A small group of Rabuabin business men departed the establishment, freeing up a table near the corner. It prompted Foster to settle up with Paul and excuse herself to sit at the newly vacant table. Pierce joined her moments later, while Peiun watched them.
“Better luck next time, Peiun,” Paul said to him.
“For?”
“You have a lot to learn about women, sir, especially human ones.”
Peiun made a face. “Care to let me in on your secret?”
“Telling a story on how you’re not the bad guy isn’t the way to a woman’s heart. You came off like you were begging her to not dislike you.”
“I merely wanted to reiterate who’s the real—”
Peiun’s HNI received an urgent notification, its contents beamed into his head and flashed over his eyes. The notification brought to his attention that an important message was waiting for him aboard the Rezeki’s Rage.
“The real what?” Paul asked.
“Actually, I don’t know. Perhaps you are right.” In truth, he needed to get back to the Rezeki’s Rage as quickly as possible or risk execution if it was a top priority request. Peiun used his credit chit to pay the bill and noted its balance slowly getting lower and made a mental note to look out for odd jobs offered by humans or Qirak as he stormed out of the pub, and into the crowded station atrium.
Peiun stormed onto the bridge of his ship cursing the worst expletives the Hashmedai language had to offer.
The Rezeki’s Rage had been docked at the station long enough for all repairs to be made, and the ship to be sent on its way back to Imperial space. The walk he took past affected areas on his way to the bridge said otherwise. He witnessed only members of his crew diligently working on repairs, crew that should have been resting after the ordeal they went through. It was the duty of the Imperial personnel stationed at the station to restore the ship into working order.
“Why haven’t repairs been completed?!” Peiun furiously demanded.
“Imperial personnel from the station were recalled for other duties,” Alesyna said.
“I can see that, why?”
“The order came from high up, no reason was given,” Alesyna said, shrugging her shoulders. “Perhaps they were only concerned about collecting the substance off the hull to study.”
Even if she was right, the condition the ship was in was still unacceptable given the amount of time that had passed. It looked as if the station’s personnel collected the substance, made minor repairs, then did nothing else before being recalled. They didn’t even patch up the hull breach in the cargo hold! “There’s a message waiting for me, correct?”
“Yes, I received a telepathic message from the Empire,” Alesyna said with a smile. “You are to assume the role of captain as of now, congratulations.”
“Is that so?” The news caused his face to light up with happiness.
“The massive loss of life in the navy has resulted in a lot of personnel moving up the ranks quickly to fill the void.”
“Who authorized it?” It was a critical question.
Now that communications had been restored, an admiral should have contacted him personally with the news, not relay it via a psionic. He was also on the station at the time of the HNI notification, reaching him via the station would have also been a viable option.
Alesyna paused and her face twisted with confusion as her telepathy went to work. “Wait . . . this can’t be right.”
“Who authorized it, Alesyna?” Peiun reiterated.
“The Empress herself.”
The sounds of the bridge’s computers humming were the only sounds to be heard thereafter. Peiun, Alesyna, and the new replacement bridge crew all stood with troubled glares. Empress Kroshka was a psionic, that wasn’t anything new to those in the Empire or the fact that she never underwent cybernetic augmentation to enhance her powers, like all Hashmedai psionics were required to do by law. It was one of many advantages of being of royalty.
The Empress, however, contacting Alesyna’s mind via telepathy personally made no sense. Why her of all people? If the Empress needed to get ahold of them, she would have asked one of her many psionic servants to do so for her. And most importantly, why would the Empress request his promotion?
“The Empress has more to say,” Alesyna added.
“Put it through,” Peiun finally said, breaking the silence.
Alesyna used her HNI to convert the telepathic thoughts in her head into audio, which played over the bridge’s speakers. Kroshka’s soft and soothing voice played, the same voice Alesyna’s mind had received from across the galaxy. “Captain, I will make this request brief for I know you have much to do.” Peiun chuckled at the statement. The Rezeki’s Rage wasn’t going anywhere in its battered condition. “Rather, you will have much to do very soon. I need you and your ship to report back to Paryo, approach the space bridge when you arrive and await further instructions.”
Or so he thought.
“She has disconnected from my mind,” Alesyna said.
Peiun grimaced. “It would appear we have new orders. Request clearance to depart at once.”
Broken ship or not, if the Empress sends you a direct request like that, you followed it through or be forced to accept one of two fates. Losing your head or living in fear for the rest of your life in lawless systems like Morutrin, hoping an Imperial assassin won’t slit your throat while you slept. Either way, you were bound to die a violent death.
“Yes, sir,” said the newly recruited and young helmsman.
Peiun had Alesyna follow him to a discreet corner of the bridge, away from the ears of the new crew as they sprung to action. “Has the Empress ever contacted you via telepathy?” he asked of her.
“Of course not, this was as much of a shock to me as it was to you,” Alesyna said.
“How was she able to find your mind out of all the psionic ones in this station?”
“She’s had nearly hundred years to grow her mind, perhaps she’s quite adept at filtering out all psionics except for the one she wishes to commune with.”
