The Lazarus War
Page 10
A logo on her shoulder was smeared with blood. I reached over, wiped away the fluid. She didn’t deserve to die in a dirty suit. I expected to find some rank insignia, some honour badge, but instead there were words there: ALLIANCE ARMY – SIMULANT OPERATIONS PROGRAMME.
I looked down at the wrist-comp mounted on her armour. Something new flashed on the read-out: EXTRACTION COMPLETE.
I sat for a long while, alone with the armoured suit that had once been my mother’s.
Was there a factory, back on Liberty Point, that had once housed a hundred copies of my mother? The question was empty and irrelevant now, because the Point was surely gone – had been destroyed in that last cataclysmic explosion. I hoped that she hadn’t suffered, that her real death had been quick and painless.
The shuttle’s control console blinked and beeped at me; a grateful interruption to my deliberation. I had no idea where I was headed. In truth, I really didn’t care any more. I only knew that I wanted to be away from here. I called up the automated course trajectory – inspected the basic holo-projector set into the main console. It showed a flight path into Alliance space, away from the Quarantine Zone and the Maelstrom. The destination was labelled CALICO STAR. I recognised the name from the command centre – it had been one of the outposts mentioned by the young captain – but nothing more than that. The stars and planets in this area of space were as alien to me as those of the Krell Empire. I managed to examine the flight plan a little more closely and saw that the estimated time of arrival was some three months into the future. Three months in this shuttle, I said to myself with a jagged intake of breath. And nothing but a dead simulation of my mother to keep me company. I supposed that the shuttle had a slow FTL drive: most of the fuel reserve had probably been used up escaping the Point, and I was flying on fumes now.
After a few hours of solitude, I couldn’t stand it any more. I activated the comms unit – each control clearly labelled, each marked with instruction for use by the untrained. I didn’t want to transmit – had nothing to say – but listening would be enough.
“…is an emergency broadcast…Alliance FOB Liberty Point has fallen…All surviving personnel are to await pick-up…Retrieval crews are inbound…This transponder is set to repeat this message…”
For anyone coming back, I supposed that it was a small mercy. Whoever Lazarus was, he was still out there.
I clutched Daryl’s data-clip in my hand, pressed it tight. Whatever it contained was important. I was going to make sure that it got delivered.
Contrary to popular belief, space isn’t dark.
It isn’t even remotely dark.
There is light everywhere in space. Starlight generated by suns near and far. Ripples of light from distant nebulae. The glow of nearby worlds and planetoids. No matter how small, no matter how negligible, all of those things generate light.
You’re never really alone in space. No matter how far, there is light out there – and you are one with it.
Meet the Author
JAMIE SAWYER was born in 1979 in Newbury, Berkshire. He studied Law at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, acquiring a master’s degree in human rights and surveillance law. Jamie is a full-time barrister, practising in criminal law. When he isn’t working in law or writing, Jamie enjoys spending time with his family in Essex. He is an enthusiastic reader of all types of SF, especially classic authors such as Heinlein and Haldeman. Find him on Twitter @JSawyerAuthor.
Also by Jamie Sawyer
THE LAZARUS WAR
Artefact
Legion
Origin
Redemption (ebook novella)
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
CHAPTER ONE: KILLED BY THE THING THAT HE FEARED MOST
CHAPTER TWO: SPACE ISN’T DARK
CHAPTER THREE: TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
CHAPTER FOUR: THE MEET
CHAPTER FIVE: LOUD AND LETHAL
CHAPTER SIX: EXECUTED
CHAPTER SEVEN: MILITARY-GRADE
CHAPTER EIGHT: OVERRUN
CHAPTER NINE: BRACE FOR IMPACT
CHAPTER TEN: THE POINT
Meet the Author
Also by Jamie Sawyer
About Orbit Short Fiction
Newsletter
Copyright
The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2015 by Jamie Sawyer
Cover design by Kirk Benshoff
Cover art by Ioan Dumitrescu
Cover copyright © 2015 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First eBook edition: November 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-38641-8
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