Lucky Universe: Lucky's Marines | Book One
Page 21
Eight hours ago
The rest of your crew was thawed for debrief. You were not. Personally, I think they are going to hang something on you, but I’m the paranoid type. Comes from living in your head.
Now
Tactical debrief time. Try not to embarrass yourself. Wakey wakey.
[END SITREP]
Lance Corp. Lucky Lee Savage awoke from hypersleep like he had 157 times before.
He didn’t know this yet. He didn’t know anything yet.
He began his waking cycle the way he always did. Floating inside his mind, drowning, grasping for any thought, any detail—anything—that swirled toward him.
He was a Frontier Marine.
He was a planetary submission specialist.
He hated everyone.
He needed a weapon in his hand.
There he was.
Lucky opened his eyes and winced as bright light bled around the hatch of the sleeping pod.
He wasn’t in a recovery room. He was in a hospital room. He knew the smells and sounds immediately. The curved walls suggested a standard medical ship. The medtech insignia on the nurse standing over him cinched it.
“Observant,” said Rocky.
“Out of my thoughts, please.”
“Trying. Believe me.”
Three men in military uniforms stepped up to the side of the pod as the nurse stepped back.
All old, all scowling, and all generals.
“This should be fun,” echoed Rocky.
“I’d salute, but …” said Lucky, noting his hands were still held in the pod restraints.
“I’m Brigadier General Lewis,” said the officer to his right. “This is—”
“Can we not, Tim?” cut in the officer on his right.
Four stars. It suddenly dawned on him who he was looking at.
Commandant Apollo.
“We have a very good tactical understanding of what happened, Lance Corporal,” said the other general.
Lucky noted he didn’t bother introducing himself, or glancing over at the others when he spoke for them, even though he was outranked.
There was something familiar about his condescending tone. Lucky uttered a fleeting laugh. What if this is Orton’s old man? Then he thought about what that would mean and his mirth melted away.
Lucky found himself replaying the last few hours in his head. Even after a two-week freeze, he felt sluggish.
Then he realized no one was talking.
“I’m not sure what I can add, then,” he said.
“They’re fishing for something,” said Rocky.
“I’m paranoid enough without your help.”
“What do you know about the situation that you left behind?” he asked.
The situation he left behind?
“I’m not sure I follow, sir.”
The general glanced at the other generals, then at something behind Lucky.
A nurse pushed his way between the generals.
He didn’t look at Lucky or the generals. He reached up over Lucky’s head.
Lucky realized that he wasn’t restrained by the pod restraints. He was just being restrained, period.
“He’s telling the truth,” said the nurse.
“Bullshit,” said a two-star with a hard accent.
The four-star held up his hand.
Lucky’d had enough.
“Can someone spell it out,” he said, then as an afterthought, “sirs.”
The general looked again at the men standing around Lucky. He nodded his head, and the men made room for a fourth person.
“They are calling it Lucky Lane,” said Jiang. “Personally, I think it’s a little on the nose, but what can you do?”
Lucky strained his head forward to see her. In shorts and a tank top, she looked even more muscular. Her arms and legs were tree trunks. Lucky was a gym rat, but she put him to shame.
“Jiang,” he said. “What the hell—”
“Goddammit, Jiang,” exploded a voice from the doorway. Malby strutted into the room. “The less clothes you wear, the more you look like a man.”
Jiang sighed. “Dawson dusted off, and I’m stuck with this guy.”
Lucky looked up sharply. “Dawson is gone?”
She nodded. “Popsicled up and headed home a few hours ago. Something about seeing his daughter before the end of the universe. Go figure.”
“The end of the universe? I thought we took care of that, Rocky.”
“Don’t look at me.”
“Hey,” Malby said, glancing around as if he was just noticing where he was. “You’re finally thawed.”
He held up a large tumbler. “Have a little go-go juice.”
Lucky smelled the rocket fuel on his breath and knew what was in the tumbler.
“Thanks, Malby, for making me feel like the mature one.”
Malby flashed a grin. “Hey, man, I thought I’d be dead by now. I would be dead by now.” He paused, then looked around. “We all would be,” he said louder, in the direction of the generals. Either Malby had a death wish or a drinking problem, but either way, he shouldn’t be in the same room as three generals.
“Maybe you should just let Jiang—”
“Did you tell him?” Malby asked Jiang. “Did she tell you?” he asked Lucky.
“No!” yelled Lucky. “No one has told me a damn thing!”
His head was starting to hurt, his mind still fuzzy from the freeze.
Malby looked at him with a crooked grin. “There’s that temper again.”
Jiang cut in. “We are in route to the”—she hesitated, lowering her voice—“Great Corridor.”
“Lucky Lane,” said Malby conspiratorially.
“Why are we going there?” Lucky said. “Who is going there?”
Malby laughed. “Everybody in the universe is going there.”
Suddenly, Lucky felt sick.
“No way,” said Rocky.
