"I love you too, son." He stared into his eyes. "I want you on my ship. On our ship. You and your brigade. You wear the insignia of a colonel now. You command the Freedom Brigade. Long ago, your brigade served aboard the starship that gave it its name. Your brigade fought in many battles. It won a world war. Today you will fly in the starship Freedom again, and you will deliver the might of humanity wherever we choose to strike. The enemy will speak of the Freedom Brigade in fear."
"Is that all this is about?" Bastian asked softly. "A military decision?"
King snarled. He gripped Bastian's arms, digging his fingers. "You are my son. My only son. I'm proud of you. And I love you more than my starship, more than this planet we stand on, more than the stars. Come home, Bastian. I know you think the ranch is our home. And maybe someday it will be. But right now our home is wherever the war takes us, be it in space or on the ground. Let's be a family again. Come home."
Bastian nodded. He picked up Rowan. "Is there room on the ship for this little one?"
"Of course," King said. He lowered his voice. "What about Stacy?"
"Last time I saw her, she was heading north for Christmas," Bastian said. "Before the enemy attacked. Dad … I need to borrow a shuttle. I need to find Stacy."
* * * * *
They didn't have much time. Thousands of clawships still surrounded Earth, battling the human fleet in space. Millions of rahs still swarmed across the planet, hunting, eating. More would be here soon.
Within minutes, twenty-five rhino-class dropships landed at Fort Liberty. Alice began to herd the troops inside.
"Move your asses, you lazy sons of bitches!" she cried. "Faster, dammit, or I'll shoot your legs off and leave you for the spiders!"
In his first act as colonel, Bastian had promoted Alice Allenby to sergeant major. She was now the senior NCO in the brigade. It was already going to her head.
Oh, you're loving this, aren't you, Alice? Bastian thought.
He remained on the ground, waiting until everyone was in the starship Freedom. Rowan traveled up with Commander King, her beloved Pop Pop.
Then Bastian took a shuttle. Not a rhino—those beasts were built for more than one man. He flew in a Sparrow-class shuttle instead. The Freedom kept a handful of the small transporters, which contained only six seats. They were normally used for transporting officers or civilian dignitaries; a Sparrow had carried Princess Emily into the Freedom a few days ago. At twenty meters long, they were just slightly larger than Eagle starfighters.
Bastian flew over the prairies of Nebraska, and his heart broke.
His beloved homeland lay in ruins.
Scars covered the earth. Craters pockmarked the fields. Rahs swarmed across the plains like black puddles. Here and there, Bastian saw the signs of human resistance. The streak of a missile through the sky. The blast of a tank's cannon. Fighter jets roaring across the land. Bastian flew in the atmosphere, but high above, he saw explosions too. Lights flared atop the sky like watercolor stains. Every moment, a piece of broken starship blazed down like a comet. A battle was raging in space, visible even down here.
He scrolled through reports on his MindLink, learned that the Alliance fleet had lost a thousand starships, that the Red Dawn and Desert Thorns were joining forces, that battles raged across all world cities. That most world leaders were dead. That Earth was bleeding.
Finally Bastian reached his destination. Bemidji, a town in Minnesota, the next state over. The town Stacy had flown to for Christmas, hoping to spend the holiday with her new boyfriend and his family.
When Bastian glided his Sparrow down, he saw the devastation.
The fallen buildings. The corpses on the snowy streets. The feeding rahs.
A few soldiers were racing down the streets, firing machine guns, and a tank rumbled along one road. But there wasn't much military activity here compared to other places. After all, this was just a backwater. And it seemed like there was nothing left to save.
As he gazed down from above, Bastian flashed back to a day years ago. To arriving in Europe, searching city by city, desperate to find his mother. That old pain clutched his throat and squeezed.
Before leaving, Stacy had given Bastian the address where she was staying. Bastian landed and stepped out of the Sparrow.
A rah leaped at him.
Bastian fired a grenade from his Gideon, tearing it down.
He stared at the house ahead. An old wooden house, its white paint flaking, overlooking a lake.
And in his mind, Bastian was back in Prague. He was climbing the hotel staircase. He still remembered how those stairs had creaked.
He entered the wooden house by the lake. A rah crouched in the living room, feeding on somebody. It was impossible to tell who. The corpse was little more than a skeleton by now.
The spider hissed and snapped its jaws. Bastian emptied a magazine into the damn thing until it died.
He remembered entering the hotel room, seeing her there on the bed. Shot several times, but still graceful, her face peaceful. He remembered pulling his mother into his arms.
He walked through the house with flaking paint. He found more corpses.
Stacy had not been mutilated. A hole in her chest had killed her. She hung on a web, still whole, perhaps a meal for later in the day. Bastian cut her down. He carried her body into the Sparrow; he would give her a proper funeral aboard the starship Freedom.
He flew into space, lips tight, eyes hard, and allowed himself a few tears.
I love you, Stacy. Whatever happened between us … it doesn't matter anymore. I love you. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry I drove you away.
And he felt that the sins of his father had passed into him. The guilt and grief battled inside him.
As he rose into space, he flew through a great battle. Everywhere in orbit, clawships and starships were fighting. Lasers shot back and forth. Torpedoes streaked. Plasma bolts exploded against enemy hulls. Corpses and debris floated through the void. Thousands of starships lit up space with war.
The starship Freedom was firing her cannons, blasting an enemy warclaw. Bastian piloted his shuttle around a laser beam, under a stream of bullets, and around a cluster of Eagles battling enemy clawfighters. He made his way into the Freedom's hangar.
