Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “And now Jainuzei has come back from his death, knows where they operate, knew of the attack on the council while it was in progress.”

  “I don’t think he died, not by the evidence I saw. I think he faked his death to join the Order. And that’s the part I don’t understand. If Jainuzei was secretly with the Order, why is he helping us now? And how did he avoid being captured or killed once the Order had fallen all these years? Radiance had always been the enemy of the Order; one would think he’d be helping the Soldiers of Marduk, not killing them.”

  Odelea explained her words to the captain. When she was done, Foster nodded and went to leave. “Wait!” Karklosea called out. “Don’t let her leave yet, I have more.”

  Foster returned to the bedside, her arms were crossed as she waited to hear Odelea’s translated words.

  “Tell Foster that she made a grave mistake in assaulting the Soldiers of Marduk’s base.”

  “She had no choice, the Union is refusing to allow the Kepler to fly,” Odelea said. “She made a deal with them, capture or kill the targets Jainuzei directed them to, and they’ll release the ship.”

  “Foster’s Sirius expedition crew killed Marduk, crippled his hold over the system and liberated his Tiamat-worshipping slaves. The Soldiers of Marduk know this and view Foster as an anti-god. If there are any other members of this group left, they’ll be made aware of her actions. She is the slayer of Marduk, stuck in Radiance territory, and has formally attacked his loyal followers. Her actions gave this cult more of a reason to hate her than they already have.”

  Foster’s body language grew grim when Odelea translated her words.

  “Tell Foster,” Karklosea added. “She needs to leave the planet at once before it’s too late.”

  24 Rivera

  Rivera’s Hotel Room

  Paris, Earth, Sol System

  November 2, 2118, 03:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  During the transport ride back to Paris from Baghdad Rivera had a lot to think about. Ruins in the mountains, ancient ruins below Baghdad, and all those containing artifacts that were outfitted with technology superior to what humans and the rest of the galaxy had access to today.

  Many historians, as the years went on, argued that the human race first learned how to write, read, and record history in Mesopotamia, the ancient city of Babylon being part of that region. Why there and nowhere else was never explained. Rivera had an idea why now. Someone came down from the stars one fateful night, someone with advanced technology and taught the humans living there how to do just that. Like the Aryile and their three Gods, Tiamat, Marduk, and the other Gods and Goddess mentioned in Sumerian and Babylonian mythologies landed on Earth. Powerful psionic aliens who told the masses they were divine and were to be worshipped.

  During that time, according to Doctor Pierce’s laughable book, Tiamat arrived on the coasts of western Africa to spread her influence onto the human race with the Siren Undine from Sirius and probably a dragon or two. It’d explain why dragons were so common in human stories. But dragons weren’t mythical beings; they were alien servants to Tiamat.

  Somewhere out there in the cosmos was a nebula where all this probably started. And where all this would end horribly if the Draconians found it, with the Eyes of Tiamat they took from the catacombs under Baghdad.

  Rivera wasn’t done with her thinking by the time she returned to her hotel room. Again, it was a lot to think about.

  By the time the door to her suite had shut, she realized there was an enjoyable amount of silence in her head. The AI Goddess Sarpanit had little to say after she left the deep pit in the park. It gave her the confidence to review a new qmail message that arrived.

  To: Jasmine Rivera

  From: Rebecca Foster

  Subject: Returning to the JK

  Sent: November 2, 2118, 03:31 SST

  Hey Jasmine,

  Sorry about the loss of your salvage crew. It pains me to see that the Carl Sagan’s last moments will be a place where people searching for its secrets were killed. Anyways, I’m writing to let you know, in case you didn’t get our last messages, that we really need you back on the team. Saressea has been taken into Radiance custody and we’re probably not going to see her around for a while. Her entire Radiance team has been removed as well so we’re without an engineer, let alone a team.

