Foster exhaled warm air into her numb hands, rubbing them together as she said. “We’ll find it.”
She marched down into the darkened corridors, the pride in her walk that instructed her to accept no further help from a Hashmedai.
“Thank you for the rescue again,” Pierce spoke before joining up with Foster who nearly left him behind. “Since we’re still new, do you think we should at least allow him to show us the way out?” Pierce said to her once he closed the gap.
“My papa must be turning in his grave right now,” Foster said, turning at a fork in the corridors. “No, I’m done being helped by Hashmedai.”
Travelling through the corridors was akin to walking through a cold, dark, and haunted forest. The two passed the odd Hashmedai, their red or orange glowing eyes only added to the hair-raising experience. A Hashmedai voice spoke over the speakers every so often. Foster could only imagine what they were saying.
Dim light appeared in the distance after making an uncountable number of turns through the maze of corridors. The dim light was the lighting source of the city-like-scape that encompassed a large portion of the Imperial arm. Buildings of Hashmedai design littered the area, holographic clouds above blocked out the natural sunlight from the quad star system the station resided in. Artificial snow blanketed the city, it was as if they were transported to a winter wonderland, one under control of the Empire and located within the station’s arm. Icicles hung off the sides of the footbridge the two walked across, heading toward the nearest tram station, or so Foster hoped.
Foster’s hopes didn’t come true, and the two walked around aimlessly for ten minutes in search of a tram station. Pierce’s limitation in his knowledge of the Hashmedai language was revealed. He struggled to make sense of holographic directories and directions the locals gave them.
The two found themselves back at the airlock leading to the Rezeki’s Rage, where Peiun stood, reading reports of his ship via a floating hologram.
Reluctantly, Foster said to him. “So, about that guide . . .”
Peiun deactivated the hologram, and his Hashmedai face shot her a smile. “Please, follow me.”
An hour later, thanks to Peiun’s guide, Foster and Pierce arrived via tram to the UNE arm of the station. They sat in bliss as the room temperatures suitable for humans warmed their numb joints and hands, it was a missed feeling. Foster looked at her hands once they warmed up, and the alien tattoos etched onto them.
Which reminds me, might be a good idea to get checked out by the doctor first, before we report to IESA and the UNE.
Foster and Pierce stomped into the clinic where Kostelecky had been reassigned. Its waiting room wasn’t packed as empty chairs lined up alongside the walls next to the reception desk, even the receptionist wasn’t present.
Must be a slow day, Foster thought, and shouted for Kostelecky.
Kostelecky left one of the examination rooms further up, dressed in her white lab coat, holding a holo pad. She made a subtle grin eyeing Foster standing and waiting for her.
“Hey, Doc, you free?” Foster said, keeping her hands behind her back.
Kostelecky winced and tossed the holo pad onto the reception desk. “The last person that called me that didn’t get a lollipop!”
“I see your personality has returned.”
“I’m just happy to have a job.”
“A job is something the two of us ain’t gonna have by the way things are going.”
Kostelecky crossed her arms. “And why is that?”
Foster stepped closer to Kostelecky and waved her hands before her face, then rolled up her sleeves to show off the tattoos that formed on her. Kostelecky’s blue eyes scanned up and down at the tattoos, her eyebrow rose. “What the hell is that?”
“Was hopin’ you could tell me.”
“Come, come,” Kostelecky said, ushering Foster to walk with her into an examination room. Pierce went to follow behind. Kostelecky’s finger and aggressively wincing face stopped him in his tracks. “Not you! This is doctor patient time; you aren’t that kind of doctor, Doctor Pierce.”
“Travis, see if you can contact someone from the UNE, tell them what we went through and show ‘em the proof,” Foster said to him. “I gots the feeling this ain’t gonna be a quick examination as I thought.”
Kostelecky grinned and lifted a flashing medical scanner out from her side pocket. “Unless you got drunk and ended up in a Linl tattoo parlor, but I’m going to assume this is the result of the madness in the news.”
The sliding doors behind them slid shut and locked as Kostelecky guided Foster into the examination room, making her sit on a medical bed. Kostelecky waved the medical scanner around Foster’s hands, its results outputted onto a holographic projection in front of Kostelecky’s face, displaying the insides of her.
Foster gave Kostelecky an update on what she experienced, how the tattoos came to be, and what they allowed her to do when they entered the maelstrom. The story made Kostelecky face-palm.
“I should have stayed in Prague, not join IESA.”
“Not up for the challenge, Kostelecky?”
“A challenge would have been you coming back with an alien anal probe stuck in you. This? This is what we doctors fear having to do, tell your ill patients there’s something wrong with them and we don’t know what it is.”
Foster’s face turned a shade paler, more so than it was since her arrival.
“I guess a tattoo laser removal ain’t gonna work then, huh?”
Kostelecky laughed. “Take off your clothes and lay down.”
“Uh, what?”
“I need to see how much this has spread across your body,” Kostelecky said as Foster’s pale face flushed. “Don’t worry, you’re not my type, besides, I’ve seen you without clothing already.”
