The Galactic Chronicles: Shadows of the Void Books 8 - 10

by J. J. Green

  “Commanders, captains, rear admirals, thank you for coming,” Pacheco said. “Time is pressing, so let’s keep this short. I want a brief update from each of you on the recent and ongoing engagements in your sectors.”

  Jas listened for a moment to the incomprehensible sounds being made by the commander next to Pacheco, who had taken it upon him- or herself to begin, before she realized she’d forgotten to turn her comm button to its translation setting. As soon as she made the change, the button relayed the speech in standard English. The commander was reporting on a successful raid on a Shadow trap planet.

  From the commander’s description, the world sounded similar to K.67092d, where Jas had first encountered the hostile beings that came from the Void, somewhere outside the known universe. K.67092d had been a barren planet, devoid of complex life forms. Nothing but the strange, hexagonal Shadow traps was of any interest in the place, and that of course made them perfect for attracting the attention of unsuspecting visitors.

  The commander related how his crew had successfully destroyed all the traps on the planet. At the same time, they had defended the place from attacking Shadow ships that were seeking to stop them.

  The next Unity Alliance officer told a different story. This officer’s ship had been tasked with discovering new instances of Shadow invasion that had gone unnoticed by local populations. Galactic civilizations were numerous, and many hadn’t yet joined the Transgalactic Council. That fact didn’t make them off bounds to the Shadows, however, and to truly remove the Shadow threat from the galaxy, the Council had implemented a program to comb its reaches for their presence.

  Not for the first time, Jas was reminded of the Shadows’ resemblance to an infestation. Insidious and difficult to permanently eradicate, the aliens had gradually crept into every nook and cranny of the galaxy. They hid away, slowly multiplying, until they finally erupted like a nest of cockroaches.

  When Jas’ turn came, she told the room about the Thylacine’s most recent engagement. She emphasized the second Shadow ship’s superior fighter pilots, hull, and force field, as well as its puzzling disappearance the minute the first ship was destroyed. When she’d finished her short report, Jas looked to Pacheco for a response, but he gave none. He nodded toward the next officer to begin.

  Her brows knitted. Hadn’t he understood that there had to be implications to what she’d said? She bit the edge of her thumb again, then stopped because it was already sore.

  After what seemed like a long time, the final report was given.

  “Thank you, everyone,” Pacheco said. “Plenty of useful information there. I also have a report to give. I’m sure you can tell from the many positive stories we’ve heard here, that the war is going well for us. At the last reckoning, the Unity Alliance effort had eradicated the Shadow threat from approximately ninety-five percent of the galaxy. The scanning protocols the Transgalactic Council put in place two years ago have been working, and the sloppy mistakes we used to make, allowing Shadows to infiltrate the scanning process, are a thing of the past.

  “Through the excellent efforts of Commander Harrington and the Thylacine—” Jas cringed “—we have secured the Council’s access to mythrin, which is of course essential in detecting Shadows. Every day we draw closer to our goal of destroying every known and unknown Shadow invasion.” He gave a tight smile. “I think it’s safe to say we have the misborns on the run. And now, on to our next maneuver.”

  Pacheco tapped an interface on the wall. The lights dimmed and a panoply of stars shimmered into view in the center of the room. For a moment, Jas was distracted from her personal concerns. It had been a long time since she’d seen a hologram of the Milky Way. She was used to seeing holos of the local star system wherever the Thylacine was engaging in battle. It was only rarely that she saw the galaxy as a whole.

  The vast expanse of tiny points of light, representing gigantic, blazing suns, took her breath away.

  “Through the efforts of the last five years and the sacrifice of many, many brave individuals,” said Pacheco, “we have concentrated the mass of the Shadows in this sector of the galaxy.” The holo zoomed into an area of thousands of stars. “According to our intelligence, several star systems in this region remain heavily infested with Shadows. In fact, we’re confident that this is where most of the resistance and re-emergences in previously swept sectors are organized and provisioned. It’s a Shadow stronghold, but it’s the last one. If we can wipe them out here, we have a chance of putting an end to the Shadow menace forever. In short, if we win back this region we will have victory. The war will be over, and the civilizations of the galaxy can return to peace.”