  This is your chance to come back to the team, but the window won’t be open forever. We’re currently in the Luminous system, but we got to leave ASAP once Saressea’s replacement arrives. We’ll be picking them up at a spaceport in orbit of Eiri, one of the planets in the system. If you could meet us there, that would be fantastic! Please let me know ASAP, again, we’re running out of time.

  - Foster

  PS, Chef wants to know if you still have that brownie recipe. He wants to make it again, without the ‘special herbs’ of course.

  Rivera closed the message. “Hmm.”

  “What do we have here?” Sarpanit’s voice broke her silence, no doubt having read the message when she was.

  “Foster needs me back on the Kepler,” Rivera said. “Saressea has been removed leaving them without an engineer . . . or team for that matter.”

  “Ignore her for now as with the last messages sent, we have much to do starting with taking Tiamat’s breastplate.”

  “I can’t!”

  “You can, and you will.”

  “Foster will become suspicious eventually. And as for that breastplate, you really think they’re going to let me walk in and take it?”

  “Let Foster think what she wants,” Sarpanit said. “I am not here to please the needs of the one that murdered my husband. What we need to do is keep that breastplate away from the Draconians and find a way to the nebula.”

  “I’m all for that, but we need Foster’s help to make that happen.”

  “You will not seek that woman’s help! We will find our own way to do this.”

  Rivera’s fingers ran through her hair, pulling on it with frustration by the time she reached her bed. The negative vibes she sought so long to rid herself of were returning and building a wall around her made of pure stress and hopelessness. She was trapped within it and unsure how to get out.

  Going against Sarpanit meant Rivera losing her life. Obeying meant turning her back on Foster and missing her ticket back to the Kepler, something she needed more than ever since the Carl Sagan’s salvage was more or less done. She needed a way out. She needed a way back to the Kepler, and back to her friends without the new toxic one she had picked up who had made its home in her head.

  On the floor was her bong. It was the source of all things happy. A refueling station for positive blissful vibes. The herbs within it made all bad things go away, and sometimes that included dangerous people, the PS of Foster’s email reminded her of just that; the brownies she had Chef Bailey make on the Carl Sagan. An idea popped into her head, and she reached for the bong.

  “This does not help us,” Sarpanit said as Rivera came to sit at the foot of the bed, prepping the bong with is cannabis contents.

  “No, but it does help me.”

  “Stop this at once!”

  “Let me hit this, okay?” She stood ready to light it. “I’ll do whatever you want afterward.”

  “Very well, medicate yourself,” Sarpanit said in a dejected voice. “When you’re finished, seek that Vorcambreum and her bodyguard Rabuabin. If they won’t surrender the breastplate to you and help us, I want you to kill them and . . .”

  Sarpanit continued to ramble, listing a detailed plan on how Rivera should proceed. What those words were exactly were drowned out by the excitement she felt when she lowered the bong’s tube away from her lips, then exhaled a plume of herbal mist. She began to giggle minutes later, her eyes slowly turning bloodshot as positive vibes returned. Suddenly, the deaths, the AI in her head, the terrorizing discoveries recently made, none of that mattered, and the more she thought about it, the more she started to laugh to herself.

  Her H
NI flashed a disconnected error message. THC and HNI didn’t work together. And with her brain’s inability to communicate with the implant, meant she was free from the AI Goddess control over her. Now came the tricky part, letting the Kepler know she was coming back while medicated.

  She found a wrist terminal. It had been shut off since she got her implants. Once it was powered on, she sent a confirmation message to Foster that she’d meet them at the spaceport in the Luminous system. How she’d hide the fact she went and got HNI, and had an AI living in it, was a problem she’d deal with later. The best idea she had was using the Kepler computers to wipe her HNI’s memory crystals, it should get rid of Sarpanit, though all the secrets she had would be lost as well unless a backup was made. And we all know how well that worked out the last time we did that.

  She packed up her belongings, leaving the statue of Buddha last, then booked passage on a transport flying to the Eiri spaceport. It consisted of two transport flights, the first one would take her from Earth to Amicitia Station 14 and, after a brief layover, she’d take a Radiance ferry through the wormhole into the Luminous system.

