Erebus Dawning: A Space Opera Adventure (Seven Stars Saga Book 1)

by AJ Super

  “Where was this?”

  “Just outside of the asteroid colony Ceres VI.” He turned and looked at Erebus peeking in the door of the Calliope’s command deck, then back at the edgy Betty. “I’m outnumbered. Do you need the gun?”

  Erebus tiptoed through the open door into the dimly lit bridge. Most of the control panels and consoles were powered down. Only a faint glow emanated from them, casting an orange glow on her brown skin.

  Nyx slung her weapon to her back and popped her helmet off. “I’m afraid we do. I don’t know if you are trained to fight, and we are just three lonely women.” She sneered. “I’ll take every advantage I can get.”

  He jerked a thumb at Erebus. “That’s not a woman, that’s a Sia. I doubt I can fight against a Sia. At any rate, why bring one aboard a ship not equipped with a Ship Interface Android program?”

  This model of ore hauler typically didn’t have a Sia program, and humans did all the work controlling the flight, defense, life-support, and other programs. It was downright Neolithic. But Erebus had the ability to infect computer systems, so it didn’t matter. Together, they could easily bypass the outdated and paranoid human-centric systems with ease.

  “You don’t need to know.” She motioned to Erebus. “Do your thing. I want to know what happened on this ship.”

  Erebus stepped down the stairs and brushed past the ebony-mopped monk. She walked to the console closest to the door and poked at it until it brightened.

  The monk’s dark eyes widened. “I haven’t been able to get any of these to respond. How?”

  Nyx smirked. “Falak, what’s your progress?”

  “Almost contained. Easy peasy. We’ll be able to slow this beast down and park her no problem.” Falak’s voice cracked over the comms.

  “Kai, what’re we supposed to do with a monk?” Nyx turned away from Coeus. Betty shifted, keeping the monk in her sights, but she made sure she had a view of Erebus, Nyx, and the door to the corridor as well.

  “Was it the Medusa?” Kai crackled.

  Nyx shook her head. “Not sure, but I think so. You know their superstition about selling religious figures; makes sense that they left a monk behind. And it would be a Malcam-ish thing to run the ship into something full tilt to get rid of anyone who could pinpoint the Medusa.”

  “Get Erebus to confirm.” Kai’s voice resonated hope.

  “This means we have a possible location.” She relaxed her shoulders. “Ceres VI.” Nyx paced to the giant window on the deck.

  “Got it,” Erebus shouted.

  “Got it,” Falak echoed.

  Nyx smiled. The two seemed proud of themselves. “Who got what? Falak, you’re good to go?”

  “Yes, sir!” the young man said. “Though, for a second…”

  “No, don’t tell me how close you came to blowing us up. Just synchronize with the Thanatos, and slow these boats down.” Nyx turned to Erebus. “Tell me some good news.”

  Erebus put her hand on the console and brought up a rotating asteroid with a hologram of the Medusa orbiting beside it. “Less than twenty-four hours ago.”

  “So, what?” Nyx scrunched her face, confused. “I don’t get it. This ship was at the mine getting a load of ore. And the Medusa came after it? After off-loading slaves, likely? That doesn’t make sense. You don’t fish where you market. It’s bad business. Even Malcam knows this. Something’s not right.”

  Betty glanced at Nyx through her helmet. She opened her mouth to say something.

  The monk sprang. As he pushed aside the barrel of the black gun, he punched Betty in the stomach. Betty doubled over, breath expelled from her body, and he smashed her in the back. She hit the floor in a pile of limbs, her helmet falling on the grated floor with a cacophonous clatter. Coeus wrenched the strap of the pulse rifle from her shoulder and pointed it at Nyx and Erebus. “You’re not supposed to slow down.”

  Nyx lifted her hands. Erebus kept hers splayed on the console.

  “Why? We fixed the containment issue. Got a great engineer. Genius kid.” Nyx stepped around Erebus.

  “Didn’t know you cared,” Falak’s voice crackled.

  Kai cleared his throat in her ear. “Got a problem?”

  “We’re gonna keep slowing down until we stop,” Nyx said slowly. “If you’ve got a problem with that, you’re going to have to shoot me, then go down to Engineering and shoot a poor, defenseless kid.”

