Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Tolukei, EVE, and Odelea,” Foster called out as she leaped from her chair. “Let’s suit up, we’re going in. Dom, you got the bridge.” Foster stopped before the bridge’s exit.

  “Captain,” Jainuzei called out to her when she was seconds away from the exit. “Please allow me to accompany your team.”

  Foster wanted to say no, and then noticed the sudden change in his tone. Jainuzei was against investigating the source of the signals. Now after watching what happened to it, he became concerned, like there was something important on the station, and if she were to guess, he wanted to see if it was still intact.

  She smiled at him. “Sure, buddy, come along.”

  This was Foster’s chance. The chance to get Jainuzei to oust himself for who he really was.

  40 Rivera

  Draconian Ruins

  Unknown Planet, Unknown System

  July 18, 2119, 15:17 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The old crumbling structure Rivera and her team of reluctant explorers found themselves in, bore a similar resemblance to what lay behind the wormhole they crossed. Old, lifeless, and hints of Draconian and Lyonria influence. Someone from the horde took enough interest in the Javnis to build, not only a lab to create the Muodiry, but another base, elsewhere in the galaxy for easy and direct access to it via wormhole. Well, that was the leading theory as they pushed forward with their flashlights.

  At the end of the chamber were opened and dust-covered containers with the logo of IESA printed across it. Dormant portable lights of Earth origin were across from them, and power cables connected to Earth made batteries, long depleted of their power. At the entrance leading outside to a darkened world, was a portable computer. It had a screen, an actual computer screen, not a holo screen. Twenty-first-century technology. Earth explorers from the last century were here.

  It was nighttime outside, either that or the planet the wormhole put them on just orbited a really dim star. The skies weren’t full of stars as one would expect. It had a few, but the main celestial spectacle was the gaseous clouds of a nebula. It was something to look at.

  Ahead on the rocky and rugged landscape was a transport ship, also of Earth origin proudly displaying the flag of the UNE and the logo of ISEA under its layers of dust Rivera had to brush off with a stroke of her hand. Like the previous Earth made objects behind, she recognized the design of the transport. It was the same class of transports the Carl Sagan used. She wouldn’t be surprised if it came from that ship. It might explain where she and the crew had been during that sixty-eight-year blackout period.

  “Think you can get it working?” Penelope asked Rivera as they slipped into the cockpit.

  “This came from my century,” Rivera said, stroking her fingers across the powered down flight dashboard. “It shouldn’t take long to get it running again. In fact . . .” She lowered herself and pulled apart an access panel below the dashboard, fidgeting with the electronics with her tools. After fifteen minutes, the humming noise of a computer sounded. “That did it.”

  Lights from the computers flashed with life once again. Computer screens had rebooting progress bars that slowly moved from left to right.

  “Excellent,” Penelope said when the first terminal booted up and sat to interact with it. “Bloody hell, this is ancient.”

  “From my point of view, it’s from the future as well,” Rivera said as she used one of the computers in the cockpit. “Looks like it was built maybe ten or twenty years after we left for Sirius.”

  Eicelea moved forward, her yellow eyes fixed on the nebula viewable from the windshield. “If you can, please do get its navigation systems operational.”

  “Was more interested in its logs,” Rivera said. “I’d like to know why a human ship is out here.”

  “I think this is the Divine Expanse,” Eicelea said, pointing up at the nebula. “That’s why.”

  “The what?” Penelope said, turning away from her screen.

  “The Divine Expanse,” Eicelea said. “That nebula, it looks like the same one the Gods reside in. The Hallowed Nebula as we in Radiance call it.”

  “I’ve heard about this place,” Rivera said as her eyes joined Eicelea observing the dazzling sights ahead. “Radiance had created a blockade to prevent the Empire from exploring it.”

  “Defiling it,” Eicelea corrected her. “When the Gods made contact with the Aryile, they told them of the nebula and not to enter it since it was their domain. We honored it as the Union grew . . . but the Hashmedai, they believed our Gods were aliens. When the war without end broke out, the Empire sent ships to the Divine Expanse searching for what they believed was the homeworld to alien species pretending to be Gods.”

