The Siege of Sirius Page 5

  “I hear music,” Williams said as Rivera took her leave.

  Foster listened closely, there was indeed music playing. “That must be the recreation room.”

  The sounds of the music led them near the entrance to the recreation room. Inside they saw a laid-back lounge set up, complete with a small bar, long tables, chairs, and couches. Lounge music played as crew personnel stocked the bar and unpacked several entertainment devices. It was the perfect place for the crew to unwind during their off-hours, especially during the first few years into their journey to the stars, as not everyone would be in cryo all the time.

  “Oh, that reminds me,” Williams said, snapping his fingers.

  “What’s up?”

  He left the recreation room and waved for Foster to follow. His steps led her into the mess hall and then into the galley. Brand-new silver-colored cooking equipment was still wrapped in their shipping covers. Pots and pans hung from their hooks around the walls in a neat and organized manner. Foster heard someone in the rear food preparation area buzzing around as Williams guided her there.

  “I got him,” Williams said as they turned the corner and saw a Jamaican man no older than fifty examine the food preparation area. He had short black hair, no doubt dyed black to hide any grey hairs, and wore a chef’s white jacket and black pants.

  “This is Chef Demarion Bailey from the restaurant we had lunch at,” Williams said.

  “Captain Foster,” she said, shaking Bailey’s hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

  “Pleased to meet you too.”

  “Settling in well?” Williams asked him.

  “Ya mon, this kitchen is amazing,” Bailey said. “Gonna make some real nice food for you all.”

  They toured the rest of the kitchen and noted the small cryostorage containers used for food, so that ingredients wouldn’t rot on their voyage, after all, what they brought aboard had to last, even after their arrival in Sirius. Livestock was brought aboard and placed into cryostasis as well, but it was reserved for the new colony once it was set up.

  As they left the mess hall, two crewmen stopped and raised their hands to salute the two as they walked past, then returned diligently to their duties with data pads in hand. “I see you’ve been busy with recruiting, Dom.”

  “We’re still short a lot of bodies compared to the other ships,” Williams said. “This was a last-minute addition to the fleet after all. Apparently IESA had scaled down recruiting and neglected to tell me.”

  “Bah, so we’re running a skeleton crew?”

  “Outside of the science and exploration teams yeah, we got the bare minimum with a lot of rookie transport pilots.”

  “I’ll be sure to make sure only navy personnel pilots our transports for critical missions.”

  Foster and Williams ended their hour-long tour of the ship at the bridge. The central sections of the ship that were not part of the habitat ring lacked gravity. It forced them to use handle bars on the walls to pull themselves forward or to stop their momentum unless magnetic boots were equipped. The bridge was the exception as gravity glued their bodies to the floor when they passed through its wide sliding doors.

  “Gravity,” Foster said happily.

  “Yep.” Williams gestured at the sole alien crew member of the ship who stood at the shipboard psionic station on the bridge. “There’s our shipboard psionic.”

  “Rookie or the combat vet?”

  “Vet. In the end he brought more to the table, that and the representative at the embassy really, really wanted us to recruit him. I figured he was trying to make sure we were in good hands.”

  Foster eyed their psionic. He was a Javnis, though it was hard to see his four eyes beneath the dark cloak hood he wore. Like most psionics his body was implanted with cybernetic upgrades on his hands, arms, and across his chest. The upgrades needed to be exposed in order to ensure they worked correctly, so his green lizard-like body was on show as he wore only the cloak, and pants.

  “Maybe the embassy wanted to get rid of him for reasons unknown,” Foster said.

  Williams cringed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “I’m sure you made the right choice.”

  “I can hear you,” said the psionic, as his four eyes remained gazing at the computer screen on his station.

  “And he’s got excellent hearing, that might come in handy,” said Williams.

  Foster and Williams approached the Javnis psionic as he continued to work on the computer. His cloak made it hard to tell what emotions were going through his body, if he had any at all.

