Enigma: A Space Opera: Book Six of The Shadow Order

by Michael Robertson

  “That was before Buster went missing. Before I got a proper understanding of what working with you really means.”

  “Well, do it for your friend, then. This is our best chance of saving him.”

  “Why do you need me?”

  At that moment, Seb looked at the Shadow Order’s ship. It hovered above the submarines, the jets that held it in place kicking up a spray of saline mist. The taste of salt stronger than ever, Seb nodded at the pilot.

  The ship’s engines roared as it moved back a few metres. A loud thunk signalled the opening of hatch doors on the bottom of it. The creatures in Owsk’s subs refocused their aim on the large vehicle.

  A small vessel then fell from the ship. It crashed into the water with a splash.

  For a second, the sub vanished completely beneath the surface, but when the Piscents bobbed back up again, Seb saw Owsk smile, his eyes wide with surprise. “You got it back?”

  “Moses got it back. The tracker allowed him to retrieve and restore it.”

  What had been bare hostility now melted away. “Oh my. I can’t thank you enough, Seb.”

  Sparks finally lowered her blaster.

  “The thing is,” Seb said, “where we’re going is underwater. I was always planning on getting the Piscents back to you, but my main priority was to help Buster first. It looks like both causes have aligned.”

  “So you need me to take you to that planet?” The joy remained on Owsk’s face, although slightly muted now he knew Seb wanted something.

  “We can get to the planet on our own, and if we need to, we can go underwater without you, but I figured you’d want the opportunity to help. Also, you’re my first choice for piloting the submarine to get us down there. There’s no being I’d trust with the job more.”

  As he looked at his crew, Owsk shook his head. “I can’t leave them again. They all ran out of credits the last time I was in prison. My business nearly went under.”

  “What cargo do you have at the moment?”

  “Exotic fruit again. Why?”

  “Sparks,” Seb said, “can you get Moses on the line for me?”

  After a couple of taps on the screen, Sparks handed Seb her device. “It’s not encrypted, remember that.”

  The gruff voice of Moses answered a second later. “What do you need, Seb?”

  Seb looked at Owsk as he said, “I have the captain of a ship that needs to sell their haul of exotic fruit.”

  “Fine, I’ll send someone over to pay for it.”

  Owsk gasped.

  “Also,” Seb said, winking at Owsk, “they need to know they can pass through Aloo any time they want, tariff free.”

  The deep-voiced Moses said, “But I never do that.”

  “Which is why you can afford to make an exception.”

  “I’m not a charity, Seb.”

  “No, you’re someone who runs a business. And as one business owner to another, Owsk understands now is the time to ask for such a deal.”

  A few seconds of silence, Moses then said, “Fine.”

  Owsk’s grin stretched almost as wide as the one he’d had when he saw the Piscents.

  After winking at the troll, Seb said to Moses, “Thank you.”

  Moses didn’t reply, the line going dead from where he cut it off.

  Genuine excitement lit up the granite creature in front of Seb. “My goodness, how did you manage to get him to do that?”

  “It’s a long story, which I’ll fill you in on. More importantly, will you come with us?”

  Already nodding before he’d said anything, Owsk finally said, “Yes! Of course. Just let me tell the others what’s happening.”

  As Owsk walked over to his crew in the three submarines, Seb turned to Sparks. “That went better than I expected. Sorry I didn’t tell you much about it; I wasn’t sure how it would pan out.”

  Sparks shrugged. “It’s okay. At least we’re ready to go now, eh? I wonder how the others are doing.”

  “Me too,” Seb said. A flutter of anxiety ran through his stomach to speak to her, but he couldn’t let it get in the way of the mission. Besides, he should have checked in on Reyes much sooner than he had. SA, it’s Seb. How are you getting on?

  CHAPTER 22

  Reyes’ eyes hurt from how hard she had to squint in an attempt to see. Even then, the snow came down so heavily she couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the white-tipped mountains began. Had she not witnessed the deteriorating view as they closed in on the place, she would have assumed the ship’s windscreen had been covered in a white sheet. With SA on one side of her and Bruke on the other, none of them spoke, clearly recognising her need to focus.

  It had taken a while for the other Shadow Order members to accept Reyes. Her first meeting with Seb had hardly been an icebreaker.

  I’ve just spoken to Seb, SA said.

  Reyes jumped, still not accustomed to the visitor in her mind.

  He wanted to know how we’re getting on.

  An ironic smirk, Reyes shook her head, frowning even harder than before. What did you tell him?

  That we were fine.

  Reyes laughed. I’m glad you’re confident.

  It took for Bruke to whine next to her to realise he’d been brought into the conversation too. He then leaned closer to the windscreen. “Where are you going to land?”

  Sparks had made sure Moses fitted Reyes’ ship with a small computer similar to the one she used. It currently sat on the dashboard, a pulsing red dot showing their destination. “We’re getting closer to where we need to be. I’m not quite sure where the best place is to touch down, but I think we should do it soon. Best not get too close; otherwise they might twig that we’re coming.”

