Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1)

by Robert Scanlon

  I reach across, maneuvering my body so I can squeeze between Mitch and Danielli’s face, then plant my mouth over his.

  Strangely, he tastes good. I exhale hard, inflating his lungs, then pull away while Mitch pounds. I put my mouth across again and force air into Danielli, willing him to live.

  I pull away again. Danielli’s eyes haven’t blinked once.

  “Keep going,” Mitch grunts. “I’ve seen them come back from worse. Just keep going ... and pray.”

  Pray?

  I plant my mouth over Danielli’s again. His unshaven chin rasps my cheek, but I keep his mouth apart with my hand pulling on his chin, and each time Mitch tells me, I breathe out as hard as I can until my own lungs are empty.

  I hear the tiniest of sounds from Danielli and feel a slight movement of air against my own mouth close to his. “Come on, Danielli. You’ve had worse,” I mutter, then place my mouth over his.

  This time he responds. Tries to kiss me. I pull away and look at Mitch. “He’s alive! He’s breathing.”

  Mitch looks over at the machine and nods. He gets off Danielli, who is clearly now breathing by himself, and checks the monitor’s display carefully. “I think he’s over the worst. Signs are stronger now.” He looks over his shoulder back at me. “He must like you.”

  “Iss.” Danielli is trying to speak again. I lean down, turn my ear to his mouth. “Wanted. To say. Enjoyed kiss. Before die.”

  “Danielli, you’re not going to die.” I lean down and kiss him. Properly this time.

  “She speaks true,” The Rykkan Chief says. I pull away from Danielli and look at the Chief. He bares a big red grin at me.

  Mitch coughs. “You’re welcome,” he says, turning away from the machine, and strides out.

  CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

  I’m with Mitch and Garnek in the helmroom going through some datafiles we found buried in the Constellation’s Captain’s filesys, and couldn’t open. We’re sat around the smooth onyx table, as if we’d known no other home.

  “It’s an aberration,” Mitch says. “Some artifact left over from when Papa encoded my and Indy’s statuses. What else could it be?”

  I sit back and ponder. We are in orbit around Rykkamon. Where everything started. Where Mitch once raced into some old cruiser I had been trying to fix, brandishing Papa’s laserSword.

  Now I’m sitting here, Captain of the Sector’s most powerful battlecruiser, casually making plans to defend our patch of the Galaxy against some evil overlord.

  Most of the Sector has fallen in with us; those who didn’t immediately do so were persuaded by people more capable than me, and now we have a senior advisory group bigger than my network of pirate trading buddies from my previous life. Though the Chief tells me it’s best if I don’t show my face on Rykkamon for a while.

  The Scorpion has vanished, and Marius was imprisoned by his direct reports, who quoted some Jovian regulation about not being fit to command.

  None of which is important any more. Now we have to regroup and decide how to best repel the Blood Empire. And none of us have any idea how Papa set this all up, or how he ensured that both Mitch and I survived to captain the Constellation. Or why us. Why not Garnek, or someone more experienced? Maybe it was all a question of a convergence of opportunity. Or just pure luck.

  I look over at Mitch, in earnest conversation with General Garnek. I remember his excitement at finding Papa’s sword. Then I sit up straight.

  “Mitch.”

  He stops mid-sentence. “What?”

  “What happened to Papa’s laserSword? How did the Jovians get it? You never told me.”

  He takes a deep breath, recalling what seems to have occurred eons ago. “They found it stashed on some run-down trader’s ship. They didn’t know it was Papa’s, but they knew it was heavily modded.”

  “Then if they didn’t know it was Papa’s, how did you know?”

  He breaks out into a smile. “Easy. Not many swords like that have EMP slug launchers, and second, Papa had etched his number into the stock. No one else would have any idea what that meant.”

  I nodded slowly. “Did you say that the datafile was protected?”

  “Looks like it. Why?”

  The helmroom doors slide apart, and my face lights up to see Danielli. He’s in a medbay hover chair, accompanied by none other than the Chief and Aktip. I frown at his legs, but he brushes my concern aside. “All healing as expected, Ma’am.”

  “Ma’am?” I tease, enjoying his discomfort.

  “Yes, Ma’am. Ah, Indy. Is there some kind of meeting here, or can we join?”

  “Ha. As if any of you have to ask. We found a datapacket, maybe put there by my father. It’s protected, but I think I just worked out the code.”

  Mitch rolls his eyes. “Here we go again. Alright, I’ll humor you. Yes, it’s a magic file, left by our dead father, just waiting for his brilliant daughter to crack the code ...”

  He trails off when he sees my cold expression. “Okay, okay. Let’s try to open it. What’s the code then?”

  He looks at me expectantly.

  I smile. “1508.”

  Mitch’s face drops and he pales. He knows I’m right. Papa’s lucky number, one that he’d etched on his weapon. Only known as something special to us—and Mom, presumably, since it was the old Earth year some painter dude started some famous painting. Somewhere. Who knew. But anyone else would just think it a random number.

  He calls up the file and punches in the code. The holodome springs to life, and we are all taken aback to see an animation of a datafile unpacking, ending with a huge caricature of a cherub. Papa’s humor is all over it.

  The image expands, and an immense male face fills the dome’s holo. I tap my own commandPanel, and the image resizes and leaps down to hover over the center of our circular table.

