The Last Stryker (Dark Universe Series Book 1)

by Alex Sheppard

  Ramya held up her hands. This was getting too crazy. “I did not resurrect you or any others. I’ve never been on Kyo-Sedra-5 or even in Sector 22.”

  “Dakrhaeth recognizes you, Mihaal,” the voice insisted. “You have the same essence as the one Dakrhaeth gazed upon when he came to life again. You’re the one who got us all new bodies. You’re the one who made Dakrhaeth live again.”

  “Well, congratulations, Rami,” Fenny whispered. “You have a new baby.”

  Ramya flashed an annoyed look at the woman and then frowned at the sphere. She decided to take a different route.

  “Why do you keep calling me Mihaal? What does that even mean?”

  “In Dakrhaeth’s own tongue, it means ‘the creator,’” the sphere said. It was slowly spinning around inside the glass container as it spoke, and it continued to glow with a creepy green light.

  Fenny chuckled. “Congratulations, Rami, you’re his God,” she said.

  “Fenny, I’ve never even seen this thing before,” Ramya whispered.

  “I think . . .”—Fenny shot a wary look at Ramya— “I think it’s mistaken you for your father.”

  “What?” Ramya blurted. A frozen moment passed, and then another until she realized what Fenny said made sense. The Stryker had detected her presence and let her in because it thought she was Trysten Kiroff. “You think it ran some biometric scan?”

  Fenny shrugged. “Would be logical to have one.”

  “But I’m not him.”

  “Of course. But maybe the scanning isn’t flawless yet. They were still testing these things in their factory, remember?”

  Indeed. Fenny had a point, a good one.

  Fenny nudged her arm. “Hey, Rami, why don’t you ask your minion to set us free?”

  “Yes, I will,” Ramya replied. That was her plan, to get the sphere to open the door. The captain or the Confederacy could talk to it later if they wanted. All she wanted was to get out of here.

  Ramya took a step closer to the pedestal and smiled, although she didn’t know if a smile meant anything to the ship or if it even saw her smile.

  “Um . . . Dakrhaeth,” she started hesitantly, “can you please open the door so we can get out? I’ll come back later to talk to you.” That was a lie through and through; Ramya had no intention of getting back inside this creepy Stryker again.

  “Dakrhaeth can and he will since you’ve asked,” the ship replied. “But Dakrhaeth thinks you should stay and hear what he has to say before you go report to your captain.”

  How did it know that they were going to report to the captain? Was it reading her mind? She felt Fenny shuffle next to her.

  “What is it?” Ramya said, keeping her voice steady and face straight.

  “Dakrhaeth came to your world from another—a dark one, far, far away, deep in the Mehulian Quadrant. Dakrhaeth’s world wants to devour yours and many more. That’s our way of life.”

  He was talking about the Locustans, Ramya deduced. But why was he telling them all that? Somewhere in the pit of her stomach, fear raised an uneasy head.

  “Your people resisted Dakrhaeth and his rider and all other riders who flew with us. You were brave, but mostly . . . lucky.”

  Next to Ramya, Fenny fidgeted. Ramya herself struggled to stop herself from retorting. Luck had nothing to do with their winning the Locusta-Vanga war; the Confederacy had fought back the Locustans with all they had. People like Grappa gave his life fighting the scourge, Captain Milos risked his. That wasn’t luck. It was bravery and sacrifice and outwitting the bane that was the Locustans. But now wasn’t the time to argue with a crazy AI, so she waited for it to say more.

  “But this time, luck won’t be on your side,” Dakrhaeth declared. “The others you resurrected along with Dakrhaeth are out to destroy the Fringe colonies as we speak. They’re laying the groundwork for the second invasion to begin. A pathway to the dark world Dakrhaeth came from is about to open up soon, and riders—far numerous than you’ve seen before—will come and consume your world.”

  Ramya couldn’t take it anymore. “All right,” she said. “We’ve heard enough of your doomsday talk. We have to leave. So please open the door.”

  “Dakrhaeth maybe young, but he’s intelligent,” said the voice. “You’d be wise to heed his words.”