  Pacheco stopped speaking, but no one said anything for a while. Jas, too, was having trouble processing what the admiral had said. The Shadow War had been going on for so long, fighting it had become a way of life to her. She found it hard to believe that the war could end.

  A strangled sound, which Jas realized after a moment was a kind of laughter, came from a corner of the room. More sounds and voices joined in, rejoicing at Pacheco’s announcement. But before things could get out of hand, the admiral raised his arms and asked for silence.

  “Let’s not be premature,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do before we can celebrate. Now, more than ever, we must continue in our attitude of utmost vigilance to prevent Shadows from infiltrating our safeguards. We must continue to protect our people from their invasions. We must continue to crush and eradicate them wherever we find them.

  “I’ve brought you here today to tell you that we’re on the cusp of our best chance for a final, decisive blow. Now, I want you all to return to your ships and redouble your efforts. Expect and accept only the best from those you command. If we can maintain the courage, rigor, and determination that have brought us this far, we can succeed in putting an end to this war. When the time comes for the final push, I will send instructions.”

  Nothing more needed to be said. The Unity Alliance officers slowly filed out of the room to return to their starships. As Jas had seated herself at the back of the room, she was one of the last to leave. Pacheco was thanking or having brief chats with the officers as they left, but he was alone when Jas reached him.

  She tensed.

  “Commander Harrington, could I have a word?”

  Chapter Four

  As always, Pacheco’s demeanor lost some of its stiffness now that he and Jas were alone.

  “I just wanted to say, congratulations on another successful battle. How many does that make now? Is it eight or nine?”

  Jas smiled, thin-lipped. “I’ve commanded the Thylacine for seven battles so far, Admiral.”

  “Good work. I knew I was making the right decision when I recommended you for promotion.”

  Jas didn’t reply. Was he expecting her to thank him? She’d guessed long ago that Pacheco was at least partly responsible for her rapid rise through the ranks. That and the terrible losses the Unity Alliance had sustained over the years of the war. But the office of commander didn’t mean anything to her. She would have served just as conscientiously if she’d been in the lowest ranks. What was more, serving as a commander brought responsibilities that she didn’t relish, though she did her best to fulfill them.

  The pause was becoming awkward, so Jas said, “I need to go and find my new intake, sir, and the ship that’ll take us to the Thylacine.”

  Pacheco nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ll go along with you. It’s on my way.”

  Jas sighed inwardly as they left the room together and entered the labyrinthine tunnels of the Transgalactic Council offices.

  “What did you think of the meeting today, Harrington?” Pacheco asked.

  “I thought it went well, sir,” Jas replied. “I was surprised to hear that we’re so close to victory. It feels like we’ve been fighting this war forever.”

  “Yes, it feels like that to me too, sometimes,” Pacheco said. “Do you mind if I ask, when it’s all finally over, what do you plan to d
o?”

  “I don’t think I have a plan. I’ve been concentrating on fighting for so long, it’s hard to think about the future.”

  “Will you return to Earth, do you think? Or maybe another planet?”

  Earth? Jas hadn’t thought about Earth in a long while, and when she did, she usually thought of her old friend, Sayen, ex-navigator of the prospecting starship Galathea. She hadn’t been able to contact Sayen after they’d both volunteered, due to the security ban on personal comms. She had no idea where she was or even if she was still alive. But she knew that if Sayen survived, she would be returning to Earth. Her brother and the woman she loved were there. As to where Jas would go when they finally defeated the Shadows...

  “I’ve no idea,” she answered.

