The Faradis_A Space Opera_Book Eight of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

  With so much of her attention in front of her and squinting to see into the gloom in case anything burst from it, Reyes didn’t look behind. But she didn’t need to. She listened to the pad of the Marines following her as Patel took up the rear again. Of all of them, she trusted him the most with her life.

  At the double doors to the library, Reyes stopped to see they looked no different to the other doors they’d encountered so far. Embedded in the twisted black walls, they were the only constant in what appeared to be a ship created by chance rather than design. When she turned around to face the others, she watched them all flinch away from the bright glare of her torch. “Sorry.” She quickly lowered it, pointing the beam at the ground. “I wasn’t thinking. We’re going to go into the library. I want us to enter it two at a time and spread out if we can. We don’t know what we’re going to walk into, and after the control room, I want us to be prepared for anything. But like the WO said, don’t create problems that don’t exist. Chan and I will go in first, and I’ll direct you from there. Patel?”

  The Marine leaned out so he could see around the others.

  “I want you to stay in the corridor and cover our backs.”

  “Roger that.”

  The compliance in Patel’s reply caught Reyes off guard. Since they’d left Q328, he’d treated her with much more respect. It took some getting used to. To Chan, she said, “You ready for this?”

  “Just get on with it, yeah? I’ll hold your hand if that’ll make it easier for you.”

  “Screw you, Chan.” While glaring at the short Marine, Reyes slammed her hand against the button to open the double doors. They parted like all of the others had so far, the whoosh of automation obliging them.

  Her gun raised to her shoulder, Reyes walked into the room and looked up, half-expecting another monstrous projection. Instead, she saw only darkness—not even the ceiling. It appeared to stretch impossibly high, higher than it had in any other part of the ship they’d seen so far. After pointing the barrel of her blaster up to better assess it, she got another reminder of just how pathetic their torches were in the dark space.

  “This doesn’t make sense,” Chan said, looking up with Reyes’ torch beam. “The ceiling looks to be higher than the ship itself.”

  If she’d had anything useful to offer in response, Reyes would have. Not only did the space above them seem to go on forever, but between them and the door on the other side—the door her dad and his squad would enter through—stood what looked to be a complex maze of shelves. Tens of them, each one sprang from the floor and ran all the way up into the impossible darkness. They were arranged at different angles, chaotic in their placement. Dark pathways existed between them, but she couldn’t see where they led from her current position. The shelves shimmered as both the glow of the Marines’ torches and the red emergency lights reflected off the glass fronts covering them.

  A finger pressed to the microphone on the side of her helmet, Reyes said, “Sir, are you in position?”

  “In the process of it. We’re entering the room and spreading out.”

  “Roger that. We are too.” Another click of the microphone button to turn it off, Reyes returned her focus to her team. “Chan and I are going left. Austin and Jacobs, you come in next and go right. Singh and Hunt, stay in the middle. Patel, are you sure you’re okay out in the corridor? We don’t want to be surprised by something following us in.”

  “I’m sure,” Patel said.

  Because the shelves were a few metres away, it gave them a narrow bar of space that stretched the width of the room. Reyes and Chan walked over so they were next to the left wall, Reyes using her torch for guidance. She watched the sweep of her beam animate the shadows in the pathways leading through the maze of shelves. Other than that, the light offered no insight as to where the pathways led.

  Reyes pressed her back against the wall and faced the shelves in front of her. Within a few seconds, she stepped forward a pace. The wall felt both too cold and too uncomfortable because of its gnarly twist. A shudder churned through her at the thought of seared flesh.

  When Reyes looked back at the entrance to the room, she saw Austin and Jacobs were already making their way to the right wall while Singh and Hunt held their position by the doors.

  As Chan stood on high alert beside her, Reyes said, “Uh, Chan?”

  The familiar scowl returned to Chan’s face when she looked at her.

  “Th-thanks for saving me back there.”

