Ereshkigal’s War (Edge of the Splintered Galaxy Book 5), page 20
“If that’s true, it’d explain why Kur is so big,” Saressea said. “When the SOM had me with them, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the empty space inside that ship or why anyone would make it so large.”
“It’s big because it has billions of engrams to store,” Foster said.
“And now it’s here in Omega Centauri,” Saressea snorted. “Any idea why? Or how? Because I thought we blew the damn thing up years ago.”
“To be fair, we left and never came back to verify what became of Kur,” Chang said. “Obviously, it survived and has the power to travel to Omega Centauri.”
“Jainuzei said that our FTL drive is something Kur doesn’t have,” Foster said, recalling what Jainuzei had told her. “As far as space travel goes, it moves slower than us.”
“Yet it appeared out of nowhere during the battle,” Chang said. “I almost crashed into it!”
“I believe I have an answer for that,” EVE said, her voice playing over the speakers.
Williams laughed. “EVE, you listening to us chat?”
“Of course, Commander, I am the ship’s AI. I can hear all your conversations anywhere, anytime. I even watch you when you sleep.”
Penelope erupted with laughter. “Oh, EVE, love, it warms my heart to know you are still using the emotion programming I gave you!”
“EVE . . .” Foster groaned.
“Sorry, Captain, was my humor inappropriate at this time?”
Foster facepalmed. “What do you have that we don’t know?”
“These are our sensor scans of Kur when it blocked our retreat.” EVE dimmed the lights and created a rotating hologram above the briefing room table. “Now this is data Penelope had siphoned from the enemy corvette she and EDF-1 boarded.”
EVE displayed a second diagram next to the first. Foster didn’t know what to make of it. It was a bunch of mathematical equations and zigzagging lines. Judging by the confused looks of everyone around, the team shared Foster’s thoughts. Everyone except Odelea and Pierce.
“And we’re looking at what?” Foster asked.
“I think Kur is using a device similar to the Krasnikov tube,” EVE’s audio-only voice replied.
“Krasnikov tube?” Rivera asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Ah, yes, now I understand why this looked familiar,” Pierce said. “In 1995, a Russian scientist named Sergey Krasnikov proposed the idea of a wormhole that could send a ship to a location in space via, well, what we called Krasnikov tubes. You’ll arrive at your destination when your ship finishes passing through the tube. If you want to travel to another location, simply create another tube, then travel through it, and it will take you across the stars. The data here? It looks like Kur can use something similar, not the same, but very similar. I think that’s why we couldn’t see it until the last second. It had just emerged from the tube’s wormhole.”
“That’s probably how Kur went from the nebula to Omega Centauri,” Foster said, eyeing the data on the rotating hologram. “And that sounds way more advanced than our FTL . . . why would Ereshkigal want to trade that for our FTL?”
“I would imagine such a method of travel would be an enormous power drain on their systems, even when traveling a short distance,” EVE said.
“There is one other reason I can think of,” Pierce chimed in. “Krasnikov tubes, as incredible as they are, have a . . . unique side effect. Hmm, how would I explain this . . . Okay, well, one would use the tube to take them to a position in space, right?”
Foster nodded. “Yes.”
“Traveling through the tubes is not instant. It still takes time for your ship to pass through, but it’d be faster than FTL travel. If you were to say, leave Earth in January and travel to a location in space that would take seven months of travel through the tube, you’ll arrive at your destination in August of that same year. Now, if you wanted to return to Earth, you could place a second tube and travel through it, in which it would take seven months to return, making your return date March of the next year. Still with me?”
“I think.”
“Good, because this is where it gets tricky. Say, after arriving at Earth, you decided to backtrack through the tube you just left? Well, what would happen is not what you’d think. You’d return to the region in space you were exploring, but instead of taking seven months to get there, you travel backward in time seven months.”
Chang raised his eyebrow and contorted his face. “The fuck?”
“You’ll arrive at the location you wanted to explore at the moment you placed the second tube to return to Earth. It is now August of the previous year. And as for the first tube? The original one laid to explore space? If you backtracked through that, the same thing would happen. You’d return to Earth after seven months . . . of moving backward in time, and arrive in January, the day you created the first tube.”
