Pierce leaving with a woman. It was another out-of-character thing for him to do. His midlife crisis must have hit its boiling point.
“Sec.”
Paul brought up a projection thanks to his HNI. Within the holographic screen, Foster saw a brief playback of what Paul saw when Pierce was there. Pierce sat, watched TV, and then ordered a drink that attracted a woman to move next him—
An error message turned the screen black.
“The fuck?” Paul yelled, and attempted to replay the video again with the same results. The error message faded when his recorded eyesight turned away to deal with other people at the bar.
“Man, my HNI must be acting up,” Paul said. “I gotta get that looked at.”
“Sounds like ye need personal security or somethin’, eh?” It was Lieutenant Miles.
Foster grinned at Miles, the ginger-bearded man from Atlantic Canada, taking a seat next to her. He looked a lot different, not to mention shorter, now he was out of his exosuit, wearing cargo pants and a UNE Marine Corps tank top taking the shape of his military-built pecs.
“I lectured Pierce about eye-banging the crew,” Foster said.
“Aye, what’s wrong with that?” Miles asked her before ordering a drink from Paul.
“He’s just going through a phase,” Foster said. “Not surprised he came down here, probably looking to rob a few cradles.”
Foster’s wrist terminal beeped, twice, not that the music allowed her to hear it. It was the notification vibrations that alerted her there was an incoming message. Blackmar’s holographic face appeared floating above the device.
“Any sign of him?” Blackmar asked.
“Nothin’ and he ain’t replying to my attempts to contact him,” Foster said.
Blackmar grimaced while stroking his chin. “Hmm, we’ll try again in the morning.”
“He’s probably poking some woman he left with.”
“I shouldn’t know that.”
“It’d explain the no-show,” Foster said. “If he doesn’t turn up though . . .”
“I’ll have station security search for him, more so than they are now. Blackmar out.” His hologram faded, and a call ended icon flashed.
Miles took the first guzzle of his beverage, Molson Canadian beer. He pushed the glass away from his lips, and asked Foster. “Everyone playing hooky lately, eh?”
Hooky, it was a term she hadn’t heard since high school. “Who’s everyone?”
“Your b’y Pierce is gone and that woman he was with. And me ship is gone along with the fleet we had in Kapteyn’s Star.”
“That fleet still ain’t turned up anywhere?”
“Nope, navy ain’t saying shit about it.” He took another hit of his golden bubbling drink. Foster could go for one too. It’d kill the anxiety growing within her. “’Til then me and those EDF folks got no place to go until someone gets back to us.”
“We’ll y’all are free to stay aboard the Kepler,” she offered.
“I appreciate that, Captain. I doubt Chevallier will, but ya can’t please everyone.”
She sighed, having forgotten about Chevallier and her EDF team. “Yeah . . .”
“I heard about the friction between you two,” Miles said. “She blames you for her mother’s, Admiral Chevallier, death.”
Don’t remind me . . .
“You ever tried talking about it now? It’s been two months, and she wasn’t in cryo during that time. Maybe she’s gotten over it, eh?”
“Chevallier’s a piece of work,” Foster said drily and got up to leave. “There’s a reason the navy ain’t want nothin’ to do with her.”
“You ain’t in the navy though,” Miles said to her as she headed to the exit. “You don’t have to follow what they say.”
XSV Johannes Kepler docked in UNE hangar
Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system
October 15, 2118, 08:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Travis Pierce was officially declared missing. It was one of the worst possible topics to be brought up in the Johannes Kepler’s first official meeting with the crew. Foster and available crew members sat at a circular table with the logo of IESA painted over top of it. The briefing room was located a deck below the bridge, and across from her office. It was sophisticatedly decorated with plants in the corners, providing a more casual feeling, almost like a meeting room you’d see in an office.
Rotating holographic models of ships decorated one wall. The ships represented humanity’s voyage into the unknown, starting with the first sailboats from the 1700s, the Apollo rockets, NASA shuttles, Soyuz rockets, the first reverse engineered Hashmedai and Radiance ships that explored the Sol system, the Carl Sagan, and various other ships, leading up to a model of the Kepler.
