“But even then, the only reason humans exist there was because Radiance helped them escape the invasion, right?” asked another student.
Pierce folded his hands together and smiled at the student. “That’s correct, nevertheless, that is the limit so far as human exploration goes. Outside of that, everything we know about the cosmos has been studied with telescopes here in Sol or shared with us via the Radiance database. This is why it’s important we start exploring the cosmos on our own, with our own ships, so that we can discover for ourselves what’s out there.” Pierce looked at his holo watch as the minutes forced the new hour to arrive. “Well our time is almost up, are there any other questions?”
Another student lifted a hand up to ask. “Sorry, I got a bit of a stupid question,” they said.
“Now, now, there are no bad questions,” said Pierce. “If every brilliant mind throughout human history thought their question was stupid we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
“What’s your take on the Dogon and Sirius?”
“Ah, a hot topic as of late,” Pierce said as his face began to flush. “Before we go on, how many of you are aware of the legend of the Dogon?” Three hands rose up amongst the sea of bodies. “Well, long story short, an indigenous tribe in western Africa known as the Dogon believed that thousands of years ago they were visited by extraterrestrial visitors who called themselves the Nommo. The visitors allegedly informed the Dogon about space, the planets, and that Sirius, the system they claimed to have come from, was not one system but a trinary system.”
“But didn’t your presentation say that Sirius is a binary system?”
“Yes, that’s because our observations only discovered the two stars as well as long-range ones Radiance had made as well. Needless to say, the legend has been debunked for a number of reasons. Those that read my book about the Sirius mystery know that the arrival of Radiance and the Hashmedai proves that life and interstellar travel exists beyond Sol. There are some people out there that argue that perhaps there was some truth to the legends. Now to answer your question, I think its bullshit.”
Laughter erupted in unison from the hundreds that were in attendance.
“Think about it,” Pierce said. “The Nommo were described as being half fish half man.”
“Like mermaids and mermen?”
“Precisely, how can a species that lives underwater with no legs build ships and explore planets?”
Pierce wrapped up the lecture, sending a trove of students carrying data pads out into the hallways where Foster had entered. She moved her way down toward Pierce as he began to gather his computers, data pads, and notes. Pierce looked up and saw Foster approach, her uniform caused his face to wince as he laid eyes on it.
“Dr. Travis Pierce,” she said to him.
“That’s me, how may I help you?”
“I’m Captain Rebecca Foster of the IESA.”
“Ah.” He looked away and continued to gather his belongings in a large leather sack.
“I’ve been appointed to the command of the ESRS Carl Sagan and—”
“Sorry, I’m not with IESA anymore.”
“And you ain’t tellin’ those kids what you really think about Sirius either,” Foster said. “Pretty sure years ago you were saying the opposite about your belief about the Dogon.”
“I wrote that book from an objective stance, my personal thoughts from social media were not included in the final copy. Besides those were different times, back when I had the chance to explore space.”
“I’m giving you that chance now,” she said while taking a step closer to him. “I’m putting together a crew; I’d like you to be a part of it.”
Pierce placed the strap of his bag around his shoulders and fixed his eyes on the exit. “I think I’m fine where I am.”
“Are you? From my point of view, you’re takin’ back your beliefs, I reckon it’s to make yourself look good to keep getting work like this.”
“I got appointments I gotta go to today.”
“That’s fine. But if you change your mind let me know, I need a science officer and IESA will be more than happy to reinstate your commission.”
EXOTIC RESORT
Manila, Earth, Sol system
February 25, 2033, 17:29 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Hot humid air covered Foster’s body as she made her way into a tropical forested clearing. She seldom paid attention to the cup of latte in her hands, it was far too hot to be drinking a warm beverage in this weather, but the caffeine was too important to pass up. Large palm trees bestowed shade on a gathering of people engaged in complex yoga moves as they stood above mats on the fresh green grass. Foster did a double take when she realized at least half of the yoga students were of the Hashmedai race. She did another double take to learn that her informant was indeed correct, the brilliant engineer Foster came to speak to, Jasmine Rivera, was indeed a yoga instructor.
Rivera was a young woman, no older than twenty-five by her exotic Filipina looks, a combination of Hispanic, Asian, and Caucasian background. Her long golden-brown hair was tied in a pony tail while she held a pose that would have made Foster groan in pain. Her human and Hashmedai students gracefully followed suit. The Hashmedai were dripping wet in sweat more so than their human counter parts. It was understandable as the Hashmedai race did not fare well with Earth temperatures, especially in regions like the Philippines.
The Hashmedai evolved on a planet called Paryo that orbits a red dwarf star. As such it received little light and heat compared to Earth. Their world was mostly covered in permafrost apart from its equator which was warm enough for ice cold liquid water to exist. Naturally a species that evolved on a planet like that thrived in the cold and suffered in mild temperatures or hotter.
Rivera took notice of Foster and brought an unexpected end to her session. “OK that’s it for now, let’s take a break,” Rivera said, and then repeated in the Hashmedai language which sounded like Russian, no surprise considering all Hashmedai had an accent that was very similar.
