Celestial Ascension (Splintered Galaxy Book 1)

by Eddie R. Hicks

Odelea sighed. All those scientists who swung by the lab today, and not one mentioned that they were recalled. There was one other message, a personal one sent to her from General Hilemei. He was expecting her in the briefing room.

  The briefing room of the Abyssal Explorer was located just below the main bridge. If one were to look up, he or she would be able to see the bridge above, as the floor that separated the bridge from the briefing room was transparent. In the middle of the room sat a large triangular conference desk. Typically a leader sat at each of the three points of the desk. One was reserved for the ship’s captain, the other the general, and the last seat for whatever team leader was invited to meet. The rest of the desk was for other non leadership personnel who were invited.

  Gravity existed here and on the bridge, the only part of the ship that had it, generated by a psionic. A psionic was a person with telekinetic powers, using his or her gift to create a gravity field to keep everything on the ground.

  General Ary Hilemei, an Aryile man with yellow hair and lightly tan skin, sat at one edge of the table. His beard was recently trimmed low, something he’d been meaning to do for awhile, giving him a younger look. He wore gold combat armor and had his magnetic rifle holstered to his back. At the next edge of the desk was the Abyssal Explorer’s captain, Gab Ueyei, an older Vorcambreum with gray hair, wearing a miniature version of the crew’s jumpsuit—he was barely four feet tall. His chair, like most chairs for Vorcambreum, was higher than everyone else’s so he could see over the desk. Like other members of his race, his ears were long and traveled from the sides of his head down towards his shoulders and his yellow eyes were large and wide.

  The flag of the Radiance Union rested on the wall behind them, an image of five stars next to three eyes. The stars represented the star systems the five races of the union came from, and the eyes represented the gods they worshipped. On the opposite end were two sets of spiraling stairs that went up to the bridge. They were transparent as well, and in front of the staircase was a large window showing the vastness of space and the large gas giant off to the side.

  Finally she arrived. Odelea boarded the bridge and proceeded to the stairwell, which led to the briefing room below. She slowed down slightly after nearly falling down the steps, but at last she made it down. “Please accept my tardiness. My suit was deactivated when the message was sent.” She bowed.

  Ueyei looked at her and asked, "What were you doing this whole time?”

  “Studying human language," she said.

  Hilemei asked, "Can you speak any of it?”

  Odelea folded her hands, placing them in front of her. She was clearly nervous. “I currently can speak three of the sixty-five hundred known languages.”

  “Have a seat then,” said Hilemei. A shocked look grew on her face as she hesitated for a second before making her way to the seat. Hilemei continued. “We are going to the human home world…to make contact.”

  “I thought direct contact with them was forbidden," she said.

  “Yes, unless they are being threatened by an external force, whether it be natural or sentient.”

  “Indeed," said Ueyei, “the gods demand we help any race that might be in danger in such a situation.”

  Odelea paused a few seconds as her green reptile shaped eyes opened wide before saying, "You want me to translate their language for you, then?”

  “We need to make direct contact with their leaders and make plans to defend them," said Hilemei.

  "Humans still fight with one another,” she said. “Getting all their factions to work together will prove to be…challenging.”

  “We have to try," said Hilemei. “The gods will not be pleased if we sit by and do nothing.”

  Ueyei spoke, “We are already backtracking to their world.” He leaned his small body back in his chair. “Find a suitable location for us to make contact, needless to say in a region where you can speak the language.”

  Odelea nodded in agreement and was dismissed from the meeting. As she walked off, Ueyei turned to Hilemei and asked, “Why did you take on this assignment?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You are one of the best generals we have. The Hashmedai fear your presence during some battles,” Ueyei responded. “Wouldn’t you be better off on the frontlines…or perhaps assisting in the Divine Expanse campaign?”

  Hilemei crossed his arms and sighed, for he knew Ueyei was right. “The Council feels that I’m better off with deep-space scientific missions far away from the theater of war.”

  “Why is that?” Ueyei asked.

