“Commander,” Tolukei called out to Williams. “The alien ship.”
Williams spun his chair around to face Tolukei. “You sense it?”
“Yes, it is on a course to the same planet.”
“The same ship bolting to the same planet we’re heading to,” Chang said.
“They might have detected the distress signal,” Tolukei said.
“Somehow, I doubt they’re flying over to lend a hand,” Williams said. “Chang, what’s our ETA?”
“Entering orbit in five.”
“And the alien ship?”
“Difficult to tell, it appears to be traveling at FTL, it may arrive before or after us.”
“Get us close to the side of the world where the signal is coming from and see if you can establish a connection with the Master Chief.” Williams stopped himself briefly, he was about to request a Hammerhead team to board a transport for a possible rescue op. Since there weren’t any teams available for the task he changed tack. “Tolukei be ready for a teleport once we zero in on her position.”
“That may not be wise, Commander,” Tolukei said. “The ship is indeed approaching fast.”
“Chang?”
“Can’t go any faster and I’m going to have to slow down once we arrive in orbit. Then there’s the whole bringing us about to hover over the region she’s at . . . so.”
They needed a distraction, something to force the Architect’s ship to focus on them rather than the surface, while a transport slipped in to find Chevallier. Williams looked at the ocean world as its waters reflected light back via two sources of sunlight while he slowly weaved together a plan.
“Chang, don’t worry about getting us close to their signal.”
“Commander?”
“Once we get in orbit head to the docking bay and await further instructions,” Williams said. “Tolukei, I hope your psionic brain has rested enough, because we’re going to need it.”
ESRS CARL SAGAN, Bridge
SC-149 AKA Meroien orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 02:02 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Carl Sagan dropped out of sub light speeds on one side of the ocean world of Meroien, the Architect’s ship did the same on the opposite side baked in sunlight, the side being the location of Chevallier’s emergency signal. A single transport ship piloted by Chang left the underside of the Carl Sagan and plunged toward the surface of the planet beneath its clouds, while Williams sat up front at helm control, the joys of rolling with a rookie skeleton crew.
He looked down at the controls, buttons, flashing lights, and computer screen and recalled his training and simulator runs. As tempting as it was to simply have EVE take control, he needed her processors working at maximum power to create an algorithm that could allow them to fully translate the Lyonria and Poniga language. Chang transmitted that he was in the clear and away from any action that was about to unfold in space.
Williams’ fingers raced across the terminal, he began to acquire a target on the other side of the planet; the Architect’s ship. ESP data acquired from Tolukei updated the Carl Sagan’s sensor data in regard to the exact location of the ship. Battle station alarms blared as Williams launched twelve plasma missiles into space, Tolukei’s psionic powers formed a protective overshield around the Carl Sagan, as his mind took control of the missiles and forced them to arc up and over the horizon of the planet. Twelve white contrail lines stretched around the planet as the twelve missiles rammed into the Architect’s ship in a glittering display of emerald explosions. The process required complete focus of Tolukei’s psionic powers, and as such the artificial gravity he conjured for the bridge shut off, weightlessness becoming a reality once again.
New data appeared on William’s screen on the missiles payload delivery, generated by Tolukei as it was his ESP that scanned what happened not the Carl Sagan’s sensors. The data that he read was both good and bad news. The good news? The Architect’s ship wasn’t destroyed, after all their attack was to disable it, Foster was still aboard and needed to get out. The bad news? It suffered no damage at all, like the Carl Sagan the Architect’s ship was under the protective grace of a psionic overshield.
“Chang, no pressure, but everything is now on those slick flying skills of yours,” Williams transmitted to him as he saw the Architect’s ship come about and face them with its weapons ports open.
“Commander, this ship of the Architect. It has overshields,” Tolukei said.
“I’ve noticed. The other ships we encountered didn’t have regular shields let alone overshields.”
Tolukei began to focus by shutting all four of his eyes. “There is a psionic aboard that ship. No; several in fact, one of their minds is familiar, however.”
The Carl Sagan viciously rumbled in the aftermath of taking several direct blows to its forward shields. “Define familiar?” Williams said as he began to arm and fire the rail guns.
“I can speak to him. And he can speak to me.”
“Who?”
“The Architect.”
23 CHEVALLIER
Derelict Linl colonization ship, Adrift in the ocean
SC-149 AKA Meroien, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 01:22 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Chevallier’s mouth produced blatantly fake smiles every time she forced herself to consume the putrid soup Juloo had made. Rediscovering the wormhole couldn’t come soon enough. She emptied her bowl of soup to the best of her ability and checked the status of her suit’s power via its diagnostic screen, 23 percent. The jerry-rigged power charges Juloo had latched onto it were taking their sweet time.
She entered the cockpit and watched as the tiny Qirak woman took control of the Linl colonization ship turned boat, sailing it through the choppy waters of the planet. It had taken them nearly two days to get to this point, tsunamis streaking across the ocean world’s surface were a common encounter. Juloo had to make eight detours during their trip to avoid getting hit by the torrential waves.
