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

by J. J. Green

  The recollection that his parents were dead snagged at his heart, and he bowed his head.

  “How are you feeling?” Jas asked after a while. “Do you remember more now?”

  “I do. It’s all coming back. A few things I wish I didn’t remember too.”

  “It’s all over now, Carl. We won the war. The galaxy’s at peace.”

  “And so after I got sick, you wanted to come back here with me?”

  “I thought this was where you’d want to be.”

  “You were right.”

  Dealing with the flood of returning memories was tiring him. He lay down in the long dry grass and pulled Jas down with him. She rested her head on his chest. Above them, the afternoon sun slanted through shifting gum tree leaves.

  He was silent for a long time.

  “Carl?” Jas asked softly.

  “Yeah?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “I’m thinking...” He took the grass stalk that he was chewing out of his mouth. “I’m thinking we should get this farm back on its feet.”

  He felt her nod in agreement.

  Later still, he felt a patch of wetness growing wider on his shirt. “Why are you crying, Jas?”

  “I’m just glad you’re back.”

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  ALSO BY J.J. GREEN

  CARRIE HATCHETT, SPACE ADVENTURER SERIES

  THERE COMES A TIME

  A SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTION

  DAWN FALCON

  a fantasy collection

  LOST TO TOMORROW

  STARBOUND

  SHADOWS OF THE VOID PREQUEL

  Chapter One

  Jas Harrington gripped the handlebars of her snow mobile and pressed the throttle. The machine pulled away beneath her, sending up sprays of powder snow on either side. She grinned.

  It had snowed the day before. The first snow that year, though winter was almost over. Maybe the last snowfall at low altitude on Earth forever, some said. Over the last few decades, Antarctica had changed almost beyond recognition as raised global temperatures melted its massive ice sheets, calving icebergs as large as countries to melt into the ocean.

  At that moment, Jas didn’t care what humans had done to their home planet. She didn’t feel as though Earth was her home anyway. She’d grown up on Mars until she was twelve and already weak-boned from the low gravity. When the paperwork came through from the Martian colonial government, she left the home for cared-for children and traveled to the mother planet to complete her adolescence at a second institution.

  After months of aching muscles and headaches, her body had finally adjusted, but the policy of separating the Martian children for better 'integration’ meant she’d been lonely. No one had told the Earth children they were supposed to let the newcomers integrate.

  Sergei was riding his snowmobile parallel to hers as she powered over the ice, the roar of the engines making speaking impossible. A fellow student from the training college, his black hair streamed out from beneath his hat. Like hers, his eyes were hidden behind dark snow goggles. He waved at her and pointed in the direction they were heading. They had to be nearly at their destination, though she couldn’t make it out against the snowy white landscape and the bright clouds.

  She nodded in reply, and her heart surged. She didn’t think she’d ever been this happy.

  They were almost upon the igloo before she saw it. A crude lump of slightly dirty white became visible in the landscape. Sergei was already slowing down, and Jas did the same.

  As they stopped and she stepped down from her vehicle, she smiled. The igloo was very clumsily put together, as if the builders had been drunk when they made it. Roughly cut blocks of ice balanced precariously upon one another, creating a haphazard wall. It looked like it would have fallen down if not for the freezing temperatures that seemed to be holding it together.

  “This is it?” she asked.

  Sergei was taking off his goggles. “Of course. How many other igloos do you think there are around here?”

  Jas pulled off her goggles too, along with her hat and gloves. “But I thought you said it took you and Aaron two whole days to build it?”

  “More than two days, if you include cutting the blocks.” He took off his gloves. “Do I detect a tone of disbelief? I get it. It’s hard to credit that we could construct such a magnificent edifice in such a short time.”

  “You’re right.” Jas tilted her head to take in the detail of the structure. “I...can’t quite believe it.” She couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer. She burst into giggles and found she couldn’t stop. She bent over, nursing her aching stomach. Pulling off her goggles to wipe her eyes, she finally began to catch her breath. “So this is what you meant by your Love Palace?”

  Sergei frowned. “You dare to insult my Mansion of Delight? Be careful. You’re treading on dangerous ground. I might have to remind you of something pretty important, now that we’re out here in the snowy wastes, far from civilization and...” He went to the compartment of his snowmobile and reached inside. He pulled out a small battery-powered heater. “...warmth.”

  It was unusually cold that day, even for Antarctica. Jas’ tears of mirth were already freezing on her cheeks. An icy wind had penetrated her snowsuit as they’d driven over, and she was chilled through. “Oh, come on. I was only kidding. It’s a beautiful igloo. You and Aaron have some real talent. Let’s go inside and warm the place up.”

  Sergei slowly shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think I’ll just go in by myself and get toasty, seeing as my Chateau of Sensation isn’t good enough for your refined tastes. You can head on back to your dorm and cuddle up with your roomie instead. Maybe she’s more your type.” He winked at her.

  “Don’t be an idiot. Your Love Palace looks great. It really does. I don’t know what I was thinking. I can hardly believe it only took you forty-eight hours to put it together. It would have taken me at least...I don’t know...” She cast her gaze over the comical building. “Forty-eight minutes.”

  Sergei’s fake frown had begun to disappear at Jas’ apparent effort at reconciliation, and he’d raised the heater to hand it over, but upon hearing the end of her sentence he snatched it back. Jas made a lunge for the appliance, but Sergei sidestepped her, and she slipped and stumbled.

  Laughing, Sergei ran to the other side of his snowmobile and dangled the heater invitingly. Jas scrambled to her feet, slipping again twice, and reached across the vehicle. Sergei turned and sped away. Jas followed, and soon she was right behind him, her long legs carrying her quickly closer. He wasn’t running fast, as if he wanted her to catch him. When she was almost there, Sergei skidded and tumbled down. Jas tripped over him.

  The heater skittered across the ground, coming to rest a few meters away. Laughing, they crawled after it, grabbing at each other to slow the other down. Their breath plumed in the frigid air. Both were gasping as they fought to be the first to reach the heater. Jas lunged, and her fingertips brushed the appliance’s edge where it lay upside down.

  Sergei grasped her waist and dragged her backward, pulling her underneath him on the slippery surface. He tried to climb over her, but she turned on to her back and pulled him down. As they came face to face, they stopped struggling and their chuckles faded. Their warm, condensing breath intermingled.

  Sergei’s intense blue eyes were
very close to Jas’. She felt herself disappearing into them. Sergei’s muscles relaxed under her hands as they gazed at each other.

  “That’s my heater,” she said softly.

  “No, it isn’t,” he murmured. He leaned down to kiss her.

  A few moments later, Jas wasn’t cold any longer. The snow at the back of her head was melting and soaking her scalp in icy water, but she hardly noticed.

  Sergei drew away from her. “Shall we go inside?”

  Jas reached up and pulled his head down to hers again. “In a minute.”

  For many years, she remembered that day as the happiest day of her life.

  STARBOUND

  Copyright © 2017 J.J. Green

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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