Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” she said, reclining back, processing the new info. “I know what it’s like to have a parent killed for no reason.”

  “Funny how the Gods work. They took our father from us, only to return him and take our mother in exchange. Well, Captain, good luck with your mission. Please be sure to stay clear of all Radiance patrol ships, and to not interfere with anything. Find the cybernetic specialist you are seeking, get his aid for your wounded member then leave when done.”

  Ienthei’s projection turned into the flag of the Union when the transmission ended, three large stars that represented the three Gods on a blue waving flag. She had no regrets about not telling him that Karklosea was aboard as with the data crystal she had. Or that Jainuzei kept both a secret from him. Foster didn’t trust Jainuzei or Karklosea at that point. Jainuzei more so than Karklosea, he did, after all, disable the drone, knew exactly how to do it only for it to leap back to life and upload the computer virus.

  Jainuzei wasn’t bad for a sleep-in that’s been out of the loop, and shouldn’t know much about the drones, or current century technology.

  Before Foster went running her mouth off to the council, it was best to get all the facts first. The last thing she wanted to be a part of, was triggering some kind of civil war within Radiance because she said the wrong thing, to the wrong person, at the wrong time—

  Her belly growled. It was a sign she was currently in the wrong place at the wrong time. She needed to be in the mess getting something to eat.

  Chef Bailey was cooking something scrumptious. She could smell it the moment she stepped foot on the top deck. In the mess was most of the crew, using food as a means of forgetting the horror they went through, or the fact that every meal consumed made their food stores lower with no means of replenishing them. Or the section of the middle deck that was off-limits until EVE was finished with repairs. Repairs Rivera would have been more than glad to make had she made it off the spaceport.

  No humans were found among the dead on the spaceport. It was a thought that comforted Foster all the way to the line the crew formed to get food, with cafeteria meal trays in hand. Normally Foster would have had her meals set up in the captain’s mess, located in a closed off room not far from where the rest of the crew would sit and eat. However, Chef Bailey was busy making a custom meal for someone. She didn’t want him to be tasked with that, plus something for her. Williams wasn’t among the crew standing in line, he was still recovering in sickbay. She made a mental note to swing by with some food for him. He was probably sick of the stuff Kostelecky was feeding him.

  She filled her meal tray with lasagna, garlic bread, where the garlic butter spread on it came from cattle native to Taxah. There were other items to select from the buffet Bailey set up, tailored to the multiple species needs of the crew, as small as it had become.

  She made her way to the captain’s mess, stopping when she noticed Odelea sitting alone. Normally she’d be sitting with Saressea’s team which had now left the ship, or Pierce who also sat alone. His comment about the Radiance Gods being aliens must have put her off.

  Foster was going to make a snarky comment about Odelea having imaginary friends since she was known to whisper to herself as a means of thinking out loud like she was now. Odelea’s out loud thinking was how Foster clued in that Odelea might have taken a liking to Pierce. He’d say hello to her in the corridors, and she’d walk away talking to herself about how much she enjoyed the smell of his aftershave.

  Jainuzei’s titan-like body appeared and sat in front of Odelea, placing his meal tray down. Foster was surprised how large and muscular he was and had assumed his armor made him look big. Turns out, he was making his armor big.

  His large hands went to season his bowl of leafy green vegetables as he asked. “I presume this is where Radiance personnel dine?”

  “Can sit wherever you want,” Foster grunted, then gestured to Tolukei as he finished his meal and left the mess from his usual quiet spot in the corner, alone. “Like him.”

  Jainuzei watched Tolukei leave the mess. “Ah, the Muodiry,” he said, then returned to his meal. “This setup is typical of Radiance mess halls.”

  Foster grimaced. “Keep the Javnis Muodiry away?”

  “Their existence—”

  “Contradicts the Gods,” she cut him off. “Yeah, yeah, heard the story, got the T-shirt, read the book, watched the movie. The book was better though.”

