Hallowed Nebula

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Odelea eyed her computer’s holo screens. “It’s coming through now, Captain,” she reported.

  “It’s a rough map of Kur from what Saressea was able to learn and our last known tactical assessment of the area,” Teuei said.

  Odelea pushed a copy of the recently received intel as a holo screen to Foster. She caught it and brought it closer to her face, noting the maze of zigzagging halls and chambers that made up the inside of Kur. Teuei wasn’t kidding when he said it was rough. She handed the map to EVE to clean it up and compare it to what they knew about the size and shape of Kur.

  “Good luck, Captain,” Teuei finished. “We are all counting on you to please the Gods and end this chaos.”

  I ain’t doing this for your Gods; I’m doing this to prevent the return of one. Or a Goddess . . .

  The projection faded when the comm link was cut. It was time to leave and return to the race she hadn’t given up on.

  But they needed a plan first.

  “Odelea, can you get a hold of Peiun?”

  Down below the deck of the bridge, and adjacent to the captain’s office, sat the entire crew and guests aboard the Kepler’s briefing room, along with Peiun who came down from the Rezeki’s Rage. Rivera was running late according to the message left on Foster’s wrist terminal. Last-minute checks of the aquarium. Foster went on with the meeting anyway. Time was running out.

  They needed an attack plan to end this. The galaxy was about to have something awful and ancient unleashed upon it in the next few hours unless something was done.

  Foster stood and tapped the controls ahead of her. Floating above the circular table flashed a spinning three-dimensional hologram of Kur, updated with the intel Saressea sent to the Whisper.

  “This is a rough map of the interior of Kur,” Foster said, then loaded the next holographic slide, a fleet of ships battling for control of it. “And this shit here is the gauntlet we’s gonna have to punch through to get inside.”

  “Punch through . . .” Maxwell said, eying the hologram. “So, I guess opening a vortex over top of it isn’t an option?”

  “If we open one too close, we run the risk of flying into the crossfire, or a stray shot entering the vortex we’re tryin’ to exit,” Foster said.

  “Keep in mind this data is out of date,” Williams added.

  Pierce nodded to him. “That too, the position of the ships and numbers might have changed.”

  “We need to do what the old Imperial forces should have done back when they were at war with Radiance,” Foster said. “We need to enter from afar and assess where all the ships are, that means arrivin’ outside of it. This is the part where I’m glad those Hashmedai jumped in and got themselves killed all those years ago . . .”

  She changed the holo slide, and the ruined remains of old Imperial command ships appeared.

  “ . . . Cause we’s gonna need those drifting Swiss-cheesed ships for this to work.”

  66 Rivera

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Renterious Base, Riylor, Devaguai System

  July 30, 2119, 06:55 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Rivera ran into the briefing room in a skittish manner, taking a seat at one of the vacant chairs. A few eyes of the multi-species crew looked at her. Normally, she’d be embarrassed at being the person that caused the interruption. But today? She was ecstatic. Nobody probably noticed it, but those gathered around the table represented almost all the sentient life in the known galaxy.

  Human, Aryile, Javnis, Rabuabin, Vorcambreum, Linl, Hashmedai, and Undine. Half Poniga if you included the bun in Kostelecky’s oven. They were just missing a Qirak, but good luck getting them to do something heroic without paying them huge sums of money.

  “Sorry I’m late,” Rivera said. “I had to make sure the aquarium was working correctly.”

  “And is it, Rivera?” Williams asked.

  She nodded with a proud smile. “Good to go, Commander.”

  “Excellent work, Chief.”

  Foster continued, updating the hologram that spun and floated above the round table. It switched to a top-down view of the nebula’s core, listing the location of old Imperial command and warships. They looked older than the first human sailboats.

  “For those that don’t know, long ago the Empire sent ships via a space bridge jump into the middle of the nebula,” Foster said.

  “I was not aware of this,” Tolukei said.

  “It is true,” Peiun said. “Psionics in the Empire were never able to reach the psionics that served aboard those ships. It forced the rulers of the Empire, at the time, to change tactics.”

  “That’s because those ships were destroyed the moment they arrived,” Foster said. “Saressea suspects it was Kur that did it. I’m thinking, we use that debris as cover once we exit the vortex.”

