Contents
Copyright
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Previously in Dark Space Universe
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
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OTHER BOOKS BY JASPER SCOTT
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within
(1st Edition)
by Jasper T. Scott
JasperTscott.com
@JasperTscott
Copyright © 2017
THE AUTHOR RETAINS ALL RIGHTS
FOR THIS BOOK
Cover Art © Jasper Scott
Acknowledgments
There are so many people to thank when it comes to writing and publishing a book. As always I have to say thank you to my wife for the support she provides at home. And then there’s my editing team—a big thanks goes out to my editor, Aaron Sikes, and to my volunteer editor, Dave Cantrell (who really should get paid for all the work he puts in on my books). I’d also like to say a special thanks to Karol Ross for spending countless hours reading and commenting on my work. She saved me from more than a few overused phrases.
Finally, I’d like to thanks to all of my advance readers. I always cringe when I send out a rough draft of my work, because I know there’s hundreds of typos and unclear passages, but these readers faithfully help me to find them, and somehow, they still have nice things to say about the book when they’re finished reading! My sincere thanks go out to each of these brave individuals: Bruce A. Thobois, Chase Hanes, Claude Chavis, Davis Shellabarger, Gary Matthews, George Dixon, Harry Huyler, Ian F. Jedlica, Karl Keip, Marten Ekema, Michael Madsen, Peter Hughes, and Rafael Gutierrez. Thank you, all of you!
To those who dare,
And to those who dream.
To everyone who’s stronger than they seem.
“Believe in me / I know you’ve waited for so long / Believe in me / Sometimes the weak become the strong.”
—STAIND, Believe
Previously in Dark Space Universe
Etherus, the god and ruler of humanity, warned the three hundred million non-believers aboard Astralis of the dangers lurking beyond the Red Line, but he allowed them to leave his kingdom and seek the true nature of the universe by traveling to the cosmic horizon.
Tyra Forster, captain of the Inquisitor, along with Lucien Ortane and a crew of trained explorers, known as Paragons, blazed a path for Astralis, but they soon ran into the Faros, a hostile race of alien slavers. The Faros relentlessly chased them across multiple star systems until the Inquisitor became separated from Astralis.
Captain Forster and her crew spent the next eight years in stasis while their robotic navigator, Pandora, took them to the cosmic horizon and a rendezvous with Astralis. Soon after reaching that rendezvous, they learned that Pandora was actually a spy for the Faros, and an alien fleet arrived to enslave them all.
During the ensuing battle, the crew of the Inquisitor was forced to abandon ship and flee from Astralis in shuttles. All of the shuttles were intercepted or destroyed, except for Lucien’s, which was badly damaged, but he managed to set down in a Faro colony with three of his fellow crew.
There the Faros’ leader, Abaddon, nearly killed them, but a runaway Faro slave named Oorgurak helped them escape to Freedom Station, a haven for former Faro slaves-turned-pirates, known as Marauders.
Lucien and his surviving crew mates are certain that Astralis must have been captured by the Faro fleet. They are now looking for a Marauder captain who will help them find and rescue their people, but little do they know, the Faros’ agenda isn’t as simple as it seems, and the people of Astralis are in far greater danger than they think....
Chapter 1
Freedom Station
Garek stood in front of a broad viewport, watching alien ships glide in and out of Freedom station’s hangar. It was a cavernous space with berths for starships lining the walls and ceiling. A fuzzy blue shield held the atmosphere in, and a dozen different species of aliens bustled around on the deck—ground crew for the various starships in the hangar.
Garek eyed the nearest ship: a smaller vessel, shaped like a winged-insect. He wondered how he could get aboard without being noticed.
He turned to look at the double-wide doors leading out into the hangar. Warnings lined those doors in an alien language. He could understand them thanks to the U-shaped translator band that the green-skinned Faro, Oorgurak, had given to him and the others. The warnings read:
CAUTION. NO GRAVITY BEYOND THIS POINT.
No problem there, Garek thought. He was already wearing mag boots. He went back to gazing at the insect-ship. Getting aboard wasn’t his only problem. After that, he’d need to figure out how to fly it. What kind of security systems would it have? Would some of the crew still be on board?
Despair clawed at Garek’s resolve. His plan to go back and find Astralis and rescue his daughter from the Faros was looking more and more desperate. He didn’t even know the coordinates to the Inquisitor’s brief rendezvous with Astralis.
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder, and Garek flinched away, already rounding on his would-be assailant. He had his stun pistol out and aimed at the being’s head before his eyes even registered who it was.
“Hey, hold your fire! I just want to talk,” Lucien said. Standing beside him was Brak, the Gor, and the kid’s girlfriend, Addy.
Garek’s aim didn’t waver. “You’re not going to talk me out of this.”