“So the Krasnikov tubes aren’t just a means of space travel,” Williams said, glaring at the data. “They’re also a pseudo time machine.”
Pierce pointed at the same projection. “Perhaps this is why Kur never chased us or moved much after it appeared ahead of us. Behind it was a tube, one big enough to fit Kur and more than large enough for us to slip through. If we had passed through the tube, we would have traveled back in time and to the location Kur had originally opened the tube.”
“In which we could have altered the past to work against them,” Miles said.
“Or destroy Kur before it passes into the tube and prevent it from arriving to stop us,” Chevallier added.
“So that’s how we win then?” Chang asked. “Just find one of these tubes, then travel back to destroy Kur.”
“I do not think it will be that easy, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said.
Chang groaned. “Always a catch . . .”
“According to my data, the tube behind Kur was evaporating,” EVE said. “If anything, it was not just preventing us from going through. It was waiting for it to dissipate. This way, nobody could go backward in time to change the past. Also, I have reason to believe that when you travel backward in time, you will travel to a point shortly after Kur entered the tube, not when it created it. Therefore, you cannot destroy it in the past, only alter it to make life more difficult for them. With that said, passing through one of these is not advisable. Once the tube evaporates . . .”
“We’d be stuck in the past,” Williams said.
“So if we are going to sneak in,” EVE continued. “I recommend that we return ASAP, which does not leave much time to get anything meaningful done.”
“If Ereshkigal has such technology,” Tolukei said, narrowing all four of his eyes. “Would it not be better for her to travel to Earth, Radiance, or the Empire to gain the technology she seeks from us?”
“My guess is she does not know where Earth is,” Pierce said. “Also, when using something like the tubes, one has to account for things like stellar drift and other unforeseen objects. The last thing you want to do is open a tube in front of a black hole you didn’t know existed.”
“You have to take the same precautions the Hashmedai use when operating the space bridge,” Odelea said. “One mistake, and you’ll send that ship to its doom.”
“Which is the other reason why Ereshkigal wanted the Kepler,” Foster said. “According to Jainuzei, she also wants our star maps. Our maps of the galaxy are up to date and can point you to where Earth is today, not where Earth was thousands of years ago when she was last there.”
The talk of space bridges reminded Foster about Peiun and the Rezeki’s Rage. Nobody had heard from them, and she was starting to wonder if anyone would.
“Okay, I think that brings us all up to speed,” Foster said, and addressed the team. “Anyone have anything else to add?”
“No,” Miles said and looked at LeBoeuf, who had her face down on the briefing room table. It looked like she’d been like that since she sat. “Uh, LeBoeuf?”
“Yes . . .?” she moaned.
“If you’re free,” Miles continued. “I’d like to chat with you about one of them aliens you saw just before teleportin’ back to the Kepler.”
“Eh. Can it wait a bit? My head is killing me,” LeBoeuf mumbled.
“Of course.”
Miles waved his hand, created a holo screen, then nudged it to LeBoeuf. “Here’s the person in question, by the way.”
Foster glanced at the holo screen Miles pushed to LeBoeuf. It was a still image taken from the Johannes Kepler’s security cameras, a close-up picture of a human man of Asian descent who had accompanied Jainuzei to the Kepler.
A human who somehow ended up on Omega Centauri and working for Ereshkigal’s cult.
24 LEBOEUF
XSV Johannes Kepler
Omega Centauri Interstellar Space
September 22, 2121, 21:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
LeBoeuf’s migraine returned. And this time it didn’t feel like it would fade away. Drinking water didn’t work. Bedrest only made it worse, and she was confident that she could pick up the chatter and footsteps of everyone aboard the Johannes Kepler. It was as if her psionic mind could sense everything going on in the ship at once.
She felt that if she didn’t make it to sickbay now, she’d never live long enough to wake up in the morning. Or evening. She had no idea what the time was and was too afraid to consult her HNI.
