius system discovered Marduk, another Javnis Muodiry who convinced ancient humans he was a God and had made it his domain.

  Now, when the ship wasn’t under attack from dragons, or racist humans, Tolukei spent his off-time helping Nereid, an Undine, hone her psionic powers. Undines like her owed their existence to Tiamat, same with the Draconians.

  There was a reason Tolukei was the boogeyman amongst the Radiance crew.

  “I merely miss the days of using my powers in combat as opposed to shipboard psionic duties,” Tolukei said. “However, I accepted this task when Commander Williams and Captain Foster recruited me.”

  Saressea accepted that reply, for now, she had to as the rest of the Radiance crew entered one by one, seconds later, starting with Odelea, then the engineering and ranger teams. No point squeezing him for more now. With everyone seated, Saressea stood, making all their eyes move up as well. Foster was the captain of the ship, but Saressea was still their direct supervisor. She had to do this at least once to remind them of that fact, as much as she didn’t like it.

  “Thank you for coming,” Saressea said. “Just wanted to sit down, get to know you all better and make note of any improvements we can make.”

  The meeting commenced and the crew chatted, bringing up issues and concerns while Saressea made notes on in her HNI, acting like the fearless leader she was supposed to be. But in reality? She hated it and missed the old days when the Kepler was in testing. The days when it was just her, EVE, and a small team flying through space trying to break speed records.

  Fake smiles and nods came next from Saressea before Odelea spoke. “Environment issues are my biggest concern. It’s very cold in certain areas of this ship.”

  Saressea held back a smile when Odelea spoke up. When speaking in the Radiance language, she did it with a heavy Aryile accent, unlike when she spoke English, which she spoke with a human accent. Saressea was the same, using her Rabuabin accent to speak Radiance, but sounded a lot like humans from North America when speaking English.

  “For an Aryile and Javnis, yes,” Saressea said. “Tolukei, do you find it cold?”

  “I do not,” he replied. “I use a small psionic bubble to trap the heat from my quarters.”

  “I’ll see about having the average temperatures of the ship brought up a little,” Saressea offered. “We Rabuabin, Linl, and Vorcambreum are used to working in the heat to accommodate the needs of the Javnis and Aryile, humans, not so much.”

  “Perhaps we could have EVE automatically adjust temperatures within a room based on who’s inside?” Odelea asked.

  “I like that idea, I could make adjustments to her bio scanners,” Saressea said. “Anything else? Any problems with food?”

  “No,” Odelea said, shaking her head. “Chef Bailey’s cooking is better than most chefs in the Union, and he’s human.”

  Saressea smirked at her. “Funny, coming from the girl that only eats Earth apples.”

  Odelea’s sun-kissed face flushed. “I’ve been trying to . . . diversify as of late.”

  A notification flashed over Saressea’s eyes via her HNI. The Kepler was preparing to depart the station. It was time to bring the meeting to a close.

  “We’re leaving, at last,” Saressea said to the group. “Well, that’s it for the time being. For those that don’t know, we’re going to Aervounis. If you have any requisitions from Radiance you want to be brought aboard, send me the list within the hour.”

  Saressea made her way to engineering an hour later, ready to pick up where she left off. The vortex key had been taken offline and partially dismantled for maintenance and closer analysis. It was, after all, mostly Draconian technology that both Imperial scientists and UNE ones knew little of, and the working one they had was put together entirely by Hashmedai hands. In other words, if she was going to be placed in a position to work with it in the future, she needed to know how it worked.

  The downtime gave her ample time to tinker with its insides as with the first vortex they received, though that one burned out after their first time testing it. She made detailed notes with her HNI and was very close to having enough data to write a guide on how to repair one. She grabbed her tools and moved to pull apart the fusion of Imperial and Draconian technology, her holographic flashlight floating next to her lit the way deeper into the massive device, exploring its insides which had become a bit of hobby for the last week.

  She came to discover the device’s hidden central section, it was unexplored territory as the blueprints they had on file mentioned nothing about it. Or the slimy tentacles that sprung out from a wave of white mist within it.

  Saressea cursed some of the worst words one could say in the old Rabuabin language, while her panic-stricken body made her bash the top of her head against the interior of the device, she was, after all, still inside of it. She crawled her way back out, her tail stiffened with fear as the numerous tentacles within continued to stretch out, like they wanted to stroke her.

  “What, the fuck is that . . .” she said, throwing her tools to the side.

  A member of her engineering team approached Saressea while she sat on the floor with her back to the nearby computer terminal. “There a problem?”

  She pointed to the darkened interior of the vortex key. “Yeah, look at this shit.”

  The two looked on with horror at the hulking cylinder-shaped device with something living inside. By the time Saressea got to her feet, Nereid walked into engineering unexpectedly, her face searching for something that seemed to be of importance to her.

