by M. D. Cooper
She felt a flutter in her stomach, and the pinnace’s sensors told her that the freighter had dropped into the dark layer—right in the middle of the Huygens system!
Proximity alarms blared outside the pinnace as the freighter bucked and she knew that one of the creatures which lived in the dark layer had latched on. A tendril of darkness tore through a bulkhead in front of her, and she closed her eyes, her mind reeling at all that had occurred within the last hour and terrified of what would come next. Then, suddenly, the thing pulled away, disappearing and exiting the ship as quickly as it had come.
The freighter dumped out of the dark layer, and normal space appeared outside the bay’s open doors once more. Kara stared out into the blackness, cocking her head curiously as a jump gate wheeled past.
The bay doors began to close, but not before a flash of light nearly blinded her, and Kara knew the ship had somehow passed through one of Huygens’s jump gates.
Where to? That she would have to find out.
Kara rose from her seat, and almost collapsed again as a wave of dizziness overtook her. She sat for a moment, shaking and feeling nauseated, before attempting to rise once more.
“Hey?” You still there?” the woman asked, and Kara realized that the channel was still open as the woman’s face came back into view on her screen.
“Yeah, yes, fuck...”
“You can say that again. Come on out, I have a few questions. I’m not your enemy. If you’re fleeing Airtha, I think we’re on the same side.”
“OK…just…just give me a minute, I have to find my arm,” Kara said as she rose once more from the chair and stumbled back to the pinnace’s ramp.
Her arm wasn’t anywhere on the deck, and she cast about, wondering where had gotten to. She spotted it a minute later, jammed into a light fixture.
Kara pulled it free and tucked it under one of her other arms. She considered pulling her rifle off her back and coming out locked and loaded, but something told her that wouldn’t be a wise move. Whoever she was up against knew what they were doing if they had been in the Huygens system with ill intent toward Airtha.
She lowered the ramp and jumped as a loud clang echoed through the ship. The ramp only went halfway down, and she realized that the mech must have gotten stuck in it as she fled High Airtha. Now the thing was under the ramp and keeping it from opening all the way.
Kara shrugged, tried to keep her broken wing tight against her back, and shimmied out the narrow opening at the end of the ramp.
She dropped, rather ingloriously, to the deck, and nearly fell over. Taking a steadying breath, Kara carefully rose to her feet.
Around her were a dozen men and women, mercs or pirates by their mismatched armor, all with rifles held ready, though none pointed directly at her.
In their midst was the woman she had seen on the comm. She was older, older than anyone Kara had ever seen. Wrinkles spread out from the corners of her eyes, and her thin lips were pulled back in a grim smile. Silver hair fell from her head and draped down her back.
Her clothing was simple, a loose pair of pants and a red shirt, though a pair of large slug throwers hung from a belt at her waist.
“Who are you people?” Kara asked a she cast her eyes about. “What do you want with me?”
“I think you want the same thing we do,” the woman replied. “To stop Airtha and what she plans to do to humanity.”
Kara’s eyes narrowed. How did some freighter captain—or more likely a pirate—know about Airtha’s designs? Her father had barely fathomed them, though Kara expected he did now…though too late, it would seem.
“I don’t know about her plans for humanity,” Kara replied. “I just know I have to get to Sera to save my father. She’s the only one who can stop Airtha now.”
“Sera?” the woman asked. “You were there, weren’t you? You know where New Canaan is!”
Kara’s eyes narrowed as she nodded. “I do, though I don’t know why you’re so interested in all this.”
The woman’s face broke into a smile and she stepped forward, offering her hand. “The name’s Katrina, and I have been trying to find Tanis Richards and the Intrepid for centuries.”
MYRRDAN EXODUS
STELLAR DATE: 08.06.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2
REGION: Inner Canaan, New Canaan System
Myrrdan watched as Carthage slowly resolved into nothing more than a tiny blue dot. It felt strange to be leaving it and the colony mission behind after so long, but one thing was clear—his future lay elsewhere.
Especially now that the Caretaker had marked him for death…or erasure…whatever it was that its kind did when their tools were no longer of any use.
Still, the Intrepid’s mission, their colonies, battles, and struggles had been his for decades, and the departure was bittersweet. He harbored no illusions about coming back. If he did ever see New Canaan again, it would not be as a friend—though none there would ever have imagined him as such.
No, should he ever return, it would be as a victorious conqueror.
Perhaps Airtha would let him have that triumph, once he managed to meet her. First, he would have to deal with whatever puppet she had in place—probably Adrienne, if the man had been dumb enough to return to the Huygens System.
Myrrdan, however, would need to take a more circuitous route to reach Huygens. No direct flights between here and there, he thought with a laugh.
His placement on the advance team to the Aleutian facility was ideal, however. It was well within the Transcend, and it wouldn’t be difficult—though it may take a few hops to pull off—to get from there to a system where he could secure his own transportation and reach Huygens.