  “Did they ever succeed?”

  “Of course not!”

  “The Union, at one point, had more ships defending the expanse than Aervounis,” Vynei said, joining the two in the cockpit.

  “The Empire controlled a number of planets near the expanse but was never able to enter deep into the nebula. Our fleets were too big for them,” Eicelea continued to explain. “With the ceasefire, though, most Imperial forces had withdrawn, and because of that, the Union withdrew most ships patrolling it.”

  “That might explain why that UNE ship made it here undetected,” Penelope said. “Fewer Imperial and Union ships in the region mean fewer eyes to spot it—” Penelope cut herself off when the computer she was working beeped. She faced it grinning as the red glow from her eyes reflected off the screen. “Oh!”

  The ‘oh’ was big and loud. Rivera stood behind her to see what was up. “Got something, Penelope?” she asked.

  “Codes and recent logs,” Penelope said. “This transport is registered to the ERSR Gerard Kuiper.”

  “Gerard Kuiper . . .” Rivera grimaced stroking her chin. “That must be the source of the transmissions we got from the wormhole. It has to be in orbit still for the signals to be that strong. Anything else?”

  “This transport was used three times ever,” Penelope said, reading the data that outputted. “It was used to land on New Babylon and Terra Nova, then its third use was what we see right here . . . wherever here is.”

  Vynei crossed his arms. “Isn’t Terra Nova and New Babylon in Sirius?”

  “Yeah it is, and New Babylon is Poniga homeworld,” Rivera said. “That ship . . . and this transport was in Sirius at one point.”

  “Any idea why it went from there to here?” Vynei asked.

  “I don’t know much about the IESA ships that left Earth after the Carl Sagan and the others we left with,” Rivera said. “All I know is the Gerard Kuiper didn’t exist when we left in twenty thirty-three. It had to have been built and launched years after we left.”

  Penelope was unable to find anything else useful on the screen. She sat back with the same puzzled face everyone else had. “I’d say check the internet, but we’re far from a QEC relay.”

  “Or access to a knowledge network node,” Eicelea said.

  “Yeah,” Penelope said slowly. “We’re looking at a twenty-year communication delay at least unless we go back to that wormhole.”

  “Which I am in favor of,” Eicelea said, moving for the transport’s exit. “As fascinating as this discovery is, we are leaving behind many other fabulous finds that must be studied.”

  Rivera stood her ground. “We have to get aboard.”

  “What?!” Eicelea looked up at her, giving her a cringing stare. “Are you mad, human?”

  A lost IESA ship in the middle of a holy nebula to Radiance. Rivera put the facts together quickly, remembering what Sarpanit had said about the Draconians making a push toward it, and the dangers that could happen if they arrived.

  “Sarpanit,” Rivera called out to the AI Goddess. “Isn’t this the nebula you spoke of?”

  She sensed her HNI process a large sum of data, and then the holographic evil EVE appeared into existence, casting her bluish glow on the cockpit’s chairs, looking up at the nebula.

  “This is it,” Sarp
anit said.

  “And Marduk’s origins backtrack to here,” Rivera said. “And Radiance claims their Gods sleep within the nebula, and now this ship is here adrift. Sarpanit, you said so yourself, if the Draconians get here we’ll all face our end.”

  Penelope beamed at Rivera. “You want to board it don’t you, love?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Someone on board must know what’s going on.”

  “Assuming anyone is alive,” Eicelea interjected. “Have you even tried to contact them?”

  “This transport has been active and transmitting since Jasmine got it running,” Penelope said to Eicelea. “Nobody from the ship has tried to communicate with us.”

  “The crew must be dead.”

  “Or in cryo.”

  Eicelea made her usual gesture of disapproval, placing her tiny hands on her hips and looked up toward Rivera. “You are seriously thinking about going up?”

  “We’re here now,” Rivera said, sitting before the cockpit’s controls. “Might as well.”

  “Vynei and I will be taking our leave then!” Eicelea spat and returned to the transport’s exit.

