by T. Y. Carew
Adamanta
New Contacts
Season 3 - Episode 1
T. Y. Carew & Jess Mountifield
Episode Copyright © 2018 Jess Mountifield
Series Copyright © 2018 Jess Mountifield
Published by Red Feather Writing
Cover Copyright © 2018 Elizabeth Mackey
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organisations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to any online ebook store and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Books by T.Y. Carew
About the Author
Acknowledgements
A massive thank you to my husband, Phil for always being there. You’ve always got my back and I couldn’t do this without you.
To the Adamanta team, Stephen, Cameron, Andrew, Ella and Brendon for sharing this wonderful universe with me. I love bouncing ideas around with all of you. Also to Ella for all the polishing work she does. Her editing is always that fine line between making sure it all makes sense and sounds right and keeping each author’s voice intact. Couldn’t make this serious work without you!
To Elizabeth for another rocking season design. Love having your covers on the Adamanta series. Always so awesome to see what you come up with.
And finally to God. Somehow I keep finding myself right back where I started, looking up at you marveling at your endless patience and persistence in helping me stay on the right path and still letting me come on some great adventures despite my many flaws.
Dedication
To my village/tribe
Chapter 1
Matt stood back and admired her handiwork, paintbrush in hand. The last name she'd added to the wall in her parents’ condo was finally complete. Captain Carla Pegg. She'd died on the Jaxon when it had collided with a Beltine hive several months earlier, and had been the final death in a long, drawn-out battle.
Ever since her parents had died, the name of every person who'd died while she was on duty trying to protect them had gone on her wall. Almost two years later, it was now a long list, but there was also one addition. A counter that kept track of how many people had survived thanks to her involvement in the war. This was how she remembered them all. The people whose lives had been sacrificed, and everyone they had saved.
Eventually Xander stepped up beside her, quiet, respectful of her way of remembering the dead. In his hands was a piece of paper covered in numbers and places. It was population counts. The people saved in the very same battle. The final tally numbered in the millions.
Giving him a grateful smile, Matt stepped up to the wall again and added on the new figure to the counter in the middle. For a moment she allowed herself the feeling of satisfaction it brought. These people might well be dead now if it wasn't for Xander, herself and the rest of their team. Of course, others had been involved, but most of them had been wielding the Adamanta her parents had developed.
“Are you sure we should include the population of the Lentarin home world?” she asked, finally breaking the reverent silence.
“Of course,” Tyra replied from behind her right shoulder. “We saved them, too. Carla’s sacrifice bought the continued freedom of all of them.”
Matt nodded and looked Tyra and Trey in the face, pleased to see they'd taken no offense at her question. She'd never meant to insinuate they were any less, just that she didn't want to overstate the achievement. There was still a long way to go in this war.
“We fought well that day. Thank you for letting us be here with you for this, Matt,” Xander said, bringing the small meeting to an end.
“We saved everyone together, and we all lost people together. We should do this together.”
There were nods of agreement, and even Drew had a solemn look on his face.
“We'll always do this together.” Tyra stepped forward again and put a scaly arm over Matt's shoulder. As one, the other three members of the team stepped forward, Drew sliding an arm around her back and Xander and Trey joining them.
“Always,” they echoed.
Matt felt a shiver of emotion run up her spine. These four were her family now. Her team, her tribe and her everything. They'd live or die together, and not one of them needed to say it.
They stayed like that until, as one, all of their communication devices buzzed.
Xander groaned as he reached for his. It would be the same message for all of them so Matt didn't bother. The military had called, and that meant one thing. They were back on duty. They'd expected it, and Xander's nod a second later confirmed the news.
As Tyra and Trey picked up the packs they'd left stashed by the end of the couch, Matt used her mind to lift the Adamanta in her own and float it over to her. Xander led them out, still not speaking and not mentioning the message, his own kit by Drew's near the door. They were ready to go already.
A transport pod sat waiting outside the door and they filed in, each taking their usual seats when they traveled together. They moved automatically, in sync and in time.
When the pod pulled off, Matt took one last look out of the window at the condo. She didn't really think of it as home, no matter how much time she spent there, and she suspected the others felt the same about their respective accommodations on Netera. None of them were there long enough, and that meant one thing. They were all going home, back to the Lady Contessa.
“We'll go get her started up and ready to fly out,” Tyra said as they reached the military HQ, Trey and Drew following her. Xander flung his pack at Trey, who caught it deftly with only one of his strong, long-fingered hands.