The journey provided Chevallier the chance to follow-up on the data left behind by the first generation Linl colonists, saving the data into the computers built into her suit. She hoped that someone aboard the Carl Sagan would find it useful. The Carl Sagan, she groaned upon thinking about that ship convinced that she might be stranded on this world forever, unless there was a skilled Qirak out there that could figure out how to repair her human-made equipment.
“Ah! The gate draws close!” Juloo exclaimed, forcing Chevallier to gaze out the windshield.
Amber light from the skies shined into the cockpit while moisture built up along the sides of the windshield due to the extreme humid temperatures around them. She saw the oval-shaped gateway to other worlds seemingly float up top of the surface of the water, unaffected by the tsunami that struck days earlier.
“Sure you don’t want to stay?” Juloo said to her. “Many, many old junky ships lay around with profitable items still inside.”
Chevallier grimaced and shook her head dejectedly. “If I can’t get back to my ship I might have to take you up on that offer.”
SHALLOW OCEAN
SC-149 AKA Meroien, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 02:23 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Chevallier bid her farewell to Juloo as she leaped off the ship onto the shallow clearing next to the wormhole. She was back in her combat armor sans the helmet, though its power and shields still had not fully recovered. Her heavy footsteps slashed through the waters leading her toward the control interface of the wormhole.
Before she activated it, she spun around and gave one final wave goodbye to Juloo. The ship turned boat sailed off to the horizon, the white flames from its rear engines providing it just enough propulsion to propel the ship, and take Juloo toward old Linl tech to raid and sell to the Poniga and Undine.
She returned to the control interface of the wormhole and took a few seconds to recall what Juloo had told her in regard to operating it. Its tiny holographic display appeared along with ho
lographic buttons for her to push, her finger pushed downward to key in the open command.
Then stopped.
She heard strange noises come from the deep of the ocean.
She stood up on the edge and readied her rifle, two figures floated up from the waters covered in a protective psionic barrier. One of them was Pierce, or at least she thought it was, he looked roughed up, dirty, his head full of unkempt head and facial hair. But his uniform as ripped up and messy as it was, it was clearly one of a member of IESA.
The person with him, however, she was an unknown, a half-naked woman wearing an opened and soaking wet maroon robe with a glowing staff in her hands. She had long black-blue hair and looked directly at Chevallier as if they were old friends that hadn’t seen each other in years. The two dashed and splashed their way over to Chevallier looking back behind them every so often, the standard signs someone was being chased.
Chevallier held onto her rifle and checked the status of her suits shield recovery.
They had risen to 32 percent. Better than nothing.
“Chevallier?” The strange woman called out to her. “Soul of the goddess, is it really you?”
How the hell do you know my name? “And you are?”
“MC, she’s a friend.” Pierce said.
“Dr. Pierce? What the fuck happened to you?”
“No time to explain.”
The ground began to shake sending slight ripples of waves across the shallow waters. Pierce and the woman moved behind Chevallier as she stood watching the ocean and horizon before them. A horizon that was eclipsed by the sudden sight of an egg-shaped alien ship rising out of the ocean like a whale, only unlike a whale, the ship didn’t dive back into the ocean where it came from, it rose into the skies, faced them head-on, and hovered.
“Prepare for battle, Chevallier,” the woman said as she held her glowing staff.
Chevallier looked at the oval-shaped alien ship. Its main weapons locked on them as the sides of it evaporated away, revealing the inside of it. There was an overlord and six grunts looking out as they prepared to leap off.
Chevallier, Pierce, and Nereid stood back to back in the ankle-high shallow waters. Behind them was the inactive wormhole gate, before them a hovering alien ship as the small squad of Architect soldiers splashed down with their laser blasters blazing. There wasn’t much any of them could do for cover, Chevallier’s still weakened shields kept her alive for the time being as Nereid used her psionic powers to create a dome that protected her and Pierce.
The alien ship in the air didn’t fire its main weapons as Chevallier had expected. Clearly, they wanted someone alive and wanted the attacking grunts before her to make it happen, the question was; who was to live and who was expendable? As if she didn’t know the answer, her shields took all the laser fire, Nereid’s barrier took none, it just twinkled its purple colors and looked pretty.
Chevallier returned fire, and engaged in a very brief weapons exchange as a transport of human design made a daring and risky maneuver by landing in between the line of sight of the alien ship and them. Its side doors slid open, Lieutenant Dennis Chang stood next to the entrance, waving for them to leap aboard quickly with an eRifle firmly grasped in his hands.
The three of them rapidly ran through the shallow, splashing water all about in their wake, and climbed aboard. Chang quickly returned to the cockpit and eagerly awaited the chance to pull up and out of the chaos, laser fire from below collided with the transport’s blue ripping shields.
Chevallier counted a four body total aboard. “Get us out of here, L.T.”
She watched Chang’s piloting skills go to work, guiding the transport as it lifted off into the skies. Then it rumbled and shook. The alien ship began to fire its white-hot energy beams upon it in an attempt to disable or force them to land. She grimaced at the thought of them crash landing, let alone crash landing in the deeper parts of the ocean.
