The engram orb morphed into a blue and white holographic projection of the Carl Sagan engaged in combat with oval-shaped ships similar to the ones outside in the orbit of SB-417. The planet that led to all their troubles. “This is your ship, correct?”
“It is,” Foster said, impressed to see the crew take control of the situation and fight their way out of that crisis without her guidance.
“And, as you can see, it is firing upon the drones I control.”
“Looks like you threw the first punch; they must have been tryin’ to defend themselves.”
The hologram in the palm of his hand shifted. She saw Dr. Pierce looking depressed, raging and yelling. In the projection Pierce spoke of Earth’s battleships and the existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the UNE. She bit her lip, knowing that it would be very easy for Marduk to take what Pierce had said out of context.
“Damn it, Travis . . .” Foster groaned.
“Nuclear weapons, fleets of battleships. Doesn’t sound like a species of peaceful explorers, more like one that would worship a wicked goddess like Tiamat.”
Foster eyed the projection more, Pierce appeared to have been in rough shape. His uniform was a mess, his hair was long, and facial hair wild and untrimmed. She had a hard time believing what she saw had been the truth to start with. After all, she saw Pierce not that long ago, he looked a lot better than he did in the projection. “What have you done with Pierce?”
“The Undine had him. They may worship their goddess, but in the end their elders know that I am a Muodiry and a god, one that could end their existence as easily as I allow it to exist. They carry out any request I make in exchange for their pitiful lives to continue.”
Marduk turned his back toward Foster, stepped before the windows, and gazed ominously at an object directly outside. His half-naked Poniga minions followed behind to stroke his body and offer him more wine and fruits as Foster tried to make out what he had his four eyes fixed on.
She saw it as his head tilted upward to drain his glass of wine down into his mouth.
It was the Carl Sagan, adrift in space with a lone drone standing overwatch next to it.
“And soon,” Marduk slowly said. “Earth will be given a similar offer. Worship me again, or die.”
26 FOSTER
The Architect’s ship
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Foster grimaced as she learned that there was a battle between the Carl Sagan and Marduk’s ship. Marduk’s mind released her body from its grip due to his sudden teleportation and in the aftermath of him reequipping his body with armor.
She stood next to the window and looked across the void hoping that its rail guns, plasma missiles, and engines would suddenly rev back up into action and fire back. No such thing happened, no matter how long she looked out the window hoping that a boarding party was in the works. The ship was boarded, 100 percent. She turned away from the window and took a seat at the ledge of the footbridge as Marduk’s loyal entourage went about their day like pets locked in a cage.
Foster began to wonder what would become of her as she looked on at all his loyal worshippers. She wasn’t chained up and the guards had long left her during the exchange with Marduk, she was free to walk about and was even offered fruits and wine from the Poniga worshippers. Was she expected to follow their lead? Strip down and wear the loincloth and translucent half robe everyone else had been wearing?
A group of Undine women rose from the pool to gawk and giggle at her. She tried not to pay much attention to them, bare breasts weren’t her thing anyways. Though the male Undine? Despite the situation she was in she was tempted to peek at their ripped chests as they plunged back down into the waters.
Brilliant azure teleportation light flashed, Marduk materialized back inside, along with a new partner, one Foster wasn’t expecting to see.
“This pleases me,” Marduk said to Tolukei who teleported in along with him. “A fellow Muodiry alive and well, I was beginning to think I was the last of our kind.”
“The Javnis are now part of a collective known as the Radiance Union,” Tolukei said. “Our existence has been suppressed by their religion. It was part of the reason I was assigned to this human ship, Radiance did not want me in their society.”
Foster clenched her fists as the two exchanged laughter and stories with each other. Betrayal was an easy thing to spot. Marduk saw her furious looks and cackled before removing his helmet providing Tolukei with proof that he wasn’t alone, another member of his species, and subclass for that matter, was here.
“You are now free, my brethren.” Marduk placed his hand on top of Tolukei’s shoulder. “This Radiance you speak of and the humans will no longer be your masters. For you see, I have become king of gods. In time you too will ascend to one and rule over the humans and this system. And now that I know others of our kind exist, they too will be free and become gods and goddesses. Radiance . . . the Empire . . . they will be worshiping us soon enough.” Marduk’s four eyes focused in on Foster. “But first, we make an example of Earth and the humans.”
Tolukei’s lips curled. “How do you plan to do that?”
Marduk gestured to the Carl Sagan adrift in space outside of the window. “This human ship is the key. It has an AI aboard, powerful enough to break the encryption placed on the Lyonria gate in their primary hub in the system. This ship also recently acquired a Nereid, one that possesses the location of Earth, security codes, and secrets.”
“What?!” Foster exclaimed. “How the hell?”
Marduk laughed at Foster. “You didn’t know that did you? The human you call Commander McDowell was, what you call an EISS agent.”
“Can’t say I did.”
