Shadow Worlds: A Space Opera Fantasy (Shadow Corps Book 2)

by Justin Sloan

  He smiled sadly, and nodded. “There are many aspects of my people that don’t make sense to others. This is one of them.”

  “It’s kinda… creepy.” She put a hand to her mouth and turned to him, feeling horrible. That wasn’t how she had wanted to say it, but honestly, it felt like he was a man possessed by ghosts of the dead. What other word was there for it other than creepy?

  In spite of the initial shocked reaction, he smiled and then actually laughed. “From your point of view? Yes, I suppose it would be seen that way. For us though, it’s just how we are. Like the energy that fuels these lamps. On my planet, we are energy that flows. When the physical body stops working, the energy finds a place to reside, instead of escaping as it does with you.”

  “Escaping?” she asked. “And where exactly does human energy—the soul, I guess—go?”

  He smiled and shook his head. “You think I have all the answers? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t. I know what I know, and the answer to that question isn’t included in that knowledge.”

  “It’s too bad.”

  “Is it? I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I want to know what happens after I die. Think of the pressure—if our souls just stop at that point, me failing to exist beyond my death means I essentially flushed those other souls down the toilet.”

  “Grim,” Sam replied, turning as the doors were thrown open behind them.

  Reyn was the first to exit, the others trailing behind her in a V-shape that reminded Samantha of a flock of geese.

  “It is decided,” Reyn said. “For the good of the universe, my supporters and I will attempt to broker peace with the men. You have a ship at the ready?”

  “The Noraldian is crewed and always at the ready,” Hadrian announced, and Samantha smiled at the emotion that flooded Eldra’s face at the ship’s name.

  “Excellent,” Reyn replied. “We fly out within the hour.”

  “You’re bringing your ships?” Hadrian asked. “That might risk provoking them.”

  “Would you just stroll into your enemy’s land without any weapons, hoping they’d listen to what you have to say?” She shook her head. “We’ll be bringing our weapons, sir, but I promise we won’t use them unless there’s no other option.”

  Hadrian agreed, then turned to Samantha. “Time to put our diplomatic masks on. This is going to be an experience.”

  “One thing’s been bothering me,” Samantha admitted as they walked. “Why did we go to the woman’s side first? I mean, we had the men. Wouldn’t it make sense to bring them back first?”

  “I thought that would be obvious,” Hadrian replied. “The women are the more likely to be accepting of peace. We’ll need them to convince the men.”

  “These women?” she asked, then chuckled. “They didn’t strike me as very eager.”

  “Wait until you meet the men.”

  She nodded and followed him out to head back to the ship, wondering what exactly they were walking into. They found Carma waiting just outside the ship, leaning against it and sulking. At the sight of them, she stood and jutted out her jaw.

  “Decided you needed me after all?” she asked.

  “We always need you,” Hadrian replied, causing her to perk up. “But for this, it’s done. They’ve agreed, and there will be peace with the men, if the men will have it.”

  “How the hell are we going to make that happen?” Carma asked, frowning.

  “Simple. We won’t give them a choice.”

  With that, Hadrian entered the ship, leaving Carma to glance at Samantha with a terrified look in her eyes. It was, as far as Samantha could remember, the first time she had seen the woman scared.

  “They can’t be that bad, can they?” Samantha asked.

  “You’ll see,” Carma replied, then about-faced and turned to follow Hadrian.

  Before Samantha boarded the Noraldian, she turned back to give the city one last look. It was beautiful, but she knew there were many more cities and planets she would be visiting in the years ahead. Still, she wanted to capture this image in her mind.

  As she stared out over the city, watching the golden glimmers and smelling the subtly sweet scent of the air, like a candle just after it had been lit, ships began rising into the sky. When they had taken up the formation of a V-shape, she had no doubt it was Reyn and her group, and she knew Reyn would be in the lead ship.

  Taking that as her cue, she spun on her heels and headed into the ship.

