The Siege of Sirius: A Splintered Galaxy Space Fantasy Novel

by Eddie R. Hicks

  The bridge was their only saving grace, a choke point where Marduk’s forces had a difficult time crossing due to its narrow size and lack of railing. The bulk of his fighters remained inside of the room where the wormhole had resided, while Chevallier and her team hunkered down next to the teleportation alcove. Their fighting grew to a stalemate, one that they couldn’t rely on forever. Every minute that passed, more of Marduk’s soldiers arrived, bolstering their numbers, it was only a matter of time before they made an all-or-nothing push across the bridge, forcing them to retreat while the overlords resurrected their fallen grunts.

  Chevallier noticed that the gate had changed to a new location. It had connected directly to Marduk’s ship. Most likely because it was faster to send his soldiers directly to the planet rather than Tiamat’s tomb first, given the unexpected resistance and losses they now faced.

  “This is pointless, they just keep coming,” Hudson said while his rifle blazed.

  “We hold the line here until backup arrives!” Chevallier countered. “This bridge is our choke point, they make it back to this teleporter and they can control this whole hub again.”

  “It’s been five hours and we haven’t heard from them!”

  “And five hours of fighting and progress I don’t want to give up due to a retreat! We hold the line here, no further will we allow them to cross!” She covered behind a wall to evade streaks of red laser fire. Looking back, she examined the wormhole again and the brightly lit interior of Marduk’s ship. She was surprised how much light was beaming in front of its windows. It was almost as if it was flying inside Sirius. “If we can push pass them, we might be able to take the fight to them.”

  Chevallier peered through the scope of her rifle, searching for overlords that may have left themselves exposed. She saw the wormhole flicker suddenly while flames began to burst out from all corners of the interior of Marduk’s ship. The sudden explosions that followed were loud enough to send a thunderous blast throughout the area, while Marduk’s soldiers stopped their attacks and faced the wormhole. Something wasn’t going according to their plan.

  They were worried.

  And then they were vaporized in the wake of larger eruption as white flames spewed from the wormhole.

  “Bordel de merde!” Chevallier yelled when her HUD reported a large surge in UV radiation. Heat followed by an EMP burst killed her shield, suit, and rifle’s power supply.

  With the screen inside of her helmet blank, she quickly tore it off and saw the rest of her allies struggling with the same problems, as roaring pillars of flames poured out through the wormhole, incinerating the walls of the box-shaped room, vaporizing the remaining Marduk soldiers and pushing outward.

  Chevallier, the Hammerheads, and their Poniga were next. “OK, fuck this, retreat!”

  Fortunately for them they were garrisoned next to the teleportation alcove to start with. Everyone, along with their nonfunctioning equipment stormed through into the alcove, which was not affected by the EMP. Chevallier made a mental note about the freak discovery, EMPs have little to no effect on Lyonria technology, it might come in handy one day. She leaped through and was swept away by blue psionic energy, seconds before the incoming mini solar flare arrived.

  Her body materialized down below in the main hallways along with everyone else. She leaped and pushed everyone away from the alcove, half expecting the heat to teleport down with them, no such event occurred, only the sound of a massive explosion followed by the rumbling of the Lyonria hub.

  The holographic preview screen which normally displayed the room the teleportation alcove was connected to, went blank, with text written in the Lyonria language written across it, an error message most likely. The top spire, box-shaped room, wormhole, and alcove linking to it were obliterated in the explosion.

  Chevallier winced and shrugged her shoulders. “Pierce is going to be pissed. He was really looking forward to studying that room when this was all over.”

  THE WINDS from the storm began to die down as the hurricane lost its power and pushed deeper into the continent, and with that came the backup they requested, three transports landed next to the entrance to the hub. It was a welcome sight for the survivors of the battle as nearly an hour passed since the explosion took out the top spire. Their equipment never recovered from the EMP burst, leaving them trapped inside until the storm died down.

