Void Star (3 page)

     She couldn't wait to get away from this place. Her tests had failed. Ruveran technology could not be duplicated or repressed. Those she worked for were not going to be pleased. She needed a distraction.

She stole one last look at the beautiful landscape, taking in the serenity of the ocean. It was gorgeous—red sands and pink lavender, and purple waters.
That will do,
she thought.

     Then something odd stuck out; it was a flash of light coming from the sky deep offshore. When she squinted against the waning light of day, she would have sworn it was a falling meteor. But she knew well enough that there weren't any in the sector. That knowledge only served to pique her curiosity, and she wanted to follow the mysterious object. Whatever it was burned white hot through the clouds.

     She felt her breath catch. It wasn't a natural object from space or the sky. It was a ship—and it was engulfed in flames.

     "Captain!" she screamed.

     The ship pad was easily within earshot, and out of nowhere, the captain reappeared. He came running down to see what the matter was, favoring his flesh-and-blood appendage for speed. He stopped short of her.

     "Ma'am?" His calm, patient eyes met hers.

     "Look!" She pointed up.

     His eagle eyes followed her finger and went wide in moments. "They're going to make a water landing." He turned his wrist communicator up to his lips. "Trevor! Boost! Listen. Fire it up and prepare for an emergency extraction." He turned back to Kaida, suddenly realizing she was still there. "Ma'am, get on board. We're departing now."

     Kaida followed after him. They raced across the landing pad together and burst through the cargo hold into the passenger compartment. She found her seat and buckled up. Her assistant, Daphkalian, did the same directly across from her.

     In the cockpit, Trevor heard the thrashing approach of his uncle.

     "What's the rush?" Trev asked, his checklist still out as Nathan dropped down into the pilot seat. He was double-checking the fuel system. "I think the auxiliary power unit is on the fritz."

     Nathan gave him a vituperative look that said he wanted to wring his neck. "Didn't you hear me? Sheezus. You'd know we're running an extraction if you had your communicator on." Before Trevor could ask another question, he yelled back to Boost, "Leave the door open and prepare the extraction winch."

     "Aye, Captain!"

     "I haven't even cleared the fault list—" Trevor began and then stopped himself when he saw his uncle's face. He'd check it later.

     "Are we clear?" Nathan called over the intercom.

     "Aye, Captain. Pad's clear!" Boost called from the back.

     Nathan hit the ignition. The fuel cells burst to life. The quantum engines spun up to 97 percent and held there. The captain punched the glide accelerator, and they shot off the pad. Low to the ground, they took off flying; the calm waves were thrown to either side of their path as they ascended above them.

     They leaped into the air just as the other ship slammed into the water. A forty-foot splash erupted like a volcano and then rained back down into the tranquil ocean.

     "You're going in." Nathan flicked his finger toward the wreckage.

     "You can't be serious," Trevor protested.

     Nathan nodded.

     But then Trevor would rather jump into a burning ship than listen to another lecture about the facets of having honor and living by his code of ethics. He unbuckled his harness and jumped out of his seat. He slid down the railings and saw the two surprised passengers.

     "We apologize for any inconvenience or discomfort this may cause," Trev said as he bolted past. He shot around the avionics bay and saw Boost waiting by the open cargo door.

     "What a waste of time. No one could have survived that crash," he told Boost.

     Boost shrugged as he hooked Trev up.

     Meanwhile, Nathan activated the ship's automated fire-suppression system and circled the wreck. The fires fought hard to stay alive against it, but eventually, they went out.

     Boost let the winch down with Trevor attached the moment the line was secure. The calm winds from the beach were stronger offshore. Water shot up and struck at his face as he descended. Trev put it out of his mind and wiped the moisture off. The salt water dried his mouth and burned his eyes.

     His boots hit the top of the fuselage. The craft was already half-submerged. There was no way it was going to stay up much longer. Charred marks ran across the hull, and even though the fire had been put out, he could still feel the heat rising off it. Sweats beads gathered and fell from his temples.

