“We got a word for that on Earth. Narcissism.”
She felt an agonizing telekinetic thrust hit her square in her gut, and it felt as if someone had punched her. Being bound by his telekinesis meant she couldn’t tense up and brace herself. The pain she felt afterward was worse than the ones in her joints and muscles.
“You are human,” he said to her as his hand firmly wrapped around her jaw. “You will address me by the name your people gave me. You will address and worship me as the king of gods, Marduk.”
“Rather not, if that’s all right with you.”
Marduk’s mouth twisted, clearly upset at Foster’s defiant glare and words. “You don’t fear me, do you? You don’t worry about what might become of your farms, homes, and families?”
“You’re a Javnis, nothing more.”
“There was a time when you people bowed in my presence, did what I asked of them, worried if they had upset me.”
“The Babylon civilization is long gone,” Foster said.
She briefly remembered studying about Mesopotamian mythology in school when she was younger, as well as the legend of Marduk. It didn’t take much for her to draw the conclusion that he must have visited Earth during an ancient time and convinced the people at that time he was a god with his psionic abilities.
“I admit, I have not returned to Earth in centuries . . . I have been stuck here, trapped by those that worship Tiamat who left many traps for me here. Attack drones have been programmed to fire upon my ship should I attempt to pass beyond a psionic field that monitors the system.” He began to wave his hand next to the window. Four oval-shaped ships descended next to it on the outside by his command. “I’ve managed to capture and reprogram some of them to serve me, but not all.”
“Can I get up now? Legs starting to cramp up.” Seriously this floor is rock hard.
“It’s now clear, you and your ship did not travel here to reconnect with their absent god.” His fingers snapped. “Tiamat, your people have returned to worshiping her, haven’t they?”
“We’re peaceful explorers and settlers, we had no idea what was in this system until we arrived.”
“Lies, all lies! You came here to find and resurrect Tiamat, why else would the first planet you visit be the one with her tomb and former command center of the system?”
That planet around Sirius B . . . That would explain why his soldiers attacked us. “Didn’t realize that was a tomb.”
“You took great interest in that planet.”
“It had a lot of ice water we needed.”
“Your lies anger me, human.”
“Let me return to my ship and I’ll prove it to you.”
“I have all the proof I need.” He clapped his hands at one of the Undine in the pool. Her head popped up from the waters as her eyes shut to focus. Psionic trickery was incoming. Out from her hands materialized a glowing engram orb, its bright white light levitated into the palm of Marduk’s hand. “This is a memory engram, the Undine and a few Poniga use it to—”
“Share knowledge and experiences, yeah, yeah, been there done that. Spare me the exposition.”
The engram orb morphed into a blue and white holographic projection of the Carl Sagan engaged in combat with oval-shaped ships similar to the ones outside in the orbit of SB-417. The planet that led to all their troubles. “This is your ship, correct?”
“It is,” Foster said, impressed to see the crew take control of the situation and fight their way out of that crisis without her guidance.
“And, as you can see, it is firing upon the drones I control.”
“Looks like you threw the first punch; they must have been tryin’ to defend themselves.”
The hologram in the palm of his hand shifted. She saw Dr. Pierce looking depressed, raging and yelling. In the projection Pierce spoke of Earth’s battleships and the existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the UNE. She bit her lip, knowing that it would be very easy for Marduk to take what Pierce had said out of context.
“Damn it, Travis . . .” Foster groaned.
“Nuclear weapons, fleets of battleships. Doesn’t sound like a species of peaceful explorers, more like one that would worship a wicked goddess like Tiamat.”
Foster eyed the projection more, Pierce appeared to have been in rough shape. His uniform was a mess, his hair was long, and facial hair wild and untrimmed. She had a hard time believing what she saw had been the truth to start with. After all, she saw Pierce not that long ago, he looked a lot better than he did in the projection. “What have you done with Pierce?”
“The Undine had him. They may worship their goddess, but in the end their elders know that I am a Muodiry and a god, one that could end their existence as easily as I allow it to exist. They carry out any request I make in exchange for their pitiful lives to continue.”
Marduk turned his back toward Foster, stepped before the windows, and gazed ominously at an object directly outside. His half-naked Poniga minions followed behind to stroke his body and offer him more wine and fruits as Foster tried to make out what he had his four eyes fixed on.
She saw it as his head tilted upward to drain his glass of wine down into his mouth.
It was the Carl Sagan, adrift in space with a lone drone standing overwatch next to it.
“And soon,” Marduk slowly said. “Earth will be given a similar offer. Worship me again, or die.”
26 FOSTER
The Architect’s ship
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:25 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Foster grimaced as she learned that there was a battle between the Carl Sagan and Marduk’s ship. Marduk’s mind released her body from its grip due to his sudden teleportation and in the aftermath of him reequipping his body with armor.
She stood next to the window and looked across the void hoping that its rail guns, plasma missiles, and engines would suddenly rev back up into action and fire back. No such thing happened, no matter how long she looked out the window hoping that a boarding party was in the works. The ship was boarded, 100 percent. She turned away from the window and took a seat at the ledge of the footbridge as Marduk’s loyal entourage went about their day like pets locked in a cage.
Foster began to wonder what would become of her as she looked on at all his loyal worshippers. She wasn’t chained up and the guards had long left her during the exchange with Marduk, she was free to walk about and was even offered fruits and wine from the Poniga worshippers. Was she expected to follow their lead? Strip down and wear the loincloth and translucent half robe everyone else had been wearing?
A group of Undine women rose from the pool to gawk and giggle at her. She tried not to pay much attention to them, bare breasts weren’t her thing anyways. Though the male Undine? Despite the situation she was in she was tempted to peek at their ripped chests as they plunged back down into the waters.
Brilliant azure teleportation light flashed, Marduk materialized back inside, along with a new partner, one Foster wasn’t expecting to see.
“This pleases me,” Marduk said to Tolukei who teleported in along with him. “A fellow Muodiry alive and well, I was beginning to think I was the last of our kind.”