Kostelecky stepped back and allowed Foster to strip out of her uniform, unveiling to not only Kostelecky, but Foster herself, the full extent of the alterations done to her body. Both paused with shock and worried looks before Kostelecky continued with her scans.
“As I feared, cellular mutation,” Kostelecky said, reading off the newly generated holo screen. “Whatever it is that infected you, has completely changed the bio chemistry of your skin.”
“In to what?”
Kostelecky pushed the projection toward Foster. She caught a closer glimpse at the horrid changes that had been done to the insides of her body. “An unknown element with cabling . . . I think,” Kostelecky said.
“Cabling? You mean like I’m wired electrically?”
“Exactly, if I’m using this equipment correctly, and it’s entirely possible I’m not.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“I haven’t had much time to catch up with all the fancy gadgets of this century.” Kostelecky took back the projection to examine it further. “Your tattoos, as you call them, are wired into your spine and brain.”
Foster gazed at her tattooed hands, arms, waist, and legs, coming to terms with what Kostelecky had said. Foster became a walking cyborg with alien technology. “And here I was all scared to get HNI implants,” Foster said drily.
“Now you got yourself a set of alien implants,” Kostelecky said. “I see what you mean by your career ending. If you go to IESA with this, expect to be naked like this every day while scientists study your body.”
“That would be a good thing.”
“If that’s what gets you off these days, fine, I won’t judge.”
“No, I mean, given what we face out there,” Foster said, grabbing her uniform and under garments. “When I said we’s ain’t gonna have jobs, I meant it in the most extreme manner.”
“Being?”
“Gonna be hard to find work, when life in the galaxy done gone extinct.”
32 Odelea
Union Arm, Research Area
Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system
August 10, 2118, 15:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Odelea rubbed the back of her neck that had beco
me cramped with pain. She’d lost track of the hours she spent inside a dark and cramped cargo container, while the crew of the Abyssal Comet smuggled her, and her lab equipment, off along with Tolukei. All evidence of her actions on Earth had been wiped out before the human boarding party arrived to conduct room-by-room searches of the Comet.
She wasn’t sure how the human soldiers had managed to miss searching the cargo containers that were used to smuggle her. Though, Queenea and Iey’liwea, who were both owners of Souyila, were known to conduct shady business dealings in the Morutrin system. The Abyssal Comet was one of many ships in ownership of Souyila that participated in such actions.
The new lab Odelea found herself in was a lot less desirable than the one on the Comet. Its interior was small and compact, and the computer servers that lined up within the middle of the lab didn’t help.
It will have to do, she thought as she approached the Dragon Knight, as the humans called it, within its containment field, also smuggled in with her.
“So, was it worth it?”
Odelea looked toward the source of the voice, it was Tolukei. His chained body sat up from the pile of blankets on the floor he was forced to sleep on, with his slave collar still bound around his neck, suppressing his psionic powers, and waiting to explode if he crossed the line.
“Was it?” Tolukei reiterated.
“Oh,” Odelea softly spoke. She was unsure of what to say, fearing she might anger him.
“I am talking to you, not the captured enemy.”
“I’m sorry, please forgive me,” Odelea said, bowing to him. “Whatever they said, just know that it wasn’t really me, it’s a lie—”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our teleport to Earth, the council wishes to lie and say you abducted me.”
“I am a Muodiry, the council will do anything to get rid of my presence,” Tolukei said. “They sent me to Earth to fight the Hashmedai when they tried to invade. Their hope was that I would be killed in combat. I defied them and lived. Then they sought to have me board the Carl Sagan, in hopes they would never see me again . . . They almost got their wish, until I made my return.”
“Am I to assume you don’t wish to kill me, then?”
Tolukei’s four eyes gawked at the Dragon Knight. “You are trying to learn about our new enemy, an enemy that is responsible for my missing memories. It would be in my best interests to see you succeed, as it will create a path for me to walk and uncover where I have been for the great many years that have passed.”
Odelea’s nerves relaxed somewhat along with her body language as she went back to work studying the speech patterns of the Dragon Knight. “So, I say again,” Tolukei said. “Was it worth it?”
Odelea took a deep breath and addressed his question. “It was. I am close to creating a basic translation program for their language. Unfortunately, language is the only breakthrough I’ve been able to muster. I can’t perform detailed scans of its body while it remains in the containment field.”
“A containment field, a wise choice,” Tolukei said. “When you first looked at it with your eyes, you lost consciousness. I was forced to fight it and protect you.”
“You protected me?”
“I am still a psionic soldier of Radiance, it is my duty to protect and fight for Radiance . . . Regardless of how they treat me.”
Odelea held her chest, and faced the floor lost in thought. “You fight and protect for the same people that fear and despise your very existence.”
Tolukei nodded. “It is the way things are.”
And here I was ready to continue my studies, advance into a high scholar at the expense of his well-being. Odelea’s thoughts got her reflecting on the past, things she threw away to get to where she was now. The rangers that died back in Veromacon because she wanted to backup her data. The Comet being boarded by humans, and now Tolukei, bound and suppressed like a criminal, accused of kidnapping, and making unauthorized teleports on Earth. And for what? Because she wanted to impress the Union with her achievements and become a high scholar. Yes, saving the galaxy was important but she couldn’t keep fooling herself. Her primary goal since the invasion began was her own personal gain.
