“Y’all wanna elaborate?”
He demonstrated by launching a probe from the Kepler. The crew watched as the view screen zoomed in on the small device soaring ahead of the Kepler through the thin layers of gas in the nebula. The probe flashed white then turned into slag, hitting an invisible barrier. The barrier sparkled with yellow and blue bolts of what looked like electricity dancing across it.
“Had we continued forward, that would have been us,” Chang said.
“This is the center of the nebula,” Jainuzei said. “The great barrier of the Gods and their home lies beyond.”
Foster examined the data that populated a vacant computer station, eying the numbers, diagrams, and flashing pulses of yellow light on the holo screen. The barrier was at least ten light-years in diameter, possibly more. The yellow light pulses were on the other side of the barrier, their energy signatures were the same as the ones Odelea had shared.
“Let me guess,” Foster said. “Y’all found fissures on the other side of the barrier.”
“Found more than that, Cap,” Chang said, interacting with his computer.
A distress beacon transmission played over the bridge’s speakers. The holo screen that Foster was looking at updated with new data, displaying the approximate location of the beacon. It too was beyond the barrier.
She read the name of the ship in distress. “ESRS Gerard Kuiper.”
“That’s an Earth vessel name, correct?” Tolukei asked.
“Yeah, it is.”
“What’s a UNE ship doing all the way out here?” Pierce said. “We’re hundreds of light-years away from Aervounis. Nobody from Earth ventured this far out since it’s controlled by Radiance.”
30 Saressea
Radiance Prison Ferry
En route to Avalon System, Interstellar Space
November 2, 2118, 18:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Saressea was starting to hate prison life, and she hadn’t been officially convicted yet.
Radiance prison ferries were loaded with prisoners either en route to prison, the edge of Radiance space for exile, or accused who were being transported to stand at their tribunal on a selected world. Saressea was a member of the last group, and so was forced to mingle with the hardened inmates on the ship.
The ferry had one window for inmates to look out and see the stars of space move past, along with their freedom. In front of the stars were other prison ferries and navy escort cruisers, all flying in formation. She was certain the designer of the ferry put the window there to torment inmates on their travel.
Unlike other ships, prison ferries had no cryo chambers other than the small number of pods reserved for the ship’s crew and guards in the restricted areas. They rotated in and out during the voyages and sometimes kept an eye on inmates.
Cryo pods were expensive to produce and maintain, and since each ferry held thousands of inmates, it was cheaper to feed them tubes of protein or vegetable paste and water. Nobody received enough paste and water to satisfy their bodies, just enough to live to see the next day, nothing more. Inmates in the central mess were known for shanking others for extra paste unless they gave it up. Saressea was always hungry, especially on those days when she was targeted. She did not want her blood added to the mess on the floor. The condition of the prison ferries, of course, was done to paralyze the population of Radiance with fear. Be good, obey the law, praise the Gods, and you’ll never have to suffer like the inmates on the ships.
It went without saying that prison breaks were nonexistent. Where would you go? Only the crew and guards had access to escape pods or transports. And, in the very unlikely event an inmate stole one, the cruisers in the fleet would move to intercept and recapture you. Or shoot you down, it was their call.
Men and women from Radiance were free to mingle in the central areas, chat when they dined on paste, or use the workout centers. When it was lights out time, they were pushed into opposite sections of the ship reserved for their gender, where their force field cells were. The corridors that led to those were protected by, not only other force fields, but reinforced doors.
In the mess, groups of men and women of a variety of Radiance races formed cliques. At first, it was to protect themselves from the SOM cultists that were brought aboard. Then it was to get in with them. Byikanea was the popular woman, she sat like a queen at her table in the corner, while other inmates pampered her with a mountain of paste and water they collected from those that weren’t with her gang.
Sometimes, the tribute paid to Byikanea had real food, normally reserved for the guards and ship’s crew if they were out of cryo for a prolonged amount of time. Saressea really wanted to know how they got that. Her growling belly could go for something solid.
Had Saressea not been eying the goods Byikanea was given on one fateful day, she could have avoided the bizarre chat with the fiery red-headed Linl woman. She saw her looking at the tribute, smiled and walked over to the table Saressea sat at.
“Saressea? Right?” Byikanea said.
“Amazing,” Saressea said sarcastically. “I have a fan following now. Fuck, yeah.”
“You have no idea.” Byikanea smiled. “May I sit?”
“Knock yourself out.”
Byikanea sat ahead of her and folded her fingers together placing them on top of the table. “I haven’t seen you make prayers to the Gods lately,” Byikanea said.
“Yeah, I’m kinda not on speaking terms with them right now,” Saressea said. Byikanea beamed. “I guess the same goes for you?”
Byikanea held her smile, the black lipstick made her look like a witch humans used to fear. It made her wonder which of the guards had black lipstick marks over their dick.
“Do you know who I am, Saressea?”
“You’re Byikanea.” If she had her HNI active she’d check the network. But newer slave collars, like the one Saressea and everyone else had, created a small damping field that not only disabled psionic powers but HNIs. Strangely enough, the light on Byikanea’s collar wasn’t flashing red. Meaning it wasn’t armed or set to pause. There were probably two guards with black lipstick marks on their dick. “You used to be the Linl rep on the council, right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Byikanea said.
