Starcrasher (Shades Space Opera Book 1)

by Rock Forsberg

  TIME PASSED QUICKLY.

  Eddie bought in with another table maximum. The fat guy, Lou, who now had more than eleven thousand teradollars in the game, had just outdrawn him. Lou won by sheer luck, and Eddie was determined to win back his loss, and every last one of the terabucks Lou had on the table. He had plenty of time before the ship was recharged.

  Eddie waved to the waitress for another drink. He had already had three, or perhaps five; he wasn’t counting. He had probably tipped her double what the drinks would have cost, but he brushed it aside. He had to focus on the game. Everything else around him just disappeared.

  The next jump came, but neither Eddie nor Lou participated. An older man, clearly a tourist, played against a young guy with a cap and a lady in red. In the end, the young guy took the pot. There were a few uneventful jumps, and a few weak drinks. Finally, Eddie got himself dealt a good set, something he wanted to bet on. Lou stayed in the game, as did the young guy. Eddie bet.

  When it came to Lou, he doubled the stakes, and gave Eddie an evaluating look, measuring him with his eyes.

  Eddie feigned a hesitant look. Inside he was pumping his fist. This was exactly what he had wanted to happen. His great set of pieces was the likely winner, so he wanted more dollars on the table. Looking weak, he would make his opponent feel overconfident and overestimate the value of his own set of pieces.

  Eddie swiped all of his teradollars to the pot.

  Lou raised his eyebrows, viewed his set and the pot. He seemed to give it thought.

  Choose anything, it does not matter, Eddie thought.

  ‘Well then, let’s play,’ Lou said, and with a pushing motion, he swiped an equal amount to the pot.

  It didn’t take long for the map to reveal itself, Jester to come out in the open and the battle of pieces to play out. To Eddie it felt slow; he wanted to win quickly.

  As it was happening, Eddie’s eyes met Lou’s. He stared at the map, drops of sweat forming on his forehead, no emotion on his face.

  The random map revealed little low land, wide areas of water, and the Jester on a small island in between. Not ideal, but Eddie’s pieces were strong regardless of the map – that is why they were so good.

  Lou had the three strongest marine units, and airborne fighters and a rescue unit to support them.

  Eddie swallowed.

  The battle itself happened quickly. Lou’s marine units kept the waters and the air clear of Eddie’s forces, which were forced to remain stuck on land. Then Lou’s airborne rescue unit picked up Jester from the lone island, and the jump was finished.

  Eddie had lost another big jump.

  ‘Keep ’em coming!’ Lou shouted in victory, and laughed.

  Blasting lotto player.

  It was going to be a long session.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE DAWN ALLIANCE was formed over a century ago, when the five galactic federations joined forces to unite the free humanoids against a rising threat from a destructive species called the ODD. It was the pinnacle of political achievement in known history, the dawn of a new era, bringing together a dozen races and over a hundred quadrillion souls throughout the mapped universe. The Dawn Alliance was celebrated by most, but it had its critics too. After the Dawn Alliance Navy pushed out the ODD and the Red War ended, the critics’ voices had started to become louder. They called the Dawn Alliance bloated, lazy and blind – the Dusk Alliance. They compared it to the ancient empires that had ruled their worlds for a brief moment before succumbing to hubris and imploding into memories.

  Somewhere deep within the Dawn Alliance administrative district, in one of the spokes of Five Ways, Tredd slouched on a hard bench that protruded from the wall of a tight grey room with rounded corners. The interior was sparse: no furniture, no windows, no connectivity, no sustenance. A locked door kept Tredd waiting inside, while a ribbon of bright white dots glared down on him from the ceiling. The lieutenant had told him someone would pick him up, and reminded him of his rights in the custody of the navy under the interstellar Dawn Alliance law. He had also reminded him that any attempt at escape would be futile.

  This was typical for the navy, taking an innocent person and bullying them to help achieve whatever targets the generals had set. Tredd knew the protocol; he had done this many times himself. If everything were done by the book, he would be waiting long enough to make him uncomfortable.

  He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. Or, at least, anything that would have been in the interest of the navy. Or had he?

