“I lost my papa during the Hashmedai invasion,” Foster said. “Had to take care of Williams because he lost his whole family. I know what this is like, believe me.”
“I was taken away from her, forced to go to Sirius. Lived through Sirius, lucked out and entered a future where old age would not have claimed her life . . . only for this to happen.”
“Your mother sacrificed her life and ship to save us, to save you, her only daughter.”
“And what were you doing, Foster?” Chevallier snorted. “Shooting at the EDF team who came to help us, bickering on the bridge when you should have pushed to get the Carl Sagan away from the invader fleet. She’d still be alive if you hadn’t been such a terrible captain.”
Foster staggered at her words, the umbrella she held nearly slipped out of her trembling hands. “Mathilda! Please . . .”
Chevallier’s flustered face looked away. “Your inaction as a captain forced her to make the sacrifice! No wonder IESA took your command away; they too must have realized the mistake they made giving you that.”
“I didn’t know any of this was gonna happen!”
“Yet you saw it important to secure your cat and had zero sense of urgency on the bridge?” Chevallier’s voice became dry and cold. “Do you really think that’s prime captain material?”
“As I recall, my leadership got us through Sirius.”
“Yeah, pissing off Marduk, then investigating a ghost ship without being prepared, which led to this. Every problem we encountered was a result of you poking around unprepared for what would happen next. And now the galaxy is being invaded, thank you for that, Captain, thank you for making my mother the first of many human lives lost.”
Foster stepped back, the anger in Chevallier’s eyes, the frown on her face, it wasn’t like her. With an index finger to Foster’s face, Chevallier finished. “Don’t fucking tell me you know how I feel right now, because you don’t.”
Chevallier slipped away into a sea of bodies as Foster glared blankly holding the drenched and dripping umbrella. She shut her eyes and allowed whatever tears that wanted to drip down do so, and assured herself this was it, no more tears, no more sorrow. It was time to rebuild and move on.
On her way out, she found the crew gathered under a tree, talking, sharing laughs, and staying somewhat dry. The key thing was a laugh, that’s what Foster needed, something positive. She approached them and was pleased to see, Williams, Rivera, Pierce, Chang, and Kostelecky. Upset to see the lack of the alien crew members, Tolukei and Nereid, upset to see Chevallier not standing with them. And chef? Whatever did become of him? Comfort food would have really hit the spot right now, especially if it was made by him.
“Hey, guys,” Foster said, deactivating her umbrella. A flick of a button caused it to transform into a small pocket-sized bar.
“What happened with you two?” Rivera asked.
Foster looked to the where Chevallier had vanished to. “She just needed to blow off some steam; she did lose her mother just when she thought she had the chance to see her again.”
“I heard you all have been reassigned,” Chang said.
“Not all of us,” Williams said. “Forced medical leave.”
Foster’s jaw dropped. “What?”
Williams grunted and propped his body against the trunk of the tree with arms crossed. “PTSD apparently, they want me to get counseling before I get a new assignment.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Chang asked him.”
“I dunno, I gave up my old place here on Earth before we left for Sirius,” Williams grumbled.
“Bro, you can hang with me for a bit,” Chang offered. “My family has a nice place on the colony we got rolling at Sirius. I’m going to be staying there until the military gets back to me.”
“Rivera,” Foster said to her. “Please tell me you have some positive news.”
“They want me to assist in recovering the AI core from the Carl Sagan and see if I could restore the deleted log files.” she said. “After that, I don’t know, maybe I’ll work for UNE R&D. Turns out my EAD has evolved a lot since our absence and has become a popular tool in the galaxy. My invention, yet I’m not getting proper credit for it!”
“Where’s everyone else?” Chang asked.
Foster gave him the rundown. “Tolukei is being deported to Radiance; Nereid is going to be deported back to Merion.”
“Wow, IESA must really hate you guys,” Chang said. “The military is giving me the chance to train to be a pilot again.”
“Makes sense,” Foster said, looking at the new wave of caskets being brought in. “With the losses they took, they’re going to need every recruit they can get.”
Kostelecky kept silent as their chatter continued, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. Sadness from the funeral Foster suspected . . . and hoped. Because if there was something else eating her up, she’d like to know soon, as the two of them would be roommates on the station they’d been assigned to live on.
Suburban Neighborhood
Los Angeles, Earth, Sol system
August 6, 2118, 16:36 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The early morning sunrise from the North American west coast had lifted into the skies. Foster, still wearing her funeral attire, took a walk in the neighborhood she once called home before leaving for Sirius. Her flight off-world wasn’t due for a few hours and she’d opted to kill time there.
The homes in the neighborhood hadn’t changed much, unlike the rest of Los Angeles which sported flying cars, eye-opening towers complete with holographic advertisements. Green grassy lawns and driveway parking lots sat ahead of wide garage doors to her left and right. The majority of the two-story homes around her were visibly upgraded, sporting solar panels and oversized battery packs, powered by XE crystals now Radiance had no use for them.
Foster questioned why paved roads still existed when everyone had cars that could fly. A reminder of the past perhaps, or maybe it would have cost too much money to rip them apart. Children were at play in the front yards of several homes, they used their HNI to create holographic soccer balls to kick and play with.