  “The Hashmedai have assassins lurking in the darkness out there. All of them have kill-on-sight orders for me.” He stood and walked toward the window to look at the stars. “They wouldn’t send their assassins out here to some primitive world.”

  ………

  Nodevar stood on top of a building as he admired his handiwork, the sabotaged human vehicle. Just below him, a market of some sort where Rina, that human female the two were tracking went. With Lettielia wasting time at Rina’s place, he felt the need to slow the human down. The female coming home to find an alien bathing at her residence would create…unnecessary complications.

  Rina came out of the building to her vehicle to find its front tires slashed—well, more like partly melted and slashed thanks to Nodevar’s plasma dagger. The woman shouted angrily, probably profanities in the human language, and then reached into her handbag to grip onto that device humans used to communicate with one another. She was no doubt hailing a mechanic of some sort. Whatever—she won’t be home for awhile, and that’s the important part.

  Nodevar sat and watched for a bit longer, knowing that as long as he remained cloaked she wouldn’t be able to see him or the black outfit he was wearing, though that might change soon. A black heavy outfit didn’t work well on planets with this much heat. On Hashmedai worlds were the weather was typically colder, sure, but not here. Nodevar took a step back and activated his communicator. “I bought you extra time, Lettielia. You’re welcome.”

  Lettielia transmitted back, “Excellent. Come join me then.” The sound of water pouring could still be heard.

  Nodevar shook his head in disapproval. “I’m heading back up for awhile. There’s nothing left for me to do here.”

  “What are your plans?” Lettielia asked.

  “Cooling off, without you.”

  “Take pictures.”

  Nodevar ended communication with Lettielia and started a new exchange, one directed up in space. “Whigli, lock on to my signal. I need to come up.”

  Several seconds later, a quick flash of blue light materialized before him. Out from that light stepped a Hashmedai man. It was Whigli. He had long purple hair and a fit muscular body, which was clearly seen, as he was shirtless, wearing only pants and boots. His body had a few cybernetic implants along its side and a few small wires on the underside of his arms.

  “Quickly, before someone sees you!” Nodevar exclaimed. A bright flash of blue light enveloped them both.

  The imagery around Nodevar changed from rooftops of buildings to the interior of their ship, which was just outside of orbit—back to the zero gravity and the hum of the ship’s engine. The cold air of the ship made him breathe in relief. The sight of the vice admiral’s body still floating in the weightless environment with a hole in his head did not, however.

  Nodevar turned to Whigli in disgust. “Why hasn’t his body been disposed of?”

  “Maneuvering this ship to stay in range of the planet while avoiding human detection is difficult," reasoned Whigli.

  Nodevar glided his way to the main chair of the cockpit, sat down, and accessed the computer. “I suppose dead bodies floating in space is not something humans typically see.” He continued to work on the computer, analyzing the data extracted from the admiral’s brain, while Whigli left the area.

  Jerut boarded the cockpit minutes later. “Impressive—you and Lettielia are done already?” Jerut asked with a sarcastic tone.
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  Nodevar tilted his head toward him. Jerut had a holographic display in front of him, no doubt monitoring the ship’s system. Someone had to do it since he’d had the whole crew killed except for that psionic, Whigli.

  “No, we are not done,” Nodevar said. “We have a lead on her, however, thanks to one of your associates. As for her brother, no idea—probably dead, but I’m not taking any chances.”

  Jerut looked at the vice admiral’s weightless corpse. “I suppose we should put the bodies in the cargo hold.”

  “Please do,” Nodevar said. “Lettielia might get ideas the next time she’s aboard…”

  “Such as?” Jerut asked. Nodevar, however, remained silent. “You should copulate with her more. Perhaps she will become sane again.” Jerut burst into laughter. Nodevar stayed silent, and then returned back to his work on the computer.

  A proximity-alert sound chimed on the computer. Nodevar accessed the notification. A holographic map of Earth’s solar system appeared before him. One red dot and three blue dots were displayed—in far orbit of the human world, one of the blue dots represented their ship. Another on the opposite side of the planet was no doubt the recon team’s ship, and another in the asteroid belt was the command ship. The single red dot was displayed between the orbits of the large gas giant and the red planet. Nodevar paused after taking in the imagery projected to him.

