Equilibrium of Terror: Part 1 (Splintered Galaxy Book 3) Read online

  … … …

  ►► Silver Raven at Courelia spaceport dock, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Eupiar’s hands were placed over her mouth as she witnessed Jazz’s fall from a nearby camera. “Oh no,” she whispered.

  Veloshira watched from behind, and released a loud hiss after realizing neither Jazz or the Linl woman were moving after the fall.

  “Talk to me, Eupiar,” Destiny transmitted having overheard Eupiar’s shaken voice.

  “Jazz, he’s down.”

  “He was a fool to go out there,” Veloshira said. “I’m going for him.”

  Eupiar said in Hashmedai, “No, according to this, that psionic and commando are moving toward tram stop platforms, probably trying to catch Destiny!”

  “The human female is of little concern to me. My apprentice is however.”

  “If he’s dead it’s wasted time,” Eupiar said. “Destiny can’t fight those two alone.”

  “Eupiar, how long can you keep this tram going?” Destiny’s voice crackled.

  Eupiar returned to her laptop, while Veloshira armed herself with her plasma daggers and rifle, and headed toward the exit. “I’m trying to reroute to the station nearest to us, but that station is a terminus, if they catch on, they will ambush you there.”

  Eupiar turned in her chair toward Veloshira. “Please....”

  “I’ve made my choice. You save your partner,” Veloshira said, activating her cloaking device. “And I’ll save mine.”

  CHAPTER 6

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Radiance Base, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Two missed trams and one missed connection later, Chloe arrived at her destination a local Radiance military and recruitment base. It was a midsized compound with a reception desk at the front, barracks in the back and a launch pad with a dozen idle transports.

  A Javnis man sat and the reception desk, three of his eyes were focused on his computer terminal while the last one raised upward Chloe as she walked in. She saw a few rangers behind him chatting with another as they stepped out of sight into the galley.

  “Oh, I wasn’t aware there were other humans here,” the Javnis said as Chloe stopped in front of the desk.

  “Long story,” she said. “I’m Major Chloe Vaughan of Earth.”

  “Yes, of the human extrasolar defense force.”

  “Is it possible I can speak with your superiors? I ran into an odd situation I need assistance with.”

  “I guess you didn’t hear the news.”

  “What news?”

  “We just got word from the capital. The council voted three to two in favor of withdrawing support for Earth.”

  She paused and grimaced while she took in the news, part of her was expecting him to say he was ‘just joking...’ But no such words were said, never mind the fact Javnis didn’t have the best sense of humor to start with.

  “Seriously? Why the hell would they do that? We’re allies,” she said.

  “I agree. However, the decision has been made, all humans are to be deported back to Earth.”

  “What about the people living at Alpha Centauri?” she asked. He stared blankly at her not knowing what she was saying. Oh right, they call it another name. “Lejorania, whatever you guys call that system.”

  “Deportation as well,” he said, then stood and walked toward her. “With that said, I’m going to have to ask you to stay. You too will need to be sent back to Earth.”

  “I don’t think so!”

  “Please don’t make a scene, I side with you on this, but we have our orders straight from the council. Lucky for you, the Abyssal Explorer is in the system, that’s the ship you first traveled on from Earth, correct?” She gave him a reluctant nod. “At least you’ll be able to catch up with some old friends.”

  … … …

  ►► Abyssal Explorer, Rasi orbit

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Both Karklosea and Stolanei’s weightless bodies floated within the meditation chambers located deep within the ship. The two psionics floated side by side with their cybernetics emitting a faint glow and their hands folded together.

  The exercise was intended to help clear one’s mind and promote stronger control of their psionic gifts. On some rare occasions, one could temporarily enter a state of astral projection, resulting in their thoughts leaving their body, leaving the ship, and traveling throughout the cosmos. What neither of them was expecting however, was their minds to be projected toward Oyuri at the same time, more specially toward its eternal solar eclipse.

  A woman dressed in a black dress with long black hair hovered in the skies. Her presence hovered in the skies, directly in the middle of the moon that eclipsed the star. The woman’s arms stretched out and she began chanting words that made no sense, with the exception of the last words that slipped away from her lips. “The celestial ascension awaits us all.”

  The vision ended.

  Karklosea and Stolanei’s bodies jerked forward while their arms briefly flailed as if they awoke from a horrific nightmare. “My gods,” Stolanei said. “That was unexpected.”

  “Did you have a vision?”

  “Yes. A woman.”

  “On Oyuri,” Karklosea said, running her fingers through her blonde floating hair, “her name was—”

  “Bridge to Stolanei,” Ueyei’s voice transmitted over the intercom.

  “What is it?” he said.

  “Our base on the surface claims to have an old friend drop by,” Ueyei said. “They want you to teleport down and meet with them.”

  “Go ahead, I think we’re done for now,” Karklosea said to Stolanei. “I need to be alone with my thoughts while I process what just happened.”

  Stolanei informed the captain he’d be heading down to the planet. As he floated toward the exit Karklosea called out to him. “Hannah. The woman from the vision, her name was Hannah.”