  She remembered that movie and book quite vividly too, a horror story about a Muodiry that tried to raise an undead army to topple Radiance. The more people he killed the stronger his forces grew. She made sure not to have it played during movie nights for Tolukei’s sake. That, and it was a really scary movie that made her scream a few times.

  “I do not hate them, please don’t get me wrong,” Jainuzei said. “Though, I cannot speak for everyone within the Union. Don’t you agree, Odelea?”

  Odelea didn’t answer. Foster followed her eyes to find out why. Chef Bailey had left the galley, carrying in his hands a bowl of fruit salad. 85 percent of it was julienned Granny Smith apples tossed in something that smelt tangy.

  “Odelea!” Bailey said to her with his Jamaican accent. “Here you go, hope you enjoy it.”

  Bailey placed the bowl of fruit before Odelea. Her smiling face was the definition of happiness. “Thank you, Chef!”

  “Was wondering who got the custom meal,” Foster said to Bailey.

  “Captain,” Bailey said, nodding. “You ready?”

  She held up her meal tray and the oversize portion of lasagna she took. “Don’t worry about it, Chef, I’ll stick with this for tonight.” She looked at her meal; the steam was no longer rising away from it. Good thing there was a microwave in the captain’s mess. “I should get goin’.”

  She expected Bailey to crack a joke, laugh, smile . . . do something other than stare grimly at the table before them. Bailey was eying Jainuzei down as if he stole something from him.

  Jainuzei noticed it too and waited to finish chewing his food before he asked. “Do I know you, human?”

  “Jainuzei . . .” Bailey said, pointing at him, slowly and repeatedly.

  Jainuzei slipped a fork full of the leafy meal into his mouth and then narrowed his eyes at the Jamaican Chef. “Demarion Bailey,” he said. “Forgive me, it has been many years.”

  Bailey nodded. “Yes, it has . . .” He didn’t sound pleased.

  “You two know each other?” Foster asked.

  Bailey kept his eyes on Jainuzei and revealed. “We met on New Babylon, back in the Sirius system.”

  32 Karklosea

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

  November 2, 2118, 19:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Karklosea waited until the human made elevator doors shut to scream in pain.

  She was in no position to leave sickbay. Her healing, but still partially mangled, body reminded her of that. It was the sole reason why she screamed when she collapsed to the floor in the Kepler’s elevator.

  The human doctor, Kostelecky, was it? Had left sickbay, leaving her alone with the other human that was recovering, and another frozen in medical cryo. It was the chance Karklosea had been waiting for since coming aboard, a chance to track down and confirm the rumor she had heard, the rumor that there was a Muodiry serving aboard the ship. She wouldn’t be able to sleep until she confirmed it. No sleep meant her body would heal slower.

  She prayed day and night for something to be done about the Draconian threat. Muodiry being part of that solution wasn’t one of them, now more than ever since she was on that same ship. The last time she shared a ship with one of their kind she was nearly killed. Karklosea swore on her son’s life to never make the same deadly mistake twice.

  Muodiry weren’t just proof of the ancient texts being wrong, they were dangerous, and had the power to indoctrinate those into the Celestial Order. Bad enough a lot of them did join it in the past. Entrusting one as
a member of the crew wasn’t a good idea, it was stupidity. It had to come to a stop, and it had to be by her righteous hand.

  By the time the elevator arrived at the top deck, ten minutes had slipped past. It took her two minutes to figure out which holo screen to press, and five minutes to get up off the floor to push it. The rest of the time was spent mustering enough strength to actually leave the elevator, onto the deck.

  She made her way out into the corridor barefoot, to the humming sounds of the air recyclers above, decorative human plants to the sides, and light low enough to make any Aryile wince. Odelea must have become quite tolerant of human living conditions. Even Karklosea, a Linl who was similar to humans, felt it was too dark.