  Chevallier left the hub and stepped next to the opened transport doors, grinning at their late as hell backup. She looked up at the ancient structure still intertwined with the growth of the jungles. Flames and smoke billowed out from the top spire, confirmation that that particular section had indeed been wiped out.

  The backup Hammerheads stormed out of their transports, trekking past Chevallier to assist the injured Hammerheads and Poniga. Mavron and Eisila approached her, muttered words in their language to her before offering what appeared to be their way of delivering a handshake. She was impressed at how well they held their ground during the fighting and how well they passed on what she taught them about using combat armor and rifles to their comrades. They’ll need it if they plan to free their people and remove Marduk’s forces on their home world.

  “Master Chief.” She turned around and saw Chief Petty Officer Long give her a salute as his armored body stepped away from the transport.

  “What took you guys so long?” she asked.

  “The shield modifications for the transport gave out on us ma’am. Looks like they were good for one or two runs through the storm at best.”

  “Figures.” Chevallier climbed aboard the transport, Long followed behind. “Any word from the Carl Sagan? Interference from the storm should be a nonissue now.”

  “Nothing, ma’am, the colony hasn’t received any transmissions either.”

  Chevallier grimaced, over six hours had passed since her arrival on the planet, more than enough time for the colony and the transports to receive a transmission. “Anything on scanners?”

  “Lot of solar flare activity on Sirius A, that’s it.”

  Chevallier thought back to the flare that shot through the wormhole and what appeared to be the destruction of Marduk’s ship.

  Did they fight him next to the star? she wondered.

  She accessed a nearby computer terminal and began to review sensor logs from the transports and colony. The timing of the discovered solar flares was consistent with the timing of their miraculous escape through the teleportation alcove.

  What destroyed Marduk’s ship was a solar flare.

  But what would have caused him to travel so close to the star?

  Chevallier knew the answer, she just didn’t want to accept it. Because she knew very well if Marduk was in pursuit of the Carl Sagan they too would have been destroyed, after all Marduk’s ship was faster, if he didn’t escape how could they?

  Chevallier frantically began to send transmissions to the Carl Sagan on all channels. She gazed at the communication equipment for thirty-five minutes, equipment that remained silent apart from the odd transmission from the colony or the other transports. Her focus and search blinded her to the fact that the transport had long taken off from the jungles and arrived at the colony base camp. And then back up into orbit on patrol, preparing to search for the Carl Sagan. Or its remains. She cringed at the thought of that, but smiled at how everyone followed her lead without question, she was the ranking personnel now.

  The three transports leapt out of view into sub light speeds, fanning out to conduct a wider search of the system, starting with the sectors closest to Sirius A. They found nothing of interest, other than the Poniga home world. She looked out of the windshield to get a better view of the planet, baked in a sea of cosmic radiation, heat and light, while multiple blue domes adorned the surface of the planet, while flowing lakes, rivers, forests, and deserts remained inside. Marduk’s handiwork and his means of controlling their species.

  “I got something dropping out of sub light,” Long said to Chevallier, bringing her atte
ntion back to the matter at hand.

  “The Carl Sagan?”

  “I don’t know, it’s not transmitting any IFF, and its moving very slow, like slower than this transport.”

  The transport slowed and positioned itself to intercept the unknown craft. Chevallier and the crew aboard looked out into the blackness of space and waited in anticipation for what might be coming their way.

  The wreckage of Marduk’s ship? Maybe it wasn’t destroyed after all. A Qirak ship? Norauk did mention his people came from another system. The ship appeared before them, it was a smoldering blackened mess, partially melted, riddled with holes. Chevallier’s eyes zeroed in on the name of the ship, ‘ESRS Carl Sagan,’ it was barely legible, but there.

  As for signs of life . . .

