Shadows Bear No Names (The Blackened Prophecy Book 1) (2 page)

Now the mother ship faced
Mira
. Ga’an thought of ancient gladiators battling in the arenas to entertain the Emperor. Like two warriors the ships stared at each other, knowing the next few minutes would irreversibly alter their fates. It would be easy for the Baeal mother ship to fire from that safe distance and blow
Mira
away, but Ga’an guessed it would be too easy to
satisfy
the warmonger of Baeal. Instead, the hulking death drifted slowly toward
Mira
, filling his view. Ga’an tried to make out the details of his killer. He wanted to have the memory, telling the tale of his battle in the hall of his ancestors and how he beat an unbeatable menace. He closed his eyes and awaited the irritating firing signal coming from the mother ship.

“Collision warning.”

“What!” Ga’an opened his eyes and turned toward the main console, as if to face the owner of the computerized male voice. “Damn the blood!” he screamed at his injuries when his vision blurred.

“Curses and curses on the tainted blood!” He stood up awkwardly, keeping his weight off his left leg, hoping to see what was happening. The radar was long dead and his only means to
see
what was going on was through the hole punched through his bridge.

“What collision!” Ga’an kicked a fallen chair, ignoring the spikes of pain going all the way to his neck. He didn’t realize he was yelling. “Speak, you pitiful excuse of a machine!” He dashed to the very edge of the gap.

First, he saw nothing but the huge mother ship hovering over
Mira
. Thousands of craft in all sizes were locked in a fight in the distance. Their turrets created a lightshow.

“Curses,” he whispered, turning back to check the other end. He caught a glimpse of another cruiser passing the stern of the command ship. “Curses!” his eyes opened wide. Ga’an jumped for something to hold on to. “Curses, curses, curses!”

A thunderous sound deafened him. The violent shake knocked his head twice against the metal rails he grasped and he felt the warmth of his dripping blood, but somehow he held on.

“I will not be stripped of my revenge!”

One of his own cruisers crashed right into the main thruster of
Mira
, almost dividing the ship in half. Several explosions followed the initial hit, although not as fierce as the initial blow, still rattling the ship like a baby’s cradle.

“Structural damage in antimatter drive core.”

“Report!” the Praetor yelled back but the computer was deaf to his commands, repeating its words in its own monotonous voice.

Ga’an ignored the machine; it was a one-way trip for him anyway. Smoke filled the bridge, burning out what little oxygen left on the depressurized bridge. The Praetor crawled back toward the gap to see the fate of the other cruiser but while making his way to the opening, he realized something disturbing; the worm-like mother ship had passed
Mira
without firing a shot and continued toward the core conflict, ignoring her altogether.

“Curse the spirits! Curse the ancient blood! Curse those bloody statues!” Ga’an didn’t know if it was the anguish of grief or rage, but he howled.
Mira
should have blown by now. “I will have revenge!” He hopped back toward the main console to manually execute the self-destruct. If he managed to ignite the core now, it would still be enough to damage the mother ship.

“Proximity alert. Divert course.”

“Must I be interrupted at every turn!” Ga’an turned back to the opening to see what the computer was babbling about. “What—”

As the smoke cleared, a huge black hole, darker than the night itself appeared before his eyes. Ga’an didn’t realize that in all this madness, the crash had altered
Mira
’s course. Now, she was headed directly into the Baeal dimension gate.

Ga’an didn’t move. He didn’t blink. He watched the gate’s red illuminated symbols grow before him until all he faced was the shimmering darkness that rippled like a thick fluid.

He closed his eyes slowly, exhaling in acceptance. No matter how hard he fought, Ga’an couldn’t escape the inevitable defeat. He leaned on a nearby console and slipped down to sit. He relaxed his leg and stared into the infinite blackness.

“Auto destruct imminent. May you die a glorious death.”

A sudden bright light blinded him and everything went dark.

Chapter TWO

YET ANOTHER HAPPY LANDING

“How are you, Skipper?”

“Trying to keep my yawns back.” Ray closed his mouth with his hand. “How long was I asleep?”

“You hit the bunk right after we took the final jump gate, right?”

Ray nodded.

