Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  “The Abyssal Circle.”

  She saw him wave his hand, creating a new holo screen and keyboard. His fingers typing away brought up, what she suspected, was a listing of the Abyssal Circle’s records.

  “Which was nowhere near that system according to this,” Michei revealed. “And about the Degar system? That was a system that didn’t build FTL drives from scratch as they lacked resources or trained personnel. The Degar system was stuck with sub light drives until FTL capable ships delivered what they needed. Two years ago.”

  “I was on the Abyssal Circle before coming to Amicitia Station 14,” Saressea reiterated.

  “Sure, you were,” Michei said mockingly, and she was 90 percent sure there was a smile spreading across his face. “Who are you? Really? Engineering takes years of training and education, even combat engineer rangers.”

  “Which I have.”

  “Who was the name of your first-year instructor?”

  Saressea couldn’t answer. The names and faces of those she went to school with, almost two hundred years ago, was a blur. Her HNI might have those answers, but again, with it disabled all she had was fuzzy faces and names so vague, even if you were to say it to her, she still wouldn’t remember.

  Out from Michei’s side pocket came an oversize data crystal. There were several long and sharp prongs sticking out of it. He placed it ahead of him on the desk and then pointed at it. “You know what this is, right?”

  She looked at the crystal, thankful she was at least able to remember that it was a Whisper memory crystal, used to insert fake memories into a body. She nodded with a smirk. “Yeah, I heard Maraschino got hold of your toys. Wait. Is that what this is about? You want to know if Pierce told me something that wasn’t mentioned in our reports?”

  Michei’s cybernetic hands folded while he leaned forward. “What did he tell you?”

  “That Maraschino uses those memory crystals to back up their memories before going on a dangerous mission.”

  “And?”

  “And . . .” she paused fighting for the right words to use. “He thinks his memories and the Carl Sagan’s crew were erased using memory data crystals like that.”

  “The implication being, we were responsible for Foster and her crew for losing their memories after they vanished from Sirius, months after they defeated Marduk.”

  She shrugged, and the chains binding her made jingling sounds. “I was light-years away from Sirius when that happened.”

  Michei’s eyes covered with tiny holo screens that looked like black- and gold-colored rectangles and squares. He was closely examining HNI files he didn’t want her to see via larger holo screens. Silence fell upon the two for six minutes. Michei wasn’t just checking files. He was transmitting and receiving data, perhaps a lengthy private communication with another Whisper operative.

  When he was done with all that, he put the crystal away and said, “My mistake, sorry for wasting your time, I thought you were someone else.”

  He stood up from his chair, calling for the Templars to take her away.

  “Wait,” Saressea said to him when she felt the armored grip of two men pull at her arms from behind. “Wait, what do you mean, Michei?”

  “You aren’t who I’m looking for,” Michei said. “A shame really, I could have had this tribunal canceled and you set free. If you do remember something, contact me before it’s too late.”

  The Templars escorting her back into the halls were quick, making Michei’s idle body standing behind the desk vanish from her point of view. She looked down at her reflection on the polished tiles. Her wincing face, free of makeup and jewelry on her horns looked back. She wanted to ask the woman in the reflection, what was the meeting about?

  Did Michei believe she was an operative with programmed fake memories? No, it wasn’t possible, Saressea remembered her past life. She had vivid memories of the sights, sounds, smells, and emotional bonds, everything that happened from her childhood to now. Just being on Talsyk had triggered past memories of her being a school girl, fake Whisper memories weren’t that exact.

  This had to have been about Doctor Pierce and his suspicion the Whisper removed the Carl Sagan’s memories, and that the Maraschino hacker, Penelope, was in possession of the Whispers’ prized tech.

  What really bothered Saressea the most when she asked a question to the woman in the floor’s reflection looking up at her. Was why couldn’t she remember the name of the university she got her engineering education from?

  Or how did the Abyssal Circle deliver her to this region of space via FTL a decade ago when it only received FTL upgrades two years ago.