  “Sounds like a human name,” he said. “How do you know?”

  Karklosea tried to put together how that knowledge came into her head. But nothing came to mind, even the contents of the vision were slowly slipping away from her memory with each passing second. “I wish I knew. Gods help us all if this is some kind of omen.”

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Radiance Base, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  A psionic teleported into the reception area, out from the bright blue light stepped an old friend of Chloe, one she somewhat felt she owed a lot to.

  “Chloe,” Stolanei said, smiling at her.

  Thanks to Stolanei’s intervention during the invasion, she was able to not only get the heads up of a Hashmedai assassin tracking her. But learn that the Celestial Order implanted a device to record her memories and were targeting her sister Sarah for some crazy experiment.

  “Stolanei,” she said in greeting. “Been a while, what are you guys doing out here?”

  “We traveled here shortly after we dropped you off at Lejorania Sanctum,” he said. “Sorry about the council’s new ruling, I just heard about it myself.”

  Chloe could see that Stolanei was looking at her in a strange manner.

  “Something wrong?” she asked.

  “You look like someone else I know.” He shook his head then continued. “Anyways, what brings you out here?”

  Chloe cocked her head back toward the Javnis at the desk and the odd ranger that walked through the halls in the back. “Can’t talk about it here.”

  Several armored and rifle wielding rangers stormed from the barracks, marching up the stairs to the upper landing pad. Both Chloe and Stolanei gazed at them with apprehension growing across their face. The Javnis receptionist quickly accessed his computer in response.

  “What’s going on?” she asked the Javnis.

  He faced both Chloe and Stolanei and said. “The Patriarch has been attacked!”

  “Vaishea and Dargonea,” Stolanei mumbled to himself then addressed t
he Javnis. “What do you know?”

  “We’re still getting reports in now,” he said, accessing more information on his computer. “Someone attacked the temple, two rangers are dead. The attackers fled on foot.”

  “Vaishea, come in,” Stolanei said, activating his communication device. “Vaishea come in.”

  There was no reply. Chloe then saw Stolanei shut his eyes while his index finger rested on the side of his head. After a period of silence Chloe asked. “Anything?”

  Stolanei opened his eyes. “Dargonea is blocking me from contacting her telepathically. But I can sense where her thoughts are.” He started walking toward the stairs and waved to Chloe to follow him. “We’re going with those rangers. Members of my crew were at the temple during the attack, and I might be able to track one of them.”

  The Javnis got up from his seat and moved his body to block both Chloe and Stolanei. “She needs to get ready for deportation.”

  “We can deal with that later! If this is the heretics at work, we’re going to need her help,” Stolanei said, pushing the Javnis aside

  “What makes her so special?” the Javnis asked as they made it half way up the stairs.

  “Stolanei worked with us humans long enough to learn one critical thing about our kind,” Chloe faced the Javnis with a smirk. “Payback’s a bitch. Now hook me up with some gear, let’s do this.”

  … … …

  Minutes after Chloe and Stolanei left, the Javnis reached out to interact with his communicator. It connected with a hidden channel used by those loyal to the Celestial Order or those hired to aid the group.

  “Change of plans, she insists on heading out,” he said. “Let our associates know, and don’t forget what Hannah said about the Major.”

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Jainuzei and Dargonea stood top of a high-rise skyscraper in the financial district as they watched and tracked the movement of the tram the human female escaped to.

  “There,” Jainuzei said, pointing toward it. “It’s skipping all the stations it’s supposed to stop at.”

  “Where do you think its heading?”

  He continued to look down at the tracks and the surrounding area, looking for something that would give the human an edge. A location that they would greatly benefit from. Off in the distance, he saw it. “The landing pad,” he said. “At those speeds and its current path...”

  “She plans to make an escape off world,” Dargonea said. “I’ll teleport us to the station she’s most likely to get off at.”

  … … …

  Veloshira wondered how much higher standing in the empire she could get if she began slaying every single Radiance civilian while she crept through the streets. So many people, so many of them unaware that a Hashmedai assassin was moving in the shadows more than capable of dismembering their bodies.

  Further up she saw the closest intersection to the condos Jazz was fighting in. Just a few more minutes, she thought and continued to move through the streets, undetected. All while hoping to avoid encountering someone with a good pair of eyes that might see the distortion field from her cloak. In the end, locating Jazz as quickly as possible was much more important than entering a kill frenzy to impress the empress.

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Spaceport tram platform, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Jainuzei and Dargonea materialized from her teleportation light, directly facing the closest tram platform to the landing pad. Dargonea shouted toward all of the civilians waiting at the platform to leave at once. Jainuzei’s imposing body armed with a wide assortment of weapons only encouraged people to follow suit and run. In a matter of minutes the entire station was devoid of anyone with the exception of them.

  Jainuzei tilted his head to the right to see how far away the tram was. While he looked, he saw something in the air above. “There’s a transport heading toward us,” he said.

