The Veil Rising

by Brandon Ellis

  He rewound the vid and played it forward, watched and reversed it again. He did this over and over again, trying to piece everything together. Part of him wondered if there was a malfunction involved. This holovid had come from the bow of his starship, near the bridge. Maybe it had been grazed by enemy fire? Part of him hoped that his distress call was answered by the mystical Knights Templar. Then he felt silly. They were the magical heroes out of children’s fables, mystic warriors sworn to protect the universe. He chuckled. He shouldn't have let his imagination get carried away, especially during combat.

  Then the admiral frowned, remembering The Prime Director's response to his distress call. It was strange, as if he’d been hiding something from the admiral—from everyone. Why did Zim hesitate when he mentioned the Knights Templar? Zim's jaw had twitched and his eyes lied, but what about? Perhaps it was true that the Knights Templar were mythical, a tool told to children to bring their imaginations to life, to let them wonder if there truly were space knights combing the universe righting the wrong, using long forgotten magic. Perhaps that was the falter he had seen in Zim, that he was embarrassed that his fleet admiral would even mention the Knights Templar during a serious discussion, let alone send out a distress call summoning a spiritual knighthood.

  Magic. Was he kidding himself? But, magic could sometimes be a simple illusion. The myths could be just that, a hoax or an illusion to deceive everyone.

  Yet, he remembered his grandfather, the one who had given him the Knights Templar pendant. He swore that the Templars were real, claiming they had once saved his starship after being struck by a rogue asteroid. The story went that mythical knights arrived, appearing out of nowhere, repaired his grandfather's ship, thus saving everyone on-board from a grizzly death. Once the ship was repaired, the Knights vanished as though they had never appeared, allowing his grandfather and crew to return safely to their homes. The only evidence left behind had been the amazing repairs themselves and the pendant that one of the knights had gifted to his grandfather.

  A buzz at the door startled the admiral out of his thoughts. “Come on in, Louise.”

  The door slid open and Captain Louise Stripe stepped through, her long blond hair bouncing with each step. She was a sight to see and she never seemed to age. Even though she was in her sixties, the Suficell Pods kept her young. She looked no older than a strong, elegant thirty year old woman, although being seen as a great beauty was not how she wanted to be perceived. She was a hard military leader, with the brains to match.

  Louise stood next to the door as it closed, folding her hands in front of her. “The defenses are prepared, sir. If there’s another attack, we'll be ready.” Then she made an odd face. “Why won't Prime Director Zim come to his senses by allowing all of us to jump out of here? We’re in jeopardy by staying. Does he think the danger is over simply because he thinks he's outing you?” She sighed. “James, you know he's not leaving this sector because of you.”

  “So be it, Louise.” He waved her over, wanting her to sit next to him. “I want you to see something.”

  She sighed again, not because of him but because of her long day and she wondered if there’d be longer days ahead. She plopped down on the couch. “I heard what Zim did to you at the meeting.”

  The admiral nodded and pointed to the holovid. “What do you see?”

  First, she closed her eyes and rolled them around to clear her tired vision. Then she looked at the holovid. “Doesn't Zim realize we need to find a source of water since we're so far away from Lumus? Matrona's reserves will only last us—” She pulled her hand across her mouth and gasped. “What the hell is that, James?” She was looking at a still frame of the two orbs and Thunderbird behind the exploding pyramid ships.

  “You see it? Good. Then I'm not crazy.”

  She pointed at the vid with her index finger. “The Thunderbird and those orbs? Is that what you're wanting me to see?”

  “Yes. So, you do see it?”

  “How could I miss it?!” She looked confused. “Those orbs must be the ships we caught on radar just before Eden was hit. Who the hell are they? They jumped in for a second, and then went off our radar a second later.”

  “Look at this.” He cleared his throat. “Reverse.” The vid reversed and he said, “Play”.

  The torpedoes shot out from behind the asteroid, hitting the pyramids one-by-one, blasting them into a show of fireworks. Louise jumped back, grabbing the admiral's leg just above the knee, just to release it a second later, wild eyed. “Those aren't our torpedoes! Those orbs, whoever they are, were the ones who blew up the pyramids!”

