“Then we revived you,” Foster said. “He said you were the key to either Marduk or Tiamat’s resurrection. Did they happen to explain why?”
“Look, I’m just having the worst fucking vacation of my life, nothing more.”
Dead space deities coming back to life to enslave the galaxy in their own image. Foster wasn’t sure which one to resurrect if the choice boiled down to her, there was no third option. Jainuzei stood impatiently waiting for Foster on the bridge, next to the opening to her office a deck below it. Whatever it was he wanted to talk about, it needed to be in private.
She took a seat at her desk, mused at the empty coffee mug ahead of her computer. She forgot to put it in the dishwasher. Jainuzei took a seat at the opposite end of her desk, shuddered a bit since human room temperatures were considered cold to Aryile.
“What’s on your mind?” she asked.
“Armuzei is our enemy, not me,” he said. “You must believe me.”
“I don’t doubt that he is, that’s why we’s heading back to Radiance space. Gonna hand him over to your government.”
“That’s why I’m here, Captain. Can we delay that?”
“Why?”
“This was my mission,” he said. “I need to redeem myself, and these Marduk cultists tried to have my son killed. I’m a man of honor, and it is my duty to restore it to my children who are now the most powerful Aryile in the galaxy by undoing the dishonor I brought to the Radiance Union. Let me have this, let me be the one that brings him in and takes the credit. In truth, I only offered to join this crew because this ship and its mission was the only way to complete mine. Now, I’m close to that. Let’s place him in cryo, it’s the closest thing we have to a brig. When the time is right after we return to Radiance space, you can surrender him to me, and I will be the one that brings him in.”
“Only, ain’t none of that will be the truth, we all played a role in capturing him.”
“And you played a role in hindering a Radiance investigation.”
“In what way?”
“Karklosea removed a data crystal from the Soldiers of Marduk hut,” Jainuzei said. “It’s here on this ship, and you have been keeping it a secret.”
She winced slightly trying her best to put on a poker face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”
“That,” Jainuzei cut in, jamming his finger at her. “That is a lie. I found blood near the data crystal slot on the transport. I had the doctor run a DNA scan and compare it to Karklosea, it’s a match. You took the data crystal, studied its contents, and lied to me about it. What you said in sickbay to him was proof of that, how else would you have known those facts? EVE has also been working on examining the refinery’s data recorder and I’m willing to wager only you were told of its contents. So please, Captain, stop lying to me or I’ll inform the council that we’ve been trespassing in the nebula—”
“Stop,” Foster said, holding the palms of her hands out to him. “Stop, just stop, you lost me two sentences in.”
“Would you like me to repeat it?”
“Oh goodness gracious, no! I gots the gists of it.” Foster took a deep breath, rubbing the side of her head. “But jammin’ your finger at the commanding officer of this ship, calling her a liar, in her Goddamn office. That ain’t cool, man.”
She made sure the last words were strong and firm. She was in command. This was her ship and her show, not his. If Jainuzei had any problems with it, he could exit the way he came in, through the airlock.
“So, Captain,” he said, keeping his gaze at her. “What will your decision be?”
Since Jainuzei’s return from the dead, according to Radiance, he’d done nothing but clash with the SOM. Whatever it was he did in his past must have been something really bad, and now he just wanted to make things right by getting rid of this group and putting an end to their plans to resurrect Marduk.
“Very well,” she said with hesitation.
It was the quickest way out of the situation that would make all parties happy. Jainuzei got his target, the council wouldn’t give her grief for entering the nebula, and the last free leader of the SOM would go nowhere with his plans.
And the best part, they could continue on course to locating the Gerard Kuiper, the primary reason they returned to the nebula. Handing Armuzei over to Radiance would require a lengthy detour and return to the nearest Radiance colonies, after finding a fissure that could take them there.