  “Thanks for that,” Falak snarked. “I’ve at least got this strong-and-silent-type bodyguard you sent with me.”

  “Monks aren’t supposed to go around shooting people. Unless you aren’t a monk.” Nyx raised a brow. Betty moaned and stretched. Nyx needed to buy a little time for the woman to get back on her feet. She was still within reach of the monk.

  “I am. I am. I just—I saw what they did to my crew. It was only a week. Maybe more. Before they sold most of them off to the mines. But I’m not going back to that. And they said if the ship slowed down, and you found it…”

  “If we found it?” She wasn’t sure what the monk was saying, but the terrible feeling she had iced her bones. She reached out a reassuring hand to the monk.

  A cutting gasp broke over the comms. Kai whispered, “Malcam knows we’ve been looking for him. Seven Stars, it’s a trap. Everyone, get off that ship. That’s an order. Retreat.”

  “You heard him,” she ordered over the comm.

  “Yes, sir,” Falak acknowledged.

  Betty pushed up on all fours and shot a hand out. Reaching for the monk’s leg furthest from her, she grabbed his ankle and yanked. Unprepared, both legs flew out from under him, ochre robes spinning. The gun spurt.

  Nyx ducked, shrapnel and sparks spraying off the deck in front of Coeus. She covered her head.

  The monk rolled over, trying to get his legs under him. Betty crawled over the top of him and pinned his shoulders with her knees, grabbing the gun, wresting it from his grasp. She smashed his face with the butt. Then she rolled up on her heels and stood, gun trained on the bleeding man.

  He held his face and groaned.

  Nyx straightened, facing the window. “We can’t just leave him to Malcam.”

  “He’s bait for a trap. Leave him and get back to the Thanatos,” Kai snapped.

  “Unwilling bait.”

  “Fine. Get back on board the Thanatos and get him to the brig.”

  Nyx turned to Elizabet. “Get him up. Liu’s coming with us.”

  “My name’s Coeus,” the monk mumbled through his hands. “But thank you. I appreciate not being left…” His eyes went blank as he stared at the view-screen.

  Nyx turned to the windows. The Medusa’s dark grey bulbous silhouette settled into normal space, its guns spinning towards the Thanatos and the ore hauler.

  19

  The Medusa’s bulk hovered in the windows, close enough for Nyx to see the gun turrets swivel from the opposite direction. Malcam must have been expecting to jump in from behind the Thanatos and ambush her, so the turrets were aimed in the wrong direction. Still, Malcam had the upper hand, as surprised as he may be by the slowed ore hauler and the docked Thanatos being behind him.

  “Shields, full forward, please,” Nyx said to Erebus and held a hand to the cold, thick glass. This boat had no weapons to defend itself with. It relied on speed, strong shields, and a call to the Queen’s Navy for defense. Commercial vessels didn’t carry weaponry due to the Piracy Act expressly forbidding all vessels to carry on-hull weaponry, decommissioning those that had the ability to defend themselves or repurposing them as privateers and mercenaries who were not much better than pirates.

  “Shields full forward,” Erebus echoed.

  “At least it’ll take a Battle Station to get through shields like these.” Nyx turned to Liu, or rather, Coeus, who was holding his bloody nose as he cowered on the floor. Betty stood next to him with her rifle tight in hand and trained on him.

  He snorted. “I wouldn’t count on that. Captain Malcam—”

  “Captain Malcam
what?” A shimmering projection of Malcam appeared on the command deck, his towering mass flickering in black and white. “I thought monks made vows of silence or privacy or something like that. Are you about to tell a secret, monk?”

  Coeus flinched.

  Nyx stepped in the hologram’s line of sight, in front of the monk. “What do you want Malcam?”

  He smoothed his deep widow’s peak back. “Oh, Nyxie. Nice to see you. It’s been such a long time. I like what you’ve done with your hair.” He grinned like a hyena and rubbed his five-o’clock shadow. “You’re just the princess I wanted to chat with.”

  “Get to it then,” she growled. She didn’t want to give him a chance to play his little games. Forcing Malcam to get to the point would put him off balance and give her an edge. That edge would be Erebus sliding into the Medusa’s systems and taking over. She glanced at Erebus who was looking intently at Malcam’s holographic projection. Green energy trickled off her and twined around the hologram. Nyx flexed her hands, as smoky white wisps stretched to meet Erebus. She clenched her jaw and willed the energy back into her. She wouldn’t follow Erebus’ emerald light to the Medusa this time. She wouldn’t accidentally cause another Kokou incident.

