“What makes you think that?”
“Because that’s what all women say when they are ready to end it.”
She looked away and thought about what her next words would be. “Well you gotta understand—”
“Oi I knew it.” He slapped both of his hands across his face and sighed. She leaned in closer to console him.
“Mike! Look, they’re fixin' to send me to Sirius.”
“I thought you’d be staying in Sol?”
“They got one last ship coming out of the shipyard; they want me to be the captain of it.”
Their eyes met up as his flustered face changed slightly to one that was happier, happy for her. “Oh wow, that’s great,” he said.
“Gonna be a seventeen-year trip, Mike.”
“And I can’t come, huh?”
“If you’d applied to be a colonist, maybe.”
“That wasn’t gonna happen and you know it,” Mike said. “I ain’t got no skills nor any say on which ship I’d end up on. Damn, I should have joined the navy or something, I reckon they’re sending military folks on your ship as well, right?”
“For defense, yeah.”
“So, this is it, eh?”
“If you been resisting the urge to cheat, you can do it now, I won’t get mad.”
Friendly laughter was exchanged between the two due to her comment. Starlet meowed like the attention-seeking cat she was. The two walked over to the window, observing what caught the tabby’s attention when they were talking. Starlet was looking to the stars; well, the stars that were visible in the LA skies.
Foster never understood why Starlet had such a fascination with the stars. From the moment she found her as a tiny kitten to now, it always spent part of the night looking up at the stars. It was Starlet’s fascination with the stars that reminded Foster of her father’s crushed dream to join NASA, a dream she intended to carry on in his honor and seek a career in space. Whenever she had doubts that IESA would accept her, she would look at Starlet, much like she was now and reinforce the motivation to study hard and pass their numerous entrance exams, physical tests, and training.
“I think I’m gonna enlist,” Mike said while he kept his eyes to the stars.
“Little late ain’t it?”
“Better late than never,” he looked away from the stars redirecting his attention to Foster, she saw the determination burning in his face. “I’ll enlist and push to one day fly out to Sirius and meet up with you.”
“Better make sure they put you on a ship then.”
“I’ll be a pilot or something. They’ll have to keep me on a ship with skills like that.”
She hit his arm in a flirty manner. “You can’t even drive a car!”
“I’ll learn! Flight school, enlistment, do my training and get posted on a ship.”
The two leaned in close and shared a passionate kiss, the last one they’d experience together. His hands held onto her waist while her hands cupped the back of his head, stroking his soft brown hair. Her life, going forward, would revolve around the expedition and building a new home for humanity. She had doubts that intimate moments will happen during that quest, and so made no attempt to let him go, and didn’t object to him unbuttoning her pants.
2 EISS AGENT 19, CODENAME: TEST
Earth Intelligence and Security Service (EISS) HQ
Geneva, Earth, Sol system
February 28, 2033, 12:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Test, a secret agent for EISS, stood inside a rapidly descending elevator that plunged hundreds of feet below the surface of an artificial island in Lake Geneva. With the rise of the UNE, Geneva was established as the capital of Earth. Earth Cube was established as the central location where the President of Earth and various arms of the UNE government worked.
Earth Cube was just that, a cubed building that stood on the artificial island on Lake Geneva. It was covered from top to bottom with glass windows, thus giving off the appearance it was Earth in the shape of a cube during clear sunny days, as the glass reflected the blue lake and skies around it.
Beneath Earth Cube however was EISS headquarters, the intelligence branch of Earth. Similar to UNE where all nations came together to form one, EISS consisted of a combination of the various intelligence agencies around the world including the CIA, CISS, MI6, and others. The goal was to create an intelligence agency that would look out for Earth’s interests as they expanded outward into space, and compete against the intelligence agencies employed by the Radiance Union and Hashmedai Empire.
Test’s elevator came to a stop. He exited and walked through the white tiled hallways, past its operation staff, and several other agents like himself. He entered a small briefing room where the facility’s director and another agent stood waiting for him around a small projection.
“Glad you could join us,” said the director.
“What did I miss?” Test asked.
The holographic projection transformed from a hovering image of the UNE flag, into a top down view of the Alpha Centauri and Proxima Centauri systems. “We have reason to believe EDF-2 and several others have gone missing, and have been for a year.”
EDF, it was a term Test had not heard in a long time. The Extrasolar Defense Force or EDF was a Special Forces group established to look out for Earth’s interests beyond the solar system. It was formed after humans that fled Earth during the Hashmedai invasion arrived at Radiance-controlled colonies in Alpha Centauri. A handful of the personnel had been a part of the military, including a team that bested the Hashmedai command ship that was in orbit around Earth.
“A psionic telepathic communication from Radiance claims that a Radiance ship they were operating on conducted an operation on the outskirts of Proxima Centauri,” said the director. “They also claim to have evidence of an unknown ship either heading to or arriving from the direction of the Sirius system.”
“Have we verified their claims?” asked the agent.
“The data gathered thus far has been transmitted to us,” the director explained. “But as we know, it will take another four years before it reaches us. However, Radiance claims that the mysterious ship in question may hold the answers as to what happened to them and the Radiance ship they were operating on.”
“Proxima Centauri is Radiance territory, so I think it’s safe to say if there were unknown ships operating in that system Radiance would have found it by now,” said Test.
“Which means said ship is on a course to Sirius,” said the agent. “That’s where the Carl Sagan comes in.”
Test crossed his arms and grunted. “This ought to be interesting.”
“The EDF teams vanishing isn’t new, at least for the higher-ups,” said the director. “Contact with them was lost in July of last year along with dozens of Radiance ships. Radiance sent ships in from Alpha Centauri four months later, the approximate time it takes to fly between those two systems.”
Test winced as he put two and two together. President Mariana Salamanca was elected that past November, the month Radiance would have discovered the fiasco that went on in Proxima Centauri. “That’s exactly when President Salamanca was elected and made the decision to keep going with the Carl Sagan rather than scrapping it and building a new warship,” he said.
“She knew what was going on and knew that we needed to get our eyes in that system ASAP,” said the director. “A trip from Proxima Centauri to Sirius will take a little over eighteen years and Earth to Sirius seventeen years.”
“If we launch a ship soon we could rendezvous with them as they arrive . . .” said Test.
“It will also give us a chance to investigate a theory. You are aware of the Celestial Order correct?”