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

by Michael Robertson

  The conversation died between the pair and Seb returned his attention to where they were heading. The sooner they got out of the complex, the better.

  Chapter 48

  Seb emerged into the hangar first, sweating from the ascent up the large ladders. After checking to see the huge metal doors leading outside were still closed, he turned to watch Bruke climb the last few metres with the bound Sparks under his arm.

  When Seb moved over to help his scaled friend, he winced from the aches in his body. It had been a long day. He took Sparks and restrained her while Bruke got himself up into the hangar.

  Seb then passed Sparks straight back to him. Even someone of Sparks’ size challenged his fatigued muscles at that moment. Thankfully they had Bruke. He’d struggled to climb the ladders on his own, let alone carrying Sparks up with him. Now they were up top, the scaled Bruke restrained her without any apparent struggle.

  Not even out of breath, Bruke held Sparks in a strong grip, looked up, and said, “What?”

  “You do everything you can to keep your strengths hidden. The effort that climb must have just taken …”

  After looking down the hole he’d just climbed out of, Bruke looked back at Seb and shrugged. “It was nothing really.”

  Seb laughed. “See what I mean? Modest to a fault.”

  Before Bruke could say anything else, Seb walked across the hangar to the tank where they’d left their suits. About thirty minutes had passed since he’d radioed in for someone to pick them up. “They’ll be here soon,” he said to the others.

  “Who?” Wilson asked, his voice echoing in the large hangar.

  “Our ride out of here.”

  The crack of a water bottle rang through the open space as Wilson took another sip of his drink. On their way back up, they’d stopped to get water in the canteen. Bruke had picked up some food too, but with the smell of the grubs in the air, Seb couldn’t face any himself.

  Before they’d gone to the canteen, they’d also picked up their weapons where they’d left them. They’d dragged the bodies free of the doors leading to the mines so they could seal the highly explosive ruthane in again. Although, with the doors open for as long as they had been, none of them felt confident using their blasters. Fortunately, the need hadn’t arisen.

  A clicking sound and Seb looked over to SA, who’d set the doors leading down into the mines to close. “Good idea,” he said. They’d closed every set of doors behind themselves so far. “I’m sure with them sealed too, we don’t need to worry about the ruthane anymore.”

  Once the hatch had closed, Wilson said, “Do you need radiation suits?”

  A shake of his head and Seb pointed at the roof of the tank he now stood next to. “We have our own.”

  “How long do they last outside for?”

  “Three hours.”

  “Three hours! Ours only last ninety minutes.”

  “That’ll be plenty of time,” Seb said. “We only need to get on the shuttle and get out of here.”

  Wilson led his family to a rail with radiation suits hanging from it while Seb pulled all the suits down from the tank. He thought of Sparks not being able to reach and smiled. Then he looked at her again, his mirth vanishing instantly. They’d get her back to her old self. They had to.

  They took turns putting their suits on, passing the fitting and writhing Sparks between them so one of them could hold her while the others dressed. Seb had already put his suit on when he had to restrain her. Even though he’d only worn it for a short time, he’d started to get used to accommodating the thick layer surrounding him and gripped on tightly to his twisting friend. “You won’t remain like this,” he whispered to her, so quietly no one heard him. Or if they did, they didn’t look up at him.

  Bruke and SA were all suited up and Seb still had a hold of Sparks. “I suppose we have to dress her now?” he said.

  Again, Bruke volunteered. Maybe Seb should have offered himself, but Bruke had more strength to hold onto her than Seb and SA combined.

  Bruke wrapped his thick arms around Sparks and lifted her from the ground. SA held onto her thrashing legs and Seb slipped the suit over them. “Good job she’s only small,” he said as he fought against her squirming. “It’s like dressing a child.” Even now, with her in her current state, he couldn’t help fishing for a reaction from her. She replied with the same fizzing and spitting chaos.

