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

by Michael Robertson

  The wind caught Seb off guard again when he stepped out of the warehouse. It crashed into him and threw him a couple of steps sideways, making the fabric of his trousers and top flap. Heavy with salt, the saline breeze had teeth that now chewed at the corners of Seb’s eyes and mouth. As much as he wanted to rub them, it only made them worse. Besides, the bruising hurt too much to touch.

  “I can’t help it,” Seb finally said, raising his voice over the howling wind.

  Owsk kept up a brisk pace as he led them out of there, but he still turned to look at Seb as he walked. “Help what?”

  “My reaction to tense situations. I know I turn into a dick. I should be dead by now a million times over. The thing is, when you can knock a creature out like I can, it makes you fearless.”

  “Stupid, more like.”

  The words stung, but Seb couldn’t deny them. The taste of salt dried his throat when he swallowed. He then dipped a nod of concession at his granite friend. “Yeah, okay, stupid.”

  Owsk shook his head. “It doesn’t matter how well you can fight when someone shoots a metal net at you.”

  Another nod. “I’ve found that out.” The words stuck in Seb’s throat as if his thirst clung onto them. “I’m sorry. Again. And thank you for vouching for me.”

  “I’m vouching for the prophecy. I believe in it.”

  The spaceport loaded with ships filled Seb’s view. What would a few hours out there be like? Bad enough being human. But being human and being wanted by Moses …

  Owsk stopped. Seb did too. The rock troll held a card in Seb’s direction.

  Black and plastic, the rectangle was no more than four inches wide and three inches tall.

  Seb took it in a pinch and examined it. A plain black card. “What’s this?”

  “It’s a travel card.”

  “Huh?”

  “My family have been smugglers for centuries.” After a deep breath as if to hold his emotions back, Owsk said, “As you know.”

  Seb nodded, the image of Owsk’s sinking submarine running through his mind yet again.

  “There’s a network of smugglers who all have these cards. Show them to any ship’s captain and they’ll grant you free passage on their vessel.”

  “Any captain?”

  “As long as they’re not affiliated with any government or enforcement agency, yes.”

  Seb turned the black card over as if it would make something magically appear on it where it hadn’t been before. “They don’t look very hard to forge. How will the captain know to trust me?”

  Owsk removed what looked like a small lamp from his pocket, flicked a switch on the side, and held it over the card. An emblem glowed on the black plastic. A circle with a submarine in the centre of it.

  Neither Seb nor Owsk spoke as they both stared down at the card. The wind buffeted Seb’s hair and clothes. He had to tense different parts of his body to fight against its push and shove. Owsk stood seemingly impervious to its effect, a rock in every sense.

  When Owsk finally looked up at Seb, tears stood in his granite eyes. Although, when he spoke, his voice showed no hint of the emotion he clearly felt. “They’ll know it’s from me and that it’s legit. They’ll let you on their ship, no questions asked. You can be a ghost with this card and go wherever you need to.”

  “It seems like you’ve made a lot of friends and connections in your time,” Seb said. Where he’d seen him as a small and meek character when he’d met him in the prison, he now saw him as so much more. Strength didn’t always have to be worn like a badge of honour.

  “I try my best,” Owsk finally said. “Now get out of sight for a few hours. You’ll need to go back to the warehouse on your own. I’ve got to get out of here. I’ve lost days being locked up in that damn cell. Days and hundreds of credits.”

  Seb opened his mouth to speak, but Owsk cut him off.

  “Days, hundreds of credits, and a submarine.”

  Sadness sank through Seb’s weary frame.

  “Should you need any more help from me,” Owsk said, “ask one of the captains to put a call out, and I’ll come.”

  Before Owsk could say anything else, Seb stepped forward and hugged the creature. Despite his rough appearance, the strange-looking rock troll had a heart of gold. “Thank you.”

  Owsk didn’t return the embrace, standing board stiff until Seb pulled away from him.