  “What is it, assassin?” asked Jerut, coming closer to see the hologram.

  “Radiance Union battle ship," said Nodevar. “It’s heading right for us.”

  Frustration augmented Jerut’s voice. “It’s too early for this phase.” His head turned to Nodevar. “We need Himton’s command codes right away. If the command ship sees this, they will awake everyone from cryo.”

  “And then ask you what happened to the crew of this ship.” Nodevar looked at the hologram again. The command ship’s orbit was the most distant of the blue dots from the red one. “Lucky for you, you got time before the command ship gets the proximity alert…unless someone is actively scanning the system.”

  “There’s only one bridge officer not in stasis, and he should be asleep at this time,” Jerut said. “Lucky for me? You’re in with us as well, my friend!”

  “In case you forgot, the Assassins’ Guild and military are two different groups,” said Nodevar. “You’ll be charged with treason. I will vanish into the shadows and be laughed at by my guild mates for failing my mission.”

  ………

  Gavin Chambers placed his empty beer bottle on the table—his third one for the night, and it was getting late. But that didn’t stop the loud dance music from playing in the Los Angeles pub where he and his buddies Hendrix, Nelson, and James were drinking. All four were members of the United States Air Force Reserve.

  Gavin was the tallest of the group. Standing at six foot two, he had short spiked blond hair, a fit build, and green eyes. These eyes he hoped his future child would have—just five more months until his birth. Hendrix and Nelson had a similar look in terms of body type but were slightly shorter. Hendrix’s hair was brown and cut low, and Nelson’s spotted black hair was in a butch cut. James was quite muscular, with dark skin and a buzz cut.

  “You gotta slow down a bit though, bro,” said Nelson.

  “He had like three beers, man,” James cut in with a laugh.

  “Naw, man, I mean like with all the family shit,” Nelson said. “You got a girlfriend before us, got married before us, and now having a kid.” He looked at James and Hendrix. “Yo, am I right?”

  They all laughed. Gavin then spoke. “It’s not my fault you guys were busy jerking off, watching porn when I was dealing with the first two things.”

  “Dawg, I introduced you to Internet porn back in high school!” shouted James.

  Hendrix finished his drink and then chimed in. “I guess you should add first to jerk off to porn on Chambers’s list there, bud.” More laughter erupted from the four.

  Gavin turned to James and said, “Wait, that should make you the first, then.”

  “Hell, no. I was banging Ms. Everhart before I stroked it,” James interjected.

  Gavin remembered the legendary Ms. Everhart from high school. She was young, fresh out of teachers’ university, with short blond hair and a naughty secret—taking males students, mainly James, into the staff room after class to teach extra lessons in life.

  “I remember her…and you not fucking sharing!” said Gavin.

  “Couldn’t risk word getting out," said James. “She would have gotten fired.”

  “Which ended up happening anyway!”

  “After we graduated.”

  The server came back to ask the four if they needed anything else, but they all agreed they’d had their share of beer and chicken wings for the night. They asked for the bill…and a taxi.

  Gavin returned to his home in the suburbs of the city. It was dark outside. He snuck his way into the bedroom, trying not to wake his wife, Anna, from her sleep. A few pictures of the couple were on the wall. One was a photo of her, with her long brown hair and petite body, tattoos of flowers all over her arms. She was about five foot one in height—opposites attract. Next to that picture was Gavin in uniform, helmet in hand, standing next to a fighter jet.

  He took off the clothes he was wearing, climbing into bed with nothing but his boxers and dog tags, no time to search for pajamas. Though wearing them would have given the illusion that he was home earlier.

  The morning sunlight kissed Gavin awake, but Anna was nowhere to be seen. This can’t be good, he thought. He put on a robe and exited the room.

  The laughing sounds of two women echoed from the kitchen as Gavin made his way downstairs. As much as he wanted to avoid that area of the house, it was the only place he’d be able to find breakfast…without sneaking out to get it.