  Despite her best efforts, Sparks couldn’t do anything to stop the others from suiting her up. She was too small and weak, even with her rage driving her.

  The struggle and the thickness of his own suit raised Seb’s body temperature. Sweat ran down the sides of his face. He wiped it away before pressing the button on the side of his head. The world in front of him turned slightly yellow as his visor slid across. Now finally suited up, Seb turned to see Wilson and his family were watching them.

  “Impressive,” Hannah said. Both her and her mum had been quiet in the mines, clearly recognising they should stay out of the way. But now they were safer, she’d obviously grown in confidence. Although not confident enough to prevent her face from turning crimson. She seemed aglow with childish nervousness at maybe making the wrong comment.

  A smile and Seb said, “Thank you.” Not that he needed praise on restraining his friend, he’d rather not have had to do it at all, but it seemed to lift the girl from her temporary anxiety.

  The crackle of Sparks’ radio rang out through the hangar and Seb looked at his small friend. “Damn it!” They’d sealed the radio inside her suit with her.

  Just before Seb could move towards her, Bruke lifted the radio up. Seb smiled. “I’m glad one of us is on the ball.”

  A stoic nod and Bruke handed the radio over.

  “Hello?” Seb said after he’d pressed the button on the side.

  “Seb, we’re nearly there. We’re going to land just outside. Be ready, yeah?”

  “Okay. See you soon.”

  The display on Seb’s visor read ‘2h50m’. It would give him plenty of time outside, but it didn’t help ease the tightening in his stomach at the thought of leaving the hangar for the radiated wasteland. But they had to get on. And he had to lead.

  Chapter 49

  Seb got to the hangar doors, swiped his keycard through the reader, and watched them open. At least they didn’t have to hack into the computer controlling them. They’d have come up woefully short now they were without Sparks’ abilities.

  The increasing gap in the doors revealed the sprawling red wasteland beyond. Experience had told Seb not to expect it, but that didn’t stop him wincing at the anticipated rush of hot air from outside.

  The bodies from the first wave of zombies they’d fought stretched out before them. They’d only been dead a short while, but Carstic’s vicious atmosphere had already turned their skin yellow and their eyes had sunk into their faces. It looked like the air had leeched the life from them, mummifying them in the short time they’d been exposed for. Many of the bodies had visible wounds where they’d shot the parasites before they could crawl from their mouths. Their scabs were now black as if they’d been burned.

  When Seb checked on Hannah, he saw Alison talking to her as they walked. Not only dead bodies, but dead bodies of the people they once knew. The girl seemed to understand her mother’s intention and kept her focus on her.

  A few seconds later, the rush of engines called out to them. Seb looked up to see the shuttle flying towards them. “You ready?” he said to Wilson, Hannah, and Alison. All three of them nodded, relief lifting their exhausted faces.

  Seb led the way to meet the landing shuttle. He looked over the wasteland but couldn’t see any threats. Why would there be? It was a dead planet. Although, Wilson had theorised that the parasites came from outside.

  The shuttle seemed to agitate Sparks more than ever and she twisted and shook in Bruke’s grip. Seb chewed on his bottom lip as he looked at her. “They won’t let us on the shuttle with her in that state. Can you do anything to subdue her?
”

  Bruke shook his head.

  As the shuttle drew close, the thrust from the engines buffeted Seb’s suit and sent him stumbling back a step. Sparks became even more animated.

  “Do something, Bruke.” But Seb could see Bruke already doing everything he could, his teeth clenched as he battled against Sparks’ movement.

  The shuttle landed and SA helped Bruke restrain Sparks. She fought against them with more vigour than Seb had seen from her before. She thrashed and twisted, seemingly desperate to get at the people on the shuttle.

  The shuttle door opened and a large creature from the Shadow Order stared at them. It had a round blue face twice the size of Seb’s. It had thick and waxy skin. “What’s wrong with her?” it said.