  45 Foster

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Hallowed Nebula, Divine Expanse

  July 19, 2119, 03:05 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The Johannes Kepler cleared the fissure and was once again thrown into the gaseous clouds of the Hallowed Nebula. When no signs that the Draconians followed them through the fissure, the Kepler vanished in a flash of light as it’s FTL drive powered on.

  EVE had gone to work on studying the contents of the refinery data recorder the moment she, Foster, and Tolukei made it back. It didn’t take her long to discover vital data within it.

  Foster never returned to the bridge when she learned that. She threw her EVA suit in the corner, climbed up the ladder in the cargo bay, and went for the elevator, demanding that Odelea come with her. Foster wanted answers and she wanted them before she sat down with Armuzei and that woman he called a Nephilim, who were both brought to sickbay for observation. That and Kostelecky had to be awakened from her sleep to tend to them. Kostelecky sounded really pissed over the comm line. Foster needed to avoid sickbay for the next ten minutes.

  Foster asked Odelea to let her into her quarters to talk, away from Jainuzei’s ears. Odelea yawned when they entered, she’d never adjusted to the twenty-four-hour cycles humans used, still clinging to the nineteen-day cycles of Aervounis. It was rare for Odelea to be ready for sleep when the human crew was, like now. The door to her quarters shut behind them and killed the light from the corridor beyond, covering them in darkness, until Odelea switched on the lights from a wall terminal.

  Warm, humid air moistened Foster’s body the longer she remained in her quarters. It made her wipe away the sweat that was growing on her forehead. It had to have been at least 30 degrees Celsius.

  Data pads, crystals, and the odd book made a mess of Odelea’s floor. The walls were decorated with pictures of Aervounis’ sun setting from the surface of the planet, and university degrees from the various educational facilities Odelea had attended when she was younger.

  “Odelea,” Foster said to her. “You still got a copy of the data crystal’s contents Karklosea had, right?”

  “Yes, Captain,” she replied, nodding.

  “Open it up.”

  “What’s this about?”

  “It’s about what EVE whispered to me.”

  From a drawer in her coffee table, Odelea pulled out the bloodstained data crystal and inserted into her personal computer that was part of her desk, sitting next to decorative plants. Her personal computer recognized her presence and activated automatically, shining holographic light across her face.

  The files that appeared on the holo screen had padlocked icons, heavily encrypted files. Not much progress had been made over the last eight months they had it. It was time to change that.

  “Everything is still encrypted,” Odelea said with a yawn.

  Foster smirked. “EVE, you reading this?”

  “Yes, Captain,” EVE’s voice replied over the speakers. “It would appear that I am correct, the refinery’s data recorder also received backup files created by the SOM personnel onboard.”

  “EVE might have come across the decryption codes of the data crystal,” Foster said.

  “Ah, I see why the secrecy then,” Odelea said.

  “Jainuzei can’t know this,” Foster said. “Not after what we know of him and how I saw him react when we
were aboard the refinery.”

  Odelea brought up all the encrypted files on the data crystal, making their holographic icons spin slowly. “This should be everything, EVE,” Odelea said. “Let’s see what they contain.”

  The padlock icons vanished, and the files and their secrets were decrypted. Reports and holo diagrams appeared with words written in the Radiance language. Odelea scanned them quickly with her eyes and translated.

  “Most of this is inventory the cult was keeping track of,” Odelea revealed. “And secret funds for their operations.”

  “Funds,” Foster said, wincing at the projection showing the multi-million credit balances the group had. “So, they weren’t operating alone.”

  “An outside source was funneling credits to them,” Odelea said. “Unfortunately, this is just a copy of the reports. We have no way of backtracking and checking where it came from or who sent it.”

  “What about all the stuff about the nebula? Why is it important to them?”

  Odelea double tapped an icon at the bottom of the holo screen’s list. A three-dimensional projection of the majestic and holy nebula rotated before the two women.

