“The Javnis are now part of a collective known as the Radiance Union,” Tolukei said. “Our existence has been suppressed by their religion. It was part of the reason I was assigned to this human ship, Radiance did not want me in their society.”
Foster clenched her fists as the two exchanged laughter and stories with each other. Betrayal was an easy thing to spot. Marduk saw her furious looks and cackled before removing his helmet providing Tolukei with proof that he wasn’t alone, another member of his species, and subclass for that matter, was here.
“You are now free, my brethren.” Marduk placed his hand on top of Tolukei’s shoulder. “This Radiance you speak of and the humans will no longer be your masters. For you see, I have become king of gods. In time you too will ascend to one and rule over the humans and this system. And now that I know others of our kind exist, they too will be free and become gods and goddesses. Radiance . . . the Empire . . . they will be worshiping us soon enough.” Marduk’s four eyes focused in on Foster. “But first, we make an example of Earth and the humans.”
Tolukei’s lips curled. “How do you plan to do that?”
Marduk gestured to the Carl Sagan adrift in space outside of the window. “This human ship is the key. It has an AI aboard, powerful enough to break the encryption placed on the Lyonria gate in their primary hub in the system. This ship also recently acquired a Nereid, one that possesses the location of Earth, security codes, and secrets.”
“What?!” Foster exclaimed. “How the hell?”
Marduk laughed at Foster. “You didn’t know that did you? The human you call Commander McDowell was, what you call an EISS agent.”
“Can’t say I did.”
“Once we’ve acquired a copy of your ship’s AI, I plan to use it to disable the cage Tiamat placed around this system and, with McDowell’s knowledge, bypass Earth’s defenses.”
“You know I’m not on your team, right?” Foster called out to Marduk. “Probably wanna keep that stuff a secret from me.”
Marduk slowly moved next to her across the footbridge, smiling in a charming manner. “Oh, I want you to know, because I’m going to give you one last chance.” As Marduk approached Foster, he held his hand up forcing her EAD to fly toward him with his mind and slap into his hand as if it was thrown to him. “I’ve managed to connect to your AI with my mind with this device. Copying the programming of your AI . . . is difficult, but not impossible, however.” Foster saw multiple holographic windows appear generated by the EAD. Lines of computer code scrolled, code that was part of EVE’s programming. “Give me full access to it, and I’ll allow you to become a goddess.”
Foster rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”
“Look around you. You can’t win, even if you were to escape and board your ship, it is much too slow. I have a great many psionic minds aboard, you, as of now, have none. It is only a matter of time before I copy your AI, or at least part of it, as I only need its abilities to interface with Lyonria technology. When I bring your people down, you could be the one that descends from the skies, a goddess that will rule over them.”
Rebecca Foster, goddess of the human race . . . it did not have a nice ring to it, especially when she recalled the vision from the engram trance. Whatever technique he had used with the wormhole to travel to the alternate plane of existence was no doubt the same technique he planned to share with Foster once he regained access to the gate.
“I could even bring your father back from the dead.”
His words were haunting, triggering her attention to focus more on him as she felt dreadful chills move through her back and throat. How did you know about papa? Damn it, leave his soul out of this!
“Think about it,” Marduk whispered into her ear. Foster was lost, so much she didn’t notice him get that close. “In the meantime, know that your crew is suffering as my men search for the Nereid and Dr. Pierce.”
“Pierce is useless to you.”
“I can’t allow the Hashmedai Empire to interfere with my plans. Dr. Pierce’s knowledge will ensure they don’t.”
“If you’re worried about outside interference, it’s Radiance you should be concerned about.”
“I’m not worried about them at all.” Marduk looked at Tolukei, smirking. “He’ll tell me everything I need to know about them. And if not, there’s still the Radiance database and its trove of knowledge to comb over once I gain full access.”
Marduk and Tolukei left Foster alone in the chamber while two of his followers traveled behind them, pitchers of wine firmly clasped in their hands. She tried to piece together why Marduk would think that Pierce had valuable intel on the empire. The closest theory she could come up with was that he was secretly a member of the HLF. It would explain why McDowell, an EISS agent, would have infiltrated the ship, he was probably asked to keep an eye on him.
And now his knowledge may give Marduk the keys to the front and back doors of Earth.
27 RIVERA
ESRS Carl Sagan, Engineering
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Screaming and panic echoed throughout the corridors of the ship.
And it had gotten closer and closer to engineering during the last hour.
Chief engineer Jasmine Rivera noted the confirmation that the main doors to engineering had shut and been barricaded to the best of her team’s ability given the lack of gravity. The Architect’s soldiers were performing a deck-by-deck search for someone, or something. The crew that were unlucky and were caught out in the open had been apprehended at gunpoint and forced into the docking bay, probably a staging point for a mass execution Rivera figured. Vent the entire bay once the crew was rounded up and placed inside, a quick and easy way to get rid of the crew and force the captain to watch the aftermath.
Rivera glided her body toward a computer terminal, switching off the security camera footage she had been using to monitor the chaos on the Carl Sagan. A new computer interface loaded; one that gave her access to the AI core, the location of EVE’s primary systems. A notification flashed, someone had gained access to it during the incursion, a sneaky person at that who managed to avoid tripping any alarms. Even EVE herself was unaware of it, her processors had been hard at work creating the translation algorithm of the Lyonria language per the commander’s last orders to her. In any case, EVE needed to be taken offline to prevent further tampering.
Rivera heard repeated banging and thumps on the doors leading into engineering. Crew members donning their orange mechanics coveralls began to panic and console each other. The Architect’s soldiers wanted in and were quite impatient as they began to blast away at the door with their lasers, cutting a small hole through it. Rivera moved her hands quickly, shutting down as many vital systems as she could. She stopped suddenly as an unexpected text message had been received by her terminal.
The message was encrypted it was going to take her a few seconds to decrypt it, seconds she wouldn’t have left to finish the shutdown of EVE’s systems.
Read the message, or finish the job.
She exhaled and looked at the doors, the soldiers were almost through. The thick metallic material glowed red from the heat as the lasers continued to blast against it.
Read the message, or finish the job.
She couldn’t do both.
She had to choose.
Forty-five seconds later, the contents of the message displayed on her computer screen. It made her smile as she quickly began to key in and send a reply, all while transmitting additional messages to other computer terminals on the ship.