Peiun had personally encountered droves of trained and cybernetically enhanced psionics who had been around longer than the Empress. They were all unable to reach the minds of other psionics via telepathy who they never met in person or communicated via telepathy with before. Knowing the mind you wished to communicate with and having a general idea as to where in the galaxy they were, were two of the most critical steps to interstellar telepathy. And again, without the cybernetic upgrades or intense training, it only made such a task that much more difficult.
Kroshka should not have been able to speak with Alesyna, unless the two had met and communicated with each other in the past. Alesyna wasn’t telling the truth as far as he was concerned, and, according to Careiah, participated in secret meetings with the former captain and first officer.
Alesyna was keeping something from him, and now she was the first officer who he was to trust implicitly.
38 Williams
Marques Desert
Terra Nova, Sirius A system
August 12, 2118, 13:46 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Williams gave his holo pad one last grimacing look at the ‘no signal’ warning that periodically flashed on its display. The Marques Desert, much like New Babylon, was too far away from UNE transmission relays. As such, the four were forced to take a day off from their mysterious discovery to return to the city of Halley to contact Rivera and wait for her arrival, before heading back to the desert and the Hashmedai transport with her.
Williams’ holo pad had flashed seconds before they passed through the wormhole that led back into the desert, notifying him of a newly received message from Foster’s mother. A message he didn’t get the chance to read, let alone download onto the holo pad.
The more he looked at the holo pad and its inability to connect to the network, the more he wished he had taken the time to do that before passing through the wormhole. Worry about it later man, got important s
tuff to deal with, he thought as he placed the holo pad back into his hiking bag and entered the transport.
Inside, he saw the Carl Sagan’s Chief Engineer, Jasmine Rivera, enter the fourth hour of performing repairs throughout the transport. She utilized tools from the current century and used her knowledge of the Hashmedai language to read what the restored computer screens and holograms outputted.
“Hey, thanks for coming out,” Williams said to her as he entered the cockpit with her.
She smiled at him while wiping away soot that had smeared across her face from a computer that had been burnt badly. “No problem, the salvage team I was assigned to took a break to visit family now that Earth is free of the invaders. I had nothing else better to do.”
“Salvage team?”
“The Carl Sagan’s still afloat in the waters; I and a few other IESA personnel are going through it to recover valuables and to see if it’s possible to recover the deleted ship logs.”
“Any idea what was up with EVE on the Carl Sagan?”
“Not yet, examining the AI core is one of many tasks we haven’t gotten around to yet.”
Williams gazed at the forward flight terminal, now shimmering with working computers and holograms. “How much longer would you say?”
“Should be good to go in a few,” Rivera said as her hands and tools went back to work.
“That was fast.”
“This may be old to the people of the century, but to me?” Rivera said amidst the sound of sparks flaring up and her tools pulsing. “It’s no different than the transports we had on the Carl Sagan . . . with the exception of one thing.”
“And that is?”
Rivera ended her session with the terminal after confirming it was in working order once again. She guided Williams into the rear cabin where the rest of the group had sat, escaping from the heat and light outside. Several control panels were lined up on the walls covered by a rectangular cover, one of which was yanked off by Rivera. She directed Williams’ attention past the maze of Hashmedai-made wires and computer parts, and onto a device that had been roughly slapped inside. Upon closer examination, the device had English and Chinese words and numbers written across it.
Williams grimaced. “What the hell?”
“That, Commander, is a QEC jury rigged into an Imperial ship,” Rivera said, pointing at the device.
“Meaning what? I heard that term used a lot, but I have no idea what it is.”
“FTL communication, it’s how you were able to reach me on Earth without the eight-year communication delay,” Rivera explained. “Here’s the thing, this is UNE tech, tech they never shared with the Empire or Union outside of building communication relays for the two to use our internet or communicate with someone within the UNE.”
“Then how did this transport get one?”
“I’m still playing catch-up with all the new rules and advancements within the galaxy,” Rivera said as she placed the cover to the panel back on. “But from what I’ve been able to read, pirates in the Morutrin system place high value on tech like this and sell it to the highest bidder, who in turn does mercenary work with it.”
“So, this might have been a merc operation?”
“Most likely, a merc being paid by the Empire. This way, if they get caught, the Empire will just blame it on pirates and mercenaries, washing their hands of any wrongdoing.”
Rivera left Williams to think and ponder over her discovery as she returned to the last remaining systems that needed her attention. Less than an hour later, she called out for everyone to join her in the cockpit.
“So, we good to go?” Williams asked.
Rivera nodded as she read data outputted by the transport’s holo screens. “Shields, life-support, inertia dampers, and main propulsion are online.”
Chang winced as he took a seat in the pilot’s chair. “That’s it?”
“I got to transfer power from everything else to the shields, we’re going to need that the most in case Nereid’s overshield fails,” Rivera said to him.
Chang looked down at the Hashmedai-designed controls. “Just tell me which button does what.”
