The Siege of Sirius

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “Puzzling,” Tolukei said after ending his trance. “Once again, I sense psionic activity in the system.”

  “Location?”

  “It is hard to tell exactly where it’s coming from, I will need more time to touch it with my mind. But it is strongest on the fifth planet you are considering.”

  Williams looked at the projection of SA-139, the fifth planet in the system and crossed his arms. “Of course it is,” he mumbled. “Chang, set a course to SA-139.”

  The young flight lieutenant nodded. “Understood, setting new course, Commander.”

  Williams returned to his chair as the Carl Sagan adjusted its course and accelerated to the fifth planet in the system at sub light speeds. “If there is a civilization on that world then that instantly makes this system no good to us.” Though that wasn’t entirely true.

  Williams knew that the Carl Sagan was prepared to tame any planet for human colonization, thanks to the technology handed to them by Radiance. Domed cities could be built protected by shields strong enough to protect people from heat and radiation. However, such a task would take more effort than it was worth, not to mention the upkeep as a lot of labor and resources would have to be used to keep those conditions maintained. Ideally, settling on a world with minimal upkeep would be best, as the man power and resources could be used to acquire more resources and then later jump-start a colony on a harsh world.

  ESRS CARL SAGAN, Bridge

  SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

  May 20, 2050, 18:27 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The image of SA-139 caused much of the bridge crew to don smiles of delight as Chang placed the ship in a stable orbit. It was almost as if they had returned to Earth given the many familiar features of the surface of the planet. Large continents were surrounded by blue oceans, while puffy white clouds hung above. Many of the continents had blotches of green regions such as grass, forests, and the like. Other regions were yellow and brown, especially near the equator, deserts and dry canons and mountains arching toward the skies.

  Swirling vortexes of clouds were seen exiting the terminator of night into the white sunlight and battered the coastline of one of the southern continents. EVE reported it to be a hurricane, not that Williams needed to know that, the eye of the storm was big enough to give that fact away. As their orbital path continued they arrived at a side of the planet that was experiencing winter. It resembled Earth when it was going through its ice age as the landmasses and water around it were frozen. According to EVE’s data one year on SA-139 was equal to eight years on Earth, thus meaning winter went on for multiple Earth years. The news made all the botanists aboard excited as it would be a chance to study how plant life evolved and adapted to the climate the planet possessed. True, the Radiance database was filled with knowledge of similar planets, but none of those worlds had been explored by humans. Reading about it, and experiencing it were two different things.

  Multiple probes were launched. Some traveled to the surface below, others traveled at sub light speeds en route to the rest of the stellar objects in the system. The probes that arrived on SA-139 began to transmit their findings back to EVE, and she began to catalog and flag areas of interest. The biggest discovery, and partial relief to Williams, was despite the Earthlike appearance and the signs of animal life on the planet, there were no signs of intelligent civilizations. Recon teams consisting of Hammerhead personnel, scientists, and explorers traveled to the surface later via transports and only confirmed what the probes discovered, nobody had made claim to the planet. It was ripe for colonization.

  Tolukei’s ESP scans of the system also confirmed no signs of ship activity since their arrival. Apart from the hostile aliens that chased them away from Sirius B, all signs pointed to the Carl Sagan and humanity as the only interstellar species anywhere. The fact the aliens chose not to chase the Carl Sagan, and had no presence in Sirius A that they could detect, fueled their confidence, though Williams had a feeling they hadn’t seen the last of them, they would still need to keep an eye out for them.

  “Well I see no reason to not settle here,” Williams said after reviewing data from all probes launched.

  “You got my approval if it means anything,” Chang said.

  Williams opened up a comm link to engineering. “Rivera, are we green for colonization release?”

  “You’re good to go, Commander,” her voice transmitted back.

  “Chang, bring us closer to the planet,” Williams said, directing him to a warm region in the southern hemisphere. “Right there, should be summertime there.”

