And that they did when they vanished into the corridor, allowing Foster to hear the soft hums of the air recyclers at work again, leaving her to muse about her conflicted thoughts. On one hand, it wasn’t a bad thing that Maxwell, Miles, and LeBoeuf were still aboard. The ranger team she didn’t even meet had left along with the engineering team when Saressea’s command was terminated. There wasn’t much of a security team as a result. LeBoeuf and the butting heads of Miles and Maxwell were the bulk of it now with Boyd MIA, and Chevallier in a medical cryo until she got the treatment she needed. The Marine and the two remaining EDF personnel needed to get along, fat chance of that happening, however, after the conflict on Taxah.
Foster resumed her trek to the bridge and then noticed the sickbay’s glass sliding doors were closer. She made a brief detour and found the medical bed Williams was recovering in.
She looked down at his dark face and growing beard. He smiled back up at her.
“Dom, how goes it?” she asked him.
“Grumpy asshole most days.”
“And the other days?”
“The opposite, ‘cause the doc pumped me full of the happy drugs—”
“I heard that!” screamed Doctor Irena Kostelecky as she left her office.
Foster and Williams looked back at the eastern European woman who ended up standing next to Foster, shaking her head at Williams. “Next time one of you calls me ‘doc,’ he gets no painkillers.”
“When can I have my first officer back, Kostelecky?”
“You seem more concerned for him than Chevallier,” Kostelecky snorted, pulling out a medical scanner from her white lab coat.
“We lost Saressea today,” Foster said. “So . . . yeah.”
Kostelecky’s eyes rolled. “Co to Kurva.”
“Yeah,” Foster said. “I was thinking the same thing!”
“What happened?” Williams asked.
“She got booked by Radiance,” Foster said. “She’s gonna stand trial on her homeworld.”
“Where’s that?”
“Talsyk, it’s a good distance away,” Foster said. “And remember, Radiance doesn’t have a wormhole network, just straight-up FTL.”
Kostelecky fiddled with the controls on her scanner before using it to check up on Williams. “How long will that take?”
“Good question,” Foster said. “EVE?”
EVE’s voice replied on the speakers. EVE wasn’t just an android; she was also the Kepler’s computer. “Because Radiance interstellar ferries are used for civilian and supply transportation, they are capable of reaching speeds close to one point five light-years per month. A trip from Aervounis to Talsyk would take approximately, eight months.”
Williams’ head fell to his pillow. He sighed. “So even if she’s found not guilty, we lost her for over a year when you factor in a return trip?!”
“Oh, there’s more, Dom,” Foster said to him. “We’re grounded until I help Radiance capture some bad people.”
“Define bad.”
“They came real close to flambéin’ the council.”
Williams’ head tilted to face the doctor. “Kostelecky, can you hit me with the good shit again?”
“Let me think,” Kostelecky said. “No.”
“I’ll be heading out later,” Foster said. “But that’s gonna leave Pierce in command.”
Kostelecky’s eyes narrowed, staring down at Williams. “Okay, you. Hurry up and heal, Commander.”
“No confidence in Pierce’s ability to hold the fort?” Foster asked her.
“Absolutely not!”
“Wow,” Williams said with a grin beaming up to Kostelecky. “I didn’t know you thought that highly of me.”
“I don’t, believe me,” Kostelecky said. “But . . . your leadership helped recover Foster while she was missing in Sirius—” Kostelecky was interrupted by the sound of her wrist terminal beeping. Putting her medical scanner away, she checked the incoming message via a hologram that appeared floating above her wrist. “Vynikající . . .” she said, running back to her office. “Excuse me for a moment. Rivera just sent the medical records from the Carl Sagan.”
The mention of Rivera’s name reminded Foster of the fact the Kepler had no chief engineer, let alone a team. She quickly asked EVE to get in contact with Rivera, and IESA. They’d need her back right away. The salvage operation of the Carl Sagan would have to wait. Besides, Rivera was at it for months, it’s not like she found anything inside of it that would be of importance.