Foster had Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf accompany her to sickbay where Armuzei remained in his on again off again sedated state. He was developing a resistance to the chemicals, Javnis physiology was at work. There was no brig on the Kepler. Foster typed a quick note on her wrist terminal to have one installed. Yes, it wasn’t a warship, but on the other hand, it was probably going to be needed if they were going to keep running into bad people every step of their journey.
The four brought Armuzei to the Kepler’s newly restored cryo chamber. As Foster prepared a cryo pod for him, Jainuzei strode in behind the group. Armuzei’s face was neutral while his arms and hands remained bound behind his back.
They looked at him, expecting him to say something of importance, he didn’t. That was until he took several steps forward, his Aryile eyes glancing at the numerous cryo pods hanging on the walls.
“Jainuzei,” Foster said to him. “Ain’t you’s a bit early to grab Armuzei?—”
There was a struggle behind the two. Armuzei was resisting Miles, Maxwell, and LeBoeuf, jerking his arms and legs, doing everything he could to prevent the three from forcing him into the cryo pod. Foster was surprised LeBoeuf or Maxwell didn’t knock him out with their psionic powers.
She caught Jainuzei fingering the command terminal for the cryo pods. It was unnecessary as they had already prepped and activated the one needed for Armuzei, and Jainuzei knew that. She began to regret accepting his terms and placed a hand on his shoulder to yank him back.
Jainuzei delivered a swift backhanded blow across Foster’s face. It made her eyesight flash.
She stumbled from the sudden burst of pain in her head, using a nearby cryo pod to steady her balance. Miles had seen the attack and ditched his task of getting Armuzei into the pod to confront Jainuzei.
“Okay!” Miles roared at Jainuzei. “That’s enough, pal—”
She heard fists swing through the air and sounds of two brawny men wrestling and tossing each other about until someone’s skull cracked against a cryo pod. Jainuzei was betraying them, Armuzei liked it and used the unexpected distraction to leap out from his pod and attack Maxwell and LeBoeuf.
When Foster shook off the ringing in her head, she saw Jainuzei rapidly smashing his fists into Miles’s red-soaked face and beard when he was on the ground. After the ninth blow, Miles wasn’t moving. Foster didn’t catch what happened to the psionic duo, LeBoeuf was on the floor back first with her head cracked open, and Maxwell just finished eating a boot to the face by Armuzei, who held a blood-dripping extinguisher in his hands. He then took the extinguisher to Maxwell’s head. Like Miles, Maxwell wasn’t moving anymore.
It was Foster’s turn.
She faced Jainuzei first who was closer and demonstrated to him that her workout routine over the last eight months had been paying off. Foster held her ground, exchanging punches and kicks with the behemoth-sized Aryile weapons master. She even managed to catch him off guard and tackle him to the floor like she was a superstar MMA fighter.
Had she been watching her back, instead of drilling her fists into Jainuzei’s face, she would have seen Armuzei come up from behind with the fire extinguisher.
Her vision went black.
When it came back, she saw the glass casing to a cryo pod close and snap shut before her. Her crimson and sticky hands hit the glass that imprisoned her, while the start-up phase for cryostasis began, freezing her inside the makeshift brig that was meant for Armuzei.
Seconds before Foster went to sleep, for God knew how long, she saw Jainuzei go to releas
e the set of cryo pods on the top rack in the chamber.
They were in use. And likely had been the moment they were brought aboard to replace the old damaged ones. Someone from Pria smuggled unwanted guests aboard the Kepler.
She felt stupid for not checking the contents of the new pods, then again, why would she? Especially the pods on the top rack where you couldn’t see the glass casing very well.
Those were the last thoughts Foster had when her body became frozen in time.
48 Rivera
ESRS Gerard Kuiper
Unknown Planet Orbit, Unknown System
July 22, 2119, 09:42 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Gerard Kuiper had become a second home to Rivera since its discovery. She slept in one of its many vacant quarters, while teams from Radiance were brought aboard via the wormhole on the surface to help restore the ship and solve its mystery.
