The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  Seb listened to Bruke’s heavy breaths as he fought against Sparks’ struggle. Sparks offered her own growling, snarling protest. She sounded like an animal possessed. And, in a way, she was.

  On the plus side, she sounded much better than she had done when the zombies and the grubs were nearby. Sure, it hurt Seb’s heart to hear his friend in her current state. But they would find a way to help her—they had to—and at that moment, hearing her calmer was the only comfort he could find.

  Just as the thought left Seb’s mind, Sparks growled behind him and his entire frame slumped. “Great,” he said, his voice calling down into the gloom ahead of them before he turned back to look at his thrashing friend. To see her increased fury made him sigh. “Just great.”

  Several blinks did little to appease the itch in Seb’s tired eyes. He couldn’t see any better into the gloom either. No doubt something would rush them at any moment. The edges of his world blurred and he clenched his fists, his arms aching from the previous battles, his legs leaden as he stopped moving and waited for the next rush of whatever would come their way.

  Chapter 39

  But nothing came.

  They waited for a few minutes, staring into the dark and at one another, hunched down and ready to fight, but nothing came.

  When SA moved next to Seb, he looked across at her. She walked over to a wall close to them, and he suddenly saw it too. It had been hidden in the poor light, but now he’d seen it, it seemed so obvious.

  A pile of fallen rocks—freshly fallen by the look of things—covered what seemed to be the entrance to a cave or alcove of some sort. Seb walked over to it and he listened to Bruke and Sparks follow behind them. The closer they got, the more agitated Sparks became. She spat and hissed, the sound of struggle from where Bruke tried to clearly hold her back.

  “Whatever’s in there,” Seb said, “I doubt we’re going to be pleased to see it.” His pulse quickened as he stared at it. “But we can’t leave it. We’ve been sent down here with a mission to clear out this entire colony. I couldn’t care less whether Moses gets paid or not, but I won’t be able to live with myself if another community gets sent down here and they get wiped out too. We have to clear this place.”

  A look at SA and she waited. Sometimes, it seemed, he should lead. Seb reached forward and pulled one of the small rocks away from the pile. It revealed a hole no larger than the width of one of the fat grubs.

  Tentative at first, Seb leaned towards the hole, his heart pounding as he pushed his face closer, but not too close. He couldn’t give the grubs that opportunity. What better way into his system than through his eyeball?

  Behind him, Sparks seemed more agitated. If only she could tell them what she knew.

  As much as Seb wanted to peer through the hole, his curiosity could kill him. He turned to SA, pointed at it, and said, “What if there are grubs in there?”

  SA nodded at the larger boulders blocking the way.

  “Move one of them?” Seb said.

  SA nodded, raised her knives, and hunched down to show she’d fight if she needed to.

  It made sense to throw the space open wide rather than put his face too close.

  When Seb reached down and grabbed one of the large rocks, the voice of what sounded like a young girl came from the other side. “Please,” it said, “leave us alone.”

  The sound forced Seb back several paces and he looked at SA. She stared back for a second before they both turned to look at the fallen rocks again.

  Chapter 40

  “We’re here to help,” Seb said to the hole in the rocks.

  This time, a man’s voice spoke, catching Seb off guard. “How do we know that? How do we know you’re not one of them?”

  A shrug, and Seb half-laughed when he said, “Because we’re not snarling and hissing.”

  The man paused long enough for Seb to listen to Sparks behind him. “Okay, she is, but we have her restrained.”

  “Why do you have one of them with you?”

  “She’s our friend.”

  “Half the people in these mines are our friends.”

  “But we have just one. It’s easy to restrain one. Especially as she’s not even four feet tall.”

  Impatience rode the man’s words. “What do you want?”

  “We’ve been sent down here to clear the place of the parasites. To make it habitable again.”

  “By who?”

  “The Shadow Order.”

  “Who?”

  “Look”—Seb shook his head to himself—“it doesn’t matter if you’ve heard of them or not, more that you understand why we’re here. We’re here to help. So let us help you.”

  “We’re okay, thanks. We’re doing fine as we are.”

  “I hate to break this to you, but you’re trapped in a small alcove in a dingy mine with potentially more horrible parasites waiting to attack you.”

  The man didn’t reply.

  “I’m guessing you’re a little low on resources in there?”

  The man still didn’t respond.

  “We’re going to move these rocks away.”

  Yet more silence.

  Seb grabbed the boulder in front of him, but the huge cold rock didn’t budge. As high as it was wide, the top of it stood about a foot taller than Seb.

  SA joined Seb and tugged on the rocks, but they still didn’t shift, not even an inch.

  “Stand back,” Seb said to the people on the other side, his call running away from him down into the dark mines. A deep breath to slow the world down and he saw the boulder’s weakest spot. Fortunately, it sat right on the front of it. He balled his metal fist and drove a hard blow into it.

  The rock shattered under the impact of Seb’s punch, turning into a thousand small shards. The other boulders resting on top of it all fell forward and he had to jump back so his feet didn’t get crushed.

  Closer to Sparks now, he heard her agitation ring louder than before.

