The Outer Worlds: Book One of the Epherian Chronicles (10 page)

He had been
working as the mechanical engineer on board a large freighter which
was flying under a false identity and transferring a contraband
cargo of Demcarian reactor energizer pods. The pods contained a
complex synthesized chemical which could be added to a ship’s
reactor to rapidly increase engine power. The energizers had been
banned in many systems due to numerous reactor overloads which
often resulted in catastrophic accidents, but they remained in use
because there was no comparable product on the open market. The ban
caused the value of the energizers to skyrocket, which provided
ample opportunity for smugglers to cash in.

Ethan was
working in the engine room of the freighter when it had been
attacked by a rival faction. The crew of the freighter was ill
equipped to deal with the raid. Most of the crew were killed in the
heat of the battle. Ethan had tried to hide behind a wall panel in
the engine room, but the smugglers scanned the entire ship and
later captured him. They severely beat him until he lost the vision
in his right eye and almost all in his left. They then placed him
in a small cage in their cargo hold and left him there for months.
Ethan would have died of hunger if a domestic cleaning robot had
not brought him food and water whilst he was imprisoned.

Eventually the
smugglers needed to free up some space in their cargo hold, and
they were surprised to find Ethan was still alive in his cage. They
decided to let him go on Timber 5, thinking he would never work as
a smuggler again because of his damaged eyes. He wandered the
streets of the city and was lucky enough to find a job in a
junkyard on the outskirts. He slowly recovered from the ordeal and
purchased advanced intelligent glasses to overcome his lack of
vision.

After a year
of working in the junkyard he met Captain Michael and Ajax in a
local bar. He applied for the mechanical engineer position on the
Out Drifter, thinking that working with a salvage crew would be
much safer than returning to smuggling.

Ethan liked
working for Captain Michael, but the run of dangerous missions had
caused him to reconsider being on the Out Drifter’s crew. The
latest turn of events and the advent of the rescue mission had only
confirmed his decision to seek a position on another ship. The idea
of fighting aliens to rescue stranded colonists was beyond his
skillset and far outside his comfort zone.

Ever since the
day Ethan met Captain Michael he knew there was something different
about him. Michael had a way of thinking that he had never
encountered before. The more he observed the Captain the more he
noticed qualities that defied explanation. His skills on the
battlefield were far beyond that of a normal soldier, and his
strategic thinking in high-pressure situations had got them out of
trouble on more than one occasion.

All these
qualities had led Ethan to believe that Michael had once held an
important position in the Epherian Empire, yet Michael would never
talk about his past and would change the topic if he was ever
questioned. The latest revelation about seeking Acacius Trifon on
Zeno Par had only solidified Ethan’s belief about the Captain.
Ethan couldn’t guess what it was, but the mystery surrounding
Michael was the only thing that was motivating him to stay on the
Out Drifter.

**

Sara set the
scanners to give advance warning if they detected any ship, but
after twenty-four hours they hadn’t picked up anything at all. The
entire sector was empty, which was common after the aliens had
moved through an area. Sara hated the aliens. She had never
recovered from seeing the surface of her home world being
incinerated by alien nuclear weapons. She had seen the flash of
white light from space, and then watched as the glowing cloud of
radiation spread out across the surface of her planet. The image
was forever etched in the forefront of her mind. Her people had
battled until the bitter end and would not give up, no matter what
happened. However, when the aliens could not conquer a world they
would completely destroy it. Gazar Prime had been utterly
obliterated and most of the Gazarian people were dead.

No one knew
where the aliens came from. They arrived at the edge of the galaxy
and their brutal expansion had taken humanity by surprise. For
twelve thousand years humanity had been the predominant species in
the Triangulum Galaxy, but such a status could no longer be
claimed. Humanity had struggled to hold the aliens back, and
billions had died fighting them as they pushed through the Outer
Worlds toward the border of the Epherian Empire. Sara believed that
humanity could overcome the invasion if they worked together, yet
such was the history of mankind; there were few examples of
unity.

