Dark Space Universe by Jasper T. Scott

by Discover Sci-Fi Special Edition

  “Hang in there, Runners!” Tyra said. “Just six minutes to go!”

  “That’s two minutes too long!” Lucien said. “I’ve got missiles incoming, ETA four minutes.” With just one laser cannon there was no way they could take them all out.

  Then Lucien had a thought. “Garek!”

  “What do you need, Commander?”

  “I need you and Brak to get the biggest laser rifles you can find and start firing them out the airlock at those missiles!”

  “On it!” Garek replied.

  A squadron of friendly fighters from Astralis swooped in behind the fighters chasing their shuttles, forcing the enemy to break off their pursuit.

  “Looks like we’ve picked up an escort,” Lucien said over the comms. “Just shake those missiles, and we’re out of here!”

  “Easier said than done,” Tyra commed back. “I’ve got too many incoming.”

  Lucien glanced at the sensor grid and saw that Tyra had even more missiles chasing her shuttle than he had chasing his. “Get some of your passengers in the airlock with laser rifles to help you shoot them down,” Lucien said.

  “They’re all scientists!” Tyra objected. “Most of them have never even fired a weapon before!”

  “It’s point and shoot!” Lucien snapped.

  “It’s too late…” Addy said.

  “Good luck, Runners,” Tyra added.

  The grid lit up with a sudden flash of light. When it faded, the green blip of Tyra’s shuttle was gone. Lucien gaped at the sensor display, unable to believe it. “Runner Lead, come in!”

  Static answered him.

  “It’s too late for her,” Jalisa said quietly. “But we still have a chance. Don’t lose focus now. Two more minutes to the jump point…”

  “We’re clear!” Addy said.

  Lucien glanced at the grid to see that there were no more missiles on their six. “Brak, Garek—get back inside,” he said quietly. “We’re about to jump out.”

  “Aye, Commander,” Garek replied.

  Golden streaks of light flashed around them as the Faros tried desperately to get a clear line of fire. One of the nearest enemy fighters broke out of a dogfight and joined the cruisers firing at them. The shuttle’s shields hissed, dropping from 26% to 20%. The cruisers might not be able to hit them, but those fighters could.

  Lucien began jinking evasively. Another golden streak of laser fire flashed by the cockpit from the enemy cruisers, this time much closer than before, reminding him not to stray too far from his current course.

  “Watch it!” Addy warned.

  “I’ve got one on me!” Lucien said, as their shields hissed with consecutive impacts from the fighter on their tail.

  “Shake him off!” Jalisa replied. “You’re almost there!”

  “What do you think I’m trying to do?!”

  “Shields failing!” Addy warned. “Switching to emergency power!”

  The lights in the cockpit dimmed.

  “Shoot that fighter down!” Lucien ordered.

  “With one laser cannon?!” Addy asked. She was already firing back, but missing with half of her shots, and barely putting a dent in the enemy’s shields.

  Lucien targeted the enemy fighter with torpedoes, but he couldn’t get a lock while flying evasively to elude enemy fire.

  “Come on… just ten more seconds…” Lucien said through gritted teeth. He flew as erratically as he could, but lasers were impossible to evade. The best he could do was make it hard for the enemy to get a target lock.

  “Shields at two percent!” Addy said.

  Another hiss sounded from the shields, followed by a loud pop! as they failed. The next impact sounded with a sizzling clunk as it struck the hull.

  Garek called out in alarm, and Lucien felt a sudden draft rip at his hair. The cockpit door slammed shut behind them.

  “Jumping out!” Jalisa said, and her shuttle vanished from the grid with an accompanying flash of light.

  Another clunk sounded from the SISS, and then they reached the jump point, too. Lucien punched it, and a bright flash of light dazzled their eyes. When stars and space reappeared, their scopes were clear.

  Addy sat back with a sigh, and Lucien saw Runner Three fly out in front of them.

  “You made it,” Jalisa said. “Are you okay?”

  “Not sure yet—Garek?” Lucien asked.