  “I know.”

  “Do you know who they are?” asked Louise.

  The admiral shook his head. “Not a clue.”

  She tilted her head, seeing something in his eyes—his tell. “Don't play with me, James. You do have an idea.”

  He nodded, staring at the holovid. “Yes, I have an idea. They may be the Knights Templar.”

  Startled, Louise sank into the couch, carefully choosing her words before speaking to a superior officer and a dear friend. “You know how unpopular that explanation would be? You're telling everyone that our race existed more than 800 years ago. The Prime Director is adamantly opposed to that idea, James. It’s a career ender. The Templar myth suggests that we came from other worlds and that the Grand Master, Thomas Berard, or whatever the hell his name was, brought us here and then vanished? Let alone taking a starship full of military personnel with him? Do you know how crazy that sounds? Oh, yeah, and they could perform magic tricks, too.” She frowned, waving both hands above her head. “Don't get me started…!”

  Admiral Byrd replied, “The Prime is setting me up. How he explains history is the least of my concerns, nor do I care if he believes me about the Templars.”

  Louise didn't reply. She was thinking.

  “He's hiding something,” said the admiral.

  “You're all over the vids, James.”

  The admiral stood up and walked to his desk, tapping his chin as he thought.

  “Did you hear me? You and this lie Prime Director Zim is pinning on you is all over the vids, broadcasting throughout Star Guild. He said he suspects you're the head of a military coup attempt, that you set up this attack and that he means to prove it.”

  Starships. The Admiral tapped his forehead, ignoring Louise and staring at his desk. Starship Taranis. In a sudden panic, he shuffled through some papers on his desk until he found what he was looking for. He lifted it to the light, squinting. “Right here.” Then he stomped over to Louise and dropped a piece of paper onto her lap. “Take a gander.”

  Louise snatched the paper, skimmed through it and glared up at the Admiral. “This is a travel log.”

  “Yes. Though short, it shows two peculiar things that I find a bit disturbing.”

  She shrugged. There was no point in reading the log. It showed the comings and goings on Matrona. There were starfighter reports, Starhawk Mech transport reports, starjumper and other space vehicle reports logged earlier in the day. Who cares about that? She stopped and moved the paper away from her, but then pulled it back as if making sure her eyes were working correctly. There was something.

  “You see it, don't you?” asked Admiral Byrd.

  “Plain as the bright sun I do.” She stood up, cheeks reddening. “He left Matrona on a starjumper before the attack, and then came back to Matrona, just before Matrona jumped to our coordinates! Where did the son-of-a-bitch go?!” She paused and composed herself, embarrassed by her sudden lack of self-control. “Or, he could just be plain lucky, leaving just before the attack began…‘a mere coincidence’.”

  “Keep looking, Louise.”

  She let out a huff and shot him a look. She didn't want to get involved. But…unable to resist, she cocked her head to one side and scrunched her nose as she read. “Well, it says he wasn't on the starjumper when it returned to Matrona.” Then she bit the side of her lip. “Uh... where was he?”

  Th
e admiral gave a shrug. “That's a question that I want him to answer.” He crossed his arms. “How did he get back on Matrona, especially after it had jumped into our new sector? It never shows him coming back to the starbase. We know he did, but there is no record of it. Why is that?”

  Holding the papers close to her face, she started to re-read them as she paced back and forth. “Maybe he went to Starship Taranis?”

  “Taranis jumped back into our coordinates an hour before we were to rendezvous with her. You heard me on the bridge give Admiral Jenkyns a direct order to wait five hours...” he splayed his open hand, showing five fingers. “After five hours, if we didn't make it, he was to jump to a new set of coordinates somewhere in the outer periphery. I never told him to jump back here.”

  Louise stopped pacing. “Jenkyns said he came back to fight…to help us.”