She kept her belongings in her backpack, including Buddha, and the bong. Both items came out after her shifts, and back in when it was time for work. It was a means to remind her she wasn’t going to be on the ship long. Just another day and she’d be heading back to the Kepler, she told herself every morning.
Penelope, Eicelea, and Vynei all became residents on the ship as well, though they were using it as a means to explore the planet and its ruins. It was quicker to drop down from orbit than travel back and forth from the hotel and into the ruins.
Penelope spent her days locked in her quarters, sifting through data she collected from the knowledge network during their brief time returning back to Takarius. There was a greater link to Marduk’s origins with the planet than what everyone else was able to find. Penelope was determined to figure out. It was something to be concerned of when factoring in the growing presence of the SOM throughout Radiance. Unconfirmed reports made it to Takarius that the group was seen in large numbers at Pria.
Then there was the Gerard Kuiper itself. According to Alisha, the captain of the ship, it vanished mysteriously after they changed course to travel to Kapteyn’s Star system. Alisha had awoken from cryo seconds after Rivera and the others had boarded the first time, activated by the Gerard Kuiper’s EVE as a precaution. Only, Alisha was the only survivor.
Alisha wasn’t able to explain the cause of the failed cryo pods which killed the crew, the ship’s QEC transmitting false data that it was in grave danger, or why it was disabled internally afterward. Sabotage Alisha suspected, someone on the ship wanted the galaxy to believe the Gerard Kuiper had been destroyed so nobody would search for it. Which was exactly what happened.
As the days went on, Alisha was quick to get along with the Radiance teams, like Rivera, Alisha was fluent in the Radiance language. Turns out she used to work for Radiance R&D back in the early 2040s.
Every section of the ship had repair crews floating before opened wall panels or computers making various repairs or upgrades. They were eager to see the ship on its way, it was after all inside the Hallowed Nebula, holy territory to Radiance, and forbidden for anyone to enter. It was the reason why the planet and star had no name, let alone had been explored. This was the land of the Gods. She wondered how Eicelea and Vynei brought themselves to explore the planet regardless of those facts. Their devotion to their Gods must not have been as strong as others in Radiance she figured.
Rivera was about to finish her shift for the day as the acting chief engineer for the Gerard Kuiper, when her computer screen flashed errors. Then forgot the computer station she worked on had some of its parts guttered to restore another, its fan to be exact. It was overheating.
She drifted into the cargo bay seeking a replacement fan for the computer. Then saw a number of cargo boxes opened, all of them missing their contents. She was certain nobody brought aboard recently accessed the cargo bay. A quick check of the requisition logs confirmed that. The ship was brand new, and its cargo bay had never been accessed according to logs and shouldn’t have.
The section of the cargo bay she was in was reserved for spare parts and raw materials. She floated into the machine shop next, if anyone took parts from those crates, it’d end up in there to build something. The tools and equipment in the machine shop showed visible signs of usage. She scanned it with her EAD, and its glowing holo screen reported the equipment was most likely used before the ship vanished.
Computer logs reported that a crew member by the name Lieutenant Yale was the one that logged in to use the shop. Yale was probably the one that took the materials from the cargo bay back when the ship was still in Sirius and had not filled out a requisition report.
Rivera went to access the Gerard Kuiper’s manifest. Yale’s name wasn’t on it, and she triple checked it to make sure. There were quarters on the habitat ring assigned to them, however. Her curiosity took her up the elevator to the ring, weighing her body down with artificial gravity from its constant rotational spin.
She used her HNI to establish a one on one link with Penelope, whose holographic likeness appeared over her eyes. “Hey, Penelope,” she said in greeting.
Penelope in the projection was lying on her bed and pushed away a number of holo screens around her. “Yes?”
“Have you come across the name Lieutenant Yale at all since coming aboard?” Rivera said.