  FIST had told him that the navy would be after the device too, wanting to dissect it and make it part of their tools to expand their control over the universe. Theirs was a ceaseless quest for intergalactic supremacy, depriving their own people of resources to invest into an ever-growing war machine, just because there could be another species somewhere doing exactly the same. Perhaps they themselves were the species all others should be worried about. Although Tredd had been a loyal servant of the navy, in this matter he agreed with FIST. A device that could make the stars crash, abolishing worlds, would be better destroyed. He didn’t want that kind of capability in the hands of anyone.

  He waited for a long time. When they finally came to pick him up, he had just dozed off on the bench. Hearing the lieutenant’s voice, he came to his senses and rose. Drowsing on the hard bench had made his neck ache.

  ‘Mr Bounty, Commodore Conrad is ready to see you now.’

  The lieutenant and the two soldiers escorted Tredd through a number of doors, white corridors and an elevator, into a typical room for questioning: a sleek grey composite desk in the middle, a side table of the same material, a pipe carrying cabling in the corner, three walls of screens, all showing the Dawn Alliance emblem in front of a blanket of stars, blue and grey carpet. A woman sat behind the desk, looking down at the screen in front of her. She was dressed in the standard women’s black and blue navy outfit, and wore the chest piece of a commodore.

  ‘Commodore Conrad, this is Mr Bounty,’ the lieutenant introduced Tredd, and the woman raised her head from the screen.

  Tredd felt his heart burst out of his chest, and then stop, when he saw her face.

  It could not be her.

  ‘Trissy,’ she said the name he had almost forgotten, and one that confirmed to him that this was Jill. Her blonde hair was tightly wound back and her lips were blood red against her cool skin. Years had passed, and a few lines had appeared, but it was her. He could never forget that delicate chin and those playful brows on that perfectly proportioned face. ‘It’s been such a long time.’

  ‘Jill.’ Tredd swallowed, and for a few seconds couldn’t find words. He could just stare at her. ‘Over twenty years.’

  ‘Please sit down,’ she said, and gestured towards the small chairs in front of the desk. ‘How have you been?’

  Tredd pulled up the chair on the left and sat down. ‘Not too bad,’ he said, meaning he had not been well.

  ‘I’m sorry to drag you in here like this, but we must talk,’ she said. ‘First of all, let me say how delighted I am to see that you are well.’

  Tredd knew that was a courtesy. He also knew that he didn’t look ‘well’ and that she did. He was astonished. ‘You are Commodore… Conrad?’

  ‘After you were gone, I married someone.’ She gave a suppressed laugh, and stared absently at one of the wall screens. ‘He died on our wedding night, but I kept the name.’

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said.

  ‘It’s all right,’ she said with a solemn expression. ‘To me it was the tipping point, one that led me to find myself, and a new life in the Dawn Alliance Navy.’

  Tredd leaned his left elbow on the tiny armrest and raised his right foot onto his left knee. ‘So that’s how Jill Faith disappeared. Surely you must have known that I too was serving in the navy. Why didn’t you contact me?’

  ‘I sought you out on the Dawn Net, wanting to drop a line, but it was too…’ Jill crossed her arms, looked down hesitantly, and shook her
head. ‘We were just kids back then. As time went on, it became more and more difficult to make contact. I was posted far away from where your assignments took you. One time we came close to meeting at a gathering in the Dawn Central, but I hid in the crowd… and with my new identity, I was hidden in the net, too.’

  ‘So, it was not just the name.’

  Jill swept her hair back from her temple. ‘No, I opted for a whole new identity when I joined the navy.’

  Tredd felt sad. Jill was as beautiful and as sweet as ever. A few lines had appeared around her mouth and eyes, but she was still the girl he knew, the one he was going to marry someday. No… That girl is gone, she is a grown-up woman now, has been for years. She was both familiar and an utter stranger at the same time. Thinking about all the things that must have happened since he last saw her, the thought of their childhood plans quickly disintegrated to the ether.

  Tredd straightened his back. ‘Eddie knew you were in the navy, didn’t he?’

  Jill hesitated, looked past Tredd and then straight into his eyes and nodded.

