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

  “Hey, Petropoulos,” Jacob transmitted. “What are you up to right now?”

  His gaze dropped toward the new weapon in his hands as the plasma bayonet deployed. It radiated a strong jade glow as it powered on.

  … … …

  “Un-fuckin’-believable! Twenty-two million credits a year and can’t kick a ball!” Captain Martin Xavier’s tone was a furious one.

  He, along with several off-duty crew members, formed a human wall around a holo TV in the rec room. An intense soccer game between Mars’ top-ranking teams was being broadcast throughout the solar system. The Olympus Climbers were losing to the Marineris City Vikings 0-6. A small notification appeared at the top of the screen alerting people who might be watching on Mars of a sandstorm warning, it was that time of the year for them. A secondary notification reminded those near Earth that this broadcast was on a five-minute communication delay.

  Everyone had a drink in their hands except Xavier. He was still on duty but using one of the many perks of being a captain, he could relax in the rec room until he was truly needed on the bridge. That and the Winston Churchill sitting in orbit with no orders other than to stand watch over Earth, there was nothing going on that needed his direct attention, other than this game.

  Cheering and roars raged throughout the rec room once again with everyone sans Xavier and Corporal Grace Petropoulos raising their hands in the air, Marineris City Vikings got another goal.

  “This is why I stopped watching Martian sports teams,” Grace said. “Earth sports are where it’s at, no weak ass gravity to alter the rules of the game.”

  “Don’t let Jacob hear you say that,” said Chief Engineer Shanuka Weerasinghe. “He’s grown quite found of Mars hockey.”

  “I’ve seen children play Mars football better than this,” Xavier said.

  “Soccer, sir!”

  “Football!”

  “Bridge to Captain Xavier,” Commander Cassandra Benally’s voice echoed through his communicator.

  “Xavier here,” he said putting distance between him and the loud drinking crew members.

  “We got a priority one message coming in from the Sun Tzu.”

  Priority one, fuck me. He grimaced upon hearing that, priority one message from the UNE flagship meant something was up. Last time he checked they found wreckage from an outpost hit by the Hashmedai a few days ago. Now they want to talk with him directly. “Aye, I’ll take it in my office,” he said, then addressed the crew around the TV. “Done with this game, you can change the fuckin’ channel if you want.”

  He stormed out nearly running into former UNE marine Tom Richards and a short Korean woman with bobbed hair. Must be the new EDF recruit Karen.

  “Captain,” she said with a salute, Tom did the same.

  “As you were.” Xavier smiled and patted her on the shoulder as he made his exit.

  Xavier entered his office, taking a seat at his large leather chair in front of his desk and computer. He grinned as sunlight slowly started to beam in via the windows, it almost looked like a morning sunrise, something he hadn’t seen in ages after being up in space for so many months.

  His computer activated and a holographic projection appeared showing his computer desktop, an old picture of him and Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Davis, when she was still a young girl helping rebuild a small community in England that was razed by the Hashmedai.

  His finger tapped a red colored flashing icon, indicating a new message was waiting. As he did that a video window of Admiral Linda Stone loaded. She sat in an office like his.

  “Admiral,” he said and waited twenty seconds for her to reply. The joys of long range space communication.

  “Good to see you again Xavier,” she said finally. “I’ll make this short and sweet as time is something we might be running out of. Our listening outpost at Uranus has gone silent. The nearby helium-3 mining station also reports zero activity from the outpost in the last few hours.”

  “Don’t tell me we’re looking at encounter number nine.”

  Her hologram said after another long delay. “We don’t know,”

  “What else could it be?”

  “Our ship needs to resupply at Earth,” The delay for that reply seemed shorter, the Sun Tzu was getting closer to the Winston Churchill. “I want the Winston Churchill to head over and check it out and provide any assistance to the helium mining platforms there as well. Losing the outpost is one thing, losing the platforms will disrupt our fuel supplies.”

  “I understand.”

  “You are still the only ship with that expensive QEC device, and I have a feeling we’re going to need updated reports to be transmitted to command right away. If this blows out of proportion expect the Winston Churchill to be the first ship sent anywhere in the solar system as an early heads up for command.”

  “Of course ma’am, it makes sense.”

  “Martin, is your crew up to the task?”

  He didn’t blame her for asking considering what happened two months ago when Chloe, Ella and Gavin bought an alien object aboard and kept it secret. Said object caused Ella to attack crew members, Chloe to disobey her confinement orders, assaulting crew members with the assistance of Michei, and Jessica to disobey orders. The list went on. Sure, their actions ended up putting an end to the crisis in the long run, but it still reflected poorly on Xavier’s leadership as a whole. A captain who had no control over his shipboard psionic, fighter pilots and Special Forces detachment, this wasn’t the ideal crew to handle a delicate operation.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that the entire crew of the John F. Kennedy was wiped out, he might have been replaced all out. But as it stood, the UNE was stretched thin. The John F. Kennedy needed a new crew along with the Barack Obama the newest ship in the fleet. The UNE needed him and his insubordinate members.