Lucien glanced over his shoulder, as if checking to make sure no one else was there with them. He turned back and nodded to the viewport and the hangar beyond. “Those are alien ships out there. What do you think you’re going to do? Even if you can sneak on board one of them, and it just happens to be empty, how do you think you’re going to pilot it?”
Garek shrugged. “Won’t be the first time I’ve flown an alien ship. They’re all the same. Controls for thrust, pitch, and yaw. It’s not like I’m planning to take it into combat.”
“You might not have a choice. You think Astralis is going to be mysteriously abandoned with your daughter there waiting for you? Besides, you don’t even know where Astralis is! The only one who knew the coordinates of the rendezvous was Pandora, and Brak left her in pieces on the Inquisitor’s bridge.”
&n
bsp; Garek felt a muscle jerk in his cheek. “Why don’t you mind your own damn business and let me worry about rescuing my daughter?”
Lucien placed a hand on his shoulder once more. Garek glared at that hand.
“I’m sorry, Garek.”
“So that’s it, we’re just giving up?”
“I never said that. Just because we can’t go running back to Astralis doesn’t mean we can’t find and rescue our people. We know that the Faros are slavers, and three hundred million slaves aren’t going to disappear without a trace. There’ll be slave markets to sell them. We find those markets, and we find our people.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“We join a Marauder crew as Oorgurak suggested, learn about the universe from them, and get our bearings. Hopefully by the time we figure out where to look for our people, we’ll have enough money to pay one of these Marauder captains to take us there.”
Garek scowled. Lucien’s plan wasn’t as immediately satisfying as his, but it was far more realistic. “Fine,” he said, gesturing to the dark corridor he’d come down just a few minutes ago. “Lead the way.”
* * *
Freedom Station
They followed Lucien through Freedom Station, walking down dirty, discolored corridors with flickering glow panels. Lucien was looking for the alien who had brought them here—Oorgurak. It made sense to offer their services to him first, if for no better reason than because he was the only Marauder captain they knew. It also didn’t hurt that Oorgurak was some kind of Faro super soldier, one of the so-called Elementals.
“What are you looking for?” Addy asked.
Lucien shook his head. “Our green-skinned Faro friend. He might be willing to let us sign-on with his ship.”
“He was a prisoner until recently. What makes you think he even has a ship?” Addy asked.
“When we were in the mess hall together he mentioned he has a crew, so he must have a ship.”
Garek snorted. “So you’re just going to wander the station aimlessly until you bump into him?”
Lucien stopped walking and turned to face the scarred veteran. “You have a better idea?”
“Matter of fact I do.” Garek turned to the nearest alien passerby and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, do you know—”
The alien rounded on him with a shrill, echoing scream. White tentacles writhed around the being’s head like snakes, each of them with a mouth and fangs. The being’s face was a wrinkly, sunken horror of red quills with dozens of glinting silver eyes nestled between them. The tentacles lunged and snapped their jaws bare inches from Garek’s nose, each of them screaming in his face before retreating.
After a few seconds, the tentacles retreated and relaxed to dangle around the alien’s shoulders like hair, but two fat tentacles remained erect. They gave an echoing scream that Lucien’s translator band interpreted as: “Do not touch us.”
With that, the alien turned and stalked off on two bony white legs.
“Maybe don’t try that again...” Addy whispered.
Even Brak looked shocked.
“What in the netherworld...” Garek muttered.
“Netherworld is right,” Lucien added. A flicker of movement caught his eye, and he turned to see an alien melting out of the shadows of an alcove beside them. It was a gray-skinned humanoid. He was short with huge slanting, lidless black eyes, and an over-sized head.
It spoke in a warbling stutter: “You are lucky. Scarpathians have been known to kill for less.”
Lucien frowned. “Who are you?”
“I am Ka’ta’wa.”
“Katawa?” Lucien asked.
The alien inclined its over-sized head to them. “Yes.”
A bulky black shape moved into Lucien’s peripheral vision and he turned to see a lumbering black monster approaching them, walking on four legs as thick as tree trunks. It had a mouth full of protruding teeth, and a single, giant orange eye, striated with red veins in the center of its horned forehead.
A small hairless red creature rode on its back.
“Get out the way!” the little red being chirped at them in an amplified voice. “It is hungry!”
Katawa glanced at the approaching aliens, and then back to Lucien. “Follow me.”
“Why?” Garek demanded while keeping half an eye on the lumbering monster headed their way.
“To talk about rescuing your people,” Katawa replied, and then turned to walk down a narrow corridor that branched off from the one where they were standing.
Lucien watched the alien go. The corridor Katawa had chosen was lit by a solitary glow panel that flickered on and off, periodically casting both the little alien and its surroundings into utter darkness.