  “Learn your lessons, Seb Zodo. This galaxy needs what you can bring to it. I just hope you have the presence of mind to work out what that is.” And with that, Owsk turned his back on Seb and walked towards the spaceport.

  The wind seemed to blow harder now that Seb found himself on his own. Harder and colder. Owsk had just shown him how it paid to make friends in this life. Not everything had to be a battle.

  Chapter 11

  Seb could have followed Owsk out into the spaceport to try to prolong their friendship, but he held back. Mainly because the rock troll had made it clear that their time together had come to an end. Not only had Seb sunk his legacy, but to associate with a human so publicly would be a black mark from virtually every other species. A human that maybe already had a bounty on his head. And if he didn’t yet, he would soon. Besides, Seb had already asked too much of him, and Owsk had more than settled his debt for being broken out of the prison. Maybe their paths would cross again at some point.

  The black card in his hand, Seb turned it over while he continued to stare at it. Owsk’s emblem had glowed so brightly when he’d passed his lamp over it, but he couldn’t see any trace of it now. To think of the submarine logo twisted another pang through his chest.

  Still burning with the pain of the beating he’d taken from the pack of mandulus, Seb squinted against the wind as he looked over his shoulder at the warehouse. The salty onslaught continued to sting his eyes and forced his hair back. It rocked him where he stood.

  Seb took the same route out of there that Owsk had about ten minutes previously. As he walked the pathway—flanked by two ships—he looked at each of the vessels. The one on his right loomed over him, casting the entire path in shadow. A flying warehouse, it must have made a fortune in freight if it filled its hull.

  The ship on Seb’s left must have been used for something other than smuggling. Small and aerodynamic, it clearly only carried passengers. Quite unusual on Aloo, as it seemed that most of the vessels there had a cargo of some sort. Why else would they come here? Maybe it was a satellite ship coming down from a larger fleet.

  The second Seb stepped out into the walkway, the raucous commotion of a bustling spaceport crashed into him, hitting him harder than the wind had. A swirl of tens, if not hundreds, of conversations came at him from all angles. The collective funk of so many beasts and their meals forced him to crinkle his nose in disgust, aggravating the throbbing pain in his face. The thought of the sea slug he’d tried to eat the last time he’d visited turned his stomach.

  It only took a few seconds before Seb could feel the attention of nearly every being on him. His world slipped into slow motion, but with such a large crowd around him, he had no chance of getting out of there if they turned on him.

  A look to his left, Seb saw two brown, rocky creatures standing by their open ship. They both wore guns slung across their fronts, and they both held them like they’d use them in a heartbeat. Like they were desperate for the excuse, in fact. He dropped his attention to the ground.

  A few steps later, Seb looked at the creatures on his right and met a similar hostility. Laser crossbows in their grips, the tall tree-like beings glowered at him. From left to right and everything in between, every being he looked at in the dense crowd seemed to be watching him.

  As much as he tried to regulate his pulse with slow breaths, it did nothing, his heart hammering with such ferocity it threw him off stride. When he crashed into a large purple-skinned brute, it raised its top lip in a snarl at him.

  After he’d walked no more than about twenty metres, both of Seb’s shoulders hurt from where
creature after creature had barged into him. To kick off now would start a fight he couldn’t win. A fight the crowd seemed to want. He still couldn’t tell if the hostility came from him being human, or if Moses had put the word out that he wanted him. A pain in his jaw from clenching it, he pushed on through the dense crowd.

  At least Seb saw everything in slow motion. It made it much easier to navigate the hostile press of bodies, even if there were too many to avoid all the collisions. Biting his tongue as well as holding onto his physical desire to lash out, he looked up to see the next beast heading his way.

  The creature wore a deep scowl and moved with a heavy gait. At least nine feet tall, it looked like a Sasquatch but red. Bright red. Hard to miss it in a crowd, especially when it strode directly at him. Anticipation sent the air around him electric, and Seb noticed some of the others watching the inevitable coming together.

  As the monster drew close, Seb watched its entire large frame tense. It then twisted slightly, pulling its right shoulder back.