“I only remember because of that fiery red hair you got,” Saressea said. “So, how’d you end up back here? Last I checked, you and a bunch of other council members got exiled for conspiring with the Celestial Order.”
“I stopped praying to the Gods . . .”
“Well, that answers my other question.”
“. . . and started praying to Marduk.”
“You could have at least said one of the human deities,” Saressea said with a grimace, her feline ears sagging in sync with her face. “One of my human buddies from San Diego tells me Jesus is getting real popular again on Earth because of the dragon attacks.”
Laughter left Byikanea’s mouth. “Ancient humans did worship Marduk!”
“Well . . .”
“And you should too; you’ve already done a great service to him. Let us help you find guidance and peace when he returns.”
Byikanea’s words made Saressea’s tail stiffen, and her chest struggled to keep her heart inside. She looked at the inmates Byikanea was known to hang out with. They were all asking inmates and guards the same questions about whether they were believers or not.
Were they recruiting? Did she want to recruit her? She wanted to say no, naturally. But seeing all the food Byikanea got, and learning of the special privileges, it was tempting. Their next stop was Talsyk after all, a trip that would take just under a year.
And what was that about me doing a service to Marduk? I didn’t do shit for the false dead God or his cult.
Saressea ended the chat with a smile, not a yes or a no, just a ‘let’s chat later’ smile. Byikanea’s power was growing, and sooner or later Saressea was going to have to pick a side. The guards weren’t going to do shit if Saressea’s daily protein paste was stole
n every day for a week. They might when she fell over dead of starvation, of course, but that was it. Saressea wished she was on one of the other prison ferries.
Days went by since the chat. And Saressea carried out her daily routine after getting let out of her cell, by hitting the workout area, hoping those around knew the Rabuabin woman was able to hold her own in a fight.
It reminded her of her youth, being the daughter of a ship mechanic. As she recalled, the term was called tomboy by humans. At sixteen she helped her father stitch up ships that got hit by one too many plasma balls from the Empire, or ships that had been spread full of holes from pirates.
That life only continued during her days in the navy, and by the time she started working with humans, she was drinking beer and watching sports at local bars on Amicitia Station 14, or other outposts Radiance sent her to that was close to the UNE. She couldn’t remember the year it was when she dropped her Radiance and Rabuabin culture for a human one. It just happened without notice. Just like when Byikanea appeared, watching Saressea wherever she went on the ship.
At least once a day Saressea caught Byikanea gawking at her when she worked out, when she ate in the mess, assuming she wasn’t shaken down for paste with a shank pointed at her. Everywhere she went, Byikanea was someplace close, and her groupies grew larger. Byikanea must have been upset that Saressea wasn’t one of them. Leading her on might have been a mistake.
One night, Saressea was awakened from her hard bed in her cell. As she rose up from the aborted sleep, she saw her force field flash away. Byikanea, with a devious grin spread across her face decorated with black Linl cosmetics, entered. Behind, were two guards, none of them seemed to care that it was lights out time.
“Hey, sure come on in and wake me up, not like I have to go to work in the morning,” Saressea said, rubbing her eyes.
“Well, since you asked for it,” Byikanea said.
“That was sarcasm, hun.”
“Hun . . .” Byikanea licked her black lips, approaching Saressea still lying on her bed. There was a flare of hunger in her eyes.
“Seriously, though,” Saressea said. “How the hell did you get the field off?”
Byikanea gestured to the two guards standing outside the entrance to Saressea’s cell. That’s when Saressea’s mind had finally caught up with her body and awoke. Byikanea was in her cell, uninvited, and creeping closer to her. Sweat drenched her body, and Saressea became tense and clenched her fists, ready for her first prison fight.
Byikanea’s hand stroked Saressea’s fist. It made Saressea pull it back quickly, crawling away from her on the bed backward.
“Oh, your reflexes are perfect,” Byikanea said, and then began to strip out of her jumpsuit.
“Oh, okay, no, just stop!—”
Paralysis gripped Saressea’s body.
Byikanea was a psionic, she used her telekinetic powers to hold and control Saressea like a puppet. She made her body float up and hover.
“I don’t want to do this anymore than you do,” Byikanea said. “But the boys are locked up, and I can’t get to them. You’ll have to do.”
Saressea felt the draft brush against her body as her jumpsuit was pulled off almost by hordes of invisible hands. Her body came down onto the bed, and Byikanea in her nude form crawled upon her. She saw that Byikanea had no cybernetic implants, it was strange given the level of psionic powers she had, and what Saressea heard when she attacked the council. A psionic with that level of power needed implants, and the Byikanea that used to sit on the council never had powers to start with.
Something didn’t add up, and she kept her thoughts on it as a distraction when Byikanea raped her all night long. Saressea had no idea it was possible for a woman to do that. But, with psionic powers, anything was possible.
“Oh, Jainuzei . . . I fucking love you,” Byikanea’s ecstasy-laced voice said as her body quivered. Whoever Jainuzei was, Byikanea was fantasizing about him. “You are amazing.”
