Celestial Incursion (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 1) Read online

  “So, there are others like us?”

  “Yes, but they are becoming a lot less common as some of those ships had been discovered by our FTL capable ships, awaking their crew and telling them about the future they drifted into. Of course, your situation is different, a lot different. We searched for the Carl Sagan for years and found no sign of it, which brings us to why we’re here. What the hell happened to you guys?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t remember anything.”

  “Perhaps I can refresh your memory?”

  She shrugged. “Knock yaself out.”

  Moriston’s HNI brought up Foster’s archived reports from the IESA database as well as reports the UNE filed in regard to the Carl Sagan’s first contact with Earth when it arrived in Sirius.

  “You arrived at Sirius?” Moriston said.

  Foster nodded. “Yeah, I remember that.”

  “You encountered a force known as the Architect there?”

  “Marduk and his army, yeah, I remember that.”

  “He captured your ship at one point with the intent of coming to Earth to conquer it, then later Radiance and the Empire?”

  “Somethin’ like that, yep.”

  “You stopped him, established the first UNE colony in the system at the cost of significant damage to your ship.”

  “Yes, we were out of commission for months until it was repaired.”

  “And then sensors picked up a ship entering the Sirius system.”

  “I vaguely remember that.”

  His HNI sent him a report based on her facial expressions that she might be trying to focus. “Come on,” he said slowly. “Think about it.”

  “It . . . yeah,” she paused, hopefully trying to remember the incriminating details. “It had a Radiance IFF, that’s why we were so interested in it.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “Can’t remember, I think we went to investigate it, but it’s all fuzzy after that.”

  “The last data packet sent from the Carl Sagan stated that you went to off-load crew on the Poniga homeworld for exploration.”

  “Yeah, yeah I remember that now. That was our mission before we discovered the ship.”

  “The Carl Sagan changing course to investigate the ship was the last time the colony or IESA command heard from you.” Moriston folded his hands and leaned in closer to her, hoping his HNI would scan for any signs on her face that might indicate if she was telling the truth or not. “Do you remember why that mysterious ship was important other than the Radiance IFF?”

  She shook her head. Moriston tossed a 3D hologram of a Radiance cruiser that was in service during the 2030s. “This is the Abyssal Sword; do you remember now?”

  “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

  “The Sword was on a joint operation with EDF teams in the Proxima Centauri system during 2032 to combat the Celestial Order, an extremist cult of the Radiance Union. They were ambushed in an attack and were never seen again. A report from the system, however, suggests that it might have fled and set a course to Sirius. If that were the case, they would arrive sometime in the year 2050 since sub light travel was still commonplace during that time period.” Moriston pushed the hologram of the Abyssal Sword closer to her face. “Was this the ship the Carl Sagan went to investigate before your disappearance?”

  “Like I said time and time again, sir, I don’t remember.”

  Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

  Geneva, Earth, Sol system

  August 3, 2118, 11:45 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  A distraught and depressed-looking Williams sat with Moriston. He had to be dragged in by two Marines as he refused to speak to anyone, let alone get out of bed.

  “Please state your name for the record.” Williams shifted his gaze to the table top. “Hey, look at me!”

  “Dominic Williams,” he grunted.

  “Rank?”

  “Commander, first officer . . .”

  “So, Commander, what happened up top there before we hauled you down here?”

  “No idea.”

  “I’ve heard that one before . . .” Moriston mumbled. “Why did you and your crew enter cryo?”

  “I’m sure you know my explanation.”

  “Did Foster order you and the rest of the crew into cryo?” No reply. “Do you have any idea what happened during your sixty-eight-year disappearance?” No reply. “How about the Abyssal Sword? Even Foster has vague memories of the Carl Sagan encountering it; do you have anything to share on that?”

  “Instead of asking questions, why not help us figure out what’s wrong with us?”

  Okay, I’ll play your game, Moriston thought while he read via HNI Williams’ past history. His eyebrow rose as he stumbled across an important discovery. Williams and Foster met in Los Angeles during the Hashmedai invasion.

  “You and Foster known each other for a long time, correct?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Met in Los Angeles during the Hashmedai invasion of Earth a hundred years ago.” He stopped to read more of the holographic imagery that appeared over his eyeballs. Foster was eighteen during that period, Williams was ten. “That must have been a horrific experience for a young mind to witness, the human race nearly facing its end, especially a kid from Chicago, a city that was razed by Hashmedai warriors.”

  Moriston’s HNI reported facial signs of unease as well as an increase of sweat. He smiled when he came across the reports of Williams parents. “Even worse, when you made it out of the city alive, but your family didn’t—”

  “What’s the fucking point of this?!”

  “Did you not ask for me to figure out what’s wrong with you? Because I think I did, you, sir, have PTSD.” Moriston pushed a surveillance camera recording of Williams freaking out and crying to go to California up top of Earth Cube. “California was one of the few places in the former United States that was not attacked by the Hashmedai.”

  “I’m fine; I’ve never had problems with my head.”