     Trevor opened the escape hatch on top, and a cloud of smoke blew into his face. He jumped down anyway. The sooner he did it, the better. He was familiar with this class of starship. It was a small passenger R-series carrier, usually used by VIPs from the Outskirt Worlds. Those who could afford this luxury rode with armed guards.

     He added bringing a gun and an oxygen mask to the things he would do differently when he found himself in this exact situation again. If it came to it, he still had the diamond sword he always wore at his hip.

     Through the gloomy smoke, Trev saw an alien, a Nymarian, in brown robes unconscious in his chair, his mouth hanging open. He checked for a heartbeat and found it, though it was faint. He looked toward the front through the haze and saw that the pilots hadn't been as lucky.

     When Trevor went to pick him up, the alien's large eyes fluttered for a moment and his mouth almost moved; then they closed, and his body went slack again. His eyes sealed shut.

     Thankful Nymarians were bony, thin, and a head shorter, Trev slung the only survivor's arm over his shoulder and dragged him back to the hatch. He pushed him through the opening, crawled out with him, and then attached him to the winch with himself. Boost brought the two of them back on board.

     "I got him." Boost was surprisingly strong given his small size. He called it "robot strength." The little guy carried the alien back to the passenger compartment as Trevor caught his breath. He followed after closing the cargo door.

     "I have some medical training," Kaida told Boost. "Put him down here by me."

     Kaida's eyes widened when she saw the Nymarian. Just like in the stories, it had golden, nearly transparent yellow skin; bony, frail features; and a large, bulbous mouth and eyes. Nymarians were like legends. They were never seen. What brought such a rare creature to crash-land?

     Boost did as he was told, propping the alien next to Kaida as Trev made his way back to the cockpit. The sky was a wild cascade of darker colors, as the sun was nearly gone for the day.

     "All right, we need to get him back to Paega Bay for immediate medical attention." Nathan began to turn the ship around. The ocean claimed what was left of the Nymarian's charred ship as it slipped beneath the waves.

     Suddenly, an alarm sounded. "Rift even detected."

     "It can't be," Trevor said.

     "Check it again."

     "The system is working fine. This planet is about to rift."

     "How close?"

     Trevor pulled up the spectral relay and saw a growing patch of red. "We're close to the middle of it. Uncle, this planet is lost. We have to go."

     "I'll send a warning to whoever is listening on this planet."  Nathan punched the frequency in.

     Daphkalian and Kaida listened to the warning sounds overhead and looked to Boost. Boost put on his seat belt and gave them a worried look, a feature he'd been working on. "Ruverans."

     Inside the cockpit, there was no time for hesitation. "Ready the thrusters," Nathan commanded.

     Trevor hit the switch on his console and adjusted the departure settings. "One-two-two-decimal-five set, full thrust, eighteen degrees engaged."

     "Checked," Nathan answered. He pushed the throttle up to full power, and they burst forward. The ship climbed impossibly fast through the atmosphere.

     "I don't see any Ruverans on radar," Trev commented.

     "They're out there."

     Trevor looked through his window again.

     A massive beam of hot light shot a hundred yards off their nose. Coming from somewhere in space, it immediately broke through the planet's crust.

     Trevor couldn't visually acquire its origin point, but what he did see churned his stomach. The oceans were boiling. Clouds began spiraling down. It was just like the rift that had taken Earth. He knew all too well nothing could stop this. Energy ribbons tore through the surface of the dying planet.

     Nathan juked left just as one threatened to tear through the ship.

     "Rift even commencing."

     "Course set. Punch it! Punch it!" Trevor yelled. They had full bars for light speed.

     Nathan looked over at the spectral relay and saw they were at the center of the red now. He engaged the force drive, and they blew through Aquaria's atmosphere into unknown black oblivion.

     As they disappeared from that galaxy, energy spikes tore apart the peaceful planet of Aquaria. It stood quietly for a moment and then burst. Slowly at the center, a white nexus formed and pulled the chunks of dead planet into it. It closed into itself and disappeared, as if it had never been. The gorgeous island world had been wiped from existence, just like that.

