An elevator brought him deep underground, and an airlock entrance delivered him into what looked like a large complex. The longer he remained inside searching about, the more it became clear the structure was nothing more than the entrance to an underground bunker. Voices in the distance forced him to leap and hide behind a wall. The voices were of two women, Hashmedai woman.
He took a peek around to see if it was safe for him to move in. It wasn’t. Phylarlie and another Hashmedai woman spoke, one with short, purple hair and a large sack slung over her shoulders dressed like an Imperial servant. Phylarlie’s tone was one of bitterness and anger. The other woman seemed, more passive, apologetic, like she did something that pissed Phylarlie off.
The two moved out of visual range. Boyd moved forward, and then got lost as a maze of tunnels took him into rooms full of robotic arms assembling mechanical parts, they looked like cybernetics. Deeper in, he found a bunch of rooms, their doors were locked shut. Something that looked like an operating table caught his attention. It had the severed wings of a wyvern.
He managed to get out of the maze, and all the weird stuff going on in its connecting chambers and entered what looked like a living room. There was a galley in the back, and multiple rooms with beds in them. There was enough food in the galley to last years. This wasn’t just any bunker. It was set up to keep its occupants alive in the event of a major planetary attack.
What was Phylarlie and the other Hashmedai woman doing here when there was supposed to be a major festival going on at her manor was an excellent question. Boyd hoped the personal computer he found in one of the bedrooms would provide the answers.
Rezeki’s Rage
Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system
October 17, 2118, 14:35 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“So, what’s the word? We stuck in the system?”
Peiun smiled and approached the two guest members of his crew, Penelope and Sarah. The splendid view of Taxah spun on the view screen behind him while Sarah fiddled with the remote controls of the exosuit she wore to counter the effects of her paralysis.
“I have spoken with the Imperial navy in the system,” Peiun said. “One of our MRF-equipped command ships will allow the UNE fleet to dock within it, and then travel through the space bridge to take them to the Arietis system.”
“Sweet, command’s going to want to know what the hell happened out here,” Sarah said. “Any word from my sister, Pierce, and Alesyna?”
“I’m being told they’ve been recovered by Imperial ships within the Morutrin system,” he said. “They’ll be delivered to Amicitia Station 14, now the wormhole has been restored to normal operation.”
“Guess this is where we part ways?” Penelope said to him.
“Indeed, a transport is ready to deliver you to one of the human ships,” he grimaced while looking at the Maraschino hacker. “And, Penelope . . .”
“Don’t worry; I removed the trojan from your HNI.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you,” Penelope said, holding up the memory crystal, the reward of the quest she undertook. “Devorei will live on once again, as soon as we find a suitable body for the memory transfer.”
A transport from the Imperial command ship docked with the Rezeki’s Rage. Its pilot sent a notification via HNI that he was ready to receive Sarah and Penelope. Peiun relayed the news to them. Sarah gave him a sultry smile, beckoning for him to step closer to her with her cocking finger. He did so, and she slapped his rear, before making her departure.
“Call me some time, eh?” she said with a wink. “And good luck with your mission.”
He retreated to his study while waiting for Imperial teams to resupply the Rezeki’s Rage as it idled in orbit. The lineup of ships requesting to use the space bridge was vast, and it would be days before the Rezeki’s Rage would be able to use it. It gave him time to review the data he acquired in regard to his secret mission. He created a holo screen when he sat at his desk, and its contents showed a chart of what was learned thus far.
Mercenary crew members of the Fortune Runner had used the hidden Morutrin space bridge to travel to Sirius, back when the Carl Sagan was still exploring it. Shortly after their arrival, they vanished with Foster and her crew and the Radiance cruiser, Abyssal Sword. The next step was determining who the mercenaries that ventured to Sirius were, and why. He had doubts that the timing of the mercenaries’ arrival in Sirius, when the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword vanished, was a coincidence.