LeBoeuf let out a loud, depressing groan after entering sickbay. Kostelecky peeked her head out from her office and glared at LeBoeuf as she sat on the closest medical bed.
“You look paler than the cream I used for my coffee this morning,” Kostelecky snorted.
LeBoeuf held her left hand to her forehead, convinced her brain was about to fall out from it. “I don’t think those meds are working.”
Kostelecky approached with a medical scanner, waved the device around LeBoeuf’s head, and viewed its outputted information. “You used too much of your power, LeBoeuf. Nereid and Tolukei also complained that their medication wasn’t working. The only person who hasn’t complained about head pains is Maxwell, and from what I read from the after-action report, he used his powers far less than you did.”
“He’s a Ravager,” LeBoeuf said. “He didn’t have to worry about keeping force fields active or teleporting us out.”
“And he is useless regarding shipboard psionic duties.” Kostelecky stowed the device in her lab coat pocket and walked toward a medication storage cabinet. She retrieved a stash of the meds LeBoeuf and the others had been using, and offered it to her. “Here, I’m upping your dosage. Take this time to rest and refrain from using your powers unless it is an emergency.”
LeBoeuf accepted the meds. “Thank you.”
She stood up to leave, but Kostelecky held her hands forward, blocking her departure. “Wait,” Kostelecky said. “Take some right now, then lay down. I want to monitor you for the next fifteen minutes.”
“Fine.”
LeBoeuf popped the meds, sat back down on the medical bed, and waited. It took ten minutes, but she felt the medication’s blissful effects flow through her veins. She liked it. The nausea brought on by the migraine had diminished. Her head didn’t thump as hard, and most importantly she couldn’t hear the crew’s voices in other areas of the ship.
Miles sauntered past sickbay’s sliding doors a minute later and fixed his gaze on LeBoeuf. Kostelecky fixed her gaze on the marine and strode to him.
“You don’t look ill, Lieutenant,” Kostelecky said. “What do you want?”
“Wanted to chat with LeBoeuf,” he said.
“Do it later. She’s resting.”
“It’s fine, doctor,” LeBoeuf said. “I promised that I’d talk with him about something important.” She waved him over as he activated a holographic screen displaying what looked like security camera footage. The timestamp on the bottom left corner read “2121-09-21 - 15:12 SST.” It was shortly after the attack. “This from the Kepler?”
“Aye,” Miles said then forced the projection to play. The screen showed a human man and Jainuzei stepping onto the Kepler via the airlock. “As you can see, he came with Jainuzei and then was asked to search for you and your team.”
“We were infiltrating the enemy ship at the time,” LeBoeuf said.
“Had a feelin’ he was looking to pop you and Maxwell for being psionics. We tried our best to play it off as if you all never joined us out here.”
“Well.” LeBoeuf eyed the holographic footage longer. She recognized the armor the human in the projection wore. The armor’s size and shape matched his body. She pulled up archived footage from the battle within the enemy ship with her HNI, then displayed a holographic image of the strange attacker waving his hands at LeBoeuf just before she teleported the team back to the Kepler. “EVE, scan the individual on these holo screens.” LeBoeuf gestured to the security playback and still image of the enemy combatant, trying to get her attention.
“Done,” EVE replied two seconds later.
“What are the chances that they are the same person?”
“According to the armor’s height, shape, and damage, there is a 99.8% probability that the individuals are the same.”
LeBoeuf grimaced. “So, this man . . .”
“His name is Tetsuya Ishihara.” Miles narrowed his eyes and stroked his ginger beard. “Oi, thought he was full of shit when he told me his name.”
“He told you his full name?”
He shrugged. “For an enemy combatant, Ishihara seemed pretty chatty, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he didn’t care about doing his job.”
“When I last saw him . . .” LeBoeuf tried to pull up more battle data with her HNI regarding Tetsuya Ishihara, but her brain flared with a sudden surge of pain. “Argh!” She put her hand over her forehead.
“Easy does it.” Miles put his hand on her shoulder. “We can talk more later.”
“No.” LeBoeuf shook her head when the pain diminished. “This is making too much sense.”