  “Copy that,” Chang complied and keyed in the new course to his terminal. “So, this place is going to have what? Two years of summer weather? I think I’m going to enjoy this place.”

  Williams laughed at his comment. “Don’t forget, there’ll be two years of fall, two years of winter, two years of spring before you see summer again.”

  “Well, we could always do like birds and migrate back and forth to escape the cold months.”

  Williams began to fantasize about how the planet will look in the years to come as they approached the southern hemisphere. Would large cities consume the surface? Would people travel to summer homes during the long winters via transports? There was little land mass near the equator compared to Earth, so making a home there wasn’t going to be an option for everyone due to lack of space.

  Whatever the future held, Williams was happy they were finally making progress in their mission and bringing the colonists to a safe place to live. Should the Carl Sagan be lost at the hands of the aliens, at least the colonists aboard would still be alive. Chang guided the Carl Sagan to establish a geostationary orbit around the southern hemisphere’s landmass. Further in the distance he could see the hurricane, though EVE confirmed it would have long died out by the time it hit the proposed settlement.

  The colonization ring began its countdown to departure. Each section of the ring held pods that would serve as future homes, storage compartments, power generation stations, and the likes for the colony. One by one the colonization ring dismantled itself and its parts soared away from the Carl Sagan and entered the atmosphere of the planet. After a rocky entry through the atmosphere with the shields protecting the pods from the red glowing friction, they landed at the foot of a mountain that overlooked the ocean, creating the foundation for the first city on SA-139. As the pods landed, the crew below on the surface began the task of unwrapping the contents, and designated which will be used for homes, schools, markets, and operational centers. The colonists aboard the Carl Sagan began to awake from their long cryo sleep and were directed to the docking bay where transports ferried families and their belongings off the ship and onto SA-139, their new home.

  The process left the Carl Sagan a changed ship, one with only one habitat ring and less mass to tow around. It was no longer a ship of colonization, it became purely a ship of exploration and science.

  Williams lost track of how many hours had passed and how many cups of coffee he downed since the process began. Most of the bridge crew retired for the night while he remained in Foster’s office, keeping her chair warm as he reviewed the reports that came up from the surface in regard to the establishment of the colony. The people below wasted no time on jump-starting other projects, such as deploying transports to lay down the groundwork on heilum-3 mining, and to start work on constructing mines for minerals across the system.

  Interesting data regarding SA-115, the other Earthlike planet in the system began to trickle back to EVE via the probes sent out earlier. It would have to wait for another time, however, as he tossed the holo pad onto the desk. His eyelids became heavy and some of the reports he was reading weren’t sinking into his head. Williams’ body needed rest, for it was a long, productive day.

  He made his way up into his quarters in the habitat ring and was greeted by Foster’s cat Starlet, who had now made Williams’ quarters its new home. Temporary home of course. Now that the colony was established, he was fr
ee to focus on his next mission. Rescuing the Captain and her team.

  13 MCDOWELL

  Edge of protective barrier

  SA-115, Sirius A system

  May 20, 2050, 20:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  “The edge of the barrier you seek this, yes, yes?”

  The six-hour trek came to an end as McDowell inspected the edge of the protective barrier that encircled the region. On the inside of the barrier where the four stood were trees, vegetation, and water flowing from the river behind them. Beyond the barrier was a desolate rocky wasteland, heavily cratered, with heat waves in the background and stars in the atmosphere-less sky.

  McDowell looked at Pierce who scanned the barrier in front of them up and down with his EAD. “So, egghead?”

  “I don’t like the looks of this,” he replied.

  “The looks of what?” Kingston said, then reached out to touch the barrier. The shock from touching it caused him to leap backward. “Son of a bitch!”

  McDowell’s HUD reported that Kingston’s shields dropped 10 percent just from the brief contact. So much for punching our way through.

  “The harmonics of the shield don’t seem to be self-irising either,” Pierce commented after watching what happened to Kingston.