He walked down the corridors. Crew members ran back and forth, shouting orders. A blast shook the ship. A klaxon blared. The lights went dark, then came back on with a thud. Electric cables sparked. A bulkhead cracked.
Bastian walked in a daze.
He tracked Rowan's location on the MindWeb. She was in the royal suite, the best room in the starship. It took Bastian a good fifteen minutes to walk there, and he walked fast. The battle seemed to be dying down. Or maybe he was just so deep inside the ship now he couldn't feel the blasts anymore.
He entered the royal suite without knocking.
It looked like a room plucked out of a European palace, completely out of place inside a warship. Rowan sat on a luxurious rug, playing with toy cars. Smashed artwork lay around her. Princess Emily—yes, the same Princess Emily from the tabloids—sat beside the girl.
Rowan leaped up. "Daddy! I met a real princess! Pop Pop is busy on the bridge, fighting the bad spiders, so Princess Emily has been playing with me. Do you want to play with us?"
Emily rose to her feet too. She smiled at Bastian, but her smile faded. Maybe she recognized the tragedy on his face. She mumbled something about wanting some tea, and she left the room.
Bastian sat on an embroidered couch with golden legs. At least to him it looked like a couch. It probably had some fancy name like divan or ottoman or something. He didn't care. He didn't care about meeting a princess, about being in a palatial room, about any of it. This all seemed like a dream.
"Rowan, sit beside me," he said softly. "I have to tell you something."
She blinked at him. "Daddy, where's Mommy?"
She sat beside him. She listened carefully as Bastian told her. He hugged her as she shed silent tears.<
br />
In the suite's kitchen, Emily lowered her head, and her own tears fell.
Across the starship Freedom, ten thousand people fought, wept, prayed, grieved.
Across Earth, billions of souls tore apart.
Across the solar system, this little corner of humanity in the vastness of space, a species mourned. Everyone had lost somebody. Everyone was scared.
In this great darkness, through this infernal fire, the starship Freedom flew. Her cannons sang the song of war, and her commander stood on the bridge, staring the enemy in the eyes. Wherever she would fly, the Freedom would bring hope, and the courage of her crew would not falter even in the darkest shadows.
James King stared at the main viewport. Ten clawships were charging toward him, ready to fire. Around him, alarms blared, smoke rose from cracked workstations, but his crew still stood at their posts.
"We are the starship Freedom," King said as the enemy came closer. "We are the light in the dark. We are the pillar of fire that leads the armies of men. We are hope when all other hope is gone. Today we are a warship again."
The clawships shrieked toward them, plasma crackling.
"Charge at them!" King cried. "Damn the plasma! Full speed ahead!"
The Freedom's mighty engines roared. The starship flew toward the enemy, cannons booming, lighting the darkness.
The story continues in …
STARSHIP FREEDOM II
The Cost of Freedom
DanielArenson.com/StarshipFreedomII
AFTERWORD
Thank you for reading Starship Freedom, the first book in a new series.
Starship Freedom II continues the tale.
Want to know when I release new novels? Here are some ways to stay updated:
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Thank you again, dear reader, and I hope we meet again between the pages of another book.
Daniel
NOVELS BY DANIEL ARENSON
STARSHIP FREEDOM
Starship Freedom
Starship Freedom II: The Cost of Freedom
Starship Freedom III: We Fight for Freedom
EARTHRISE
Earth Alone
Earth Lost
Earth Rising
Earth Fire
Earth Shadows
Earth Valor
Earth Reborn
Earth Honor
Earth Eternal
Earth Machines
Earth Aflame
Earth Unleashed
Earth Remembers
Earth in Darkness
Earth, Our Home
SOLDIERS OF EARTHRISE
The Earthling
Earthlings
Earthling's War
I, Earthling
The Earthling's Daughter
We Are Earthlings
CHILDREN OF EARTHRISE
The Heirs of Earth
A Memory of Earth
An Echo of Earth
The War for Earth
The Song of Earth
The Legacy of Earth
KINGDOMS OF SAND
Kings of Ruin
Crowns of Rust
Thrones of Ash
Temples of Dust
Halls of Shadows
Echoes of Light
THE MOTH SAGA
Moth
Empires of Moth
Secrets of Moth
Daughter of Moth
Shadows of Moth
Legacy of Moth
REQUIEM
Dawn of Dragons Requiem's Song
Requiem's Hope
Requiem's Prayer
The Complete Trilogy
Song of Dragons Blood of Requiem
Tears of Requiem
Light of Requiem
The Complete Trilogy
Dragonlore A Dawn of Dragonfire
A Day of Dragon Blood
A Night of Dragon Wings
The Complete Trilogy
The Dragon War A Legacy of Light
A Birthright of Blood
A Memory of Fire
The Complete Trilogy
Requiem for Dragons Dragons Lost
Dragons Reborn
Dragons Rising
The Complete Trilogy
Flame of Requiem Forged in Dragonfire
Crown of Dragonfire
Pillars of Dragonfire
The Complete Trilogy
ALIEN HUNTERS
Alien Hunters
Alien Sky
Alien Shadows
OTHER WORLDS
Utopia 58
Eye of the Wizard
Wand of the Witch
Firefly Island
The Gods of Dream
Flaming Dove
KEEP IN TOUCH
www.DanielArenson.com
[email protected]
Facebook.com/DanielArenson
Twitter.com/DanielArenson
Starship Freedom Page 35
