“I’m sure in time you will remember them.”
“I am only two years old, my people live between eight and nine years, it’s only now I’ve started to remember his past. I want to remember everything before that time comes, and if I live with my people that might never come. Besides, hundreds of years have gone by since I left due to the time dilation. Everyone I knew must be dead; I am nothing more than a legend now.”
“So, you want to stay with us?”
“Please? At least until I remember everything and experience some of the wonders your people have.”
“Very well but . . .” Foster pointed at Nereid’s exposed body, the best she could considering she still covered her eyes with one free hand. “You’re going to need to wear clothes.”
“Modify my room so that I may swim through it freely and we have a deal.”
“Rivera and her team have more important duties to deal with.”
Foster heard Nereid’s feet splash against the wet surface toward the shower and it’s still running water flooding the room. “I’ll remain here, out of sight until that happens then.”
“You’ll need to work with the crew as well.”
“I know more about this system than anyone else,” Nereid sat down inside of the shower stall, the spraying water rained down her back and face as she cocked her head backward. The frosted glass cover gave Foster the chance to lower her hand and see normally again, especially at the extent of the water damage done.
I guess Rivera’s team will be up here sooner rather than later . . . Foster mused.
“Perhaps I could assist Dr. Pierce with his studies?”
“I’ll speak with him when I get the chance.”
ESRS CARL SAGAN, Bridge
SA-139 orbit, Sirius A system
June 21, 2050, 13:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“Ah, Becca, you’re just in time,” Williams said to Foster as she entered.
“What’s up?”
He waved for her to join him amongst several holographic projections and a 3D map of the Sirius system. “Our teams on the Poniga home world managed to make a deal in obtaining food supplies. Survey teams on the larger moon around the gas giant want a lift back to the colony. Archaeologist are eager to study the tomb of Tiamat and a team of xenobiologists want to study the aquatic life on Meroien.”
“Jobs that require peaceful exploration and scientific study,” Foster snickered. “That’s weird.”
“It’s almost as if that was our job.”
“Really? I thought it was killing Babylonian gods ‘n’ shit.” Foster faced Chang. “Set a course to the moon of the gas giant.”
Chang punched a series of commands on his helm controls. “Yes, ma’am.”
“The sooner they file their reports the sooner we can get a mine built.” She looked at the restored bridge and the crew carrying out their duties, now free of the thought of all the doom and chaos they’d had to endure since their arrival. “I’ll be in my office. Dom, you have the bridge.”
ESRS CARL SAGAN, Captain’s office
En route to SA-239, Sirius A system
June 21, 2050, 13:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Foster reached down and cracked out the third haggard box lying on the floor of her office. From her point of view, she had handled these boxes a little over a month ago, in reality, they had been sitting around in her quarters for the last seventeen years. Not all her belongings survived the attack; several items and clothes had to be discarded due to the damage. The decor of her office during their voyage to the moon slowly transformed from a boring room with a desk, to one filled with pictures hanging on the wall from Earth, a globe on her desk, and new models of UNE ships in a display cabinet.
She stood with her back toward the window and gazed at the newly decorated office, and the one, final unopened box below her feet, her most prized possession still inside, hopefully still intact.
She reached down to prize the box open when EVE’s voice interrupted her via the intercom. “Captain. Tolukei wishes to know if you have any messages to have telepathically sent back to Earth.”
Foster made a face, having remembered that with the damage done to the Lyonria hub came the stop of the psionic energy powering Tiamat’s tomb and its drone network. The psionic interference that prevented Tolukei from using his telepathy across space was no more. Contact had been made with the UNE, and with that came news of so many advancements and developments they had missed out on during their time in cryostasis.
The crew and colonists took the time to compose messages to friends and family back on Earth, while Tolukei played the role of interstellar postman and psionically transmitted them to a psionic that proceeded to pass the messages on.
“Just one message,” Foster said as she reached back into the final unopened box, wrapping her hands around a tattered solid object. Out from the box came her father’s telescope. Outside of the expected dust and age of the telescope, it was in the exact condition she had left it in when she had packed it away. “Tell mama . . . tell her we made it,” she said, looking down at the telescope.
Foster smiled warmly at the telescope and perched it on a small table next to her office window. She peered through its eyepiece while her hands adjusted its angle and zoom, a ten-minute stargazing session ensued as she tried to find a particular star no human had seen from their current location.
That star was Sol.
She found it, and zoomed in at its yellow glowing greatness, wondering what people around the third planet were doing, much like she wondered what was going on in the Sirius system when she and her father gazed at it through the very same telescope in her position.
“Papa, I hope you’re proud of me.”
AFTERWORD
Hello everyone, I hoped you enjoyed the story and a different take on the Splintered Galaxy saga. For those that might not be aware, The Siege of Sirius was originally planned to be the fifth book in the Splintered Galaxy series as a follow-up to the EDF-2 subplot featured in Equilibrium of Terror: Part 2. However, I spent so much time developing the characters for Siege of Sirius that I felt the story should revolve more around them, plus sticking to the original plot would have made the story twice as long. So, this became a spin-off with plans to continue their adventures in a new series scheduled to be released next year.
That’s right, this isn’t the end of the adventures of Captain Foster and her crew. They’ll be spearheading a brand-new series as they venture deeper into the unexplored regions of space, and who knows? Maybe they’ll run into a few familiar faces from Splintered Galaxy along the way.
UPRISING OF THE EXILED PREVIEW
Want to know what was going on at and around Earth while the crew of the Carl Sagan was traveling to Sirius? Let Uprising of the Exiled be your guide. Check out a sample of the first chapter below.