  Rivera couldn’t believe how she managed to do all that while high, and then make her way out to Paris’ starport. Desperate times can make people perform miraculous tasks, even while medicated.

  Radiance Arm

  Amicitia Station 14, Arietis System

  November 2, 2118, 09:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Rivera had heard about Amicitia Station 14, the central hub of this corner of the galaxy, but never spent a lot of time on it. The gargantuan starfish-shaped space station and its five arms rotated in the heart of the quadruple star system as Rivera’s passenger transport made its approach. By the time she awoke from her sleep in her chair and made it into the station via its airlock, she felt the effects of the THC lingering. She didn’t have much time left before her HNI was able to reconnect with her mind.

  The large crowd of people she left the transport with dispersed into the station, some going to collect their baggage, others waiting for friends or family, and others, like Rivera, made a quick stop at a fast food restaurant. She had a major case of the munchies and transport meals were far too expensive for her shrinking credit chit balance.

  After a greasy burger and fries, Rivera entered the station’s atrium. She stood watching in awe the various species of the galaxy, well, the known galaxy, going about their business. Some moved to and from the shops and malls, others made their way to the countless entertainment establishments with flashing holographic signs over their entrances or sat in the artificial parks. Indoor parks on a space station, complete with dazzling fountains spraying water up into the air, while glass tube elevators rose up or down before them.

  She enjoyed watching Hashmedai men and women raise their hands in triumph at a casino she walked past, clearly happy about some game they won. It made her wonder if the yoga lessons she gave the Hashmedai back home in Manila really did help them adjust to human life and not be aggressive.

  Those were sad days, back in 2033 when being a Hashmedai living on Earth got you lynched unless you lived in a community like Vancouver or Manila. Back in those days, Rivera spent a good amount of time helping Hashmedai blend in with humans, providing them with shades to cover their eyes, especially in low light situations that would cause them to glow. Some Hashmedai were given gloves to cover the slits on their fingers from where their claws could be deployed, and in some cases, makeup to make their skin tone look more human, especially the blue-skinned ones.

  The woman Rivera noticed tailing her from behind fit that profile. Her fluffy chestnut brown hair was most likely a wig, the shades over her eyes were dark enough to obscure the glowing of her eyes, while her hands were wrapped in black leather gloves. The only people that would find the atrium cold and would be wearing gloves, were the Aryile and Javnis, certainly not a human. Especially humans like Rivera who were making their way to a train station that sent people to the Radiance Arm of the station, and the subtropical city within it. All the humans around her were dressed in shorts, T-shirts, and the like.

  Rivera boarded the train when it pulled up. The strange woman boarded behind her. As a test, Rivera switched seats midway through the train’s rapid journey through the darkened tunnels of the station. The woman followed behind.

  Bright, white light shined down from the holographic sunny skies when the train came to its first stop within the Radiance city on the station arm. All humans aboard the train put on shades as they exited. Rivera did the same as the light, even though it was fake, was bright as the sunny skies of Aervounis as with the heat. Rivera’s sweating skin thanked her when she entered the shade provided by a number of tall buildings. As she made her way from the station, she saw the woman following her and the heat making her stagger.

  She was a Hashmedai trying to look like a human and following her. Why?

  Rivera’s wrist terminal flashed on when she tapped it. A floating hologram hovered above her wrist displaying the estimated time she had left before she had to head to the airlock and catch the Radiance ferry traveling to the Luminous system. She had a few more minutes left, and probably the same amount of time left before her HNI reconnected. It was time to get medicated again.

  She arrived at a lounge, stepping into a deck decorated with tropical trees from the Aryile homeworld. Below the deck was a large swimming pool designed to look like a beach with holographic blue skies in the distance. Most of the people resting about were human tourists. It made sense when living on the station, the best place to go for a vacation was the Radiance arm, and the tropical city in a bubble built into the station. She guessed that most of the humans were single, as Aryile customarily swam naked, had no shame at people looking at their bodies when they emerged from the water, and more often than not, encouraged humans to shed their swimming trunks or bikinis to join them.