  17

  Arzan Man Country

  Flying over the lands of Arzan was an experience in itself. The flowing golden flakes vanished as they passed out of the city and over vast stretches of flatlands and fields. The land wasn’t brown like back home, but interesting shades of purple one minute, swirling with yellow sand the next. When they flew past fields and then up and over the mountains, she saw a collage of dark green and gold, where the golden flakes had settled like blankets of snow.

  “I don’t know how anyone could live on this planet and have any thoughts toward violence,” Samantha said, leaning with her forehead against the mess hall window.

  “Ever date a really hot guy, but he was a dick?” Carma asked. “It’s like that. The planet is beautiful, but has too many dicks. Literally.”

  “Aren’t you supposed to not be talking like that, now that you’re supposedly forming a peace with the men?”

  Carma furrowed her brow, but nodded.

  The group of men passed through the hallway outside, likely on their way to go speak with Hadrian, as he had requested the others give them time to do so. The Shadows were at their own table, speaking their clicking language, but one nodded when he caught Samantha staring. She smiled and turned back to the window.

  “Earth was a beautiful place too, before the Syndicate came.”

  “You were old enough to remember?” Carma asked.

  “The invasion? Yeah, it only happened about a little less than four years ago. I mean, the world certainly had its problems, and most of us lived in these tall apartment buildings. I say most, but I mean that was the world I knew. One time my grandma took me out of the city and to this place where she said she had lived as a child. On the way there I was blown away. It was unreal, the rolling green hills, trees in every direction, the birds. Most of all I miss the birds chirping, even now. And then there was a house that I thought had to be a castle—a princess castle, I remember calling it that—but my grandma insisted it wasn’t even one of the more high-class houses.”

  “I’d heard that about Earth,” Carma interjected. “The rich have become richer, the poor poorer.”

  Samantha nodded. “I had asked my grandma about that, and it broke her heart. Her eyes welled up with tears and she told me that there were times when the gap wasn’t so extreme, but that even those times had their own problems.”

  “Slavery, for one.”

  “You really studied up on Earth history, huh?” Samantha shrugged. “Yeah, I hear that was a thing, kinda like with the Syndicate, only then it was based on skin color. Ridiculous.”

  “Hey, you’re talking to a woman whose planet has been in a gender war for way too long.”

  “Yeah, that’s pretty damn stupid.”

  “Whoa, there.” Carma shook her head, then laughed. “But yeah, it really is, isn’t it? I was somewhat worried about working with Napalm and the others, but it hasn’t been that bad.” She bit her lip. “He’s especially not that bad.”

  “That might be too much information,” Samantha replied with a roll of her eyes. “I mean, it’s good that you’re transcending your biases, but do so behind closed doors.”

  “Ah, another aspect of you humans I always forget. How big of prudes you are.”

  Samantha raised a hand. “Guilty, and I’ll own it proudly.”

  “You do that… I’m going to go have a chat with Napalm about, hmm…”

  “Having a hard time coming up with an excuse?” Samantha waved her off. “Just go already.”

  Carma licked
her lips and walked off, leaving Samantha alone with the Shadows. After a moment, she walked over to them and smiled, standing at the edge of the table.

  “Didn’t know you were signing up for all this, did you?” she asked.

  Worsan smiled up at her. “An intergalactic tour? We’ve mostly worked the Shadow Worlds, on occasion been part of an excursion to nearby fringe galaxies, but nothing like this. Most pirate ships don’t have FTL, you see, so it would’ve been impossible to come this far in a lifetime.”

  She nodded, watching as an Arzanian ship flew past the window. A response was in her mind, but a mental wall went up as she realized something was wrong. The Arzanian ships were flying ahead, so why had one just passed them?

  The alarm sounded and Worsan saw the look in her eyes, quickly taking charge of his group and leading them back to their rooms.

  A blast hit the shields, and then more blasts were going off, flashes of light whipping by the windows and more ships flying past.

  Kwan came running in and saw her and the commotion outside the window. At the same time, both of them said, “Get to the bridge!”