“I don’t like the look of this,” Addy said.
“Neither do I,” Lucien said, shaking his head.
Garek wordlessly followed the gray alien.
“Garek, wait! It could be a trap,” Addy said.
Brak hissed. “If it is a trap, the gray one will be sorry for springing it,” the Gor said before starting down the corridor after Katawa and Garek.
Lucien cast one more glance at the lumbering one-eyed beast heading toward him. It licked its lips with a fat purple tongue, and splattered the deck with shiny gobs of drool.
“You crazy, you!” the little red alien screamed from atop its mount. “It will swallow you whole!”
Lucien grabbed Addy’s hand and pulled her into the narrow corridor after Garek. “Trap or not, we’ll stand a better chance against the one small gray alien than that monster.”
They turned to watch as the beast reached the spot where they had been standing. It pawed the deck angrily, its claws shrieking against the scuffed metal. Then it lifted its giant head and sniffed the air in great snorts. After just a second, it turned to face them. The monster’s orange eye flicked up and down, then side to side, as if measuring the adjoining corridor to see if it would fit.
“Let’s go...” Lucien urged, tugging on Addy’s hand to pull her deeper into the corridor.
She nodded absently.
The monster lunged at them. Its jaws snapped right in front of Addy’s face, blasting them with its fetid breath. Lucien reflectively yanked Addy away from the beast.
The red little humanoid laughed and slapped his mount. “I told you! Crazy, you!”
Lucien pulled Addy along, hurrying to catch up with Garek and Brak. They were with the gray alien, standing outside a door. The corridor plunged into darkness, and Lucien slowed his pace. He groped the walls for support. The light snapped back on just as Lucien’s eyes were beginning to adjust. He squinted through the glare to see that Garek and Brak were gone, as was the gray alien.
Chapter 2
Freedom Station
Lucien and Addy ran to the door where they’d last seen Garek and Brak. The light in the corridor flickered off just as they reached the door, plunging everything into darkness once more. Lucien activated the headlamps on his helmet just in time to see the door slide open and Katawa appear. The alien’s big black eyes squinted up into the light radiating from Lucien’s headlamps. After a moment’s hesitation, Katawa pulled him into the room with surprising strength, and Addy followed.
The room was small, with low ceilings and appropriately small furniture—a low bed/sofa, and equally low table and chairs with a tiny kitchen along the adjacent wall. Brak stood in one corner by the bed, his chin almost touching his chest because of the low ceiling. Garek stood beside him with arms crossed, his helmet brushing the ceiling.
The door slid shut behind them and the gray alien went to sit at his table. He gestured to the chairs around him.
“Please, sit.”
Seeing that there was nowhere to hide an ambush, Lucien relaxed somewhat and pulled out a small chair to sit awkwardly beside the alien. His knees were forced up to his chest by the chair’s stubby legs. It was like attending a child’s tea party. Addy sat down beside him, while Brak sat on the other side of Katawa and turned
his chair so he could stretch his legs out behind the table. He rolled his giant shoulders, working the kinks out of his neck from standing under such a low ceiling. Garek came and stood beside the table, his arms still crossed.
“What’s this about?” Lucien asked, nodding to Katawa.
“You said you wanted to talk about rescuing our people,” Garek added. “How do you even know they need rescuing?”
Katawa blinked his huge eyes at them. “I overheard you talking in the mess hall.”
Lucien began nodding slowly. Not long ago they’d been talking with Oorgurak about rescuing their people over a meal in the station’s mess hall. They’d asked Oorgurak for help, and Oorgurak had asked them what they had to offer in exchange. When it became apparent that they had nothing to offer, Oorgurak had lost all interest in the topic.
The Marauders were pirates and mercenaries, all ex-slaves of the Farosien Empire with no greater ambition than their own survival and continued freedom. Asking them to pick a fight with their old masters for free was offensive to them. But for some reason, this particular Marauder was offering to help. Lucien had a feeling it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart.
“What do you want in exchange for helping us rescue our people?” he asked.
“You help me go home.”
“Where’s home?” Lucien asked.
“Etheria.”
Lucien blinked and shook his head. “You’re from Etheria?”
Katawa nodded.
That didn’t fit for a number of reasons. Lucien had been to Etheria, and he’d only ever met Etherians living there. If these gray aliens inhabited the same galaxy as the Etherians, why hadn’t he seen them before? Furthermore, what was someone from Etheria doing this far outside the Red Line? Etherus had forbidden travel beyond that line for as long as anyone could remember. Astralis had only been allowed to cross it at their own risk, and soon after they’d done so, they’d found out why: it was a political boundary between the Etherian and Farosien Empires, and anyone who crossed it was fair game for Abaddon.
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