by Tom Chattle
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Other works
Shadows of Arcturus by Tom Chattle
www.tccraftworks.com
© 2020 Tom Chattle
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Cover by Tom Chattle
- 1 -
2208.02.19 // 11:09
UVS Valiant, Arcturus System
For a brief moment, the fabric of the universe ripped asunder and the void-corvette Valiant of the Union Expeditionary Fleet thundered back into real space. Mammoth rift engines discharged roiling plumes of incandescent energy from open vents, and the spent power dissipated into cold space. Armored hatches slammed open to reveal boxy weapon turrets that span to target the swarm of asteroids surrounding the newly translated starship. A patchwork of gray and metal, pitted and scarred by years in the harsh void of space, the Valiant was by no means a beautiful ship. A pair of bulky rift-drive pods jutted from each side of the stern, framing the trio of pulsing sub-light engines that terminated it. Dotted with repairs and upgrades, the slab-sided hull thrust forward into a gently sloping wedge, a cluster of sensor lances protruding from the bow.
Before the rotating rail-cannons could lock on, a jagged hunk of stellar rock tumbled into the ship's path and impacted against the Valiant's void shields, vaporizing in a scintillating pinkish-blue flash. The ship shuddered under the impact, and the hull groaned in protest at the unexpected assault.
"Report." Lieutenant Auri Chen straightened in the body-forming seat located at the center of the vessel's bridge. Perched high above the rear of the ship, the broad, angled viewscreens before her commanded a clear view of the turbulent debris field they had entered.
A young man with brown hair, stiff in his over-starched gray and orange uniform, spun in his chair. "We appear to have translated into an asteroid field, ma'am." He glanced back at his wide, glossy console. "It doesn't seem to be on any of the charts."
Lieutenant Chen bit back an irritated, sarcastic response at the surprising news, slumping back into her chair. "Thank you, Ensign Vega." She pressed two fingers into her right temple, trying to massage the frustration away.
"Just a few rocks, it could be worse. It's not like any of the charts out this far can be trusted, anyway." Lieutenant Wallace McCann—First Officer of the Valiant—shrugged his broad shoulders where he sat to her right.
He wasn't lying. The Arcturus system lay at the very edges of human civilization—well beyond the reach of normal space travel. Long-range exploration vessels might have visited the system in the past, but they certainly hadn't drawn extensive maps if they did. The crew had used an abundance of caution and ensured the Valiant translated back to real space far from the red giant star around which everything orbited. The poor-quality archive files they had to work with seemed like they had been cobbled together from deep-space scans rather than direct observations.
It was unusual to have such little detail to work with on a long-range mission, but the files had been the best the Admiral had been able to provide.
With an exasperated sigh, Chen gestured out the windows. "How far does this mess extend?"
Vega checked the readout on his console. "Less than half a million kilometers, ma'am."
"Okay, scan for non-natural objects. Weapons?" Chen's eyes flicked over to the tactical station occupied by a dark-skinned woman. "Please do your best to blast any more rocks that cross our path before they hit us. This ship might not be much, but I'd rather not add even more scratches and dents to its senior appearance so soon after refit."
"Aye, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am." Ensign Leona Moreau's reply showed how flustered she was from her prior failure.
Lieutenant Chen took a deep breath and tried to smile. "It's okay, Ensign. You're doing fine."
The personnel training classes she'd skipped half of at the Academy would probably tell her to boost the woman's confidence in some way. Like the rest of the crew, Chen included, Moreau was fresh out of the Union Expeditionary Fleet's Naval Academy. A green crew assigned to a geriatric ship commanded by a disgraced Academy graduate.
Chen closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It wasn't that she was unhappy with her first command—after the incident at the Academy, she was lucky to get one at all. It's just that she had been destined for so much more. When she'd been told she'd been provisionally assigned to one of the new Phobos-class destroyers, then ended up on this flying antique because of her actions... The self-inflicted twist of fate still felt like a hot knife in the gut.
A Firehawk-class void-corvette, one of the hundreds built during the turbulent period before the Third System War, the Valiant was going on fifty years old by the time Chen had taken command a few months before. Never a top-of-the-line warship even in its prime, it was a functional, multi-purpose vessel engineered for a more desperate time. Although Chen had just supervised an extensive engine and systems refit, many of its components remained painfully out of date. The shipyard had even stripped its weapons complement nearly in half, Fleet Command justifying that debacle by citing the lack of current threats to the slowly expanding sphere of human colonization. While built for a crew of more than a hundred, with a Marine contingent of up to forty, Chen had barely more than half that at her command—cuts to personnel being just as bad as those to the ship itself.