“Yes,” Penelope said. “There’s a cryo pod with their name on it.”
“Do you see their name on the manifest? ‘Cause I don’t.”
“No, I don’t,” she replied after a quick search.
“Lieutenant Yale used the machine shop when this ship was in Sirius, and probably took stuff out from the cargo bay, without filing a requisition report. Oh, and he has quarters assigned to him.”
“I’m going to pay my respects to his skeleton in the cryo chamber,” Penelope said. “Care to join me?”
“I’m on my way to Yale’s quarters now.”
She saw Penelope leap up from her bed in the projection. “Don’t!”
“Just going to take a look.”
“Wait for me, I’d hate for you to walk into a room full of sleeping dragons. This ship did vanish like the Sagan and Sword, both due to the Draconians.”
Penelope met Rivera in the corridors of the habitat ring, and the two strode to the quarters of Yale. The door to Yale’s quarters wasn’t hard to find, it was not only locked but had extra security locks attached to it. Either someone didn’t want people entering, or someone didn’t want what was on the inside from leaving.
“Well, fancy that,” Penelope said, looking down at the locks.
Rivera faced her, grimacing. “You can get it open, right?”
A wave of Penelope’s hand turned the red flashing lights on the first set of locks green. “This is vintage tech to me,” Penelope said. “The security encryption is weak compared to today’s standards.”
All red lights on the door and the external lockout devices turned green. Penelope flicked away her holo screens and their malicious codes as the two went to remove the external locks, and then opened the door.
What they saw when the doors opened didn’t look like quarters that would belong to an IESA officer. It was devoid of all furniture, and heavily modified with computers along the sides of the walls and had something that looked like a large aquarium in the center of the room. The machine shop had to have been used to build it, and the opened crates in the cargo bay supplied the materials.
The two looked back, nobody was in the corridors. They entered, shutting the door behind them, and closely examined the room. Rivera activated her EAD app in her HNI and ran a scan of everything starting with the central aquarium. It was shaped roughly like a cube made of glass and had a door on its front side that swung open when pulled.
It was tall, a lot taller than Rivera, with crude cables connected to the bottom of it that created a trip hazard for anyone that walked in between the aquarium and the computers at the side. There was nothing inside the aquarium, and Rivera had a sinking feeling it wasn’t used to store goldfish or study aquatic life. The lab on the sh
ip had more than enough equipment to pull that off.
Large vats of a chemical substance were placed next to the aquarium, they had connecting pipes which looked like they were designed to pump in some form of liquid. Three sets of pipes at the back of the aquarium traveled across the floor into the walls. Rivera and Penelope took deep scans of those.
“These pipes seem to end at the outer hull of the ship,” Rivera said, analyzing her EAD’s data on a holo screen. “Whatever gets pumped through these pipes goes out into space, just outside the exterior of the habitat ring.”
Rivera upped the scanning power of her EAD. It allowed her to see through the walls, the insides of computers and their complex wires, data crystals, and electronics. She confirmed that the pipes from behind the aquarium to the walls, and the vats, were all connected. Someone used the vats to fill the aquarium up with a liquid and then pumped it out through the rear pipes.
But not before allowing someone, or something, to enter the aquarium via its front door.
She scanned the vats next, attempting to learn what was inside. The data that outputted in her virtual vision made her take a step back, and then two more after she confirmed traces of the vat’s contents were inside the aquarium and the three pipes going into the walls.
“What’s wrong?” Penelope asked.
“It’s the protective goo,” Rivera said. “The same goo we needed to survive inside the maelstrom.”
“That explains how the Gerard Kuiper got here then,” Penelope said. “It went through a maelstrom.”
Rivera backed away in a haunted manner, taking in the full view of the room. “These were human-built though. The crew did it on purpose; they knew they needed it to survive.”
“I see nothing wrong here,” Penelope said. “They were trapped and probably figured out the goo would protect them and built a system to administer it.”
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