  The three transports boarded the Carl Sagan. Its docking bay was exposed to space, and the lights on the ceiling had long burned out. Chevallier and several Hammerheads glided out from their transport and navigated their way into the interior of the ship. They arrived at compartments of the ship that were still pressurized; lights flickered on and off like an eerie haunted house.

  Magnetic boots clung their feet to the charred floor while flashlights illuminated their way to engineering and the elevator to the habitat ring, what was left of the elevator at least. The stubborn melted doors leading into engineering were pushed open, revealing that the staff inside were alive. Rivera’s hair and bloodied face was a mess, she remained tightlipped about what became of the rest of the crew, still visually shaken at what they experienced.

  The habitat ring wasn’t as bad as Chevallier had expected as she looked about upon arriving. There was no gravity as its rotation had long stopped, tables and chairs in the mess hall floated in a messy and disorganized manner while Chef Bailey assessed the damage done to the galley and kitchen equipment. Dr. Kostelecky had her hands full, treating the wounds of crew personnel as she pushed floating debris amongst the darkness out of her way. The Poniga that were still aboard diligently moved their hands about, offering Kostelecky medical equipment and dressing lightly-wounded personnel with bandages, EVE’s flickering hologram helped ease the language barrier.

  Chevallier received a communication from Hudson and his team, and they made progress in clearing out the debris that was blocking access to the bridge, an area of the ship that made the crew uncomfortable talking about in the aftermath of what happened.

  Chevallier found out why immediately after she arrived. An emergency shutter had dropped from the ceiling, sealing off the main entrance to the bridge from the rest of the ship, a sign that the bridge had been depressurized. Chevallier smashed her fists on the shutter, cursing loudly with each thump. She lowered her head in misery.

  “I’m sorry, Chief,” Hudson said to her. “Didn’t realize it was that bad.”

  Chevallier pushed her anger aside deep within her mind so that it might remain hidden from the rest of the Hammerhead teams. “Have a small team perform a space walk outside of the main bridge and collect any bodies you can find.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chevallier hit the shutter once more, to release the last lingering bit of her anger that wouldn’t get bottled up with the rest and then turned away to return to the docking bay. A small thud echoed, prompting her to stop and slowly pivot back around with her magnetic boots. Her helmeted head moved around, searching for the source of the thud. As she did that a second thud was heard. It came from the shutter.

  Chevallier’s eyes opened wide, her breathing accelerated, and her feet raced back to the shutter as fast as her magnetic boots would take her. Her fists crashed against the shutter again twice in a quick succession. Two thuds replied.

  “Hudson, get back here!” she cried, and poked her thumb at the shutter. “Cancel the space walk, let’s get this shit opened.”

  A plasma cutter flared on and moved in a circular motion along the thick metallic shutter creating a long red circle in its wake. Chevallier heckled the Hammerheads to speed up their job as they continued to cut a hole into a doorway that was not long ago believed to have led into a decompressed bridge.

  The cutting stopped as a full large red glowing circle was made, Chevallier along with three hulking combat armor bodies pushed against the cut section of the shutter, until an opening was made. The large metallic hulk flipped and spiraled into the bridge, crashing into Foster’s captain’s chair, tumbling aimlessly after it hit.

  Her HUD reported safe conditions, amongst the ruined computer equipment and sparks flaring down from the ceiling along with wires and ruptured plasma conduits. The source of the decompression was discovered, the windshield had shattered, it caused her last bit of hope to fizzle out and turn back into despair.

  But only briefly.

  Blue light shimmered before the damaged windshield. Chevallier stepped over and examined it with her HUD, a psionic barrier.

  “I wouldn’t touch that.” It was Williams.

  She spun around and saw his battered body rise from the floor next to the cut shutter entrance as the rest of the bridge crew slowly floated their way up from Foster’s office down below. They were alive, every one of them, covered in soot and blood, but alive.

  Nereid was the last to emerge, her glowing Voelika shone brightly in her hands, and its glow was in sync with the ripples from the barrier that covered the breach. Foreign chants left her lips the entire time as her eyes remained shut, and her feet on the ground despite the lack of gravity.

