Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Memories and thoughts that weren’t Marrea’s flashed next, it was a lifetime of experience from various Poniga and Undine. Karklosea understood why there was so many data crystals. They weren’t just Marrea’s memories, they were the memories of dozens of others she received through the engrams and copied them to data crystals from her HNI.

  There had to have been hours’, days’ . . . years’ worth of recorded holographic imagery to search through. Karklosea didn’t have time for it all and opted to skim through various projections trying to take in what she could.

  She made it as far as learning that the Marduk worshipers came to have a growing hatred for the people that killed him. The human ship of exploration, the Carl Sagan, and its Captain, Rebecca Foster. Foster was a nemesis to them, a God slayer, a demon that allowed for the praise of Tiamat to be dominant amongst the Poniga and Undine.

  Armuzei, one of their leaders, had a plan to change all that. The Nephilim would be the key he had preached, and that it was their duty to bring one to the Hallowed Nebula, and from there went on to speak of the resurrection of—

  The hologram vanished. Karklosea was once again back in the bedroom of Marrea. An attacker from behind flung her to the floor. She cursed herself for not paying attention to what was going on in reality. An armored woman like her should not have been taken by surprise like that.

  Karklosea and her attacker rumbled around the floor in the darkness. Her attacker yanked her redeemer from its sleeve. Karklosea’s fist was faster than the attacker’s thrust. Both the attacker and the blade went flying into the dark bedroom, she couldn’t see where exactly. She took a minute to calm her mind. Can’t use psionic powers when you’re in a state of frenzy.

  Her attacker leaped to their feet, Karklosea pushed both her hands forward, and a telekinetic thrust hurled them back into the bookcase, breaking its shelves. Karklosea stood above the attacker’s body with psionic energy radiating through her veins.

  “Yield!” she demanded.

  The attacker refused, leaping to tackle Karklosea. She was impressed that after all that, they had it in them to do this. She wasn’t impressed that she once again had her guard lowered. Next time, she wouldn’t make that mistake.

  The two punched and rolled across the floor in a battle for dominance. Each blow to the head staggered her ability to unleash another psionic attack and made more blood drain from her face, staining her lips. Their rolls had put them close to the fallen redeemer. Karklosea saw it, the attacker didn’t, or so she hoped.

  She reached back trying desperately to grab its hilt. It was too far away. Telekinesis might put it into her hands if only she could focus, and the pains in her head vanish. She reached out to the blade, her fingers flailing about, trying to move it with her mind. The blade spun, its hilt facing Karklosea. A punch to her temple caused her to black out for a second. Follow-up punches rendered her psionic mind inert.

  Karklosea tried again as she came to, grateful the attacker opted to strangle her instead, their fists must have been getting sore. Ignoring the pain, blood, and her source of air being restricted, Karklosea’s psionic mind demanded the hilt of her redeemer to plunge into her hand reaching for it.

  It did, and soon afterward, the edge of the blade poked out through the back of her attacker, coating it a deep crimson. She heard what sounded like a woman’s voice yelp at the sudden shock. By the time she rolled her fallen attacker over and shined her holographic light on her, she realized she had bested the owner of the house.

  The attacker was an Aryile woman fitting the description of Marrea. Karklosea killed the mother of Ienthei and Queenea; the two most powerful Aryile in the galaxy. She tried to ignore the hundreds of ways this could end badly for her, and for good reason. Behind Karklosea, in the hallway leading to the room, was a holo screen conjured by an HNI that wasn’t hers. Marrea had been using it prior to discovering her in the bedroom and it was still active, meaning Marrea’s HNI was as well.

  She approached the holo screen and saw the projection of an Aryile man with an unkempt beard. It was a communication window and, judging by the shocked look on the man’s face, it was in the middle of a live transmission.

  “Who are you?” the irate Aryile demanded when Karklosea stepped in front of the screen.

  Karklosea grinned after her HNI’s facial recognition software flashed in her eyesight. “Dienei, I presume.”

  Dienei, the face in the projection, scowled. “What have you done with my wife?!”