  “They might need our help, boss,” Vynei said with a shrug.

  “Not our concern!”

  “Tell me,” Penelope said, smirking at the two Radiance companions. “Did you forget about the ransomware?”

  Eicelea’s face twitched suddenly. “Oh Gods . . .”

  “Rivera,” Penelope said to her. “Take us all on an adventure with this transport.”

  The Gerard Kuiper idled in orbit of the unknown rocky and dark planet. The nebula’s view in the background became more prominent as the transport left the planet. Rivera was half tempted to cut the engines and drift with their momentum to the derelict ship, just as an excuse to take in the view and the positive vibes it gave her. The lack of gravity only enhanced the feeling. If it were an appropriate time to hit her bong, she’d do that too.

  To her surprise, the Gerard Kuiper’s transport docking bay doors swung open with little problems once she inputted the command codes Penelope pulled out from the ship’s database. The transport lowered and landed inside the Gerard Kuiper once clear of the large doors and self-irising barrier.

  Breathable air greeted the group when they drifted out and away from the transport, while the ceiling lights flickered on in the connecting corridors. The ship was in sleep mode for lack of a better term. Its power and life support were shut down while the crew slept in cryo, only to activate when the presence of life not in cryo moved through the ship.

  Watching the ship slowly come back to life hit Rivera’s chest with a warm sense of nostalgia, remembering the days voyaging on the Carl Sagan. “Oh, this brings back memories,” she said, smiling.

  “Is the gravity offline?” Penelope asked.

  “No, artificial gravity didn’t exist when this ship was built,” Rivera said. “Habitat ring should have gravity, however.”

  The first hour was spent searching for the crew, floating from corridor to corridor, room to room. Nobody was found. This was a ghost ship. Rivera considered the thought that maybe Eicelea was right to want to leave.

  “Crew might be in cryo,” Penelope said. “We should split up.”

  “I’ll check on engineering,” Rivera said. “The rest of you, head to the cryo chamber and bridge.”

  The four spread out, drifting and floating through the various maze of corridors of the ship of Earth origin. Rivera’s journey to engineering triggered brief flashbacks of her last trip to the crash site of the Carl Sagan. The Gerard Kuiper’s interior wasn’t that much different. And, just like the Carl Sagan, the ship was lifeless with a slew of mysteries within it, none of them good and all of them probably malicious in nature. She also had broken away from her team to venture into engineering during the Carl Sagan’s final salvage mission. That choice didn’t work out very well in the end.

  She took a moment to stop floating, holding onto a wall handlebar to slow her momentum. She looked up at the Gerard Kuiper’s green shimmering reactor after she drifted into engineering. Animal instincts told her not to investigate the AI core up above.

  The voice in her head served as a reminder to that. “This reminds me of the first time we met,” Sarpanit snickered.

  “At least you’re no threat to anyone,” Rivera said as she floated over to a computer console, typing away at its terminal.

  As she waited for her request to view the engineering logs load, she made a quick peek behind her up at the AI core again. She kept seeing the mistake she made and kept wondering who the hell was it that put Sarpanit back into the Carl Sagan in the first place during their disappearance.

  “You know,” Sarpanit said to her. “If you want to be free of me for good, you could transfer me into there.”

  “Why? As wonderful as it would be, you’d be trapped in another ship.”

  “I won’t though. Doesn’t this ship use the android EVE models?”

  Sarpanit was right. Android EVEs would be in service on a ship like this. When the Carl Sagan had left Earth, the first ship to use them was already in development.

  “Give me control of that EVE unit,” Sarpanit said. “And you’ll never have to worry about me again.”

  “Until you try to kill us with your new physical body.” Sarpanit, as a ship AI, was going to leave Rivera with bad dreams for years to come. Sarpanit in control of an android had the power to make her have nightmares within a nightmare until the day she died. “Sorry, I’ll pass.”

  The computer she floated in front of finally booted up. Its logs showed that the Gerard Kuiper was low on H3 fuel and ended up in orbit in search of a means to resupply.

