Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1

by Eddie R. Hicks

  The two pirates looked at Parcisei, not knowing what to think until Parcisei produced his credit chit and flashed them his account balance. They smiled at the long number that displayed on its digital screen.

  Kasidey’s transport, Edge of the Uelcovis system

  “Last stop, I promise,” Kasidey said.

  Their transport entered Hashmedai space. One of the outer colonies. There was a shipyard at the edge of the system in which a ship was being worked on. It was quite possibly the largest Hashmedai ship Whigli had ever seen.

  “It’s almost as large as the Pelican,” he said as his ESP touched the surface of the ship in the yard.

  “And equally powerful,” she said. “And once they get these.” She pointed to the hardware she pulled off the suits the dead humans wore. Mass Reduction Field device, she called it. “It will be the most powerful ship in the galaxy, well in this corner at least.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Transport on approach to Y’ouipa shipyard, Uelcovis system

  Onatiasha couldn’t figure out if she and Zhinbryo were prisoners or honored guests. They floated in the aft end of a transport ship on a multi hour journey from Taxah to the edge of the Uelcovis system. Di’aria joined them sometime later as she piloted the transport remotely with her mind.

  “I know you two despise me for what I did,” Di’aria said to them. “But I assure you will thank me later.”

  Onatiasha winced and said. “My source is dead, my reputation’s a mess and now you, a psionic breeder, hold us both captive.” Then she sarcastically added a hearty. “Thanks!”

  “According to my research you two have the greatest potential to help me in my plan,” said Di’aria.

  “Why’s that?”

  “You two, Kroshka, Phylarlie, and Jazz are the only ones within the empire that know of the Celestial Order... and oppose it.” Both Onatiasha and Zhinbryo looked at one another at that revelation. “Surprise! They found out about you all.”

  “It was only a matter of time,” Zhinbryo said. “We were making great progress.”

  “You were throwing your lives away,” said Di’aria. “The order was getting ready to remove you, they just needed confirmation.”

  “Of what?”

  “That killing you all out was the right thing. Some argued you could be turned to their cause others argued you could be used. The attack on the imperial palace was to determine which of you lives, who dies and who gets turned into a tool. But don’t take my word for it, those recorded memories you have hidden in your pocket can reveal that.”

  How did she know? Onatiasha thought. “Don’t know what you’re talking about—”

  Di’aria interrupted. “Don’t insult my intelligence, I sensed the device and was able to view the contents with it. Yes, I’m a much stronger psionic than you think.”

  “Yet the empire has you producing children rather than going into battle,” said Zhinbryo.

  “My children.” Di’aria paused while looking at her augmented arms up and down and smiled in a scheming manner. “Unlike other breeders I’ve grown quite attached to all eight of them. All eight who will be forced into a psionic life the empire deems necessary, namely combat and space bridge duty. There are so many other things they could do, but the empire only wants those roles.”

  “Psionics are the work horses of the empire,” said Onatiasha. “Don’t blame the empire for that. Blame Radiance for slaughtering billions of our psionics thousands of years ago while refusing to share the technology on how to create them.”

  Di’aria shifted her body to the side, allowing Onatiasha and Zhinbryo to look out of the forward windshield in the cockpit. They were rapidly approaching a shipyard with an enormous ship inside of it being constructed... or rather applying the finishing paint job.

  “You see that?” Di’aria said, pointing to the shipyard.

  “What is that?” Onatiasha asked.

  “That is the major construction project you learned about two months ago,” Di’aria said. “That is the Leviathan, a psionic dreadnought. It’s the same size as the Abyssal Pelican, a Celestial Order ship, secretly flying with the Radiance Union banner. The Leviathan will be the same, a Celestial Order ship masquerading as a Hashmedai Empire warship.”

  “The order has two ships?”

