Galactic - Ten Book Space Opera Sci-Fi Boxset

by Colin F. Barnes

  “Did the previous doctors know anything about her origin?” he asked Tufty.

  “Nothing at all.” Tufty answered.

  “She’s magnificent.” Lotello said.

  ***

  Lewis sat watch while Bronson rested his eyes in his captain’s seat. He finally allowed himself to sleep when he knew the operation was going smoothly. She held her breath as then men worked together to lift the statue of Selene up off of the stone bed on which she laid and placed her in a protective crate lined with thick bedding to keep her from getting chipped or broken when she was jostled into the trailer behind the rover. Her tomb had a few other things that the archaeologists documented and gathered, stone vessels, effigies of humans, a few scrolls of paper rolled and sealed with wax. At last after nearly twelve hours of careful work they were nearly complete. Dozer stopped once again before who he had named “The door man.” His camera swept over the gaunt and withered shell of a man.

  “We taking him?”

  “That’s not necessary.” Tufty spoke.

  “We most certainly are.” Lotello intervened.

  “We don’t need to waste time…” Tufty began but was silenced by Cambridge.

  “WE are in charge of this retrieval. We are taking him too.” The archaeologist stated without allowing Tufty the chance to argue.

  “Yes, sir!” Ming said.

  “Good idea, boys. I ain’t comin’ back in once we get that rover loaded.” Dozer agreed.

  ***

  The rover rolled into the Maiden after many hours of being in the ashen soil of earth, Lewis heaved a huge sigh of relief. She made certain that the bay door was sealed and locked then she took off running to the cargo hold. Gonzalez sat beside of Captain Bronson, she refused to go down to look at the contents of the mountain tomb.

  “That shit is creepy.” She said as Lewis tried to tug her by the hand. “I will wait here and attempt to awaken the Cap.”

  “Wimp!” Lewis hollered back at Ayana as she joyously went to greet Dozer.

  ***

  The ticks were hidden behind the stack of extra crate components in the far corner yet they felt completely exposed with the lighting being more than the red glow of emergency bulbs. They had been sitting there for an entire day as the crew loaded up and left and now they would hide longer through their return and unloading…waiting for the ship to leap back into the black. They paid Tufty well with a stack of Colonial coin, the currency of the new worlds. The two men were willing to risk the journey back to earth just to reach Cielo again. The patrol would never find them stashed amongst crates of dusty artifacts, at least that was their plan. The old man had provided food and drink to them, and as long as they kept out of the crew’s sight they would be smuggled back to the colony from which they were banned…but they grew restless.

  “I say we do a little digging ourselves.” Art said. “Maybe find ourselves a treasure.”

  “Make our coin back and more, I bet.” Peter agreed.

  They fell silent when the bay door began to open like a giant steel mouth. The ticks tucked themselves beneath the stacks of supplies and listened as the rover roared back into the hold. The door was closed once more and it wasn’t long until they could hear the excited voices of the crew as they exited the hauling rig.

  “We made it, Ming!” A deep voice boomed from inside of a helmet.

  “Later we’re going to celebrate!” a second voice said.

  “Enough nonsense. Help us unload!”

  The ticks recognized Tufty’s voice. Peter shook his head; the assistant archaeologist was really a stuffy old man.

  It was quite a long process to unpack all of the artifacts and lay them out upon retractable metal tables built into the wall of the hold. When they were finally done, Dozer opened a small panel on the wall beside the exit door and punched in a code.

  “Detox in three seconds.” An automated voice spoke, the soft instructions of The Maiden herself. A light vapor came from the overhead sprayers, it smelled sterile. “Containment and destruction of any foreign viruses achieved.”

  “Let’s get these suits off!” Dozer said.

  “I will help!” echoed a feminine voice through the hold.

  They looked to each other, Art winked. The old man never mentioned any women aboard The Maiden, it made it nearly impossible to keep hidden away.

  ***

  Darkness nearly blinded the stowaways, red light was all they had to go treasure hunting by. On a metal table lay the statue of a woman, on a second table small jars and dolls made of stone. On the floor was left a crate but when Peter opened it all he could see was some dried up dead man. Not a single piece of jewelry or rare metal to be found. Even the sword on the corpse’s side wouldn’t be worth spit.

  “Nothin’ but junk.” Arthur complained.

  The opening of the steel door left them crawling into a black corner to hide, their eyes strained to see a lone figure. He turned on the lights, luckily for the ticks they had squeezed behind a small stack of equipment cases which kept them from being spotted yet it was by far the worst position they had found themselves in aboard The Maiden.

  ***

  Bronson was a master at making space booze, it was one of his many talents being a renaissance man among the stars. The crew sat around a small stationary table beside of the kitchen of The Maiden.

  “A health to my crew.” The captain spoke sincerely.

  They raised their glasses in a toast, clanked them together then downed the strong liquor Bronson had saved for special occasions. He swallowed his in a single gulp then relieved them to spend the rest of their time as they pleased. He was rested up and ready to man the controls. The doctors had cloistered themselves away to discuss their findings and everything was going according to the plan. The longest day any of them had seen in quite some time was finally over and within a few hours they would be back beyond the atmosphere of the dying planet and in route to Cielo for some much needed shore leave.

