Blackstar Command 1: Prominence

by A. C. Hadfield

  Lopek nodded, confirming her thought. “Our intel suggests they’ve been working on this for half a decade, and right under our noses all the time.” He sneered and balled his hands into fists. “The damned government and the Defense Force has been too lax, thinking that as victors of the last war they had it easy, that our enemies were well and truly crushed. I told them so many damned times that we needed to…”

  The GTU captain caught Brenna's eye, and he trailed off. It was the first time she had ever seen him lose his cool like that, but given the circumstances, it was entirely understandable.

  “I’m with you,” Brenna said, leaning forward. “You’ve every right to be angry. Hell, we all do. Have you spoken with General Amelia about this incoming attack?”

  “Yes, just before I came in here. Amelia had already made the ridiculous decision to send more of the Coalition fleet to the outer planets where some fronts are under way. By the time they get there, it’ll be too late. Those skirmishes are targeted distractions. The Host forces have taken to sacrificing their pawns to strike at our heart.”

  This tactic was unusual for the Host. Brenna had studied them for years before and during the last war. Although as a group of some one hundred and fifty different species, the Host as a whole shared a culture, a vision that was many millennia in the making, the core of which was a value of life above all else.

  It was that central tenet of their being that added to the conflict with the Coalition, the latter being somewhat more pragmatic about the value of life.

  Some would argue, and many still did, that as an associated set of people, the Coalition often devalued life.

  Brenna thought of Kai’s home planet as one example: the blight on Zarunda could be cured with the resources available within the Coalition—if those who controlled the resources and knowledge cared enough to make it happen.

  That Kai had to do the GTU’s bidding to convince someone important enough that it was a cause worthy of action said a great deal.

  “So what has happened with the Host species to change so drastically within the last decade? It can’t just be their increased alliance with the shrain, surely?”

  A shadow passed over Lopek’s face. He looked away for a moment as though considering what to say. When he looked back at Brenna, his eyes were hard, cold.

  “Perhaps they never changed," he said. "Perhaps we just misunderstood them all this time, and they've always been more like us than we gave them credit for."

  “Credit?” Brenna said, swinging her legs off the bed now. “You think having a lower value of life is something to be credited? You think sacrificing soldiers and innocents in a war is an admirable action?”

  Lopek stiffened at her challenge. Brenna thought she might have gone too far, but damn it, she was tired, scared for her son, and nervous about the Coalition's chances. All around her it seemed the shrain and the Host were carrying out their plans successfully, all the time Lopek and the other leaders of the CDF were playing catch-up.

  The two locked gazes. Brenna refused to back down despite her rank.

  The GTU did things differently; that was why they were in the GTU, and she would be damned if she was going to just lie there and let Lopek spew his Coalition-approved nonsense.

  “Well?” she said, prompting him.

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His thin body slumped as he exhaled. “No, I don’t think sacrifice is always to be admired,” he said, his voice softer now, perhaps more heartfelt. “But war isn’t about any one individual; that’s always been the Coalition way, you know this. The Host—the way they’re purposely sending their people to their deaths to gain a strategic advantage—is a step beyond. It’s willful.”

  “It’s not in their character,” Brenna said. “And the shrain don’t have the influence, even if they have helped the Host swell their numbers. There’s more to all this than we’re privy too and it wouldn’t surprise me if those useful bastards back on Capsis know more than they’re letting on.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Lopek said, raising an eyebrow. “That our government and military leadership is compromised?”

  Brenna shrugged. “I’ve no proof, but if what you said about General Amelia is correct, couldn’t it be conceivable that her orders were somehow influenced?”

  A hush descended between the two of them. The ramifications of that were too vast to comprehend. If the Host and the shrain had infiltrated the highest echelons of Coalition leadership, then there’d be no coming back from that without massive civil and martial repercussions.

  Brenna eased back onto the bed and leaned her hands on her knees. "So what's next?" she said, trying to get the briefing back on track.