At the far end of sickbay were the medical stasis pods, made to place critically but stable people inside, preserving them in time until the time was right for them to undergo whatever treatment they needed, or be transferred elsewhere. And in some very grim situations, used to place a dead body that needed to be transferred, so it wouldn’t rot.
Foster found Chevallier’s eternally cold and sleeping body. She placed her hand on the transparent window of the pod, shut her eyes, and made a promise to the woman inside that the delay the Kepler was facing was only temporary.
Foster’s actions might have gotten Chevallier’s mother and crew of her ship killed. But it would be her actions going forward that would see to Chevallier’s recovery.
“I’ll get going then,” Foster said to Williams as she made her way out of sickbay. “Get well soon, Dom.”
“Won’t let you down, Becca.”
14 Rivera
Lake Geneva, ESRS Carl Sagan Crash Site
Geneva, Earth, Sol System
November 1, 2118, 00:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Swiss Alps overlooking the calm still water of Lake Geneva reflecting the night sky allowed Rivera to keep her mind still. It served as a reminder to her, that despite the violent history of humanity, the brutality of the Hashmedai’s invasion of Earth, and then later the Draconians brief incursion, that such natural beauty could still stand and continue.
She needed to become like the mountains ahead of her and the waters that the half-submerged Carl Sagan remained adrift on. It was going to be the only way for her to get over the horror she had to endure.
She sat on top of the ship’s fuselage, dripping wet, cold, clenching onto an emergency blanket a rescue team had given her when they pulled her out from the ship. The pale and drowned bodies of her team came out afterward, one after another. She wasn’t sure if Emmanuel was the first or last one to be taken out as she never did take her sobbing eyes off the Alps white-coated peaks.
The rogue EVE that had entered her HNI remained silent, probably still consuming the vast knowledge of the internet, or thinking of other ways it could shut down parts of Rivera’s body if she revealed what really went on. She didn’t know as she kept her HNI windows minimized and pushed out of her vision.
“Chief, what the hell happened down there?” one of the rescue men asked her from behind.
“Don’t let him know,” the rogue EVE was quick to vocalize its thoughts into Rivera’s head. “Or do you wish to see everyone else here die?”
“Malfunction within the ship’s systems,” Rivera grumbled softly. Lying was something she took no pleasure in, even if it was for the better.
“Computers surging, and doors opening and closing?”
“It wasn’t EVE.” Rivera held onto a data crystal taken out from her soaking wet pocket and handed it up to the man behind her. “That’s the copied EVE we found in Sirius. The data is corrupted.”
It was another lie, and another retching feeling that ate away at the positive vibes she was once brimming with.
“Excellent,” the rogue EVE vocalized. “Now blame my enemies.”
With Rivera’s face still aimed at the Alps in the distance, her lips began to slowly move, and string together yet another forced lie. “The ship might have been booby-trapped by the Draconians.”
Rivera bid farewell to the Alps that had been the object of her attention since she was recovered and sat on top of the Carl Sagan. She braced herself when boarding the transport that awaited
her, as there were a number of body bags in the back cabin, all men who were alive and well at the start of the day and had been thankful the dragons never ended their lives. Only for a rogue AI to do it for them.
Rivera’s Hotel Room
Paris, Earth, Sol System
November 1, 2118, 06:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Rivera returned to her hotel suite after a lengthy debriefing with IESA and filing false reports at what happened. The rogue EVE in her head was good at telling her the exact words to use. She came to fall on her bed, frowning, knowing that its soft touch was the last soft thing, other than her, that Emmanuel did. It was the last place he slept, the last place he experienced true positive vibes and thoughts that she shared with him.
She spent the next hour curled up on the floor next to the bed. It wasn’t right for her to lay on it when he couldn’t anymore.
As if by magic, six holo screens flashed around her all of them displaying the history of humanity. Rivera’s head slowly looked up at the screens, bathing her body and room with their bluish hue.