While she'd been in command since leaving the Academy, it had only truly begun to feel like her ship once they had departed the Jupiter shipyards and embarked on their two-month shakedown cruise. Chen was still feeling the vessel out, learning the many quirks and idiosyncrasies that came with age and a constant patchwork of repairs. After they launched, no more than two days had gone by before they had to drop out of rift-space because the old ship's rift drives had developed what Chief Cartwright had described as a "hell of a weird resonance wobble."
A pinging alarm flew open her eyes. Another asteroid, this one significantly larger than the first, drifted across their path, tumbling lazily amid a dusty cloud of ice and debris. A glance toward Ensign Moreau showed her swiping away on her console, an air of desperation about her.
"Is there a problem, Ensign?" Chen's gaze flitted back to the small mountain of fractured rock heading directly for them.
"Uhh..." Moreau paused, staring at her screen before shooting her eyes back to the asteroid on the viewscreen, a hint of panic lacing the edges of her soft voice. "The weapons aren't responding."
"Of course, they aren't," Chen snapped. Just one more issue on this junk pile
of a ship. Hands gripping the edge of her chair, she shook her head. "Vega, take us around it, please."
"Aye, ma'am." The young helmsman guided the venerable starship to the side of the asteroid, the lumbering vessel rotating on its axis to more easily clear the looming threat. "Piece of cake."
McCann cleared his throat. "Let's try not to get cocky when we're flying a hugely expensive starship past a slab of rock twice our size."
Vega bobbed his head, glancing down at his controls. "Yes, sir. Sorry."
"I don't know if I'd call this piece of junk 'hugely expensive,'" Chen intoned, leaning toward McCann.
McCann stifled a grin. "We work with what we've got, right?"
Chen tapped the readouts on her monitor. After the initial close calls, the space ahead of them seemed relatively clear. Eager to speak with McCann in private, Chen stood and addressed the bridge. "All right, you know what we're looking for. Set up a standard search grid, just like they taught you at the Academy. I'll be in the ready room." Chen motioned for McCann to join her and strode across the bridge to a side door. She tapped the console at its side, and the heavy metal slab hissed open before them.
- 2 -
2208.02.19 // 11:21
UVS Valiant, Arcturus System
Chen ushered McCann into the cramped, triangular room and sank into the swivel chair located behind a broad, curving desk.
McCann sat in the chair opposite her and dove straight into a report from his datapad. "There've been new reports of fights between the crew and some of the more boisterous Marines on the lower decks."
"Again?" Chen frowned and took the pad from his outstretched hand. It wasn't a surprise, but it was yet another thing she didn't need to deal with.
"Again," McCann confirmed. "Off-hours drinking, a couple of 'Mars First' slogans scrawled on a bulkhead. The same as before. Doesn't take much on a long voyage."
Ever since the United Planetary Alliance had been formed in the wake of Earth's victory over Mars and the Jovian Alliance in the Third System War, Fleet Command had been doing its best to integrate the former enemies.
Although it had been nearly fifteen years since the founding of the combined Union Expeditionary Fleet, grudges persisted among some of the personnel who made up its ranks.
Given that Mars' fleet was almost annihilated in the brutal, final days of the war, most naval personnel were Earth-born, whereas the Union Marines had an overwhelming majority of Mars-born troops.
Sighing with frustration, she reached for a cabinet beside her and pulled out a glass bottle filled with pale amber liquid, along with two chipped glasses. After setting them on the glossy surface of her desk, she poured one half-full, motioning to the other one in question.
McCann shook his head. "You know, that's against regulations."
Chen rolled her eyes, leaning back into the chair. "Give me a break, Wally. Who's checking on us out in the ass-end of nowhere?" She downed the glass and enjoyed the warm burn hitting the back of her throat. Her eyes drifted closed. "This mission is a total waste of time."
McCann shrugged. "It is, yes, but we go where we're ordered."
"We're using a deep space combat vessel to search for some ditzy celebrity who probably just decided she wanted to get out of the spotlight." Chen slammed the glass down on the desk. "They could've sent a fucking long-range shuttle for the same purpose."
Chuckling at his friend's irritation, McCann picked up the small, wooden model of the Valiant that sat on her desk and examined it closely. "Come on, Auri, Katrina Wilde is hardly some celebrity. She's one of the biggest holo-doc stars there is. And you know full well she's the daughter of Admiral Wilde." He put the craft back down and looked up at her. "After not hearing from her for a week and missing several check-ins with her network, there was no way they weren't going to send a proper starship."
Chen didn't want to admit he was right. She grimaced and stared out the window that ran the length of the room. "But don't you think it's a bit strange the Admiral contacted us on an auxiliary channel to divert us out here when we're a month into our shakedown cruise?"
"I'll grant you the method was a little strange," McCann acknowledged, "but he probably didn't want to kick up too much of a fuss when his daughter's probably just forgotten to call home a few times." He grinned. "Besides, he probably figures you owe him for actually letting you graduate."
