Bailey had inspired Williams to push on during a dark moment aboard the Carl Sagan, inspiration he once again needed to get through a new dark moment in his life and get his career back on track. Newfound determination in Williams began to stitch together a plan that would see him reunited with the old Jamaican man.
Besides, he was still part of the crew, a crew member who probably would like to know that we’re still alive after all that’s happened. “Chang, let’s go find an old friend.”
18 Foster
IESA Dorm, UNE Arm
Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system
August 9, 2118, 04:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Foster crawled out from her bed groaning. She was awoken by the sound of a computer notification, five minutes before her alarm was set to go off. She brought the holographic display closer to her, sat at the edge of her bed, and flicked across it until she found the newly received message. It was Rivera delivering some good news. She had joined a team that was assigned to conduct a recovery operation aboard the Carl Sagan. Foster’s cat Starlet was found alive in what remained of her quarters, barely, but alive. Rivera informed her vets would take care of it and that plans had been made to ship it to her residence on the station, along with one other thing.
Foster scrolled the message down and was treated to a selfie of Rivera smirking within the overturned captain’s office on the Carl Sagan. In Rivera’s hand was Foster’s telescope.
Foster collapsed back onto her bed, joy and emotion ignited by the discovery that the two most important things she left behind on the Carl Sagan, were in one piece and coming back to her.
Her motivation to push forward in life was restored.
That was slightly diminished when she struggled for twenty minutes trying to figure out how to activate the shower, again. Turns out the holo display for its controls had been shoved off into the corner and minimized.
Were good ol’ fashion shower handles really that hard to make and install?
Kostelecky was long gone to her new post working at a clinic for IESA members and families who were assigned to the station by the time Foster slipped into her new freshly washed uniform, one that did not list her rank as a captain. She marched over to the airlock on the far end of the station’s arm through a series of maze-like corridors, past several IESA members scurrying about. She bumped into Pierce whom had been mulling around near the airlock’s large sliding doors.
Pierce smiled at her. “Ah, Captain—”
“Rebecca is fine for now.”
“Are you busy by chance? I was hoping maybe we could tour the station more with Kostelecky?”
Foster waved a fist full of documents she pulled out from the satchel across her shoulder. “First day at my new post, I’m headin’ there now.”
“Mind if I tag along then? I’m not due to report to my post for another three days.”
“Uh . . . sure? Don’t know what you gonna do though,” Foster said as she approached the airlock door.
“Observe you I suppose,” Pierce said after security staff allowed them both to pass through and board the small transport. “You are, after all, commuting to a job located over hundred light-years away. Never in my life did I imagine such a thing to be possible.”
“Yeah . . . well it is now.”
“And I’m going to witness it!” The two took a seat toward the back. “Foster, err, Rebecca, this is going to be an extraordinary moment for me.”
Foster rolled her eyes.
Transport en route to Jacobus
Kapteyn’s Star system
August 9, 2118, 08:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Kapteyn’s Star was a red sub dwarf star, much smaller and dimmer compared to the sun Earth orbited located 12.7 light-years away from Earth. It was home to a planetary system that had been settled by the second generation of colonization ships that left Earth in the 2050s.
The planet Jacobus was the most populated world in the system. It was a super earth planet by definition, significantly larger than Earth’s, but small enough to possess a rocky surface and not be a gas giant. A thin yellow layer of haze blanketed most of the planet, while it’s barren, rocky, and mountainous surface were once covered by towering metropolis built by the Lyonria. In fact, it was the discovery of Jacobus, along with the planets in the Sirius system, which prompted the UNE to prioritize colonization of systems where the Lyonria had once inhabited thousands of years ago. This effectively cut Radiance and the Empire off from its secrets, until the UNE was ready to share.
At least that’s what Foster read in a travel brochure as their transport began to dip below the sea of never-ending clouds and fight with the heavier gravitational pull of the planet. Endless mountains and canyons dominated the view outside the transport’s window as they lowered themselves further away from the clouds.
Human-built cities connected via trams provided homes to the colonists. All cities were heated by plasma heaters, allowing its residents to forget about the chilly negative eighty-eight-degree temperatures that existed beyond. Some cities were straight-up built inside the mountains as there was little flat open space on the planet.
The IESA base which was the destination of the transport Foster and Pierce rode on happened to be located within one of those mountain-built cities. Their transport landed as a wide docking bay located on the side of a towering mountain slid open for their arrival. Gravity dampers took hold of the transport and its passengers, allowing them to experience Earth-like gravity, opposed to the heavy gravitational pull one would experience beyond city limits, which was 40 percent stronger than Earth.
“That was something,” Pierce said as the all clear to disembark was given.
Foster stood up and joined the small crowd of uniformed personnel exiting. “I’m glad you’re enjoyin’ it.”
Pierce’s face looked like a kid that arrived at a theme park for the first time, admiring the view of the alien landscape from the opened bay doors. She couldn’t blame him, the existence of the planet had been known long before humanity had taken to the stars, when early astronomers looked up at the night skies with advanced high-powered telescopes. Pierce had always been an expert at the stars and space, and most likely would have known about this planet and the star it orbited back then. In 2018, stepping foot on this world was nothing but a fantasy to him, in 2118 that fantasy had become a reality.