And most importantly, why was the empress so interested in them? Imperial lords, nobles, high-ranking military personnel, those were the type of Hashmedai he could see the empress investing time in searching for. But mercenaries that long ran away from the Empire? There was more going on than she was letting him know, even the emperor was left in the dark in regard to the mission as with Imperial admirals. Alesyna being a woman full of deception and secrets didn’t help sooth his mind.
Before he continued with his search, he needed to ensure he wasn’t being used, only to be disposed of when the mission was finished. This way, if there was more to these missing mercenaries, he’d be better prepared for what came next when he found them. The Rezeki’s Rage was a fine ship with a fine crew. As its captain, it was Peiun’s duty to place its safety and honor ahead of everything else.
If that meant betraying the empress, so be it.
Blackmar’s office
Amicitia Station 14, Arietis system
October 17, 2118, 15:01 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Travis Pierce’s body thanked him when he sat on the comfortable leather chair ahead of Commander Blackmar and his desk. Pierce had a fresh uniform on and had partaken in a much-needed shave and shower prior to being invited to speak with Blackmar. Last time he checked, he didn’t get the chance to take one since the fiasco in the Kapteyn’s Star system. The meeting officially made him accept the fact that the crazy adventure he’d been sent on, that saw him separated from the Kepler, was over.
“Glad to see you’re back, Doctor Pierce,” Blackmar said.
“Glad to see it’s finally over,” Pierce said. “All I wanted to do was reconnect with an old friend . . .”
“Did you end up getting what you wanted?”
He thought back to the data package Penelope gifted him upon returning to his apartment, which had been left in a mess thanks to station security and EISS. According to Maraschino, Pernoy and her children left Earth to return to the Empire shortly after the Celestial Order wars. They never made it.
The transport they rode on disappeared according to reports the hacker group dug up. Maraschino left Pierce with a means to secretly contact them again, as the reports they found for him had them interested in the mystery. The date the transport vanished wasn’t far from the date the Carl Sagan and Abyssal Sword went missing. With Maraschino’s contact information in his possession, he had a feeling that wasn’t going to be the last time he saw Penelope, especially if Pernoy’s disappearance had connections to his and the Carl Sagan’s.
“Not really,” Pierce said.
“You got to be careful when you make offers to Maraschino,” Blackmar said. “Sometimes what you get isn’t worth the cost.”
“So it seems.”
“Not that we’re complaining, you two did help expose the corrupt EISS operatives and their illegal funding of the Terran Legion.”
“I hope we’ve taken steps to shut that group down.”
“We’re trying, but it isn’t that easy. They gained a lot of support, and got members across the galaxy, the only thing they don’t have any more are ships. Well, ships that we know of.”
“Human’s fighting humans . . . xenophobia, I thought we put that era behind us,” Pierce said miserably.
“We didn’t.” Blackmar sipped from a steaming mug of tea that had rested on his desk. “It only changed along with our society, just enough for us to not notice, until now.”
“Any word from the Johannes Kepler?” Pierce asked.
“After what happened in Taxah, they’ll be returning to UNE space shortly thanks to the Empire,” Blackmar said. “They’ve picked up a few new toys, and made some discoveries, and would prefer your mind to look at them before they proceed further.”
Pierce’s eyebrow rose. “Oh? Do tell.”
“They might have located where the Draconians are coming from, a place called Omega Centauri.”
Pierce’s eyes opened wide at the instant connection he made. “Oh, my God.”
Blackmar relined back on his char. “What’s wrong?”
“It all makes sense now,” Pierce said. “Omega Centauri had long been theorized to be a dwarf galaxy that crashed into the Milky Way billions of years ago.”
“I’ve heard something about that,” Blackmar said. “That’s why Omega Centauri is so large and has so many stars; it’s what remains of that destroyed ancient galaxy.”
“During the collision, some of those stars were ejected into the Milky Way. Kapteyn’s Star was one of those systems.”