  “Nereid?” Saressea called to her. “Can I help you with something?”

  Nereid moved slowly to Saressea, giving the Radiance team long stares. “I was under the impression none of your team were psionics?”

  “They ain’t,” Saressea replied.

  “Then why is someone in here reaching out to my mind?”

  That’s because nobody is? Saressea thought while giving the Undine girl from Sirius an odd glare. “You okay? Need another trip to sickbay?”

  “I am fine,” Nereid said. “But there is a psionic force in here, a sentient one trying to touch my thoughts.”

  Nereid pushed past Saressea, inching closer to the vortex key. Saressea followed, shaking her head. “Well, I can assure you that—”

  Saressea paused, as Nereid stopped at the opened compartment of the vortex key. The tentacles inside were still slinking about. “Oh shit,” Saressea groaned and went to shut the vortex key’s access panel.

  Nereid gasped as she did that, facing Saressea with concern. “It’s gone.”

  Saressea frowned, looking down at the panel, blocking the tentacles behind it. “Was afraid you’d say that.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Saressea pried the panel off, and the tentacles were free to stretch out from the device once again. “You sense it now?” she asked Nereid.

  “Yes, I do,” Nereid said, lowering her body to peer into the darkened interior o
f the vortex key and its many tentacles. “It’s coming from this.”

  Saressea loaded an EAD app on her HNI, its holo screen flashed ahead of her. From there, she used it to scan the tentacles and interior of the vortex key. The data that outputted into the floating holographic screen showed a spike in psionic activity, and it wasn’t coming from Nereid. Secondary scans showed the device itself was designed to shield a fraction of that psionic energy from the outside, probably the reason why nobody picked up on it until now.

  “What are you getting from it?” Saressea asked while she recorded the data into her HNI.

  Nereid’s eyes shut to focus. The level of psionic energy within engineering spiked briefly on the EAD’s output and then diminished when Nereid’s eyes opened, and her lips slowly began to move and say. “Telepathic thoughts.”

  “What’s it saying?”

  “It is singing.”

  “The fuck?”

  “Saressea,” Nereid said, looking up at her. “It’s the dragon’s navigational song.”

  4 Rivera

  Interstellar Expedition Space Agency HQ, Medical Bay

  Paris, Earth, Sol System

  October 30, 2118, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Jasmine Rivera awoke to the sound of heart rate monitors beeping and doctors buzzing about with holographic projections around them; all were psionic. Evidently, psionic doctors were now industry standard, at least for the UNE.

  She sat up in the medical bed she recovered on and groaned softly. There was a mild pain in the back of her head. She curiously watched a few of the doctors telekinetically make their tools and scanning devices interact with their patients. Almost two months ago, surgical equipment like that was used on her, and again recently. She wondered how that must have looked when she was put out.

  “Easy there,” a doctor said as he approached her.

  She looked at the doctor, trying to remember his name. The pain in her head wasn’t helping. By the time he placed his warm hand on her shoulder she remembered, it was Doctor Emmanuel Campbell, a neural surgeon.

  “I’m fine,” Rivera said.

  Emmanuel fabricated a holographic teddy bear with his HNI which floated in the air between the two.

  Rivera smiled at the sight. “Aww, that’s cute.”

  “Try holding onto it.” Rivera reached out to the flickering apparition and brought it closer to her. “Now try to store it in your recently received items inventory.”

  She focused her thoughts, shutting her eyes. Nothing came about as a result, other than her head becoming slightly sore. She opened her eyes to the doctor interacting with a holo screen hovering next to him, shining its blue and white light on his doctor’s gown.

  “Try again,” he said.

  Rivera focused again. Suddenly a series of cubes snapped onto a grid that appeared over her eyes. Her hands guided the holographic teddy bear into one of the cubes and it vanished, only for a miniature version of it to load inside the selected cube. She blinked twice, and the grid vanished from her eyesight.

  “Excellent,” Emmanuel said, smiling. “Your HNI seems to be working fine.”

  Rivera had officially become a twenty-second-century human. “Thank you,” she said, climbing off the medical bed.

  “Let me know if there are any further issues,” Emmanuel said. “People that were affected by the HNI disruption from the Dragon Knights had HNI in their heads for years. You, though, you’re a little different.”

  Rivera beamed. “I’m just glad my friends didn’t clue in.”

  “Which brings up the next point,” he said, flicking the holo screen away. “What will you do? The premise of the Kepler’s crew was to have a team that didn’t have HNI. You having these implants go against that.”

  “I didn’t know about that until after Foster rescued us from New Babylon,” Rivera said. “After the funeral of Chevallier’s mother, I went under the knife to get wired in.” She sighed looking down at the floor. “Kinda regret it now, it almost got me killed.”

  Emmanuel retrieved his holo screen, inputting new data into it. “Your secret is safe with me for the time being.”