  “Norauk,” McDowell called out to him. “Is there a way we could get beyond it?”

  “Hmm, did not consider this problem, no, no.”

  McDowell jammed his finger at Norauk in an aggressive manner and said. “You brought us out here knowing we wanted to go beyond, and you didn’t know how to make it happen?”

  Pierce held onto McDowell’s shoulder. “Easy there, killer.”

  McDowell shrugged him off. “Shut up and figure out a way past this!”

  “I can’t, it’s a powerful shield designed to do just that, shield the inside from everything coming in from the outside, and vice versa.”

  “Ah, I have an idea, yes, yes, it will deliver what you seek,” Norauk said to them.

  “Starting to sound like a flea market sales person,” McDowell said.

  “Follow, follow, I have a means of getting beyond the barrier, you will be able to contact your ship, guarantee.”

  Norauk began to move in a different direction, one that was further away from the barrier. McDowell shrugged and signaled to the rest to follow behind with him. “This detour going to cost us extra?”

  Norauk stopped and faced McDowell with a devious smile. “Not at all, no need to worry about paying me for this.”

  LAKE SHORELINE

  SA-115, Sirius A system

  May 20, 2050, 22:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The group exited the forest after a lengthy walk, one that required Pierce to stop, sit, and take a break partway through. As they left the forest, they found themselves walking along the shores of a large lake. The motion of the water from the lake was calm, almost lifeless, no waves hit the beach. SA-115 lacked tides as it had no moon orbiting it. McDowell stopped briefly to admire the glorious spectacle of Sirius glowing brightly in the skies above the lake taking up a large portion of the sky due to its size, as the shield of the dome protecting the region provided a faux sky over head.

  McDowell couldn’t help but notice that they were walking further way from the barrier and more toward the center of the region as they continued walking along the lakeside. Distrust began to form in his gut, delivering a sinking feeling that Norauk might be leading them into a trap. McDowell kept both a close eye on Norauk and his small, unarmed body and the safety of his rifle off. Assuming his psionics weren’t an issue, him and Kingston should be able to take him with ease.

  Pierce on the other hand.

  McDowell looked at Pierce and grimaced, he was another concern of his. “So, Dr. Pierce.”

  “Yes?”

  “You’re from Vancouver, right?”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “Why did you come out here? It’s one of the few cities that got ravaged during the invasion and you were a respected person in the scientific community.”

  “Maybe for that city, but not elsewhere in the UNE.” Pierce began to scan the lake next to them with his EAD. “And to answer your question, Commander McDowell, Captain Foster insisted I join. I didn’t want to at first, but money was becoming an issue, and it was a chance to see what was out there.”

  “What do you think about Rivera?”

  “I think she’s kinda hot, sir,” said Kingston.

  “Wasn’t asking you,” McDowell grunted. “Though, I do agree.”

  McDowell and Kingston shared laughter and then faced Pierce who kept silent and continued to scan the lake.

  “Pretty quiet there, egghead,” McDowell said.

  “Sir, maybe he’s not into women?” Kingston said.

  “Naw man, he’s from Vancouver, there’s lots of Hashmedai living there. Ain’t that right, Dr. Pierce?”

  Pierce sighed. “Yes, there is a significant concentration of them living in the region.”

  “Oh, I get it, he likes Hashmedai women,” Kingston said.

  “How 'bout it, egghead?” McDowell said, nudging Pierce with his elbow. “Do you eat Hashmedai pussy?”

  “Careful, sir, he might be one of those HLF sympathizers.”

  Pierce kept his eyes looking down at the holographic screen of his EAD as if there was something important about its contents, McDowell knew better, however. The lakes and rivers had already been thoroughly scanned in this region, pure water flowed through them with the odd alien fish swimming through it. “Well, he got all silent, guess we struck a chord?”