  “We’re heading back to Capsis as soon as our fighters are docked. We’ll be there within a day—and we just need to hope that it’s not too late.”

  “So what are the numbers?” Brenna asked, referring to their military units available to the Coalition capital system. “What’s available to put up a defense?”

  “We have the Fang and the Trident, a dozen cruiser vessels, and us when we arrive. If the intel is correct, the Host fleet is at least twice as strong.”

  “We don’t stand a chance,” Brenna said, feeling the hopelessness of it seep into her bones. The Coalition had been played for years, and the culmination of all that secret work was probably just a day or two away.

  “We still have the Doomsday and a wildcard,” Lopek said, injecting a hint of optimism into his words.

  “The Doomsday will certainly shake things up, but we’ll need more. Do you think the Blackstar will be of any use?” Brenna asked. “Even if Kai could find it, would he be able to use it, and would it even have any weapons capabilities that could help? Almost everything we think we know about it is superstition and stories passed down the ages.”

  “There is no migration without the changing of the season,” Lopek said. “We’ve sent word to Kai via our scouting team. We should know sooner rather than later the results of his mission. In the meantime, get some rest, let the drugs do their work. We’re going to need you when we enter Capsis space.”

  Lopek halted at the door when Brenna stopped him. “During this entire briefing, there’s been something missing.”

  He stood taller, remaining facing away from her and silent.

  “You haven’t mentioned Bandar. What happened to him?”

  Lopek shook his head slowly. “I’m afraid he didn’t make it. He sacrificed himself to allow Kai to escape Parsephus.”

  With that, the captain left, and Brenna slumped to her bed, a knot of grief tightening in her throat and her chest tightening.

  Bandar… her son. Dead.

  People thought of him has nothing but a killer and a criminal, but Brenna knew the truth: her son was a damned hero. He had sacrificed himself for the Coalition in ways very few people could comprehend, and now he was gone.

  Brenna instantly regretted not telling Kai Bandar’s true identity, and now it was too late. Tears began to streak down her face.

  She leaped off the bed, flung it over, and screamed until her throat was sore.

  With the grief and anger coursing through her, she vowed at that moment that this was the last person the Coalition would take from her. Her family had given enough. Her time with the GTU was done.

  As soon as they arrived at Capsis, she would take the Rapier and leave the Spearhead. If she survived the battle of Capsis Prime, she would find her son and leave Coalition space. Her service to the cause had come to an end. As far as she was concerned, she was a free agent now.

  Hell, she didn’t even care if that meant she’d have to go on the run. The Coalition and the GTU had made her an elite spy and killer.

  Let them come after her and see what they’d created.

  Chapter 24

  Two pairs of hands grabbed Kai and lifted him to his feet. Water dripped from his suit. A dull ache throbbed at his temples, and every muscle ached.

  “Kai, what happened?�
� Senaya said, moving to face him. She stared up at him, her eyes wide with worry.

  Kai took a few breaths and stood on his own as the dizziness abated. The real world eased back in, and he found himself back in the cave, looking down at the pedestal with the artifact still in place.

  Marella was to his left, staring at him with a mixture of awe and horror.

  “What?” he asked, looking down at himself to see if he were injured.

  “You… you spoke it,” Marella said.

  “Spoke what?” He looked from Marella to Senaya and was confused by their expressions. They looked at him as though he were an exhibit or perhaps some kind of creature.

  “You spoke the ancient language,” Marella said.

  “It was unlike anything I’ve ever heard,” Senaya said.

  “I can sense them. I… understand them. My brain is full of imagery and sounds I’ve never experienced before. It’s like I accessed a massive download of information but can’t quite make sense of it all.”

  Kai took the artifact and placed it in his suit’s pocket. He regarded Senaya and Marella and smiled as a warm, peaceful feeling eased through his body. “I’m one of them… it’s crazy to say, I know, but I feel it now. I see it. My mother, Brenna, she’s not my biological mother—that’s someone, something else.”