  “The order has many Radiance and Hashmedai ships secretly under their command, but these dreadnoughts were built and designed for the order, will be fully staffed by a crew all loyal to the order. Meanwhile both the empire and union went out of their way to fund those respective ships not knowing what was going on in the shadows,” Di’aria said. “The same as the empire uses its psionics, the Leviathan uses a lot of psionics aboard to power it.” Di’aria then floated closer to them, placing one of her cold cybernetic hands on Onatiasha’s shoulder and the other on Zhinbryo’s. “And we’re going to steal it.”

  Onatiasha chuckled at her proposal “We?”

  “Yes,” Di’aria said confidently. “I grow tired of seeing the mistreatment of Hashmedai psionics. I first supported the order in hopes that they would bring in a new empire where psionics can be free, where my children will not be forced to be used as tools. But, I see the order is no different, they’ll still be forced into that as well as indoctrinated into worshiping aliens.”

  “So, you plan to start a revolt then?” said Onatiasha.

  “You understand why I said the order is working for me now? They are providing the tools needed, we just need to take it away from them and put it to good use.”

  “You,” Onatiasha said, correcting her. “We may share the same goals of hurting the order, but what you propose is treason.”

  “You speak as if you have options,” said Di’aria. “Well, you do. Just not very good ones.” Di’aria extended her arm toward the cockpit, inviting Onatiasha to get up and float into it. “We have time before we get to the shipyard. Feel free to watch what was recorded from those memories you probed”

  Onatiasha launched her body into the cockpit by pushing her feet off the back wall of the transport. Her forward movement stopped as she held onto the chair then loaded the data she recorded from the mind of Kezea.

  A small hologram appeared displaying how far back the memories went. The past two months was selected as she shifted through tiny preview pictures representing the many days that passed during that period. One day caught her attention, the day the Imperial Palace was attacked, Kezea was there.

  A holographic recording played displaying Kezea’s memories from that day. There were a dozen people around Kezea many of them were of Radiance races, some Hashmedai.

  “You ready?” a voice said to Kezea in the projection, in English.

  “Yes,” Kezea said, only the accent was different. Not the voice of a Hashmedai woman. strange.

  Kezea looked out the window of a transport ship as it was coming to a landing on one of the docking bays in the Imperial palace. The reflection that came back was a Javnis female.

  “What about the rest of you?” someone else from behind asked.

  “Good to go.”

  “All right, let’s go, our teams have taken control of the interceptors already.”

  The bodies of everyone in the footage started to liquefy then remolded themselves into humans. They then start to apply fake fangs into their mouths and apply makeup to make their skin look Hashmedai.

  “This would be a whole lot easier if we all had some Hashmedai DNA to work with.”

  “It’s better this way, should you get captured they’ll think you’re a human. On that note ensure that this your primary form, should you meet your end here.”

  “We won’t revert, and they’ll really think we’re human regardless, good idea. Do the others know?”

  “Probably not, honestly we shouldn’t have any issues. Archmage Gayir will take care of Jazz, you three find and take care of Onatiasha and Zhinbryo.”

  “Understood.”

  “And remember, speak English only.”

/>   Everyone in the video play back was handed an eRifle. Many of them looked at it warily. “These are different,” said one of them.

  “It’s what the humans arm themselves with, similar design to Radiance magnetic rifles. We managed to steal the designs and rebuild them for this mission.”

  All of them stormed out of the transport as its doors lifted open, confused guards were shot to death creating a bloody mess up the doors of the elevator they were guarding, thus allowing them to board it. Minutes later, the elevator doors swung open and the group stormed out into the Conquest Day ballroom. Shots and screams were heard seconds later, the same ones Onatiasha remembered from that night. The terror symphony faded away as the elevator doors shut and began to rise several hundred stories up.