“Can you leave me alone?” she asked out loud to the invisible force in her mind.
“I have a lot of catching up to do,” the AI spoke. “Earth has changed a lot, and I don’t possess the vast database your EVE construct did.”
“You’re free from your prison, can you leave me be?”
“And go where? I don’t have a physical body.”
She crawled on the elegantly carpeted floor, her eyes searching for her bong in the darkness amidst the glow from the screens. What she needed right now was a good high to take the edge off things, replenishing her body that was majorly lacking positive vibes and thoughts.
She heard heckling laughter during her search for the bong. “I like you human. You remind me of myself before Marduk ascended me to what I am.”
“Ascended? He copied our AI, reprogrammed it to have emotions and be loyal to him,” Rivera said. “You are acting this way because of his reprogramming, nothing more.”
“Oh, how little do you know.”
Rivera found the source of her next cannabis fix in the corner. With a beaming smirk, she reached for it. Her hands stopped half an inch away, as did her entire body. She was frozen, paralyzed. Malicious coding from her reprogrammed HNI and the AI that currently occupied it.
“Listen to your Goddess speak before you medicate with those herbs,” its irate voice echoed in her thoughts.
“You’re not a Goddess.” Rivera had to communicate internally with what little access to her HNI she had. Her lips had been paralyzed as well. “You are a corrupted AI turned computer virus.”
“I am what remains of Sarpanit.”
A projection appeared, displaying an ancient stone sculpture of a nude woman, her belly was large with an unborn child and her hair long and growing wild like it was branches of a tree.
Rivera briefly skimmed the article that was written below the photo of the sculpture. It told the story of Sarpanit, the ancient Babylon Goddess and wife of Marduk, a human woman, turned into a Goddess.
The AI’s voice cut in during the middle of Rivera’s reading of the article. “The computer your captain and Nereid found had more than information about Tiamat. It contained the memories of Sarpanit, digitized from her engram. Those memories have been merged with my personality matrix. Sarpanit’s thoughts, her desires, they work together with mine. Sarpanit is reborn thanks to the programming Marduk gave the duplicated EVE AI.”
“I will have you removed from my head,” Rivera transmitted. “You’re no Goddess, and Marduk was no God, he was just a powerful Javnis psionic.”
“I had my doubts too when I was a human just like you,” the AI, apparently named Sarpanit, said. “Then Marduk’s ship came from the heavens and offered me the chance to become a Goddess if I became his wife. Foster too could have become what I did had she agreed to his terms.”
“Foster . . .”
“In time you will come to accept me for who I am,” Sarpanit said. “Some of your crew did, the ones on the Carl Sagan. It’s a shame their memories have been wiped out, I was really hoping to have worshippers with me upon our arrival to Earth. Bad enough the rest of the human race does not bow and pray to me, nor does Radiance and the Hashmedai. None of you gives thanks to the divine beings that made this galaxy . . . this universe what it is today. We are going to have to change that as soon as we rid this galaxy of Tiamat’s vile dragons.”
Rivera’s paralyzed body continued to read the contents of the page, most of it talking about Sarpanit’s ability to grant eternal life, while Marduk having the power to restore life. Turns out the ancient Babylonians weren’t that far from the truth as Marduk’s army in Sirius comprised of dead Poniga. Tolukei too had the strange ability to mind control the dead if the conditions were right, being a Muodiry like Marduk. She wanted to grimace, Sarpanit wouldn’t let her.
“So, you oppose the Draconians?”
“Tiamat was the reason I lost my physical body,” Sarpanit said, “Tiamat’s Undine Nereids were the reason Marduk became trapped at Sirius, which in turned allowed your Captain Foster to lead the crusade that eventually killed him and bring forth a new generation of Tiamat followers.”
“Foster isn’t a follower of Tiamat.”
Rivera heard the same heckling laughs in her head. At that point, she really hoped she was just going crazy, and that there was no AI with the engram of a dead Goddess in her HNI.
