The Chancellor’s gaze swept through the crowd. “Apparently the Director has not arrived yet.” He turned to Roe. “Would you like to wait for her?”
Roe shook her head. “If it’s all right with you, we’d like to get started.”
“Very well.” He cleared his throat. “I would like to introduce you all to Captain Hawke and her crew. They have been sent by the Galactic Council to investigate the destruction and help us find a solution.” He nodded at Roe. “Captain.”
She stepped forward, taking time to make eye contact with each person, her body language radiating quiet confidence. Several of the refugees sat up straighter, their expressions showing the first glimmers of hope Kire had seen. Roe had that effect on people.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today,” she said, her voice calm and measured. “This is Commander Emoto, my first officer.” She gestured to him. “Lieutenant Cardiff, my head of security, and Ensign Kelly, our navigator.”
Kelly’s head turned as she met Roe’s gaze, but that was the only indication of surprise she gave at being acknowledged as an official member of the crew.
“They are all highly trained officers, so please give them your complete cooperation. I know that discussing your losses will likely be difficult for you, but it’s imperative that we gather as much detail as possible regarding the events that have occurred. We will—”
“I’m so sorry I’m late!”
Kire turned as a woman in a Rescue Corps uniform stepped through the tent opening and walked briskly toward them. The light from the doorway cast her features into shadow, but when she stopped in front of Roe, Kire’s jaw dropped open.
“Reanne?” Roe’s voice indicated the same bewilderment he felt, but she’d confirmed the identity of the new arrival. The lock of white hair above her forehead that blended with the straight brown of the rest was a dead giveaway.
“Yes, I’m…” Reanne Beck’s blue eyes widened. “Aurora!”
Roe looked like she’d been hit with a stun gun as Reanne gave her a quick hug. As far as he knew, the former roommates hadn’t seen each other since Roe had graduated from the Academy, and their friendship had been rocky even before then.
“You two know each other?” The Chancellor looked back and forth between them.
“Oh, yes!” Reanne clasped Roe’s hands. “Aurora was my mentor and roommate for my first three years at the Academy. We were like sisters.” A hint of sadness crept into her voice. “It’s been too long.”
Roe’s smile looked forced. “It has been a long time.”
“And I had no idea you were part of the investigation team.”
Roe extracted her hands from Reanne’s grip. “Actually, I’m the head of the team. The Starhawke is my ship.”
Reanne blinked. “You’re the captain?”
“Yes.” Roe’s gaze shifted to the insignia on Reanne’s uniform. “And I’m guessing you’re the Rescue Corps Director.”
Reanne smiled. “Guilty as charged.”
Roe turned to Kire. “You remember Commander Kire Emoto.”
A world of meaning passed between them as she held his gaze. He resisted the urge to grin. Roe was not entirely happy to see her old friend.
Reanne crossed her arms over her chest and regarded him with a badly concealed smirk. “Of course. Commander now, is it? I see you’re still following where Aurora leads.”
During their Academy days, Reanne had always enjoyed belittling him whenever she got the chance. Apparently the impulse was still alive and kicking.
“Hello, Reanne.” He used his most banal expression as he gazed back at her. Sure enough, her attention moved quickly past him.
Roe introduced Cardiff and Kelly before glancing over her shoulder at the refugees, who were watching them all intently. She gave Reanne a pointed look. “I was just beginning to explain what we needed to—”
“Oh, of course, of course.” Reanne cut her off and stepped back. “I know you have a job to do.” She made a rolling motion with her hand. “Please continue with your investigation. We can catch up later. I have a few matters to discuss with the Chancellor, anyway, but we’ll be nearby if you need anything.” She led the Chancellor into the far corner of the tent.
Roe’s gaze followed her.
At that moment, Kire would have given his first month’s pay to know what was going through her mind.
12
An hour later, Aurora had a plethora of notes, but no answers. All of the families had described the same scenario, yet no one had seen or heard anything that might indicate the cause of the destruction. No light, heat, smells, noise, nothing. In each case, they went to bed with the vegetation healthy and thriving, and woke up to total devastation.
“Reports?” She glanced around the table at Kire, Celia and Kelly.
“No one appears to have noticed anything unusual,” Kire said. “Even with the heightened awareness of the problem, they haven’t been able to detect anything when it’s happening.”
Celia frowned. “It’s hard to believe such destruction could occur without some evidence, unless it’s a naturally occurring contamination.”
“Is there any reason to think it could be a natural phenomenon, despite the Chancellor’s comments?” Aurora asked.
Celia shrugged. “We won’t know for sure until we examine the affected areas. However, I find it difficult to believe it’s a biological infection, based on the pattern of destruction and the lack of anything similar in their history.”
“But that doesn’t rule out a contaminant that could’ve been brought in from another planet,” Kelly pointed out.
“True, although most of Gaia’s off-world visitors are on their way to or from Earth,” Celia replied. “It wouldn’t take long to track down who’s been here recently. I’ll look into it once we’re back on the ship.”