  They ran out, met halfway by Napalm as he darted out of his room, still pulling on his clothes. Carma was right behind him with a weird expression of confusion and satisfaction. Samantha turned away from that real quick, wishing everyone could be as focused as she was on the mission at hand.

  Hadrian turned as they burst into the bridge, gave them a quick nod, and then motioned to the screen where lights were flashing.

  “Again, hailing all unknown aircraft. This is Hadrian of the Noraldian. We are here in peace.”

  The screen flashed an image of a tough-guy sort of man, his hair chopped short and wearing clothes that resembled the uniform of ancient Greek warriors, Samantha thought.

  “You’ve flown into my neighborhood with an enemy escort. Explain yourself.”

  “We’ve brought you some friends.” Hadrian turned and gestured, and the men he had rescued were at his side. “No ransom, no exchange. We just want to talk.”

  The man’s face showed surprise and confusion, but the shooting suddenly stopped outside. “Hadrian of the Elder Council?”

  “Affirmative,” Hadrian replied.

  “I am General Pottan. You will land here, all of you. We will meet.”

  Hadrian confirmed and then disconnected as he maneuvered the Noraldian to a flat plain of purple. Soon the others had followed suit and they had a bit of a standoff, with the men’s ships on one side, the women’s on the other, and the Noraldian in the middle.

  Just outside of his ship, Hadrian waited with his team at his side as General Pottan approached. He had ten well-armed and similarly dressed men. Each had blasters in one hand, spears in the other.

  “What the hell is this?” Pottan demanded. His eyes went from Hadrian to the men behind them, then to Carma.

  “It’s time for Arzan to put its squabbles aside,” Hadrian said, and then quickly explained the situation with Saraleigh and Praks, as he had to the women. At the mention of Praks, the general’s eyes lit up. “I take it by your expression that Praks has indeed been around lately?”

  Pottan grumbled and turned to one of his men. The two conferred, then he turned back to Hadrian and nodded. “If what you say is true, you’ve come at an opportune time. Not only have you shown us good faith by returning our brethren, but the women of Arzan have an opportunity to prove their intent to enter into peace.”

  “How’s that?” Carma asked, eyeing him with uncertainty.

  “It just so happens,” Pottan replied, “that Captain Praks was reportedly spotted at the Outer Drok caves. We were headed there to intercept him when we found you. You all got lucky, because we almost mistook you for him.”

  “And yet, you still tried to shoot us out of the sky,” Samantha pointed out, earning her a rebuking glance from Hadrian.

  “If Praks is here, we must move, now,” Hadrian said. “Carma, you brief Reyn, fly with her. Pottan, your men are yours again. We do this, you’re onboard? All we need is for the gender wars of Arzan to come to a close so that you can set up a joint defensive network. Your powers must not be stolen again, and must certainly not be used by the enemy. Do you understand?”

  General Pottan nodded. “I don’t speak for all of us, but my word carries much weight. You can count on me. We’ll lead the way. If we catch the pirate in a battle, stay out of the way of my guns.”

  Hadrian laughed. “It’ll be a race to see who can shoot him down first, trust me. But… if we can capture him alive, for questioning, that’s preferable.”

  “Understood.”

  With that everyone went to their respective places while Hadrian and Jackal went aboard to prepare a weapons check and brief the Shadows on the situation. Samantha glanced over at Ferder who, in spite of being mostly blind, was staring at her.

  “The glasses are working better, I take it?” she asked.

  He smiled, then seemed to remember himself and looked away briefly, blushing. “It’s just, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. It’s... amazing. You’re amazing.”

  “I think that’s our cue to step back inside,” Carma said to Napalm.

  “Right,” he agreed.

  Kwan nodded with a grunt and led the way.

  “Ferder, we’ve talked about this before,” Samantha said, uncomfortable at being left alone with him. She wasn’t sure how she felt about him, but sometimes he reminded her of Dan, and that bothered her. There were soldiers on both sides milling about their ships, but at least in the general vicinity, it was just him and her.