  “I disagree.” Moriston enabled the video to loop. “You must have kept that experience buried so far inside you that you practically forgot about it until you saw the devastation the invaders did and was reminded of it. But what do I know? I’m not a shrink, but I’ll send a recommendation to IESA to ground you until you get checked out by one, for the safety of your ship and crew. If you ever get to work in space again.”

  “I’m fine! Just ask my crew, I kept things together when we lost contact with Foster for a few days.”

  “I read those reports,” Moriston said. “You had some confidence issues my friend. That’s not first officer material; combine that with your PTSD . . . But tell you what.” Moriston shut down the looping video and whispered to Williams with a pleasant tone of voice. “Just tell me why the Carl Sagan vanished, and I’ll put in a good word to IESA.”

  Williams moved his face closer, to the point where their two noses nearly touched. “Go fuck yourself.”

  Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

  Geneva, Earth, Sol system

  August 3, 2118, 12:04 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  “Please state your name for the record.”

  “Flight Lieutenant Dennis Chang.”

  Moriston asked Chang the usual questions in regard to the Carl Sagan and its disappearance, as expected, he did not know. He looked at the young Chinese-born American and his long hair and beard, his appearance looked nothing like the file photos he had downloaded with his HNI.

  “Lieutenant, I understand that you were cut off from Earth and the UNE navy for a while, but you still have to keep your hair and face within standards,” Moriston said.

  Chang laughed. “Don’t like the hipster look?”

  “Somehow, I doubt you took it upon yourself to grow your hair out like that.” Moriston’s arms crossed. “I’m going to guess you were held captive against your will and was cut off from the ability to shave and get a haircut.”

  “Yeah . . . none of that happened to me in Sirius.�
��

  “I didn’t think so, but what about when you left Sirius?”

  “As far as I’m concerned we went into cryo and just forgot about it for sixty-eight years.”

  “Yet you had time to grow your hair out, and Foster had time to cut hers . . . probably because it got too long. You guys did more than just sleep during that time, you were in and out of cryo, long enough for your hair and beard to grow, and long enough for your body to suffer and recover from injuries.”

  “Who? What? Me?”

  “Yes, you,” Moriston said as he summoned a hologram displaying the results of Chang’s recent medical examination from the EISS doctors. “According to the doctors that just examined you, it would appear you had been beaten, cut, put through quite a bit of torture . . . maybe even alien experiments.”

  “Hey, look, man, I’m just a pilot; I spent most of my time on the Carl Sagan. I’m the last person anyone would want to capture and torture.”

  “Do you really think the invaders give a damn about that? Who knows, maybe the invaders needed to know how to take control of the Carl Sagan and chose you to teach it to them, by force of course.”

  Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

  Geneva, Earth, Sol system

  August 3, 2118, 14:13 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  Moriston’s next guest was Kostelecky, with whom he started the session by apologizing for making her wait. His belly had a craving for a BLT sandwich and an orange soda for lunch.

  “Please state your name for the record.”

  “Doctor Irena Kostelecky, chief of medical.”

  He grinned internally upon hearing her eastern European accent and scoping out her smooth blonde hair, two of his weaknesses in life rolled into one package. “Doctor, have you noticed anything strange about Captain Foster, Doctor Pierce, or Master Chief Chevallier?”

  “No, and doctor patient confidentiality says I don’t have to tell you jack.”

  “No, but if it meant saving the lives of billions, I’d imagine even someone like you would break the rules.”

  “Good thing billions are not at stake.”

  “Oh, but I think they are.”

  “The invaders left the system, what remains of their forces are being hunted down and killed. Try again.”

  “Well I only ask because Foster, Pierce, and Chevallier were the three humans that had to enter decon due to being in an alien environment during your Sirius fiasco. Now, to my knowledge, you gave them all a clean bill of health and let them out, meaning nothing out of the norm was found. But did you really do enough as chief of medical?”

  “I followed protocol exactly.”

  “Did you take any deep neural scans of their brains? To be exact, Foster and Pierce since both were subject to Undine and Poniga engram experiences, an experience of which you had no idea if there would be any side effects.”

  “You tell me? You guys had more than half a century to follow-up on our discoveries in Sirius after us.”

  The UNE wormhole network and FTL had made travel to Sirius a lot faster in the 2070s, thus adding a few of the worlds there as part of the growing UNE-controlled space.

  “We did learn a great deal more about Sirius and its indigenous people,” Moriston said. “But when it came to the engram, explorers and researchers were left in the dark. The Poniga and Undine refused to share information about it. Everything we know about engrams is limited to the discoveries the Carl Sagan made.”

  “Well, isn’t that a shame.”

  “Indeed so, I believe I should be asking you, you tell me?”

  “Look, everyone was cleared for duty and I’m not the one you should be asking questions about engrams. I didn’t even read all of the crews’ reports on the matter.”

  “Maybe you should have familiarized yourself with it more and took those deep neural scans. If they had been secretly under alien influence, it’s going to come down on you since you cleared them for duty, when in reality, they were ticking time bombs. That’s going to be two of three things that are going to work against you and the future of your career.”