“Hmm. Twelve hours or so. Give or take. Sleepy head.” Sarah chuckled.

“I like spending time in there.”

“You could’ve joined us in the mess hall. We played cards!”

“Sarah, I—”

“I know, all right,” Sarah intervened. “You don’t want to get involved.”

“I slept!”

“Alone.”

“Alone.” Ray raised his finger at Sarah to hold on, reaching for the intercom terminal near the main elevator door at the end of the crew quarters. He touched a button to bring out the holographic interface. “Ray here, anything going on?”

A signal beeped once, followed by a man’s voice. “Aliens invaded the galaxy and I won the Consortium lottery!”

“That dull?”

“What did you expect, boss? We’re a cargo ship. Alec out.”

“Good,” Ray mumbled.

“Maybe we should requisition for a jump drive,” Sarah suggested.

“Well, it would cut the trip time to a couple of hours but no one in Consortium would care about retrofitting this old lady with a jump drive.”

“Yeah. It could also overload and shred us to pieces with that old power core.”

Ray smiled. “There’s also that. No trouble, no fuss.” He reached for the elevator call button but the floor display blinked as busy. “How can the elevator be busy on a six-man cargo ship?”

“It’s Rahul.” Sarah smiled, patting Ray’s shoulder. “He was moving some containers from the engineering deck to the aft cargo bay.”

“Why?”

“Said one of the containers
growled
at him.”

“What?” Ray blinked.

“You know the kid. Probably keeping busy.”

Ray sighed, “And the elevator.”

“And the elevator,” Sarah nodded. “So, Bunari…”

“What about it?”

“You nervous?”

Ray raised an eyebrow. “Why should I be?”

“You know,” Sarah shrugged, “religious guys. Different customs and all…”

“Never had any dealings with the bunch,” Ray clicked his tongue, “but I doubt they are anything like those freaks living in the outer rim. These are just people with different beliefs.”

Sarah knit her brows. “True, if half of those stories are true about the Cosmon Brotherhood…” She made a gesture as if she was shivering.

“Those are maniacs. Burning people alive at the stake because they don’t believe in their God. That…what was his name?”

“Archibald Cosmon.”

“Yeah, that Cosmon freak. Preaching the end of times, how all should bow to the harbinger of doom. You know the footage on the network. I never saw anything like that about Bunari.”

“Why don’t they do anything about it?”

“Who?”

“You know,” Sarah pursed her lips. “Consortium.”

“Heh, I wouldn’t be surprised if our beloved Consortium helped their creation in the first place.”

“You really believe that?”

“That’s capitalism for you.” Ray shrugged. “Create a threat, herd the fear. Not much has changed in our history. A trade consortium ending up as the governor of human capital is capable of everything in my book. Besides, their hideout’s far away, deep within the storm clouds outside of Consortium’s borders. It makes it hard to control their movements in the outer rim.”

“Not too far away to have suicide attacks on Earth.”

“Ideas travel distances faster than us, humans.”

Sarah stood silent for a moment before she spoke again. “Do you think they’ll keep us on this line or is it a one-time job?”

“Earth to Bunari line? I don’t think so,” Ray shook his head. “We’re a substitute for
Alexia
for this run. Maybe a drop every now and then, but if I can get my train liner license, we may end up on a better lane. Like the Sol, Arcturus line maybe. Bunari is a small planet with a few million people on it. Not much trade volume.”

“We’ll have to leave
Canaar
then, right?”

“
Canaar
’s a good ship but she’s old. We can’t tow five-kilometer long ore freighters with it. They’ll probably assign me to another ship and give
Canaar
to a fresh captain.”

“Will you take us with you?”

“You know I would try everything to keep the team together. It’s up to Headquarters in the end. They own the ships, they own our licenses.”

“They pay the salaries. They make the calls.”

“They make the calls,” Ray nodded.

The beeping of the elevator announced its arrival. “There she is!” Sarah sounded relieved.

Ray was happy for the interruption as well. The topic was a tad too morbid for his comfort. “So, to the engineering deck?” he asked.

“Yeah, have to wear my uniform. Security Officer and all that, you know.”