  “We’re okay…” Garek replied. “We were still wearing our exosuits when the breach occurred. We lost all of the atmosphere back here, and a fair amount of our equipment, but otherwise nothing we can’t fix. What’s the damage look like from up there?”

  Lucien checked the shuttle’s damage report. “The reactor took a hit. We’re losing power.”

  “Can you fix it?” Jalisa asked.

  “Maybe if we were back on Inquisitor with a team of engineers to help us.”

  “So that’s a no. Kill your engines and sit tight. I’m going to dock with your shuttle. You’ll have to transfer to mine.”

  Lucien clicked his comms to acknowledge and hauled back on the throttle.

  “How are we going to get to the airlock?” Addy asked. “We don’t have pressure suits up here!”

  Lucien grimaced, and keyed the comms once more. “Ah, Jalisa, that’s a negative.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Our cabin lost pressure, and we don’t have pressure suits in the cockpit.”

  “Krak,” Jalisa muttered. “All right… hang on… there’s two planets in this system with an atmosphere. Temperature, gravity, and atmospheric pressure all check out on both worlds, so we can land on one of them and transfer there.”

  “Is the atmosphere breathable?” Lucien asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. You should have masks and oxygen tanks in the emergency kits under your seats.”

  “Right.”

  “We’ll land on the nearest planet and transfer everyone to my shuttle there,” Jalisa said.

  “What if we’re followed here?” Addy asked.

  “How? Besides us, only Tyra knew where we were going, and she… didn’t make it.”

  They observed a moment of silence for their dead.

  “The Faros might not need to follow us if they’re already here,” Addy said.

  “I’m not reading any contacts in this system—enemy or otherwise,” Lucien said. “We should be safe. Lead the way, Runner Three.”

  Jalisa clicked her comms to acknowledge, and accelerated toward the planet she’d chosen. Lucien followed, trying to ignore the growing sense of apprehension in his gut. So far every time they’d thought the Faros couldn’t follow them, they’d been wrong. Somehow it seemed naive to think that this time would be any different.

  Addy slowly shook her head. “They’re going to find us here, and then they’re going to kill us, too.”

  Lucien frowned. “The Faros are slavers. I think they captured our people, not killed them, and that means we can still get them back.”

  “Lucien’s right,” Garek put in. Lucien started at the sound of his voice. He’d forgotten to turn off the comms, so Garek and Brak had overheard everything. “My daughter was aboard Astralis. I’m going to get her back or die trying.”

  “We’ll get them all back,” Lucien said.

  “How?” Addy demanded. “We can’t even beat the Faros on an equal footing, and now all we have are two shuttles—one of which we’re about to abandon!”

  “One problem at a time,” Jalisa said. “Right now, we need to focus on surviving.”

  “For how long?” Addy demanded. She was hyperventilating, her chest heaving for air.

  “Calm down, Addy,” Lucien said quietly. “We’re going to need clear heads to get through this.”

  Addy’s green eyes flashed at him. “Don’t you get it? It’s over! We’re not going to get through this!”

  Lucien met her gaze evenly. “We’ll find a way.”

  Addy just shook her head and looked away.

  They traveled the rest of the way to Jalis
a’s chosen planet in silence. As they drew near, Lucien saw that it was a barren, icy rock with temperatures hovering around minus seventy-three degrees Celsius. There was a hot spot, however, where temperatures were over a hundred degrees higher than their surroundings.

  “I’m getting some strange readings from thermal scans…” Jalisa said.

  “I see it,” Lucien replied. He magnified the area and saw that it was perfectly circular, with a radius of about one hundred and fifty klicks.

  “There’s no way that’s a natural heat source,” Jalisa said. “It must be an alien colony of some kind, which means they’re space-faring. Addy could be right. The Faros might already be here. We need to leave. I’m going to dock with you, and we’ll jump out together. You can transfer to my shuttle in the next system.”

  “Roger that,” Lucien said.

  “Too late!” Addy screamed, pointing to the grid as a swarm of red blips appeared. “Here they come!”

  Chapter 34

  “They’ve blockaded the whole planet,” Lucien said. The Faros had jumped ships in on all sides of the planet, with overlapping jamming fields.