  “Not much else, just the facts we already know. They have a map of the nebula, star charts, and that there’s something called Kur within the center of it, beyond the barrier we encounter—” Odelea paused suddenly, leaning her face closer to the holo screen.

  She accessed a new projection, it was a ship, a gigantic one that easily dwarfed the size of the larger dreadnaughts the Empire and Union had ever made. Neither of the two recognized the strange design of the ship.

  “This is Kur,” Odelea said. “Kur is a ship.”

  “EVE does the specifications of the ship, Kur, match anything in your database?” Foster asked.

  “Scanning data and cross-referencing, please standby,” EVE said, then replied three seconds later. “Negative, there are no records of anyone in the UNE, Empire, or Union encountering a ship of this design.”

  “The Hallowed Nebula is supposed to be home to the Gods,” Odelea said. “Perhaps . . . this is a ship that served them?”

  “Or Lyonria,” Foster said. “Ain’t nobody seen their ships intact.”

  “There is another list of decryption codes I found on the data recorder,” EVE said. “Would you like me to show them to you?”

  Odelea yawned and said. “Yes please, EVE.”

  The final file was unlocked. It contained a list of schematics, blueprints, and holographic notes made by Saressea.

  Odelea’s fatigued face looked at the screen with her arms crossed as its blue and white light shined on her young face. “The vortex key specs?”

  Foster made a fierce scowl at the projection. “Well, son of a bitch,” she grunted.

  “According to this, the SOM wanted to build one as well,” Odelea said. “These look like Saressea’s files too, every single one of them.”

  Confirming Odelea’s suspicions, she played what appeared to be recorded HNI video seen from Saressea’s point of view. She was in the Kepler’s engineering, pulling apart the vortex key, and then retreating rapidly when tentacles reached out to her. One of the tentacles pulled her tail when she had turned her back to it.

  “How would the SOM have these files?” Odelea said, reclining back on her chair.

  Foster put it together quickly. She remembered the last day Saressea was aboard, and that she refused to save her updated files about the vortex key into the Kepler’s computers out of fear Maraschino would hack it. She kept everything saved in her HNI and had made plans to back them up to a data crystal at the end of the night. Only, she never returned to the Kepler, she was arrested, right when the threat of the SOM was made apparent.

  “Someone copied the contents of Saressea’s HNI,” Foster said.

  “That’s to be expected, the files on it would be used as evidence for her tribunal,” Odelea said. “But . . .”

  “But what was stopping someone high up in Radiance sending a copy of it to the cult? Hell, Saressea’s arrest might have been planned to steal the files from the very start. This was a setup Odelea.”

  “It couldn’t have been the council though,” Odelea said. “They were attacked by the SOM.”

  “Yeah, and then Jainuzei showed up miraculously, claiming to magically know where the group was hiding, he’s now conveniently our new liaison officer, and wants this data crystal. Then he did something to a drone that boarded us that forced the Kepler through that fissure.”

  The evidence stacking against Jainuzei grew larger. The enemy walked among the crew of the Kepler. It was a very disturbing thought when factoring in they were alone once again in the nebula with no means of receiving help.

  Odelea continued, this time accessing the newly recovered data files EVE obtained from the refinery. The Soldiers of Marduk’s were planning to construct their own vortex key, and the refinery they took over was to be the source of that. Video logs loaded, illustrating the group’s newfound ability to send signals through the ethereal fissures, and direct them to the maelstrom, luring Draconians to them. It was confirmation that Odelea was right, the fissures connection to aether space and the maelstrom were one and the same. Using the maelstrom as a means of travel meant traveling through one of the layers of aether space.

  The refinery had defense drones brought aboard. The purpose of the drones was to attack a Charybdis ship, board it, and take the device that would serve as the foundation for building their own vortex key. Doing so would have caused the Draconian fleet to withdraw like past encounters the UNE, Empire, and Union discovered. The Charybdis was the Draconians’ entrance and exit into the maelstrom, losing it meant the fleet would be stuck in whichever sector they ended up in.