“We'll be there as soon as General Kelton is done with us,” Xander replied. Matt hung back, by his side, knowing she'd be expected to report to command with him. Her pack was on her back, never leaving her side despite her trusting her team. She'd learned the hard way only a few months earlier the importance of having her Adamanta equipment with her at all times. She wouldn't be separated from it willingly ever again.
The quiet between her and her commanding officer was comfortable as they rode the elevator up to the third floor. They'd done this many times and Matt knew, no matter what they'd been called in for, her team would have her back just like she had theirs. It was just another mission in the everyday war with the Beltine, and a part of her lived for the missions, lived to bring the fight to the Beltine and let them know the human race wasn't going to fade out of existence quietly, no matter how hard they were pushed.
The door to Kelton's briefing room stood ajar, an invitation for the pair to go straight in and find their seats. The first scrape of a chair leg on the floor as Xander pulled it out summoned the General from the attached office. Both of them snapped to attention, but Kelton waved them down to their seats and took his own, a manila clad file in his h
ands.
By the time he'd slapped it down on the glass table, Matt and Xander were seated and waiting.
“Right, let’s get this over with. I understand you've both heard what Simon Dantos has decided to do in response to a certain relationship ending?” Kelton glanced at Matt briefly before flicking the file open.
“No,” Matt retorted, a cold bite to the word before she remembered to be polite. It wasn't Kelton's fault she didn't have warm feelings for the playboy. “Sir.”
“Well, you'd best hear it now, then. Mr. Dantos has decided that his company's long-term alliance with the military has come to an end. Not only have his family and several wealthy people connected to them pulled their funding for several projects we run jointly, they've also pulled any bids in ongoing and future projects and refused any attempts on our part to renegotiate.”
Matt blinked, not sure how else to express her shock. She knew the man could be petty and manipulative, but the military protected the entire human race, and they were underfunded and undersupplied as it was.
“That slimy son-of-a—”
“Colonel! While I agree with those sentiments, that's not why I called your team back into active duty this morning.”
Matt felt her fists clench in complete agreement with the words Xander had expressed on her behalf as her whole body grew hotter and started to shake. For a moment she couldn't speak and could barely listen. Thankfully Kelton paused as his eyes roved over some of the details in the document in front of him. It gave her just enough time to compose herself.
“I have recently been informed that the military is already in talks with a potential substitution for Mr. Dantos, but their priorities are not necessarily going to align.”
“What will happen to my parents’ research?” Matt asked, cutting straight to what she assumed was the point of the conversation.
“While the continued use of Adamanta is evidently a priority, there are members of the senior team who feel that the focus should be on training as many users as possible with the current applications already discovered.”
“What. Will. Happen. To. Their. Research?”
Kelton gave her a look to silence her. He was getting to his point and there was no point rushing him. With a frown, she sat back and waited.
“Of course, securing funding is going to be the hard part, especially given the secrecy of any results obtained. There are a couple of suggestions I can make. Obviously, Captain Adair, you already have a certain appeal and your presence and cooperation can go a long way to impress potential—”
“You want me to parade myself around some more.” Matt only felt her anger grow. The military already spent half their time parading her around like their personal lap dog, usually along with her commander. Neither of them enjoyed it.
“It's one option,” Kelton continued, almost as if he hadn't noticed Matt had interrupted him for a second time. “But I understand your reluctance to accept it. I almost might suggest against it at this point. We have no idea quite how Mr. Dantos would react to you doing so, especially given the possible... means... he has to change the public opinion of you. Your current persona is remarkably innocent for your profession.”
Matt let out a growl, too tense to even feel embarrassed about the insinuations. She'd sat in that room over a year earlier and had the two men in this room read an email exchange of a very personal nature between her and Simon. No doubt, it was exactly that sort of thing General Kelton was referring to. It was clear she couldn't play Simon at his own game, and he was nothing if not public. But that could only mean General Kelton had another option.
Trying to relax her muscles and hear him out, Matt sat back again. The General nodded and flicked to the next sheet of paper in his file. He glanced at it before pushing it across to her and Xander.
“This particular company has recently opened a large facility on a planet in the distant Gunger system. It's on the edge of human-occupied space and not assumed to be close to the Beltine. They have many private research labs, and several companies all involved in various projects.”
Raising an eyebrow, Matt looked over the list Kelton had given them. It consisted of a set of seven company names, each with multi-million credit valuations, all looking into various areas of study that meant very little to her. No doubt Drew would have understood every word.
“What has this got to do with my team?” Xander asked, showing the first signs of frustration with how long the meeting was taking to get to the point.