  “She’s got a parasite in her.”

  “We’re not taking her.”

  Tiredness got the better of Seb and he snapped. While pointing a finger at the beast, he said, “Don’t tell me what you’re not going to do, you ugly toad.”

  “What did you call me?” The creature’s shoulders lifted and he balled his large fists.

  A sigh and Seb let go of his anger. No fear when it came to a potential fight with the creature, but if Seb were in his situation, then he’d probably refuse Sparks entry to the shuttle too. What would Moses do to the creature who brought her back to the Shadow Order’s base in that state? “Sorry,” he said, “that was uncalled for. But we’re not leaving her here. We need to try to help her.”

  Before the beast could reply, Bruke pulled on Seb’s sleeve. At first he shrugged it off, returning his attention to the creature, but when Bruke pulled on it again, Seb spun around and said, “What?”

  It took for Seb to follow the line where Bruke pointed to see the things coming towards them. A squint to see better through his visor—the time reading ‘2h45m’—and he saw their blood-red eyes. “Shit!”

  Chapter 50

  The two beasts were huge. Easily the size of fully grown elephants, they were shaped like seals. As pink as newborn moles, they ran across the open wasteland. Despite their clumsy gait—their heads bobbing up and down as they ran while their bottoms moved the opposite way like a nodding donkey—they ate away at the distance between them and the shuttle quicker than their forms should have been capable of.

  And their eyes. Seb couldn’t look away from them. The blood-red of beings infected with the parasites. The blood-red that stared back at him through Sparks’ visor in her radiation suit despite the yellow tint. The blood-red that lusted after destruction.

  Seb raised the stock of his gun to his shoulder. One eye closed, he looked down the barrel of it. His world slowed down as he ripped off several green blasts.

  They flew over the red rocky wasteland and sailed harmlessly wide of the monsters. The distance alone made it hard to hit the huge creatures. Their unusual lolling run made it damn near impossible to draw a bead on them.

  “Quick,” Seb shouted at Wilson and his family. “Get on the shuttle now.”

  They didn’t need to be told twice. As they clambered into the back, the toad-like soldier reached out of the shuttle and helped them on.

  SA moved next to Seb. It felt like she understood what had to happen. Calm stillness, it felt like she was telling him she’d follow him wherever he needed to go.

  Because Sparks didn’t need her weapons at that moment, SA had taken both of her blasters. As quick as an automatic rifle, she sent shots across the wasteland at the creatures. She missed with every one. Much closer than Seb had managed, but still nowhere near taking them down. They’d have to let them get closer. But how close before they were committing suicide?

  Maybe SA had given Seb her silent support like he’d thought, but maybe he’d misinterpreted her. Either way, he needed his friends more now than ever. “Follow me,” he called out as he turned away from the shuttle and ran back towards the hangar.

  “What are you doing?” Bruke shouted after him, frozen to the spot as he looked between Seb and their ride out of there.

  “No time to explain,” Seb shouted back. “But you need to come. And bring Sparks. They won’t let her on the shuttle and I think I know how to save her.”

  SA and Bruke ran after Seb. Bruke had thrown Sparks over his shoulder and moved as if she weighed nothing.

  The sound of the shuttle’s engines rumbled behind them, and just before Seb got to the hangar, he heard the ship take off again.

  The hangar doors were wide open, so Seb ran through them straight to the keycard reader. He swiped his card through the slot to close them.

  Seb watched both SA and Bruke run through the closing doors into the hangar. Bruke put Sparks down and restrained her again.

  As the doors closed, Seb watched the creatures descend on them. Strange things, they made a noise somewhere between a trumpet and a roar as they got closer. But they wouldn’t make it through the doors before they closed. They were quick, but not that quick.

  The doors pinched out the last strip of daylight as Seb heard the whir of the shuttle’s guns outside. He listened as a meteor shower of blasts crashed against the rocky ground. He felt the vibration of them through the soles of his feet.

