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

by Michael Robertson

  The corridor stretched away from them like a tunnel that had been burrowed instead of constructed. Round walls as if a large worm had eaten its way through, the metal on every surface was uneven like the bark of a tree or the knotting of varicose veins. Where the Crimson Destroyer had lights dotted along the ceiling, The Faradis had lights wherever they could fit them. As many above their head as by their feet or in the wall on either side of them, each one deepened the ominous crimson glow.

  When Reyes drew a deep breath to try to still her quickened pulse, she inhaled the reek of oil, the sharp tang of it catching in the back of her throat so she could almost taste it. It didn’t smell like the used oil of a working engine. It had a more organic aroma to it, like it had been harvested from crops or animals.

  Her attention captured by the strange ship, when Reyes finally looked at the others, she saw they were all as mesmerised, including her father. And why wouldn’t they be? It looked like they’d entered a different dimension. One altogether darker than the one they were leaving; no wonder the warrant officer couldn’t hide his apprehension from his tone when he’d briefed them.

  It took for him to set off again before any of the others moved. The only sound in the huge ship came from their cautious steps against the uneven floor. Every time Reyes put a foot down, it turned and twisted. How would she run through the place if she needed to? What kind of creatures had lived on board to make such a surface preferable? Although, the scans had shown the place to be abandoned, so it didn’t matter what had lived here before. It certainly looked and sounded unoccupied. Maybe she should take solace from the silence rather than create beings that weren’t there.

  Despite the red lighting stretching away from them down the corridor, Reyes couldn’t see far enough to know where it ended. But from her position close to the front of the pack, she did see the closed double doors up ahead on the right.

  At the doors, the WO stopped for a second before pointing at Reyes, Patel, Singh, and Austin. “You four, keep watch down that corridor while we open these doors.”

  Reyes, Patel, Singh, and Austin held their ground while the warrant officer pressed the button next to the double doors. A whoosh sounded out as they opened. The others went through first. They all had their weapons raised, hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

  The last to enter the room, Reyes followed the others in. Much like the corridor, the large dining hall looked like it had been grown rather than constructed. A complex twist of black steel, the ceiling sat as a dome over the wide space. The tables and chairs looked to have sprouted from the floor rather than been placed there.

  Although Reyes stepped close to one of the tables, she stood as silent as the rest of them and looked at the wide eyes and open mouths around her. From their expressions, it seemed clear that none of them had seen anything like it before.

  The bark of the WO’s gruff voice made Reyes’ heart kick, and she clapped a hand to her chest. Chan threw a sharp scowl of disdain at her. “It looks like whatever happened to the crew,” he said, “it happened quickly enough to catch them unawares.”

  Not food she recognised, Reyes looked at the tables. Even the seating positions appeared to be set up for a species very different to human. She moved closer to one of the plates with food still on it and reached out to touch it. The second her fingertips made contact, she froze. It took a few attempts to find the words. “Um, WO?”

  He and the rest of the squad turned to look at her. “I …” Her hand shook as she continued to touch the food. “I think whatever crew they had on this ship was here until only very recently.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Reyes pulled in a warm and arid gulp before she said, “This food is still hot.”

  Chapter 16

  Instead of replying to Reyes, the WO picked up a mug and held it in front of his face as if getting a closer look would help him ascertain the temperature of the liquid. Even from where she stood several metres away, Reyes saw the steam rising from it. Despite the high and intricate domed ceiling above them, she hunched as she felt like the room was closing down on her. Maybe they should have listened to her dad’s bad feeling in the first place.

  From the quick glance she threw around the room, Reyes saw all the Marines were watching the warrant officer as he placed the mug back down on the table, opening and closing his hand because he’d clearly held onto the hot vessel for too long. He then pulled his tablet from his pocket. After several taps against the screen, he let go of a long and deflating sigh. “This entire room is above the engine.” The echo of his voice seemed more pronounced than it had a few seconds ago. The silence it broke, more complete.

  When no one replied, he elaborated. “The heat coming from the ship’s engine masked the heat of this food because it’s not got a pulse.” With a look down at some of the strange meats on display, he added, “At least, I don’t think any of this lot has a pulse. We missed it on the scan—not that I think it matters. It only tells us what we now know anyway: there’s hot food in this room. But I’m still confident there are no living beings.”

  Maybe Reyes spoke out of turn, but she still asked him, “Are there any more heat sources on the ship that we need to be aware of?”

  The WO wore his usual thick scowl as he looked at her and then back down at his tablet. He shook his head. “Not according to this, there isn’t.”

  The rest of the Marines watched the conversation between Reyes and her dad like spectators at a tennis match. An awareness of them in her peripheral vision, she continued to focus on the warrant officer. “Then where have they gone? How can an entire crew just disappear?”

  Reyes saw several of the Marines look around them, the paranoia palpable in the large and intricate hall. The deep crimson glow of the place created many shadows, shadows that could hide many secrets.

  This time, Chan spoke. “Maybe they passed through the Corinthian’s Diamond?”