  She heard the sound of voices when a door opened further down the corridor. It was the mess hall she figured, it must have been where the doctor had gone. The crew was dining. She hid around a corner pressing her back against the wall when a lone figure left. The material the medical gown the humans placed her in made her skin itch.

  Peeking around the corner, she saw the figure move away from the automatic sliding doors to the mess hall, a Javnis psionic wearing a dark cloak, and an exposed chest fitted with psionic cybernetic implants that were commonly used over a century ago. It was Tolukei; the Gods delivered him to her. They wanted her to make an example of him, she was sure of it.

  She followed him down the corridors to a section full of doorways. Crew quarters section she assumed since he entered one of them. Which one, she never figured out. It took her half an hour to find it, ringing the door chimes on them all, not caring if someone else from the crew had answered and saw her in the blood-stained gown that was slipping off her sore naked body. Lucky for her, nobody did.

  Tolukei’s voice replied when she rang the chime to his quarters. He spoke in English, so she didn’t know what he said. But the door had unlocked, so she hit the door open command on the small holographic panel, and it slid open.

  The lighting levels in his quarters grew dark by the time the doors closed behind her. There was a musky smell that hit her nose. It brought back old memories of exploring the swamps of the Javnis homeworld, Takarius, with its warm and muggy temperatures.

  When she turned the corner, she found Tolukei and the Undine girl from Sirius sitting cross-legged on the floor. Surrounding them were candles, providing the only source of light in the room.

  The Undine girl’s eyes were shut, while she placed her hands in her lap. Various bottles of water were next to her and, judging by the small puddle of water she sat on and her drenched blue hair covering the gills on her neck, she probably doused herself with them.

  Tolukei’s four eyes were shut as she limped closer. Karklosea was waiting for another sign from the Gods to guide her before she acted. The Undine girl, like the Muodiry, contradicted the ancient texts, they had psionic powers that weren’t given to them by Radiance. They also worshipped Tiamat, the deity of the Draconians. Did the Gods want Karklosea to make an example out of them both?

  No, there was another reason, so she hoped. Because as she got close enough to touch the Undine, she saw large translucent orbs of water floating in between the two as if gravity had been turned off. The gleaming water orbs were molded into shapes as if an invisible hand was touching them.

  “I wasn’t aware you two shared these quarters,” Karklosea spoke in the Radiance language.

  Tolukei replied back. “We do not.”

  His four eyes opened before he addressed the Undine girl in one of the human languages. English? Chinese? Karklosea never could tell the difference, she just knew it was the two official languages of the Earth and its colonies.

  The floating water drifted back into the empty water bottles. One blob telekinetically moved to the Undine girl’s face. Her opened mouth gave it a new home and then smiled after swallowing it. The Undine left, waving goodbye to Tolukei, and leaving the two alone.

  “So, it is true, an Undine with legs is part of the crew,” Karklosea said to him.

  Tolukei stood up from his trance, sidestepping around the circle of glowing candles on the floor. “She has become my apprentice, for lack of a better term,” he said, moving to a bookshelf.

  “Does she offer a prayer to Marduk or Tiamat?”

  “Tiamat.”

  “You know, I could have you arrested.”

  “This ship may have been co-funded by Radiance, but it is still a human vessel first, with a human commander. I have not broken any UNE laws.”

  “You are passing your Radiance psionic knowledge onto someone that does not believe in the Gods and offers prayer to a deity that brought the dragons into the galaxy.”

  “I am merely helping her better control her powers to become a more valuable member of the crew,” he said, keeping his face and four eyes on the bookshelf, searching for a particular book amongst the hundreds there. “Undine physiology does not permit them to utilize the psionic abilities that we in the Union have.” Looking away from the bookshelf, he faced her and asked. “What have you come here for, Lord Commander? Do you seek to meditate with us?”

  “I would never meditate with a Muodiry,” Karklosea said. “Or an Undine, both of your kind speaks out against the Gods.”

  “Basing all your decisions on our religion will only lead to more problems, not fix them.”

