Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Foster did her duty and gave Chevallier the quickest means of recovery. The rest was up to her once that day came.

  “So,” Foster said, offering a farewell handshake to Karklosea. “Guess this is it then, Karklosea?”

  Odelea translated for the two. “She says yes, Wenadei will fix the problems with her cybernetics.”

  “Tell her farewell then, and thanks for the help,” Foster said. “Let’s go, Odelea, we’s got some poking around ethereal fissures to do.”

  38 Rivera

  Undersea Ruins

  Takarius, Hyalur System

  July 18, 2119, 01:49 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  “Fascinating, your HNI and that port are compatible.”

  It took Rivera two minutes to realize Eicelea had spoken to her. She was lost in thought at the newly accessed chamber that was beyond, access granted by the AI Goddess Sarpanit when she interfaced to the ancient door’s control panel.

  She didn’t even notice Penelope, Eicelea, and Vynei stand next to her, as they all pondered what their next move would be. And where the UNE signals were coming from.

  Rivera shook off the shocked and spaced-out look and gave her delayed response. “That’s because the technology behind it is similar.”

  “How is that possible?” Eicelea asked.

  Rivera replied as the group moved forward, even Sarpanit’s holographic appearance followed, though it wasn’t necessary, she was in Rivera’s HNI. “Humanity mostly reverse engineered technology acquired from Radiance, the Hashmedai, Lyonria, and Sirius ruins, adding it to our own.”

  “The technology found in Sirius turned out to be lost Draconian technology, right?” Penelope asked.

  Rivera nodded yes. “And what Marduk had used. I guess the tech in HNI and the tech inside that panel, at one point, were one and the same.”

  The newly accessed chamber the group stepped into was dark, only flashlights revealed its contents. It was built by a high-tech civilization, but not the Lyonria based on Rivera’s previous venture into their structures. The layout of the chamber’s floors and walls around her looked exactly like how Foster and Tolukei described the layout to Marduk’s ship back in Sirius. It was a fusion of Draconian technology from the age of Tiamat and his own designs if she were to understand it correctly.

  At the center of the chamber were cylinder-shaped objects lying horizontally on the floor with way too many tubes and wires connected to them. There were sixteen in total, all aligned against the walls, and a bulky computer idling in the middle of it all.

  Eicelea and Rivera ran EAD scans of everything, watching in awe as the small holo screens filled with data about the chemical composition of the equipment, and its estimated age. Everything in the chamber was well over five to six thousand years old, predating the existence of the Radiance Union, and the Aryile’s first contact with their Gods.

  Rivera flipped to the next holo screen her EAD made. Her lips rolled into an O shape when she read the data. “Lot of psionic activity from these sixteen cylinders.”

  Eicelea tapped one of the cylinders, and it opened up from the top to bottom. She took a closer look at the inside of it. “They look like psionic creation tubes,” Eicelea said.

  “Say what?” Rivera said to Eicelea.

  “She’s a sleep-in, boss,” Vynei said. “Human psionics didn’t exist when she left Earth.”

  “Those with psionic potential enter tubes like these,” Eicelea said. “They spend a number of hours, sometimes days, while it brings out their powers. If you have what it takes, you leave as a psionic.”

  “I was under the impression you were born as one,” Rivera said.

  “That’s another way, and the only way for Hashmedai,” Eicelea said. “The technology to build these tubes was lost to them during the war without end. The Hashmedai were forced to turn to breeding and controlling psionics as a direct result. Lucky for you humans, we in Radiance liked you, and shared the technology with you, modifying it to work with human physiology.”

  “You see, this is what I don’t get,” Penelope spoke up. “According to Radiance religion, psionic creation tech was given to you by your Gods.”

  “Of course they did,” Eicelea said. “They taught us how to build them as with interstellar ships.”

  “According to these scans,” Rivera said, pushing her EAD’s holo screen to her. “These tubes, well, this entire chamber for that matter, predates the Aryile’s first contact with the Javnis as with your Gods.”

  The shaking of Eicelea’s head and rolling of her yellow eyes suggested she didn’t believe Rivera and went to perform her own detailed scans. A pair of frustrated tiny fingers ran through her hair when the data opened on the holo screen.

  “I think our instruments are wrong,” Eicelea’s denial voice said.

  Sarpanit laughed, reminding everyone that her holographic form remained standing with the group.

  “Something funny?” Penelope said to the AI Goddess.

  Sarpanit’s flickering hologram crossed her arms. “Let’s see how long it takes you to figure it out.”

  “My scans concur with yours,” Eicelea said. “No, there must be an error. Maybe there’s something in this chamber affecting our EAD—”

  “It’s no error,” Rivera cut in. She couldn’t deny the data any longer. “Someone here on the Javnis homeworld was creating Javnis psionics before the Aryile had the ability to when they assimilated them into the second member of the Union.” She took a step back, eying the computer in the center and the sixteen tubes near the walls and the cabling attached. “This is where all Javnis Muodiry originated from.”

  Panic made Eicelea’s feet skitter about as she cried. “No, no, no!”