He looked down at his hand, at the slender fingers of a woman he had subsumed, and smiled. Even better, this body held a passel of picobots, the tech he had striven for so long to obtain. In her efforts to secure the New Canaan system by any means, Tanis Richards had let the genie out of the bottle, and allowed the use of picotech on many projects.
Myrrdan and his agents were able to access the technology on several occasions—though never the base design specifications.
Still, it was his hope that Airtha would accept the tech he did manage to steal and reverse engineer it to give herself the necessary edge over Tanis and New Canaan. One that would allow her to become powerful enough to defeat the Caretaker and control all the human stars—and ultimately the entire galaxy.
Until Myrrdan wrested it from her, of course.
DESTINY GATE
STELLAR DATE: 08.06.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS I2
REGION: Inner Canaan, New Canaan System
Sera’s sleeves bunched uncomfortably at the elbows and armpits, and she pulled at them as she walked through past the Avatar’s station, waving at Tori, Bob’s new Avatar.
She vaguely remembered the woman from the days after the battle at Bollam’s World, but word was that she served with distinction on Joe’s flagship during the battle.
She finally got her jacket situated correctly and wondered how she had ever tolerated clothing in the past. Of course, her skin was much less sensitive then—back when it was organic.
If Helen were still in her mind, her mother—a fact that still felt utterly surreal to Sera—would have told her to simply adjust her mental perceptions. Then they would have had a lively debate about the proclivities of organics.
Except, as her mother, Helen had once been organic. Was everything about their relationship a manipulation? Helen had obviously been guiding her to a destiny—one of patricide.
She stopped that train of thought. Thinking of that led to thinking of Elena….
Sera looked down at her outfit, wishing that somehow she could still go without clothing; but everyone had insisted that if she were to impress the rulers of the Inner Stars—not to mention secure support in the Transcend—clothing was not optional.
Still, she wasn’t going to wear a business suit or anyth
ing. Tight blue pants, black boots, and a long golden coat seemed like a good start. She’d work her way up to shirts. For now, one layer was all she could take.
“Back into the black,” Sera said as she approached Tanis on the bridge of the I2.
Tanis turned and met her eyes before nodding slowly. “Come what may.”
“Looks like the advance force met no resistance at Khardine,” Sera said as she reached Tanis’s side.
Tanis laughed, “Yeah, they were rather happy to have someone show up and tell their AIs to stand down.”
It was Sera’s turn to laugh.
They both turned to the holotank, which depicted the flattened bubble of human expansion through the Inner Stars and beyond. Neither of them spoke for several minutes as they gazed at the display.
Sera had not examined an overarching view of the Sagittarius, Orion, and Perseus Arms since applying the data from Sabrina and the interrogations of General Garza.
The Orion Guard controlled more space than even Sera had suspected—both in the Perseus Arm, and within the Inner Stars. There were many small systems that were of little consequence, but, amongst many revelations, she was surprised to see that the Nietzscheans were allied with the OFA, and even more surprising was the true scope of Peter Rhoads’ fleet.
“Once we establish things in Khardine, we should travel to Scipio,” Sera said after considering every other option.
“I had come to a similar conclusion,” Tanis replied thoughtfully. “You were right about my actions in Silstrand having far-reaching consequences.”
“You’re referring to the issue with the nanotech you sold S&H Defensive Armaments?” Sera asked with an arched brow. “If we hadn’t been through so much since—most of which is of far graver importance…oh what the hell…I told you so.”
An overloud laugh escaped Tanis’s throat, drawing looks from the bridge crew. “Yes, you did, but even Flaherty thought it was the right move.”
Sera nodded. “He did at that. I hope he’s OK…. Things are probably getting pretty hairy in Huygens by now.”
“You said he knows where to go to pick up a message, right?” Tanis asked.
Sera nodded. “Yeah, he’s really the last person I should worry about. The smart money says he’ll be waiting for us at Khardine, asking what took us so long.”
Tanis chuckled. “Building the biggest damn jump gate ever is what took so long. Good thing we have Finaeus around—we would have had some trouble otherwise. Plus, Bob seems quite taken with him, too.”
“I have to admit…I’m a bit surprised that Bob is coming,” Sera replied. “I half expected all his nodes to fly out of the I2 into some new, mysterious ship you and he dreamed up.”
“Bob coming isn’t that surprising,” Tanis said with a grin. “He likes the action. But it’s weird to take this ship out without Earnest and Abby…”
“Yeah,” Sera nodded. “I can imagine.”
“Do you think that Scipio will join us without issue?” Tanis asked. “We’re going to need their federation to stand up against Orion.”
“Empire,” Sera replied. “When we’re in Scipio, they’re an Empire, not a federation.”
“Right,” Tanis nodded. “I recall reading something about that when I was pouring through the databanks on Sabrina back before...”
“Before this mess,” Sera nodded, then gave Tanis a mischievous smile. “I blame you, by the way. If you hadn’t been so damn good at protecting that picotech...”