  “Captain Foster, pleasure to meet you.” Foster offered her hand for him to shake. The Javnis slowly turned his head away from the screen and looked at her, then her hand in a confused manner. “Umm, OK.”

  “I got this, Becca,” Williams said. “Commander Dominic Williams. Your acquaintance is recognized.”

  Williams performed what Foster guessed was a traditional Radiance greeting, placing one hand to his shoulder. Foster had heard about it from time to time, but never did learn it, she always assumed that most Radiance living on Earth adopted human customs. What was playing out before her showed otherwise.

  The Javnis looked at Williams and in a deep monotone voice said. “Wrong hand.”

  Williams stopped as the feeling of embarrassment hit him hard. “What?”

  “You used the wrong hand for the greeting.”

  “Oh well let’s try—”

  “Don’t try again,” the Javnis said as his four eyes shifted to his computer screen.

  “Well it was great talking with you,” Foster said to the Javnis. “Sorry, didn’t catch ya name?”

  “Tolukei,” he replied.

  “We’ll let you get back to it Mr. Tolukei,” she said.

  “Just Tolukei, we do not have surnames.”

  “It’s just a navy custom.”

  “I am not part of your navy. Neither are you.”

  “Yea but . . .” Foster stopped in the middle of her sentence. Tolukei was going to be a piece of work, based on their limited interactions. She smiled and simply said. “I’ll get going.”

  Tolukei mumbled. “Yes, you should.”

  Foster turned her attention away from Tolukei and toward the rest of the bridge. Its layout was different compared to that of UNE battleships. It was smaller and partly inspired by the layout of Radiance bridges. A captain’s chair was in the center while the helmsman sat up front. Next to the helm was the science officer’s station, communications off to one side and the psionic workstation on the opposite.

  There was no central hologram that gave the captain and others a 3D projection of the ship or the system they were in. In fact, many of the computers on the bridge still used computer screens, budget cutbacks she figured, as a large part of the budget for the ship went toward the colonization equipment and extra cryostasis pods for the thousands of colonists aboard.

  Williams poked around at the other stations on the bridge to familiarize himself with the crew and systems, as Foster approached the front to speak with her first choice in a science officer, Dr. Travis Pierce. He sat back in his leather chair and examined the contents of his computer screen, while a data pad and holo pad rested on its desktop-like surface along with half dozen data crystals.

  “Dr. Pierce, glad to see you were able to make it,” she said to him.

  “Well, apparently, I didn’t have much choice, funds are low right now and my landlord wanted to raise my rent,” Pierce said. “I hear rent isn’t an issue for those living in Sirius.”

  “Once we’re done here, you’re gonna have an apartment better than you had in Vancouver.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Well, you know, gut feeling.”

  “I doubt we’ll find Earthlike planets at Sirius. It’s not even possible given the age of the Sirius system.”

  “There’s gotta be something of interest.”

  “The entire Sirius system was created some two to three h
undred million years ago; the dinosaurs walked the Earth when that system was in its infancy. Life on Earth started some three and a half billion years ago.”

  Foster grimaced. “Oh,” were the only words she could muster.

  “Do the math.”

  She crossed her arms and stared at him. “You gonna be the negative Nancy of the crew?”

  Pierce laughed. “I’m going to be the one to remind everyone not to forget science when pleasant things start to happen.”

  Foster glanced at his screen and saw the time on the bottom right corner. Departure from Earth was due soon. She took a seat in her captain’s chair and activated the small computer mounted onto the arms of it. A blue and white holographic projection of a woman appeared in front of her suddenly. It caused her to yelp and draw the attention of everyone on the bridge.

  “I am sorry, Captain, did my presence surprise you?” the holographic woman said.

  “Not every day I see somebody appear in front of me like that.”

  “My bad, Captain,” Williams called out from the aft section of the bridge. “I just activated it now.”