The transport’s doors slid shut minutes later after Chang got the rundown on the operation of its systems. The blue glowing launching thrusters fired, lifting the newly restored transport into the skies, and scattering the sand below them during their take off. A burst of energy made the transport vanish from existence within the atmosphere of Terra Nova as its sub light engines engaged.
Hashmedai Transport
En route to New Babylon, Sirius A system
August 12, 2118, 16:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The smoldering world of New Babylon appeared in front of the transport during its hour-and-a-half journey, free of incident for the time being. Their approach to the world gave Williams another chance to view its surface from space. He marveled at how some areas of the planet were beautiful almost Earth-like while under protection of the shield domes, as the rest of the landscape outside the domes resembled an environment akin to the surface of Mercury. Not even Mercury, Sirius A is larger, brighter, and hotter than the sun.
Chang adjusted their course heading, sending the transport over to the domed region Bailey called home for the last ten years as he and Nereid guided him to the rocky hellish landscape outside it, where the shooting star had allegedly fallen to the surface.
“What’s our game plan afterwards?” Chang asked Williams. “’Cause you know the UNE will be all over this ship once we finish.”
Williams pulled his drifting body closer to the front of the cockpit amongst its weightless environment. Nereid teleporting them to safety came to mind then left it promptly as he remembered Undine don’t have teleportation psionic powers, at least not from what he saw during her brief time on the Carl Sagan. Flying to a safe area on the planet within its dome barriers wasn’t an option either, as the domes did not iris to allow transports, ships, and people to pass through. The only way to venture into the lush greenery inside the domes was via the wormhole.
“Let’s focus on getting there first, without being intercepted,” Williams said. “If we can’t get past that stage, then we’re finished.”
In truth, Williams never did come up with an exit plan. He was blinded by his desire to learn what was out there and then later the discovery of a derelict Hashmedai transport . . . one that had a QEC installed.
Maybe Moriston was right . . . he grumbled. The self-doubt he thought he defeated returned to his head, making him ponder if he really deserved to be promoted to the rank he was. Chang was about to send the transport into their operation, an operation Williams was spearheading and didn’t think ahead for an exit strategy once they were finished. That sort of mind-set was the same as he had during those early days of the Hashmedai invasion of Earth. You didn’t plan what you were going to do later that week, only what you needed to do that minute to get what you wanted. Back in those days, what you wanted was immediate survival.
“Approaching the region now,” Chang said, guiding the transport lower into the harsh region of New Babylon’s surface.
Williams nodded, thankful nobody seemed worried they were, at this point, making things up as they went along. “Any sign of UNE patrols?”
“Got nothing on sensors, but without ESP, this data is out of date,” Chang said.
ESP was another psionic skill Undine like Nereid lacked. Her duty as their shipboard psionic was going to be . . . an interesting one as she lacked two of the most critical skills, teleportation and ESP. Sensors traveled at the speed of light, ESP was instant within the limited range of the psionic.
“Good enough for me, at least it means nobody is close by right this second,” Williams said as he lowered his drifting body in preparation for gravity to take hold. “Take us down.”
A psionic overshield protected the descending transport while it dipped into the atmosphere less world, allowing the transport’s shields to recover from the punishment Sirius’ energ
y unleashed upon them and the surface of New Babylon. Nereid remained silent, her mind and body focused on keeping the overshield strong and active, while Chang conducted a search of the rugged landscape that enlarged via the forward windshield. The rest watched in awe.
Volcanoes erupted and released their red-hot molten contents high up before the star-filled skies, forming rivers of lava onto the searing landscape of blazing red rocks, jagged mountains, and valleys with hypnotic heat waves in the backdrop. The purplish hue of the overshield rapidly flickered as the transport hovered and flew two kilometers above the surface, searching for something that shouldn’t be there. Sirius A’s luminous white orb-like glow hung in the horizon and served as a constant reminder of how lucky the Poniga within the many dome barriers were. The fury that star brought to the planet was incredible.
“Not having much luck here, Commander,” Chang said ten minutes into their search. “Wanna take the risk and keep at it?”
Their transport had been active and in flight for nearly two hours. Its aged IFF, by now, should have been detected by someone within the system. UNE ships could very well be arriving at FTL to apprehend them, since from the point of view of the UNE a Hashmedai ship was in direct violation of the protected worlds accord.
It wasn’t an easy choice for Williams to make, especially when considering he never planned ahead to start with.
“I feel it,” Nereid said, breaking her silence and pointed forward. “Over those hills.”
Following Nereid’s psionic guidance, Chang adjusted course and took the transport beyond several large hills not far from the dome they were all in earlier. Williams gave the blue shimmering visage to the left a hard look, noting the greenery inside, the blue rivers, majestic mountains, and fake blue skies and clouds. It was like peering into a snow globe that sat on the cliffsides within the depths of hell, minus the snow effects of course.
Nereid directed Chang to stop and land at the area in question, making Williams wonder exactly what was out there. Nereid, after all, had no ESP gifts, yet she guided them to this location as if she had them. The only conclusion he could draw was that it was psionic in nature and used said psionic energy to work as a beacon.
Celestial Incursion (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Page 36