  Of course he did, and didn’t tell me anything. Tredd glanced back and saw the soldiers who had brought him standing behind by the door. Their presence made him feel uncomfortable talking with Jill. ‘Could you please ask them to leave?’

  ‘No,’ she said shaking her head, ‘I’m sorry, Tristram.’

  Faith’s gone… Well, if she wants to talk business, let’s talk business. ‘So tell me, why bring me here now?’

  She leaned forward with her elbows on the table. Per Navy protocol, she wore no jewellery on her hands and her fingernails were short and shiny. ‘It feels like too much of a coincidence to find you around these parts.’

  ‘Coincidence?’ Tredd asked. If she thought it was a coincidence, there had to be a connection. Was she aware of Tommy and the Starcrasher?

  ‘Tell me,’ she said touching her screen, ‘what are you planning to do in Yedda?’

  ‘I’m going down to planet Un, to pick up a shipment of Un-mud—’

  ‘Yes, that’s what your waybill looks like, but somehow I find it hard to believe a bounty hunter would be running Un-mud from Yedda… especially someone like you. The algorithms agree; they picked you up.’

  Tredd shrugged.

  Jill stared at him in silence, like she was evaluating him. ‘I was actually hoping you knew something about a certain thing.’

  ‘Such as…?’ Tredd leaned back and stretched his arms behind the back of his head.

  ‘There’s an illegal device, somewhere in these parts,’ she said, and motioned on the wall, where the emblem had given way for a map of Vegasos and the surrounding solar systems. ‘It’s something that could do terrible damage in the wrong hands. The navy wants to secure it for the Dawn Alliance.’

  Is she talking about the Starcrasher? Of course the navy is after it, but Jill? That would be a coincidence. Whatever the case, Tredd could never reveal anything about his mission, not even to her. Even so, she might reveal something of hers. ‘What kind of a device are you talking about?’

  ‘We don’t know its form,’ she said with a solemn expression, ‘but it is said to be capable of making stars collide.’

  Yes, that was it. ‘Moving stars,’ Tredd said with a snort. His throat felt dry and he coughed. ‘Yeah, right.’

  She tilted her head to the left only slightly. ‘That’s what I thought, but consider it this way: if it exists, it would be the most powerful weapon in the known universe. It could destroy galaxies, the whole of humanity, and even bring about the big crunch.’

  ‘You mind?’ Tredd said, and motioned towards the side table.

  ‘No, go ahead.’

  Tredd stood up and ambled to the side table. The soldiers stood stiff by the door, their eyes following his every move. ‘And in order to keep us safe, the navy wants to destroy it?’

  Jill’s blue eyes followed him too. ‘The Dawn Alliance wants to understand how it works, and how its powers could be used for the good of the five races.’

  What a bunch of boilerplate baloney. The navy wants the Starcrasher to secure their intergalactic supremacy. Tredd picked up a cup – one of those cool recyclable insta-glass ones – from the side table. ‘To me it sounds like a weapon,’ he said as he placed the cup under the drink dispenser, ‘and as long as it exists, it can be used to cause harm.’

  She leaned on her left elbow, her index finger by her lips. Her eyes moved between the screen, the guards, and Tredd. ‘Are you saying that you want to destroy it?’

  ‘Perhaps.’ He thought about it as he picked up the cup of water. Both the navy and FIST wanted the Starcrasher, but perhaps it was better if neither had it. ‘I wouldn’t want anyone to wield such a power… but why are you asking me this?’ He leaned against the side table and took a sip of water.

  ‘The thing is,’ she said, and laid her hands flat on the desk. ‘The navy will find the device soon. It’s a high-priority operation, and any disturbances will be dealt with swiftly. All I ask is for you to return to your client. They will see from your ship’s logs that this is a force majeure.’

  Of course, the navy got onto me, and put her here… but to warn me? Unlikely. If they wanted to deflect him, it meant they considered him a threat to their operation. And if that was the case, it meant the navy was missing critical information about the device. Perhaps they didn’t know about Tommy after all. It could also be that they knew nothing about it, and were just using him to get information. He was not going to give any though, but playing along might provide him some.

