They would be fine, he told himself.
But not if Holger was still alive.
That was a problem he would have to deal with sooner rather than later.
58
"So," said Phoenix, stretching his arms over his head. "Where should we go?"
Everyone was in the mess room. While they all ate, Phoenix wanted to plan what they would do next.
"You are assuming all of us want to travel together," said Freyan.
"Oh, come on, Doc. You know you can't live without us," teased Phoenix.
"Doc?"
"Yes, Doctor. You cured my family; that makes you a doctor in my eyes."
About to say something, Freyan lowered his head and became interested in the tabletop before him.
"I think we should go somewhere that gets us loot. None of us have any credits, and without credits, we can't eat or buy guns. Not eating is fine. But we need guns. Big ones," said Plowstow.
"Thank you for your interesting insight as always, Plowstow. What about you, Saoirse?"
"While I do have business I need to attend to, it can wait. Being in this...group has been interesting."
"That's my girl," said L, bumping her elbow into Saoirse's side.
"As I see it, the universe hasn't treated us too kindly. I say we sneak up behind it and kick it in the balls. We have a few debts that need to be paid, but we can discuss that at a later date. If anyone wants to leave or get off at any point, you're more than welcome to. Remember, this isn't some sort of military crew. We're just a group of friends hanging out."
"Friends forever!" sang L.
"If we're going to do this--whatever this is--we need a better ship," said Saoirse.
"Oh, don't worry about that, Midnight. I already have that sorted. I know a place," L said, eyes going cold and hair going fiery red.
"Great--meeting adjourned."
As everyone got up to leave, Phoenix waved Plowstow to stay behind. As they left the room one by one, Phoenix stared at Plowstow, not saying anything. Getting up and walking towards the Orcian, Phoenix stood in front of him and said nothing.
"What?" asked Plowstow.
The uppercut that Phoenix delivered didn't knock Plowstow on his ass, and it probably hurt Phoenix a lot more than Plowstow, but it had to be done.
Plowstow took a staggering step back and looked at Phoenix in shock.
"If you ever endanger me or this crew again, I will kill you. Now we are even."
Phoenix held out his hand, waiting for Plowstow to shake it.
"I understand," he said, embracing Phoenix's whole arm.
As Plowstow left the room, Phoenix went to a chair and sat down. Breathing a sigh of relief, he felt the tension slowly leave him.
The engines rumbled and the walls around him brought a smile to his face. He finally had something in his life he'd been missing for a very long time. A mission, a goal, a purpose. He couldn't clearly define it yet, but he knew the first steps he needed to take.
This was going to be fun!
Epilogue
Abdul looked up annoyed as the doorbell rang. There was always someone looking to buy something just as he was about to close up shop. It drove him crazy.
Walking towards the front counter, he wiped his hands down his front. He guessed he shouldn't be annoyed; he needed every pound he could possibly get. After Phoenix's little shoot-out, the cost of renovating the shop hadn't come cheap. Phoenix had cost him double that day.
The money Phoenix had stolen from him and the money it cost him to fix his shop back up... He was lucky the police never found his firearm, otherwise things would have gotten a lot more difficult for him.
Everyone knew it was Phoenix, even if no one wanted to admit it. He would find that fucker and make him pay.
Footsteps down the shopping aisle brought back him to the present. Walking toward him was the strangest man he had ever seen. Dressed in dusty red leather, the man in question was blacker than the night was long. Thick plaits down to his shoulders had little bells on the end of them. They jingled as he approached the counter. The stranger stopped in front of Abdul and drummed his fingers along the surface.
"Funny, I didn't know this little planet existed, but here I am now. Your people and mine look so alike. But we are separated by galaxies. How strange." Fingers still drumming, the stranger looked around.
"What you want? No time for games, closing in a minute."
"Closing in a minute. Strange indeed. I would think you would stay open, prolong my stay to take some of my wealth. The role of playing a merchant doesn't suit you."
"Do you need something?"
"I guess I should come right out and say it. I need information--knowledge. Power, I already have."
Abdul looked at his watch, then brought his attention back up to the stranger.
"Don't be in a hurry. I will get to the question momentarily."
