A lone witness on the brink of death...what does his cryptic warning mean?
* * * *
The derelict shuttle drifted into the bay, a hideous sight when compared to the marauder’s squadrons of pristine single-man fighters and shuttles lined up in military rows. As Nako watched, pieces off the damaged ship’s hull disintegrated in false gravity’s pull, leaving a trail of black dust as it was maneuvered to a landing pad near the entrance he and Terig had come through.
The ship’s head medic Dr. Zo gaped alongside two members of his team who’d accompanied him. “Someone’s alive in there?”
“We’ll soon find out. Me and my men first, Doctor.” Terig was too well-trained to fidget, but Nako felt his clanmate’s impatience nonetheless.
The instant the blackened hulk settled onto the landing pad, Terig and two other Nobeks of the security complement sprang to the hatch. Attempts to open it proved difficult.
“The damned thing is fused closed,” Terig snarled. “Get some cutters.”
The bay’s repair area was nearby, and industrial metal cutters were quickly employed by a couple of repair techs. Within a couple of minutes, there was a gaping hole in the side of the shuttle where the hatch had been.
Terig waved the techs back and leapt the five feet separating the hole from the bay floor. His security backup followed him into the shuttle’s cabin.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Nako jumped on board. He was nearly smacked in the face by a wiring harness as a member of the boarders called from the cockpit, “Clear. No one up here.”
“Ancestors,” Nako grunted, taking in the shuttle’s interior damage. Wiring harnesses hung like looping intestines from the ceiling, half of which covered the opposite side of the seating area.
“One man on board, Captain.” Terig’s call brought Nako further in the cabin’s environs. He and the other security member knelt next to a slumped figure.
The man’s head hung down, his back propped against the large supply bin taking up the floor space at the back of the shuttle. Remains of emergency food rations and water pouches scattered around him. His chin must have rested on his chest, but it was impossible to see for the loose black hair hanging over his features. His arms, one cruelly bent at the forearm, rested on his splayed legs. His black fleet uniform was trimmed in Dramok blue, and the single chevron bar indicated his ensign status. If he breathed, Nako couldn’t detect it.
“Is he alive?” he asked, ignoring the voice in his head telling him they’d gotten to the crewman too late.
Shockingly, it was the slouched figure who answered in a thready voice. “Darks. Fear…the…Darks.”
“Doctor!” Nako shouted before hurrying to the weakly moving man. He reached beneath the fall of hair and cupped the man’s chin. He lifted it, and the dark strands parted to display a young face.
Mother of All, the ensign was barely more than a kid. Dried blood crusted the chin Nako held, and fresh red warmth drooled from the boy’s mouth, spilling over Nako’s fingers. A glassy gaze drifted to take him in.
“Shadows. Riders,” he rasped. “Darks.”
“Tell me your name, Ensign.” When the boy’s eyes began to drift closed, Nako bent closer, ignoring Dr. Zo’s attempts to wave a scanner over him. “Dramok, who are you?”
“Ilid,” came the answering wheeze.
“Who was your captain, Ilid?”
Zo pushed at him, none too gently. “Captain, I need room to work. He’s badly—”
“Your captain’s name, Ilid!”
“Abgi. Taken by…rider. All command staff…Darks.” A sob broke from him as his eyes began to roll over white. “Darir. Ved. Dead.”
“What happened to your ship, Ilid?”
“Blew up.” The whisper faded at the end.
“Captain!”
Nako got out of Zo’s way. Ilid’s lids slid shut.
“Weapons Commander, if the shuttle is secure, let’s give the medics room to work.” Now that Nako knew it hadn’t been Kila’s ship that was destroyed, he was ready to grant Zo all the space he needed to save the kid’s life.
Captain and weapons commander disembarked. Terig instructed his two men to examine the ship’s hull. Trained in forensics, they unpacked bins full of instruments allowing them to analyze and take samples from the shuttle.
As they began their painstaking work, Nako and Terig loitered near the hatch, listening to Zo and his team mutter over the injured Ilid.
“You were worried it was Clan Piras’ vessel,” Terig whispered.
“Reading my mind, my Nobek?”
“We always wondered what happened to them. It would have made sense they’d been assigned duty far from the home world. Out of the empire was an even better bet.”
“Five years, though? Even if spying on Bi’is was their initial deployment after the war, the fleet surely wouldn’t have left them there for so long.”
“Piras is still a name people hate.”
Nako’s com beeped. “Nako here.”
“Vaskiz, sir,” the communications lieutenant said. “Admiral Tranis responded to your request for orders by text. He says, ‘Stand by.’”
“Understood.” Nako clicked off and snarled at Terig. “Stand by? What the fuck response is that?”
“Well, it was a spyship—”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just not in the mood for mysteries.” He glared at the shuttle’s carcass, willing the damned thing to talk. It ignored him.
* * * *
The alien force dubbed the Darks has grabbed control of key positions on Kalquor and the Galactic Council of Planets. Other leaders are still unaware of the threat among them. The galaxy is wide open for destruction by an unfathomable enemy.
Former emperor Nobek Yuder has suspicions, but due to restrictions placed on him after his prison sentence, he can only stand by and watch helplessly. A renegade Royal Councilman has designs to bring him back to the political arena, but doing so could destabilize the Kalquorian Empire, leaving it vulnerable to invasion.
Meanwhile, one man on the brink of death, the only man who can detect the nearly invisible Darks, is pulled from a lifeless shuttle by Captains Kila and Nako. His incredible story tells them they’re in a race against time to save not only the empire but the whole galaxy…but are they already too late?
On Earth II, Governor Stacy Nichol’s relationship with Clan Rihep continues to grow. So does the danger, as opponents make deadly moves against her and the orbiting Kalquorian station where the clan lives. Nobek Kuran is determined to keep his clanmates and would-be lifemate safe, but how can he stop a faceless enemy?
Relationships, old and new, are strained to the breaking point at a time when Earthers and Kalquorians need each other more than ever. The Darks are closing in, and no one is ready to oppose them.
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