Magnitude: A Space Opera Adventure (Blackstar Command Book 2) Read online

  And then the experience was over as quickly as it came.

  He shook his head and looked around. His mouth gaped open.

  The Blackstar was gone, replaced by the outskirts of what could only be described as an alien city. He turned in a circle in place.

  Outside the city, there was no vegetation, at least as far as he could tell. The ground was coated with blue-white ice for miles, stretching beyond the horizon. He knew he should be cold, freezing really, but the temperature didn’t affect him.

  There weren’t even any of the telltale puffs of steam when he exhaled.

  “What is going on here?” he asked, unsure if he was having a vision or an out-of-body experience.

  He tried to move toward the city, as though his speaking aloud broke some sort of spell, but his feet remained still. He was floating towards the alien metropolis, faster and faster, but no wind cut his bare face or caused his clothing to billow.

  It was as though he were a ghost, and for a moment, he wondered if he had died.

  Kai couldn’t believe his eyes as he approached the city. He’d never seen or heard of anything like it in his life. It was massive, bigger than the capital city on Capsis and taller than Gostabul. Hell, it towered over Zarunda’s capital by several magnitudes.

  The buildings were made of a crystalline substance that glittered in the sunlight. The reflected light should have made Kai squint, but like the lack of cold and wind, it didn’t affect him in the slightest.

  “Am I dead?” he asked. His voice landed with a hollow thud in his ears, similar to how things sounded after his eardrums ruptured.

  He looked up as he entered the city. All of the buildings were large, but in the center were enormous crystal spires that reached into the sky, so high that he couldn’t see their tops. His gaze wandered around the inner ring of the city, but he saw no inhabitants.

  He was utterly alone.

  Then his attention was drawn to a circular atrium beneath the tallest spires and came to rest directly in the center. He stood in the midst of twelve crystal structures, long and narrow, much like coffins. Within each of them a soft, silver-blue light glowed. It projected outwards, the beams diffused by the construction of each box.

  All save one.

  The last coffin gave off no light. Kai hovered closer to it and saw the reason why: it was empty.

  From a distance, he heard a call. More like the shadow of a voice; small, tiny, with a slight reverb effect. He turned and looked, noticing he was still alone. The voice—female, he could now tell—called to him again, louder this time, closer.

  Was it his mother? Not Brenna, but the Navigator that had given birth to him?

  “Kai, wake up,” the voice said. He looked up and blinked.

  A woman stood over him, one hand shaking his shoulder. Beyond her, the crystal city was gone, and the Blackstar had returned.

  “Marella, is that you?” he asked. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. “What’s going on?”

  “I found something,” Marella said. Her eyes were bright, and her hair bristled.

  “What? No, wait, hang on.”

  “But—”

  “Just a second.” He felt numb, as though he were in shock. Did that really just happen? He took several deep breaths as he tried to decide if he’d had a legitimate vision or if it was more of the Navigator knowledge bubbling up to the surface. Or perhaps it was a bit of both. Whatever it was, it scared the hell out of him and excited him at the same time. He blinked at Marella again.

  He looked at the face projected on the holoscreen and leaned forward. “Blackstar, is Senaya finished with the repairs?”

  “She is moments from completing her task, Kai Locke,” the AI voice intoned.

  “Good. Thanks.” At least she would be back inside soon. That was something. “Now, what were you saying?” He looked into Marella’s perturbed face and knew an apology was in order, but she spoke before he had a chance.

  “I might have found Kendal,” she said. Her eyebrows arched as if she were scolding him.

  “What, what?” He felt all the air leave his lungs.

  “I’m pretty sure I know where he is.” Her eyes flashed from their normal blue to a deep violet and back to blue.

  “How did you figure this out? We don’t even know where we are, precisely.”

  “I found it in a ship destination log.”

  “Wait, slow down for a second.” Kai ran his hands through his hair, a tic he had picked up just recently when agitated. “Where did you find this?”

  “I told you. It was a destination log buried in the ship’s servers.”

  “That is incorrect,” the Blackstar said.

  “No, it isn’t,” Marella replied.

  “What do you mean, Blackstar?” Kai asked.

  “There are no such logs anywhere in my memory.”

  “Then how did I find them?” Marella’s eyes flashed different colors again. She obviously didn’t like to be challenged.

  “Destination logs do not exist, Kai Locke.”

  Kai cringed once more at the formality.

  “One can only assume that Marella is ly—”

  “Oh, log off,” Kai said and tapped the override code into his control panel. The AI voice cut out and the face vanished from the holocube. He sighed. “That thing bugs me.”

  “Anyway,” Marella continued, “the log was dated just a few days before the Blackstar arrived on Oberus.”

  There was something she wasn’t saying, Kai thought. Some information she was holding back. But what? And why? Or was it just the AI’s borderline accusation against Marella working on his mind? He sighed. His list of things to worry about was growing longer by the hour.

  “Don’t you see, Kai?” The Lantesian’s expression was intense for one of her race. “I have coordinates. We can go get your father!”

  SENAYA CLOSED the cover of the power converter and slapped it twice with the flat of her hand. She replaced the last of her tools and closed the toolbox.