"Get out! I have no time for this nonsense. You like wasting time, is that it?"
Abdul slowly reached for a crowbar under the counter. His fingers closed around the cold steel. "I won't tell you again--"
With the speed of a cobra, the stranger reached behind Abdul's head and brought it crushing down on the counter. Trying to raise his head, Abdul was unable to. Lifting his hand, he tried to swing the crowbar at his attacker, but it was swatted away like a fly.
The stranger grabbed Abdul's wrist and brought it down on the counter next to his head. Abdul's heart began to race. The knife that plunged into his hand pinning it against the wood of the counter almost stopped it.
Abdul cried out in pain as he began to feel a warm trickle down his leg, dampening his pants. Whimpering, he tried to move, but it only brought more pain.
"Listen carefully now," the stranger said, stroking Abdul's head. "I need to know everything there is to know about Phoenix Jones."
59
Stranded (Space Outlaw 2)
The lights on the bridge had gone out. Sirens wailed and screeched. Red flashing lights highlighted dangers on multiple levels. The eerie red glow they cast over Saoirse's face didn't inspire much hope in Phoenix.
"What have we got?" Phoenix shouted over the sirens.
Saoirse's reply was inaudible.
"What?"
"It doesn't look good! The engine readings are off the charts. Shields are down—" The words were snatched out of Saoirse's mouth as the ship launched everyone off their feet. Saoirse wiped blood from her forehead before dragging herself back to the ship's controls. "Because of the lack of power, we don't have any shields to protect us from this asteroid field. If we don't land soon we will be ripped apart!"
"I'm too young to die," Plowstow cried.
"Can we make it to the planet?" Phoenix asked.
"Make it, yes. Land safely, no," said Saoirse.
"Fucking wonderful. Just fucking wonderful! I have been on a total of three spaceship rides, and two of them have crash-landed." Phoenix stabbed a button next to the wall beside him, turning on the ship's coms. "L, how's engineering looking?"
Phoenix could feel a ball of tension growing in his stomach as he received nothing but static on the other end of the line.
"L—"
"I heard you the first time!" L's voice crackled through the system.
"Well..."
"How do you think it's going? I'm ankle deep in oil and ship coolant. I don't know how this heap of junk is staying aloft."
"Well, that's reassuring," said Phoenix.
"We're nearing the planet's atmosphere. How much time can she give us?" Saoirse asked.
"L, Saoirse wants to know how much time—" Another unseen object slammed against the ship, and Phoenix grabbed the wall to steady himself. "L! Saoirse wants to know how much time we have!"
Static answered Phoenix's question. He looked over to Saoirse, whose face had paled.
"L!"
"Phoenix...we...are..." The words came scattered through the static, like a flock of pigeons trying to take flight.
; "We are what, L?"
"We're going down," she said.
The force of the ship entering the atmosphere threatened to tear off the ship's outer hull, as well as Phoenix's own skin. "I can't believe this shit is happening again!" said Phoenix.
"At least you have a seat this time," said Saoirse.
"Funny." Phoenix gripped the armrest of his chair, his fingers digging into the material.
Knuckles turned white. Heads pressed flat against seats.
The ship bucked like a bull at a rodeo, wanting to veer off course. It jerked right to left, left to right, unsure what direction it wanted to head in, trying to find a way out of its misery.
Phoenix gritted his teeth as he felt the force of the Gs pull against his skin. His stomach lurched, threatening to spill its contents from both ends. Smoke billowed from one of the main consoles, and Phoenix brought his foot up to stomp out the small fire.
"Whose idea was it to come here, anyway?" Plowstow asked.
"Saoirse, can you make the landing?" Phoenix asked, ignoring Plowstow.
"I can—" Saoirse jerked the flight controls and the ship made a hard left. Sweat and blood coated her brow. She stared at the viewing panel in front of her. Jaw set firm, she appeared to be having a battle with the ship itself–willing it to stay on course, keeping it there with nothing but sheer willpower and stubbornness. "I can try," she finally replied.
"We ain't gonna make—"
"Plowstow! Shut up!"
Phoenix leaned forward in his chair, pressing the button that enabled him to communicate with the whole ship.