  It took a few seconds for the dust to clear, but when it did, Seb saw the man he’d spoken to. He looked to be in his mid-forties. He carried a bit too much weight for his five-foot-nine to five-foot-ten-inch frame. Black hair and a round face. Although all of the details fell from Seb’s mind when he looked at the blaster the man had trained on him.

  “You know if you use that, it’ll blow this entire place up, right?” Seb said.

  The man still didn’t speak.

  What must have been the man’s family cowered behind him in the cave. A small skinny blonde girl of no more than about ten years old, and a woman about the same age as the man. It might have been his wife. They looked tired, dirty, and hungry.

  At first, Seb didn’t see it in the poor light, but then he noticed they all had cracked and dry lips. “You look like you need some water. How long have you been in here for?”

  The man didn’t answer. Instead, he raised his gun and jabbed it in Seb’s direction. “I’m not afraid to use this.”

  “I’m sure, but you haven’t used it yet, so I’m guessing you don’t want to if you can avoid it.”

  Sweat beaded the man’s brow and he looked at his wife before returning his attention to Seb. “Get out of my way.” His blaster shook at the end of his outstretched arm. “Blowing us all up has to be better than whatever you lot have planned for me.”

  A look at SA and then Bruke, Seb turned back to the man and shrugged. “What do we have planned for you?”

  “You look like bad people. I mean, look at you.”

  “Wow,” Seb said. “What a way to thank someone.”

  SA placed a hand on her hip while she stared at the man and cocked her head to the side.

  But the man didn’t respond, a mixture of anger, shame, and fear twisting through his chubby face.

  Seb looked at SA and shrugged. “If he wants to go, we should let him. I’m sure his escape plan from this wretched planet is much better than ours. Who wants a lift out of here when you can walk through the radiation desert up there?” Together,
they stepped aside to let the man through, revealing Sparks in her fitting, convulsing, and furious state.

  Only small, but occupied with a vicious rage, Sparks continued to snap at the air as if trying to get to the three people. More beings around her—especially humans, it would seem—had clearly stirred her up. Although the fact she felt calmer around the other Shadow Order members suggested she had some recollection of who they were, that some small part of Sparks remained in the monster Seb saw when he looked at her.

  The man with the gun led the way and the woman followed behind him. She helped the little girl, who had a crude splint on her leg. Seb hadn’t noticed it until that moment. Probably because he had a gun in his face. Now he looked at the splint, he saw a few long shards of rock had been used to hold her leg in place. They’d been bound to her with what looked to be an old coat.

  When the man with the gun drew level with Sparks, he moved too quickly for Seb or SA to react, catching them off guard as he raised his weapon and pointed it at her face. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice getting louder with his clear panic, “but I can’t let this monstrosity live. I’ve seen an entire complex wiped out by these things. They have to be eradicated.”

  Chapter 41

  SA reacted before Seb could. A flash of movement, she exploded to life and rugby tackled the man around his waist.

  Slower than SA again, Seb’s world slipped into slow motion as he watched the podgy man take the impact like he’d been hit by a train.

  They slammed down on the hard ground, the man’s chubby body bearing most of the blow. He let out a bark-like, “Oomph.”

  Before the man could do anything else, SA had taken his blaster from his hand and slid it across the ground to Seb. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

  Although Seb watched SA and the man, he noticed the woman drag the small girl back into the cave they’d emerged from. A raised hand to halt them, he said, “We’re here to help. Please trust me when I say we really don’t want to hurt you. As long as you don’t try to harm us, you have nothing to worry about.”

  A look down at the podgy man and Seb watched him writhe and twist beneath SA, who currently sat on him. “I’d give that up if I were you. Ten times out of ten she’d kick your arse, so you might as well save your energy.”

  Although he regarded Seb with a hard scowl, the man fell slightly limp beneath SA’s pressure as if he’d taken the advice.

  When Seb looked at the woman and the girl, he saw they hadn’t pulled any farther away, so he walked over to the man and crouched down next to him. Soft words, he said, “We don’t want to harm you. You need to trust that.”

  The man looked up at Sparks, his eyes wide in his red face. He continued to stare at her while he spoke. “It’s not you I’m worried about.”

  “Yeah, well, you just have to accept her. We’ll keep her away from you and your family. Look at her, she won’t get out of those bonds any time soon. And even if she does, have you seen the size of Bruke’s arms? She isn’t going anywhere. Now tell me, what’s happened to the girl. Is she your daughter?”

  “Yes. She’s called Hannah, and my wife is Alison. My name’s Wilson.”

  “What happened to Hannah’s leg?”

  “A boulder fell on it. I think it’s broken.”

  Just the thought of it sent Seb’s hands tingling. He could finally put them to use. “Okay, Wilson, you stay there and I’m going to help Hannah, okay?”

  Another shake as if he could buck SA from him and Wilson’s voice rose in pitch. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to help her. Not that you have any choice in your current predicament, but you need to trust me.”

  The man stared at Seb but didn’t respond. The expression on his face showed his acceptance of what he couldn’t change, but he looked a long way from trusting him.