Perhaps there was a reason why she never made it to high scholar. Odelea had always been at the center of some sort of controversial discovery, whether it was working with heretic scholars, or aiding the Celestial Order—against her will. Even her work at the Souyila Corporation was considered by many to be borderline heresy. Ethereal fissures were considered to be sacred to some, and the ground-breaking studies first made were carried out by Telinei, a heretic member of the Celestial Order.
It was a sign from the Gods as far as she was concerned. Start doing the right thing in life and good fortune will start coming to you—
The fists of the Dragon Knight violently smashed against the containment field.
It’s furious screams and yells pierced her ears, grabbing the attention of Tolukei who looked on with concern. “Did you anger him?” Tolukei asked.
“Not any more than he has been,” she said, shaking her head, backing away from the containment field slowly. The Dragon Knight roared more, keeping its face to the observation window, peering out into space and the nearby Hashmedai arm of the station.
“Do you understand its cries?”
Odelea tried to listen into its speech and anger-filled screaming. She memorized the sounds it made and compared it with her HNI notes, rough translations of its language. “It’s angry about a thief?” She listened closer, filtering out all background noise, carefully analyzing with her mind the sounds that came from its lips. “He’s surprised she stole it and arrived at the station.”
“Stole what?”
Odelea followed the Dragon Knight’s eyes to the observation window. Looking out the window, she saw an Imperial ship move in to dock with the station. It was an anti-capital ship class plasma frigate, badly damaged with multiple hull breaches and its hull coated with a strange slime-like substance.
There was something on that ship that beckoned to the Dragon Knight, something it was able to detect, something that enraged it. “The Hashmedai have brought something to the station,” Odelea said.
“Such as?” Tolukei asked.
“I don’t know, but we must find out quickly. The Dragon Knight is upset about something on that ship; they might have endangered us all.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that you might have endangered the people on this station with your test subject?”
“I . . . well . . .” Odelea fumbled with her words, for Tolukei was right. She and the Dragon Knight staying aboard the Comet was one thing, as it would put that ship at risk, and nothing else. But the station? “We must contact ops at once and tell them lives might be at risk.”
“You will do no such thing.” It was Queenea who stood at the entrance to the lab. Her body leaned against its side, quite possibly for a good while listening in as the two spoke.
“You removed an invader from the human homeworld,” Queenea continued while stepping closer to the enraged Dragon Knight in its containment field. “They targeted and boarded my ship to search for you and the Muodiry, and, ultimately, would have discovered the Dragon Knight in the process. We went through a lot of trouble to get you this far.”
“There are millions of lives on this station,” Odelea said to her. “If the Dragon Knight could sense what that Hashmedai frigate brought back, it is possible others of his kind can as well. If we tell ops, we can have the Hashmedai ship removed or—”
“Think about what you said,” Queenea said, silencing her. “Informing ops would require us to reveal every party in this room, including the Dragon Knight. None of you are supposed to be here.”
“Does this situation not concern you?”
“It does, I’ll ask Iey’liwea and my dear brother on the council to deploy Whisper agents to look into it.”
In truth, there was no guarantee it would happen or at least in a t
imely manner. The council would have to vote on it first, and given what had happened, they may vote no to distance themselves from Odelea. A catastrophic event could occur long before that happened, and with the humans still searching the Comet, returning to that ship wasn’t an option. All while the questions that Odelea sought to have answered would remain just that, questions.
“We can’t allow the humans to know of this,” Queenea continued. “They advance by plucking technology away from others, adding it to their own. The Gods have gifted us in Souyila the chance to put an end to that. So, get back to work, scholar, and extract every last bit of data you can from this specimen of yours. Let’s allow Souyila to develop the technology needed to rid the galaxy of these invaders and advance the Radiance Union back to the technologically superior nation it once was.”
Odelea wasn’t visually pleased with Queenea’s demands. But in the end, Odelea was still an employee of Souyila and Queenea was her boss. She grimaced and sighed. “Understood.”
“Now, don’t look so down, this is exactly what you wanted, is it not?” Queenea said, stroking the side of Odelea’s cheeks. “You will be the first to crack the code and speak their language; you will be the first to perform a more detailed study of this thing and help us develop a weapon to stop them. You will become a high scholar for your discoveries, Odelea, just think of the prestige, the funding. All the projects you wanted to study but couldn’t will become a reality.”
“Understood,” Odelea said, as she processed the jubilant thoughts of Queenea’s offer.
“Well then, Odelea, you have work to do,” Queenea said, and left Odelea alone with the Dragon Knight and Tolukei.
Odelea returned to her task of studying the Dragon Knight with a hovering holo screen following next to her.
“She is your superior, correct?” Tolukei called out to her from his darkened resting space.
Odelea nodded while reading the new data that loaded, ignoring the raging noises of the Dragon Knight. “She is, yes.”
“It would appear she will stop at nothing to get what she wants and will sacrifice anything to make it happen.”
Celestial Incursion (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Page 32