This was the part where he got loud and drunk and didn’t have to apologize for it. He had earned some damned R&R.
“Lucky,” said Jiang, resting her hand on his shoulder. “It stayed open.”
“What stayed open?” he asked stupidly.
“The hole in the universe!” Malby exclaimed, throwing his arms wide and spilling his drink.
The generals walked out of the room, still talking quietly among themselves.
Lucky looked over at Jiang.
She was nodding. “It didn’t close. The Great Corridor.”
“Lucky Lane!” slurred Malby.
Jiang ignored him. “And it doesn’t look like it’s going to.”
Epilogue
They came tentatively at first.
There was terrible destruction here.
Desolation.
But rumors flew faster than facts or fear.
There was something else here, they whispered.
A lucky accident.
A cosmic mistake.
An ancient power had been released, and a window into another place had been thrown open.
What kind of place?
The rumors would not say.
The reasonable scoffed.
There was nowhere to run from the Da’hune and their endless war.
But rumors need no rest, no destination.
They just fly, growing as they go.
Soon, the rumors were facts.
A barren universe with abundant resources.
A place to start over.
And so they came, ready to try their luck.
And then more followed.
And more still.
The kind and the hateful, the scared and the powerful.
To a pristine new place, far from the war.
Space to find peace at last, surely.
A lucky universe.
To Be Continued
“It didn’t look anything like you. We altered it. Excessively.”
General Artimes scowled. “You saw how he reacted in there.”
“It
doesn’t matter,” said Lewis. “The Orton clone served its purpose. We learned a valuable amount in a short period of time.”
“We learned that we were being double-crossed,” shot back Artimes.
“I beg to differ.”
The two generals turned to their superior counterpart, Commandant Apollo.
“It could not have worked out better,” he offered.
Lewis and Artimes exchanged glances.
“The plan failed, Saul.”
“Spectacularly.”
“We gave them everything they asked for—everything—and instead of delivering on the weapons they promised, they were planning to turn everything we gave them against us.”
The Commandant shrugged. “We were planning to do the same to them.”
All agreed on that front.
“The Emperor won’t be amused when he figures out what we are up to,” said Lewis.
“And what are we up to, Tim?”
Lewis fell silent.
“Without proof, the Senate won’t let the old man act. His hands are tied.”
“And this disaster has cleared itself up nicely. We still have the Elites. We have plenty of their weapons. And we don’t have them to worry about.”
“For now.”
“For now,” agreed Apollo. “We’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
“I’m the presiding overseer of the Society, Saul. It’s easy for you to be so … positive. They won’t come for you first.”
Apollo shrugged. “Rightly so.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lewis shot back bitterly. “The Society has been working with those agents for a hundred years. Your father. My father. Your grandfather. My grandfather. How can you possibly call this my fault?”
“You preside over the Society. This is your responsibility.”
“They’ll hang you, too.”
“They’ll hang us all eventually.”
Lewis ran his hand through his hair and exhaled deeply. “So how do you suggest I proceed?”
Apollo looked back at the hospital room where Lucky, Jiang and Malby were still talking.
“You start by taking care of the loose ends.”
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A Word From Joshua
If you’ve made it this far, I’m guessing you enjoyed meeting our friend Lucky. (That, or you just have a masochistic need to finish books you dislike!)
If you’re looking for more Lucky, then look no further.
The story continues in a series of fast-paced thrillers that take Lucky (and you) all around the universe.
First up, if you haven’t picked up the free prequel, LUCKY SHOT (Reader Crew exclusive), I encourage you to do so. In it, we take a trip back in time to meet Lucky when he was just a green private, still trying to find his place in the universe—and trying not to get humiliated by his far-more-accomplished sister.
In LUCKY LEGACY, the direct sequel to the book you just finished, we find Lucky and Co. dealing with the fallout from the opening of the Great Corridor—and racing to stop a conspiracy that could bring the entire Empire to its knees.
In LUCKY EMPIRE, Lucky faces his greatest challenge yet: A ghost from his past that may hold the key to clearing his name—or turn all of mankind upon itself.
You can grab them individually or save by downloading the Box Set (containing all three thrillers, plus Lucky Universe, all in one convenient package).
What are you waiting for? The fun is just starting—once you get Lucky, you won’t be able to stop…
Tap the links below to grab the books:
LUCKY SHOT (Reader Crew exclusive)
LUCKY LEGACY
LUCKY EMPIRE
GET LUCKY: BOX SET #1 (coming soon)
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Building a relationship with my readers is the very best thing about writing. I occasionally send newsletters with details on new releases, special offers, and other bits of news relating to the series I’m writing. If you sign up for the mailing list I’ll send you this free Lucky content:
A free copy of Lucky’s prequel adventure, LUCKY SHOT.
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Copyright © 2018 by Joshua James
Published by down7media, LLC
Cover art by Tom Edwards (TomEdwardsDesign.com)
Edited by Steven Moore (StevenMooreAuthor.com)
All rights reserved.
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