  Before Rivera could read more into the mystery, Penelope’s holographic face appeared in Rivera’s HNI virtual vision. “Oh, Jasmine,” she said to her.

  “Oh, Penelope,” Rivera replied, smiling. “Did you make it to the cryo chamber?”

  “I think so.”

  “You think? What do you see?” Penelope flipped the holo screen she was using to transmit to Rivera, using it as a camera to show her the Gerard Kuiper’s shut cryo pods. “Yeah, that’s the cryo chamber.”

  “Can you see why I’m using my terrified voice?” Penelope said.

  “You call that a terrified voice?”

  “Yes, love, I don’t normally convey strong emotions.”

  Rivera took a closer look at the cryo pods Penelope was showing her in the projection. They were full of skeletons.

  “Guess we know what happened to the crew,” Penelope said. “Something tells me whoever left the transport on the surface is probably a pile of bones elsewhere too.”

  41 Foster

  Darkened Corridors

  Ethereal Refinery, Interstellar Space

  July 19, 2119, 00:30 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Extremely bright and blue light flashed within the pitch-black interior of the station. When the light subsided, returning the area back to its previously darkened state, the figures of Tolukei, EVE, Odelea, Jainuzei, and Foster materialized.

  Foster and Odelea activated the magnetic boots on their EVA suits, the station lacked gravity and basic life support. Jainuzei donned his Radiance combat armor complete with a helmet while his large back worked as a portable weapons rack.

  Tolukei did exactly what most psionics in his position did in the vacuum of space or other hostile environments and covered himself in a psionic bubble with breathable air inside. Tolukei had to do it, the implants on his body were old and required the user to have them exposed to prevent overheating and increase its output. The days of psionics wearing brief attire to expose most of their body were over, with the exception of relics like Tolukei and his partially topless lizard body, save for the cloak over his head.

  Alarms blared as they made their way through the darkened halls, not that they could hear it. Foster had fallen behind the group quickly, it had been a while since she used magnetic boots on her EVA suit. She had to move, taking one step at a
time, allowing the magnets to cling down to the surface. Her left boot wouldn’t release its cling until her right boot had come to a rest, and vice versa. It was just the way they were designed to operate. It was very disorientating, especially knowing the rest of her body had no weight.

  Helmet-mounted lights lit the path, guiding them to push aside floating dead bodies and pieces of an air vent that drifted aimlessly. Some of the dead, upon closer inspection, wore the dragon scale armor of the Draconians. The Draconians didn’t want the station obliterated. They were searching for something then met resistance from the Radiance personnel aboard.

  Foster approached the tumbling body of an armored Draconian soldier. There was light emitting from the inside of her EVA suit, partially visible from her helmet. Her mysterious tattoos had lit up, and she touched the armor of the Draconian. It came apart with a thought of her mind when the tattoos were in sync with the armor, freeing the dead humanoid dragon from within it.

  “I can see why you insisted on coming, Captain,” Jainuzei said.

  “If Draconians were here, then there’s clues their abandoned tech might have,” Foster said.

  Nobody else said it, after an hour of exploring, but Foster knew the story the bodies wanted to tell, especially the ones wearing robes. This was a secret Soldiers of Marduk outpost. She was sure of it. They must have killed the Souyila crew long ago and were attempting to do something with the fissure, perhaps see if it was possible for them to enter it and use it as a short-cut to the nebula. Then the dragons said fuck that.

  The clangs of the four sets of magnetic boots with a floating Javnis psionic pushed deeper into the station, stopping to climb up an elevator shaft. Neither of the four could see what lay at the end even with their lights shining up it. Odelea’s EAD insisted the central operation center was at the top of the shaft, EVE’s scans agreed.

  Tolukei went up into the shaft first, his psionic powers made it easy, levitating up with telekinesis. The rest disabled their magnetic boots, floated into the shaft, and waited for the telekinetic grip of Tolukei’s thoughts to pull them up. One by one, they were forced up to the top. Tolukei’s cybernetic augmented chest dazzled with blue light.