The yoga students left Foster and Rivera alone, as the two women shook hands and introduced each other. Foster couldn’t help but ask. “How the hell did you do that?”
“I’ve been doing yoga for years,” said Rivera.
“I mean teach it to Hashmedai, especially in this heat are you trying to kill them?”
Rivera pointed to several buckets of ice located next to the yoga mats the Hashmedai were on. “They stay cool with those.”
“Still, they’re Hashmedai.”
“Now, now, the yoga is for sharing,” Rivera said. “These Hashmedai will take what they’ve learned and experienced and pass it on to the rest of their kind. Peace, wellbeing, love, they will not commit violent acts against our people.”
“Tell that to Radiance and the UNE.”
“I sense a bit of tension in you,” Rivera said and dragged Foster over to a vacant mat by her arm. “Let me introduce you to the basics.”
Rivera began to stretch and fold Foster’s body into some strange yoga form, out in the beating morning sunlight. Foster made sure to get a firm grip of her coffee cup.
“Uh, that’s not why I’m here.”
“Then why did you come?” Rivera saw the coffee cup in Foster’s hands, and took in its sweet soothing scent. “Is that pumpkin spice?”
“Hell, yeah it is.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Coffee shop around the corner.”
“There’s a coffee shop here?”
“Well, yeah.”
“I’ve been here for so long, and I never saw it.”
“Which is why I’m here,” Foster said. “You’ve been off the grid too long, time to come back.”
Rivera crossed her arms. “You’re not from around these parts, huh?”
“I’m from Los Angeles, born in Nashville if you wanna be exact.”
“Ah.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
In the aftermath of the
Hashmedai invasion of Earth, several Hashmedai forces surrendered when they realized they were not going to win the war. The ships they had left that didn’t flee had been destroyed or crashed on Earth, effectively stranding them there. The Empire never sent ships to recover them so the thousands of Hashmedai soldiers and ship’s crew became a part of Earth’s population and offered to work as laborers to rebuild the cities they destroyed.
Radiance, who were mortal enemies to the Hashmedai race, insisted that humans hunted down and killed all surviving Hashmedai. The UNE became fearful of losing Radiance support and began to aggressively capture Hashmedai to hand over to Radiance, while discouraging human communities from getting close to the Hashmedai. Some communities around the world refused, choosing to accept and forgive the Hashmedai, and allowed them to live amongst them despite UNE and Radiance disapproval.
Said communities took up arms and formed an extremist group known as the Hashmedai Liberation Front (HLF) to protect the Hashmedai and human sympathizers that lived with them. Eventually what started as protection for the renegade communities turned into terrorist activities worldwide, thus labeling cities like Manila and Vancouver as UNE ‘Red Zones,’ and advising all Radiance races living on Earth to avoid them along with members of the UNE military.
“You used to do work with IESA, right?” Foster asked?
“And contract work for the UNE military,” Rivera replied. “Helped design some of their ships and program the EVE AI.”
“Wanna come back?”
“Thought about it, but I’m too deep here you know? Someone will find out about me caring for Hashmedai in this community.”
“Not if you’re eight point six light years away.”
“Sirius?”
“Yep.”
“I thought the Carl Sagan was scrapped in favor of another warship.”
“The President forced it through, been a secret this whole time.”
Rivera gazed at her human and Hashmedai students as they sat and downed bottles of water together in the shade. “Don’t suppose my students can come with me?”
“Afraid not, I have no control over the colonists we’ll be taking, and I doubt any of them will be anything other than human.”
Rivera walked over to the group and began to address them in the Hashmedai language probably giving them the heads-up she wouldn’t be living with them soon, Foster figured.
“You speak their language well,” Foster said after Rivera was finished.
“I speak, English, Filipino, Hashmedai, and all six dialects of Radiance.”
“So, you’re a language expert as well?”
“It helped since Radiance did give us their technology to build our ships while we merged it with reverse engineered Hashmedai tech. Not to mention I helped program the EVE AI to speak multiple languages, had to make sure it spoke those languages correctly. Oh, and I helped design the Earth-based language learning tools.”
“That how you learned all those languages?”
“Of course, there’s no way I’d be able to fluently speak, read, and write seven different alien languages so quickly.”
“Sorry, I just never understood how those worked.”
“You load the app onto a data pad, link it with a neural interface that taps into your brain, and from there it uploads small fragments of the selected language into your head each time you use it.”
“Kinda like ‘I know Kung-Fu’ sorta deal?”
“To put it lightly, there’s a bit more to it than that, for starters it reads your synaptic pathways so that—”
“And that’s why I want you on the team.” Foster said cutting her off. She didn’t fully understand technobabble, but knew that life in a system far away from Earth was going to need someone that did, just in case things went wrong. “You’re smart, you know shit I don’t, and say words I can’t even begin to figure out how to say.”