  “I sent her to the Gods.” Below the holo screen the coordinates the transmission was coming from were listed. Karklosea made a quick note of it in her HNI.

  “Marduk is eternal . . .” Marrea’s blood-soaked voice said.

  Looking behind the holo screen she saw Marrea limp back to her feet. She wasn’t dead. She also held Karklosea’s redeemer she had left in her.

  “Marduk is eternal, my love,” Dienei said to Marrea.

  Marrea manually activated the redeemer’s ability to transform from a psionic sword to a psionic rifle. She wasn’t worried at first, only psionics would be able to use the weapon. Marrea proved her wrong, aiming the redeemer at the computer and data crystals, vaporizing them with three blasts, setting the floor, ceiling, and walls nearby on fire.

  Marrea then turned the weapon on herself. Ash that was once her scattered as the redeemer once again fell on the floor. Marrea was a psionic, which would explain how she managed to knock Karklosea over the first time. It was a puzzling thought since her files mentioned nothing of Marrea’s psionic abilities.

  The evidence was gone. And if Karklosea didn’t get back to her transport fast enough, so would Captain Foster when Dienei and the cult of the Soldiers of Marduk, SOM, realized she was on Aervounis.

  17 Foster

  Northern Starport

  Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System

  November 1, 2118, 12:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Foster felt the one-minute transport ride out from the Kepler to one of Veromacon’s northern starport was redundant. Was it really that hard to send Jainuzei to the landing pad the Kepler remained idle at?

  Chang lowered the transport onto the starport’s landing platform where Jainuzei stood next to Radiance made transports and smaller ships. Foster gave Jainuzei a glance as his appearance in the transport’s forward windshield got larger. He was tall with a body that would make any MMA fighter jealous, and if she dared say so quite handsome, for an Aryile.

  Visually, he did live up to the name weapons master as he had attached to his armor a Radiance magnetic rifle, pistol, Hashmedai two- and one-handed plasma swords, daggers, polearm, and another sword that she swore looked like a plasma katana. She wondered where the plasma katana came from, it was clearly not a weapon commonly used in the Empire despite the fact it was clearly crafted with Hashmedai tech.

  Once the transport came to a landing, its side doors opened. LeBoeuf and Foster turned away from the bright light beaming in, having forgotten about it. Jainuzei stood ahead of the opened doors, and marched in, he had to lower his head to pass inside.

  She gave Jainuzei a hard look when the doors shut, he gave one back. “Captain Rebecca Foster, I presume?” he said to her.

  Foster nodded, offering her hand to shake. “That’d be me.”

  “I am Jainuzei, weapons master of the Union.” He didn’t take her hand. Instead, he performed the customary Radiance greeting, placing his fist on his armored shoulder. “Your acquaintance is recognized.”

  Chang took the transport back into the skies, if that was even the right word, the city itself did float in the skies. Jainuzei’s eyes focused on the blue alien tattoos on Foster’s hands as she backed away from the handshake he didn’t accept. He made what she thought was a smile.

  “Uh, don’t ask about those,” Foster said, then gestured to LeBoeuf. “This is Krystal LeBoeuf, EDF warlock class psionic; she’ll be coming with us.”

  Jainuzei nodded at LeBoeuf. “Krystal, your parents were very clever i
n naming you that,” Jainuzei said, his voice was smooth like melted butter. “It goes well with your eyes which are quite flawless and lovely, like an actual crystal.”

  LeBoeuf turned away from him to either hide a retching look or her flushing face.

  Foster rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.” Then pointed to the cockpit. “Can we?”

  “Of course, Captain,” Jainuzei said, following Foster into the cockpit and joining Chang as he flew the ship through a small plume of clouds ahead.

  “So where exactly are we heading Mister, I-won’t-tell-anyone-where-the-bad-guys-are-unless-I-come-along-for-the-ride?”

  “The jungles of Poeia,” Jainuzei said. “Just below the city of Eelinton.”

  “Wanna hook me up with those coordinates?” Chang asked him.”