  “It’s not that,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you feel awkward, and they aren’t even fully functional, not like my eyes were. Forget it.”

  He turned to walk back into the ship, but she caught his hand. “I’m glad.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “That your eyes are healing,” she said. “Or, that these glasses are helping, anyway. I’m happy for you, really.”

  She gave his hand a squeeze, then dropped it and walked back to the ship. A second later, there was a scuffle of boots on dirt, and he was at her side as they reached the ramp.

  “When I get home, do you think the ladies will like the new look?”

  She laughed, then noticed Agathe at the top of the ramp, looking down at them with curiosity. “I don’t know if you need to even wait that long.”

  “Huh?”

  She just smiled and said, “Hey, Agathe, Ferder here was thinking he’s ready to get back into grappling. I told him you could show him a thing or two while I check in with Kwan. I wanted to get some shooting practice in before we engage in battle.”

  “Is that so?” Agathe was smiling at Ferder, and probably also at the thoughts going through her mind.

  Ferder, however, looked utterly bewildered. “What’s happening?”

  “You’ll thank me later,” Samantha said, patting him on the shoulder as she walked on and gave Agathe a wink.

  Ferder was a nice guy. Agathe could probably be nice too, and they were both on the same side. Plus, Agathe seemed like she had some tension she needed to work off, whether that was by grappling or something else.

  It wasn’t like Samantha had lied—she really did want to work on her shooting with Kwan. Luckily, she could help these two out in the process, she thought to herself as she walked toward the training room, where she could usually find the hardened ROK Marine.

  He was happy to work with her until the ship took off, and when they exited the shooting simulation, arm sore from holding the guns and eyes tired from squinting, they stumbled upon Agathe and Ferder apparently taking a breather from grappling—a breather into each other’s faces.

  They stopped kissing long enough to look up and giggle, then pushed themselves up and ran out of there.

  “Like the barracks back in Korea,” Kwan said with a laugh.

  “Really?” Samantha turned to him with confusion. “I figured you ROK Marines were all business, no play.”<
br />
  “Me? I had a family, so no. But those young Marines… I’ll spare you the details.”

  “Please,” she replied and shook her head at the thought. It was a welcome distraction, though, from the recent sight of Ferder and Agathe. She had sent Ferder to Agathe, so why had catching them kissing made her stomach feel tight?

  “All hands, suit up and be ready for combat,” Hadrian announced over the speaker system, interrupting Samantha’s thoughts. “We’re facing Shadow World pirates, specifically the fleet of Captain Praks. Empty your bladders now, because it might get rough out there.”

  Samantha had already changed into her armor, but went with Kwan to get geared up. Soon they were ready and in their seats on the bridge. A quick glance showed that Napalm and Carma weren’t around, and neither were Ferder and Agathe. Voira looked so lonely there without the other Acome, causing Samantha to wonder what it was with these people right before battle.

  Hell, she got excited too—but her excitement focused on charging into battle and bringing the thunder.

  Hadrian glanced back and looked like he was just about to ask, when the others came in, suited up and ready to rock.

  “I don’t pry,” Hadrian said with a hint of a smile, “as long as everyone’s on time.”

  “Roger that,” Napalm replied.

  Without another word on the matter, Hadrian nodded for Jackal to take off. They rose into the air and turned so that the display showed the two formations of ships at the ready, the men on one side, the women on the other.

  “Straight down the middle,” Hadrian said with a shake of his head. “If every planet were like this, I think I’d lose my mind.”

  “If other planets were like this,” Jackal countered as he started flying, “they wouldn’t have any babies and would soon be depopulated.”

  Hadrian chuckled at that, then leaned back as the ships belonging to the men led the way.

  18

  Outer Drok

  This was the largest formation of ships Samantha had ever been a part of. With the angular ships of the Arzanian women on one side and the more rounded ones of the men on the other, they flew into the region the locals called Outer Drok like bats flying out for their nightly feast.