  Rivera found an empty table and chair on the deck, sat down, pulled her bong out from her backpack, and got ready to take another hit. Cannabis smoke blew up into the air from her lips, delaying Sarpanit’s return for a few more hours.

  The woman following Rivera sat at the vacant chair across from her, unfazed at the smell of cannabis that encircled the table. She was holding a bottle of ice-cold water. The closer encounter gave Rivera a better glimpse at her. Apart from the shades, the woman wore a wide-brimmed summer hat, black leather skirt matching her gloves, and white top exposing her midriff. There was a diamond-shaped rose navel ring shimmering in the light from her belly button and the clearly fake-tanned skin.

  “Fancy that,” the woman said with an English accent, looking down at the people near the fake beach. “There’s still laughter and happiness in this galaxy.”

  The two faced each other, both hiding their narrowing eyes behind their shades. “Tahal ku tu zulka?” What is your name? Rivera asked her in Hashmedai.

  “Careful, darling, humans that speak Hashmedai from your generation were often members of the HLF.”

  “El oor tulianah Ralum-yel.” Not if I speak Radiance.

  The woman grinned, exposing her vampire-like fangs. “You must be Jasmine Rivera.”

  “And you didn’t answer my question.”

  A Javnis server approached, and the woman ordered drinks off the human drink menu, two Mary Pickfords. The pink and fruity beverage arrived, garnished with an immaculate maraschino cherry. Rivera’s instincts told her not to drink; her new found high told her to mellow out.

  The two indulged on the drink, while she tried to visualize what the Hashmedai sitting ahead of her really looked like under the layer of makeup covering her natural skin tone, making it appear as if she were a tanned human.

  “The name’s Diamondrose,” the woman said. “Penelope Diamondrose.”

  Rivera looked at the cherry floating on her pink-colored beverage, then back up at her guest. She put two and two together. “Maraschino, I’ve read about you people. Elite hackers and data brokers of the galaxy.”

&nb
sp; Penelope made a cold smirk, sitting back on her chair. “And I’ve read a lot about you.”

  “Why’s that?” Rivera asked as she went to put out the bong. Maraschino pulling her aside meant something was up, taking another hit would have to wait.

  “Doctor Pierce’s dossier from EISS ultimately led to reports about you,” Penelope said. “I guess it has to do with your HLF associations.”

  “Hashmedai and Radiance are at a ceasefire, but yet they still don’t welcome your people into their planets and cities.”

  Penelope flaunted her appearance. “Oh, believe me, I’m aware of that. I’m just a human Essex girl as far as everyone here thinks, as opposed to the Hashmedai one I really am.”

  “Why did you follow me here?”

  “I was merely trying to board the ferry, and then stopped here for some drinks.”

  “That’s my line,” Rivera said with a cannabis grin. “Seriously? Why are you here?”

  Penelope waved her hand, and in its wake was a holographic boarding pass floating between the two. “I am serious, this is my boarding pass.”

  She pulled the hologram closer to her face, skimming its contents quickly. Penelope was booked to ride on the same Radiance ferry Rivera was. “What a coincidence . . . you’re hopping on the same ship, going to the same destination, and know all about me.”

  Penelope snapped her fingers and the hologram flashed out of existence. Finishing her drink, she asked Rivera. “Enjoying life as an HNI user?”

  “I regret going in to get them . . .”

  “You know yours isn’t working correctly, right?”

  Being the Maraschino hacker Penelope was it didn’t surprise Rivera at all for her to notice that. Penelope, as with all hackers like her from what Rivera learned, was able to detect, scan, and pull out personal information from people’s HNI just by looking at them. And it was that knowledge that made worrying thoughts return despite the THC flowing into her mind. The AI was still in her head somewhere, just trapped. Penelope’s prodding around remotely might bring out the AI Goddess Rivera was trying so hard to shut down.