Blackmar’s holographic projection appeared, floating above the table, as he remained in the stations ops and waited for Foster to get the meeting going. There was a lot that needed to be discussed.
She reclined in her chair, trying to hide the need to wince when she made eye contact with Chevallier and her EDF team, who were also present, and clearly uninterested in being there.
“All righty, folks,” Foster said to those in attendance. “Doctor Pierce is MIA for the moment, so we’s gonna have to move on without him. Odelea, I hope you’re up to the task.”
“I am. Nereid and I have made progress with the data Pierce brought aboard,” Odelea said. “EVE has also been helpful in recreating the sound waves from the less than ideal video.”
“Run that by me again, I just want to make sure I didn’t hear it wrong,” Williams said.
“You didn’t, Commander,” Odelea said to him. “The Draconian ships communicate with special navigation songs. Each song contains data regarding its speed, location, current tasks, destination, and previous location. Amongst other things.”
“So . . . singing dragon bio-ships.” Williams cocked an eyebrow. “That’s not weird at all.”
“The songs are similar to the ones my people use when traveling through the oceans of Meroien,” Nereid said. “And as pointed out, may be related to the songs humpback whales of Earth sing.”
“The good news is, I’m close to developing a system that will translate these songs into data for us to comprehend,” Odelea said. “I just need crisper audio samples to finalize it. From there, should we ever encounter songs from their ships, we should able to understand what they are trying to say to one another.”
“Which brings us to our next problem,” Williams said. “How do we get better audio samples? Let alone receive them without directly boarding their ships.”
“That’s where I might be able to assist,” Blackmar’s hologram said. Holo screens appeared in front of everyone sitting at the table, showing the blueprints to a cylindrical device two meters tall. “While you guys were gone for the last two months, we managed to sift through the wreckage of the downed Draconian ships, looking for any tech that could be salvageable.” The hologram changed, showing teams of engineers rebuilding the device seen in the blueprints. “What we’ve been able to piece together, is that these bio-ships have psionic abilities, and like our psionics, they require cybernetics to enhance and amplify those powers.”
“Makes sense, the wyrm we fought at Earth took down two ships with a psionic energy beam,” EDF-1 team leader, Chris Boyd, said. “It also had weird implants inside it.”
“We managed to salvage this device from the Charybdis we nuked in Sol and piece it back together the best we could,” Blackmar said. “As we know, the Charybdis can open and close the vortexes that lead into the maelstrom. We suspect this device might be the key to opening that gateway.”
“Is this that special project your people have been working on?” Foster asked Blackmar.
He nodded yes. “It is.”
“His people? Don’t you mean the UNE?” Williams asked.
“No, just my people,” Blackmar said. “As I mentioned to Foster, the navy, as with the rest of the UNE government, have been dragging
their feet in the defense of this station around researching how the Draconian ships operate. Case in point, we got the designs for this from the Empire, of all people, not the UNE. The government is more concerned about reverse engineering their weapons, than figuring out how to enter the maelstrom.”
Miles folded his arms. “The Empire, eh?”
“They did obtain a sizeable amount of the goo that protects ships in the maelstrom,” Foster said. “I’m not surprised they’d spearhead a program to enter it themselves.”
“We got our hands on the goo as well, after the battle at Sirius,” Williams said.
“Yeah, and the UNE still insists on weapons research,” Blackmar said. “I reached out to some contacts I had within the Empire, and they helped us get this device working . . . and I use that term lightly.”
“Why is that?” Foster asked him.
“On one hand, we’ve rebuilt it to spec, and everything looks fine,” he said. “But it doesn’t work . . . I have a feeling however, you might be able to help with that Foster.”
She gave the projection of the Draconian built device before her a good look. Then stared down at her tattooed covered hands and the faint but noticeable glow they had, the same ones that allowed her to use the tachyon rifle.