“Really?”
“Yes, all stars in the galaxy orbit in the same path around the galactic core,” Pierce explained. “Kapteyn’s Star moves in an opposite direction, since it was ejected from the dwarf galaxy that formed into Omega Centauri. The Draconians didn’t target that system randomly; it was probably once a planet they ruled before it arrived in our galaxy.”
The ancient city, monolith, and construction of the hatchery, it was starting to make sense why they existed on that one world. Pierce stood, he had work to do.
“Excuse me, I need to examine data regarding that,” he said.
Hashmedai Bunker
Rainforest, Taxah, Uelcovis system
October 17, 2118, 16:41 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Boyd activated the computer and struggled to navigate through the Hashmedai-made OS and language. He wasn’t sure how he did it, but one of the many buttons he hit activated a holographic projection. It was a recorded message, probably coming from the data crystal attached to the side port of the computer.
General Derek Irons of the EDF appeared in the projection.
“Phylarlie . . .” Irons in the recorded hologram said. “I hope you don’t mind the nickname Yominv I used. It was your father’s name, if I remember correctly. I figured you’d get the hint that this data crystal was for your eyes only, anyways it’s time. Keep Captain Foster with you as long as possible, the more delays she runs into, the better. Her testing the vortex key as we arrive would be ideal, so buy us as much time as you can. I’ve received confirmation via a psionic, that Moriston and his team were successful in locating the Morutrin space bridge. I had him send a transport through first as a test, and to give you a number of wyverns we captured to use in the next leg of the operation. The Terran Legion will be entering the system soon with a fleet of UNE ships on their leash. Don’t forget to release the wyverns onto the surface; we need to have a reason to drop the warheads. With that said . . . don’t be on the surface when we arrive. If there’s any VIPs you need to be evacuated, see to it they are brought to your bunker now. When this is over, I hope you enjoy your reward . . . Empress Phylarlie. Irons out.”
“You really should have taken my offer,” a voice called out to Boyd.
He rapidly spun around to see who it was. Phylarlie stood behind him and, judging by her calm composure, she probably had been since he started watching the video. His rifle rose to aim at her, and then lowered it in shock. There was a baby wyvern sitting on her shoulder, she ran her hand down its neck, petting it.
“What the fuck were you and Irons planning?” he said.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Phylarlie said slowly, stepping toward him. “It’s not happening.”
The projection turned to video files of scientists in hazmat suits acquiring dragon eggs and watching them hatch with infant drakes and wyverns.
“Dragons . . .” Boyd looked back at her. “You were breeding them.”
“My congratulations to you for making it this far,” Phylarlie said.
“You were going to take the throne,” Boyd said. “Have our ships nuke this planet, kill off the emperor, empress, and all system lords that would be bidding to become the next ruler of the Empire.”
She placed the baby wyvern in a basket. It sat and yawned, resting with several other young dragons. A devious grin appeared on her face as she moved closer to him.
“I never got around to coming up with a new title,” Phylarlie said. “Queen of Assassins? Or Queen of the Dragons?”
His rifle went back up, its targeting scanner informed him where her heart should be.
Keywords ‘should be.’ She doesn’t have one as far as I’m concerned. “Guess we’ll never know now, Phylarlie.”
“You’re right.”
Two concealed plasma daggers came into her quick hands, out from the seductive gown she wore. They powered on with green light and intense heat. The attack that came next didn’t last long, Phylarlie’s skill as an assassin had never dulled, if anything, it had improved based on the last time he fought her.
Boyd had shields, his protect suit, MRF, his rifle, and advanced EDF training. None of it was useful. Her speed, backflips, and slashes destroyed his shields, being stuck in a small dark room didn’t help, or the fact she had psionic powers that were stronger than your typical Hashmedai assassin. Jump porting about, and telekinetic pulls and pushes, she was toying with him at that point.
