“Thanks for getting us back on our feet.”
Foster stepped back aboard the Kepler, removing her shades in the process. As the entry ramp rose to close shut, she went for the cargo bay’s intercom.
“Kostelecky, let me know when our guest is ready to speak,” she said, looking down at the data crystal she pulled out from her pocket. “She’s got some ‘splaining to do.”
She noticed the blood on the crystal was leaving its red marks on her fingers. It was still fresh. A worried feeling hit her in the gut, and she darted back into the transport and into the cockpit. Looking down, she took a closer look at the data crystal slot she had used. There was a small but noticeable smear of red around its edges.
Red Jainuzei no doubt saw when he had entered the cockpit, asking about the data crystal.
22 Rivera
Southern District Park
Baghdad, Earth, Sol System
November 1, 2118, 20:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The approval to enter the cavernous pit in the park was met with a resounding yes from IESA higher ups, and with the UNE government, hours after it was made. After a meal and hydration, Rivera stood with Eicelea and Vynei, all three of them wearing EVA suits, while the night sky covered them and the city with darkness. It was questionable as to how much breathable air would exist that far down, and then there were the unpleasant temperatures.
The three stared down into the pit as HNI scans appeared over their eyesight in regard to the estimated depths. It was a long way down to the bottom where the Dragon Maiden allegedly jumped into and hadn’t been seen again, until her reappearance in Sirius. Multiple scenarios ran through Rivera’s head as to what could be down there. A miniature wormhole? Perhaps there was more than one Dragon Maiden, and the one that created this hole was still waiting, it would explain why all the drones suddenly stopped working.
Without a second thought, they made the plunge into the pit by entering the MRF enhanced drop pod. Its mass, and theirs, altered accordingly for the six-kilometer dive to the bottom, delivering them to the mysteries below, or potential loss of life of the three. Rivera took one last glance at the stars above and told herself dozens of times they’d be seeing them again when they return to the surface alive. After the twenty-fourth time, she actually believed it.
Three rays of lights beamed away from the helmets of their EVA suits. It got so dark Rivera couldn’t tell the difference between having her eyes shut and not. Partially vaporized rocks became a common sight during their travels down into the pit. Rivera’s HNI HUD reported that their ETA for a touchdown was another three and a half minutes.
The silence within the pod came to an end with everyone inside breathing a sigh of relief when it arrived at the bottom and its mass returned to normal. The first hurdle was cleared, survive the plunge, something all the drones failed to do. The pod’s doors slithered open with the touch of the holographic panel next to it. It was pitch-black on the outside until they stepped out of the pod, shining their helmet’s exterior lights into what appeared to have been a hollowed out underground cavern, one that had been there for centuries, millennia perhaps.
Rays of white light guided them in avoiding sudden death as they walked across a patterned walkway that stretched over a raised footbridge above a chasm. Ahead of them and the footbridge were dragon statues. Whoever built this also built the same structure found in the mountains and Tiamat’s tomb back at Sirius. It was no coincidence, someone was here on Earth during ancient times and built these, and the Draconians knew all about it. Their attack on Earth was to control these ruins. Paryo and Aervounis could very well have had ruins like these as they weren’t exclusive to Earth, they also appeared in Sirius. Sirius being the system Rivera and the crew of the Carl Sagan vanished from.
They neared the edge of the bridge, approaching two pillars that arched up from the ground. Rivera’s HNI scanned the design of the pillars on its own. Sarpanit was at work once again, there was something of interest about them.
“Wait here,” Sarpanit demanded.
Rivera complied with the AI Goddess wishes, allowing Eicelea and Vynei to walk forward. They gawked at the pillars for a moment as Rivera watched, allowing Sarpanit to do the same. The two moved forward, locking their sights on a golden monolithic structure that floated a meter above the surface when their lights illuminated it. Eicelea gasped loudly over the comms and trotted over to the monolith, waving her holographic EAD around it.