  “One,” Chan said while holding up a finger to count it, “I told you I’m professional and can be trusted. I’m not a liar, unlike you.”

  “What?”

  “And two, we still lost a Marine, so while I appreciate you recognising I saved your life, someone died.”

  Lombardo and many others on Q328—too many, but Reyes couldn’t dwell on that now. Another look up at the ceiling as if she’d uncover the trickery at work, she still only saw infinite darkness. She pressed the microphone button again. “We’re in position, sir. What do you want us to do?”

  “Good, now move forward slowly. I don’t know why these shelves are laid out in this way, but I reckon we can walk through them and meet in the middle. Let’s see what they’re hiding. Move one step at a time and keep your wits.”

  Reyes looked down the line at the others and saw she had their attention from how all their torches faced her way. Were it not for the glow on the ends of their guns, Austin and Jacobs would be completely hidden in the shadows.

  Chan stood ready beside her. Reyes looked at the small Marine, nodded at her, and then walked towards the first shelf loaded with books: the entrance to their side of the maze. Not only did the shelves stretch into infinity, but they had the same strange organic twist to them that characterised the rest of the ship. Zero symmetry or straight edges. Instead, the shelves undulated in waves as if they’d once been alive and had been forced to grow and twist with the movement of the dark magic that spawned them.

  Despite the apparent chaos of the shelves’ creation, as Reyes drew closer to them, she saw every volume on every shelf looked like they belonged there. Almost as if the shelves had grown to fit the books rather than the other way around.

  A blink of white light to her right from where Chan’s beam bounced off the glass-fronted shelf, Reyes looked at leather-bound books with gold-leaf script on the spines.

  “What language is this?” Chan said.

  “I’ve no idea.”

  “And what kind of species keeps books in this day and age anyway? Surely a data chip is much more convenient?”

  While looking around and up at where the ceiling should be, Reyes shrugged. “I can only guess this place is more a museum than a functioning library. Come on, let’s keep moving.”

  When they were past the first set of shelves and deeper into the maze, Reyes pressed the microphone on the side of her helmet. “WO, how are you getting on?”

  Silence.

  “WO?”

  Still nothing.

  “Singh? Austin?”

  No matter who Reyes tried to connect with, she couldn’t get through to them. “Patel?”

  “Yes?”

  She relaxed ever so slightly. “Can you contact the others? For some reason, they can’t hear me. Over.”

  A few seconds’ pause, Patel came back to her. “Yeah, they can hear me. What do you need me to tell them?”

  “Contact the WO and tell him my radio’s malfunctioning.”

  “And Chan’s?”

  The short Marine pressed the button on the side of her helmet. “WO? Singh? Can you read me? Over.” She shook her head.

  “Hers is screwed too. Tell the WO we’ll keep going and meet in the middle. Tell Singh and Austin what’s happening.”

  “Roger, over and out.”

  For the first time since Reyes had met her, Chan appeared to have nothing to say. “We just need to keep going, right?” Reyes said.

  Chan shrugged, so Reyes led the way.

  Like
the height of the ceiling, the path through the shelves took them deeper than it had any right to. As if confirming Reyes’ thoughts, Chan said, “Surely we should be at the halfway point by now. What’s going on with this room?”

  Before she could answer, Reyes caught sight of a torches’ glint ahead. She broke into a jog and heard Chan’s steps follow her.

  They rounded the next bend and found the warrant officer with Hicks beside him. “What is this place?” Reyes said.

  “I’ve no idea.” He scratched his thick stubble while looking around them. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

  “I think it’s an optical illusion,” Hicks said. “The shelves are probably painted darker at the top to make the ceiling look taller than it is. The layout of the place probably made us walk in circles without even realising it.” His words came quickly and higher in pitch than usual. “Otherwise, this place defies the laws of physics, which we all know it can’t do.”