  What a narcissistic spawn of the devil! Ramya gritted her teeth as her fists clenched. Half of her wanted to slam a fist against that glass container, yet the other half knew she had to keep calm.

  “What do you suggest we do?” Fenny asked brightly, much to Ramya’s relief.

  “Warn your leaders,” Dakrhaeth replied. “Tell them they shouldn’t waste time trying to destroy Dakrhaeth. He is not what they should be worried about. They should instead look for the ones that have gone missing.”

  “Wait a second,” Ramya blurted. “How do you know they’re worried about you?”

  “Dakrhaeth is wise, he knows.”

  His vanity grated her endlessly, but Ramya had to keep the communication lines open. She still didn’t quite understand what this creepy AI was up to. “It seems to me that you’re trying to help us, but I don’t understand why. Why didn’t you join the rest of your buddies in helping with the next invasion?”

  For a second or two, a nervous silence hung in the chamber. Then the sphere spoke again. “You gave Dakrhaeth his life back, he’s grateful.”

  There seemed to be something else that remained unspoken and Ramya felt a hesitation turn the air heavy. She was about to ask, but at that precise moment, the door slid open behind them.

  Fenny jumped out before Ramya could blink. “Come on, Rami,” she yelled.

  Ramya had taken a step backward when the sphere blinked again. “Dakrhaeth doesn’t wish to die again. And that’s what Admiral Kanaa has planned for him and for all of you when you reach Alameda.”

  “How do you know about Admiral Kanaa? How—”

  “Dakrhaeth heard that the derelict—Endeavor, pardon the slip—was headed to Alameda. And Dakrhaeth knows there’s one person in Alameda who will want to make sure he’s dead.”

  “Rami,” Fenny yelled. “We have to go. Get out of there, please.”

  “Mihaal, Admiral Kanaa will not wait to extract Dakrhaeth from the Endeavor so she can destroy only him. She will not even wait to extract you from the Endeavor. She will fire at will to destroy everything—the Endeavor, you, and Dakrhaeth.”

  Ramya stared at the slowly spinning orb in disbelief. That couldn’t be. The top officer of the Confederate Space Command wouldn’t just fire at the Endeavor and destroy everything inside it. Besides, the Endeavor belonged to Captain Milos, they just couldn’t—

  “Rami,” Fenny yelled again.

  “Yes, I’m coming,” Ramya shouted back. She had to go, but she couldn’t ignore what this sphere, Dakrhaeth, had just told them. His talk was pretentious, but didn’t sound crazy. There was much more to it and she had a feeling that the captain would agree.

  20

  For the third time that day, Ramya found herself sitting in the captain’s room across from a sullen Terenze Milos who was growing gruffer by the second. As soon as she had returned with Fenny and reported on the Stryker’s AI, the captain had ordered her to take a seat and dispatched Fenny to Engineering to help Flux fix the issue with the communication channels.

  “You will stay here,” the captain had instructed after Fenny left. “Drink some noja, read a book, take a nap, but do not leave this room.” With that, he too had left. As much as Ramya had wanted to sneak out and find out what was happening, she could not bring herself to ignore the captain’s direct order, so she stayed put. She had picked a book on galactic history from the bookshelf and curled up with it on a couch.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and the captain walked in. He pulled up a chair and squinted hard at her.

  “Rami, I need you to listen to me very carefully,” he said. “And I need you to be very brave and follow my orders without asking any questions.
Can you do that?”

  “Yes,” Ramya replied, nodding vigorously. Of course she could do that. She’d do whatever was needed of her.

  “We’re about to make contact with the Confederacy soon. Not at Alameda, but at Totori. Do you know anything about Totori?”

  Ramya shook her head. She’d heard that name, but it wasn’t as significant a place that she’d remember right away.

  “Let me tell you about Totori,” said the captain. “It’s the star system nearest to Alameda’s. The best thing about Totori is the location of the AP—it’s right next to an asteroid belt.”

  “I remember,” Ramya blurted. She suddenly recalled what she had read about Totori in her Galactic Economics book. Totori was a mining haven. That was not because the planets were rich in minerals, but because of its proximity to the mineral-rich Noxillian Asteroid Belt or the NAB as the Confederacy dubbed it.