  “Tolukei’s ancestors were dragged in here and given psionic powers,” Rivera said.

  “And?” Sarpanit asked Rivera.

  “And . . .” Rivera finished. “Marduk, he got his powers here. And then whoever built this place gave him a ship.”

  “Very good,” Sarpanit said. “This is where true Gods are forged.”

  As interesting as the discovery was, there were still no signs of the UNE signals. Those answers lay further up in the small connecting chamber. Penelope wasn’t sure of what to make of the oval-shaped object, the one thing in the new chamber when the group arrived and stood before it.

  Rivera did, she didn’t even need to scan it to know it was, “A wormhole. It’s just like the ones we found in Sirius.”

  Eicelea didn’t seem to be surprised at the discovery as she tilted her head up at the device. “Vynei and I found these in the Barnard’s Star system many years ago.”

  “I thought those were created by the Lyonria?” Vynei asked her.

  “They are.”

  Rivera ran her EAD scanner along the edge of the oval-shaped ancient wormhole gate. She read the data that outputted onto the screen. “This was built before the stuff in the other chamber or anything else in this room. Its age is consistent with most Lyonria ruins found in the system.”

  “So, the Lyonria made this wormhole,” Eicelea said.

  “Then someone else came in and built this place around it,” Rivera finished.

  After a lengthy search, no other chambers were found let alone the source of the UNE signals. The wormhole oval was active and had been since they arrived. And just like with matter, communication signals can be sent through wormholes.

  Rivera stood before the wormhole and her EAD’s scans confirmed the sources of the signals were coming from the direction of the gate, wherever the hell it went to.

  “You’re not seriously considering walking through it, are you?” Penelope asked Rivera.

  Rivera took a step forward, trying her best to make out what was inside the darkened room beyond the oval-shaped gateway. “At the end of the day, Penelope,” she said. “I’m a space explorer first, engineer second.”

  Rivera stepped through the gate. In an instant, she was flung somewhere else in the galaxy. Looking back, she saw Sarpanit’s h
olographic image vanish, interference with the gate she figured, not that it mattered, she still felt the AI Goddess in her HNI. Eicelea and Vynei joined her next, and then Penelope after an unsuccessful protest.

  Their flashlights powered on making multiple streaks of white light in the pitch-black area, while Rivera led the charge forward, viewing the contents of her EAD’s holographic window.

  “. . . And right now,” Rivera added. “There are explorers from Earth here, that shouldn’t be.”

  39 Foster

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Ethereal Refinery, Inadrai System

  July 18, 2119, 12:37 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The Johannes Kepler’s cryo chamber was reported to be fully operational again by the time Foster had awoken. After refueling and resupplying had been completed, the ship was free to leave the planet and continue their investigation.

  Foster glanced at the data crystal Karklosea had gifted them. She still kept its existence secret from Jainuzei, though took the time to copy its contents and leave it with Karklosea. She hoped that her continued investigation while on Pria would turn up something new if they didn’t because, as it stood, most of the files were still encrypted. Even EVE with her quantum computing was having a difficult time breaking it over the past eight months.

  With Odelea’s help and influence with Souyila, she convinced Radiance to allow the Kepler to orbit the refinery and its small void in space where it harvested dark energy. After scans and analysis of the fissure was complete, the Kepler dove in again, and hoped nobody from Radiance was watching.

  Because at that point, they were willfully returning to the forbidden region of Radiance space via the fissures which was considered impossible and suicidal, until now.

  As predicted, the Kepler finished its trip through aether space, arriving back in the depths of the Hallowed Nebula. Three things were learned about the experience. One; fissures being harvested by Radiance always connected to the nebula. Two; nebula fissures always linked to refineries. Three; Foster was right, using her abilities caused the first fissure to collapse. Odelea wasn’t far off when she suspected that the fissures were nothing more than forgotten tunnels bridging Radiance space and the nebula together.

  The Kepler spent the next day traversing through the nebula on a course that made Jainuzei’s face light up. It was a course toward the nebula’s core and the source of the UNE distress beacon. Their recent fissure journey placed them beyond the barrier. It was truly unexplored space. All because Radiance religious beliefs forbid it.

  Odelea and Tolukei weren’t comfortable with the idea of disturbing the Gods. But with Jainuzei being their Radiance superior, and Foster’s growing concerns about an IESA ship of exploration lost in the nebula, they carried out their orders.

  Williams was in command on the bridge when Foster arrived. He pulled her over to one of the rear computers. Something on the holo screen had him concerned.

  “What are we looking at, Dom?” she asked him.

  “Remember those drones that boarded us?” he said.

  “Yeah, I do, you shouldn’t though, you was still restin’ in sickbay!”

  Williams enlarged a hologram showing the remains of one of the drones left in storage in the cargo bay. They never did get rid of them as some of them had parts that could be salvaged for future repairs.

  “According to EVE,” he said. “One of them started broadcasting.”

  “I thought they’s were as good as dead?”

  “They no longer pose a threat, Captain,” EVE’s voice played on the speakers. “However, the last wave that boarded us was not destroyed, just deactivated by Jainuzei. The ones that were intact have recently received a signal.”