“You look good in casuals.”

Sarah’s eyes shone playfully. “We don’t want the believers to know our secret in the Core systems.”

“Our secret?”

“That we love to wear casual clothes on cargo ships. What else it could be? Oh, you’re such a bad boy, Skipper?” Sarah chuckled. “I also have some paperwork to handle before we land.”

“We left Mars almost two weeks ago, Sarah.”

Sarah shrugged apologetically. “I had other matters to attend to.”

“Yeah—” Ray started but an announcement from the intercom cut him short.

“The glorious Captain of Captains, there’s a green planet before us. To the bridge, please.”

Sarah laughed, “Well, that’s Alec for you.” She exited the cabin as the elevator made its way to the Engineering deck. “See you after the landing, Skipper,” she winked behind the closing door.

“Yeah, duty calls,” Ray whispered, selecting the bridge deck from the control panel.

***

Ray watched the green sphere grow before him as
Canaar
slowly approached the small planet. With flora glowing in vivid greens and blue reflections from the atmosphere, the place had an Earth-like look. But the dense jungle formations clearly distinguished this planet from the industrialized and over-populated human capital.

Canaar
brought Ray and the crew to their next stop just as she always did; the comfort of reliability relaxing her passengers. She was an Atlas-class transport, an older but solid model, retrofitted with standard navigation systems and automated functions. As some captains would say: “Hardly the touch of a few buttons.”

“Religious or not, these people know how to keep a planet…well, like a planet.” Ray said.

“Live and let live, eh?”

“Yeah, green and…alive.”

“I’m not sure how to feel about this.”

“This?” Ray asked, still staring through the bridge’s forward observation window.

“Bunari, Skipper.” Alec made a wry face. “I’m not too comfortable around these people.”

“As if you’ve ever visited the place before.”

“What’s there to see? Buildings jumped out of medieval times. A city full of crazy priests and their Light. Did you even see their star port? It looks like that mosque in Agra.”

“Taj Mahal?”

“Yeah, the one on the photos Rahul loves to show. I don’t understand why the
Alexia
couldn’t make this run,” Alec muttered. He turned to Halle, attending the communications console behind him. “Perhaps her crew didn’t want to be here?”

“Alec, for the tenth time,
Alexia
is back on Mars. The new captain didn’t know a thing about piloting the Atlas and crisped the engines for good.” The middle-aged woman answered patiently from her station. “There’s no way for them to make it all the way here from Core systems in time. These transports don’t have jump drives
as you know
. So, we’re here.”

“It’s just a colony, Alec.” Ray gave a faint smile. “Their great-grandfathers were from Earth.”

“Yeah, religious grandfathers. And burning your engines? Sounds like something a moron would do.” Alec folded his arms, turning back to watch their approach on planet.

“Yeah, just make sure you don’t crash us into that planet.” Ray turned to wink at Halle.

“Ha-ha, very funny Captain.” Alec raised his arms and waved them like a bird’s wings. “I fly like a beautiful butterfly, with my colorful wings and all.”

“Don’t worry.” Ray patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll be a fine butterfly yourself. Purple spots and pink lines.”

“Ha-ha.”

They both knew this was a joke. Alec Korbin was one of the best officers Ray had ever worked with. Fifteen more months and Alec would be eligible for his own license from Consortium’s trade fleet.

Ray cleared his throat and moved back to his seat. “We’re here to make some extra bucks we all can use. Let’s drop the cargo and be on our way,” his tone suggested the chatter was over.

Ray always thought it was important to raise the mood and was always friendly with his crew—some would suggest
too
friendly—but their line of work didn’t have much room for sloppiness. They were about to land in a densely populated area with a hundred-and-seventy-meter ship towing container tanks five times that size, full of niobium—volatile ship fuel.

Ray observed the navigation data on his screen again. “I want to be done with this before dinner.”

“You don’t like Bunari either?” Alec was smiling. He raised an eyebrow and changed his voice, mimicking the famous football announcer on Channel Sports-X. “Wonderful jungle planet with religious fanatics who can cut your tongue for blasphemy.”