  “Something?” Senaya said. “A Navigator?”

  Kai laughed and nodded. He knew it sounded preposterous, but the strange device had given him the truth. There was no doubting it now.

  This revelation was what his father had led him to.

  The ultimate truth.

  Senaya joined in his laugh and shook her head. “This is crazy; you know that, right? Kai Locke, the not very good racing ship pilot, is a freaking son of a Navigator!”

  Marella wasn’t laughing. She just stared at him with an expression of trepidation and perhaps a little fear. Kai could understand that; she had more knowledge of the Navigators than most. He’d have to pick her brain later; she would no doubt enjoy some of the imagery that had come to him.

  A flash of some alien language raced through his mind, making him dizzy.

  The cave seemed to shift for a moment, and his balance tilted, but after a moment’s concentration, he steadied himself and leveled his breathing. He felt taller and lighter than he had ever done before, almost as though he were experiencing low gravity.

  “This must mean the Navigators aren’t extinct,” Senaya said. She pointed a finger at Kai. “You’re living proof that they’re still out there. You could be the key to bringing them back,” she said. “I mean, look at you!”

  Marella had backed off a pace. “I don’t know what this means, but we ought to be careful about it until we find out more.”

  “Hey,” Kai said, “let’s not get carried away. We don’t know if this is anything yet, could have just been a weird episode or something. It might not mean anything. If this is correct and I’m the offspring of my father and a Navigator, so what? I mean, it’s not like that’s helped me in the past, has it? I don’t have any magic abilities or anything.”

  Senaya laughed again and stepped back. “Kai, seriously? No magic abilities? Look at what you’re doing.”

  At first, he didn’t understand what she meant, but when he looked down, he saw that he was floating a short distance above the water around the pedestal. As soon as he noticed it, he pitched forward and fell, splashing into the pool.

  Senaya and Marella helped him up.

  “Damn, that hurt,” Kai said.

  “Seriously, Kai, that’s some crazy stuff,” Senaya said with a broad smile on her face. “I can’t believe that all these years I’ve been hanging around with a freaking Navigator. People are totally going to lose it when this gets out.”

  “It can’t,” Marella said. “He’ll be hunted down and treated like a science experiment. Let’s just see how this pans out. Right now, though, we ought to return to the ship.”

  “No,” Kai said, suddenly remembering something from his large data download. “The Blackstar. It’s—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence.

  The cavern started to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling as the vast expanse retracted aside, exposing the cavern to the dark skies above. A bright white light shot down through the gap and struck the pedestal. A thrumming bass frequency reverberated around the walls. The gravity of the planet seemed to increase.

  Within the light and above the canopy, a dark shape resolved. Marella gasped and stepped back to the wall.

  Warmth spread throughout Kai’s brain. His pulse quickened.

  Above them, a ship descended slowly.

  “Oh my god,” Senaya said as she gripped his arm. “That’s incredible.”

  Kai looked to Marella. Her eyes were wide with awe.

  “It’s the Blackstar,” she said.

  Kai knew it instinctively at a cellular level that this was the Blackstar, but even if he didn’t, it wouldn’t take a genius to see where it had got its name: the ship was matte black and vertical with a four-point star stretching from the front. A fifth point extended below. The whole ship was probably a hundred meters from base to tip and easily fifty wide at the tips of the points.

  “That’s massively impressive,” Senaya said, giggling with excitement. “Seriously, though, just look at it! If that’s not a Navigator ship, I don’t know what is!”

  Marella eyed Kai with what he thought was suspicion. “Did you call it?” she said. “Is that what the artifact did?”

  “I'd like to say yes, but I don't know exactly how it worked. I've got this massive data bomb in my head and can barely think straight. I think my father had this triggered, ready for me to activate it."