When the
aliens first arrived the leaders of many systems had sought a
diplomatic outcome; however, the aliens showed no interest in a
truce. It was widely known that the powerful Epherian Empire had
negotiated with the alien commanders in the early days of the
invasion, and many believed that the Epherians had made a deal with
aliens and had effectively handed the Outer Worlds to the enemy in
order to ensure the survival of the empire. The deal, which some
believe is a myth, came to be known as the Epherian Pact, and it
had caused a high degree of contempt for the Epherian Empire among
the people of the Outer Worlds.

Sara reflected
on Michael’s decision to attempt the rescue. At heart she approved
of the action, although she knew the rescue would be very risky.
She had never planned to work for a salvage captain; she was a
soldier, and fighting aliens was what she had been trained to do.
Nevertheless, after the fall of Gazar Prime she had drifted through
several backwater settlements. The areas bordering the alien battle
zone were overflowing with people fleeing the conflict. She had met
Michael whilst searching for a job in the dockyards of Timber 5.
Michael’s former pilot, a burly man named Jaxon, had left only an
hour earlier to take up a much more lucrative offer for a
terrestrial removal company. At first Michael thought Sara was too
young to have had much flying experience, but she convinced him to
give her a test flight, and he was so impressed with her skills
that he gave her the job before she landed the Out Drifter.

CHAPTER
SIX

‘…
Captain, we are approaching the Herman Beta system…’ said Sara
over the ship’s com.

Michael walked
into the cargo bay. Ajax had been drinking and was leaning against
the wall muttering incoherently. He slipped and fell to the floor
and lay flat on his face.

Ivan was
standing nearby. He examined the hulk of a man and shook his head.
‘Drinking alcohol is his primary mechanism to alleviate tension and
anxiety.’

Michael
crouched down beside Ajax. ‘You have to sober up. We are nearing
the Herman Beta system. You can’t pass out now!’

‘
Greeehhh, Cap, I dunno,’ mumbled Ajax as he coughed and
spluttered.

Michael
glanced up at Ivan. ‘Inject him with an alcohol neutralizer.’

‘
He will feel very unwell after the injection,’ said
Ivan.

‘
He deserves to feel unwell,’ said Michael.

Ivan went for
the medical kit which was latched to the wall. He unfastened the
kit and brought it back. Michael drew out a hydromedi injector,
which was a small handheld instrument that was designed to inject
substances through the skin without breaking the epidermal layers.
The hydromedi injector could constitute over seven thousand
pharmacological substances and could also reconfigure substances
based on the individual needs of the patient. Michael set the
device to alcohol neutralizer and placed it on Ajax’s upper arm. He
hit the inject button, and within a second Ajax’s eyes opened wide
and bulged. His breathing increased rapidly.

‘
Ahhhhh!’ he howled as he leapt to his feet whilst clutching
his head.

‘
How do you feel?’ asked Michael.

‘
Like death!’ groaned Ajax.

‘
Are you ready to fight? You are my best fighter. I need you to
be ready for combat. Do you understand?’

‘
All right,’ he groaned. ‘I’ll be ready.’

Michael turned
and walked back to the control room. Sara was aligning the ship for
the approach from the opposite side of the Herman Beta star.

‘
Any sign of the aliens?’ he asked, taking the co-pilot’s
seat.

‘
Nothing yet, which is a good thing,’ she replied. ‘If we
detect them then they will detect us, and I don’t want them to know
we are in the system until the very last minute.’

Michael stared
at Herman Beta through the viewing panel. The star was a white
giant, a huge and blazing orb floating alone in the depths of
space.

‘
The planet is on the exact opposite side of the star. Now all
we do is drift in until we reach the asteroid belt. I’ve powered up
the weapon systems and the electronic shield. We are ready for
combat.’

Within a few
minutes they were approaching the asteroid belt. Sara made some
adjustments and turned the Out Drifter. The asteroid belt was made
up of millions of asteroids of various sizes. Sara guided the ship
as close to the outer edge of the belt.