  They went through a round doorway. Pacheco had brought her to a large waiting area where a group of people and defense units were milling about. It was the usual ragtag bunch. Half already in uniform, half in civvies. Some faces were lined and harried, others looked as though they shouldn’t have been let out of school. The defense units were a range of models too. Commandeered from private companies, most likely, or judging from the appearance of some of them, snatched at the last minute from conveyor belts at recycling plants.

  Jas’ heart began to race as she scanned the faces that turned toward her and Pacheco, but after a few moments, it abruptly slowed and was heavy in her chest. In spite of the five years that had passed, she knew she would notice Carl immediately if he were there. He wasn’t.

  She realized that the group were saluting her and the admiral. She returned the salute, and from the corner of her eye she noticed Pacheco’s gaze upon her while he also saluted. Had he been observing her reaction to seeing the new recruits?

  “Thank you. I’ll take over from here,” she said.

  “Yes, Commander. Your transport is waiting on the pad. Safe journey.”

  “Thank you.”

  Usually, she was tolerant toward the man’s unwanted attention, but her sense of disappointment at not finding Carl among the crowd had made her irritable. As the admiral left, she went after him into the empty corridor where she could not be overheard. She said, “Pacheco.” He turned, and she went on, “In the meeting, you singled me out for praise. Please don’t do that. It’s embarrassing.”

  Pacheco raised his eyebrows and gave a slight shake of his head before walking away.

  Jas returned to the room and the waiting women, men, and defense units, already regretting her inappropriate words to the admiral. The man couldn’t help his feelings for her any more than she could help the fact that she didn’t reciprocate them.

  “Who’s the highest-ranking person here?” she asked.

  A man raised his hand and opened his mouth to speak.

  Jas interrupted, “Great. Get everyone onto the transport waiting for us on the launch pad in five minutes.”

  “Yes, Commander,” the man replied.

  Jas left to make her own way to the launch pad, guessing that the warren of Council offices had to offer a different route. She wanted to be alone and give herself time to compose herself before joining the new recruits. She didn’t trust herself to maintain a calm attitude in her current state.

  She was surprised that the disappointment of not finding Carl among the new intake had hit her so hard. It seemed that her heart hadn’t listened to her head saying time and time again that he had to have died.

  Her circuitous route brought her to the transport a few minutes after the new crew members of the Thylacine. The man who had led them had done a good job. Their packs were safely stowed and everyone was strapped into jumpseats in the bare, functional military transport cabin. All they were waiting for before starjumping was her.

  She gave a brief, approving nod before strapping herself in and comm’ing the pilot that they were ready for liftoff. From behind came the soft whoosh and click of the cabin doors shutting automatically, and the rumble of the engines shook her seat.

  As the transport rose, wobbling a little, into the air, a realization niggled at Jas. Pacheco’s tip had led her to a doomed hope that she might see Carl. When she hadn’t, she’d lost interest in the question of who the person from her past might be. But then she’d scanned the faces of the new recruits as they sat in their jump seats, and she thought she recognized one.

  The transport forced its way upward through the atmosphere and against the pull of gravity. Jas was sitting at the front of the cabin near the door to the cockpit. She craned her head around her seat while the transport rose higher, but all she could see were a few recruits sitting in the row behind her. They returned her gaze with puzzled expressions.

  She quickly straightened up. A commander had to maintain a level of dignity, which was one of the things she hated about the position.

  There were no windows in the transport, but long experience told Jas that they had to be leaving the planet’s atmosphere by that time. If she could look out, she would have seen the curve of the globe and the dark expanse of space above.

  The transport completed the remainder of its flight away from the planet to a distance from which it would be safe to starjump. Jas racked her brains to match her brief glimpse of a faintly familiar face with a memory of a past acquaintance.

  It wasn’t until they jumped that she had the answer.

  Chapter Five

  Jas had never quite gotten used to the rough military transport starjumps. Her stomach lurched as they reappeared in space some distance from the Thylacine. The destroyer was still orbiting the mythrin-harboring planet. Whenever she returned to the ship from a trip away, Jas felt like she was coming home.