  Bronson left them to continue celebrating, he had something he wanted to tend to before announcing departure. It was something he wish he had done every time he landed on his home planet, now with the passing of his father he figured it was the proper thing to do. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a thin gold band. It was something his father wore for forty years before he passed on, the wedding band to commemorate his only marriage. Daniel’s father gave it to him hoping his son would one day wear it on his own wedding day but Bronson knew that would never come, his bride was The Maiden and his home the expanses of space, the black. It was like a living entity twining itself around his heart, the freedom of flight was something he wouldn’t give up. He held the ring in his hand as he made his way down into the cargo hold. He needed to suit up to accomplish the memorial he had always dreamed of holding for his mother…he had waited so long it would now be conducted for both of his parents.

  He slid an exploration suit over his flight uniform and pulled a respiration helmet over his head, he didn’t want to bring back the bleeding lung back to his crew. He used the maintenance door to step out onto the dusty plain. The constant hum of the filtration system on his head was slightly distracting but the speech he prepared to recite was something he had memorized many years before. The captain only took a few paces out into the grey dust before he halted, the ring was clenched in his gloved palm. He bent down, dug a small hole and placed the wedding ring inside before standing.

  “After over thirty years apart I have reunited you. Mom, you were always in his mind and heart. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t talk about you. In his eyes I could see his love for you even on the day he died. He looked to the darkness…” Bronson’s voice broke and tears wet his eyes.

  “He told me you were there with him and with me like you had promised. I love you both very much and I will see you again one day, amongst the stars…that’s my promise.”

  ***

  Gonzalez stood alone in the control room, listening to the most t
ouching words she had ever heard her captain speak. She wept and turned the volume down on the intercom that he had no idea was left on. She felt embarrassed at accidentally overhearing the words he spoke for his parents yet she couldn’t help feel her heart pounding with deep admiration of him.

  Ming went to catch a few moments of shut eye while Lewis dragged Dozer off to whisper sweet nothings in his ear. Ayana was alone and decided to meet Captain Bronson below and share his company for a few hours before she decided to go to sleep. She just hoped she wouldn’t be intruding on his lonesome vigil.

  She waited outside of the hold until she could hear the detox mist end, a sudden wave of anxiety swept through her, Ayana knew she should just leave him to his thoughts. She spun to return to the upper decks only to turn back and force the door open after shouting echoed from the steel walls of The Maiden.

  “Gonzalez! TICKS!” Bronson shouted as she ran inside.

  Two shadows were on her before she could draw her stun gun on her hip. She hit the floor beneath the weight of the tall one as the smaller figure squirmed over her and took off into the lowest deck of the ship. They exchanged blows before she brought her knee up into the stowaway’s groin as he tried to follow his partner. He wheezed and fell over her as she continued her assault. Gonzalez brought her fist up and punched him in the side of his head as he gasped for air. He rolled off of her yet she climbed onto his chest, she repeatedly punched him in the nose until Captain Bronson pulled her off of the stranger.

  “Who are you?” Bronson said, raising a much heftier fist before the bleeding man’s face.

  “I ain’t sayin’ nothin’!”

  “You better get talkin’. I promise you we have ways of makin’ you!” Gonzalez threatened over her Captain’s shoulder, drawing her weapon.

  “Sound the alarm.” Bronson ordered.

  Gonzalez went to the wall panel, pushed an intercom button and yelled into it, her voice resounded through the entire ship.

  “We have ticks in the bottom deck! All hands, assistance required!”

  She did a sweep of the cargo hold, and found where the two had been camping out but no other signs of life before returning to stand beside of Bronson who had the large man subdued.

  ***

  His hands trembled as he ran them together, palm to palm. He could feel tender blisters on his skin where he touched her without the protection of a glove months before, they were pulsing now as a reminder of his vow to her. The others that went missing warned him not too, they had read the markings in the tomb, spent days studying the warnings left by the guardian. They felt the unsettling call of something that appeared to be nothing more than a statue.

  She became linked to Samuel in that moment of contact, his thoughts became hers. Selene, the name he had given her, was much older than even the oldest survivor of the calamities of the earth by thousands of years, her tomb was nearly eight hundred years old itself and yet Tufty knew she roamed the earth for centuries before that imprisonment. She showed him her memories, of days spent living in barbaric conditions and reveling in it. A kiss from her lips was a death sentence, a touch of her skin meant enslavement yet those that fell to the ground before her feet took pleasure in the torment she cast upon them. Tufty could hear their voices, speaking in the harsh tongue of otherworldly beings for no human was ever meant to utter such blasphemies. She was a goddess of darkness that inhabited the shadows long before any mythical city of Babylon existed. Selene was the embodiment of femininity, her womb in a constant stage of quickening, ready to birth a new race of her own. Her children were taken from her by the guardian and his men but he was a decrepit shell now…and she eternal.