“That’s speculation. You know I don’t like crowds in general.” Ray shrugged. “I just want to get paid and park the ship somewhere remote.” He ticked his tongue, following a deep breath. “And I think I like my tongue.”

“No R-and-R, skipper? We’ve been out in space for two weeks.” Halle pursed her lips.

“Yeah, about that,” Alec intervened. “When will we have a jump drive?”

Ray sighed. “Alec, we
won’t
.”

“Just wanted to try my luck.”

“
Canaar’s
too old a model for that kind of power requirement,” Halle shrugged, not getting Alec’s sarcasm.

“No jump drives and no R-and-R. Solitude’s enough for me.” Ray said, waving the two to get on with their work. “You two can have some fun after we leave Bunari and visit Wilkins Port on our way back.”

“We’re going to Wilkins?” Alec asked in excitement.

“Yes, just…” Ray winced, “remember to stay away from the station manager’s daughter this time.”

“Haha! Wilkins!”

The huge transport ship cut its engines as the flight computers positioned the ship for atmospheric entry as their talk came to an end. Just like the saying, hardly the touch of a few buttons for the crew. The bulk of the work was on the computers’ shoulders. Almost everything about ship travel was automatic these days.

“Entering atmosphere,” echoed a dull, mechanical female voice, announcing the planetary landing to bridge personnel.

“So far, so good.” Ray checked his monitor. “Lieutenant Martins, please be kind enough to sound the horn. Inform our hosts of our approach.”

“Aye, Skipper,” Halle turned back to her station and put her headphones on.

Ray reached for the intercom button to alert the rest of the crew. “Keep tight everyone. Starting descent.”

There was no response, only static.

“Hello? Anyone getting this? Dr. Sanders? Sarah? Rahul?” Ray switched channels and tried again. “Alec, try it from your end.”

“Hey!” Alec radioed. “Come out, the captain won’t bite.”

There was no response, only static.

“I hate these older model consoles.” Ray frowned, fiddling a few more times with the holographic interface with no luck. “Come on!” Ray slammed his hand on the console. “I thought Rahul fixed this thing already!”

“He did, Boss. It was working two hours ago.” Alec fiddled with his terminal’s controls but there was only the hissing of static.

Ray licked his lips, trying to hold back a few nice comments that came to mind about Rahul and his abilities. “Halle, patch the live camera feed to my end.”

The procedure required all stations to acknowledge the landing and report. If he didn’t have a green light from all the stations, regulations required him to abort. It also meant a few hours down the drain and an ear-boxing from Headquarters. The Mourning Chain
they called it, everyone in the system forwarding the complaint to another until it returned to Ray like an avalanche of discontent from the Executive of Finances. This meant trouble for him and for the team. Back on Earth, the home of Consortium, money and time meant everything.

“Halle, I’m still waiting for that feed!”

“T-they’re not here, Captain,” Halle faltered. “I can’t reach any of the cameras on deck four.”

“What do you mean you ‘can’t reach’?” Ray sighed. This landing was falling apart.

Halle shook her head in surprise. “The cameras aren’t connected to the system, Captain. They’re not plugged in.”

The following silence was nerve-racking. Ray didn’t say a word for almost a minute, watching the green planet fill the bridge window.

“All right, Alec, abort the landing.” He stood and strode to the elevator at the back of the bridge. “Halle, contact the tower, get us a new clearance. Tell them we had a problem with our landing gear or something,” he said without looking back. One thing was certain; he and the kid had a
nice
chat coming.

Alec rose from his seat. “Captain, the boy did what you asked. Perhaps—” but Ray stopped him with a firm gesture.

As he reached for the button, the elevator doors opened.

“Holy Mother!” Ray rushed into the cabin. “Rahul! Alec help me!”

Rahul’s coveralls were soaked in blood, his right eye missing. His thin frame shook, mumbling inaudible words interrupted by the blood filling his mouth—he was more raving in a trance than communicating. It was a miracle he’d made it to the bridge, leaking blood like that.

Ray held Rahul in his arms, trying to steer him to a chair. Alec was there in a flash, grabbing the poor kid. Rahul was a slight boy from Bangalore, but his uncontrollable trembling and injuries made him hard to carry.