  “I want the Star of Erebus. I want the Thanatos. I want you. I want Kai.” He stared through her, crossing his arms. “I want everything I should have gotten from the start.”

  “And what exactly are you going to do with everything?” Nyx crossed her arms, mimicking him. Her eyes hardened. She wasn’t going to let him push her. Everything he had now, he had taken. Taken from Kai. Taken from her father. Taken from her.

  “The Medusa is mine, and I want your claim to her gone. The only way I see that happening is to put you and Prince Kai out of the picture, and to make sure I have the Star of Erebus and the Thanatos.”

  Nyx squared off with the Malcam-projection. “The crew still won’t completely trust you. You weren’t voted in. You weren’t their chosen leader. You weren’t proven in the ranks. You just took it. The strong rise, yes. But leaders are chosen, they don’t take. How you came to power—that’s not how my father’s ship worked, and you know it.” She waved a hand.

  “I’ll take what I’m owed. What I deserve,” Malcam roared. “You and Kai will bring me the Star. Or I’ll blow you out of the sky.”

  “What you deserve is a swift kick in the pants.” Nyx turned to Erebus. “Do you have control of the Medusa yet?” That should have been enough time. Her emerald energy coursed through the hologram.

  “I leapt across the signal to the source. I reached the narrow-wave origin,” Erebus said with a glowing smile. “Basic systems, weapons, shields, life-support, all incorporated. I am expanding.”

  “Will you do me a favor and shut down their shields and weapons?” Nyx bared her teeth at the cross-armed figure of Malcam scowling at her.

  He jerked, listening to someone outside of the holographic camera. “Well, get them back!” He swiveled to Nyx. “What did you do?”

  “We’re targeting them now.” Kai’s voice crackled over the comm.

  Nyx squared herself to Malcam’s shimmering hologram. “My turn to make demands. I want the crew of the Thanatos back. Captain Matthews included.”

  Malcam lowered his head, glaring through his brow. He motioned to someone outside the holographic camera and whispered something. “Now,” he ordered.

  “Is it really that hard? Keep the Medusa, Malcam. I just want everyone you kidnapped from the Thanatos.” Nyx paced.

  “That was eleven people, plus the Captain, correct?”

  “There were more.” Nyx’s face turned stony. He was up to something. He was stalling.

  “You know that we just got off from selling a ship full of people to the mining colony, right?” he smirked.

  Nyx planted her feet. “I want whoever is left.” She looked at Erebus. The Star seemed a bit strained, brow creased and concentrating hard with her eyes closed.

  “And here they are! Let’s adjust this so you can… see. Ah, yes.” Malcam waved his arms.

  Twelve people flickered onto the command deck of the ore hauler. Each knelt, head low, except one—Captain Matthews. His face swelled, lip cut, eye shut, blood trailing down his crooked nose.

  Nyx walked to the row of holographic prisoners. Old bruises, new bruises, broken noses, and black eyes painted the gaunt men and women. She stopped in front of a once muscular man, now wasted into skin and bones, and spun to Malcam. “You haven’t been feeding them?”

  “Well, that’s on their captain,” Malcam narrowed his eyes. “He wouldn’t give me information on the Star. So, I wouldn’t feed his crew. That was the deal.”

  “He’s sick. Mentally ill. You made him that way. And you’re trying to make deals with him?” Nyx said, barely containing her anger. Malcam would have tortured anyone to get knowledge of Erebus. “You must be delusional. You’re trying to squeeze water from a stone.”

  “Well, I don’t need the stone anymore. I have the Star right in front of me on the Thanatos.” He motioned to someone off-camera, and they handed him something.

  Nyx’s gut dropped.

  Malcam passed a gun to his right hand.

  He cocked it and aimed at Matthews.

  Nyx stood between the holographic Matthews and Malcam. She couldn’t let Malcam kill the Thanatos’ old captain. There was much she needed to ask him, about Erebus, about her maman. “He still knows more about the Star than we do. You can’t just kill him.”