FOSTER’S HOUSE
Los Angeles, Earth, Sol system
February 28, 2033, 05:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Foster sat on her living room couch and debated how she was going to approach him when he arrived. So . . . we gotta talk, Hey, listen . . . Hey babe. I love you but . . .
Whatever she went with, it had to be soft, she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea and she didn’t want him to curl up in an emotional ball and be alone forever, he was still young, much younger than her. The doorbell rang, its chime had awakened her pet tabby cat, Starlet, from its slumber on the arm of her couch next to her. Foster opened the door and allowed her boyfriend Mike Fisher to enter, for the last time.
“Hey, Mikey,” she said to him.
“Hey, babe.”
The two sat down at the couch while Starlet leaped away and jumped up onto the nearby windowsill where the night sky hung above. Foster looked into Mike’s face, the same face she couldn’t resist kissing, the same face she thought she’d see a lot more often after learning she wasn’t selected to become a member of the original three ships set to explore the cosmos.
“So . . . we gotta talk.”
Mike’s face cringed at her words. “Oh no.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re breaking up with me?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because that’s what all women say when they are ready to end it.”
She looked away and thought about what her next words would be. “Well you gotta understand—”
“Oi I knew it.” He slapped both of his hands across his face and sighed. She leaned in closer to console him.
“Mike! Look, they’re fixin' to send me to Sirius.”
“I thought you’d be staying in Sol?”
“They got one last ship coming out of the shipyard; they want me to be the captain of it.”
Their eyes met up as his flustered face changed slightly to one that was happier, happy for her. “Oh wow, that’s great,” he said.
“Gonna be a seventeen-year trip, Mike.”
“And I can’t come, huh?”
“If you’d applied to be a colonist, maybe.”
“That wasn’t gonna happen and you know it,” Mike said. “I ain’t got no skills nor any say on which ship I’d end up on. Damn, I should have joined the navy or something, I reckon they’re sending military folks on your ship as well, right?”
“For defense, yeah.”
“So, this is it, eh?”
“If you been resisting the urge to cheat, you can do it now, I won’t get mad.”
Friendly laughter was exchanged between the two due to her comment. Starlet meowed like the attention-seeking cat she was. The two walked over to the window, observing what caught the tabby’s attention when they were talking. Starlet was looking to the stars; well, the stars that were visible in the LA skies.
Foster never understood why Starlet had such a fascination with the stars. From the moment she found her as a tiny kitten to now, it always spent part of the night looking up at the stars. It was Starlet’s fascination with the stars that reminded Foster of her father’s crushed dream to join NASA, a dream she intended to carry on in his honor and seek a career in space. Whenever she had doubts that IESA would accept her, she would look at Starlet, much like she was now and reinforce the motivation to study hard and pass their numerous entrance exams, physical tests, and training.
“I think I’m gonna enlist,” Mike said while he kept his eyes to the stars.
“Little late ain’t it?”
“Better late than never,” he looked away from the stars redirecting his attention to Foster, she saw the determination burning in his face. “I’ll enlist and push to one day fly out to Sirius and meet up with you.”
“Better make sure they put you on a ship then.”
“I’ll be a pilot or something. They’ll have to keep me on a ship with skills like that.”
She hit his arm in a flirty manner. “You can’t even drive a car!”
“I’ll learn! Flight school, enlistment, do my training and get p
osted on a ship.”
The two leaned in close and shared a passionate kiss, the last one they’d experience together. His hands held onto her waist while her hands cupped the back of his head, stroking his soft brown hair. Her life, going forward, would revolve around the expedition and building a new home for humanity. She had doubts that intimate moments will happen during that quest, and so made no attempt to let him go, and didn’t object to him unbuttoning her pants.
2 EISS AGENT 19, CODENAME: TEST
Earth Intelligence and Security Service (EISS) HQ
Geneva, Earth, Sol system
February 28, 2033, 12:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Test, a secret agent for EISS, stood inside a rapidly descending elevator that plunged hundreds of feet below the surface of an artificial island in Lake Geneva. With the rise of the UNE, Geneva was established as the capital of Earth. Earth Cube was established as the central location where the President of Earth and various arms of the UNE government worked.
Earth Cube was just that, a cubed building that stood on the artificial island on Lake Geneva. It was covered from top to bottom with glass windows, thus giving off the appearance it was Earth in the shape of a cube during clear sunny days, as the glass reflected the blue lake and skies around it.
Beneath Earth Cube however was EISS headquarters, the intelligence branch of Earth. Similar to UNE where all nations came together to form one, EISS consisted of a combination of the various intelligence agencies around the world including the CIA, CISS, MI6, and others. The goal was to create an intelligence agency that would look out for Earth’s interests as they expanded outward into space, and compete against the intelligence agencies employed by the Radiance Union and Hashmedai Empire.
Test’s elevator came to a stop. He exited and walked through the white tiled hallways, past its operation staff, and several other agents like himself. He entered a small briefing room where the facility’s director and another agent stood waiting for him around a small projection.
“Glad you could join us,” said the director.
The Siege of Sirius Page 2