  “I’m worried about the psionic,” he said. “I still don’t like what he did.” Or the fact that he couldn’t bring up charges against him. Michei was still part of the Radiance Union, and only they could punish him for his actions. They didn’t and couldn’t as most of the Radiance leadership assigned to Earth was killed during the incident.

  “His actions resulted in the JFK being recovered from the extremists that took it over,” said Stone.

  “He’s also gone through a total personality change. Case in point.” Xavier tossed a pen in the air and it came back down due to the force of gravity, artificial gravity being generated by Michei. Something he once refused to provide for the bridge crew. “But beggars can’t be choosers as the ol’ saying goes, Radiance psionics are in short supply now.”

  “Very well then, I wish your crew good luck, let’s hope this is just a case of someone forgetting to turn computer equipment on.”

  Her hologram vanished, leaving behind a ‘transmission ended’ message on his screen. He returned to the bridge shortly afterwards, ready to deliver the news to the crew, hoping they wouldn’t let him down. He stared at them for a few seconds, Benally stood next to the central hologram, analyzing the reports that populated the projection. Michei was doing his job, updating sensor logs with his ESP scans of the surrounding region. Xavier still couldn’t get used to the idea of him being a useful member.

  A young bridge officer handed EVE a holo pad with information for her to look over. It was a pointless act in Xavier’s mind, EVE was an android, and she could easily access the information remotely from the ships data banks. However, EVE after her repairs, requested to be treated like the rest of the crew when it came to things like this, something about experiencing what it’s like to be an organic crew member rather than a machine.

  “Captain on the bridge!”

  Xavier nodded to Benally, letting her know he was now in command as he walked toward the central hologram. His hands reached out and interacted with the computer interface resulting in a three-dimensional projection of Uranus loading. “We have orders to move out to Uranus, our listening outpost there has gone dark.” He pointed to a small space station
orbiting the enormous blue ice giant. “EVE, inform the crew to prepare to depart within the next five minutes.”

  “Aye sir shouldn’t be much longer provided Chief Weerasinghe isn’t engaged in idle chit chat.”

  Chief Weerasinghe is off duty anyways after having a few drinks. Wait. What? “EVE, that sounded like a human response.” Xavier cocked an eyebrow at the android woman.

  “Chief Weerasinghe has made modifications to my systems so I am now capable of a limited amount of humor sir.”

  “Bollocks, just what we need, a joking android.”

  “The added humor setting can be disabled or set to a lower setting at any time, Captain.”

  “I for one would love to see where this goes if we leave her as is,” said Benally.

  “Ugh, well as long as it ain’t messing with your duties,” Xavier said, pressing his palm against his grey bearded face.

  “It will not sir, furthermore the humor setting is only active in this unit, and my systems within the Winston Churchill have not been modified.”

  “Thank god for that.”

  “Indeed, you will not have to worry about hearing me sing Daisy Bell via the intercom when you are close to an airlock.”

  “What about when your unit here does that?”

  “Well then, that will be an interesting day.”

  Exactly five minutes passed and reports from all over the ship began to trickle in, they were green for deployment.

  “Engine room reports they are good to go,” EVE said.

  “Rail guns are ready and standing by, all plasma missile tubes primed, nuclear warheads prepared and ready to launch in case of a major conflict,” Tactical Officer Matsushita said.

  “QEC is green,” EVE said.

  “Michei?” Xavier said, turning the aft section of the bridge to address their shirtless and cybernetically augmented Rabuabin psionic.

  “I’m actively scanning the region of space round us, all good so far.”

  “Space traffic control has cleared us to leave, sir,” Communication Operator Lieutenant Yates said.

  “Very well. Helm set a course to Uranus.” Xavier said.

  “Aye, sir,” said Ensign Chavez as his hands interacted with the holographic controls before him.

  “Take us out!”

  The ESV Winston Churchill broke away from Earth’s orbit, flying past the ESV Enterprise and the ESV Barack Obama. The sun shone its light on the aft end of the ship, making its rotating habitat ring’s white coloring to shimmer. The crew inside the habitat ring gathered around the windows, to watch as Earth slowly moved out of view, many of them shielded their eyes as the bright light continued to shine in, even those gathered around the TV in the rec room had temporarily moved to the windows, ignoring the game, and the fact that the Olympus Climbers just scored again, the score was now 6-7, they were catching up.

  The team in the engine room stood gazing at the reactor as it hummed and pulsed rapidly. It provided the Winston Churchill with more than enough power to accelerate into sub lightspeeds and keep its shields active, so the crew wouldn’t die of solar radiation poisoning.

  Jacob stood in the armory, admiring the new tools the marines would have should they encounter Hashmedai. Grace entered shortly afterwards, Jacob jokingly moved his body like a fashion model proudly displayed the new rifle with its green glowing plasma bayonet to her. A smile was all she could muster.

  Major Gavin “Penetrator” Chambers floated next to Lieutenant Colonel Jessica “Aura” Davis, Lieutenant Mike “Orbital” Fisher, Lieutenant Cassie “Hijinks” Piller, Captain Greg “Hammer” McTavish. All five them engaged in a game of poker in the zero-g flight deck, the rec room was just too crowded with the soccer game going on. Aura tilted her head toward the side, taking in one last look at Earth as the hanger bay doors slid shut. Gavin saw Chris and Sarah float in from the main deck, giving a tour of the ship to their new recruit Karen. Gavin nodded toward the former Navy SEAL as they made eye contact. Chris returned the gesture.