It made Foster’s face cringe at the fact that even small children had the implants, yet she, a grown woman, did not, and therefore felt inferior. She began to wonder if she’d ever get her command back, as there’s no way in hell she’d allow doctors to dig a hole in her head and jam a chip into it!
One of the kids at play took notice of her walking past and waved to her. It was a strange feeling at first. The kids that waved to her had no idea that the woman before them once lived there in the community, during a time when their parents weren’t born. Hell, from Foster’s point of view she was here only a few months ago, it was 2033 then, its 2118 now. The Carl Sagan was in some way a time machine, one that was incapable of traveling backward in time only forward, sadly.
She arrived at her old house, happy to see it still stood, sad to learn that her mother sold it and moved out to live out in colonized UNE space. Her father’s dream of traveling to the stars was contagious. She had hoped to make contact with her mother and let her know she was alive despite the attack, but, with no HNI, no access to a computer, and her not living there anymore, well, that would have to wait until Foster was set up in her new place on Amicitia Station 14 in preparation for her reassignment.
She sighed and turned away from her former place of residence.
Then heard the door open.
“Rebecca?” A familiar southern accent called out.
She directed her face back to the house and saw Mike Fisher, her past lover, exit dressed in his morning robe. She laughed, smiled, and charged over to him, gifting him her warm and long embrace. If anyone was going to be living in this place she was happy it was him, he did after all spent a lot of time there when they were a couple. He must have missed her so much he took it upon himself to move in and remember the good old days she figured.
“Mikey,” Foster’s emotional voice said. “You’re alive.”
&n
bsp; “You know about them gene therapy treatments, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve been catchin’ up.” She released him and noticed the silver dog tails dangling around his neck, reflecting the sunlight back. “Ah hell, you went and did it, didn’t ya?”
He smiled, lifting the tags up. “Yep, fighter pilot, full of all kinds of war stories, even fought in the battle of Barnard’s Star.”
Foster gestured to her old home. “Just couldn’t get away from my place, eh?”
“Shucks,” Mike said, then paused, stroking the back of his head. “Well, truth is, your mamma wanted to move out when we learned about your disappearance. She got a place on Terra Nova the colony in Sirius ya’ll set up, it was her way of being closer to your achievements. And well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of someone else living in this house here, ya know? So, I bought it.”
Foster’s heart warmed at the news and she made a note to make contact with her beloved mother when the chance arrived. The cheery smile that grew on her face lingered around longer, as her hands slid up and down his arms, military arms at that. She giggled. “Mikey, I’m so glad you’s still alive. I really need someone to talk to right now and—”
“Hun, who’s at the door?”
The two faced the front door and watched a stunning woman leave the house, also wearing a robe. Mike distanced his body from Foster’s swiftly. “Hey, remember the news about the Carl Sagan returning?” Mike said to the woman while pointing at Foster. “We’s got a celebrity here, it’s Captain Foster herself.”
“Oh wow!” the woman said as she scampered to Foster and shook her hand. “Pleased to meet you, I hope my husband hasn’t been talkin’ your ear off.”
“No . . . Not at all . . .” Foster’s face lit up with a smile, it was the perfect disguise for her disappointment.
“You free tonight? Perhaps you can join us for dinner,” Mike’s wife said, holding his hand. “Last one we’ll be having before he gets deployed to the frontlines.”
Foster grimaced. “Got a flight to catch later, sorry.”
“Reassignment already huh?” Mike said.
“Yeah, kinda,” Foster mumbled.
“I heard about what happened to the Carl Sagan,” Mike’s wife said. “Well, you’ll be pleased to know all the new exploration ships are way more advanced and faster. Hopefully, you’ll get a nice new ship to command.”
Foster made another faux smile followed-up with a nod.
“Well, I’mma head back in,” Mike’s wife finished, and gave her husband a kiss.
Once she returned inside, Mike’s attention returned to Foster with a mild wincing glare. “Sorry, Rebecca, I should have said something sooner about her.”
“You moved on, I get it,” Foster said.
“Well you did end it between us.”
“I know, I know . . .” And I was stupid to think you’d wait for all these years.
“Truth be told, I did wait for you to return, regardless,” he said. “That was until I heard about the Carl Sagan vanishing.”
“I’m happy for you.”
“Hey, add me to your HNI contact list, once this invader nonsense is taken care of, we should talk and catch up. My wife was an explorer too, part of the second-generation exploration ships that launched after yours. Maybe you two can share stories of the worlds you explored.”
“I ain’t got any of those fancy implants.”
“Ah, that’s right,” Mike said, scratching the back of his head. “Sorry, it’s just a common thing for us folks. You’ll want to get one ASAP, can’t do much in the galaxy without ‘em, including captaining a starship.” She saw his facial expression change, and his lips twist. “I’m guessing your reassignment ain’t gonna be on a ship then?”
“No, it won’t.”
“Damn, well get the upgrades and learn how to master using ‘em, it’s the only way to move forward.”