Aurora nodded. “Then we’ll—”
“Excuse me, Captain?”
One of the refugee women Aurora had interviewed stood just behind her chair, with her young daughter clasping her skirt in her pudgy fingers. The child looked to be about five years old, and was tucked most of the way behind her mother’s legs, peering shyly at Aurora.
“Yes?”
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but you said anything might be important. I wanted you to see the drawing my daughter just did.”
The woman held out a piece of paper. Aurora took it and glanced down at the crude image. It depicted a dark creature, bipedal, with a hunched, misshapen back, thick, twisted limbs, and an almost skull-like head. “What is this?”
“She said she saw this the night the crops around our farm were destroyed.”
Aurora’s head snapped up and her heart thumped. The woman looked uncomfortable, clenching her arm by her side and glancing down at her daughter. Kire, Celia and Kelly were all staring at the paper, their expressions intent, so Aurora spun the drawing around so they could see it.
After studying the image, Kire looked at the girl. “Did you see this thing before the plants died?”
The girl shoved her face against her mother’s skirt, refusing to look at him. Her mother spoke. “The moon was nearly full that night. She told me that she got up to go to the bathroom, but when she passed by her bedroom window and looked down, this is what she saw killing the plants.”
“You saw it kill the plants?” This from Celia, whose body was now tight as a bow.
The girl peeked out at them, then nodded.
“How did it kill them?” Kelly asked.
The child hunched her body and turned away. Her mother knelt down and placed her hands gently on her shoulders. “It’s okay, sweetie. Can you tell me?” The girl whispered something and her mother frowned. “She doesn’t know how. It just reached out to touch them and they died.”
Aurora felt Kire’s gaze on her. The same questions were reflected in his eyes that were racing through her mind.
“Have you ever seen this creature before the night the plants died?” he asked.
“How many did you see?”
The girl whispered to her mother, who swallowed nervously. “Lots.”
Aurora gazed at the hideous figure on the paper in front of her. Lots. What the hell were they dealing with here? Was this thing even real, or had the child’s imagination conjured up an image to explain her fear after seeing her family’s farm destroyed?
“Is it all right if I keep this?” she asked the girl, gesturing to the drawing.
The little girl nodded.
Aurora could feel their anxiety and fear, which bordered on panic. No one would want to believe such creatures existed, let alone that they were massing in large numbers, steadily reducing everything to ash. Placing her hand lightly on the woman’s arm, she allowed a gentle wave of energy to wash over mother and daughter that eased some of their tension. “Thank you for sharing this with us. It’s a big help. If we have any more questions, we’ll be in touch.”
The woman smiled weakly before leading her daughter back to the other side of the tent.
Aurora faced her crew. “I think it’s time for an onsite investigation. I’ll be right back.”
As she approached the table where Reanne and the Chancellor sat talking, she considered the best way to obtain what she needed without giving Reanne any more information than was absolutely necessary. She was usually good at reading people, but for some reason she’d always struggled with Reanne. She just couldn’t seem to get a bead on what the other woman was thinking or feeling. It unnerved her.
Reanne had been unpredictable as a teenager, prone to fits of anger. Aurora doubted she’d changed, although her promotion to RC Director indicated she’d achieved a certain level of maturity. Reanne’s presence could make the situation more challenging. They’d been close once, but the last few years at the Academy had been filled with tension that had fractured their friendship beyond repair.
Reanne looked up as she approached. “Any luck?”
She’d left the drawing with Kire. She didn’t plan to mention it, at least until they knew whether it represented a real threat or an imaginary one. “We need to visit the area that was hit last night. Can you arrange ground transportation for us?”
“Absolutely.” Reanne touched her comband. “Mr. Byrnes, the Starhawke crew needs a ground transport outside the main hanger in five minutes.”
“Acknowledged,” came the reply.
“Thank you.” Aurora turned away.
“Let me know what you learn out there,” Reanne called after her.
She gave a non-committal wave and motioned to her crew to join her at the front of the tent.
“She’s arranged for transport. The driver will meet us outside the security checkpoint.”
“Do you think the little girl made up these monsters to explain what happened to her family’s farm?” Celia asked as they retraced their path through the hangar.
“I’m not sure. Children use monsters to explain anything that frightens them, so that’s certainly possible. However, as no one else has been able to provide any concrete information, I’m prepared to assume she saw something.” They exited the building, where a small transport waited. “She may be imaginative, but she might also be observant.”
13
She wasn’t prepared for this.
As Aurora gazed out the windows of the transport at the apocalyptic panorama around them, her brain stalled. From the absolute silence in the vehicle, she suspected the others were in a similar state.
It took about thirty minutes to reach the destination that their driver, Mr. Byrnes, had recommended. The cream colored two-story farmhouse with the deep green accents would have been picturesque, except for the total annihilation of all life in the surrounding fields and hills. It reminded her of images of atomic bomb sites she’d seen in her history classes. Everything was just…gone. No plants of any description remained. Not a blade of grass or a stalk of grain. Just kilometers of blackened dirt.