Byikanea came back the next night, and the one after that, and that. The guards did nothing but ramble about Marduk. Leading Byikanea on was a terrible idea.
For the first time in recent memory, Saressea wept herself to sleep.
31 Foster
XSV Johannes Kepler
Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse
November 2, 2118, 19:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The threat was over, yet, the crew was still in danger.
The Johannes Kepler remained in FTL long after it left the mysterious energy barrier found in the nebula. They were far away from any place to stop and get repairs after the Kepler left the Eiri spaceport with a bloody nose. The nearest Radiance outpost was years away unless a fissure was found, and with that news came something else to stress about.
Foster sat at her desk, in her office, looking away from her father’s telescope that was displayed next to an observation window. She skimmed through the after-action reports on her computer, listing the damage done to the ship after the battle. Most of it could be quickly repaired with the resources and spare parts on hand, and EVE being an android meant she didn’t need to worry about the lack of air to breathe in those exposed areas.
The biggest issue was the damage done to the cryo chambers. EVE was still assessing it, but it wasn’t looking good. As it stood, cryostasis wasn’t an option. The Kepler was fast, but space was still huge. A trip from Earth to Proxima Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, would take the Kepler roughly two months.
They were years away from the closest means of getting new supplies and had no cryostasis. The crew would be dead from starvation before they reached anywhere. Finding habitable planets was a no-go, as nebulas were home to young stars. If they had planets, they were going through their early formation. They’d be lucky to find a planet with breathable air. Life wouldn’t evolve for several million years on those worlds. That meant food as well, unless the Radiance Gods did exist on some planet in the nebula. In that case, Foster was open to the idea of a religious conversion if it came to it. She imagined the human crew would as well.
She was in the process of reading up on the distress signal from the ESRS Gerard Kuiper. It was an IESA ship that was part of the small fleet that went to Sirius after the Carl Sagan’s disappearance. After it assisted the colonists, it left the system, suffered an accident with its reactor, and was destroyed.
The Gerard Kuiper going from Sirius to the nebula made no sense, especially if it was destroyed. She went to search more about it on her computer when she was interrupted. Her intercom had beeped. Foster took the message.
“Incoming transmission from Aervounis,” Odelea’s voice said.
Must be the council, Foster thought. “Put it through to my office.”
A small blue and white projection of Jainuzei’s son, and Aryile council member, Ienthei appeared floating above Foster’s desk. A notification flashed briefly above the projection stating the QEC link was solid. Ienthei appeared to be sitting on his balcony patio, his sister Queenea swam in the pool behind him while the orange skies of the late afternoon hung above.
“Captain, my apologies for the delay,” Ienthei said. “Had we known the Soldiers of Marduk were targeting you, we would have sent my father to you earlier.”
“I ain’t complaining about the timing,” Foster said. “If anything, I’m surprised you made the selection that quickly.”
“You needed to leave right away, and we had to make a choice from a very limited selection.”
“So that’s why, of all the people you could have sent me, you chose him?”
“Yes,” Ienthei said, while his sister left the pool dripping wet and naked. Foster turned her face away from the screen. “Furthermore . . .” There was hesitation in Ienthei’s voice, probably wondering why Foster had turned away. “He personally requested it and is a sleep-in like you, making him the perfect candidate. He doesn’t have HNI.”
“Him? A sleep-in?” She was still looking away.
“He was absent
from the galaxy, like you, when HNI was invented, only for the Gods to return him back to us.”
Foster made a quick peek, Queenea was moving out of sight. Ienthei’s eyes were following Queenea’s body off-screen. Foster wasn’t versed on Aryile customs, but she was certain a brother shouldn’t be staring at his naked sister like that, regardless of how hot she was. She quickly flushed out the thoughts of what the two did when nobody was around.
“Right . . .” she said when she was viewing the screen again. “So, about the attack.”
“We have it under control now.”
“Why did your drones attack my ship?”
“The Soldiers of Marduk took control of the drones’ command center and manually instructed them to attack you.”
“Weren’t the drones new to you guys?”
“Yes, we purchased them from Earth recently to cover the gaps in our defense thanks to the dragons.”
“Don’t you find it funny how this group knew of your new toys and how to hijack them?”
“It is . . . a security concern we’re looking into, as with the abilities of this cult. The weapons, knowledge of the drones, and the cult’s ability to send their forces into space were all unknown until now.”
His reply didn’t make her feel any safer. Getting off Aervounis wasn’t enough; they followed her to the spaceport, and then sent a drone that contained a virus which made the Kepler fly into a fissure bringing them to the Hallowed Nebula. She kept that knowledge secret from Ienthei of course, as with the vision that was triggered when the Kepler flew past the ethereal refinery.
“One last thing, Captain,” Ienthei added. “Please ensure my father’s transition into your crew is as painless as possible. We just discovered that our dear mother was murdered recently. He took the news hard.”
“You mean Marrea?”
“Yes, that was her name,” he said. “She was vaporized. Lord Commander Karklosea was investigating her before we lost contact with her as well. I fear our loyal Templar might have uncovered something grim.”
Hallowed Nebula Page 24