“Once we’ve acquired a copy of your ship’s AI, I plan to use it to disable the cage Tiamat placed around this system and, with McDowell’s knowledge, bypass Earth’s defenses.”
“You know I’m not on your team, right?” Foster called out to Marduk. “Probably wanna keep that stuff a secret from me.”
Marduk slowly moved next to her across the footbridge, smiling in a charming manner. “Oh, I want you to know, because I’m going to give you one last chance.” As Marduk approached Foster, he held his hand up forcing her EAD to fly toward him with his mind and slap into his hand as if it was thrown to him. “I’ve managed to connect to your AI with my mind with this device. Copying the programming of your AI . . . is difficult, but not impossible, however.” Foster saw multiple holographic windows appear generated by the EAD. Lines of computer code scrolled, code that was part of EVE’s programming. “Give me full access to it, and I’ll allow you to become a goddess.”
Foster rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”
“Look around you. You can’t win, even if you were to escape and board your ship, it is much too slow. I have a great many psionic minds aboard, you, as of now, have none. It is only a matter of time before I copy your AI, or at least part of it, as I only need its abilities to interface with Lyonria technology. When I bring your people down, you could be the one that descends from the skies, a goddess that will rule over them.”
Rebecca Foster, goddess of the human race . . . it did not have a nice ring to it, especially when she recalled the vision from the engram trance. Whatever technique he had used with the wormhole to travel to the alternate plane of existence was no doubt the same technique he planned to share with Foster once he regained access to the gate.
“I could even bring your father back from the dead.”
His words were haunting, triggering her attention to focus more on him as she felt dreadful chills move through her back and throat. How did you know about papa? Damn it, leave his soul out of this!
“Think about it,” Marduk whispered into her ear. Foster was lost, so much she didn’t notice him get that close. “In the meantime, know that your crew is suffering as my men search for the Nereid and Dr. Pierce.”
“Pierce is useles
s to you.”
“I can’t allow the Hashmedai Empire to interfere with my plans. Dr. Pierce’s knowledge will ensure they don’t.”
“If you’re worried about outside interference, it’s Radiance you should be concerned about.”
“I’m not worried about them at all.” Marduk looked at Tolukei, smirking. “He’ll tell me everything I need to know about them. And if not, there’s still the Radiance database and its trove of knowledge to comb over once I gain full access.”
Marduk and Tolukei left Foster alone in the chamber while two of his followers traveled behind them, pitchers of wine firmly clasped in their hands. She tried to piece together why Marduk would think that Pierce had valuable intel on the empire. The closest theory she could come up with was that he was secretly a member of the HLF. It would explain why McDowell, an EISS agent, would have infiltrated the ship, he was probably asked to keep an eye on him.
And now his knowledge may give Marduk the keys to the front and back doors of Earth.
27 RIVERA
ESRS Carl Sagan, Engineering
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Screaming and panic echoed throughout the corridors of the ship.
And it had gotten closer and closer to engineering during the last hour.
Chief engineer Jasmine Rivera noted the confirmation that the main doors to engineering had shut and been barricaded to the best of her team’s ability given the lack of gravity. The Architect’s soldiers were performing a deck-by-deck search for someone, or something. The crew that were unlucky and were caught out in the open had been apprehended at gunpoint and forced into the docking bay, probably a staging point for a mass execution Rivera figured. Vent the entire bay once the crew was rounded up and placed inside, a quick and easy way to get rid of the crew and force the captain to watch the aftermath.
Rivera glided her body toward a computer terminal, switching off the security camera footage she had been using to monitor the chaos on the Carl Sagan. A new computer interface loaded; one that gave her access to the AI core, the location of EVE’s primary systems. A notification flashed, someone had gained access to it during the incursion, a sneaky person at that who managed to avoid tripping any alarms. Even EVE herself was unaware of it, her processors had been hard at work creating the translation algorithm of the Lyonria language per the commander’s last orders to her. In any case, EVE needed to be taken offline to prevent further tampering.
Rivera heard repeated banging and thumps on the doors leading into engineering. Crew members donning their orange mechanics coveralls began to panic and console each other. The Architect’s soldiers wanted in and were quite impatient as they began to blast away at the door with their lasers, cutting a small hole through it. Rivera moved her hands quickly, shutting down as many vital systems as she could. She stopped suddenly as an unexpected text message had been received by her terminal.
The message was encrypted it was going to take her a few seconds to decrypt it, seconds she wouldn’t have left to finish the shutdown of EVE’s systems.
Read the message, or finish the job.
She exhaled and looked at the doors, the soldiers were almost through. The thick metallic material glowed red from the heat as the lasers continued to blast against it.
Read the message, or finish the job.
She couldn’t do both.
She had to choose.
Forty-five seconds later, the contents of the message displayed on her computer screen. It made her smile as she quickly began to key in and send a reply, all while transmitting additional messages to other computer terminals on the ship.