  “Great,” Foster grunted. “They ain’t gonna start shooting the place up again, are they? Or try to infect us with another virus?”

  “No, Captain,” EVE said. “Jainuzei’s code still has them rendered inoperative. However, there is an external force requesting them to join a new network and acquire new programming operations.”

  “Can you dumb it down for us humans, EVE?” Williams asked.

  “The drones were developed by Earth and sold to Radiance to help cover the gaps in their defense of the Luminous system,” EVE explained. “Although they have been modified to suit Radiance’s needs, their basic programming remains. They connect to a central drone control and become part of a local network cluster that issues orders to the connected drones.”

  “Luminous is light-years beyond us,” Foster said. “Those drones don’t have QECs, right? There’s no way it could be gettin’ a signal this far out.”

  “That is correct, Captain,” EVE said. “This new signal is coming from a source close to the Kepler’s current location.”

  “How does that work?” Williams said. “We’re in the middle of the nebula which should be free of all Radiance ships and colonies.”

  “Pierce,” Foster said, looking directly at him and his station. “What do you got?”

  He checked his computer, its holo screens flashing bluish light across his face. “Nothing Captain, except a fissure.”

  “Show me.”

  A large hologram depicted the Kepler’s estimated location in the nebula and the nearby fissure. It gave Foster an idea.

  “EVE,” she said. “Possible you can show us where these wake-up signals for the drones comin’ from?”

  A yellow dot flashed over the location of the fissure on the hologram. The signals were coming from it. Foster’s lips twisted at the thought.

  “Someone’s on the other side of that fissure, sending signals,” Williams said.

  “So, like,” Chang said, cutting in. “Am I the only one worried that there’s someone else out there trying to talk to our sleeping drones?”

  “We all are worried, Chang,” Williams said.

  “Yeah, well here’s the thing,” Chang said. “Those drones were provided to Radiance to cover the defense of the Luminous system, and only that system, right?”

  “That is correct, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said.

  “Then why does someone else have a drone control center somewhere on the other side of the fissure?” Chang said. “Didn’t we just determine that the fissures in the nebula link with fissures being harvested by Radiance? That someone who has the codes needed to transmit to the drones we got in the cargo bay is stationed aboard a refinery.”

  There was an eerie silence while everyone processed his words.

  “He’s right,” Williams said, stroking his beard. “The only people that should be able to talk to the drones would be in the Luminous system or . . .”

  “Someone from the UNE . . .” Foster finished for him. “Even then, Radiance changed the codes to suit them. Mister Chang,” Foster called out to him. “Set a course to that fissure and take us in.”

  “Understood, Cap.”

  “Is this really necessary?” Jainuzei said. “This will delay our journey to the Gerard Kuiper’s beacon.”

  “Small price to pay if these drones act up again,” Foster said.

  “You know, we could just push ‘em out the airlock,” Chang said.

  “I’d rather we keep ‘em for the parts,” Foster said. “Besides, those things pack a punch, might come in handy since we’s just one ship. Can’t do that though if someone has the keys to get in.” And more importantly, why do they have the keys?

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Approaching Ethereal Refinery, Interstellar Space

  July 19, 2119, 00:12 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The Kepler dropped out of FTL, almost magically appearing out of nowhere when it exited the small and invisible fissure. Ahead of it was a small space station, an ethereal refinery adrift in interstellar space, what was left of it.

  Half of the station slowly drifted apart, leaving behind mangled hulks of debris, the place had seen battle. The slag in orbit of the refinery station, that was once drones, was likely the reason why the place got shot up in the end. Either the opera
tors of the station picked a fight they thought they could win, or someone out there in the darkened abyss really didn’t want anyone operating in these parts.

  Foster reclined back on her captain’s chair. “Any signs of life?” she asked.

  “Nothing that I can see,” Odelea said.

  “Please be advised, Captain,” EVE added. “The damage the station has taken is consistent with tachyon weapon fire.”

  Foster grimaced. “The Draconians were here.”

  “That would be my assessment, Captain,” EVE said. “As with the trace amounts of the protective gel that has been ejected into space.”

  “So not just a lone Draconian ship,” Williams said. “A fleet with a Charybdis nearby. Must have gotten close for it to get a bit of the goo on it.”

  “Furthermore” EVE added. “There is a mind shield present if you are planning to board it. It is only accepting psionic usage from Radiance.”

  She gazed at the dead, torn-in-half station on the view screen, wondering where inside it the drone control was. Why did they have it when it was to be shipped to the Luminous system, and why, of all the places in the Union the Draconians could have emerged from their maelstrom vortexes, did they hit the lone refinery?

  The Draconians and their devotion to Tiamat would hate the SOM. And the SOM had already proven to know more about the drones than they should. Somewhere on that station, was an operation being conducted by the Marduk cult, and it pissed off the Draconians.

  “Becca,” Williams said to her. “You want to take a look inside, don’t you?”

  She smiled at him as he stood next to her chair. “How’d you know, Dom?”

  “’Cause I’ve known you since I was ten.”