  “In case what our friend down in the cargo bay told you is true, we’ll need an escape plan. And the asteroid belt can be a—”

  “Shield?” Ramya interjected and immediately muttered an apology.

  The captain waved her apology away. “You’re right. It could be a natural barrier for us in case of an assault.”

  Ramya stiffened at his words.

  “You think there’s a possibility of an attack? You believe that AI? It’s Locustan. It could be setting us up,” she said. Captain Milos frowned and pursed his lips. He was the captain of the Endeavor, her captain and superior, and grilling him about his judgment was against every protocol. But even though Ramya thought about it, she felt no qualms about questioning Captain Milos. She knew he wouldn’t mind, and even if he did, she wouldn’t resent being reprimanded. In plain and simple words, Ramya had grown to trust him. Calmly, she went on. “Do you really think the Confederacy would fire on the Endeavor knowing we’re in it? Really?”

  The captain’s gaze darted to the floor for a brief second. Then they came back to meet hers. “I’m not sure, Rami,” he said. “All I know is I have to be prepared.”

  “But you’ve known Admiral Kanaa,” Ramya said. “Would she do that to you?”

  “People find their reasons for doing things, Rami.” The captain sighed. “When someone thinks the truth they know is the one and only truth, it can be very hard to make them understand otherwise.”

  Ramya thought she understood what the captain meant even though she could not fathom why he said that. Did he mean that about Kanaa, or was it just a random snippet of wisdom?

  “Anyway, I’m hoping we won’t have to meet the admiral,” Captain Milos said before Ramya could come to a conclusion about his previous comment.

  Ramya didn’t understand. Weren’t they supposed to deliver the Stryker to the Confederacy? “How will you give them the Stryker then?” she asked.

  “We’re going to drop it off on an asteroid.”

  Ramya sat up. So that was the plan, avoid contacting the Confederacy until the Endeavor was out of reach and safe.

  “They can come and pick it up after we’ve left,” the captain said.

  Somehow the thought of leaving the fighter alone on a drifting space rock made Ramya uneasy. There was no logical reason to feel this way, yet . . .

  “You need to visit the Stryker one more time. Ross will be with you,” Captain Milos informed.

  Ramya winced. Why did she need to go? Then there was the mention of the commander’s name. Why couldn’t Fenny come with her instead?

  “Anything wrong?” the captain asked.

  “No,” Ramya lied. Now was not the time for petty rows. “What will we do there?”

  “Wait for my orders.”

  “What kind of order?”

  A ghost of a smile flitted across the captain’s weathered face. “You’ll find out when it’s time.”

  Not at all satisfied with that answer, Ramya was about to probe some more but the door opened behind them and Ross peeked in. “I’m ready, Captain,” he said. “Got everything I need.”

  The captain nodded at him and looked at Ramya. “Off you go now. You’ll assist the commander during the Stryker’s transfer.”

  “You know the Confederacy will possibly destroy the Stryker, right?” Ramya asked as she rose to her feet. “You’re still going to give it away?”

  “If they want it, then yes, of course,” replied the captain. “Now go.”

  A few minutes later, Ramya was hunkered down with Ross on a bench next to the Stryker. Things were a little different this time. Ross had activated a partition in the hold where the Stryker had been sitting, which he said was the air lock. The hatch that’d be opened during the transfer of the Stryker was located behind the Stryker’s tail end. They were both wearing space suits, although Ross told her she could keep her helmet off until they opened the hatch to deposit the Stryker on an asteroid.

  Other than a few instructions, Ross didn’t speak much. He kept glancing frequently at the comm on his wrist, impatiently waiting to hear from the captain. Ramya was anxious too, but there was nothing she could do but wait. She didn’t even have a comm to speak to anyone else on the ship anyway. Ross replied to her questions with civility and without frowning or scowling too much, and Ramya did not want to push her luck any more. So, she closed her eyes and rested.

  Thoughts of the Stryker streamed in the moment her lids shut. That it would soon be given away to Confederacy forces weighed heavily on her heart. For a moment Ramya could not believe she was feeling this way, that she was sad, so sad that her heart wrenched and her throat grew tight.