The Architect’s soldiers stormed into engineering through the melted hole accompanied by waves of smoke and heat. The shouts in their alien language and imposing presence forced the team to comply, paving the way for the soldiers to aggressively round everyone up. An overlord yelled at Rivera, probably demanding she push and float away from the terminal. It was a demand she refused to obey, and she continued to key in her message. It only pissed off the overlord and forced it to levitate toward her using its psionic powers.
She finished the task, and all that remained was to push the “send” button.
A task she thought she had enough time for. The overlord yanked her from behind and forced her away from the terminal. Her arms flailed about in a desperate act to hit the send button. Her fingers repeatedly missed the mark, panic was throwing her aim off, way off.
She fought, she kicked, she screamed, she had to hit it, she had to release her body from the armor-clad grip of the overlord.
She hit something on the terminal, she wasn’t sure if it was the send command. The screen did vanish and so did her vision as the overlord spun her body to face it, and delivered a painful backhanded slap across her face.
28 KOSTELECKY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“Jdi do hajzlu . . .” Kostelecky cursed in her native tongue at the situation unfolding.
She raced to a computer and began to lockdown sickbay, hoping it wouldn’t be necessary in the long run. The invaders had not breached the habitat ring, though it was only a matter of time before they did as engineering was the last section on the primary fuselage, and from what she discovered on one of her computer screens it was just taken.
She grimaced at the sight of Rivera’s tumbling body via security camera footage. There was a nasty gash across her forehead due to the fierce armored slap she got. Once sickbay was confirmed to be locked down she turned around to deal with her next problem, her Poniga patients and the recovering helmsman. From what she gathered the Poniga were enemies to the Architect and were probably going to be taken back aboard his ship once discovered.
Nobody leaves sickbay and her medical care without her saying it was OK.
She pushed the medical bed where the helmsman had been resting toward the back of sickbay and then began to address the visually frightened Poniga. “OK people, time for a change of scenery, follow me.”
EVE’s voice did not provide a translation.
Someone must have taken her off. Sakra!
Pushing, light shoving, and hand gestures eventually got the message across. With the Poniga where she needed them to be, Kostelecky raced into her office. Out from the drawer she took an ePistol, it powered on and hummed as she flicked its power switch. She may have sworn an oath to do no harm, but she also couldn’t heal her patients if she was dead. She aimed the pistol downward and step out of her office then stopped as she heard a new message notification beep on her personal computer. She returned to her desk and hoped she wasn’t wasting what little time she had left before the habitat ring was breached.
There was an encrypted message waiting for her.
29 BAILEY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess hall
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Alien invasion or not, Chef Demarion Bailey exited his quarters and rapidly darted to the kitchen in the mess hall. He spent top credits on his chef knives and could care less what happened to the ship. If he lost those knives, it would be the end of his world.
He quickly gathered his most prized possessions on the ship as he entered the galley and pivoted to run back to his quarters while he still had time. The aliens were on their way to the habitat ring. The main computer terminal in the kitchen beeped as he moved past it. He stopped and faced the screen, curious as to who would send a message to it during a time like this. His eyes shifted back and forth as he quickly read the contents of the message, it was directed toward him of all people.
Chief Rivera sent him a set of instructions as well as the pass code to enter her quarters. There was also an attachment to the message, a recipe. He shook his head. Tempted to ignore the request, Demarion left th
e mess hall and charged back toward the direction of the crew quarters, where it was safe for the time being. Rivera’s message . . . The more he thought about it, the more he questioned if ignoring it was the right thing to do. She did make it sound perfectly clear that he carry out the task she asked of him.
He stopped in front of the doors to his quarters, his finger was just inches away from pressing open command. He retracted his finger and moved deeper into the halls toward her quarters. The hairs on his body stood up on end as he ran past the elevator doors that lead to the rest of the ship. He was half expecting them to open with hostile forces storming out of them. Rivera’s quarters came into sight and his aged fingers quickly punched in the code to unlock the doors.
They slid open and his head shifted from left to right searching for her storage cabinet. He found it, ran over to it, and began a quick search through it looking for a particular item she requested of him.
30 KOSTELECKY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 04:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Thousands of shards of broken glass rained on the floor next to what was once the glass sliding door to sickbay. It was confirmation to Kostelecky that the Architect’s soldiers had made it to the habitat ring. They stormed into sickbay as she touched the ePistol that was concealed within her white lab coat’s pocket.
“Welcome, boys, what can I do for you?” she said to them.
The overlords ignored her, choosing to rummage through sickbay instead while the grunts with the overlords lifted their laser cannon arms up at her. The overlords gleamed at the resting body of the helmsman Ensign Collins before moving on with their search having found nothing else of interest. From what Kostelecky could tell, they were convinced she was alone in sickbay, or so she hoped, as her hands lowered closer to her lab coat’s pocket while droplets of sweat appeared across her forehead.
The Siege of Sirius: A Splintered Galaxy Space Fantasy Novel Page 24