  Admiral Byrd became quiet and his shoulders relaxed. “He is a noble man, I give him that.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I don't know. It's all confusing. Nonetheless, I doubt Zim went to Taranis, since he wouldn't have known where Taranis had jumped. Plus, I don't see any log entries of Zim entering Starship Taranis, anywhere.”

  “Just like you don't see him entering Starbase Matrona,” added Louise. “Why is Zim covering his trail? Or better yet, what trail is he covering?”

  The admiral walked back to his desk and sat in his chair. “I need someone close to Zim to give me some answers, because Zim sure as hell won't.”

  Indignantly, Louise placed her hands on her hips. “You want a spy?” She shook her head. “Not me. I refuse.”

  “I wasn't asking you, Louise. You've never spoken but two words to Zim. I need someone inside the governance.”

  “Who?” questioned Louise, sitting down on the couch and gazing at the paused explosions on the vid.

  “I'll figure it out, but until then I need you—”

  “Admiral!” Louise shot both hands into the air, pointing at the holographic display in front of her. “It's erasing!”

  The admiral dashed over to the holovid to see the still frame of the explosions, the Thunderbird and one orb. His brow furrowed. “Only one orb? Where's the other one?” The remaining orb started to fade and then erased a second later. The Thunderbird disappeared next.

  “Reverse!” blurted Admiral Byrd.

  The vid reversed, but when it played back he saw only the exploding pyramids, nothing else. The purple torpedoes, the orbs, the Thunderbird and the asteroid were missing, somehow completely wiped from the holovid.

  ∞

  Chief Petty Officer Crystal McCoy had been watching the world turn pale blue for the last several hours. Planet Lumus' daylight had dimmed considerably, although the sun didn't fall much lower than the horizon this time of year.

  Checking the time on her HDC, it was 9:36 pm. Right now she would normally be on Starbase Matrona, just like she was every night, in her living quarters sitting comfortably on her bed, watching an entertainment vid, eating an apple or some other late night fruit snack. That was her regular routine before she'd fall asleep, then wake up at 6:00 am, grab a shuttle by 7:00, in Mech Bay by 7:20 and readying her Mech for the 8 am stroll across the red stone plateau to the quarries. She rolled her eyes at the thought, having done the same routine for four years, over and over again. It could easily have turned into the rest of her life. If the death and destruction wasn’t so horrible, she could almost thank these sick bastards for attacking and breaking her out of the mundane, hellish life she’d been leading.

  Then she realized she hadn't had a drink since she’d been in the Mech. For hours, the enemy had been flying around trying to find them, a constant distraction and invariant wonder as to whether or not they'd be seen, caught, and dragged off to their death. It'd been an hour, though, since she'd seen any enemy craft. No excuses now to deter her from what she needed to do to satisfy her dry mouth.

  She grabbed the tube hanging from the cockpit’s ceiling with her lips and sucked. Nothing came out but air. The water tank was empty, not filled since its last outing—whenever that was.

  “Dammit!”

  Daf had been peering out of the Mech's window for as many hours. They’d been hiding at the base of the mountain and her eyes were tired and her body was worn out. There was dried blood on the rims of her nostrils. She turned her head and looked at Crystal. “What?”

  “You look terrible, Daf.”

  Daf blinked a couple of times. “That's why you said dammit? I just want...I just need sleep.”

  “Who's stopping you?”

  Daf's mouth slackened. “Um, well, we have enemies trying to crawl up our butts, Crystal. Why else wouldn't I sleep?”

  Crystal's stomach tightened. She was talking to an inferior rank that suddenly had a bad attitude. “It was just a question.”

  Daf shot her a look. “I'm just stating the obvious.”

  Crystal's eyes pierced Daf. “What's obvious is that you're tired and cranky. I can handle staring out of the window by myself. If anything happens, I’ll wake you. Do you understand? You’re endangering us by trying to stay awake. I need you fully aware.” Crystal was Chief. She was the one who gave the orders; she wasn't used to being addressed like this, especially by Daf.