“Ah, shit!” Chang yelled. “OK, ladies and gents this is your pilot speaking, buckle up, ‘cause we gonna get fucked.”
Ignoring his request, Chevallier stood behind his chair and watched the action unfold via front row seats. “Keep it together!”
Sparks blazed up from a nearby console, a follow-up blast sent everyone except Chang to the floor. “Yeah, I wasn’t joking about the seat belts, guys,” Chang said. “Inertial dampers tend to get wonky during situations like this.”
The side door was still open during their rise to the skies, had the shields not been active Chevallier would have rolled outside to her death. She got to her feet and saw the ship swing about and prepared to discharge its main energy cannon at them. Chang managed to evade most hits, but quickly found the closer he was to the surface the less they were fired upon. The Architect’s men were sending a message, land or we’ll make you do it.
Nereid stepped next to Chevallier and eyed her rifle from top to bottom, then stroked the sides of it as her eyes shut. Chevallier looked at the bizarre half-naked psionic woman as she continued to touch her rifle, Nereid’s hands began to radiate a soft lavender color. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I remember this,” Nereid said. “Human magnetic rifle, originally developed by Radiance, correct?”
Chevallier rolled her eyes. “Pierce, your girlfriend is creeping me out.”
Nereid lifted her hand away from Chevallier’s rifle, it began to glow a bright blue and purple. Chevallier was now the one that looked at her weapon from top to bottom in awe at what had become of it. She turned around and looked at Nereid who stood holding onto her immaculately crafted staff weapon. “I have imbued your weapon with psionic energy, please fire it quickly . . . the effect . . . will not—”
Nereid’s body became limp and slumped over. Pierce was quick to spring to action and hold her seconds before she collapsed onto the floor. Nereid looked exhausted and dizzy, her psionic powers were overworked, her brain wouldn’t be able to take much more without a few minutes of rest.
“Uh . . . sure,” Chevallier said, then addressed Chang. “Iris the shields up front here, and bring my side of the transport to face that ship.”
“With all due respect, ma’am, the Carl Sagan had a hard time blowing those things to hell; I doubt your eRifle will do any good.”
“This glowing mystic shit says it’s our only way out of this. Unless you got something to add, Pierce?”
Pierce shook his head as he secured Nereid’s body on a nearby seat. “My expertise is astrophysics not metaphysics.”
The transport spun around placing the alien ship within both Chevallier’s line of sight and the targeting scanner of her rifle. She saw the ship aim its forward energy cannon directly at them and charge its weapons.
She pulled the trigger. And hoped for the best.
A loud blast echoed throughout the skies, her bullets tore cavernous holes through the ship including its main weapon, a chain reaction of blasts and flames erupted from the interior of the ship, blue flames burned uncontrollably and eventually consumed the craft, sending it crashing into the ocean below, black smoke billowing upward.
She was surprised at how effortless she did that, a weapon of the size and power she had shouldn’t have had that much firepower. The holographic display of her rifle reported that her slugs traveled at speeds forty times faster than the speed of light. It was impossible. The impact on a shot like that should have done damage to her and the transport, hell the amount of energy required would have been much more than the combined power output of all of Earth’s ships.
Said energy existed in her hands and had no lingering side effects.
With the ship a nonissue, an escape route was paved allowing the transport to escape back into space as the side doors slid shut, something Chang should have done once they got aboard. Chevallier floated into the cockpit as gravity ceased to exist inside of the transport while Nereid slowly returned to the land of the conscious. “Chang, thanks for the rescue.”
“No problem, MC. What happened to every
one else?”
“McDowell and Kingston are gone. I don’t know what happen to the captain.”
“If we’re lucky she might still be alive.” Chang pointed at a larger ship in orbit harassing the Carl Sagan with a torrent of energy beam cannons similar to the ones the smaller egg-shaped ship used. “Some dickhead known as the Architect is aboard that ship, and apparently she’s being held captive there.”
Chevallier looked at the interstellar slugfest between the Carl Sagan and the Architect’s ship. Both ships overshields flickered purple as energy weapons and rail gun fire blasted back and forth between each other. “So, if the Captain is aboard, why are we trying to destroy it?”
“We’re trying to disable it.” Chang and Chevallier quickly shielded their eyes from a bright chain reaction of explosions that illuminated the interior of the transport like a second sun. “But I don’t think that plan is working.”
Chevallier heard Nereid release an innocent yelp from behind. She turned and saw the strange psionic woman struggle with the lack of gravity. Pierce pushed and glided toward her to help her get right side up.
“It’s a bit different from swimming,” Pierce said to her.
“Goddess help me,” Nereid mumbled.
With Nereid’s body stable, Pierce helped her float into the cockpit, the battle outside in orbit made her want to come watch as they neared the action. “That’s the Architect’s ship?” Nereid asked Chang.
“Yep.”
“Then what were those ships that we were attacking?” Pierce said. “They look different.”
Chevallier looked at the Architect’s ship, then began to think about the ship she single-handedly shot down. They were indeed different from each other, similar weapons, but that was it. “He’s right, the designs of these ships are different, like they were built by two different cultures—”
The Siege of Sirius Page 22