“Well, that's actually up to you.” The General raised a hand to keep the attention as Xander opened his mouth to protest again. “They've recently sent us several messages complaining of something suspicious just on the edge of their radar's capabilities. We warned them when they set up a base of operations that far away from human allied space that the military would struggle to respond to any issues in time, but they insisted they would be okay.”
“And now they're calling for aid?” Xander frowned. The general nodded.
“Of course, no one is too happy about lending aid, especially given how hard-pressed we are in other sectors. As such, the plan is to ask if any personnel currently unassigned wish to respond. And if no once chooses to, then no one chooses to.”
Matt took another glance at the list.
“I imagine they'd be very grateful if someone did respond, wouldn't they, sir?”
“Yes, I imagine they would,” Kelton said as he finally leant back in his chair, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. “And especially so if we just happen to send one of the military’s more famous assets.”
“Appreciative enough to arrange for something important to be funded and continued?”
“Well, that would be down to you, of course. They'd have to be happy with the service they receive.”
“And their problem sounds like it's likely to be something a soldier would be best at sorting out.” Xander's frown disappeared. Matt quickly met his eyes, searching his expression. It sounded like the perfect attempt at a solution. Both she and the team would get to do what they did best; make people feel safe and fight off any alien threats. And it undermined the petty attempt to make her come running back to Simon to secure what mattered most to her. She just needed Xander to agree to it.
“All right, sir,” he said while looking at her. “I'd like to volunteer my team and the Lady Contessa to respond to their request for assistance.”
“Then you have my permission.” Kelton got to his feet, snapping the file shut as he did. “Good hunting. Keep me updated with your progress.”
Matt nodded her thanks at Xander as they both rose to their feet as well and soon found themselves alone. He merely returned the gesture and led her towards their ship. They didn't need words.
Chapter 2
A barely audible sigh escaped Xander's mouth. He was bored. When he'd agreed to take on the mission to the Gunger system and check out some funky radar readings he'd expected to get there a little quicker, but General Kelton hadn't exaggerated when he'd said they were on the far reaches of human-controlled space.
More than a week later, they were still traveling and the atmosphere on his Lady was starting to grow tense. They were low on coffee, to make matters worse, and he knew tempers would quickly fray if that single precious resource ran out.
“I think I've managed to repair the faulty parts that made the main circuit board in the engine's heat monitoring system overload. We should be able to read accurate measurements again and not have to manually adjust to keep us from blowing a major part,” came Drew’s voice from the doorway.
“Good. Let our current pilot know and get us back up to speed.”
“Already done,” Drew replied, giving his commanding officer a grin before he sauntered away, no doubt to the kitchens to grab something to eat and a well-earned coffee.
Xander let out another sigh, this one of relief. Perhaps now they'd make it to their destination without any more problems. After sitting in his cabin alone for a f
ew more minutes, he decided to head to the cockpit and find out exactly how much longer they'd be.
“Only twelve more hours,” Tyra said as soon as he stepped into the small four-chaired room. She hadn't even turned or otherwise acknowledged his presence, but the Lentarin twins had a similar make-up to lizards and they both knew when they weren't alone. On top of that, she'd anticipated his question. “I probably could have pushed us harder the last few days, but I didn't want to get us stranded this far out.”
“It's okay, Tyra, no need to provide justification. We'll get there, and we can make sure everything is back up to top notch before we leave again. I'm sure they'll have the parts we need.”
Xander headed back to the living area of the ship to let the other crew members know the good news, not waiting around for Tyra to point out that his words were probably optimistic. At least they'd have coffee, lots of coffee. One thing a base with such wealthy backers would have was resources, food and coffee.
Trey sat beside Drew, the pair chatting about some piece of tech while two steaming mugs sat in front of them. After grinning to himself at the camaraderie the pair were showing, Xander moved on. No doubt Matt would be in her cabin.
As he came towards the open door, he slowed and reduced the noise he was making. He knew it was technically sneaking up on Mattie, but he couldn't help himself. Sometimes that little glimpse of her when she was totally natural, resting in a place she felt safe, made his day. The real her was special yet so frequently guarded and hidden away where others couldn't find it.
When she came into view, he stopped. Above her head spun an assortment of small Adamanta objects, approximately fifteen in total, looping in and out of each other in a complicated repeating pattern. But that wasn't the most amazing part of her parlor trick. Instead of watching them, or sitting with her eyes closed so she could concentrate, Matt was lying on her front reading a book.