  “And we’re inside of the blockade,” Jalisa pointed out.

  “We’ll have to run through it,” Lucien said.

  “How? We barely escaped the last time,” Addy said.

  “We only managed that because we didn’t come under direct fire from their cruisers,” Jalisa said. “There’s nothing to block their fire this time. And besides, your shuttle can’t even jump.”

  “We can’t, but you can,” Lucien said. “You have to try.”

  “We’re being hailed…” Addy said.

  “I’ll never make it,” Jalisa replied. “Sorry, Commander, but even slavery is better than death. This Runner’s done running—Shuttle Three out.”

  “Damn it, Jalisa!” Lucien said, pounding his armrests.

  “What are we going to do?” Addy asked, her green eyes huge.

  Lucien shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m not giving up yet.”

  “Maybe we should,” Addy said. “Jalisa’s right. I don’t want to die.”

  “You’re not going to,” Lucien replied, and set a course for the hot spot on the planet’s surface. “If that’s a colony, then they must have a jump-capable ship down there somewhere.”

  “Even if you’re right, how are you going to pilot an alien ship?”

  “One problem at a time,” Lucien said.

  The icy planet grew until it was all they could see. Within seconds the atmosphere was ripping at their shuttle, whistling as it roared into the cabin behind them.

  “What’s the plan?” Garek asked over the comms.

  “We die fighting,” Brak suggested.

  “No, we’re going to find a ship in the Faros’ colony and steal it.”

  “We’ll still have to run the blockade,” Garek pointed out. “What are the odds that we make it?”

  “So we take some hostages.”

  “You think they’ll care about killing a few of their own?” Garek countered.

  “It’s better than giving up,” Lucien said. “If you want to surrender, no one’s stopping you.”

  Garek grunted. “I’ll surrender when I’m dead.”

  Brak gave an appreciative hiss. “I agree.”

  Addy just stared at the planet, her eyes wide and unblinking.

  “I thought you liked taking risks,” Lucien said, glancing at her.

  Addy shook her head slowly. “So did I.”

  Lucien hauled back on the throttle, and turbulence stopped shaking their shuttle. The surface of the planet snapped into focus—a rocky wasteland with scattered white patches of ice.

  As they descended, the alien colony swelled below them, going from a small blue dot to a hazy blue shield dome. Inside of the shield they could see buildings and tree-lined streets, a water reservoir… and a landing pad with a variety of spacecraft on it.

  “Jackpot,” Lucien said. “How’s that shield dome look? Can we get through?”

  Addy gave no reply. She was in a daze.

  “Addy!” he prompted.

  “Sorry… energy readings indicate it’s only an atmospheric shield. We shouldn’t have any trouble getting past it.”

  “Good.” Lucien took them down the rest of the way. As they dropped through the shield, the blue haze fell away, allowing them to see the colony.

  Alien pedestrians looked up and pointed as Lucien circled the landing pad, some of them familiar blue-skinned Faros, others completely unfamiliar to him.

  There wasn’t any room on the landing pad for their shuttle, so he aimed for an intersection at the end of one of the streets. There appeared to be a large crowd gathered there, but they’d move when they felt the shuttle’s grav lifts pressing down on them.

  They reached the intersection within seconds. “Air’s breathable,” Lucien said as they hovered down. He opened the cockpit doors, and a blast of warm air came in, bringing with it a host of alien smells that Lucien couldn’t even begin to identify.

  The shuttle touched down with a thunk of landing struts meeting the street, and Lucien jumped up from the pilot’s chair. “Let’s go!”

  They met Garek and Brak in the cabin; both of them had their rifles trained on a large hole in the side of the shuttle. Strange-looking aliens stood at a distance, peering back through the hole at them.

  “At least we won’t need to wait for the airlock to cycle open,” Addy said, glancing out the hole.

  “Suit up, and make it quick,” Garek said. “I don’t think this is a welcoming party.”