  Its jaw clenched, its eyes narrowed, the crimson yeti scowled as it brought the right half of its body towards Seb.

  Before it could connect with him, Seb jumped to the side. The air created by the red beast’s swing pulled on his clothes as it whooshed past him.

  Although Seb continued walking as if nothing had happened, he glanced over his shoulder in time to see the brute stumble into a family of hairy creatures with blasters. Even the children drew their weapons, the red creature raising its long arms defensively.

  Seb dipped his head into the strong breeze and quickened his pace. Although he watched the ground, he threw the occasional glance around him. Shoulder barges were fine. Sure, they hurt, but he could deal with them. If it didn’t escalate from there, he’d be okay. It also suggested he didn’t have a bounty on his head. Surely something more would have happened by now if he did.

  Another paranoid sweep of the area and Seb saw it. A shot of adrenaline forced a gasp from him. Through the crowd, in the shadow cast by one of the larger freighters, stood a figure. Maybe no different to many of the other figures around him—bipedal, similar proportions to a human, hell, it might even be a human—but he couldn’t ignore the feeling he had when he looked at them. The same feeling that had followed him since he’d gotten out of Owsk’s sub. The sense of someone sent by the Shadow Order to watch him. To bring him back to Moses. The crowd might not want him yet, but this creature certainly did. It had to be the same one he’d seen at the warehouse.

  Ships still lined either side of the walkway, funnelling the sea breeze along it and casting the crowd in shadow. One of the largest vessels he’d seen had parked to Seb’s right. A slow and subtle change of direction, he eased himself towards it. If he could get close enough, he could get under it and into the streets beyond before the silhouette twigged.

  At first, the silhouette showed no sign of reading Seb’s intention. He weaved and twisted to negotiate the crowded walkway, his heart rate lifting with the desire to run. The creatures around him still stared, but now he’d seen Moses’ spy, they already seemed much less intimidating.

  By the time Seb got close to the freighter, his body wound tight with his desire to get the hell out of there. He looked at the silhouette again. Something had changed in its form. It looked to have tensed slightly, like it had become more alert as it watched him.

  He couldn’t wait any longer. Seb shoved the first creature in front of him out of his way. The fat slug-like thing fell over from his push. The air around him lit up with indignation, cries of unrest and shock. Abuse aimed at his species.

  Before they had a chance to lynch him, Seb burst free from the crowd and ran for the large freighter. When he looked behind, he saw the silhouette had given chase.

  Chapter 12

  The hairy little creatures guarding the large ship Seb ran at might have been small, but when they filed out of the ship’s open cargo bay, they made up for in number what they lacked in size.

  Little black eyes, they stared an intent at Seb that suggested they would destroy him—and he believed they felt that. Not that they’d be able to back it up in any way. Sure, they had sharp little teeth and attitudes that looked like they thought they could take over the galaxy, but it wasn’t the first time he’d encountered diminutive creatures with illusions well beyond their abilities.

  But Seb hadn’t noticed the large block to the side of their cargo bay. Not until two of the creatures whipped the sheet away. He suddenly saw how they intended to back up their hostility. The confidence he’d felt only moments earlier drained from him, and he couldn’t take his eyes from the large wheeled cannon they’d now revealed. “Damn,” he muttered.

  The small beasts worked as a team. Each no larger than a domestic cat, they moved as if all of them were connected to a hive mind. Four of them manoeuvred the base of the cannon to help aim it at Seb. Two of them jumped up onto the weapon and adjusted the barrel’s trajectory. The two remaining critters stood on either side of the cannon. They held a pole between them, one on each end. To fire the weapon, it looked like they both needed to pull at the same time.

  Even in slow motion they moved fast, but Seb kept running at them, the fat barrel of the cannon pointing straight at him. The screech of what must have been the lead critter gave him a warning.

  “Halt, or we’ll shoot.”