  “The Gods are the only way; those that reject it are evil, like the Hashmedai.”

  “The Hashmedai only rejected the Gods because it was forced upon them after we uplifted their kind,” Tolukei said. “They didn’t mind it in the past; they only hated it because of how we approached the topic. In turn, it led them down the dark path of evil.”

  Tolukei plucked a large black book off the shelf, human made if she were to guess. It was hard to see it with the low lighting. He started to flip through its pages, making fluttering sounds.

  “What is that?” she asked him.

  “This?” He stopped flipping through the pages, holding the large book up to her. “This is human literature from one of many human religions, they call it the Bible.”

  Karklosea gasped and staggered, nearly falling over thanks to her weakened body. “You read human religious texts?!”

  “This book is considered to be very important to many humans for centuries,” Tolukei said. “It helps me better understand some of the various groups within their society.”

  It took her some time to form a reply and collect her terrified thoughts. A Muodiry training an Undine, a devotee to Tiamat, who reads the human Bible, was this what the Gods wanted her to know? That they were okay with this? Had they gone mad? Or did they want her to end this? If so, they weren’t giving her power to do so.

  “Tolukei, Radiance laws state that—”

  “Again, this is not a Radiance ship, it is a human one, funded by them,” he said. “While I always accept the existence of the three Gods, UNE law states one can practice any religion they desire to or opt to not practice one at all.”

  She grimaced. “Humans have such a strange way of living.”

  “Is it really that strange? In the Empire, if you were to bring text such as the Bible into it, you would be punished as all religious beliefs are forbidden amongst the Hashmedai. In the Union, if you were to bring a Bible, you would be punished for holding a religious text that isn’t in praise of the three Gods. Is Radiance really that much better than the Empire in the eyes of humans?”

  An impressed look spread across her face. “A Muodiry that is compassionate and well spoken.”

  “We are not a nemesis to the Union, or galaxy for that matter, even if our psionic powers were not given to us by the Gods.”

  “The last Muodiry I faced tried to kill me,” she said. “They nearly succeeded in doing that while indoctrinating the minds of fine Union Navy personnel into the Celestial Order.”

  “The last Muodiry most of this crew faced was Marduk,” he said. “Yet none of them considers me a threat based on his actions. That’s the thing about humans, not all of
them assume your intentions are ill because of the actions of a select few. Perhaps if those in Radiance did not assume all Hashmedai rejected the teachings of the Gods, because their leaders did, the war between our two people could have been avoided.”

  As much as she disliked Tolukei, she saw no threat. He wasn’t like the last Muodiry she fought. He wasn’t going to betray the crew. This was the message the Gods wanted her to get. Well, she hoped it was at least.

  “You are still welcome to meditate with me,” Tolukei said. “You are the first person from Radiance with psionic powers to board this ship, other than me of course.”

  “I shall be fine,” Karklosea said, limping back to the exit. “Thank you.”

  A violent pain hit her when the doors slid shut behind her. It was her cybernetic implants. They were acting up, now more than ever thanks to the last battle.

  They were killing her.

  33 Foster

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

  November 2, 2118, 19:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Foster ate way too fast. She was starting to have doubts if she’d have it in her to polish off that bottle of Jack Daniels she bought from Amicitia Station 14 before they left. Paul gave her a very nice discount on it too. Booze made on Earth and shipped out to the stars wasn’t cheap.

  She slouched back on her seat within the captain’s mess. The logo of IESA and the Johannes Kepler decorated the wall behind her. To the side was the view of the purple and pink colored gasses of the nebula the Johannes Kepler continued to accelerate through, traveling at two light-years per month.

  According to Bailey, the Kepler had a year worth of food aboard, year and a half if they stretched it. Had she known about the cryo situation beforehand, she would have asked him to go easy on the ingredients. She checked her wrist terminal for new messages. Rivera was still silent. She began to wonder if her recent message was the last one she’d ever see.