  EPILOGUE

  ESRS Carl Sagan, Nereid’s quarters

  SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system

  June 21, 2050, 12:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  It took almost a week for the Carl Sagan to arrive in orbit around SA-139 due to the extreme damage done to its engines. During that week, transports worked nonstop transporting personnel and equipment on and off the ship to assist in repairs. The habitat ring was one of the first areas restored as it received the least amount of damage. Tolukei and Nereid had used the last of their gifts to strengthen the aft overshields as the solar flare raged behind them during their escape.

  An escape Foster had a tough time writing in her logs and reports. By all accounts they should be dead. Tolukei and Nereid had no power left in them to conjure a barrier to protect them from hull breaches, a hull breach Foster clearly remembered happening seconds before she blacked out only to awake in her office with Nereid standing in the middle like a deity performing a miracle, chanting away, and saving their lives.

  Three weeks after the Carl Sagan arrived in orbit, repairs throughout the ship had neared completion, while science and exploration teams slowly began to spread out throughout the system to establish outposts, and return the Poniga to their home worlds, along with assistance from a few Hammerheads. Small pockets of Marduk’s soldiers had remained scattered in the system but were in the process of being hunted down or captured day by day. They also provided assistance to the Undine on their world, liberating them from their slavery while EVE accessed data from her captured copy and learnt how to disable the time dilation bubble.

  Foster rang the door chime to Nereid’s quarters and was granted entry. To her surprise she wasn’t anywhere in sight. Even more surprising was the fact that her quarters looked exactly how it was presented to Nereid after repairs had been completed, the bed was untouched, the personal computer still had its plastic protective wrapping around it.

  “Nereid?” Foster called out to her as she ventured further in.

  “Over here,” Nereid’s voice beckoned from the bathing area.

  Foster hesitated before opening the door, hoping she wasn’t going to walk into an extremely awkward situation as she heard the shower water running. The doors slid open splashing a small wave of water on top of Foster’s boots. Nereid had flooded the area with shower water in a strange attempt at transforming it into a pool.

  Nereid sat up right on the floor of the shower stall naked, soaking wet as if it was a normal thing to do. “What the hell . . .” Foster groan
ed while covering her eyes.

  “Is there something wrong?”

  “I can see a few things.”

  “You told me to make myself at home. However, your ship is . . . dry.” Nereid stood up, having realized that with the door now opened, all the water she had flooded the place with had slipped out onto the floor in her quarters. “And you know that clothing is still a very strange concept to me, it was giving my skin a rash. This is the best I was able to do to make myself at home.”

  “On that note.”

  “It’s time isn’t it?”

  “The Carl Sagan will be spaceworthy in a few hours. With Marduk gone and the time dilation disabled from your world, you can now return to live life as a free person.”

  Foster heard Nereid become hesitant for several seconds. “The more time I spend with your crew, the more I remember the life McDowell had, and what it was like to be human.”

  “I’m sure in time you will remember them.”

  “I am only two years old, my people live between eight and nine years, it’s only now I’ve started to remember his past. I want to remember everything before that time comes, and if I live with my people that might never come. Besides, hundreds of years have gone by since I left due to the time dilation. Everyone I knew must be dead; I am nothing more than a legend now.”

  “So, you want to stay with us?”

  “Please? At least until I remember everything and experience some of the wonders your people have.”

  “Very well but . . .” Foster pointed at Nereid’s exposed body, the best she could considering she still covered her eyes with one free hand. “You’re going to need to wear clothes.”

  “Modify my room so that I may swim through it freely and we have a deal.”

  “Rivera and her team have more important duties to deal with.”

  Foster heard Nereid’s feet splash against the wet surface toward the shower and it’s still running water flooding the room. “I’ll remain here, out of sight until that happens then.”