  Malcam raised his brow. “I suppose you’re right. But I don’t have the Star yet. You seem to not understand where I’m standing right now. Or what I will do.” He stood next to Nyx, and shifted the gun from Matthews to the once muscular man’s bowed head.

  The man muttered.

  “What was that?” Malcam pushed his head up with the black barrel of the weapon.

  “Do your worst. Je m’en fou. I really don’t care,” he said clearly.

  Malcam’s finger tightened around the trigger.

  Nyx reached out. He wasn’t going to. He couldn’t.

  Malcam pulled back the hammer of his pistol.

  She grabbed at the projected image, hand sliding through the grayscale hologram. “No! Don’t!”

  “No!” Matthews’ bruised eyes widened.

  Blood and brain matter sprayed from the wide exit wound in the back of the once muscular man’s head across the command deck in flickering black and white. The man’s body arched and fell in a heap, grey eyes staring at nothing.

  Matthews hovered over the body screaming. “No! No! No! No!”

  Malcam walked forward and smashed the captain over the head with the smooth wooden butt of his weapon.

  Matthews collapsed on the man’s bloody body.

  Nyx’s head spun. White tendrils shot from her body and rode Erebus’ green code to the Medusa. “Erebus, do something.”

  “Do you want me to vent the atmosphere?”

  Nyx’s gut sank. “No. No! There are innocent people on that ship. Just stall them. Turn out the lights.”

  Malcam’s image turned green, as did the images of the Thanatos hostages, as the holographic cameras switched to infrared night-vision because the Medusa’s deck went black.

  “I didn’t do that,” Erebus whispered.

  “It’s okay. I think I did.” Nyx trembled, trying to control her thoughts as the white wisps twined with Erebus’ code energy.

  Malcam would either find a way to bring up emergency power or…

  He strode to the row of hostages and blindly grabbed for the head of the nearest prisoner. A female let out a little whimpering shriek. Malcam pointed his pistol at the body mass of the woman. Three loud pops rang. The woman went limp, Malcam holding her up by her glowing green hair.

  “Nyxie. I don’t know how you did it, but if you don’t want more people to die, I’d turn the lights back on,” Malcam’s voice roared through the darkness.

  Her heart rose to her throat. There was nothing she could do to stop t
his brute. Nothing she could say. He would keep killing people until he got what he wanted. “Lights on,” she whispered.

  The lights came up. Malcam stood holding a buxom blonde by the hair, blood pouring from three shots to her chest. The woman had stopped breathing. He threw her limp body to the ground.

  Malcam cocked his gun again and stood next to a brunette woman with her head down. Nyx’s mind scrambled, heart in her mouth, struggling to keep her breath even. The brunette sobbed.

  He would keep killing no matter what Nyx threw at him. She had to surrender.

  “Malcam. Stop. Stop it. Kai and I will come. We’ll come. No more shooting.”

  “Seven Stars I will,” Kai swore in her ear.

  Nyx turned her head, whispering, “We can’t let innocent people die.” Not again. No more bodies. “Besides, we need some more crew, and we need Matthews. We can rescue them. Somehow.”

  Kai hesitated. “You always get your way, don’t you?”

  “It’s part of why you love me.”

  “Hmph. You’d better have a plan.”

  Nyx opened her mouth and closed it. Then muttered, “Working on it.”

  “What was that?” Kai asked.

  “Nothing. I’ll meet you on the Thanatos.” She turned to Malcam’s hologram. “We’ll shuttle over immediately. We’re surrendering.”

  20

  Nyx held out her arms as Red patted her down, not that she could hide anything in her form-fitted uniform from the muscular woman. The tensed Tyco patted Kai down as he exited the airlock from the Thanatos’ ebony shuttle. Kai’s eyes darted between Nyx and the edgy Black man.

  Kai reached slowly into an inside pocket in the leather jacket he wore over his jumpsuit.

  Red, without a sideways glance, leveled a pistol at Kai’s head, one hand still on Nyx’s left thigh. “Hands out. Up,” she barked. She ticked the barrel, motioning to her skittish, hawk-nosed partner. “Check the jacket.”

  Tyco pulled a tiny, palm-sized pistol from Kai’s inside jacket pocket.

  Nyx rolled her eyes. “I told you he wouldn’t let us on board with weapons.”