  ‘My client would be very annoyed,’ Tredd said. He emptied his cup and placed on the side table. ‘Why don’t you just get the device and be done with it?’

  Jill stared at the door in silence.

  Tredd pushed himself from the side table, and took a step towards Jill’s desk. ‘Do you even know where it is?’

  Silence.

  ‘What it actually is?’ He stood in front of her desk; he stretched his arms open wide, expecting an answer, but not getting one. In silence, they stared each other for painfully stretched seconds.

  ‘I’m sorry, it’s all classified,’ Jill said, and lifted her eyes. She let out a heavy sigh, her face forming the same quirky expression she had when she had felt frustrated at school. ‘However, if you might know something about the device – I’m not saying you do – but if you did, and it helped us retrieve it, you could be rewarded highly.’

  He ran his hand across the sleek surface of Jill’s desk. ‘I doubt that the navy would ever reward anyone with my status. But anyway, it’s all hypothetical, because I know nothing about your blasting device, which to me looks like an excuse to interfere with free interstellar trade.’

  Jill nodded with a stern expression and said, ‘For information leading to finding the device, we would be prepared to restore your citizenship.’

  Citizenship? He thought of all the benefits of a secured welfare and right to live and work anywhere. That Jill had brought it up confirmed three things. For one, the navy had a hunch about his mission, perhaps an output of an algorithm. Second, they lacked the details about the device and were desperate, because the time before its activation was running out. Third, Jill did not know about Tommy’s involvement. While Tredd wanted his citizenship back, he also remembered the infected and bleeding organisation that had thrown him out like a worn-out boot. There was no way he was going to help the scumbag generals get their hands on something that would crash stars.

  He turned his back to Jill and took a step towards the door. He grabbed the backrest of one of the small chairs and turned around. ‘I’m sorry, Jill, but I can’t help you.’

  She stared at him with that same expression of frustration. ‘I’m sorry too,’ she said, and pursed her lips, becoming a serious officer again. Then she glanced at the soldiers behind him, and said, ‘I regret to let you know that based on the current threat analysis, you have been unauthorised to enter Moola, Yedda, Haaga, and Jolla systems, or any planet in th
e Vegasos system. Also, if you interfere with our mission in any way, you will be detained, your ship confiscated—’

  ‘Why are you doing this?’

  Jill hung her head down, resting her forehead on her palms. Without lifting her gaze, she said, ‘Consider that a warning. Go back to Spit City. Don’t kill yourself here.’

  ‘What do you care?’ He found himself squeezing hard on the backrest of the chair.

  Intense silence.

  The guards came up to Tredd and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘It is time to go, Mr Bounty.’

  ‘Jill, please answer me!’

  She lifted her gaze, looked him directly in the eye without any visible emotion, and said, ‘We are done. You must go now. Just go.’

  One of the guards took Tredd’s arm. Fighting was useless, and Tredd agreed to go with the guards. At the door he took one final glance at Jill. No, that’s not her. She is Commodore Conrad.

  TREDD STRODE BACK to the ship, thinking about what he had just witnessed. Perhaps it had been some elaborate scheme by the navy, to appeal to his emotions and make him talk. Whatever she represented, she was Jill, or the woman who had once been her. He wanted to hold on to the idea of Jill Faith at sixteen years old, however gone she was, but it slipped away like someone had just ripped her out of this universe. It was as if everything he had ever believed in or valued was gone. The only thing left was the ever expanding Dawn Alliance, Tredd and Commodore Conrad just little cogs in its machine.

  Whoever she now was, he didn’t want to fight her. Suicide jump to Yedda was out of the question too. The mission was over. Once he got to the ship, he would order everyone gone. They could do whatever they wanted.

  When he reached the ship, he was surprised: no one was there. Perhaps Berossus was still looking for the others. It had been a long time though. He went down to cockpit and saw the ship had received a one-way video message from FIST. This time it was Hugo, who appeared behind the red and black FIST logo.

  ‘Mr Bounty, we have received intelligence that Mr Huckey is on the planet Yedda-2. Also, the Yedda system has shown recent DAN activity. We assume they are also seeking the device, so tread carefully, and make haste to find Mr Huckey before they do.’