Chen exhaled deeply while another asteroid drifted past at a distance, spinning haphazardly on its axis. "Yes, but why did it have to be us? There are plenty of ships out here, probably some closer than we were. We've already wasted another week just diverting to look for this girl."
McCann gave her a pointed look. "You know why."
"I barely scratched that ship," Chen growled.
McCann sighed. "The fact nothing blew up is probably the only reason you still graduated." He snorted. "Well, that and your father's name. Your mother being the Representative for the Pan-Pacific Seaboard and the push to expand the fleet since unification probably didn't hurt either."
Chen leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
"What? Sending a starship scraping along the space-dock when the Admiral is watching isn't exactly what they look for in fleet commanders. It wasn't even a wee bump; I remember a few systems being offline for days." McCann shifted in his seat, a russet eyebrow arching up. "You're lucky they didn't know you were hungover from the night before, or else they would have shit-canned you so fast you'd have been dumped back on Earth before you knew what was happening."
Chen glared at him. "I don't remember you always being this brutal."
"Just be relieved I'm so laid-back." McCann grinned. "Some people might be bitter about getting lumped up in your crazy mess just because they were on the same training ship when it happened."
The irritation fading away, Chen blew air through her lips. "You're right, as usual." The incident at the Naval Academy was hardly Chen's finest hour. Last year, on the eve of the final flight exam of their command officer course, a combination of a wild graduation party, lots of alcohol, and a string of anger-inducing comm-messages had led to some regrettable decisions. "I really am sorry for dragging you down with me."
McCann had been her only true friend through her time in the Academy. Chen was not normally one for making strong personal connections, but McCann hadn't taken no for an answer.
A grin spread across McCann's freckled face. "Uh-huh. You just needed to keep me around to stop you from making any more stupid mistakes."
While she knew he was joking, Chen had never quite understood why he'd been assigned to the Valiant with her. Whatever McCann claimed, Fleet Command wouldn't have given him more than a light warning to have shown the confidence to step in sooner. It had been Chen in the pilot's seat. Part of her wondered if it had been for him to keep an eye on her—an extra layer of protection from Admiral Wilde.
Trying not to frown, Chen ran a hand through her shoulder-length, dark brown hair, gaze returning to the window. "Do you even think we were destined for more than this, though?"
"I mean, honestly, it's not a bad deal. You'd probably have been second-in-command on a larger vessel, not commander. I kind of suspect Fleet is trying to put more Earthers in senior roles to counterbalance the influx of Martian-born troops into the Marines since unification. Besides, we'll get there one day." McCann leaned over and rapped his knuckles on the bulkhead. "We just have to do our time on this old lady first."
"I never did tell you what the Admiral said after the accident, did I?"
McCann's head tilted, one eyebrow raising. "What do you mean?"
Chen took a deep breath; the loss was still hard to think about. "He told me I had been slated to command a new Phobos."
McCann whistled. "I didn't know that." He paused before nodding. "It's understandable you're bitter, but, Auri, it was almost a year ago. You're going to have to get over it eventually."
Chen twisted her mouth and kicked a booted foot at the scratched bulkhead. "This hunk of junk doesn't
even have neural computing."
McCann laughed. "We just do it old-school on board the Valiant. The same way our parents did it back in the war."
The second mention of parents brought a scowl to Chen's lips.
His jovial expression vanishing in a flash, McCann scrunched up his face. "Sorry, Auri. I didn't think."
She waved him off, doing her best to put the thought out of her mind. "It's fine. At least my mother can't reach me this far out." She contemplated pouring another drink but refrained after seeing McCann's concerned expression. "Although sometimes, I think my dad's shadow extends out to the edges of the galaxy."
"His legend is hard to get away from, that's for sure," McCann sympathized.
Chen sat there, staring at the empty glass on her desk. During her dressing down after the incident at the Academy, Admiral Wilde had mentioned serving with her father during the last war. Even with the reasons McCann had mentioned, she still felt he'd gone out of his way to even allow her to graduate, let alone get her own ship.
She sighed. Maybe she had at least one person looking to save her from her own self-sabotaging. Although the infuriating possibility it had all been down to her mother wielding her power in the background never strayed far from Chen's mind.
Eager to change the subject, she shook her head, recalling something she'd noted earlier. "Do you think we need to do something about Moreau?"
"How do you mean?" McCann smirked. "The fact she's more timid than a dormouse caught stealing the last cookie?"
Chen held up a finger. "First off, where the hell do you come up with these phrases? Second, yes, exactly."
"What can I say? It's a gift." McCann snorted. Taking a more serious expression, he touched his hand to his lips. "She has the talent, but she's just too nervous to put it to use. What do you know about her?"
Reaching over the desk, Chen activated the holo-reader and swiped through a few communications before she arrived at what she wanted. "Born in Casablanca, youngest of a big naval family. According to her Academy records, she's more than just talented. The impression of her instructors is she's a damn genius."