  Foster looked closely at the hologram. She wore a UNE navy uniform, though the flag on the back was that of the UNE rather than a country of origin. She had long, braided hair and stood with her hands behind her back. There was little emotion or movement coming from her body, which led Foster to believe it wasn’t a holographic transmission but rather a computer program.

  “EVE, I presume?” Foster said to the hologram.

  “That is correct, Captain Foster; I am Electronic Versatile Entity version 1.8.”

  Foster grinned. “1.8? That’s the latest update, nice.”

  “That is correct.”

  All UNE ships were outfitted with an AI known as EVE which served as the central computer system. EVE was capable of quantum computing, taking control of the ships operations if requested, as well as being able to speak and interact with the crew as if she were a holographic member of it. It was no surprise to Foster that the UNE was working on developing an android version of EVE for the next ship under construction as it would give the AI a chance to physically assist the crew. For now, however, they were stuck with the hologram as with all other ships.

  “Well pleasure to . . . meet you,” Foster said.

  The slow countdown to departure began as Foster enjoyed the new-car-smell of the bridge and her leather chair. She browsed through several ship-wide reports on her holo pad revealing the status of all sections. Several crew members were shocked to see that they were all issued holo pads to replace their data pads.

  UNE command gave the final thumbs-up to the exploration fleet to leave, as the final colonists, crew, and supplies were boarded and ready. This is it, Foster thought as she stored her holo pad off to the side of her chair.

  Foster opened a comm link with Rivera. “Engine room, are we good to go?”

  “All my systems are green,” Rivera’s voice replied.

  Foster faced the helm. “Ensign Collins?”

  The young ensign checked his terminal. “Good to go, Captain.”

  “Colonists are meandering about on the habitat ring but will be entering cryo shortly,” Williams said as he skimmed through a projection on his holo pad.

  “If anyone’s having second thoughts now is the time to speak up, ain’t no turning back now!” No one spoke. They were all ready to make the huge commitment to the ship, crew, and human race. “Ensign Collins, take us out.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  The powerful thrusters of the fleet of exploration ships flared and sent them away from Earth and the moon as they repositioned themselves in the direction of their destinations. Once they were clear of all space traffic from transport ships heading to and from Earth, Mars, the belt, and the moons of the gas giants, the small fleet entered sub light speeds, traveling at approximately half the speed of light.

  The ESRS Nikola Tesla began a journey to Luhman 16 and was expected to arrive in 2046. ESRS Stephen Hawking was expected to arrive at Wolf 359 in 2048. A year later the ESRS Freeman Dyson would arrive at Lalande, and approximately a year after that the ESRS Carl Sagan should arrive at Sirius.

  Foster’s holo pad beeped, she received a last second email from her mother and the last message she’ll receive from Earth until they reestablished contact on arrival.

  “Good luck, your father would be proud.” The message said.

  6 FOSTER

  ESRS Carl Sagan

  Edge of the Sirius system

  May 18, 2050, 13:57 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  EVE was programmed to awaken the crew of the Carl Sagan once they neared the Sirius system. Bright blue-white light from the pair of stars reflected across the hull of the sleeping Earth ship while the ceiling lights inside slowly began to activate, section by section, starting with the cryo chambers, where most of the crew had slept for the past seventeen years. The automatic revival process triggered for Foster’s pod as it pumped her body with the chemicals needed to wake her, while the lid slowly swung up.

  Her eyes opened though her vision was slightly blurry. She was only able to make out blotches of light and slight movement floating away from the walls, most likely the rest of the crew that awoke alongside her. The blurry visuals gradually transformed into familiar sights; the cryo chamber, and dazed, uniformed IESA and UNE navy personnel pushing away from their pods and into the weightless chamber.