"Everyone listen up! This is your captain speaking."
Saoirse raised one eyebrow as she gave Phoenix a sideways look.
"I always wanted to say that. Anyway... We are going to be landing shortly, on this beautiful home planet of L's. I want everyone to brace themselves. Make sure all objects are safely secured and tucked away. On behalf of me and my crew, I would like—"
"Phoenix!" Saoirse and Plowstow both yelled.
Phoenix looked toward the viewing screen and his breath was snatched from his lungs. There was nothing but brown as far as the eye could see. It was everywhere–rolling hills and mountains of the stuff.
No other feature dominated the planet so much. There was no green. There was no blue. There was nothing in between. It was just brown.
Phoenix realised something almost too late. The brown mass was getting larger and larger by the second. It was coming at them fast. Too fast.
"Saoirse!"
"Working on it."
As Saoirse pulled and jerked the controls to and fro, anyone with half an eye could see it was a losing battle. There was nothing she could do.
The ship's nose pointed downwards, and everyone grabbed hold of whatever they could, beginning to lift from their seats. The descent was too fast, too uncontrollable.
As flames danced along the metal nose the ship twisted and turned, speeding towards the scenery below.
Phoenix could see it coming, and there wasn't a thing in the world that he could do. "Brown. Shit!"
Stranded will be out on preorder June 19th and on sale June 26th
Author Note
Author Note
First thing to get out of the way, if you want the second book Stranded for free sign up to my mailing list by clicking: here and I’ll email it to you.
Now that’s out of the way let’s continue.
There my be spelling and grammar mistakes, in this author’s note as it’s 3AM, and I am just putting the finishing touches to this book. (Plus my editor doesn’t see this bit.)
First off!
I am a red blooded male! Yes my name is spelled Dominique instead of Dominic, but I have my darling mother to blame for the name I am now blessed with. I think she wanted a girl or gay son, but it never worked out that way. (Sorry mum). Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this book it was a blast to write. I have never had so much fun writing a book.
Whenever I stopped writing I wanted to get back to it, so I could find out what the group were up to. They made me laugh, smile and feel sad. I hope they do the same for you.
Before I go any further, I have to put my hands up and say that I’m not that smart. So writing about science fiction, did make me nervous. I’m no Andy Weir or Nick Webb. Those guys books just blow my mind, by the amount of scientific knowledge that they have. But my books are never going to be like that, nor do I like reading those types of books. I like Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy type sci-fi. How do plasma swords work….they just do.
I don’t know how a car works, but I still drive one!
I tried to make my books about the characters, instead of the gadgets or showing off how smart I am. I hope it worked, if it didn’t I’m sorry.
This is my first time, venturing into the science fiction world. My last series, was based on angels so this is a completely different genre for me to play with. A fun genre that, I think is missing books like mine.
You don’t see many sci-fi adventure/ space opera books. The few that come to mind is Omega Force by Joshua Dalzelle, and the Outer Bounds series by Sara king.
But yeah, I hope to fill a gap that I think I can do well in.
My goal has always been to be a full time writer, but after a year and a bit it still hasn’t happened. I hope this year, is my breakout year. If it isn’t, then I’ll try again next year.
I want to take just a moment to say thank you, dear reader, for reading this. I respect people’s time more than anything, because it’s something you can’t get back. You can always earn more money, but time is priceless.
So thank you.
If you could take a moment to leave a review, that would be more than welcome. If you click on this: link, it will take you where you need to go.
If you do leave a review, and it has a question in it, I will answer that review in book two or three in the authors note. If you want to send me an email instead, you can find me at [email protected]
Oh! Oh! Don’t forget to sign up to my mailing list by clicking :here and I’l mail you the second book for free.
Till next time,
Hugs and kisses.
Dominique-Mondesir-856680984451515
https://dominiquemondesir.com
[email protected]
Also by Dominique Mondesir
Origins (Fallen Angels Book 1)
Betrayal (Fallen Angels Book 2)
Takeover (Fallen Angels Book 3)
Reflections (Fallen Angles Book 4)
Breakout: (Space Outlaw 1) Page 21