  The man has a flock of glossy dark hair, a strong nose, high cheekbones and keen eyes. Garnek turns his head to me and we make eye contact. Of all of us, he’s the only one outside Mitch and me that would remember Papa’s handsome face.

  I look at my father’s visage, back from the dead. Strangely, he doesn’t quite look at me, a quirk of the camera angle. I shift to be able to make eye contact with the image and brush against Danielli, who squeezes my hand.

  My father begins to speak and we all become silent. His voice is as deep as I remember. I choke back tears.

  “This recording is only being accessed if one of either my son or daughter is at the controls of the Constellation. For which I am grateful.” He sighs and wipes his hand through his hair. I get a brief glimpse of an out-of-focus and unrecognizable scene behind him. Outside somewhere. Verdant plant-life. People moving maybe?

  “I put some moves into play that I’m not sure I should have. Our discoveries have the potential to change all life in our galaxy, yet”—he looks away, as if in thought, then comes back—“in the wrong hands, will cause mayhem. Somehow, Oberon knows what I—now you—have. He won’t rest until he, too, has it within his possession. Most of it is still in here”—he taps his head—“but smart scientists will reverse engineer the drive. I just happened to find the answers first. Led the way. But for now, I thought it better I escape. I know that made it hard for you, Mitch and Indy, and hence this recording. Knowing that you have restored the Constellation and have full control eases my mind.” A smile flickers across his troubled face. “I can only hope I will embrace you soon. Come find me. You’ll know where to look.” He steps away from the camera, and I catch a glimpse of an abundant world, lush greenery, rustic, nomadic-like accommodations and a fierce yellow sun. The image fades to black and we sit in stunned silence.

  I look at Mitch. I expect my expression matches his.

  Papa is alive.

  I hope you enjoyed reading “Constellation”!

  I’d like to gift you a free novella, which is not available anywhere else! It’s called, “A Bar Room Brawl on Ganymede” and is the prequel story which unravels the mystery of how Indy came to
leave Jordi on Ganymede (with a price on his head).

  A gambling debt gone wrong, and a pirate captain on the trail of her father's killer.

  Desperate to close a black-market helium three deal, India "Indy" Jackson arrives on Ganymede already in dispute with the Jovian mafia.

  She needs money to track down who killed her father, but her ship's pilot disappears, and Indy is left to her own devices to deal with her shady contact.

  Everything comes to a head in one of Ganymede's sleaziest districts, and she is faced with a choice: find her pilot and close the deal, or cut her losses and flee to safety.

  Indy never was one to run away.

  Discover one of Indy Jackson's early escapades on her journey to Galactic infamy!

  Get your copy of “A Bar Room Brawl on Ganymede,” a free novella prequel to “Constellation” here: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/DXize

  An author’s lifeblood is his or her reviews. If you enjoyed “Constellation,” I’d really appreciate your support with a review. It will help other Space Opera fans like you decide whether or not this story is for them!

  If you’re willing to do that for me (just use the link below), I’d be really grateful, thank you!

  http://robertscanlon.com/constellation-review/

  It’s lonely work writing the first draft, but after that, it takes a full team of people to work it into the readable form you have here ... and then there’s the cover. No author should be permitted to make their own cover—that’s a very special talent.

  So special thanks must first go to my wife, Gabrielle, who—besides writing her own nonfiction titles—is also a professional editor and is constantly besieged by me to put my work at the front of her queue (it doesn’t always work, but then again, I’m not a paying client).

  To Tom Edwards, at times possibly responsible for the entire Top 100 Space Opera book covers, many thanks for your artistic contribution.

  Thanks also to my very good friends, alpha and beta readers, and general fabulous writing hosts of The Buderim Writer’s Shed, who have provided endless encouragement, feedback and edits. Delicious food, and cake. Lots of cake. Jan, Leanne, Karin and Gabrielle: I thank you for your generosity of time and effort.

  I’d highly recommend a “mastermind group” to anyone. Far from a secret clan of villains, it’s a regular meetup of like-minded folks (”authorpreneurs,” in our case). We encourage each other, and occasionally trigger a Simon tear-down or a Cohen-glower when we veer toward silly choices. Thanks to a wonderful two+ years of support from Simon Whistler, Bryan Cohen, Alida Winternheimer and Chris Fox, all of whom have pushed me in ways much needed, in a most supportive, yet insistent fashion.

  And a very special thank you to Sherrie McCarthy, a fortuitous author friend, who took on the brave job of what I’ve come to call “pre-beta-reading” and managed to be extraordinarily encouraging at the same time as pointing out things that really didn’t suit Indy’s character (traits which, dear reader, shall forever remain unknown to you!). Sherrie, your excitement came at just the right time, thank you.

  Finally to you. In the same sense as the zen tree in the woods may be lonely without its philosopher audience, in my opinion, the point of publishing a story is for it to be read. So thank you for being a reader, may we meet again in some future pages!

  I always welcome contact from any readers or authors. You can always get me at help@robertscanlon.com; at http://robertscanlon.com/ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/robertscanlonauthor

  Thanks again, and ... happy reading!

  Robert

  PS. “Nebula” - Book Two in the Blood Empire series, is not far away! If you’re keen to get your hands on an Advance Review Copy, please join my Space Pirates team here:

  http://robertscanlon.com/space-pirates