  They slid open once again as it reached its intended destination. A narrow hallway became a horrific mess of blood and mangled bodies as servants and guards were ambushed and killed by a hail of bullets from Kezea and the gunmen. One of the gunmen led everyone further down the hallway where they repeated their violent actions. People without armor had some of their limbs ripped away from their bodies as the bullets shredded them. Bodies of royal imperial guards lay on the floor next to a large decorated door, Y’lin’s personal chambers. Upon forcing their way in, they started rummaging through Y’lin’s belongings, tossing her valuables across the floor, flipping over the mattress of her elegant canopy bed. A soft red light shone from behind a closet door. One of the gunmen held a glowing red gem in his hands upon exiting.

  “Gayir we have it,” he said.

  The darkened room briefly lit up as Gayir teleported into the chamber a minute later, only to prime his psionics and teleport him along with everyone else. Y’lin’s room was replaced with the sight of the Assassins’ Guild, more specifically Torval’s office at the top.

  The gunman who took the gem tossed it toward Torval. The guild master smiled after looking at the glowing red light and said. “You work fast.”

  “We’re not done yet, send us back.”

  “Just wait. There aren’t many of your kind,” said Torval. “If the rest of your friends fall, you might be the only ones remaining.”

  “If we don’t assist—”

  “I’ll teleport you back if you need assistance.” Gayir vanished as his blue teleportation light flashed.

  Time passed, Kezea and the gunman spent much of the time bored, sitting and waiting. The floor began to vibrate accompanied by the sound of faint rumbling. Everyone ran toward the windows and watched as the Silver Raven flew away from the Assassins’ Guild and propelled toward the Imperial Capital at near sub light speeds

  “Who is that?”

  “I don’t know, I was unaware that anyone would be leaving here via a ship tonight,” said Torval. “No matter, I’ll alert the interceptors we have under our control to deal with them.”

  More time passed, Onatiasha hit fast-forward as things became boring, like everyone going to sleep. She resumed normal speed as something of interest popped up, two people on a transport traveling through space. The reflection in the windows showed a Hashmedai woman and male with real features, unlike earlier. In the distance, Taxah could be seen.

  Upon their arrival, they invited Kezea and Sev to go drinking out in the entertainment district of Muro. Kezea and Sev were led out into a remote forested region deep with snow and with little light with the exception of two bolts of plasma burning gaping holes in their chests. As they fell down dead, painting the snow red with their blood, the two mysterious Hashmedai soaked their hands in the blood of Kezea and Sev, then begin to lick it as if it were a tasty treat.

  The projection showed the man start to undergo the same melting trance from before, and his body was remolded into Sev. The female did the same as she looked down at her hands. Onatiasha can’t see her reflection, but it’s safe to assume, she transformed into Kezea.

  “Dispose of those bodies at once,” said a strange voice in the darkness.

  “Right away,” said another unknown person holding a plasma rifle.

  “So, these two, they were servants for Hasiv, correct?” said the person who now had Sev’s appearance.

  “Yes,” said the Kezea imposter.

  “Good, we’ll use this cover to deal with Hasiv, Onatiasha and Zhinbryo.”

  “Let’s be cunning about this, not many of our kind left. Remember our group on Morutrin Prime is dead, let’s not get caught.”

  Onatiasha once again hit fast-forward, things got pretty boring as they went to work as servants in Hasiv’s manor. Di’aria appeared in the footage taking place weeks later.

  “Nice to see you again Di’aria,” said Sev.

  “She claims Onatiasha and Zhinbryo could be valuable alive rather than dead,” said Kezea.

  “How so?”

  “Onatiasha’s loyalty to the empress is questionable since her demotion. She also risked her life to save her and the princess but was not rewarded fairly,” said Di’aria.

  “I see, and you believe she has a reason to turn against the empire?” Sev asked.

  “Hasiv is her only source of info, remove him and she’ll not only have nothing, but will be even more disgraced,” said Di’aria. “She’ll have no choice but to beg on the streets, her mind will be weak.”

  “She’ll fall to the allure of the order offering her a better life and the chance to strike back at Y’lin,” Kezea said in conclusion.

  “Yes.”

  “There’s no guarantee however,” said Sev.