  Seb walked over to the girl, his hands buzzing so hard he expected them to hum.

  Frozen to the spot, Alison stared at Seb, the same mistrust on her face as her husband’s.

  When Seb dropped down next to them and put his hands on Hannah’s leg, Wilson shouted at him, “What the hell are you doing to my daughter?”

  But Seb didn’t answer. Instead, he felt the buzz in his hands and breathed through it as he visualised the bone in Hannah’s leg knitting back together.

  A deep warmth ran through Seb’s hands, and when he looked up at Hannah, he saw the relief on her withdrawn face as he took her pain away. Although the small child trembled at his touch, he could see her slowly relax and trust him much quicker than either of her parents had.

  After just a few seconds, Seb pulled away from her and smiled. “Better?”

  Hannah smiled back and Seb saw Alison relax a little at her response. A firm nod and the girl said, “Yes.” After she’d looked at her mum and dad, she looked back at Seb. “Much better. Thank you.”

  “You’re like them,” Wilson said, awe and fear in his tone as he sat up, SA having moved away from him.

  “Like who?”

  “The grubs.”

  “What? I’m nothing like them!”

  A shake of his head and Wilson raised his hands defensively. “No, sorry, I didn’t mean that how it sounded. You can heal wounds like them. I’d never seen any being with an ability to heal until I saw them.”

  A look at Sparks, and although Seb couldn’t see the spot that had healed after the grub had gone in, he remembered it. “I’ve seen it too. So they all heal the wounds they’ve made?”

  “That’s my experience,” Wilson said.

  “Almost as if—”

  “They want to preserve their host for as long as possible,” Wilson finished for him.

  Seb stood up from his crouch beside Hannah’s leg, walked over to Wilson, and reached down to help him get to his feet. “Let’s start again. I’m Seb; this is SA, Bruke, and Sparks. We’re from the Shadow Order and we’re here to help you.”

  Although he looked at Sparks like he expected her to attack him—and he should feel that way because she certainly wanted to—Wilson let Seb help him up and said, “Thank you. I’m sorry I got spooked.”

  “It’s understandable, she wants to bite your face off.”

  Wilson looked at Sparks again.

  “Now tell us,” Seb said. “How did you end up here?”

  Chapter 42

  “We were eating in the canteen with most of the community at the time,” Wilson said. “It was dinner, and you could always guarantee that at least eighty percent of us would be there.”

  “And the others?” Seb asked.

  “Working. This place ran all day and night. A licence to print credits, the Camorons wouldn’t have a moment where the mine wasn’t capturing ruthane.” After a pause as if managing the trauma of what they’d been through, he said, “We were lucky to be close to the door when everything kicked off. It gave us the chance to run.”

  “So why run into the mines?”

  “The insanity was kicking off the other way. The grubs came in from outside.”

  Seb nodded.

  Wilson pointed at a sledgehammer resting against the wall in the alcove. “On our way down, we picked that up. I knew about the small cave, and with a dead end down that way”—he pointed down the tunnel—”it seemed like the best place to hide.”

  “And cave in the entrance so nothing could get to you?” Seb said.

  “I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “And that’s how Hannah got hurt?”

  Wilson let go of a deep sigh and dropped his attention to the ground. “Yep. A rock landed on her leg. I should have been more careful.”

  When Seb looked at Hannah, he saw Alison stand up from where she’d removed the splint from her daughter’s leg. The girl smiled as she swayed from side to side, testing out her ability to stand. “Don’t be too hard on yourself. If it wasn’t for your quick thinking, your family would be dead. We’ve not found any other survivors down here.”

  A sad twist ran through Wil
son’s features. “I worried I’d crippled her for life.” He looked up at Seb, a glaze of tears covering his eyes. “Thank you so much for helping her. And thank you for helping us out of here. Another day or so and we would have died of thirst.”

  Seb looked at the deep red cracks in Wilson’s lips. A white tinge of dry skin ran across them.

  “Although,” Wilson said, “I would have rather died of thirst than get taken over by those things.” A gasp and his eyes spread wide. He looked at Sparks. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. I—”

  But Seb waved the comment away. “We’ll get you all out of here. We just need to clear this section and then we’re ready to go.”

  “Do you have any water?” Wilson asked.

  Seb shook his head. “Sorry.”

  After he’d looked at Sparks again, the vicious little creature spitting and hissing at him, Wilson turned back to Seb. “Tell me if I’m being out of line, but why are you keeping her alive?”

  “I can’t kill her,” Seb said. “Not until we’ve taken her to our base and have them try everything they can to bring her back.” The memory of Gurt threw him off and a lump rose in his throat. After he’d cleared it, he added, “We’ve been through a lot together and I can’t give up on her.”

  “You would if you’d seen what we have.”

  Seb shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t. We’ve just fought against them and have first-hand experience of what those creatures are like. It’s different when there’s just one though, eh? Especially one so small and easy to restrain. A complex full of them and there’s nothing for it but to kill them.”

  “Not necessarily,” Wilson said.

  “Huh?”