  Jainuzei nodded, moving closer to Chang to explain where on the planet they were to travel to. LeBoeuf joined the group in the cockpit, taking a seat on one of the rear chairs. The brightly lit skies around the transport slowly began to dim when it started to cross into the side of Aervounis experiencing night. It looked like the sun was setting rapidly, but it wasn’t, the transport was moving so fast across the skies it gave that illusion.

  After ten minutes, LeBoeuf spoke up. “There a reason why I’m not teleporting us down?”

  “If they have psionics in their group, they will detect you, or worse, we may teleport directly into an ambush,” Jainuzei said. “We will have to land further away and travel by foot.”

  “Anything else we need to know?” A critical question considering Jainuzei seemed to know about this group that attacked the council but failed to share with the people helping him take them out.

  “Nothing you or your team needs to concern yourself with, Captain,” Jainuzei said.

  “We’s going into a dangerous situation, and you only mention now they might have psionics,” Foster said. “Need to know what we’s up against.”

  “As I said, Captain, there is nothing else you need to concern yourself with,” Jainuzei said. “Follow my lead and do not get in my way, and we will be victorious.”

  “Wow, Cap,” Chang said while guiding the transport deeper into the cover of night. “Where did you find this guy?”

  The transport lowered to the surface of the planet. A red and orange glow brightened the night skies. Billowing flames and smoke lifting away from the jungles below was the source of that. It was made more apparent by the time they landed in a clearing next to a part of the jungle not ablaze.

  “What’s up with the fires?” Chang asked.

  Jainuzei took a look at the hellfire inferno burning in the distance. “This planet is fighting a losing battle against climate change each year,” he said. “Our sun is slowly becoming a red giant. In ancient times, this was a lush tropical world, but now a lot of that land is being burned by the heat and turned into deserts. It’s why we Aryile turned to the Gods; they offered us a chance to save our farms.”

  Foster went for the transport’s exit. “Being an herbivore species, I guess that’s a big deal.”

  “If we cannot grow plants, then we’ll die before carnivores and omnivores,” Jainuzei said, following behind. “The Gods came from the skies and helped us overcome the problem and then taught us how to construct starships and travel across the galaxy. And so, we praise the Gods for what they did, and shared their gifts with all alien races we encountered, under one condition, that they worship them as we Aryile had.”

  “And if they refuse?” Chang asked, joining along with LeBoeuf.

  The doors opened, the orange burning light in the distance painted across Jainuzei’s smirking face. “Then something bad will happen to them, like what almost happened to us before they came.”

  “The correct answer is,” LeBoeuf said to him. “You enter a genocidal war with them, like the Hashmedai.”

  Jainuzei’s imposing body in front of the exit spun around, shaking his head at LeBoeuf. “And had we wiped them out humanity would not have been invaded by Imperial forces one hundred years ago.”

  “Touché.”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if these forest fires were started by the Gods themselves, a means of punishing these sinners that hide in the jungles like ancient Aryile.”

  Jainuzei and LeBoeuf stepped outside with their rifles ready. Chang was about to with his before Foster held him back. “Where you goin’ Chang?”

  Chang patted his rifle. “Been practicing how to shoot the guns of this century. I figured you might need a hand if things get rough.”

  “Help from you?” She laughed.

  “I’m still military, Captain,” Chang said. “Just because I fly, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to shoot.”

  Foster went for the storage lockup and tossed him a hexagonal-shaped device the size of a small dinner plate, keeping one for her. “Might wanna use that then.”

  Chang looked at the device and its numerous flashing lights. “The fuck is this?”

  “Personal shield generator,” Foster explained. “After what happened on Taxah and Jacobus, I made sure we kept these in stock. They aren’t as powerful as shields from combat armor since the battery pack ain’t all that big. But it’s still good to take a few hits.”

  Chang attached the shield generator to his belt. Foster did the same and then activated it. Both became protected by a thin energy barrier. Using combat armor would ultimately provide better protection but required training and a level of physical strength to use. Something neither Foster nor Chang had.