“Someone else would have it,” Tanis completed the statement.
Sera sighed. “You’re right. Good thing I like you.”
“Like me? I’m pretty certain that if you liked me you wouldn’t have roped me into this Field Marshall gig.”
“Better you than me,” Sera replied.
“Well, yeah...you could barely keep one little freighter out of trouble. Imagine what you’d do with a whole fleet.”
Sera laughed and shook her head, but didn’t reply.
“I’m going to miss them,” Tanis said after a long pause.
“Your girls? I don’t blame you, they’re a pretty awesome trio. Now that Faleena is in the mix, they’re going to be a triple-threat.”
“Yeah, Joe’s probably wondering what he signed himself up for,” Tanis laughed. “Still, once we set the QuanComm hub up at Khardine, I can chat with them real-time. It won’t be that long.”
Sera put a hand on Tanis’s shoulder. “We’ll do whatever it takes to end this war fast and get you and your family back together.”
Tanis placed her hand on Sera’s and nodded silently in response.
The view on the forward holoscreen showed the jump gate slowly resolve from a spec of light in orbit of Roma to a ring floating in space. It was easily the largest gate Sera had ever seen; it needed to be to fit the I2.
“Gate control has confirmed our vector,” the helm officer called out.
“Very well, Lieutenant,” Captain Espensen called out from her chair behind, and to the left, of where Tanis and Sera stood. “Take us in.”
Ahead, the gate sparked to life, its array of mirrors focusing negative energy into a single point in its center. The optical effect was mesmerizing, somehow creating the appearance of roiling space and the absence of light. Sera watched as the disturbance grew and filled the ring.
Then, the mirrors directed the negative energy toward the mirror on the front of the I2. Once the stream of negative energy met the ship’s mirror, the view of what lay before them ceased to make sense. It was as though the entire universe was visible through the gate as the I2’s forward mirror pushed the wormhole across space to the Khardine System.
“Admiral, would you like to have the honors?” Captain Espensen asked.
“Thank you, Captain,” Tanis replied. She turned to gaze at the forward holotank and the jump gate it displayed. “Helm, take us in.”
THE END
* * * * *
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M. D. Cooper
Read on for what is to come next…
THE AGE OF THE ORION WAR
PERILOUS ALLIANCE
With Chris J. Pike
The Orion War has begun. This first battle at New Canaan has opened the floodgates, and soon ten thousand star systems will be embroiled in total war.
With Tanis and Sera returning to the Inner Stars, and bringing the I2 with them, they will be on the frontlines of their effort to bring the war to as swift a resolution as possible.
But they both know it will be the work of decades, and they cannot press the attack until they deal with Airtha. Yet, they cannot deal with Airtha until they ensure that the major, coreward federations and alliances of the Inner Stars are not already under the influence of the Not-AI.
This journey will take them first to Scipio, and then, perhaps back to Silstrand, where Sera and Tanis first met. There, in the Gedri System, a conflict is brewing that could upset all the work The Hand has put into the Scipio Federation.
Begin that journey with Kylie Rhoads in Close Proximity, book 1 of the Perilous Alliance series.
The books of the Perilous Alliance series begin in the months prior to the Battle of New Canaan, but rest assured, they will weave into the larger plot. Besides, if Tanis hadn’t traded her nanotech back in Silstrand to upgrade Sabrina’s weapons, things in Silstrand wouldn’t be such a mess right now.
It very well may take her returning to Silstrand to clean it up.
RIKA’S MARAUDERS
Across the Inner Stars, the Orion Freedom Alliance has already begun to use its
proxies to wage war as it solidifies its presence. One of the largest, the Nietzschean Empire, has attacked its neighbors, the Genevians. World by world, system by system, the Nietzscheans are winning, pushing the Genevians back.
Now the Genevians are pulling out all the stops in their attempt to hold the Nietzscheans back, including turning their criminal element into conscripted cyborg warriors.
These men and women have no choice in the matter, as compliance chips in their brains keep them in line as they wage war against the Nietzscheans.
Rika is one such criminal. Now a scout mech, she is the property of the Genevian military.
Her crime was small, stealing food. But when faced with a five-year prison term, or conscription in the Genevian military, she chose war, having no idea what that conscription would entail.
Now, little of Rika's human body remains, and she serves as an SMI-2 scout mech, the meat inside a cyborg body. She, and others like her, are sent in ahead of the human soldiers to tip the scales of war.
Join Rika and her struggle to remain human while becoming the most lethal killer she can be in an effort to stay alive in Rika Outcast (coming August 2017).
Also, read the prequel to the Rika’s Marauder’s series in the novella, Rika Mechanized.
THE PERSEUS GATE
If you haven’t already read The Gate at the Wolf Star, the first book in the Perseus Gate series, now’s the time to dig in.
As you read in Orion Rising, Sabrina and her crew inadvertently ended up deep in the Orion Freedom Alliance after their attempt to use the jump gate at the Transcend-controlled Grey Wolf Star.