  Dr. Pike made one last final check of the infirmary, ensuring everything was good to go in case of an emergency. As he was convinced, he grabbed his holo pad, data on Rabuabin anatomy loaded, Ella wouldn’t be here to help him should Michei get badly injured again.

  Only the stars and the odd long-range transport ship in the distance could be seen out of the forward windows on the bridge, not a sight Xavier had in mind for this leg of the voyage. “Give me an aft view,” he said as he walked back toward the central hologram. Benally keyed in a command and the hologram shifted to a real-time view of Earth shrinking in size from the aft cameras of the ship. “Perfect, okay everyone listen up.” Xavier pointed toward the hologram of Earth as the whole bridge crew gave him their undivided attention. “Take one goddamn good look at this, never forget that this is the reason we do this, why we’re out here. Without Earth, we are nothing, we may have cities throughout the solar system, but without the support of Earth they will all crumble, if Earth never existed neither would they. If we encounter Hashmedai out there, let’s all make sure they never take this beautiful world away from us.”

  “Amen, Captain,” said Chavez.

  “How soon can we enter sub light speeds?”

  “Ten seconds, sir.”

  “Very well,” said Xavier. “Mr. Chavez, activate sub light engines when ready.”

  Chavez keyed in the final sequence of commands, and the Winston Churchill blasted forward away from Earth in a blink of an eye.

  CHAPTER 4

  ►► Aervounis

  ► Luminous system

  The planet Aervounis had a long list of historical monuments making it one of the most heavily populated and visited planets in this corner of the galaxy. It was the home world of the Aryile race, the birthplace and capital of the Radiance Union and as legend has it, the first planet the three Radiance gods visited, thus creating their influential religious beliefs.

  Aervounis orbited a large and extremely bright star, its white light bathing the surfaces of its orbiting planets with intense heat. Despite being the fourth planet in the system, Aervounis received enough heat and light from the orbiting star to render the planet almost devoid of snow and ice with the exceptions of its north and southern poles, and even then, they only saw below zero temperatures during the winter.

  Aervounis’ equators where known to reach temperatures as high as seventy degrees Celsius. It was common to see water on the ground slowly come to a simmer and raise up into the air as mist as the morning sun rose. Many believe this was where the Aryile people first learned how to cook vegetables before discovering how to make fire on their own, by dipping them into the warm waters.

  The earlier years of Aervounis saw it as a lush tropical world rich in life, sunlight and a great ocean that split its two primary north and far eastern continents. Large canopy leaves from the never-ending jungles provided shade for the many ground dwelling life forms. Early Aryile built tiny houses high up in the tree tops to avoid being preyed upon by dinosaur like predators. The tree top homes also provided a means for the Aryile people to easily gather fruits and store them away from ground based critters that were known to stalk and steal Aryile food stores when they slept.

  As the centuries went on, entire villages were made in the tree tops, wooden hanging platforms held central markets, while small rope bridges connected surrounding homes. The first school came years later, teaching Aryile children how to read and write, how to avoid being eaten by wild animals, how to pick fruits and vegetables. The Aryile mastered their environment, and with that came a population explosion, their natural predators were no long able to keep their numbers in check, and eventually began to die off from starvation, paving the way for Aryile to visit the ground, expand and build more tree cities and discover how to farm.

  All the while their sun slowly became larger as it continued its transition from a main sequence star to a red giant. The surface of their world became brighter and hotter. Between farming, increasing heat, and
less rain, Aervounis’s giant jungles started to dry up, forest fires became commonplace reducing large regions of the planet into sandy deserts. The Aryile refused to give up and began to build their first ground based city in the deserts. Few creatures could survive due to the lack of water, meaning fewer predators to feast upon the growing Aryile population. Ground based cities were all built on raised platforms, on the off chance that the odd staving wild animal would pass by and feast on a sleeping child.

  Technology came in the centuries later, factories, mass production, power generation stations, entire metropolis covered the globe and its shrinking green lands, thus triggering the great crisis. A global dust bowl, rendering farming impossible in most areas of the planet. The Aryile race being a herbivore species needed agriculture to survive, finding water was challenging enough for those living far away from the great oceans. Mass extinctions didn’t help. Insects that normally populated certain flora vanished, resulting in those plants dying off. The great pelicans that soared through the skies began to die due to lack of trees for them to build their nests, resulting in the rodent population growing, feasting on the crops that the few remaining Aryile farms produced.

  The three gods Stoarior, Tym and Livie appeared to the Aryile people years later, and offered them a way out. They taught them how to reach the stars, how to heal their dying world and the life on it amongst many other things. The Aryile people took their gifts and returned the favor, by dedicating their lives to worshiping the gods and carrying out their will across the cosmos, sharing their gifts with other species they would encounter. And thus, the Radiance Union was born when early Aryile exploration ships made first contact with the Javnis race.