When she had her fill of fun for the day, Boyd found himself brought to his knees. She appeared behind him, held his head back with one hand and carved a burning gash across his neck with her plasma dagger. A jet of warm blood poured out from the wound like a waterfall, before he collapsed to the floor, unmoving.
“You will never know,” Phylarlie added.
Before Boyd’s vision and life faded, he heard Phylarlie call out the name ‘Avearan.’ The purple-haired Hashmedai woman he saw earlier entered, staring down at his body. Phylarlie and Avearan exchanged a number of words together, probably asking her to dispose of his body. He wished he could speak at that moment, Boyd and Avearan went back to the days of the Celestial Order wars. If only she knew it was him on the floor, and he knew that was her talking with Phylarlie earlier, he might have been able to get her help.
“Look on the bright side, you can be with your fallen Navy SEAL team now,” were the last words Phylarlie said him.
XSV Johannes Kepler
Taxah orbit, Uelcovis system
October 17, 2118, 17:33 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Rebecca Foster stood watching Williams and Chevallier recover in sickbay. He was recovered from the surface when contact was made with Miles, whom had taken shelter in a clinic along with Chef Bailey. Williams was talking when Foster arrived to check on him, he even managed to make a smile at her when he tilted his head to face her. Chevallier, however, was the opposite, she didn’t move since returning aboard.
“How they doing?” Foster asked Kostelecky.
Kostelecky lowered her scanner, nodding at Williams. “He’ll live,” Kostelecky said. “He’s lucky that Hashmedai doctor got to him.”
“Avearan . . .” Williams grunted in pain. “Becca, make sure you send her a nice postcard and flowers.”
Kostelecky and Foster stood over Chevallier’s body. The holo screens floating above displayed her vitals, they weren’t looking promising, neither was her missing arm.
“She’ll need some more time,” Kostelecky said. “And some mild cybernetic implants to replace badly damaged parts of her body, especially her arm.”
“Damn it.”
“Tell me about it,” Kostelecky said. “She’ll need to get HNI too if she’s going to get cybernetics.”
“Why?”
“All cybernetics are designed to work with HNI,” Kostelecky said. “You can’t have one without the other. This society is too reliant on that HNI tech, it sickens me.”
“No,” Williams said, rising up.
“I didn’t clear you for
duty, Commander,” Kostelecky spat at him. “Back to bed!”
“Hear me out,” Williams said. “On the surface, Avearan said something about her original implants had to be removed so she could become a psionic doctor or something like that. The specialist that worked on her was from Radiance and had a supply of implants and replacement parts that didn’t need HNI.”
“Dom, do you remember the name of that specialist?”
“Ask chef or that Marine,” he said. “I was in and out when she was patching me up. They might know better. All I know is he’s somewhere out in Radiance Union space.”
“We’ll set a course to Radiance once we get back to the UNE,” Foster said.
“Don’t we have a mission, Captain?” Kostelecky said to her. “Once I stabilize her, I can place her in cryostasis. We can transfer Chevallier onto another ship heading that way, and then continue with what we need to do.”
“Chevallier watched my back when she didn’t trust me,” Foster said, looking down at her war-torn body. “We’s doing this for her. Besides, this is the fastest ship in the galaxy, ain’t it? The fastest way to her recovery lies with us.”
“Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Becca,” Williams said.
“Dom, shush, we got this.”
“Terrans, Draconians, secret experiments to breed dragons, oh and finding their homeworld,” Williams said. “And now we’re adding a trip to Radiance controlled space?”
“Yeah, that is a lot to do,” Foster said. “I hope my first officer makes a speedy recovery to help me out with that.”
He smiled at her, she did the same. “I’ll report for duty in a day or two.”
“Like hell you will,” Kostelecky said. “You need at least one week of recovery.”
Foster left the three in sickbay, joining her team on the bridge. Taxah’s equator appeared on the view screen. Chang pointed at it, making the imagery zoom in and magnify, Foster stood next to him.
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