  The trumpeting roar of the creatures fell silent.

  When the light above the hangar doors turned green, Seb pressed the button on the side of his head and watched the world return to its normal hue. He listened as Bruke and SA breathed heavily from the run. That and Sparks’ snarling fury. He looked at Bruke and SA and spoke through his laboured breaths. “I think they got them.”

  SA moved over to one of the small windows in the hangar doors before she looked back at Seb and nodded. Bruke continued to battle with Sparks.

  Seb jumped when the radio hissed from his top pocket. He pulled it free and pressed the talk button on the side. “Did you get them?”

  “Yes,” the creature who wouldn’t let Sparks on the shuttle said. “Both of them are down. But never mind that. What are you doing?”

  “We couldn’t leave,” Seb said. “There are more infected creatures. More parasites that need to be taken down. That is our mission, after all.”

  Wilson’s voice came through the receiver at him. “Are you thinking the creature in the mines wasn’t the main queen?” The rumble of the shuttle in flight roared as a background noise behind the scientist.

  “There are obviously more beasts on Carstic than you originally thought,” Seb said. “From the look of it, they’ve also been infected by the parasites. We have to kill all of the grubs.”

  “And maybe help Sparks in the process?”

  “Hopefully.”

  Bruke and SA watched Seb the entire time.

  “And maybe it’ll explain why the grubs came from out of the wastelands,” Seb added.

  “Maybe,” Wilson said, although he didn’t sound convinced.

  “Maybe the grubs weren’t planted here by someone looking to get at the Camorons’ wealth in some way.”

  Wilson didn’t reply.

  Seb leaned against the wall with the card reader on it. In a strange way, it felt good to see the huge pink beasts. It meant there might be a queen of the hive mind they were yet to take down. It also meant the grubs weren’t put on the planet. They’d probably lived there the entire time. It meant the Camorons weren’t being used for their wealth. Because, at the end of the day, if anyone was using the Camorons to get rich, it would most likely be Moses and, by extension, them.

  Chapter 51

  The radio burst back to life, startling Seb and making him jump away from the wall. Wilson’s voice came through. “There’s a lush area a few miles from the hangar. It’s like a rainforest. Green, damp, vibrant …”

  Seb waited for him to say more, watching Bruke and SA as they too listened in.

  “Kind of hard to believe on a planet so barren. If you come out of the hangar and head in a straight line, you’ll get to it.”

  “And what’s there?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “But you kno
w it’s there?”

  “We’ve been there, but we only had ninety-minute radiation suits, so we couldn’t stay long.”

  “Ninety minutes wasn’t enough time?”

  “No, we could only go in so far with that. The place is huge,” Wilson said.

  “How do you know it’s big?”

  “We’ve seen it from satellite images, but we’ve never seen any life in there, which is why we assumed it didn’t have any. Our satellites can take a photo of a flea’s arse anywhere on this planet.”

  “So where did those two beasts come from?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Okay, so that’s where we’ll go. How good is the tank in here? Will it get us to the rainforest?”

  “It’s amazing,” Wilson said. “It’ll get you there in no time and keep the radiation off you. As long as it’s all sealed up, you’ll be fine to travel in it for as long as you need to. You can open the doors and close them again and it’ll clear the radiation in seconds.”

  “And you still didn’t have enough time to explore the forest when you travelled there in the tank?”

  “Like I said, the forest is huge.”

  Both SA and Bruke continued to watch Seb. Neither showed any signs of objecting to the plan yet. “Okay, thank you for all your help.”

  “Thank you for saving my family.”

  Seb didn’t reply.

  “Oh, and Seb?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I didn’t say anything before.”

  “About what?”

  “About you.”

  A look at the other two and Seb said, “What about me?”

  “You’re human.”

  “Yep.”

  “But you’re not. I can see that in you. There’s something else. Something much greater than human.”

  “What are you talking about?”