  It sounded like a question to Reyes, but she didn’t answer it. More torches joined them from both sides, and Reyes breathed a relieved sigh to see all four of her team.

  When they were all together, the WO said, “Where’s Patel?”

  “We left him outside in the corridor, watching our backs.”

  “You did what?”

  “We left him in the corridor—”

  “I heard you. But why? Why would you do that?”

  While pressing her mic, Reyes said, “Patel, can you hear me?”

  Nothing.

  All of the eyes on her, the tight press of the shelves threw Reyes’ high pitch back at her. “We were speaking to him a moment ago.” Even as she said it, her stomach dropped. The warrant officer was right; she shouldn’t have left a Marine alone.

  Reyes spun on her heel and ran from the centre of the maze, the others following her. After just a few metres, she burst out the other side of the shelves. It took a fraction of the effort to get out compared to getting in, but she didn’t have time to wonder why. At the exit to the room, she slammed her hand against the button to open it and ran forward. She crashed against the still-closed doors.

  Now much closer than she had been when she spoke to him last, Reyes pressed her microphone. “Patel, are you okay out there?”

  No reply.

  “Patel?”

  Still nothing.

  A blast exploded from the gloom next to Reyes. She jumped away from the shower of sparks. It left a charred hole where the keypad had been. She turned on Chan and threw her arms in the air. “What the hell was that?”

  But Chan didn’t respond. Instead, she watched the doors as they opened, and raised her eyebrows.

  Without another word, Reyes ran through the doors into the corridor. She used the torch on her gun to look one way and then the other. Because her father and Chan hadn’t followed her out, she looked back to see the attention of both of them on her. The rest of their squad gathered around behind them. Not sure how to say it, she shook her head and spoke with a hard exhale. “He’s gone.”

  Chapter 21

  Reyes heard the slam of the WO’s steps and jumped aside as he marched from the library out into the dark corridor. He wore his usual thick frown, his brow set, and his large frame swayed with his awkward gait. Almost primitive in the way he moved. Not that she’d dare vocalise that assessment of him.

  As she watched him look around their immediate area, the need to say something rose in Reyes, but what could she say? Sorry for leaving Patel behind? She thought she was doing the right thing, seeing as the only casualty had come from friendly fire. It was a bit late for that now. Besides, apologies never went down well with the man. Someone who never said sorry himself, he was even worse at accepting apologies than he was at giving them. He seemed to take them as an excuse to stick the boot in harder.

  When Chan stepped forward as if she might say something, Reyes put her arm across her chest to restrain her. As they stared at one another, she gently shook her head, calming the situation before the feisty Marine made things worse.

  The warrant officer pressed his finger to his headset and continued to look up and down the crimson-lit corridor as he barked into it, “Patel, where are you?”

  Reyes flinched at her dad’s loud voice, his clear frustration bubbling over.

  A few seconds passed where Reyes could only hear the WO’s heavy breaths. The rest of the Marines were silent while they waited for his plan. But how could he make a plan to find Patel if he didn’t answer them?

  The warrant officer then said, “Julius?”

  Although Reyes heard him in her ear again, Julius didn’t reply either.

  “Shit,” he said. “We need to go back to the control room, now. If Julius has gone too, we’re screwed.”

  He set off in the direction of the control room, and Reyes followed on his heels. Chan behind her, she glanced back to see the rest of the Marines file out after them, blasters pressed into shoulders as they remained on high alert.

  Just a few short metres to the control room, the WO slapped his hand against the button to open the doors. The sound sent a thunderclap both ways down the dark tunnel, but the doors didn’t move. “What the …? What’s going on with this ship?” When he turned to Reyes, she might have taken his tone as an accusation had she not known him better. “You walked into and out of these doors earlier, right?”

  “We did. They opened fine both times.”

  Fists like rocks, the WO used his right to bang three hard raps against the doors. He then pressed his microphone again. “Julius?”

  Still no reply.