  “Unless we convince everyone they killed Hasiv,” said Di’aria.

  “I like the way you think,” Sev said, grinning. “I’ll come up with a plan.”

  It was a set up. Onatiasha heard and watched enough and shut down the recording. She faced Di’aria who floated behind her watching. “You!” Onatiasha shouted and hissed loudly.

  “The order does not know you two killed those two,” Di’aria said to Onatiasha. “And with the militia forces dead, there are no witnesses, just reports that you two went on a rampage. They are convinced that my plan worked and that the situation you are in forced you to ally with us.”

  “We are fugitives,” said Onatiasha.

  “And the order is willing to let you into their home, a home we will take for ourselves.”

  Onatiasha’s rage was calmed for amount as she started to go over in her head the extra details she leant from the memories. Shape shifters were real, and they tried to frame the human race for the attack on the empire “So, the order can change their form as well?” Onatiasha asked.

  “Not quite,” said Di’aria. “Those shape shifters you saw are people spliced with Lyonrian DNA.”

  “Lyonrian?”

  “I’m not sure of the details myself, just that an order project years ago discovered the Lyonria were genetically enhanced, and were able to alter their DNA provided they came into contact with a large sample from the person the wish to impersonate.”

  Onatiasha then started to think about the night before. She was intimate with Sev, Zhinbryo was intimate with Kezea. Then they gained the powers to transform into them the next day. “That would explain why they seduced us.”

  “Copulation is a discrete way to gain enough DNA from a person that you need alive at the same time, not to mention fun,” said Di’aria.

  “How many more of these shape shifters are left?” Zhinbryo asked the most important question of all.

  Di’aria bit down on her lip, hesitating to provide an answer. “Two,” she said eventually.

  There’s no way out, Onatiasha thought. Returning to the empire would have her and Zhinbryo charged with treason regardless unless they showed up with irrefutable proof that they were innocent. The only proof they had was the recorded memories, and no assurance someone would review them before casting their judgment on them. And even then, it still would not change the fact that they, no, she failed to protect the lord of Taxah. At the time of his death, she lay on the floor of her room passed out having spent th
e previous night drinking and copulating. They would probably ignore the fact the drink was drugged then assign them to patrol the outer colonies, limiting their power to combat the order.

  She considered escaping to Morutrin like every other person who got into trouble in the empire or the union. But what would that accomplish other than a life of paranoia - Always watching their backs, fearing that an assassin was following them in stealth, waiting for the chance to strike, while the order continued to grow and expand outside of that system. Following Di’aria’s lead was the best chance to take out the order and stay safe until they sent the proof from the memory recorder to someone in the empire, got confirmation it was seen followed by an assurance they won’t be killed on sight.

  “Well, Zhinbryo,” Onatiasha said to him. “Remember when we talked about an army of two?”

  An hour and half later their transport arrived at the shipyard. It latched onto one of the many airlocks, paving the way for them to float aboard. Di’aria led them into a small meeting room where a familiar face hovered, glaring out of a window, Archmage Gayir. He was looking directly at the Leviathan as a small crew in space suits slowly removed some of the scaffolding around the completed dreadnaught.

  “These are the two I spoke of,” Di’aria said as they entered. “As I suspected they will assist us with our campaign.”

  “I see,” Gayir said, never taking his eyes off the view outside. “Have their minds been tempered yet to assure they follow the one truth path?”

  “It’s been done,” said Di’aria. “Turns out Onatiasha had spoken to Fahia in the past so the ground work was already laid.”

  Onatiasha looked at Di’aria after she finished her blatant lie. Di’aria winked and smiled at her. The order must really trust her with matters like this.

  Gayir finally spun his body around, and faced what he thought was two new recruits into the order. “You two were once considered to be formidable enemies having disrupted our operations on Earth, evading being killed many times. But if you are willing to walk the path with the rest of us, we’d be honored to have you as allies rather than enemies.”