  She whispered to him in dead tongues, often backwards and masked in riddles yet he understood. Selene revealed her true face to him, both terrifying and beautiful. The promises she made to him were far greater than any bribe waved before his eyes by that of the stowaways. He accepted their riches only as a farce, they were kept only as swine awaiting the slaughter. His greed ran deeper than credits, coin or rare gems, it was for power…to command a new generation beside of the slumbering goddess, to watch her eyes open with such magnificence that the sun would pale in comparison to her gaze. Men would fall at their feet, the universe would become theirs, from the three colonies to the coldest reaches of the black, a new reign, a bloody dawn.

  Tufty sat up in his bunk at the blaring of the intercom, the ship hand announcing intruders. If the two below began to talk he could also be imprisoned for allowing them onto The Maiden. Selene wouldn’t get her nourishment, she was gestating and needed to feed. He flew from the guest quarters, hoping to silence the Ticks before they gave away he was the person that had been feeding them. He happened to get ahead of the others. Dozer and Lewis were pulling their clothing on while running to the elevator. Ming awoke to the confusion and tumbled from his bed, nearly tripped over his pet rat, Lulu, and took off still hazy eyed from sleep.

  Tufty avoided the elevator, not wanting to be questioned by the captain for being so eager to apprehend the stowaways. He was nearly hyperventilating as he descended a set of steps used in case of elevator malfunction, a hand caught him by the wrist and yanked him down below the stair well.

  “We got flushed out.” The stowaway spoke in a strained whisper.

  “Come. I will hide you in my quarters until we can think of somewhere else.” Tufty answered.

  ***

  Dozer and Lewis found Bronson sitting on the chest of a large man. Gonzalez paced beside of the Captain, continuing to threaten the Tick.

  “Thought you would steal something? You want to ride the lightning?” She held her shock pistol to his temple. It had the capabilities of turning his brain to boiled mush. The crew carried them for protection yet the discharge was not hot enough to breach the hull of the ship so the captain wouldn’t fear The Maiden decompressing in the middle of the black. He kept those caliber of weapons locked away.

  “Just make me pull the trigger.” She said.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Dozer asked.

  “His partner ran that way!” Bronson answered, pointing back up the darkened walkway.

  “I’ll take this one up to solitary, bring me the other one.” He ordered Lewis and Dozer.

  They split up, hunting the unknown intruder who disappeared into the bowels of the ship, unaware of the greater danger just inside of the cargo hold.

  ***

  The thing known as Selene stirred within the sheath of clay she had been buried in, her hunger insatiable. The thin encasing around her cracked as she beckoned to her slave. She could hear a handful of heartbeats, frantic, pounding against breastbones. She read Tufty’s thoughts, he was securing a meal for her. If she didn’t sup soon she would not be strong enough to bring her children to life. She called out to him, urging him to feed her. He answered that he would obey but her patience was waning. Then a single sound sent her scrambling to free herself, another heartbeat…one ancient and familiar for it had stalked her before.

  ***

  An oath, sworn in blood, is something that can never be broken, can never die. Thorne went through the baptism of fire, drank from the chalice of life and was granted the title of eternal guardian. Death was more of a hibernation, a much needed respite from the constant war he waged but at the stirring of the dark queen’s heart his too leapt to life.

  Chapter Three

  The Maiden was a small ship in comparison to the enormous fleet vessels of the interstellar forces and the passenger ships ferrying colonists between planets but she could clear atmosphere in seconds and her cargo hold was large enough to contain some pretty hefty hauls. She also had a strong set of solitary rooms just for problem crew and guests, registered or not, the walls could contain screams and were double enforced making escape impossible. Peter found himself tossed face first into one, where his cries of anguish were swallowed up by steel. Bronson stepped in behind the stowaway and closed the door, the tick was a hulking man but the Captain of The Maiden
was trained by the military and had balls of steel twice as thick as The Maiden’s hull. He knew how to inflict pain on a man, to make them speak, the tick would tell him all he wanted to know sooner rather than later.

  “You are going to talk.” Bronson said calmly.

  “No!” Peter spat. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with. I’ve been in lock up and never spilled my guts.”

  “Lock up? Oh yes, you mean where by colonial law they can’t torture you…but here, on a planet not claimed by the colonies…I can do what I like with you.”

  Peter sat quietly assessing what Captain Bronson had said.

  “Maybe I will just toss you out on earth and leave you here.”

  “I would survive!” the tick scoffed.

  “Not without your legs.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” Peter said, his eyes darted to the left. He was concerned.

  “You don’t know what I might do.” Bronson grinned.

  “Talk!”

  “Arthur would kill me, never run with me again. I would be a rat!”

  “Better than dead, isn’t it?”

  “I won’t talk…I can’t.”

  “If you mean us no harm then you can tell me your plan.”

  “No.” Peter stated.

  “Then I’m goin’ to start with breaking your fingers.” Bronson said.

  The captain walked out of the small room, locking it behind him.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Ayana asked, her face bore the signs of a fist fight.