  “Must be Stolanei, trying to make himself look good in the eyes of his master,” said Dargonea. “He tried to touch my mind not long ago.”

  “Deal with him, we cannot have the union interfere any more than they already have.”

  “Our associates will have it taken care of.”

  … … …

  ►► Silver Raven at Courelia spaceport dock, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Eupiar, now alone in the cockpit, watched the situation at the tram station. She winced as she saw them stand and wait, clearly for Destiny, as her tram got closer.

  “Heads up Destiny that Javnis psionic and her friend waiting at the station for you,” Eupiar said.

  “Great...”

  “You’re already on the last stretch of tracks, I can’t change anything now other than making you go in reverse, but they’ll probably just teleport to the next location to keep up.”

  A second window still displayed footage from the streets below the condo where Jazz fell. There was movement. Eupiar’s hands quickly moved the window in front of her and she saw the Linl woman slowly get to her feet, she then began to check Jazz for vital signs.

  “Holy shit she’s alive,” said Eupiar. “Come on, come on.” If the Linl survived the fall, surely Jazz did as well. Or so Eupiar hoped.

  She saw the woman’s hands pull against Jazz’s arms, dragging him away. He’s alive. He must be, why else would she bother dragging him away? She thought then began tracking Veloshira’s estimated location. The projection that loaded concluded that Veloshira was still close enough to backtrack and help Destiny before or slightly after her tram arrived. Eupiar turned back to the previous holo window, the Linl woman was dragging Jazz into a nearby surface level elevator shaft.

  “Veloshira, Jazz has been taken,” Eupiar transmitted in the Hashmedai language. “No point in going forward. Destiny needs assistance.”

  There was no reply. She then witnessed the psionics body levitate and hover high above the tracks. Her arms began to glow then unleashed a massive purple blast behind Destiny’s tram as it passed underneath her. A small section of the tracks exploded from the subsequent blast, Destiny was stuck. There was no turning back now.

  “On second thoughts,” Destiny said seconds later. “Make the tram backtrack, let’s keep them guessing.”

  “Yeah about that...”

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Tram to spaceport, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Destiny cursed and gritted her teeth upon getting the update on the situation from Eupiar. She was more upset at herself for one, not noticing the track getting wrecked just seconds after she changed her mind, and two not changing her mind in the first place.

  She took a deep breath while gripping onto her dripping wet pistols then aimed them toward the now terrified tram passengers. She may not have spoken their language, but they could tell by her gun waving and body language that she wanted them all to crowd around the entrance that would connect with the platform they were arriving at.

  Desperate times, desperate measures. Destiny was labeled as a terrorist by people in Radiance on Earth. May as well live up to that title and do what terrorists do best, take hostages.

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, transport approaching spaceport tram platform, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Chloe took the liberty of equipping herself with Radiance combat armor and a magnetic rifle. It made her miss her protect suit and all the trinkets it had such as the Mass Reduction Field—MRF—and the protect suit straight up being much more lightweight compared to Radiance combat armor. She sat next Stolanei as the transport doors opened wide, for some reason while in midflight. What the fuck? She thought considering they were still high above the city and the AO was still a few minutes out.

  She got her answer seconds later as one ranger suddenly stood and shot his rifle at Stolanei, tossing h
is body outside. There was blood spattered across her face as more bullets raced back and forth. When she got out of her seat, there were three rangers left alive, all three of them aimed their rifles toward Chloe as light from the outside beamed through the dozens of bullet holes in the transport.

  “Well, fuck.” Chloe dropped her rifle and raised her hands in the air.

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, Spaceport tram platform, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system

  Jainuzei watched as the tram at last pulled into the station terminus. There was one problem, the doors didn’t open, and there was a horde of people standing next to the doors, all of them frightened. Looking upwards, he saw Dargonea hovering above the tram, her hands stretched out from side to side as they began to glow.

  “Dargonea what are you doing?” Jainuzei asked.

  “Stand back, it’s not moving. I can get a stronger lock on it.”

  She was going to either blow the tram up, or do something rash that would put civilians in harm’s way. It was a thought and an action Jainuzei refused to be a part of. “Do not harm any civilians!” he shouted toward her.

  “If she escapes...”

  “We will do this the honorable way!” he shouted, walking closer to the tram door with his rifle pointed toward the floor. “Use your gifts and get this door open, no harm comes to those unarmed and not fighting, understood?”

  “Fine.” Dargonea winced. “This is on you if she escapes.”

  “I shall be victorious.”

  Upon closer inspection Jainuzei saw the human female behind all of the civilians, two pistols were firmly held in each hand as they pointed toward the alarmed passengers. She’s just like the other one, no honor whatsoever.

  “Dargonea,” he said. “Rip this door open.”

  The doors to the tram started to vibrate as Dargonea’s mind touched it. Inch by inch its metal joints and wiring slowly pulled apart, creating an opening.

  … … …

  ►► Courelia upper levels, near spaceport tram platform, Rasi

  ► Barnard’s Star system