  Daf turned back to the window, continuing her survey of the darkened land laid out before her. She was quiet, quickly getting lost in the terrain. This world was strange and she much preferred her position on Starbase Matrona, working in the biosphere as a Quality Steward with Savanna Levens, the overseer of the biosphere. Daf had planted and managed nature, or rather; she let nature do its own thing and she watched it grow. She drank from its waters and enjoyed its songs. It was beauty in its purest form.

  Then this position showed up as a Mech Operator. The pay was outrageous and blew her pay grade out of the galaxy. She had jumped on the opportunity and regretted it ever since. It soon became a struggle just to get up in the mornings. It was less than a week ago that she had finally found the guts to ask Savanna Levens for her old job back. Savanna was supposed to get back to her with an answer by today. Instead, Daf was stuck on planet Lumus hoping that starbase had somehow survived the attack.

  Planet Lumus. Daf exhaled loudly. It was beautiful in its own, lonely kind of way, even when the sun disappeared for the evening, changing the red, black, and brown rock filled terra firma into a shadowed, dark blue version of itself.

  They were up on a hill that merged with the base of Mount Gabrielle, making it easy to observe the land laid out before them, seeing much further than they could have from a lower location. Here, they were concealed under a strange rock formation with two large, thick rock slabs standing on each side of their Mech, with a large slab sitting vertically on top of the two, acting much like a roof. It was a nice hiding place, and with their Mech shut down they seemed to be invisible from the attackers.

  Daf's stomach growled, so she rubbed her stomach. “We need food,” stated Daf, still peering out the window.

  “And water,” was Crystal's reply.

  Daf's shoulders slumped. “We don't have water? What else is going to go wrong?”

  Your attitude, thought Crystal, although she kept her mouth shut. “Warehouse 12 and 13 are a few clicks west. In a couple of hours, when the shadows are at their darkest, we can sneak over there.”

  Daf nodded, still staring at the land. “Did you see one?”

  Crystal tilted her head at the question. “What do you mean, did I see one?”

  Daf turned. “Did you see one of them? The big guys?”

  “If you mean the enemy, then yes, I did,” replied Crystal.

  Daf glanced at her shoe and then picked at its rubber sole. “Those guys are big.”

  “Where the hell did you see one?”

  “Ambrose Quarry.” Daf stopped, then picked harder at her shoe. “I looked up at the top of the quarry and there were hundreds of those giants holding glowing spears. They were looking down at us.” She gave a curt laugh. “I about crapped my pants!”
<
br />   Crystal's eyes widened, filling with hope. “Were there any survivors besides you?”

  Daf shook her head, continuing to pick at her shoe, but faster. “I don't know. The big guys shot their weapons, but it didn't seem to hurt our Mechs. But, when their starfighters came they ripped us to shreds. That's when I ran my Mech's ass off.”

  “You didn't look to see if there were any survivors?”

  Daf stopped picking at her shoe and looked up at Crystal. “How? I was running for my life, Crystal. I was scared to death. I don't even know how I survived. I ran—”

  Crystal raised her hand. “Stop. I understand. I was scared, too. I was certain that I was dead. You did more than I did.” She looked at Daf square in the eyes. “You saved my life. And for that, I thank you.”

  Daf folded her arms. “I'm glad you noticed, Chief.” She turned, peering out the window again. She took a deep breath and said, “You're welcome.” Then Daf cleared her throat, wanting to change the subject. “Mount Gabriel is also called Forever Mountain. I've always wondered about that.”

  “It's the largest mountain on Lumus. I think they named it that because it seems to go on forever.”

  “Oh.” Daf shrugged, knowing that was an easy answer, something clearly observable by looking at the behemoth.

  “It could be called that because of another reason, though,” said Crystal who paused, wondering if she should continue, as if what she was about to say would be some type of Mechie or Star Guild violation.

  “What is it?” asked Daf.

  Crystal shrugged. “I was wandering around a couple of weeks ago and stumbled across a large cave opening.”

  “During work hours?” Daf smiled. “Oooh, the boss was playing hooky?”

  “I was investigating.”

  Daf perked up, a slow smile appearing on her face. “Investigating what?”