  “The what?” Patel said, unable to hide his disdain for her. And she’d earned it. She’d been more of an arsehole than usual when they were in the armoury. She could end up being a liability on this mission if she kept it up.

  A slight twist to her bruised face, Chan locked her jaw tight as if biting back her words. She drew a deep inhale through her nose and remained fixed on Patel as she let the air out through her mouth. She then said, “The Corinthian’s Diamond.” She paused for a second as if she needed another moment to keep her cool. “It’s a region near Bulbulai 7. A lot of weird shit happens there. Entire fleets are rumoured to have gone missing without a trace.”

  The WO’s gruff voice made them all jump when he said, “This situation is strange enough without us using ghost stories as a basis for trying to understand it. You just said it yourself, Chan: they’re rumours. Unless anyone has something worth saying—and preferably something that’s rooted in rational thought—then I don’t want to hear it. There’s nothing to be gained from creating enemies that don’t exist. We don’t want to defeat ourselves with our own paranoia before we’ve even started. You got that?”

  None of the Marines answered, so he said, “Chan! I said have you got that?”

  A little bit more successful at reining it in with the WO than she had been with Patel, Chan showed no outward sign of rage as she looked at the dark and twisted metal floor and nodded. “Yes, sir. Sorry. It was a ridiculous idea.”

  The WO had just confirmed to Reyes why he hadn’t acted on his bad feeling. He’d said it to keep her off The Faradis, but since she’d made her decision to come anyway, he refused to let paranoia be their enemy. A curse of the human condition, they could keep it at bay with a strong will. Failing that, they needed to keep it to themselves rather than let it spread like witches’ fire. They had no evidence for bad feelings or hunches. They couldn’t base their decisions on them.

  A slightly calmer voice than a few seconds ago, the warrant officer nodded. “I understand everyone’s a bit jumpy. This is beyond weird, but that doesn’t
mean it’s supernatural. We need to stick together, do a sweep of this ship, work out what’s going on, and then take action. I’ll listen to theories, but let’s not spook each other unnecessarily, okay?”

  Before anyone could reply, a deep clunk ran through the vessel. So heavy, Reyes felt it through the soles of her boots and thrust her arms out to the sides as if to brace herself for a fall.

  In light of the WO’s recent outburst, none of the Marines commented on the noise, but every one of them stood with more tension in their frame.

  The sound of radio static pierced the silence. Reyes watched her father hold his tablet up as a tinny and high-pitched voice called through the small speakers. “WO, this is the Crimson Destroyer. Can you please tell us why you’ve disconnected the two vessels? Over.”

  Radio protocol out of the window, the warrant officer lifted his tablet to his mouth. “We haven’t.”

  Before he could say anything else, the floor beneath Reyes’ feet shook and rumbled. She looked around the room at the exits on either side for some clue as to what was happening. It showed her nothing other than two closed sets of double doors.

  “Sir, why are you starting the engines on The Faradis?”

  With a spike in his voice and panic Reyes had never heard in his tone before, he said, “We’re not. You have to do something. Use the Crimson Destroyer to stop it getting away.”

  “I’m not sure I can. We have no power to override their controls from here, sir. Not now we’re disconnected.”

  The vibration through the floor grew stronger, the whir of the engines beneath them louder.

  The Marine on the Crimson Destroyer spoke again, his words gathering in pitch and momentum. “WO, The Faradis is preparing to make the jump to hyperspace. There’s nothing we can do to stop it.”

  Without another word, the warrant officer shoved his way past the Marines as he headed back in the direction of the doors they’d just entered through. As the last in, it allowed Reyes to follow directly behind the heavy and awkward gait of her old man. They moved down the organic and dimly lit corridor. All the while, the sound of the engines grew louder, swelling with the charging power of it getting ready to make the jump.

  The WO reached the end of the corridor, Reyes directly behind him. With just about enough room for her and her dad to see out of the small window in the door, she looked across the dark gap of space between them and the Crimson Destroyer. Already fifty metres at least, she saw the face of Archer watching them through the window on his side. Eyes wide, he stared across the silent space between them.

  “What are we going to do?” Reyes said.

  Before her dad could answer, the sound of the engine reached its crescendo and The Faradis accelerated away. The Crimson Destroyer vanished from sight as they made the jump into hyperspace.

  Chapter 17

  Reyes stood beside her dad as they both stared out into space where the Crimson Destroyer had been only a few seconds earlier. The rest of the Marines had remained in the dining hall, and maybe Reyes should have too. “Where are we?”

  He pulled his tablet from his pocket and flicked it on. The glow from the backlit screen threw shadows across his heavyset face. When he didn’t answer her immediately, Reyes’ stomach turned backflips. The longer he spent staring down at the illuminated device—his frown deepening with every passing second—the less she wanted to know where they’d ended up.

  “I’ve got no idea,” he finally said. “I don’t have the star systems for this area downloaded on the tablet, and for some reason I can’t contact any local satellites.”

  “But there are satellites everywhere.”

  “I don’t think it’s missing satellites we have to worry about. I think they’re still there.”

  “But The Faradis is blocking our connection to them?”