“My tattoos,” she said softly.
“If your assumptions are correct from your recent report, you can activate their technology, Foster. You might be the ‘on switch’ we’ve been looking for,” Blackmar said.
“Well this is perfect, then,” Odelea said. “From what Nereid and I have been able to put together, the ships in Kapteyn’s Star system are attempting to receive information from this location.”
A quick wave of Odelea’s small hands created a map of the galaxy. Foster, to that day, couldn’t get over how easily people with HNI could create holographic imagery. People in this century, to her, were almost like wizards creating pictures, diagrams, video or computer files with their mind and a wave of their hands.
Odelea’s hands forced the three-dimensional floating map of the galaxy to zoom in to the location of the Kapteyn’s Star, turning it into a map of that system. She moved the projection over to a region of space not far from the Kapteyn’s Star system wormhole. It brought back memories of when Foster had to take the helm of the Rezeki’s Rage, shortly after the mysterious tattoos appeared on her body.
“That’s where the maelstrom was,” Foster said. “The one we escaped through with the Rezeki’s Rage.”
Odelea continued. “While the details of the message aren’t clear, I am fairly certain there is something in the maelstrom that’s important to the Draconians.”
The Draconians used the maelstrom as a means of interstellar travel from what Foster was able to gather. That important thing to the Draconians could only be one thing.
“It’s another ship,” Foster concluded.
Odelea was partial to the idea. “Perhaps.”
“It’s gotta be, you said they only speak with songs,” Foster said. “If they’re waitin’ for a message, then that message is coming from a song, one that’s being sung to them from the maelstrom.”
“You think it might be another fleet then?” Blackmar asked, with a hint of deep concern in his voice.
“More like to do with our missing fleet,” Boyd said drily. “We still haven’t heard back from them.”
“No . . . We haven’t.” Foster bit the side of her lip, having processed that fact. “Do you think they’ve vanished into the maelstrom, like the Carl Sagan did?”
“That would be . . . bad,” Williams said. “Us vanishing and ending up in their hands was a big enough deal. Could you imagine if an entire UNE fleet did the same? They could learn a lot about us, our weapons, defenses, and the location of all our colonies . . .”
“All the while there’s still the unopened vortex at the edge of this system, just waiting for ships to fly though and annex it,” Blackmar said.
“Damn.”
“Then let’s go through with this,” Foster said. “Let’s see if Commander Blackmar’s team and the Imperial scientists’ efforts were worth it and test out their device.”
“Just us alone, not knowing what’s out there?” Chang asked.
Williams spun his chair to face Foster. “We’ll need to be ready for anything, that includes a boarding party.”
“I’d rather we’s keep our aggressions toward the Draconians at a minimum,” Foster said to him. “Remember we’s tryin’ to prove our innocence here.”
“I mean in case we get boarded.”
“Oh . . . okay, fair point.”
“I have a new group of rangers here to assist with that,” Saressea said.
“Hold on,” Chevallier broke her silence, assertively placing her hands on the table. “You’re seriously going to leave the security of this ship in the hands of a bunch of inexperienced rangers?”
“No, she won’t,” Boyd said to Chevallier. “We can help as well; we don’t have any ship or new orders at the moment.”
“Aye, I’m in the same boat as them, eh? I can help too,” Miles offered.
“And if worse comes to worst, and we have to board their ships, you’ll have an EDF team, Radiance ranger team, and a Marine to pull that off,” Boyd added.
Williams nodded and returned his attention back to the group. “I’m down with that.”
“All right, we test the device and, if it works, then we’s gonna enter the maelstrom, take a look inside and report our findings,” Foster said. “And if possible, keep our ears out for bio-ship songs.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Blackmar said. “I’ll inform my people to get the device to you.”
“Anything else?” Foster asked. Silence fell as a few heads nodded no. “All right, dismissed. Let’s get this show on the road, y’all!”