  “That’s that,” she said, satisfied with a job well done. She was glad the Blackstar was there to talk her through the repair, but, in the end, she really didn’t need the assistance. Sure, Navigator technology was highly advanced, but a converter was a converter, be it power or waste. They all worked on the same basic principles.

  Principles that the Coalition had probably gained by studying Navigator tech, now that she thought about it.

  “All right, Blackstar, I’m heading back in now,” she said. Her comment was met with silence. “Blackstar? Hey, computer, where’d you go?”

  Still, she received no reply from the ship’s AI. She shook her head and began to pull herself back to the hatch.

  “Bandar, what happened to the AI?” she asked into her headset mic.

  “I don’t know,” his voice answered. “Are you done?”

  “Yeah, heading back in now.”

  “Copy that. See you inside.”

  Hand over hand, slow and steady. She mouthed the words over and over as she pulled herself back toward the safety of the airlock. She tilted her head back to check her position, and something smacked off the helmet’s visor. She jerked back, almost losing her grip on the rail.

  “What the hell?” she said.

  “What’s wrong?” Bandar asked over the headset.

  “Nothing,” she replied. She took a few deep breaths to calm her pulse. “Something hit my helmet.”

  “Did it crack?” His voice was intense.

  “No. It’s all right. I’m almost at the hatch.”

  “Move your ass.”

  And she did. Hand over hand again, but slow and steady got thrown out the window.

  Just as she reached the hatch, a metal object several times her size appeared in her peripheral vision and skidded down the hull toward her. She let out a shriek and shoved herself away from the ship. She held her tether line in a death grip as she sailed farther and farther from safety.

  The piece of detritus continued its movement t
hrough the area she had vacated a moment before.

  “No,” she gasped as the metal projectile came into contact with her tether. She felt a jerk. The cord in her hand went slack. Without slowing its momentum, it sliced through her safety line and continued its journey down the side of the ship.

  She stared at it in horror as she free-floated away from the Blackstar.

  Chapter 5

  BRENNA LEARNED EARLY into her trip through the wormhole not to look at the swirling void outside. When she exited the wormhole, she was pleased that she was only mildly nauseated instead of being on the verge of vomiting all over the cabin like she almost had on her first excursion beyond the Veil.

  She sat up straight in her seat and took note of her new surroundings. She had emerged into a binary star system. The two main sequence stars burned a bright orangey-yellow. Between the two stars, a planet rested in space, but it was impossible to tell which star it orbited without studying it.

  The octopus-like creature she had followed through the wormhole was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps this lone planet was the home to its species.

  “Wake up, Flick,” Brenna said to the ship’s AI. “Time to go to work.”

  “I’m not sleeping, Agent Locke,” Felicity said. “In fact, I do not require sleep.”

  “I know.” Brenna grinned and shook her head.

  “This need of yours to constantly anthropomorphize me is quite baffling,” the AI said. “Particularly since I’ve already told you that it is not a part of my programming.”

  “Okay, Flick. Got it. Run a sensor scan and see if you can find any trace of that creature.”

  “Working.”

  While the AI began its scan, Brenna tapped a few commands on her control panel. She hoped that the probe she launched hadn’t got sucked into the wormhole with them, but the tracking sensors picked up no sign of it.

  “Agent Locke, sensors have failed to locate the creature,” Felicity said.

  “I figured as much,” Brenna said.

  “We are being hailed, however,” Felicity said, just as Brenna saw a flashing light on her control panel.

  “By whom?”

  “By the ship that followed us through the wormhole.”

  “Ah, of course, I forgot about that. Connect us, Flick.”

  A brief blast of static, and then the cockpit of the Rapier was filled with the sound of a voice speaking in oddly accented Coalition Common. An accent she did not recognize despite her extensive knowledge of Coalition languages.

  “… I repeat, unknown vessel, do you copy?”

  “I read you loud and clear,” Brenna said. She was taken aback by the fact that she could understand the words being spoken by a probable unknown alien. How could it be that they were speaking a version of Coalition Common on this side of the Veil?

  “You will identify yourself immediately,” came the response. An odd clicking tone punctuated each word.

  Brenna remained silent for a moment, biting back her first caustic reply and deciding the best course would be honesty. For all she knew, they could be potential allies. And if not, then it wouldn’t serve her to antagonize them further.

  “My name is Brenna Locke. I’m a representative from the Coalition from beyond the Veil. May I ask to whom I am speaking?”

  “All that need be said is that I am an emissary of the Patari,” the alien said, his words clipped and formal.

  “Forgive me, but I do not know what that is.”

  “You are in Patari space, Brenna Locke of the Coalition from beyond the Veil.”

  “I’m sorry, Emissary, but that means absolutely nothing to me.” Brenna took a deep breath to bring her frustration under control. “I’m not here out of choice but rather a series of occurrences beyond my control.”

  “We are one of several known spacefaring races inside the Veil, and you are trespassing in our home system.”

  “That’s good to know. As a representative of the Coalition—”

  “By entering Patari space, you are in violation of our laws.”