  Out from the embraces of Foster’s arms was a hidden guest that was in stasis with her, her cat Starlet. Being the captain had its privileges. The tabby cat flailed its legs about as it struggled to understand the disappearance of gravity and the disorientating feeling of being locked away in cryo for nearly two decades. Her hands wrapped tightly around her feline companion, kicked off the walls, soared across the chamber to its exit, and made the lengthy slog onto the habitat ring.

  Foster went into her quarters and released her pet as its panic subsided when it felt the force of gravity once again. Foster was pleased to see that her quarters was still in decent condition, despite it being untouched for so long. As tempting as it was to finish unpacking and get set up, she had a job to do on the bridge, and a page in human history to start writing. She pulled out a can of cat food she had slipped into her pocket prior to entering cryo and popped it open.

  Starlet leaped off the bed and ran toward her while she slapped some of it into its feeding bowl.

  Leave it to a cat to want to be fed the moment you wake up, even if it was a multiyear sleep, she thought.

  After a quick shower, Foster headed to the bridge not in full uniform. She wore a white shirt with a black vest over top of it along with black cargo pants. They were far from Earth, the UNE, and IESA and she was the captain of the damn ship. She was still a millennial at heart and wasn’t going to let something like being in full uniform all the time bog her down. Besides most of the crew was still in the process of getting back together. It was like a Saturday morning as far as she was concerned, nobody dressed formally on days like that.

  She stopped to admire the bright blue-white glow of light in front of them. The twin stars of Sirius were the dominant figures on the bridge’s forward windshield, the material within the windshield dimmed to allow safe viewing.

  “Stunning, absolutely stunning,” Williams said.

  Foster sat down on her captain’s chair and paid no mind to everyone as they noticed she wasn’t in uniform. “Ladies and gents,” she said looking at the pair of stars. “Like it or not this is our new home.”

  EVE’s hologram appeared and gave Foster an update, the Carl Sagan was still en route to the system at sub light speed while essential crew was still being revived section by section, while the colonists stayed in stasis until the order was given to release them.

  “Mister Tolukei,” Foster called out to him. “Have you contacted a psionic back at Earth yet?”

  “Mister? I do not have a surname,” Tolukei said.

  “Remember when I said its
human navy tradition and all?”

  “I am not human,” Tolukei said with a shrug. “Nor am I a member of the UNE navy, and neither are you.”

  “Oh, for god’s sakes . . . I know just—never mind, did you reach anyone at Earth yet?”

  “I have not, but will continue to try.”

  Foster spun her chair around to face him with concern in her eyes and a troubling wince on her face. “What’s wrong?”

  Tolukei faced her as the darkness from his hood enveloped his face. “I cannot reach anyone’s mind, it is possible that the staff were switched during our journey. Even then, I should be able to find a psionic mind that I can connect with.”

  “And you can’t?”

  “There is nothing.”

  “How about folks in Radiance?”

  Tolukei folded his hands together, his head tilted upward as he entered his trance. Foster figured he was trying to establish a telepathic communication with someone from the Radiance Union. “Nothing, it is as if all psionics have ceased to exist.”

  Foster and Williams exchanged worried glances as did the rest of the bridge crew. “Well, that’s not good,” she said.

  “Is it possible the cryo trip weakened your mind?” Williams asked Tolukei.

  Tolukei shook his head. “No, as I can sense what lies before us with my ESP.”

  Foster shifted her chair back toward the front as she said, “Well let’s send a message to Earth regardless, informing them that we’ve arrived safely.”

  “That will take eight or nine years to get there,” Williams said.

  “I know . . .” Foster sighed.

  “Here’s hoping a psionic back at Earth will reach out to us. They should know that we’d be coming out of cryo right about now anyway. In the meantime, let’s see what’s out there.”

  “Right this way, Captain,” Pierce said from a station at the aft end of the bridge.

  Foster and Williams walked over to the newly added section of the bridge where Pierce stood. It had massive 3D holograms that depicted the layout of the Sirius system and all its planets and moons, collected and cataloged by EVE and the Carl Sagan’s long-range scans during their trip.