**

Ajax pulled on
his body armour and strapped an ammunition belt over his shoulder.
He attached a rocket propelled grenade launcher to his heavy
charged particle rifle, and he took his nano-bot sharpened dagger
and a plasma pistol, which he strapped to his legs.

The thought of
facing aliens disturbed him. The alien invasion of the Outer Worlds
had caused utter destruction. Billions of people had been killed
and many more would die before the war reached a conclusion. The
aliens were merciless; their extreme contempt for the human race
was beyond reason. Ajax had only ever seen one alien in his life,
but that one had left a lasting impression.

His life was
not what anyone would consider ordinary. He had left his home world
at the age of seventeen, and by the time he was eighteen he was
involved in a racket to extort credits from unsuspecting rich folk.
He would steal small amounts of money from those who he thought
didn’t really need their excessive wealth. His criminal acts
progressively worsened and the excuses for them became consistently
more complex, and then a day arrived when he no longer tried to
absolve his conscience. He didn’t care about anyone.

For five years
he worked the trade routes of the Outer Worlds as a racketeer, but
at the age of twenty-three his luck came to an abrupt end. His
career in crime ended when he was incarcerated in one of the
hardest prisons in the Outer Worlds, a pit of despair known as the
Swamp of Dread, where only the strongest survived. He almost died
in that hell hole, and his imprisonment had caused him to become
tougher than he could have ever previously imagined. His mind and
body hardened, and he gradually lost sight of his own humanity.

His time in
the prison lasted sixteen years. The Swamp of Dread was situated at
a remote location on a desert planet known as Alecto 8 which was in
the path of the alien expansion. The aliens arrived and quickly
conquered the other settlements on the planet. The people of Alecto
8 put up little resistance. Fear gripped the inmates as they
awaited the arrival of the invaders. A single heavily armed alien
entered the prison and systematically killed the inmates one by
one. The prisoners didn’t stand a chance.

Ajax waited in
his cell for death to arrive. He remembered the moment his cell
door opened; the creature’s orb like black eyes glimmered in the
gloom. It lifted its plasma weapon; however, fate had a different
plan; the alien’s weapon jammed. Ajax charged at the creature and
after a violent struggle he killed it with his bare hands.

He made his
way out of the prison and across the scorching desert wastes of
Alecto 8. He found an abandoned ship and managed to take the craft
into space, but the ship had been abandoned because the life
support systems were malfunctioning. He had already gone too far
before he realised the danger. He was stranded and knew his time
was at an end. He sent out a distress signal, but never expected a
reply. In the silence of space he waited, knowing that death was
the most likely outcome.

The Out
Drifter appeared like a beacon of light in the endless darkness.
Ajax had originally told Captain Michael that he was a stranded
salvage crew member. After being rescued he decided to leave his
life of crime and brutality behind. He kept up the pretence for as
long as he could, always suspecting that Michael knew the truth
about his past. Eventually he decided to tell the truth. He
expected Michael would ask him to leave, and he never fully
understood why the Cap hadn’t sent him away after he had admitted
lying. He respected Michael more than any other person he had ever
met; the Captain was the only man who he would actually risk his
life for. Ajax’s past haunted his dreams and constantly tormented
his conscience. He believed he had done too many terrible things to
ever be redeemed. One particular memory tortured him more than all
the others combined.

**

Aradel and
Adrastus were sitting at the table in the living room with the rest
of the crew. Michael had called a meeting to discuss the rescue
mission. Dog-Two was sitting beside the door, and seemed to be
guarding the entrance.

‘
In my opinion it would be better for you both to stay on the
ship,’ said Ajax, sternly addressing the two colonists.

‘
But you won’t be able to find the hidden vault without our
help,’ said Adrastus.

Ajax shook his
head. ‘All you have to do is direct me to the exact location. This
is a combat mission; the last thing we want is non-combatants
getting involved. I won’t have time to protect you.’