  “They’ll kill your Dakrhaeth,” she almost heard the Locustan AI saying. That was true. The Confederacy would likely destroy the Stryker. But this wasn’t just another ship forged out of metals. This was more—it had a soul. Condemning a living being to certain death for no fault of his wasn’t fair.

  Ramya’s eyes flew open at the sound of a buzz. Ross’s comm was blinking, and as soon as he pressed the big red button at its center, the captain’s voice filled the hold.

  “Commander,” the captain said in a tight voice. “Please keep this channel open until the drop is complete.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Ross replied.

  “We are exiting the SLH now,” the captain added.

  Ramya wished she could be in the COM with the captain and Fenny rather than in the cold cargo bay with Ross waiting to give away the Stryker. She wanted to see what was going on outside, how the asteroid belt looked. And she’d rather not be part of the team that sent the Stryker to its death.

  “Captain, I see Confederacy ships,” Fenny said sharply. “How the hell did they know we’d be here?”

  “Ships?” the captain asked. His voice was calm and steady. “How many?”

  “I don’t iffin believe this,” Fenny said. Her voice was loud and rushed, and Ramya knew right away something was very wrong about the situation. Fenny’s next words confirmed her fears. “Two Drednots, Captain. One ship has stripes all over.”

  A lump of fear twisted and turned inside Ramya. This wasn’t good. First, the Confederacy was not supposed to know. The captain hadn’t even told them they’d be here in Totori. The plan was to not tell the Confederacy until after the Endeavor had dropped off the Stryker. How did Admiral Kanaa find out?

  Then there was the issue of the Drednots. Drednots were the Confederacy’s largest battleships, with firepower second to none. Ramya could recite a standard Drednot’s spec even in sleep—four dorsal turrets-mounted ion cannons in pairs in addition to the two plasma-projection cannons on both sides and a third along its center. The plasma cannons were perfect to damage anything unfortunate enough to come near its front. The ion cannons discharged a beam of particles strong enough to rip a vessel apart in seconds. There was no reason for these deadly vessels to be here to welcome the Endeavor unless the Confederacy had something extreme on their minds.

  “Slow down, Wiz,” the captain ordered. “Fenny, hail the admiral. She should be in that striped flagship, the Coranthus.”

 
Moments later, Ramya heard Admiral Kanaa’s wheezy voice. “Milos, good to see you after all these years.”

  “The feeling’s mutual, Admiral,” the captain replied. “That’s quite a welcome party you’ve arranged for us. Drednots? Am I seeing right?”

  “I’m not taking any chances with that rogue ship, Milos,” Kanaa replied. “Not until we figure out what monster the Kiroff lab has created that could wipe out an entire GSO fleet.”

  “I don’t think this one had anything to do with that disaster, Admiral,” the captain said. “You might want to track down the four other Strykers that have gone missing. They seem to be the ones responsible.”

  “You let the Confederacy be the judge of that, Milos,” the admiral snapped. “Why, may I ask, have you come to Totori? Weren’t you supposed to meet us at Alameda?”

  “Apologies. We’re having slight mechanical issues, Admiral,” the captain lied.

  “I see. And your approach is quite slow as well. Some trouble with your thrusters, is it?”

  “You don’t miss anything, Admiral,” the captain replied casually. “Let me see if my engineer can speed things up a little. I don’t want to keep you waiting.”

  Admiral Kanaa’s reply was bristly. “Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll ask my ships to move forward.”

  There was sharp click and Ramya knew what that meant. Admiral Kanaa’s channel was either cut off or muted.

  “Captain, I just picked up two more Drednots approaching us from behind,” Fenny informed breathlessly.

  “What the hell?” Wiz said in a panicked tone. “Captain, they’re closing in. What should we do?”

  “Stay sharp. Prepare for evasive maneuvers,” the captain replied.

  “Evasive?” Wiz squeaked. “They’re approaching us in a ring formation and they’ll have us blocked in from all sides. How will we evade?”

  “They’re bigger than us, so they’ll be less agile,” the captain replied steadily. “How far are we from the NAB?”