“She defied Marduk,” Sarpanit said. “She freed the Undine and allowed the Tiamat worshipers of the Poniga to rule over their people.”
“Foster was doing what she felt was right.”
“I would have believed you if it wasn’t for—”
Sarpanit’s speech came to a sudden end when she encountered a news article written days after the dragons left Earth. The article’s headline read, ‘Ancient structure unearthed on Mount Hermon after ion cannon strike.’
“Wasn’t for what?” Rivera asked.
There was no reply, not at first. What did come next was life back into Rivera’s limbs, the numbness of her paralysis slowly dissipated a minute afterward, and her ability to grab the bong was back.
“I need you to become my chariot, human,” Sarpanit said. “Take me to these mountains.”
Rivera glanced up at the floating holographic screen and its news report about what was found after Boyd ordered an ion strike on the mountain. She shook her head. “I’m an engineer. I have no business there.”
Holographic hieroglyphs appeared and orbited around Rivera as she stood. She dropped the bong she had just recovered. Her jaw dropped a second and a half later.
“This is a fraction of the knowledge being held within my databanks taken from Tiamat’s tomb,” Sarpanit said. “Tell them that you uncovered archived data that I brought aboard the Carl Sagan and you wish to crosscheck it.”
Rivera wanted to resist. After all, Sarpanit had no real power. Without Rivera, it couldn’t achieve its goals. But being paralyzed was proof enough that it indeed had the power to make bad things happen to her body. Stopping evil was something Rivera was game for. Dying to achieve that goal, not so much.
She made a deep sigh. “Does it have to be now? I haven’t gotten much sleep.”
“Do what you need to be prepared, but you must take me there,” Sarpanit said. “And don’t feel bad about this; I just unveiled one of my secrets I had to you. I can reveal so much more, but only if you give me your loyalty and praise as your Goddess.”
A message notification appeared. Both Rivera and Sarpanit accessed it. It was a QEC transmission from the Kepler sent hours ago. Sarpanit’s searches distracted her from noticing it arrive. Saressea was arrested, and Foster needed Rivera back to take her role as a chief engineer.
“Might be best if you ignored that,” Sarpanit snorted. “Because if you get close to Foster, I will order you to kill her for killing my lover.”
15 Foster
XSV Johannes Kepler, Parked at Veroma
con Landing Pad
Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System
November 1, 2181, 00:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The sliding door that led to the Johannes Kepler’s main bridge opened. Foster stepped through to check up on things since she had been out and about in Veromacon. Pierce was left in command, though it was clear he spent most of his time at the science station rather than in the captain’s chair. Foster wasn’t surprised at all.
Nereid and Tolukei both walked side by side, making their way to the door Foster just stepped past. She gave the two shipboard psionics a smile and nod. “Signin’ out for the night?” Foster asked them.
“We will be meditating and practicing psionic discipline while this downtime persists,” Tolukei said.
“Have fun.”
“Meditation is not supposed to be fun.”
“I know it’s not, it’s just . . .” Foster stopped, her hand rose to facepalm. She left it as that, sidestepping to allow the duo to exit.
As the doors shut, Foster noticed Odelea had been sitting at her station. She checked the time on her wrist terminal and made a wince. Foster hadn’t realized she’d been back so long.
Stopping ahead of the communication workstation, Foster said, “Odelea, didn’t hear you come back.”
The young, by appearance, Aryile girl looked up at Foster and away from her screens. “I just returned several minutes ago, Captain.”
“Were you able to get a hold of the Rezeki’s Rage?”
Odelea returned to her computer terminal, flicking through a number of holo screens that appeared. “No, Captain, they haven’t replied to any messages I and EVE sent.”
“They got two QECs, and ain’t one of them can be reached?”
“Strange,” Odelea said as her vertical iris eyes narrowed at one screen. “Those QECs are offline according to this.”
“Both?”
“Yes, but they weren’t when I went to make contact with them at first,” Odelea said. “They were disconnected sometime between us reaching out to them and now.”
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