“How so?”
“Out of everyone we encountered, Ishihara didn’t shoot at us.” She looked up at the marine. “As I teleported the team away, Ishihara looked right at me and reached out. It was like he was crying for help, like he wanted me to teleport him as well. I didn’t think much of it and wrote him off as an alien asshole. But he wasn’t an alien. He was human. And he’s out here with us.”
“Findin’ Jainuzei, Alisha, and Byikanea, now known as Ereshkigal, out here in Omega Centauri makes sense,” Miles said. “They were part of the SOM’s assault team that infiltrated Kur. But Tetsuya Ishihara? That’s a tricky one.”
“Is it possible he was with the Hashmedai colonists who got lost out here?”
“Pretty sure you needed to be an Imperial citizen to get a ticket on that ship.”
“That means . . .” LeBoeuf tried to connect the dots in her head and paid the price with another flare of migraine pain. She moaned loudly, held her forehead, and nearly passed out.
“Okay, that’s enough. Leave my patient be,” Kostelecky said, rushing to LeBoeuf’s aid while waving a medical scanner. The doctor spun back to Miles with a fierce frown, then pointed her left index finger at the door. “Out now. If you want to chat, do it with that alien over there.”
LeBoeuf looked aside and noted the sleeping Amphibian resting on a medical bed. Miles did the same, crossed his arms, and said nothing else.
Kostelecky grinned. “Oh, not in a chatty mood anymore, Lieutenant?”
Miles just laughed, deactivated his holo screens, and exited sickbay.
LeBoeuf got the all-clear to leave sickbay. She never made it to her quarters as planned. Instead, LeBoeuf found herself on the bridge, having heard from Rivera that she saw Miles striding to it. Upon her arrival on the bridge, she noticed Chevallier, Maxwell, and Miles standing behind Penelope, seated at one of the rear computers, curiously studying one of its holo screens. LeBoeuf joined the four of them with folded arms.
“Gathering without me?” LeBoeuf said, chuckling.
Chevallier, Maxwell, and Miles spun around and faced her. Penelope kept her face glued to the screen and her fingers dancing across the keyboard.
“Actually, we were about to call you up,” Chevallier said.
“What’s up?” LeBoeuf said, gesturing to the profile on the holo screen. It was Tetsuya Ishihara’s profile.
“We asked EVE to run a search on Ishihara and found this,” Miles said.
Penelope nodded. “And I’m reaching out to Maraschino to see if they have any juicy details that these official reports are missing.”
LeBoeuf glared at the projection closer. It was the mugshot of a Japanese man, taken from Earth’s most-wanted list. The name above the mugshot read, “Ishihara, Tetsuya.” He had been on the UNE’s most-wanted list for decades.
“Tetsuya Ishihara was a terrorist from the HLF,” Miles said. “Was wondering why he looked so familiar.”
Chevallier eyed his mugshot intently. She couldn’t hide the rage burning in her eyes. LeBoeuf opted not to ask Chevallier what got her so upset that her face ended up flushing.
“You know him?” Maxwell asked, spinning to face Miles.
“We busted their primary base of operations back in the 40s,” Miles said. “It was just before the Celestial Order war got out of hand. Memory’s a little fuzzy, but I’m sure Ishihara was one of the HLF terrorists we took captive—”
“Oh, hello,” Penelope cut in. “Maraschino was fast with this one.” The hacker finished typing, sat back, and presented the newly loaded holo screen. “Feast your eyes on this, ladies and gentlemen.”
The five eyed the screen and skimmed through the lines of text, listing just about everything the hacker collective/data broker group had on Tetsuya Ishihara. Maraschino had a lot of intel on him, even the schools he went to as a kid. That was a big deal. Tetsuya Ishihara was born before 2018. Before the Hashmedai Empire started glassing Earth and destroying many personal records.
Miles read the important data on Tetsuya Ishihara. “Ishihara and a high-ranking HLF operative, Rina West, escaped prison in 2041. They were last seen in Rome where they vanished, and their whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.”