  “I like it,” Chang chimed in. “There’s enough debris to eclipse the Kepler.”

  “And block all direct sensor scans as we see what’s up,” Foster said.

  Williams eyed the projection when it showed a simulation of the Kepler taking cover behind the wreckage of a command ship. “Wouldn’t that block our scans too?”

  “Not ESP,” Foster said. “Though, the same can be said for the bad guys as well. I reckon their shipboard psionics will be too distracted by the battle going on to notice us.”

  Tolukei’s four eyes glanced at the hologram from his hood. “It might be hard for me to sense what’s going on from that distance, Captain,” he said. “I will be forced to enter an extremely deep trance, one that will prevent me from doing much.”

  “We got Nereid back, she can take over.”

  “Only, she’s gonna be in the tank controlling the goo,” Kostelecky said.

  “We won’t need it once we arrive,” Rivera said. “We could pull her out, clean her up then send her back to the bridge.”

  “Are you up for that, Nereid?” Foster asked her. “You looked stressed when you last used it.”

  “It was taxing on my body,” Nereid said. “But I will do my best to get back to the bridge quickly.”

  “That means there’ll be a gap before she’s ready,” Williams said. “Shields will be the only thing that will help us. If we’re detected and lose them before she makes it back . . .”

  “We’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Foster said.

  “What about the Rezeki’s Rage?” Pierce added. “Aren’t they supposed to come along?”

  “Indeed,” Peiun said. “How will we protect my ship from the maelstrom’s clouds?”

  Foster looked at Rivera. “Shouldn’t be an issue, right, Rivera?”

  “Just like with the Gerard Kuiper,” Rivera said, changing the hologram to a cutaway of the Gerard Kuiper. “Nereid should be able to make the goo jump to other ships. The Rezeki’s Rage, just like the command ship the Terrans control, will need to be close while we’re in the maelstrom.”

  “Out of curiosity, how does that work?” Peiun asked.

  “I don’t know but I suspect that the psionic powers of a Nereid and a Charybdis ship are on the same level. Tiamat did play a role in the Undine’s evolution, there’s probably a connection.”

  “You cool with that, Peiun?” Foster asked.

  He nodded. “If you are confident this will work, then yes.”

  With that out of the way, Rivera saw Foster change the hologram to Kur, showing its size compared to the Kepler. It was massive, the size of a large city, maybe even larger.

  “As you can see, Kur is big, big enough for the Kepler to land on,” Foster said. “Once we assess what we’re up against, and punch through, we’s need to make a landing on it fast and breach our way inside.”

  “So, we’ll be sitting ducks while we land on it?” Chang asked.

  “Kur is too important to the Draconians and Terran alliance,” Williams said. “I doubt they’ll risk shooting at us at that range, they might miss and hit Kur.”

  “They will blow us away if we’re not on it though,” Chevalli
er said.

  “Yep, that’s why we’s gonna have to punch through the fleet hard and fast, and land quickly,” Foster said. “The Rezeki’s Rage can cover us and the Prometheus too.”

  “Wouldn’t that blow their cover?” Chevallier asked.

  “Ain’t got no choice.”

  “The Rezeki’s Rage won’t last long without their support,” Peiun added. “Remember, we were separated from our shipboard psionic and will be operating with shields only.”

  “Keep in mind, the Rezeki’s Rage has to make it back to the Empire in one piece,” Foster said. “It and its crew are the only proof that exists that’ll expose the alliance the Taxah Hashmedai made. Needless to say, this is gonna be an all-or-nothing push once we move out. No matter what happens, we keep going and don’t look back.”

  “Chang, you think you can do it?” Williams asked him.

  Chang’s reply was slow as he analyzed the hologram, carefully looking at the distance he had to force the Kepler to cross and the Draconian and Terran alliance ships that will be shooting.

  “As long as I don’t have to worry about weapons, yeah,” he finally said.

  “Vynei can man them again to help out,” Williams said. “And with Rivera back, EVE won’t have to hold down engineering solo.”

  Vynei sent his agreement with a nod.