  The thrum stopped. The Blackstar hovered a meter above the pool. Everything was still, and there was no smell of ship fuel or even the blasting heat of engines. Kai stepped forward until he was staring at the vertical point. He reached out and touched it.

  “It’s cool to the touch,” he said.

  Marella and Senaya joined him. They all stared up at the imposing star formation that seemed to make up the bulk of the ship.

  “How do we get in?” Senaya said.

  Kai thought about it for a moment and was about to tell them that he had no idea when the front vertical opened outward, pivoting at the base to make a ramp.

  “Did you just think it to do that?” Marella said.

  “I don’t know… maybe.”

  “That’s so cool,” Senaya said, wasting no time in jumping onto the ramp and climbing into the ship.

  “Wait,” Kai said, “we don’t know what’s in there, yet.”

  Despite his protest, Senaya continued to ascend the ramp, her eyes like globes with excitement. She muttered unintelligible squeals of delight, reminding Kai that she was still young. That he was young, yet they’d already experienced so much in such a short space of time, and now there this was this amazing ship seemingly beckoning them to board.

  “Well?” Marella said. “Are we getting on or what?”

  “I suppose we ought to; it has kind of welcomed us.”

  “You think it’s sentient?”

  “At this stage,” Kai said, stepping onto the ramp, “I’m not ruling anything out.”

  “When I lost your father, I thought… well, it seems that he’s still out there, somewhere, looking over you.”

  Kai just nodded, not sure what to say. The information was in his head, but he just couldn’t comprehend it yet. His brain was fighting to catch up with the download. His subconscious was likely going to take a while to sift through and sort all the new information so that he could recall it and make use of it.

  He ascended the ramp into the belly of the ship and waited for Marella to join him. She hesitated at the threshold, took a look around the cavern, and paused as though considering her options.

  “What’s the matter?” Kai said.

  “I’m scared,” Marella said. “This is all so fast; I can’t—”

&
nbsp; “Comprehend it all? Me neither, but one thing I have learned about myself over the years is that by following my gut, things have somehow worked out okay. And isn’t this everything you’ve ever dreamed of? Here it is, a real Navigator ship, ready and waiting for you to learn about it.”

  “That’s what scares me. What if I don’t like what I find? I’ve dedicated so much of my life to studying the Navigators. What if they can’t live up to my expectations? What if I’ve got them all wrong?”

  “What if you have?” Kai said, challenging her. “Isn’t it better to know the truth?”

  Marella opened her mouth to speak, but she said nothing. Instead, she took a deep breath, nodded to herself and stepped over the threshold into a sparse, lit lobby area with smooth light gray walls, just large enough to accommodate the three of them. Before anyone could say anything, the ramp rose and closed silently.

  “There’s an atmosphere in here,” Senaya said, waving about the lobby a small analyzer the size of her thumb. “Perfect temperature and oxygen levels. Even simulated gravity. It’s like it’s made for us.”

  “Maybe it is,” Kai said, looking around and taking in his surroundings. The room was featureless, however, and there were no visible signs of how to reach the main areas of the ship.

  As he was about to vocalize the thought, the floor rumbled for a second and then they were moving upward. The lobby was an elevator. Within a few seconds, it had stopped, and one of the gray walls slid open, exposing them to a large open bridge.

  “Wow,” Senaya said, stumbling into it. “Look at this place; it’s incredible.”

  “Oh my… this is something amazing,” Marella said, following Senaya.

  Kai waited in the open doorway, wanting to take it all in. This was his first impression of the inside of a Navigator ship; he wanted to savor the experience, as he didn’t know if he’d ever get the chance again.

  The bridge was laid out in an open plan with a central circular island dominating the space. Finely upholstered couches, dark red in color, made a secondary concentric circle around the island. The walls of the bridge were smooth and covered in glowing text that Kai recognized as the Navigators’ language. Sadly, he couldn’t yet comprehend it.