Foster retreated into the halls to let Pierce have his moment and arrived at her new assignment, a small, sparsely populated office space with rows of computers. The computer at her desk was configured to operate in legacy mode, in anticipation of her HNI-less brain. She was given a quick rundown of what she was expected to do by one of the administrators, review documents and findings the research teams uncovered in regard to Lyonria ruins. It was a desk job.
Foster went from commanding a starship to pushing papers, typing on a computer, and gazing at the clock, 5 p.m. couldn’t come soon enough. Meanwhile, there was still the threat of dragon-like invaders from beyond, lurking in the shadows while brave starship captains and their crew from IESA and the UNE military did their part to put an end to the conflict. The cold hard truth that she had been sidelined out of fear she was an agent for the invaders made her thoughts go numb as she stared blankly at her screen.
Was this a result of our actions in Sirius? Marduk did seem eager to reclaim Earth and then spread out throughout the galaxy. Are these invaders part of his backup plan we missed?
“You!” an agitated voice snapped at Foster, bringing her mind back into the present and the fact that she had yet to sit down in her chair.
Foster looked away from her screen and into the office, she saw no one around.
“Down here, human!” the voice raged at her again.
Looking down, Foster saw the irate individual, the tallest Vorcambreum woman she ever laid eyes on. She was approximately four feet in height, dressed in a long, black jacket that covered up her grey skin. “Why have I not been approved to search dig site
alpha-four-three?” The Vorcambreum continued.
“I couldn’t tell ya, first day on the job here,” Foster replied. “I still haven’t been briefed on all my duties.”
“I don’t have the authorization to utilize IESA networks,” said the Vorcambreum. “Please can you conduct a search with your HNI and ascertain the answers I seek?”
“Ahh.” Foster scratched her head and twisted her mouth.
“Ahh, what?”
“I ain’t got those implants.”
“What?” The Vorcambreum slid her hands through her white hair in a frustrated manner. “That’s preposterous, everyone receives them when they are born.”
“Maybe she’s a sleep-in boss,” said a Rabuabin man who stood at the doorway.
The Vorcambreum faced the Rabuabin and pointed her tiny finger at him. “Quiet, Vynei!”
“Your friend there is correct,” said Foster. “I’ve been asleep for sixty-eight years; missed out on all these developments, don’t even got that fancy gene therapy thingy.”
The Vorcambreum’s yellow eyes gave Foster’s face a closer and long look. Her eyebrow rose. “Hmm, you do appear to be much older than most humans I have encountered . . . Very well, I shall believe your story, for now. But mark my words, human, IESA will hear about this incident from me, assigning a sleep-in like you to this post is unacceptable!”
Foster crossed her arms. “And you are?”
The Vorcambreum looked shocked, almost offended. “You don’t know who I am?”
“Most human sleep-ins don’t know you—”
“Quiet, Vynei!” The Vorcambreum silenced her friend. “Please excuse him, he often forgets I pay him to watch my back, not speak. But to answer your question, I am the great Eicelea, galactic-renowned archaeologist from Radiance.”
“Didn’t know UNE invited your people to study ruins they uncovered.”
“They don’t until they uncover something they are not smart enough to figure out on their own,” Eicelea said. “That’s when I get called in.”
“Well I’ll tell ya what, Miss Eicelea; I’ll see what I can do for you.”
“Very well, human, we shall depart to the ruins as the trip there via the tram will take many hours.” Eicelea retreated back to the doorway joining up with her partner Vynei. “I expect us to be granted entry upon our arrival, do not let us down, human.” Were her parting words.
Foster silently gave her parting words back as they disappeared from sight, her middle finger—
“I heard that!” Eicelea yelled from within the halls.
Foster returned to her holographic keyboard and interactive screens around her to process Eicelea’s request. Five minutes of searching and typing unveiled the two had been approved but required the confirmation to be sent via an HNI link for the approval to go live. Log reports showed the officer that was supposed to do it left it for Foster as they were transferred elsewhere, not realizing she lacked HNI.
Foster’s limited knowledge of twenty-second century computers did not turn up any viable work-around other than copying the approval message into a holo or data pad, and then handing it off to Eicelea for her to show it for inspection. Even then, such a work-around was by no means a simple one, data and holo pads were no longer frequently used due to HNI becoming commonplace.
After a ten-minute search, she blew away a layer of dust that had blanketed a holo pad found within a storage drawer in the far back corner of the office. With the approval transferred to it, she departed to catch up with the two, as giving them the pad was faster than searching for authorized personnel to make the approval go live, not that she had any means of contacting one.
She marched onto the only tram platform on the base, devoid of all personnel except Pierce who was examining a map of the region and the tram lines. Holographic displays hung high above listing the ETA for the next train.
“Hey,” Foster called out to Pierce. “Did you see them two Radiance folk board a tram?”