  A wide smile spread across Chang’s face. “Bitching!”

  “You two wanna hurry the fuck up?” LeBoeuf bellowed from outside.

  “Hey, LeBoeuf, check this shit out!” Chang said, running out. Foster followed behind with her tachyon rifle.

  Once outside the transport, Chang bragged about the personal shield generator he and Foster had. LeBoeuf chuckled at the two. “Well shit, I didn’t know they had combat rate personal shields.”

  “Brand new,” Foster said. “We’s one of the first to get to play with ‘em”

  “So, you don’t know if it works?”

  “I’m sure someone out there tested ‘em.”

  LeBoeuf slung her rifle aside and extended both her palms out. The weird holographic bracelets around her wrists spun and glowed, while the soothing blue light of psionic energy flowed through her cybernetic parts.

  It made Foster worried. “LeBoeuf, what are you—”

  Foster was flung twenty feet backward by a telekinetic push, and then rolled on the dirt six times when she landed. She didn’t feel a thing. The shields absorbed the brunt of the hit. Chang stood with his hands on his head and a wide smile on his face.

  “Holy fuck, that was awesome!” he yelled.

  Foster got to her feet, her teeth gritting at LeBoeuf. “LeBoeuf!”

  LeBoeuf shrugged. “Sorry, had to make sure that worked.”

  “Yo, yo, yo!” Chang said to LeBoeuf. “Do me next! Do me next!”

  LeBoeuf went to focus her psionic power. “Sure.”

  “No, stop!” Foster injected. “We’s wastin’ time now!”

  “Sorry, Chang,” LeBoeuf said to him. “Sometimes I do have to follow the captain’s orders.”

  “You’ve already proven the shields work . . .” Foster groaned

  “Actually, we just proved they aren’t as strong as combat armor or psionic shields,” LeBoeuf said. “I still knocked you back, the shields we use, when at full power, would have prevented that. Don’t be surprised if a point-blank shot takes you out even with those shields.”

  Jainuzei, who stood silently, led the way into the jungles, pushing past tropical plants. Two minutes into the dark forest he asked Foster. “What is that?”

  She saw him point to her rifle, and probably took notice her tattoos began to glow as a result of her touching it.

  “Little souvenir I picked up on Jacobus,” Foster said, holding the rifle up. “Draconian tachyon rifle, it only works when I touch it. So, no, you can
’t try it out.”

  Jainuzei grinned.

  The four traveled through the jungle for hours. Foster tried to tell herself the red and orange glow from the forest fires was moving away from them, and that Jainuzei wouldn’t be stupid enough to guide them directly into it. Yet, after every hour that slipped past, her wrist terminal’s holo screen showed an increase in the air temperature around them. The sun was still hours away from rising, so that ruled out the sun rising to make things hotter was the cause for that.

  Wild animals ran past them in droves. If they were anything like Earth animals, then they were probably trying to flee the spreading flames. The animals were moving in the opposite direction of the four. They were walking closer to the source of danger to the animals.

  Many of the fleeing wildlife had scales, even those that weren’t reptilian or amphibian. A common evolutionary trait she figured. The Aryile were mammals, and still had scales on parts of their body. If she were to guess, all life on Aervounis had scales and reptilian features even the birds.

  Jainuzei led the group to a number of trees that had wooden houses built into their sides, high up. Further in, she saw old hanging rope and wooden bridges connecting the tree houses together. It was a tree city built in the jungle’s canopy.

  “What do we have here?” Foster asked, looking up at the old and abandoned city in the trees.

  Jainuzei went for a rope ladder and began to climb up to a raised wooden platform above. “These are how our cities were before we had the technology to build our flying ones you see today,” Jainuzei said.

  The rest of the three followed Jainuzei up the shaking and swaying rope ladder. It wasn’t an enjoyable thought when she noticed one of the wooden steps to the ladder had snapped in half sometime during its history.

  She looked away from the ground; none of the small plants below could be seen from that height. “I guess being afraid of heights wasn’t in your genes.”