“Another one!” Eicelea yelled. “I take back everything negative I said about you, human, you are no curse. You are a good luck charm sent by the Gods!”
“I’m done here,” Sarpanit said. “Join your friends . . . I wish to know more about that monolith.”
“Umm, thanks?” Rivera said, and approached the monolith. It began to shine brightly. She had no choice but to shield her eyes from the brilliance of the monolith and the intensity of the light. Rivera took three steps backward.
The blinding light faded, restoring the three’s helmet headlights as the only source of light within the pitch-black ancient cavern with the golden monolith taking center stage.
“Intriguing . . .” Eicelea said, stepping around the monolith, eying its immaculate design untouched by the test of time. “Well, let us make the best of this situation, come, come! Let us get closer.”
Rivera did, and its light returned.
“Your moods change pretty quickly,” Rivera said to her.
Eicelea laughed. “How do you figure, human?”
“Out of all of us you were the most terrified,” Rivera said. “Now that we made an amazing discovery, it’s as if nothing happened.”
The closer Rivera got to the monolith, the more she had to shield her eyes. “Why does it seem to like me?” she asked.
“That is an excellent question,” Eicelea said as she ran her holographic EAD over Rivera’s body. “I don’t see anything that would indicate something anomalous with you. Then again neither did Foster, and the monolith she interacted with also reacted to her presence.”
“Maybe it only likes humans, boss?”
“Doctor Pierce is human; the monolith didn’t seem to take notice of him.”
“If you are seeking answers, I have none,” Sarpanit said.
“Aren’t you going to touch it, human?” Eicelea said to her.
Rivera shook her head. “I would prefer not to tinker with stuff I know nothing of.”
“Out of all of us you are able to make this light appear. This apparatus recognizes your presence,” Eicelea said. “We made it this far, why not push further and discover what makes you so special?”
Rivera’s hands were paralyzed with fear. Having an AI Goddess in her head that had no idea what they were dealing with wasn’t encouraging.
“Well go on, human, touch it,” Eicelea said, pushing against Rivera’s behind. “If you are afraid, rest assured that I will be right here recording and analyzing what happens next.”
Rivera looked back and behind at Eicelea. “And if I end up dead?”
“I will personally see to it your body will be preserved for future study. Rest assured your sacrifice will not be in vain.”
She went to touch the monolith; her hand trembled slightly as it neared. Other than its warm radiating surface, she felt and saw nothing.
“That’s it?”
“I guess I’m unworthy.”
“Again!”
Rivera repeated touching the monolith. She even took the time to keep her hands on it gliding it across its smooth surface and flawless design. The light from the monolith kept shining, but other than that nothing happened.
She took four steps back from the monolith facing Eicelea’s helmeted head. “Satisfied?”
Eicelea groaned. “I suppose so . . .”
Eicelea waved her hand, creating the holo screen for an EAD to appear. She moved her body around, taking scans, pictures, and videos of the cavern. Rivera sensed Sarpanit’s focus deeply on Eicelea.
“It
would appear I was wrong about that Vorcambreum,” Sarpanit said. “The artifact is not here, and she was none the wiser about its existence.”
“How do you know that?”
“Look ahead.” Rivera saw the two she came down with walk past the two pillars, not caring about them after taking a quick holo picture. “The Eyes of Tiamat were kept there. If those two were here for it, they would have spent much more time searching for it, or already had been in possession of it. That and she insisted you touch the monolith, not herself.”
Rivera beamed. She and Eicelea got to live for another day. “So, you believe her story now?”
“For now . . . unfortunately,” Sarpanit said. “This means the Draconians have that artifact and are one step closer to our annihilation.”
She felt her chest become uneasy. “This is the part where you tell us how to stop it.”
A projection of a beautiful nebula appeared in Rivera’s virtual vision. “If they have the Eyes of Tiamat, they’ll be heading here searching for Kur.”
“Never seen that place, any idea of its coordinates?”