  The hologram shifted again, changing into a top-down image of Kur, the estimated locations of the halls below and the estimated landing zone.

  “Kur has a number of small entrances along its top section, I’m guessing some kind of airlocks,” Foster explained. “According to Saressea, the SOM used them to enter, so we’s gonna do the same and push our way to her last known location. We take back Lisette and Saressea, expose Jainuzei and Alisha to their friends, then expose the Taxah Hashmedai to the Empire and make ‘em panic and flee out of fear for what the Empress and Emperor will do to them. After that, the Terrans lose their friends and the dragons muck them up.”

  “Sounds like we won’t be teleporting in then,” LeBoeuf said, her face motioning to the hologram of Kur.

  “They have a psionic with them,” Williams said. “We port in, they’ll detect it. We sneak in the backdoor, and they won’t unless we run into them.”

  “What about Kur itself, eh?” Miles said. “What’s gonna stop ‘hem dragons from takin’ it?”

  “I’d say nuke the fuck out of it,” LeBoeuf said. “But we don’t have any of those.”

  “A ship that big must have a powerful reactor,” Rivera said. “Set it to overload? Do some damage to it so it would meltdown and explode?”

  “We’ll have to figure that out,” Foster said. “But Lisette seems to be the key for the Draconian’s victory and the SOM. If they don’t have her, they got nothin’.”

  “How do we make this all happen?” Penelope spoke up. “I mean, look at the map of that place, it’s a bloody maze.”

  “This is all one big race,” Foster said. “Landing on Kur is the first lap, getting through it is the other.”

  “We’re going to have to break up into teams,” Williams said.

  “Good idea,” Foster said. “I’ll lead the main team; if there’s Draconian tech, my tattoos might be able to access it. And based on the intel from Saressea about Alisha, that will be the case. Dom, you can take command of the Kepler while I’m gone. It will be a sitting duck and vulnerable to boarding parties. Need your leadership in keeping things together for our return—”

  “Wait,” Chevallier cut in. “We got a lot of people here, we should split our boarding teams. One to protect the Kepler from boarding parties, Foster’s team, and a third fire team to draw out enemy forces, make them think twice about attacking your team, Foster.”

  Rivera saw Foster’s face go through the motions, building three teams on the spot. She wondered which team she’d be a part of. As much as she understood the critical nature of things, she would not pick up a gun and shoot, no matter what was at stake.

  Foster revealed the teams. “Williams, Nereid, Chang, Pierce, Doctor Kostelecky, Eicelea, Vynei, Rivera, EVE, and Bailey. You guys stay aboard the Kepler, Williams in command, Pierce back him up. Nereid handles psionic support for them, and Vynei you know how to shoot, right? You can assist Chang and EVE who does as well. Rivera, Eicelea, Kostelecky, and Bailey support the team with whatever you can do.”

  “Bailey, want to be my nurse?” Kostelecky asked him with a snarky tone. “There’s only so much I can do in my state, and as much as it bothers me to say this, I’m expecting casualties.”

  Bailey laughed. “Just tell me what you need.”

  “Y’all need to hold the fort so that we can come home,” Foster said. “And if things get really bad, Chang . . .”

  “I’ll pull away and take everyone to safety,” Chang said. “Don’t worry, Captain.”

  “What? Oh, hell, naw, y’all come get us! Then you leave,” Foster spat. “I’m the only one that can get us back home anyway.”

  “I’ll lead the assault team with EDF,” Chevallier said.

  Foster shook her head. “Don’t like the name of that . . .” she said. “Assault team is so aggressive. We ain’t EISS black ops operatives.”

  “Also,” Chevallier added and faced the silent Linl Templar. “Karklosea is tough; I’d like to have her with us.”

  There were no objections to that as Odelea translated to her, Karklosea agreed. Rivera could have translated as well, but she was too busy laying out a game plan for her to keep the Kepler’s engines at maximum efficiency during the burn to Kur.

  “With Karklosea there, Chevallier’s team is going to have a lot of psionics,” Williams said.

  “Of course it is,” Chevallier said. “We need to make a lot of noise and have the biggest boom. Anyone that comes after us won’t survive long.”