  The group hoped that the drones disabling a Charybdis would make the Draconian flee, leaving the refinery alone to build a vortex key with Saressea’s files. After that, according to the data logs, the plan was to enter the maelstrom and bypass the Hallowed Nebula energy barrier, entering its core. At the center of the core, was the alien ship Kur.

  “Clearly, their plan to build a vortex key while repelling a Draconian attack failed,” Foster said.

  “Armuzei had pushed their plans ahead prematurely,” Odelea translated as the video log continued. “One of his psionics received a telepathic communication from elsewhere in the Union. Something about ruins being discovered on the Javnis homeworld. Armuzei and his team on the refinery weren’t ready, nor did they have enough drones operational, but he insisted that they acted right away. The ruins on the Javnis homeworld changed everything.”

  “What I’d like to know is,” Foster said. “If they had succeeded, who in the hell was gonna use the key? Obviously not me since they want to avenge Marduk.”

  “I think we both know who could answer that, Captain.”

  Foster and Odelea stood next to the medical bed Armuzei recovered on in sickbay. Jainuzei joined the two from behind, it couldn’t be avoided. He had been searching for the two ever since Foster pulled Odelea away from the bridge. After viewing the contents of the data crystal at last, plus the refinery’s black box data recorder, Foster could understand why.

  Jainuzei was either a member of the group or was plotting something else that required him to know what the cult was doing.

  “Jainuzei, what’s up?” Foster asked, playing dumb.

  “This is part of my investigation, Captain,” Jainuzei said. “We have one of the leaders of the SOM in captivity. I must interrogate him and report my findings to the council.”

  “Well since I was here before you,” Foster said. “I’m gonna ask the questions first, if you don’t mind.”

  “I do mind, Foster.”

  She waved him off. Foster was the captain, not him, and the gold-faced Javnis man recovering on the medical bed ahead, more or less painted a target on Foster, amongst other things.

  Foster nodded to the pregnant Doctor Kostelecky. She was due soon, and that didn’t make Foster feel comfortable knowi
ng the ship could be placed in grave danger at a moment’s notice. She admired Kostelecky for sticking with the team, regardless.

  Kostelecky injected a device into Armuzei’s neck, pumping him full of chems that revived the sedated two eyed Javnis. From what Foster was told Armuzei went into a frenzy when he realized he was brought aboard the Kepler. Miles had to be brought in to hold him down while Kostelecky sedated him.

  By the time Armuzei awoke, he looked up at everyone, laughing in a conceited manner.

  “Rise and shine, buttercup,” Foster said to Armuzei.

  “Rebecca Foster,” Armuzei said with his broken English. “You killed the king of Gods, Marduk. You, you face punishment soon, human!”

  Armuzei continued laughing. Jainuzei grabbed him by the collar, forcing his face to stare at him. “Do we amuse you, Javnis?” Jainuzei said.

  “Jainuzei,” Armuzei spat. “You look good for, dead man, eh? You Celestial Order favorite soldier boy, no?”

  Jainuzei muttered a curse in the native Aryile language. “I’m not with them!—”

  “Anymore!” Armuzei finished.

  “I was never a member!”

  “Who the fuck you fooling, Jainuzei?” Armuzei raged. “I should be the one that says that.”

  “You, Dienei, Byikanea . . .” Jainuzei said. “You were all exiled for your links to the Order.”

  “Hey, Jainuzei,” Kostelecky said to him. “You finished man-handling my patient?” She pointed at the fact he was still holding onto Armuzei’s collar. He gritted his flat teeth and released him.

  “Lies, all lies” Armuzei said. “We three innocent!”

  “They’re all gone, you know,” Jainuzei said. “Marrea, Dienei are dead, and Byikanea is probably on her way to prison or execution.”

  “You went and did it after all, huh?” Armuzei said, his two remaining Javnis eyes staring up at Jainuzei. “Kill off our leadership, even Marrea. You make me supreme ruler now you know? Should I fear you, or thank you?”