  “That’s my guess.”

  As much as Reyes wanted to remain calm, she could hear her own panic as quickened breaths in the confined space. “So we can’t contact the Crimson Destroyer?”

  “I told you not to come, didn’t I? You should be on the Crimson Destroyer still.”

  A glance into the red glow of the long corridor behind her, Reyes saw they were still alone. “What good would that have done?”

  “It would have given me someone I trust with my life tracking me down.” Before Reyes could reply, he said, “We need to go back to the dining hall and talk to the others. We’re up shit creek. They need to know that, and we need to come up with a plan to get back to our mothership.”

  Reyes didn’t try to talk to him, and he didn’t look like he wanted her to as they walked back to the dining hall. When they entered the domed metal room, she saw many of the Marines had sat down at the twisted tables, perching themselves on the awkward stools. Every pair of eyes fixed on them.

  “We’ve lost contact with the Crimson Destroyer,” the warrant officer announced.

  His words fell dead in the large room, and Reyes saw the blood drain from many faces, even beneath the crimson lights.

  “For some reason,” he continued, “The Faradis has made the jump to hyperspace. I don’t know where it’s taken us.” The only sound came from the stamp of his heavy boots as he walked over to Julius and gave her his tablet. “I think the ship’s blocking us from contacting any local satellites. Can you see if you can find a way around it? We need to get a distress signal off this ship to the Crimson Destroyer ASAP.”

  “So what shall we do?” Chan said.

  The WO shrugged. “That’s what we need to work out.”

  “What? You don’t have a plan?”

  “Remember your place, Marine. And of course I don’t have a plan. Do you seriously think I would have gotten on board if I’d have known it was going to take us light-years away from our mothership? The plan was to get on here, find out why it had no crew, and then get off. That plan’s now changed.”

  “We’re screwed.”

  This time Reyes responded. “Not helpful, Chan. Unless you’ve got something constructive to say, I suggest you keep your mouth shut.”

  The same tight clench to her jaw, Chan’s swollen eyes narrowed, but she didn’t reply.

  Because of the silence, Reyes looked back at the WO, slightly startled to find him staring at her. “You’d do well to take your own advice,” he said.

  Reyes’ cheeks burned and she dropped her attention to the floor. Although her dad went extra hard on her because he had to, she’d earned that. She had no right to talk to anyone in that way. A rookie should know their place.

  Julius—who’d been busying herself with the tablet since it had been handed to her—stood up, drawing the room’s attention. It took some of the focus off Reyes, the heat in her face cooling as she too watched the tall Marine walk over to one of the dark walls. After she’d tapped the tablet’s screen, she then held it up to project an image in front of her. “I’ve not managed to connect to any satellites, but I have managed to pull this from the ship’s local network. These are the schematics for The Faradis. I don’t think I can go any deeper into their systems than this, at least, not with this tablet.”

  Because the warrant officer had shown them what The Faradis looked like from the outside when he briefed them, the shape laid out on the schematic looked familiar.

  Julius pressed against the tablet’s screen again, a small white dot appearing on the projected image to show what she pointed at. “We entered the main section of the ship here, and this is where we are now.” They were in the first of a series of rooms down the centre of the larger middle section. It looked like a corridor ran down either side, giving access to all the rooms from both ends.

  Like they’d seen from the outside, The Faradis was made up of what looked to be three large rockets. Resembling silos lying flat, the main one in the middle and the two smaller ones were connected on either side of it. Boosters were at the end of either of the small rockets. The external design looked like something a child would dream up. The dark organic twist of the inside loo
ked like something birthed in the bowels of hell.

  The white light showed how the main body of the ship had six rooms down the centre of it. “We’re in the dining hall,” Julius said. “The next room along is the control room. Then the library. Then the dry food stores. A briefing room. And finally a sports hall. I can only guess their dorms are in the smaller sections along with showers, fuel storage, and most importantly, the …” She paused as if nervous to say it.

  “The what?” the WO said.

  A sigh, Julius continued to focus on the schematic in front of her. “The escape pods.”

  “And we can’t see anything of what’s in the other two sections?” he asked.

  A shake of her head, Julius winced. “It looks like we’re locked in this middle section. Not only are we unable to get to the two smaller segments, but I can’t see what’s in them either, for some reason.”

  Singh stood up, and the rest of the room looked at her. “It seems to me that we need to search this section of the ship. If we can find a way to access the rest of it, we might be able to get off here. I mean, there’s still no sign of any other living beings, so maybe the jump into hyperspace was a malfunction.” She winced when she said, “Right?”

  Although she shrugged and nodded, Julius didn’t look convinced. “We certainly haven’t seen any evidence of any other living beings on here.”

  Because Julius didn’t offer anything else, the room turned and looked at the warrant officer, who nodded his approval. “I agree with Singh. Unless someone has a better idea?”

  After looking at the Marines around him, he clapped his hands together as if to inspire them to act. “Right. Time to get a plan into place. We search this section from end to end and top to bottom. If we do that, we’re bound to find some way off this godforsaken vessel.”