She had nothing more to say, and quite frankly had enough of the emotional roller coaster she’d been on since awaking from cryo. The two bade farewell and she began her journey to LAX via a flying taxi cab.
Major airports on Earth had been converted to interstellar starports, where large transport ships frequently launched into space and or landed with passengers. From time to time, the starports also sent transports from one port to another on Earth, much like what Foster did earlier when she left Paris.
She shared a seat with Kostelecky and Pierce since the two had also been assigned to the station for their new positions. Kostelecky still remained to herself keeping strangely silent, with the exception of her acknowledging Foster and Pierce’s presence. The standard preflight checks were performed within the passenger cabin. They were similar to the ones that used to be performed on old-world planes before takeoff. Flight attendants wearing their dazzling uniforms gave the eager passengers a rundown of what to expect, safety tips, and bringing everyone’s attention to the location of emergency escape pods. The experience reaffirmed Foster’s, Pierce’s, and Kostelecky’s current positions that they were truly relics from the past. Born and raised during a period of human history when walking on Mars was a dream and taking a flight to the other side of the world was an epic adventure.
The transport hauled up off the launch pad. Azure flames spouted from its thrusters and gave it the speeds necessary to reach the escape velocity needed to break away from Earth’s gravitational pull and enter the realm of space. To the onlookers watching below, the large civilian transport rapidly shrunk to the size of a tiny dot within clear blue skies. Artificial gravity activated automatically after detecting the sudden decrease of it as they pulled further and further away from the blue planet.
The view of Earth was a lot different than how Foster remembered it when leaving for Sirius. In 2033 a fleet of Radiance ships orbited Earth and stood watch in case the Empire returned to finish the job. Meanwhile, the six ships that used to be all the infant UNE navy had to offer joined them in orbit. Today? Foster counted at least twenty-six UNE ships, and just as many derelict ships being attended to by recovery teams.
Mars supported a similar number of UNE ships in close orbit, as did the belt along with its mining ships and platforms. Space stations circled the giant known as Jupiter. A number of the stations were home to civilian populations while others were research outposts and military bases. The three were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Titan, since the transport’s trajectory happened to send it on a close flyby pass of Saturn’s largest moon. There was a traffic jam of ships in orbit of the moon waiting for landing clearance from one of the many metropolis that covered its surface, much like Mars. Foster tried to visualize what the battle of Titan had looked like when the Winston Churchill took on Imperial warships while the majestic view of Saturn and its rings hung in the backdrop.
The FTL transport slowed when it arrived at the edge of the Sol system and maneuvered to approach five oval-shaped wormholes in space. At least it was five from what Foster was able to count, the droves of ships, both military and civilian, obscured her view periodically as they crossed the threshold to or from the wormholes. The wormholes indeed resembled the ones she and her team discovered in Sirius, only they were human constructed rather than Lyonria and significantly wider to allow ships to enter.
Their transport angled itself and joined the long queue of ships in single file, a queue that took one hour to shrink before they then plunged into the wormhole. The transport was in Sol one second and in the Arcturus system next, a thirty-six light-year jump. Behind the transport after the jump was another wormhole of similar design in the Arcturus system, and ahead of them were the ships that had made up the queue, as they all dispersed to travel to the various planets in the system or altered course to approach another wormhole. Pierce had reclined back in his chair catching forty winks and missed the eye-catching view of the transport as it glided over the red giant star which made the sun look like a small moon.
The next wormhole appeared beyond the horizon of Arcturus’ bright glow.
The transport dipped inside and appeared in a binary system Foster knew nothing of. It was UNE territory as indicated by UNE warships standing watch over an Earth-like planet covered with bright lights from its cities.
The process repeated four times as distant star systems colonized by humanity came in and out of view from the windows, all interlinked with connecting wormholes, it was a mass interstellar highway. The voice of the transport’s captain played on the speakers above Foster’s head, awaking her from the slumber she, Kostelecky, and Pierce had fallen into. The transport had docked with Amicitia Station 14 at last. The passengers aboard arose to gather their carry-on possessions and slowly marched in the direction of the airlock.
The three did the same when the crowd around them shrank and cleared the way for them to enter their new home in the Arietis system. It was a home located one hundred-thirty light-years away from Earth, the invaders . . . and their place among brave men and women working to quell the new threat to the galaxy.
The feelings of rejection were difficult for Foster to accept.
14 Chevallier
Downtown Bar
Paris, Earth, Sol system
August 6, 2118, 23:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Drinking was mankind’s victory over depression, regrets, and bad life decisions, temporary victory of course. Once the buzz faded you were thrown right back into the darkness you sought to escape from. Chevallier was no stranger to this. She spent the remainder of her stay in Paris at this particular bar as it was close to the UNE base she was staying at. Though, after the funeral she had doubts she’d be staying at military bases or serving aboard ships going forward.
With her mother and the Carl Sagan gone, she was unsure of what to do next in her life. Resigning crossed her mind. She could board a transport with a one-way ticket to the Morutrin system become a pirate or something, she had the combat experience for that and the love for rum. The invader’s fleet hadn’t been seen for days, which had some people wonder if they would even return.
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