“Oh, please.”
“I never took your father’s name and neither did you. Keep those traditions going in Sirius, who knows, maybe that will be commonplace there.”
Mathilda arrived in her quarters an hour later to pack up. Only one duffel bag was needed: clothes; data pad; music player; videogame console; and most important of all, a pack of Cuban cigars. Everything else was irrelevant. She picked up her data pad and winced at the flashing red icon of a new message notification. She tapped the touch screen while her eyes skimmed the contents of the message, it was another invite for her to attend a going-away-party with many drinks.
She groaned as she tossed the data pad in her duffel bag. She didn’t want to go to Sirius. She didn’t want to be cut off from the rest of the human race or the galaxy, she didn’t want to make Sirius her new home until the Carl Sagan was ready to return to Earth, whenever that was. Her antics brought this on herself and created headaches for her mother.
Mathilda was the daughter to the great Captain Chevallier. Because of who her mother was, she was rarely punished for things she did or trouble she got into, and oftentimes didn’t get passed up for promotions. It would have been bad press for the UNE navy to do otherwise, they needed people like her, her mother, and Xavier to encourage recruitment and strong morale. Xavier had his adopted daughter, Jessica Davis, rising through the ranks, Agatha had Mathilda.
Mathilda enlisted in the navy to make her mother happy, but her attitude toward her superiors did the exact opposite. Mathilda’s forced assignment to Sirius would deflect flak from her mother and help keep Mathilda from a court-martial, one that was a long time coming. One that would have brought shame to her mother and ruin the poster child image the navy wanted to project.
Mathilda leaving Sol however, it was great for the press, daughter of the famed Captain Chevallier who will travel to Sirius and lead the UNE navy personnel attached to the ship. Her mother in the end would be happy and proud while growing old, and dying never knowing this was not the life Mathilda wanted for herself. Never knowing this was Mathilda’s attempt at saving her from more embarrassment due to her actions.
Sirius was the rug, and Mathilda was set to be swept under it.
4 WILLIAMS
Radiance Embassy
Kingston, Earth, Sol system
March 6, 2033, 17:00 SST (Sol Standard Time)
The Caribbean was one of the few places on Earth that lacked the scars of war from the invasion. It was deemed tactically unimportant at the time to the Hashmedai fleet, not to mention its warm climate deterred them from sending ground forces to raze its cities. Today, most members of Radiance could be found living on one of the many islands, as warm, tropical temperatures are highly sought after amongst Radiance, standard room temperature for Radiance was around thirty degrees Celsius. Needless to say, the primary Radiance Embassy on Earth was located in the heart of Kingston, Jamaica, with its warm tropical weather.
The Embassy was also the primary location where Radiance psionics were recruited. According to Radiance myth, their gods, who uplifted the Aryile race, gifted them with various forms of technology, such as interstellar ships and the ability to create psionics. If a person with potential was found, they underwent a special type of therapy that enhanced their brain processing power, giving them access to skills such as telepathy, telekinesis, and extrasensory perception (ESP.)
With the aid of advance cybernetic augmentation and years of training, a psionic could further develop their powers to not only augment their basic gifts, but gain access to the ability to teleport themselves or others around them, from one location to another, harness psionic power and convert it into deadly projectiles, control electronic equipment by thinking about it, or conjure a protective barrier for defensive purposes. Psionics were an essential member of a ship as they were able to sense what existed around the ship faster than its sensors which traveled at the speed of light. If there was an incoming asteroid forty light minutes away, it would take forty minutes for ships sensors to scan it, and another forty minutes for the data to return to the ship. A psionic could sense it instantly and relay that information so its crew could adjust course.
The Carl Sagan was going to be all alone in Sirius so a shipboard psionic was going to be mandatory to have along for the ride as humans were incapable of developing psionic powers according to recent studies. There have been wild conspiracy theories that a top secret UNE outpost on one of Saturn’s moons was conducting research into the development of human psionics.
Commander Dominic Williams entered the lobby of the Radiance Embassy and marveled at its crystal-like interior and high, hanging ceiling. Holograms replayed messages written in their language; important notifications he figured. He saw various members of the Radiance collective scurry about and speak with humans that were there. Many of them were of the Aryile race, humanoid creatures with scales on their arms and the sides of their necks, possibly other areas as well. They had reptilian eyes and took great care to ensure their hair was styled elegantly.
Javnis were a purely reptile species with green, leathery skin, four eyes, and a bad sense of humor from what Williams recalled from his early encounters with their kind. Rabuabin were an interesting bunch, they had catlike ears and tail, but also had ram like horns on their heads. Most of them had tanned skin though Williams suspected it was due to having to live on planets with lots of sunlight as the union favored colonies there.
The physical appearance of the Linl was indistinguishable to humans. It was the Linl race that pushed for Radiance to make contact with humanity when Radiance first discovered Earth, as many people in their society thought there was a link between humans and Linl. Of course, no such link had ever been discovered, as countless genetic tests had shown. Humans and Linl, outside of physical similarities, were two wholly different species.
Williams stood at the reception desk and saw one of the rarer species of the union, the Vorcambreum. They were a short race of people who were no taller than four feet in most cases. They had grey skin, yellow eyes, and large ears that sagged down toward their shoulders at times. They almost always sat on a booster chair that prompted laughter that Williams had to hold back every time he saw them.
“Greetings human, what can I do for you?” The Vorcambreum receptionist said to him.
“I’m Commander Dominic Williams.”
“Ah, yes, we’ve been expecting you.” His tiny Vorcambreum hands offered Williams a Radiance data crystal. “These are the psionics that are available for your expedition.”
Williams pulled out his data pad and loaded the crystal into a small slot on the bottom of it. The contents of the data crystal began to load and to his surprise showed only the dossiers of two Radiance psionics.
“That’s it? Just two?”
“You must remember you will be in stasis for many years, on a voyage to a system that even our people have never been to,” said the Vorcambreum. “Most of us came here to aid your kind not explore the unknown.”
Williams examined the list closer, he had to choose between a young and inexperienced Aryile shipboard psionic and an experienced Javnis combat psionic. It wasn’t an easy call.
Williams grimaced at the thought and asked. “Can I get back to you on this?”
“Yes of course. But if you want my suggestion? Invest in the Javnis, you never know if you’ll run into trouble out there.”
It’s a tempting thought, but at the same time, the Carl Sagan wasn’t a warship. They needed a shipboard psionic, not a combat one and taking the two was out of the question as Radiance only allowed one of their kind to serve on Earth ships.