  “I’m still open to suggestions for a nonaggressive name,” Foster said drily.

  “TSTAR,” Miles suggested. “Threat Suppression and Terrain Assessment Recon.”

  “Whatever,” Foster said with a grin. “So TSTAR team one, being my team will be, me, Odelea, Miles, Tolukei, and Penelope. Miles, you’ll be the guns, Penelope you can hack anything, might be useful against resistance that has HNI and other computers we might encounter. Tolukei, psionic support and teleportation to escape if things get bad, and since they’re pushing deep into this, maybe your Muodiry powers will come in handy. Odelea, we’s gonna be the team that pushes in deep, and ain’t none of us speak the languages on that ship. Gonna need that amazing brain of yours to read monitors.”

  “Your teams will need to be quick,” Peiun said. “As said earlier, the Rezeki’s Rage is, what you humans would call, a glass cannon in our state. The Prometheus won’t be able to support us forever. If we’re lost or forced to retreat, you will have more enemy forces dropping into your location.”

  “Peiun is right, speed is everything here folks,” Foster said, and then faced everyone. Rivera saw her take a deep breath.

  “I know the last while has been stressful, we’ve all been through a lot,” Foster said as she shut off the hologram. “But we need to get this done; the galaxy is depending on us, now more than ever. The Terran Legion, the Taxah Hashmedai, and the SOM, they all represent the worst humans, Hashmedai, and Radiance races have to offer. Xenophobia, the need for conquest through violence, and blind fanatic faith through false Gods. But one thing they do right is work together, unlike the UNE, Empire, and Union.

  “Make no mistake, today, that’s gonna change, today we’re going display a show of force in our Earth built ship, co-founded by Radiance, with a human Radiance crew, and our Hashmedai guests, while an Imperial warship, and a ship controlled by Radiance intelligence backs us up. We’s gonna break up this group and do it in front of the dragons and show we mean business, show them that we ain’t gonna lose. This galaxy, as splintered and divided as it is, is our home and we prefer peace than war. If the dragons want to live in it, then they’s gonna have to learn to talk with us rather t
han fight.”

  She paused and looked at the team. They looked back at their brave leader.

  “Everyone understand their role?” Foster asked. Everyone nodded. “Then let’s get moving. Dismissed.”

  Rivera remained sitting as everyone cleared the room. She felt uneasy about the coming conflict. That uneasiness was on the same level when Sarpanit had been living in her HNI. And that was because nobody mentioned Sarpanit. Regrettably, she wished she did.

  Sarpanit, last time she checked, was in her new android body aboard the Gerard Kuiper. Was she still a player in all this? Where did she fit in all this? Would she be a threat? The current intel said no, but Rivera’s experiences said, maybe.

  67 Foster

  XSV Johannes Kepler

  Riylor Orbit, Devaguai System

  July 30, 2119, 07:32 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The Johannes Kepler joined the Rezeki’s Rage in orbit of the large habitable moon, its parent gas giant eclipsing the star-filled void behind. In engineering of the Johannes Kepler, Foster stood ahead of the vortex key, waving away the white mist the mysterious alien device released.

  Opposite her was the aquarium Rivera crafted, it looked nearly identical to the one found on the Gerard Kuiper, complete with storage vats for the goo. Nereid stood before that as Rivera opened the aquarium’s door for her. Nereid had a bath towel draped over her frame, she was naked underneath it.

  According to Nereid, the process of her swimming in the goo and merging her mind with it was a daunting task that required a tremendous amount of focus and determination. Clothing was always a burden for Nereid, her people naturally spent their lives not wearing much, if at all. Entering the tank in the nude supposedly would help with her concentration. Foster was quick to turn away when Nereid pulled the towel off her frame, allowing the artificial gravity of the Kepler to pull it to the floor.

  She heard the aquarium’s door shut and lock. Nereid gave the okay to turn it on, played from speakers installed on the aquarium’s side, a modification Rivera added. The transparent cube-shaped construct Nereid entered in pumped full of the goo. After two minutes she was completely immersed in it, swimming about. From there she entered the psionic trance and her body remained still, stimulating the goo to bend to her will, making it multiply and pump into the pipes, and spread across the hull of the ship.