“A Rabuabin and Vorcambreum?”
“Yeah, them two.”
Pierce nodded. “You just missed them; they took a tram heading south.”
Foster’s face made a grimace as she made a loud grunt. She stopped herself from returning back into the office upon noticing the tram times listed on the holo screen above. A tram traveling south was expected to arrive in two minutes. “Ah, to hell with it.”
She stood front and center on the platform, ready to abandon her position within the first few hours of starting. Desk work wasn’t what she signed up for, space exploration was. Riding a tram across the rugged landscape of a planet she never stepped foot on would allow her to do just that. Sure, the planet had already been explored and colonized by humans, but from her point of view just days earlier, she was in the Sirius system in 2050. This world and the system it was in had been unexplored by humans during that time. It was still a newly discovered world to her mind damn it!
“Waiting for a ride?” Pierce said, standing next to her.
“I need to give this to ‘em.” She waved the holo pad. “Gonna see if I can catch ‘em.”
“First day on the job and you’re already ducking out, huh?”
“Hey now, that Eicelea woman made it clear she was gonna complain about me being here and acted all super important. Why piss her off even more? I’ll hand deliver this and save the higher ups some headaches.”
Laughter, much needed laughter, bellowed out from the two. It helped Foster mentally prepare for the aftermath of her leaving her post without speaking to anyone about it. If this was the way her career with IESA was going to end, so be it.
The tram drifted into the station and she took a final look back at the hallways of the base she had exited, bidding farewell to the life of following rules and stepping aboard the tram that would take her on a new course, living life by her rules.
Pierce joined her on the ride. They both took window seats and admired the view of the mountains the base was built into as the tram sped away. Foster, once again, felt like a deep space explorer.
19 Chevallier
ESV Robert Borden
Above the Mediterranean, Earth, Sol system
August 9, 2118, 12:40 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Stratosphere capital ships were smaller UNE carriers, destroyers, and cruisers capable of atmospheric and space flight. The concept to construct ships such as this had existed since humanity bore witness to ships of a similar caliber unleashed by the Empire in 2018. In fact, the first Imperial ship ever destroyed by humanity had been a stratosphere-based capital ship. This ultimately paved way for the people of Earth to obtain their first piece of advanced alien technology.
However, constructing a large and heavy vessel that could perpetually remain in the skies proved to be a difficult task at the time for humans, and in turn, they opted for the construction of space-based capital ships, relying on transports and fighters for atmospheric operations.
That was then, this is now.
ESV Robert Borden dipped into Earth’s atmosphere, red flames ripped across its forward overshields during its reentry, as the blackness around it faded into a light blue color with the summertime sun hanging above. It shoved aside a small gathering of clouds during its descent into the atmosphere alongside a stratosphere carrier and a cruiser. Chevallier had stood watching the impressive space to atmosphere maneuver unfold via an observation window. The three atmospheric, Earth-built capital ships circled above the Mediterranean Sea, casting large and eerie shadows upon the crystal clear waters below.
The last remains of the dragon invaders on Earth had been reported somewhere in the region. All UNE bases near the shorelines had been put on full alert, ships in orbit near the Mediterranean had been ordered to remain in a geosynchronous orbit in case things got nasty, and the dozens of transports that flew alongside the stratosphere ships were full of EDF personnel or Marines waiting for the call to jump into action. Everyone was ready to do their part in ridding Earth of the dragon-like invaders onc
e and for all. The topside flight deck of the Robert Borden was no exception as it quickly became buzzing with activity. Transports and a squadron of fighters got prepared for action thanks to the scurrying crew personnel, while Chevallier and the EDF team arrived via a lift and awaited a transport of their own to be made available.
Chevallier meandered over to the edge of the flight deck, admiring the clouds that were directly ahead and the calm waters of the Mediterranean Sea below. It helped take Chevallier’s mind away from the pain of losing her mother, which was still roaming around.
“It sure is something, isn’t it?” LeBoeuf said. She had snuck up next to Chevallier to share the high up view with her.
“Yeah, it is,” Chevallier said.
“I’ve seen this place so many times in holovids, even in holographic recreations. But nothing beats this, the real deal.”
“It’s a shame it takes war to bring us out to this part of the planet.”
“Or in my case, Earth in general,” LeBoeuf said. “This is my first time on Earth.”
Hearing a human say something like that, made Chevallier’s face glare at her in a strange manner. She expected to hear words like that uttered by aliens, but a human? These were indeed strange times.
LeBoeuf smiled at her after noting the weird glare Chevallier made. “I’m from Ninura, a colony, say . . . hundred light-years from here? There’s like one lake on that planet, the rest of the surface is boring ass rocks. But to see this . . .” LeBoeuf stepped closer to the edge of the flight deck, appreciating the blueness located in the horizon beyond the massive drop. “To see this . . . and knowing that at one point in history, this was the only planet humans walked on . . . wow.”
Chevallier shook her head. Her lips twisted upon noticing the writing etched onto LeBoeuf’s shoulder pads. ‘Witch Queen.’
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