  Norauk lead them to a section of the lake where a dormant wormhole resided partially submerged in the water. Norauk pointed at the wormhole in question while McDowell held onto his rifle and gave the wormhole an uneasy stare. The last time they came close to these devices, bad things happened.

  “Ah, here we go!” Norauk said as he ran and splashed through the shallow waters headed for the wormhole in the lake.

  “More of those wormhole things,” McDowell said as his finger inched closer toward the trigger.

  “I got a bad feeling about this, sir,” Kingston said.

  “No, this might be exactly what we need,” Pierce said. “Perhaps one of these could take us to a world not under the cover of the barrier.”

  “Then we could get a message out.” McDowell liked the idea Pierce suggested, there was just one problem. “What world would that be? The one we got chased from?”

  Norauk’s small hands tinkered with a holographic interface that appeared next to the wormhole in the lake, it flashed briefly as it powered on before he waved to the rest to join him in the waters. McDowell glanced into the mouth of the wormhole as it activated, he saw what looked like another world. Its skies were darker as if a sunset was in progress while a vast ocean calmly flowed below the horizon. The wormhole on the other end must have been partially submerged in shallow waters in the same manner as the one they stood in front of as water freely flowed back and forth through the gate.

  “Egghead?” McDowell asked Pierce who wasted no time running a scan with his EAD.

  “I detect oxygen, but lower traces of it,” Pierce reported. “Breathing will be a challenge, but doable.”

  “Well, we got our suits if need be.”

  “It’s also hot, approximately forty-eight degrees.”

  “Again, we’re not staying . . .” McDowell lost his train of thought midway through his sentence. “But.”

  He heard a song play in his head or at least that’s what it felt like. It was something soothing and enticing, he felt the overwhelming need to make last-minute changes to their mission. Someone beyond the wormhole wanted him to stay for a while and he wanted to make them happy they did.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to do so,” Kingston said slowly, for he too felt the same as McDowell.

  Pierce lowered his EAD and looked into the wormhole almost in a dreamy state of mind. “Yeah.”

  Norauk lead them through the w
ormhole and the four stood in the middle of what appeared to be a shallow ocean upon their arrival on the new world. There were no signs of any landmass, just the waves of the waters below them crashing against their bodies, the wormhole behind them and the semi-night star-filled skies above. Sirius B shined small traces of light down plus another larger object, a brown dwarf star, probably Sirius C which dominated 25 percent of the skies alongside a large moon.

  Pierce didn’t seem to care of the discovery of a new world or the spectacular view of all the stellar objects in the sky, while McDowell became less worried about Norauk. Nothing else mattered to the three men but one thing, locating the source of the song, the alluring voice that had forced its way into their heads.

  They waded through the shallow ocean away from the wormhole. Norauk said some words but they went in one ear and out the other. In the horizon ahead of them was a sunrise, bright white blue light, Sirius A perhaps though it was much further away, thus giving off less light than on the other planet . . . What was it called? McDowell’s memories became fuzzy, he couldn’t remember his rank, his mission. How he came here.

  But that song. It had to have been a beautiful woman singing it. He must speak with her. He just had to do it. Norauk was long gone at that point, none of them saw where he scurried off to, and none of them cared.

  The surface of the water slowly started to rise the further they walked away from the wormhole as the land below them sloped downward. The shallow ocean was quickly turning into a deeper one. The water had risen to McDowell’s chest before the voice asked him and the rest to stop. He looked down and saw a deep trench below them, vast, dark, deep, blue ocean teeming with life unknown going about their daily lives.

  There was something in the waters in front. Someone. Their head emerged from the water. It was a woman with long black hair, dripping wet from being under the ocean for so long. Part of her hair was draped over her shoulder and stretched downward, partly covering her left exposed breast. McDowell thought she was human or perhaps one of the locals, that was until he saw gills on the side of her neck and that everything from her waist down looked like a fish’s body. For a lack of a better term, she was a mermaid of some sort.