“If I knew the answer to that I would tell you.”
23 Karklosea
XSV Johannes Kepler, Parked at Veromacon Landing Pad
Veromacon, Aervounis, Luminous System
November 1, 2118, 21:34 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Karklosea wasn’t a newcomer when it came to near-death experiences. Her earliest memory of a time when her life came seconds away from death was during the Linl republic’s first battles against the Empire back when they weren’t part of the Union.
A Hashmedai guardian, using the tractor beam attachment on their plasma sword, had drawn her out of cover during an ambush. She was lunged nearly thirty feet across a war-torn foray into the grip of the Hashmedai. Being impaled by a plasma sword wasn’t as painful as one might imagine, especially when you black out from the injury moments later.
From that day forth Karklosea was a fighter. She had to be, her life depended on it as she lay motionless in the recovery room. And the Linl depended on strong people like her, someone that could take a blow like that, survive, recover and do it again.
So, when Karklosea finally awoke, she wasn’t surprised to learn she had survived being mauled by the carnivore wildlife of Aervounis’ jungles. The first thing her aching head heard when she awoke to the sounds of human made heart monitors were the alien words of the human language. Tilting her face to the side of the soft bed she recovered on, she saw a woman, a human dressed in a long white jacket, her hair was long and blonde, like Karklosea. It was the doctor she assumed.
The doctor exchanged a number of words with another, lying in a bed across whatever medical facility Karklosea ended up in, a human male with dark skin and a thin beard. Like Karklosea, he looked like he came close to meeting the Gods after a battle went wrong.
The pain returned to her body, and she went back to gazing up and remaining still and motionless. She saw the ceiling after that, human-crafted by the looks of it, the light wasn’t nearly as bright as Union made buildings and ships but wasn’t as dim as Imperial ones. And the temperatures, they were a bit on the chilly side, nothing she couldn’t handle, of course, being a Linl. But having spent the last several decades living on Aervounis and serving aboard Union ships, she had gotten quite used to the heat.
A sliding door nearby opened, where exactly, she wasn’t sure, just that she heard them open and shut, delivering one . . . no, two people into the medical facility. She listened closely, it was indeed two people. One of the footsteps was significantly softer than the other, she barely heard them.
A new voice spoke, also in a human language, it sounded like Captain Foster. When Karklosea mustered enough strength and will power to ignore the pain, she tilted her head to the source of the voice. It was Foster all right. Her sight was quickly upstaged by another who approached Karklosea, the person that Foster entered with, a young Aryile woman.
Karklosea recognized her. “Odelea?” her weakened voice said to her.
Odelea tugged at her hair, taking three seconds to reply, likely checking her HNI’s files to see if she recognized the battered Templar that lay on the bed. “Karklosea . . . it has been a while.”
Karklosea attempted to sit up and regretted it. It felt like her body was about to fall apart. “I presume this is Foster’s ship?”
“Yes, this is sickbay, you are on the Johannes Kepler,” Odelea said. “You were nearly killed defending Foster, she had you brought aboard.”
She snorted, looking at the human doctor Foster had been speaking with. “I guess I should be thankful we Linl have similar anatomies to humans.”
“Doctor Kostelecky studied xenobiology; she can operate on any species.”
“She the only doctor?”
“Yes, our crew is small, and unfortunately, is getting smaller.”
Foster finished speaking with Kostelecky and arrived next to Odelea, standing before Karklosea’s medical bed. The two exchanged words in the human language. Odelea nodded her head, and then faced down at Karklosea.
“The captain has some questions for you, Karklosea,” Odelea said.
“Of course she does. What does she wish to know?”
“She wishes to know why you were in the tree city when they arrived.”
Karklosea tried to access her HNI but saw nothing, not even an error screen. Her head injuries needed more time to heal and reconnect with the implant. She groaned, rubbing her forehead.
“Those that attacked the council,” Karklosea explained. “They were members of a group known as the Soldiers of Marduk.”