  “Two? I guess math isn’t a requirement for government agents anymore.”

  “In this day and age, having psionic powers is mandatory for most medical positions, that’s number one. What I said earlier? That’s number two, so no my math is fine.” Within his HNI files, Moriston found the one piece of evidence that proved either the Carl Sagan’s crew had been lying, or they had gotten too close to aliens. He pushed the projection in question to her. “The doctors that examined you discovered this.”

  Kostelecky looked at the projection wide-eyed with her flushing face, and mouth wide open. “This is a lie,” she said slowly with disbelief in her voice.

  “As of now it is, only because I asked them to do just that, lie about the discovery. Tell me everything you know, everything you feel the need to withhold and this will never go public. Because, should the medical community find out about this, that’s going to be strike three for you, and you can kiss your medical career and your IESA commission goodbye.”

  “I . . . I don’t know what happened, I swear.”

  When the UNE returned to Sirius to reclaim it, there was debate as to what would become of the Undine and Poniga worlds. In the end it was decided to leave them alone and only travel there for scientific reasons. Radiance had arrived in the system around the same time to assist in the development of FTL. And probably conduct their own search into the disappearance of the Abyssal Sword.

  In the classic fashion of Radiance ideology, when a new intelligence species is found, they feel the need to make contact with them if they deem them worthy, in which they will push said species into following their religion and becoming a member of the Union. Radiance missionaries spent weeks trying to get the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak—who told them no, then tried to sell them used ships—to embrace the three Gods and allow the Union to uplift their species.

  The UNE felt the need to put a stop to it. They left those worlds untouched, so they may develop on their own, and make their own choices including if they wished to be uplifted. Radiance uplifted the Hashmedai, and then went to war with them when they refused to join the Union and accept their Gods. Javnis Muodiry were driven underground or into the Celestial Order because their psionic abilities contradicted Radiance religion. And like the Javnis Muodiry, the psionic skills of the Poniga, Undine, and Qirak contradicted Radiance’s religion.

  The UNE protected worlds accord was passed days later. Any planet with a non-spacefaring species was officially labeled a UNE protected world, should the UNE discover it first. All spacefaring nations were banned from interfering with its development unless the UNE withdrew the label for the world.

  There was enough proof to suggest that the Carl Sagan was not in cryo during the entirety of their sixty-eight-year disappearance. And so, one could argue that what the good doctor did, according to the hologram in front of her, happened when the Poniga homeworld was deemed a UNE protected world.

  Earth Cube, EISS HQ, Interrogation room

  Geneva, Earth, Sol system

  August 3, 2118, 15:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  “Please state your name for the record.”

  “Doctor Travis Pierce, science officer.”

  Pierce was a rare sight for Moriston as he was a middle-aged man. With gene therapy being so widespread, he’d gotten used to seeing everyone walk around with nineteen- to thirty-year-old bodies, except for that time he was stuck on that one colony on the ass-end of UNE-controlled space. The folks there were very anti-high tech and opted to live life the ‘normal’ way. Until they got sick and begged for all the advanced medical supplies the UNE could provide.

  After going through the standard Q&A for the crew, which their replies were ‘I don’t remember,’ Moriston moved onto the good stuff.

  “Now, Doctor, you have a PHD in astrophysics, right? That makes you one smart motherfucker,” Moriston said.

  Pierce grimaced. “Umm, th
anks?”

  “So, if you’re so smart can you answer me this? Why did you insist on returning to active duty after being held captive by the Undine within the time dilation device? From your point of view, two years of isolation was experienced.”

  “I had a job to do.”

  “The captain insisted you sit it out, you went through a traumatic experience. You being a smart person should have known you weren’t going to be one hundred percent and needed to psychologically recover.”

  “It was that smart mind of mine that figured out what was really going on and set the crew on the path to save Earth and the galaxy.”

  “Now, let’s back up to that subject now that we’re on it. The galactic invasion you helped prevent, your captors wanted to know everything about Earth and beyond, like the Empire. They mind raped you, searching for that knowledge.”

  “They didn’t get what they wanted; if you’re trying to imply that the invaders got intel about the galaxy from my head.”

  “I’m more interested to know why the Undine, while slave to the Architect, wanted Imperial knowledge from you more so than Radiance.”

  “They were convinced Tolukei was going to tell them about Radiance, I’m sure.”

  “But, why you for the Empire?”

  “They had me, and only me, captive.”

  “What I mean is . . . what made them push so hard to get Hashmedai information out of you? How did they know you knew so much about the Empire? Last time I checked, in 2033 most human civilians that were well versed about the Empire were members of the HLF.”

  The HLF was a Hashmedai and human terrorist group that used violence to fight for equal rights for Hashmedai that were left behind on Earth in the aftermath of the invasion. Radiance, who were enemies of the Hashmedai, had a lot of influence over Earth during those years. They encouraged humans to mistreat the Hashmedai, many of which made Earth their new home and had children.