All the holograms, including Blackmar’s vanished. The crew made their way out of the briefing room, sans Chevallier and Boyd, who moved to the exit slowly. Foster decided to do the same, curious as to what they had to say.
“Seriously, sir?” Chevallier said to him.
“Yes, I’d rather not sit around on the station waiting to hear back from command,” Boyd said.
“What about Irons? Haven’t you been in contact with him?”
“He’s got his hands full,” he said. “There’s something up with another EDF team that went missing the other day that needs his attention.”
Foster stopped before the door, her thoughts weighed in if opening up to Chevallier, as Miles had suggested, was a good idea. If she was going to do it, now would be the ideal time before the mission started, and heaven forbid, things went horribly wrong, and the two lose the chance to talk for an eternity.
On the other hand, Chevallier’s words said it all, she hadn’t changed a bit. Then there was the fact that she too never reached out to Foster.
Foster made her choice and faced the feisty auburn-haired Frenchwoman as she and Boyd neared the door. “Glad to have you back MC—”
“Move.” Chevallier snapped at her.
“Feel free to make yourself at home—”
“Don’t make me regret being here more than I already do, Captain.”
Foster didn’t move from the door, Chevallier’s firm grip did it for her. Boyd looked back at Foster as he and Chevallier made their way out. He gave her a ‘whatever’ shrug, and turned away, disappearing into the interior of the ship.
“Rivera found your Cuban cigars from the Carl Sagan too!”
24 Peiun
Rezeki’s Rage
Morutrin Prime orbit, Morutrin system
October 15, 2118, 08:56 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Rezeki’s Rage cleared the belt at last without further incident from the pirates. A number of smaller ships did tail behind, but with both moving at half the speed of light, and the Rezeki’s Rage ahead, they were safe. No pirate was going to risk boarding the Rezeki’s Rage, when other Imperial ships patrolling the inner planets could intervene.
&nb
sp; Peiun returned to the bridge, giving Alesyna a critical stare as she handed command back to him. It was the first time he had seen her since he retreated back to his quarters for a quick rest. She didn’t know of the secret he and Moe shared, and he didn’t know of the other secrets she kept with her, whatever those were.
When the Rezeki’s Rage was less than an hour out from Morutrin Prime, the final pirate ships broke off their chase, returning to the belt. The Imperial, Radiance, and UNE battleships in orbit turned to face the general direction of the unwanted ships with their forward weapons. Rival pirate ships, salvagers, raiders, and other mercenary groups in orbit, likely played a role in sending the pirates off. Picking a fight in orbit was a good way to get blown out of the stars, even if you brought your friends.
“Home sweet home,” Moe said as the horizon of the raincloud-draped world grew in size on the view screen.
“Allow me to take you to the surface with a transport,” Peiun offered.
“Can’t we just teleport down?” Moe asked.
“I’d rather Alesyna remain aboard in case the pirates have bigger cocks than we thought,” Peiun said. “It’s unlikely they will do so, however.”
“Yeah, I get it. Better to be safe than sorry,” Moe said. “You nearly lost this ship without her aboard.”
Imperial Transport
Gravity City, Morutrin Prime, Morutrin system
October 15, 2118, 12:09 SST (Sol Standard Time)
A transport carrying Peiun and Moe left the confines of the Rezeki’s Rage, one of its transports of course. Peiun still had many questions he intended to pry away from the captured transport. Sitting at the main controls, Peiun took the transport into a controlled dive through the thinning rainclouds hanging above the region Moe directed him to.
Droplets of rain fell upon the transport’s windshield not long after its dive through the clouds. The drops were larger and heavier compared to what one would expect from a planet with Paryo’s gravity, which to his knowledge was very similar to Earth’s.
Below the transport was a city where faint rays of sunlight slipped in through the various openings within the clouds. Mist lifted away from the rainwater that had been drenching the city hours earlier. Morutrin Prime was a very humid world, even for humans, which made Gravity City a shining example on how the human race stopped at nothing to make the galaxy livable for them.
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