  When Seb looked over his shoulder, he saw the silhouette. Still unable to identify it, he could see it closing down on him. Halt and he’d get dragged back to Moses and the Shadow Order’s base. Whoever chased him, if they came with Moses’ backing, they’d be ready to take him down in whatever way they needed to. Be it a net made from chains or something similar, Moses would have made sure they were prepared to deal with Seb’s abilities.

  Already breathing heavily from the run, Seb pushed on as he charged at the critters. He shook his head at them but said nothing. No time for a debate.

  The giant cannon had a barrel at least four feet long. It looked capable of issuing a laser blast large enough to vaporise his head. His steel-lined fists would do nothing against it. The two critters on top of it continued to make quick adjustments. Just metres separated them and Seb now. Slow motion helped, but he’d have to keep his wits to outsmart the tiny monsters.

  A bright flash went off to Seb’s right. It took his attention. Then a voice rang through his head. The loud instruction went off in his mind like a bomb.

  “Down!”

  So assertive, Seb followed it without thinking and dropped to the ground, rolling on the hard concrete. It reminded him of the kicking he’d only recently had from the mandulus, his face hurting the most, but the rest of his body still sore as it impacted the solid surface.

  As Seb rolled over and over, he saw the cannon kick, throwing the two critters off the fat barrel. The blast started as a red streak and then spread to twenty times the width. A large and flat disc of light designed to cut something in two flew over him. The flash to his right had been done to distract him. The beam would have cleaved through him had the voice not shouted at him.

  Seb rolled to a halt and watched the disc spin into the sky on an upwards trajectory. Although it would have taken him down, it travelled over the heads of those out in the spaceport and up into the sky. Then he saw the silhouette of his pursuer again.

  Already aching from his day, Seb jumped back to his feet and ran at the critters and their cannon. The eight little creatures gawked at him as he passed, their tiny mouths forming perfect Os of shock. No time to fight back, Seb booted the one closest to him for good measure. It felt like kicking a deflated football, and he sent it spinning back into the hull of their large cargo ship. Hopefully it didn’t kill it, but they needed to learn their lesson.

  After he’d passed beneath the ship and burst out the other side, Seb looked at the line of shops in front of him. A dark alleyway ran between two of them. The entrance to a rat run of walkways, it had to be the best place to lose his tail. He just needed to maintain eno
ugh of a lead to keep the advantage. Gritted teeth, sweat pumping from him, and breathing hard, he dug deep and found a little more speed.

  The thoughts of the voice in his head clouded his mind, but he shook them away. When he found safety, he could think about what had happened. Definitely not his own voice, but if he was losing the plot, he needed to deal with that once he’d gotten away from whatever chased him.

  Chapter 13

  The second Seb entered the alleyway, the slap of his footsteps bounced off the high walls and echoed away from him into the darkness. The noise made him an easy target to follow.

  Upon rounding the first corner, dodging a couple of creatures that reminded him of large caterpillars, Seb saw a shop that looked familiar. Still at full tilt, his lungs tight, his feet slamming down against the hard ground, it took for him to watch it for a few seconds before it sank in. The shop Sparks had killed the electricity in. It almost made him smile. Were he not trying to get away from Moses’ bounty hunter, his sore face contorting with the effort of his run, then he would have.

  Several more twists and turns led to several more near collisions with beasts of every shape and size. Seb’s legs ached to the point where he felt the strength draining from them. He couldn’t keep this up indefinitely. The sound of his own struggle ran through him as he fought for breath. It prevented him from hearing whether he still had a pursuer or not. Safer to assume he did.

  Just as Seb passed a kitchen on his left, a loud hiss burst from an open window. He jumped away from it. Without breaking stride, he looked back to see a cloud of steam. It stopped him seeing the table laden with fruit and veg in front of him. When he clattered into it, the cheap wooden structure broke, sending him and all of the stock sprawling.

  A monster of a creature with a horn in the centre of its face burst from the shop. Its features twisted into a contorted mess of fury. By the time it had opened its mouth to roar at him, Seb had already jumped to his feet and run off again. He called out, “Sorry,” as if it would make a difference.