  Like she’d done in the library, Chan raised her weapon to shoot the control panel, but Reyes pushed the tip of her gun down and spoke in a whisper. “You might get away with doing that when I’m trying to open the door, but he’ll tear your head off if you shoot that thing anywhere near him.”

  “It worked a minute ago.”

  “Which he saw. If he wants to shoot it, that’s what he’ll do.”

  Despite her words, Reyes had to fight against Chan trying to lift her gun again. “Listen to me. You always call me a daddy’s girl, so at least trust me when it comes to making a judgement call about him. You shoot your blaster in his direction and he’ll tear your head off, regardless of whether it opens the door or not.”

  Maybe the warrant officer heard her conversation with Chan, maybe not. Either way, he ignored them both as he raised his hand to knock again. Before he drove his fist against the doors again, the whoosh of the mechanism sounded out and the doors parted, revealing Julius on the other side. She looked first at the WO and then poked her head out, her eyes running down the length of the line of Marines all staring back at her.

  Chapter 22

  When no one spoke, Reyes watched Julius return her attention to the WO directly in front of her. “I feel like you’re all waiting for an answer to a question I’m yet to be asked.”

  “Have you seen Patel?”

  “No.”

  “Did you hear me calling you on the radio?”

  “No.”

  “Did you lock this door and the door to the library?”

  “No!”

  “Did you hear me knocking?”

  “Yes. That’s why I opened the door. What’s going on?”

  The warrant officer used his thick fingers to count their problems out to Julius. “Patel’s gone missing, our radios can’t reach him or you, and the doors on this damn ship open one minute and then not the next. It’s like the thing’s got a mind of its own.” He flicked a look over his shoulder at those behind him. “And—before anyone suggests it—no, I don’t think it’s haunted, or we’ve been through the Corinthian’s Diamond, or whatever other crap you might want to suggest. I’m just struggling to make sense of all the weird shit.”

  Although Reyes felt Chan shift her weight next to her as if she’d become uncomfortable where she stood, she didn’t take the opportunity to have a cheap dig at her about the Corinthian’s Diamond. As much as she wanted to,
it wasn’t the right time. Instead, she watched Julius and could feel the Marines around her doing the same.

  Julius frowned while opening and closing her mouth several times. She scratched her head and winced as if it hurt her brain to try to come up with an answer for the WO.

  “Well, at least tell me you’ve managed to get the system up and running?” he said.

  After letting go of a heavy sigh, Julius turned her back on them all, heading towards the computer she’d been working on. Reyes followed directly after Julius and the WO, Chan at her side. The small Marine walked so close to her, she nearly asked her for some space. But if she started an argument at that moment, her father would tear her a new one.

  Reyes probably didn’t need to say it, but better to be obvious than assume they were all of the same mindset. “Make sure you all come into the room. No one stays behind anymore.”

  “Actually,” Hicks said, “I was planning on camping out in the corridor on my own. Just for shits and giggles, you know?”

  The warrant officer spun around to face him. An old dog ready to bite, it snapped a stripe of tension up Reyes’ back as she waited for him to cut loose on the facetious Marine.

  Thankfully, Julius spoke before he could let rip. “It’s going to take a little bit longer to hack this computer than I first thought.” Despite addressing the WO, she kept her back to him as she continued across the wide room. Simpson remained on guard next to the brightly lit screen. She looked like she hadn’t moved since they’d left her there. Her spine rigid from standing at attention, she looked ready to die for Julius should she need to.

  “How much longer?” the WO asked.

  “Another ten minutes, maybe more. It’s tech I’ve never seen before. I’m making headway, but I’m having to work it out as I go.”

  The screen Julius had been working at had lines of blue writing across it. Reyes hadn’t ever seen it before, so she looked around the shadowy room instead. The red bulbs did little to light the large space. The shadows in the corners seemed thicker than they had the last time they were in there, almost as if they were closing in on them.