  Lucien looked around the cabin. Their equipment was haphazardly strewn across the deck; spare exosuits lay about like dead bodies. Lucien picked the nearest one and used his ARCs to open it. It splayed open, and he lay down inside the suit, lining up his limbs carefully. He powered the suit, and it sealed around him with a hiss of pressurizing air.

  Lucien stood up and grabbed a ripper rifle from an open weapons locker. Time to test his theory that the Faros’ shields might be more vulnerable to kinetic weapons than energy weapons.

  “Addy?” he asked, and turned to see her clomping over to the weapons locker. She also grabbed a ripper rifle, as well as a pair of razor swords, which she clipped to her back crosswise like Brak.

  “Ready. Let’s go steal a ship,” she said.

  Chapter 35

  They piled out of the shuttle and into the alien square. Buildings soared around them, metallic structures and metallic streets shone blue in the filtered light of the shield dome overhead. Naked trees lined the street like skeletons, casting jagged shadows. Every imaginable type of alien stood frozen and watching them from the edges of the square.

  “What is this place?” Addy asked. “Why are there so many different species here?”

  Lucien shook his head. “Might be some kind of trading post.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Garek said. “Whoever they are, they’re not attacking us. Let’s get out of here before that changes.” He jerked his chin in the direction of the landing pad. It soared in the distance, a network of open girders and beams supporting a large flat platform.

  They started toward it at a run, but fetched up short as a silky smooth voice called out behind them. “You’re just in time!”

  Lucien whirled to see a familiar blue-skinned Faro with a glowing gold crown. A hot orange whip lay curled and smoking on the street beside him.

  “I killed you!” Lucien said, his voice booming across the square, amplified by his suit’s external speakers.

  “You can’t kill me,” King Faro replied, laughing and smiling broadly at them.

  Behind him, in the center of the square, was a giant tree with one of the green-skinned Faros tied to it. He looked a lot different from the regal blue-skinned Faros that they’d seen. Short black horns sprouted from a bony ridge where the alien’s eyebrows should be. His eyes glowed a solid yellow, glaring balefully at them. Black tattoos marked his muscular arms, and one side of his
face. The alien’s vaguely pointed ears were pierced with multiple gold earrings, and a ridge of short bristly black hair ran down the center of his otherwise bald green head.

  “Just in time for what?” Addy demanded.

  “To see what happens to slaves who run away from their masters,” the blue-skinned Faro said. “This one thought he could escape, too.” King Faro turned to the green-skinned alien tied to the tree.

  Angry black furrows criss-crossed the green-skin’s chest, and his clothes were shredded.

  The glowing whip flashed out with a crackling hiss and drew another black furrow across the green-skin’s chest. The slave gave a guttural cry; then another lash fell, followed by another cry.

  The blue-skinned Faro had his back turned to them, as if he expected them to watch patiently until he was done.

  “We should go,” Garek whispered over the comms.

  “How about you fight someone who isn’t tied up?” Lucien demanded.

  “Lucien!” Addy snapped at him. “We need to get out of here!”

  The alien turned back to them. “Someone like you? That won’t be any more challenging.”

  “Garek—take the others and find a ship,” Lucien said. “Get them out of here. I’ll slow this one down.”

  Garek nodded and took off at a run. Addy hesitated briefly, her eyes wide as they met his. “Go!” he urged.

  Addy’s face crumpled, her lips curving down, and she ran after Garek in a blur.

  But Brak made no move to follow either of them. He jerked his chin at the Faro and bared his black teeth.

  “Only two of you? Now it’s even less of a challenge,” the Faro said, sounding dismayed.

  Lucien raised his rifle and pulled the trigger. A glittering golden stream of tracer rounds roared out, slamming the alien in the chest. He staggered back with the imparted momentum, but the bullets exploded harmlessly on his shield. So much for kinetic weapons… Lucien thought.

  Brak fired, too, using a high-powered laser rifle, but still there was no effect.

  “Keep firing!” Lucien said, hoping they could deplete the shield. Glowing shrapnel bounced off King Faro’s shield in a continuous stream, like showers of sparks. The alien dropped his whip, and it fell in a rapidly cooling black coil; then he drew the sword from his back. The air shimmered brightly around the transparent blade.