  She looked up at him smiling, and admiring his handsome features like his black, gelled, slicked back hair, “Thanks.”

  “I don’t know how many more times you can use the excuse that you fainted if the Dragon Knights show up again.”

  “According to Foster and the gang, they should be dead,” Rivera said. “If that’s the case, and there’s no more of them, I should be good.”

  “The Kepler ran into more trouble recently from what I heard on the news,” he said. “Things might have changed. But in any case, continue to use it as often as you can, this will not only allow your brain to get used to having them but will train it to better operate with the way you think.”

  “Am I good to go?”

  He nodded. “For now, but keep in mind you only have the basic implant and there’s one last component we need to put in before it’s a fully functioning HNI. IESA has other upgrades you will need to receive later as well. But since you were not given these at childhood, its best to wait until you have mastered the basic implant.”

  After several double checks to ensure there were no other problems, Rivera was discharged from the quick surgical procedure that took hours to set up and perform. It was technological advancements like the HNI that made her eager to get back into the world to learn and perfect the tech humanity had to offer. Without an HNI, she had no chance of being able to land a job. And had she known that HNI was, in reality, a weakness the Draconians took advantage of, she would have put going under the knife on hold.

  Using her HNI, she keyed in a quick qmail message to Captain Foster, amazed at how she could type just by thinking. “Since I got the basic implants, it shouldn’t be hard for anyone to detect them, right?”

  “Only if they were looking,” he said.

  “And if I send a qmail?”

  “Messages sent via HNI, computers, or wrist terminals are indistinguishable. The receiver of the message wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

  “Good!” Rivera sent the message, passing it off that she was at a computer or used a wrist terminal. “So, is this the part where I have to bribe you with a dinner date to delete all records of me receiving my HNI?”

  “Not at all,” Emmanuel said with a chuckle. “I’d rather not have the Kepler lose an engineer like you because of an oversight you made.”

  And in truth, Saressea can serve as the engineer. Officially, Rivera didn’t need to be on the team, the Kepler continuing to operate without her was proof of that, and it was a reality she didn’t want to live in. Rivera’s major selling point had been that she had no HNI, which was no longer the case. She’d rather not be excluded because of that or relegated to other duties. Foster, Williams, and the former crew of the Carl Sagan, they were all friends to her, the only ones she had left since arriving in this century.

  “Shucks,” she said, grinning at him. “I really wanted to go out for dinner before I returned to salvaging the Carl Sagan.”

  “Well, I could change my mind, and threaten to tell Foster about this,” he said. “In exchange for you to accompany me tonight for some drinks and grub.”

  “That’s better!”

  Bistro

  Paris, Earth, Sol System

  October 30, 2118, 19:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Emmanuel and Rivera spent the first half of their off-time together indulging in a savory meal at a local bistro he suggested. Their faces were flushed thanks to the copious amounts of wine the two drank, and their laughs and giggles could be heard the moment you stepped in. They did, after all, get seats closest to the establishment’s front windows, looking out on the streets of Paris, while soaring cars and ships dominated the skies.

  Emmanuel finished the last of his wine, then asked, “So you’re off to pick apart the Carl Sagan tomorrow?”

  “Well, continue to do so,” Rivera said, pushing her empty
dinner plate forward. “After I got my implants, I was allowed to join the team. We didn’t get the chance to make a lot of progress, however. Rescued Foster’s cat and found personal belongings to the crew. That was it.”

  “There are a lot of mysteries lying on that ship,” Emmanuel said. “Including what happened to you guys over the last six or seven decades.”

  “I agree. But the fighting on Earth had a lot of salvage crew worried about their homes and families. Once it died down, they all took time off to visit . . . and in some cases bury loved ones.”

  “Damn, that’s rough, didn’t think about it like that.”

  “It gave me time to head back to Sirius and help Commander Williams with, uh, their situation over there.”

  “And that’s when you almost got busted for having HNI.”

  “No . . . That’s when I ‘fainted’” She laughed, thinking back to that moment and how Foster was surprised to hear Rivera’s lie about fainting. “I’m excited to head back to the wreckage of the Carl Sagan. We’ve only been back two times since the salvage team took a break, both attempts weren’t long and focused on gathering equipment. Tomorrow, though, we’re going to try and gain access to the AI and recover the ship logs.”

  “If that’s even possible, I thought they were all deleted?”

  “I have ways of making deleted files restore themselves,” she said, grinning. “And if not, I’m sure the EVE AI might remember a thing or two if we can get her talking. If she’ll talk.”

  “I’m sure it will.”

  “Not if it’s the EVE I think it is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “During our Sirius expedition years ago, we had one original EVE, and a naughty one that was copied and reprogrammed by the Architect of Sirius, a Javnis Muodiry called Marduk.”

  “You think the bad EVE was in command of the Carl Sagan?”