  “I apologize. It’s just—”

  “You are to land on the planet and follow instructions implicitly, or face immediate destruction.”

  “Wait just a minute,” Brenna said, unable to hold her ire any longer. “I know nothing of your laws for this sector of space. Can you please tell me exactly where we are?”

  Her question was met with silence. She didn’t appreciate being dictated to and had to fight to keep her temper under control. She waited a moment longer for a reply.

  In the end, there were only two options available to her, and she didn’t like either one. She could either try to shoot it out with this alien vessel and escape, or do as the alien commanded and land on the nearby planet.

  She decided to go with option two. Although she was very confident in her ability to win a potential dogfight, even if she was victorious, she still had no clue where she was or how to get home. The octopod had led her here, but to what end? Without a wormhole back to where she had just come, she had no direction of where to go.

  And who knew how quickly reinforcements would arrive? Chances were the alien had already contacted its base.

  “Fine, Emissary,” Brenna said through gritted teeth. “But I don’t know where I’m going.”

  “Coordinates incoming,” the alien clicked at her. “Just follow the beacon planet-side.”

  “Copy that.”

  Brenna input the received coordinates into her control panel, picked up the beacon, and headed toward the planet.

  “Flick, I hope you recorded all of that,” Brenna said.

  “I started recording the instant the hail came through,” Felicity replied.

  “Good job.”

  The planet grew larger as the minutes passed until finally the Rapier bumped and jostled its way through the upper atmosphere. It appeared to be a desert planet with very little water, from what Brenna could see. There were deep chasms running through the center of the largest mass, indicating long-extinct rivers.

  She zeroed in on the beacon as the land drew closer, and her heart rate increased with each passing minute. Several flashing lights bordered what could only be a landing platform. Brenna engaged the landing gear. As she touched down, a squadron of Patari soldiers encircled the Rapier. They were dressed head-to-toe in clothing of varying shades of brown, and Brenna knew that they would be damned near invisible in the desert climes.

  “Now what?” she asked. She shut down the engines and placed everything else in standby mode.

  “I do not know, Agent Locke,” Felicity said.

  “Always a big help, Flick.”

  “I’m sorry.” The AI didn’t sound sorry.

  Her panel lit up, alerting her to the main hatch being opened.

  “How the hell?”

  She stood from her chair and turned just in time to see several of the Patari soldiers entering the cockpit, guns drawn. Her breath caught in her throat.

  These were some of the aliens from the vision she’d had while being scanned by the octopus thing.

  The soldiers stood on three legs, their skin a dark, almost shiny, obsidian color. They peered at her with unreadable eyes that were mostly pupil.

  “You will come with us,” the lead alien said.

  Face to face, that clicking sound was more pronounced than over comms.

  “Fine,” Brenna said. She put her hands up and took on a casual, nonthreatening stance. “Just lead the way.”

  “No, you first,” the soldier said, motioning her forward with his firearm.

  “I’m human,” she said. “Can I breathe your atmosphere? Is your air poisonous to my kind?”

  “We will supply you with breathing facilities shortly. Now move.”

  She emerged from her ship, the soldiers following close behind, and the heat hit her like a fist. There were dozens of other aliens spread out in a crescent formation, weapons aimed in her direction.

  “Straight ahead,” the leader said from behind her. H
e poked her back with the barrel of his rifle, reminding her not to do anything stupid.

  Message received, she thought and stepped into their midst.

  They led her up a gangway, and she stopped as she experienced her second shock in as many minutes. Directly in front of her was a giant pyramidal structure made of what looked like pure gold. It glittered in the light of the binary suns. Her mind was reeling from the recent turn of events, and she hadn’t even noticed the structure as she was making her landing approach.

  “Keep going,” the lead soldier said and shoved her again with his rifle.

  “I’m going, I’m going,” she said.

  By the time they reached the entrance, Brenna was practically gasping. Her lungs were working overtime but didn’t seem to be getting enough oxygen. The thin atmosphere was threatening to send her into unconsciousness.

  “I can barely breathe,” she gasped.

  “Keep moving.”

  She passed through a large door and into the cool, dark interior of the pyramid.

  Her breathing was ragged now, and she pressed a hand against her chest. Small flashes of light like sparklers swam before her eyes. She tried to inhale deep, but it was no use. She was going to faint.

  “Put this on,” a clicking voice said off to one side.

  Brenna turned and saw one of the aliens, this one unarmed—the emissary, perhaps—holding something out in its clawlike hand.

  Relief flooded through her as she recognized it as some kind of breathing apparatus. It didn’t matter which side of the Veil one was on, it was quite clear what it was.

  She reached out and took the proffered mask and slipped it on over her head. It wasn’t a great fit—there were small gaps around either side of her nose—but she didn’t care. She was breathing cool oxygen, enough that her lungs stopped burning and her vision began to clear. She looked up into a pair of large dark eyes.

  “The emissary, I presume?” she said between gulps of air, the mask dulling her voice.

  “Indeed,” it said.

  “Thank you.”

  “Silence now.” It held out one arm, pointing towards a door. “This way.”