  “Good morning, you!” said Dianna Lee, who sat with Anna at the dinner table.

  “Uh, morning,” Gavin muttered.

  Anna remained silent, didn’t even make eye contact—the joys of pregnant women and their emotional outbursts.

  “Come, have a seat," said Dianna. “Anna and I were talking about things to do this weekend since you’re off.”

  Gavin smiled at the young Asian woman and asked. “What do you have in mind?”

  “Some friends of mine are flying in tomorrow,” Dianna said. “Figured we can get together and show them around.”

  Gavin killed his smile the moment he caught a glimpse of Anna burning a hole through his face with her eyes. “All these years we’ve known you,” he said to Dianna," and it’s only now you tell us you have friends outside of LA?”

  “Well, they’re not exactly my friends per se—friends of a friend.” Dianna sipped her coffee. “But I’ve been talking to them, and they’re pretty cool.”

  “I’m down with that. What about you, Anna?” Gavin asked.

  “I think I see Dr. Jakins this afternoon,” Anna said, disappointment in her voice.

  “Oh, right. Well, I’ll—”

  “Oh, don’t worry about it. I can take care of it," offered Dianna. “You look pretty beat. Take it easy, and rest.” She said to Gavin.

  Why not just tell her I was out drinking last night?

  ………

  Chloe spent much of the morning at an area gym. She was on a treadmill, wearing a black cutoff tank top that slightly revealed her toned abs and shorts that exposed her strong runner legs. Her headphones were on, connected to an iPod placed in her back pocket. It was in the middle of her favorite workout playlist, random Skrillex tracks.

  A decent amount of people were in attendance, doing what they do to stay in shape, including Sarah who walked over to join her—though the towel in her hand suggested she was done for the time being. Sarah, wearing yoga pants and a tight-fitting tank top, said…something to Chloe, who didn’t hear her over the music. Besides, Chloe’s attention was focused on a personal trainer in the corner—a kind and helpful black man with strong, fit arms and legs. Wonder i
f he’s single, she thought.

  The music came to an unexpected end as Sarah ripped Chloe’s headphones off and exclaimed, “I’m going to head out and grab lunch! You ready to leave?”

  Chloe didn’t flinch but, after a few seconds, got off the treadmill and faced Sarah. “I guess so. You’re driving after all.”

  They walked to the change room, where Sarah stopped and said, “Oh, so it’s officially ‘later.' What happened?” Chloe saw Sarah’s smile but didn’t know how to say it and, quite frankly, wanted to forget about it. “Let me guess,” Sarah pushed. “He bought you drinks, you fucked him, and now he won’t call or text back?”

  Chloe stopped but didn’t reply right way. Sarah was right. That’s exactly what happened, except the ‘fucked’ part. “You and your prying," said Chloe.

  Sarah placed a comforting hand on Chloe’s back. “Sis…don’t get upset about stuff like that. Let’s face the facts—if the marines wanted you to have a husband, they would have issued you one.” Chloe continued into the change room, leaving her sister’s embrace. Sarah added, “Or a boyfriend for that matter.”

  “Shut up," said Chloe.

  “Look, a friend of mine is visiting the city today," said Sarah. “He’s hot and French. Want me to ask him to come to lunch with us?” Not a word came out of Chloe’s mouth. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’” Sarah concluded.

  ………

  The two sisters, in their summer dresses, took a seat on the patio of a local café and lounge. The summer afternoon heat was making its presence felt once again as they scanned the menu. Nothing of interest for Chloe—broccoli and chicken would have to do.

  “He’s running a bit behind,” Sarah said, stowing away her phone.

  “OK” Chloe said.

  “Don’t ‘OK’ me! Smile and be uplifting when he gets here," said Sarah.

  Chloe sighed and placed her menu on the table. “Sorry, this outfit I'm wearing isn’t sitting right with me.”

  “You and I are the sexiest ladies here right now,” Sarah reassured. “Trust me on this, Sis.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes at the sight of the server who took their order. She had to be in her thirties but went out of her way to dye her hair purple and wore red-tinted sunglasses. The hipsters are taking over.