     A Ruveran battle ship emerged from the darkness of space. Like a shark, it picked up the scent and stalked after its prey.

Chapter 2

     The
Wrath
lurched to a sudden stop and glided gently between two moons. The ship's crew found themselves gazing at a ring of asteroids that ran between the two celestial bodies. It was evident that these two moons had collided and the belt that connected them was debris.

     "Terrain obstruction," the computer announced. One of the many automated systems the Tiger-37 was capable of employing ended the blind jump at the belt as a safety measure. While flying at light speed, something as small as a pebble could potentially destroy their ship, let alone a fresh asteroid belt.

     Nathan and Trevor sat back in their seats in the cockpit, breathing heavily. They exchanged a glance that defied the divide that had grown between the two men. It was almost like old times, like family. They both smiled for a moment—Nathan, for the first time in years. Then the moment passed, and they both resumed their respective roles.

     "We need to get out of here, and we're running low on fuel. See where the closest station is and reset our course," Nathan said.

     Trevor turned back to his NAV computer. He watched his uncle go for a moment, about to advise they keep moving but then thought better of it. Instead, he removed the sword sheath and set it in the cubby next to him. For whatever reason, he picked it up and unsheathed it. His father's blood still stained the length of it. Trev clicked it shut again and set it aside. Was he expecting a different result?

     Nathan had walked halfway back to check on the passengers when his robot stopped him, blocking the way, waiting for orders.

     Without anything better for it to do, he said, "Go make sure Trevor doesn't do anything reckless."

     Boost nodded and then sped off to go sit in the additional crew member seat behind Trevor.

     Nathan dropped down the steps and saw his two passengers, plus the new stowaway.

     The passenger compartment was one of his greatest achievements. When the war ended, Nathan had gutted it out and gone to work building. It became a sanctuary away from the pain of losing his family.  It had taken seventeen months to complete before they started their new lives as planet-less cargo shippers.

     The large room contained seating for forty-five. There were two bunk rooms on the right side, one for him and one for his nephew. In between was a plug-in port for Boost. On the left side was a full galley with fridges, ovens, and the like and next to that a spacious lavatory. The seats in the center could be maneuvered into multiple configurations; the one they were in had seven of the seats transformed into a long table. Staircases ran down into the compartment from the cockpit and out the back toward the cargo hold. The door to the hold was always closed to keep all the warm air trapped in the front, which currently held at a comfortable 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

     Nathan noticed Kaida had torn out the first-aid kits and was working on the latest addition. The redhead had thrown off her overcoat and torn ribbons of cloth to help staunch the alien's external bleeding. Presently, she stood crouched over it with a medical scanner.

     "Is he going to be all right?" Nathan asked.

     The brown-robed Nymarian was on oxygen and breathing shallowly. His luminescent yellow skin continued to lose what color remained. The alien was covered in black soot from top to bottom and had all the appearance of suffering internal bleeding. The situation looked grim. The Nymarian was fading fast.

     Kaida shook her head at the captain's question. She ran a hand through her lush red hair as though that would wash the truth out. "He may come around. But I fear the smoke poisoned him, and his other injuries are fatal. I will keep him on oxygen to make his…transition more comfortable."

     Nathan had seen death many times on the battlefield. Sadly, this creature had only a handful of minutes left. Its life hung on a thread. "How are
you
fairing?"

     "I'm all right thanks to you." Her eyes conveyed more than mere thanks. The excitement of evacuating Aquaria in time was still fresh and strangely invigorating.  Realizing then the moment wasn't right for what else she had in mind; she turned her attention back to the dying alien.

     Daphkalian, her large assistant, just sat watching over them.  His slick feline ears pointed back.

     Nathan saw the need to divert their attention from everything that had happened and the alien's dire condition. He changed the subject.  "We're going to have to stop to recharge the fuel cells for the trip back to Mara VII. We'll get you back there as soon as we can."