Her stomach clenched. The family who owned this farm had lost everything in a single night.
The house looked completely untouched, as though at any moment rowdy children would push through the screen door and spill out onto the spacious porch, intent on an afternoon adventure. The paint was unblemished in any way—no sign of ash or soot, heat damage, or mold and fungus on the wood boards. But fifteen meters away, blackness stretched like an ashen blanket.
To their right, a dirt road led away from the clearing to what looked like a property border that curled like a ribbon into the distance. She shaded her eyes from the sun’s bright glare as she looked up at Mr. Byrnes. “Do you know if that road follows the border of the farm?”
He nodded. “I believe so.”
“I want Cardiff to examine the property line. Can you drive her out there?”
“Absolutely.” He looked pleased to be paired with Celia. No surprise there. Most men were.
“Is there anything in particular you want me to look for?” Celia asked.
She shook her head. “Anything could be significant. See if there’s any surviving plant life and take samples of the remains of the crops and the soil. Also check the road and any pathways for tracks or marks that seem out of place. We’re looking for anything unusual, such as variations in the pattern of decay or other physical evidence.”
As Celia and Mr. Byrnes returned to the transport, Aurora turned to Kire. “I want you and Kelly to begin collecting samples from the areas closest to the house. Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary.”
“Like something that might indicate a bipedal creature of some kind?”
She pictured the monster the child had drawn. “Perhaps. Or anything that would disprove that possibility. If you see something, let me know. I’m going to examine the house exterior. I’ll join you in a few moments.”
Kire and Kelly each shouldered a collection pack and headed toward the nearby field as Aurora walked to the farmhouse. Silence followed them. No bird calls, no rustling of small animals, no insects. No one had mentioned anything about the local wildlife being affected by the destructive force, but if they’d survived, they’d obviously abandoned the area.
The wooden boards creaked as she climbed the steps to the wraparound porch. From the front of the house, she could see the clearing and the dirt track they had driven in on, which curved to the right back toward the main road. She continued around to the side of the house. Only the day before gently sloping fields would have stretched down to the wooden border fence that ran along the front side of the property, parallel with the main road nearly half a kilometer in the distance. But instead of green fields, dark ash covered the ground.
Her body gathered tension like a spring. Whatever had happened here, it had left a darkness behind that clung like tar. Her empathic senses were going haywire.
She touched her comband. “Hawke to Clarek.”
“Clarek here.”
“We’ve reached one of the farms. I’m sending you images of the fields from the farmhouse porch. Stand by.”
She raised her arm to eye level and slowly panned from right to left, including the space just in front of the farmhouse where the flower border continued to bloom cheerfully, a spot of color that mocked the destruction beyond.
She stepped into the shadows on the porch. “Have you had any success with the images from the shuttle trip this morning?”
“Not yet, but we’re still analyzing them. We’ll have a report ready before you return.”
“Very good. Hawke out.”
She retraced her steps and continued around to the other side of the house. Standing near the railing, she could see Kelly crouched at the field edge, placing sample vials into the storage kit at her feet. Kire had moved farther from the house and was scanning the ashen ground.
She took a deep breath and focused on relaxing her muscles. No luck. Apparently the tension had set up permanent residence.
Her comband vibrated. “Yes?”
Kir
e’s voice sounded strained. “I think you should see this.”
“On my way.”
She left the porch and headed in his direction, but as she drew closer to the field, the tension in her body increased. Her stomach pitched in response and bile rose in her throat, followed by a dull ache that spread through her limbs like a fever. She paused, fighting down the sensations. Her gaze swept over the ground, searching. Whatever had happened here, it was wrong. Very, very wrong. Swallowing hard, she kept moving.
When she finally reached Kire, a frown line showed between his thin brows. “Are you okay?”
The pain in her muscles was damned unpleasant, but she kept her voice even. “I’m fine. What did you find?”
He studied her for a moment before turning toward the field and gesturing to a spot about ten meters in. “What do you make of that?”
She looked where he’d indicated, but it took her a few beats to process what she was seeing. When she did, her lips parted in surprise.
A space about twenty-five centimeters long by ten centimeters wide was mostly free of the debris, but that wasn’t what had caught Kire’s attention. The shape of the outline showed five distinct marks at the top, pointing toward the rest of the field, with a curved wedge below. It was a footprint. A bare footprint, but one that was misshapen to the point of being almost unrecognizable.
Kire’s expression was grim. “Looks like we may be dealing with something real, after all.”
She nodded. “Although that generates more questions, not answers. Have you seen any other tracks?”
He shook his head.
Her comband vibrated.
“Captain?” It was Celia.
“Go ahead.”
“I’m at the border road. There’s no sign of living vegetation, but I’ve spotted something you should see.”
An image came through and she switched it to projection mode so Kire could view it, too.
“I’ll be damned,” he whispered.
The image matched the print they were looking at, only this one was coming out of the field onto the border road. A second image appeared, showing more prints leading across the road and then disappearing into the ash on the other side.
The Dark of Light (Starhawke Rising Book 1) Page 8