  She thought of the Thylacine as her ship. She was the only commander the relatively new vessel had ever had, and she had a sense of ownership of it. At five hundred and fifty meters long and half as wide, the Thylacine was only averagely sized compared to the rest of the Unity fleet, but the pulse cannons fore and aft were the latest and best technology. What was more, both the massive jump engine that underlay the working and residential quarters of the ship, and the smaller RaptorXs to either side were the fastest-responding that she’d ever known.

  The engineer who had just completed his duty tour had maintained the engines in excellent working order, and Jas was confident that the person she suspected was his replacement would do the same. Like her namesake, the Thylacine was small compared to other predators of the Unity fleet, but she was deadly.

  From behind Jas came the sounds of recruits whose stomachs were rebelling even more forcefully than hers at their abrupt arrival. She grimaced, and while the transport flew to the ship and through its bay doors, her mind dwelt on the person from her past and the events surrounding their acquaintance—friendship, even, though it hadn’t started out that way.

  Finally, the transport’s engines powered down and the pilot comm’d to say it was safe to disembark. Jas unfastened her harness and stood up, turning to face the recruits. Some of the new crew members were pale and sweaty, and the cabin reeked from the small pools of vomit in the aisles. The cabin doors clicked and opened with a swoosh, allowing welcome filtered air into the vessel.

  “disembark from the back row forward,” Jas said, “and line up in your sections outside.”

  The recruits stood and began pulling out their bags from the lockers, gingerly avoiding the puddles that dotted the floor. As Jas passed by, they stepped aside.

  She went down the ramp and out into the launch bay, experiencing a sense of weird displacement caused by traveling by gateway and starjumping. She felt like she could have been aboard the Thylacine a few months ago or, as she had in fact, only a few hours ago. While she waited for the recruits to disembark, she checked over the bay doors. The repair crew had done a good job. The only evidence of the damage that the second Shadow ship had inflicted was sprays of scorch marks across the inner walls.

  Krat. Jas remembered that she’d meant to talk to Pacheco after the meeting about the odd occurrences in the Thylacine�
�s most recent engagement. He hadn’t seemed to pay much attention to the information while she was giving her report, and afterward she’d been focused on meeting the person from her past. She resolved to mail Pacheco later.

  The new crew members were filing down the ramp and lining up as she’d told them. Jas scanned the crowd, her gaze finally alighting on the woman she was seeking. She was as stocky and ginger as ever, though fine lines on her pale, white face showed the passing of the years since they’d last known each other. Wealthier, or perhaps vainer individuals would have paid to have those wrinkles removed. It looked to Jas as though the woman’s situation was similar to what it had been when they worked together.

  As the woman met her gaze, Jas gave her a very brief smile.

  “Who has the list of names?” she asked the waiting recruits. The defense units had organized themselves into a line too. Suddenly, Jas realized she’d spotted another familiar figure. “Wait a moment,” she said as she went over to the AX unit. She read the unit’s breastplate and looked up at the android’s impassive face in surprise. “AX7. You worked with me aboard the Galathea.”

  “Yes, Commander Harrington.”

  “Do you remember?”

  “Yes, Commander Harrington. All my memories are stored in my database.”

  Two members of the Galathea’s crew had arrived on the Thylacine.

  “I have the list here, ma’am,” said the man who’d identified himself as highest-ranking among them earlier. He came over and handed her an interface.

  Jas scanned the list. She would look at the details more closely later. At that moment, she was looking for only one name. She read it and the rank next to it. Chief Engineer. Jas nodded approvingly. It was as she expected. It would be good to have the woman aboard.

  She told the new recruits to wait for their section officers, then asked her old acquaintance to go with her. They left the bay.

  As soon as they were out of earshot of the others, Jas said, “Toirien, what a surprise to see you.”