Odelea translated for Foster. When she was done, Foster let out a grunt that Karklosea could only imagine was a human curse word she didn’t know.
“The captain says that Marduk is a name that’s been popping up a lot since she became an explorer,” Odelea said. “And, me too since the Draconians made their first attacks.” There was a pause, the silence filled with beeps of the heart monitor and humming air recyclers. “Soldiers of Marduk. Since when were they armed and dangerous?”
Karklosea would have shrugged if her body wasn’t partially frozen by pain. “I don’t know, the Soldiers of Marduk have been known to us for years but were never violent.”
“Foster says: what she saw was hardly peaceful,” Odelea translated again. “She wants to know if something changed.”
“Their numbers have been increasing since the Draconian attacks. Other than us detaining their members, nothing else has changed. It’s just a cult we’ve been cracking down on.”
“She wants to know why they were arrested.”
She laughed. It felt good, making her forget about her growing headache. “Explain to the human captain our laws, Odelea. We all must offer praise to the three Gods. Not worshipping the Gods, or worse, praising another is against the law.”
The strict religious laws in the Union were amplified after the Celestial Order wars. Karklosea, being a veteran of the wars, personally bore witness to the sweeping changes the council and religious leaders across the Union ushered in to prevent fanatic cults who had a wildly different interpretation of the word of the Gods, from rising to power and murdering those that didn’t follow them.
“Foster is aware of our laws,” Odelea said. “And she knows about the Celestial Order. The Order was most likely the reason why the Abyssal Sword went missing and somehow drifted to Sirius.”
“Then she should know a cult rising to power and offering praise to Marduk isn’t just a serious crime, but a threat that, if left unchecked, could lead to a repeat of the Celestial Order conflict. Those who had been arrested were given fierce punishments.”
“A Marduk cult is a serious concern for her,” Odelea translated. “Marduk had a lot of Poniga and Undine praising him as their God, and at one point, ancient humans from Babylon.”
“And her expedition of the Sirius system would have been very short had Marduk’s followers there secured a victory over the
m.”
“All our lives would have been cut short if they had failed. Marduk wanted to control Earth, and then enslave Radiance and the Empire. Foster and the Carl Sagan stopped him and then removed his Poniga and Undine followers.”
“While giving their enemies the power to rise up and take control,” Karklosea snorted. “Their enemies being Poniga and Undine that praise Tiamat . . .”
Foster’s face grimaced when Odelea translated Karklosea’s words. The captain’s actions, while noble, created a new enemy for the galaxy. Had Marduk still been alive today, perhaps the thousands of lives killed during the Draconians’ first attacks would be too.
“This brings me to why I was there,” Karklosea said. “I participated in the final battle against the Order and I’m almost positive Jainuzei was there as well. Which side he was on, I couldn’t tell you exactly.”
“Jainuzei was reported killed years before the incident at Barnard’s Star,” Odelea said.
“Yes, this makes his return all the more suspect,” Karklosea said, then took a deep breath. “As Lord Commander of the Templars, it’s my duty to defend the council and temples we pray at and detain threats to the Union. And so, I sought to eliminate a threat before it struck again. I went to learn more about Jainuzei’s death and visited his former wife, Marrea. I found archived recorded memories of Marrea’s time as a missionary on New Babylon. As soon as my HNI is active again, I’ll be able to show you what I saw. But know this, in a remote village on New Babylon were Poniga that were loyal to Marduk’s forces, the ones Foster’s team failed to eliminate. I suspect this is how the act of worshipping Marduk spread to the Union.”
“So, the missionaries the Union sent to convert those at Sirius ended up getting converted to the worship of Marduk.”
“Former and exiled members of the council became the leaders of that cult. With their past experience, they could help train and organize the SOM to become the threat they are. For all we know, this could be their means of striking back for the past arrests we made toward the group.”
Hallowed Nebula Page 17