  When Bruke didn’t reply, she added, “One good thing about this weather is it hides our approach. Hopefully it messes with their scanners t—whoa!”

  The large black outcropping of rock appeared as if from nowhere. Reyes yanked the ship hard to the right to avoid it. Bruke flew across the cockpit in the opposite direction.

  Although the thickset lizard creature now lay sprawled on the floor, SA maintained her stance as if nothing had happened. She hadn’t even clung onto anything.

  Her heart galloping, her palms sweating, Reyes looked back at Bruke for a second before returning her attention to where they were heading. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m going to land us now. I think we’ll be safer going the rest of the way by foot.”

  At Reyes’ words, even SA gripped onto the headrest of the seat in front of her. Her throat dry, Reyes chewed her bottom lip as she concentrated and dropped the ship by a metre. She’d practiced landing blindfolded in training. Even with an audio guide, it had been a nightmare.

  Every time Reyes dropped the ship a little lower, she winced at the anticipated connection with the ground. It hadn’t come yet.

  It took several more drops before the sound of snow rubbed against the bottom of the metal ship. It dragged on their progress and kicked more white up onto the windscreen.

  A loud clunk then hit the bottom of the vessel, sending a shockwave through it.

  “What was that?” Bruke asked, finally on his feet again after the fall.

  Another one.

  “We’re hitting the ground beneath the snow.” A quick check of her dials, Reyes added, “I don’t think it’s done any damage though.”

  When Reyes looked back up again, she saw it the second SA said, Look out, and Bruke shrieked.

  They’d dropped below most of the cloud, which gave them a slightly better view than before. It showed Reyes they were nearly out of space to land. If she didn’t stop them soon, they’d drop hundreds of metres onto an expanse of needle-like rocks.

  Reyes pressed the flight stick forwards, digging the front of the ship into the powdery ground. It kicked up even more snow, sending it rushing over the screen in a thick wave. Her teeth clenched, she pushed down harder, the ship still not slowing enough as it bit deeper into the powder.

  “What are
we going to do?” Bruke said.

  Sweat itched Reyes’ collar and she pushed forwards again. “We’re going to hold on tight.” She gulped. “It looks like we’re going over.”

  CHAPTER 23

  The bottom of the ship touched down against the small piece of rock they’d aimed for with the delicacy of a bee landing on a flower. Seb patted Owsk on the back. It stung the palm of his hand. Not only did the troll look to be made from stone, but he felt like it too. “Amazing! I think you might be even better than Reyes at flying these things.”

  If Owsk responded, Seb didn’t notice. He’d done his best to ignore it up until that point, but now they’d landed, he couldn’t look anywhere but at the water surrounding them. The piece of rock they’d settled on looked to be the only land on the cursed planet. It sat just slightly wider than the base of their ship.

  Seb felt Sparks watching him. She must have been sensing his anxiety, so he might as well stop trying to hide it. “And you say there’s no more land than this?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “This is it.”

  Something about the sparkle of her purple stare set Seb off. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged like she wasn’t … yet the sparkle remained in her eyes.

  Owsk stood up from the pilot’s seat, stretching as he said, “You can bet they have this piece of land under surveillance for any visitors. The sooner we get into the water, the better.”

  The voice of his mother came to Seb as a memory. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. Nice, productive, helpful … the words seemed interchangeable when it came to the saying. A deep inhale to settle himself down, he kept his mouth shut, stood aside to let Owsk past, and then followed him to the back of the ship. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Let his mind go too far into the future and it wouldn’t return.

  Owsk opened the back door, inviting in the fierce wind. It blew harder than it had on Aloo. The salt in it both smelled and tasted richer. It did little for Seb’s already cotton wool mouth.

  When Sparks nudged Seb, he looked down at her and then her computer. A dot flashed red on the screen. “This is where we need to get to.”

  “It still looks far away.”

  “It is. But this is the closest place we can land. The only place we can land.”

  Deep breaths helped Seb push his panic down. He didn’t reply to her. Instead, he followed Owsk onto the rock outside.

  Exposed to the elements, Seb screwed his face up against the saline onslaught and turned on the spot. It looked exactly as it had from inside the ship; they were surrounded by water on every side.

  A splash to Seb’s right, he turned to see Owsk had dropped one of their submarines into the water. “No way,” he said and shook his head. “We have a much better sub than that one. We should take the one Moses gave us.”

  For a moment, Owsk and Seb stared at one another while Sparks hopped down onto the rock. Owsk then pressed another button to release the sub supplied to them by the Shadow Order.

  Still no words between them, Seb waited for Owsk to retrieve the Piscents. When he didn’t, he shrugged. “You’re just going to leave it there?”

  Owsk removed his blaster. A handgun—unlike the semi-automatic Seb liked to use—he pointed it at the Shadow Order’s sub.

  “What are you doing?” Seb said.

  By way of reply, Owsk shot the sub. The glass over the top of it shattered with a loud splash and rained down on the leather interior. When he looked back at Seb, he had his lips pressed tightly together, almost daring him to speak again.

  And Seb did. “Is that some kind of special laser or something?”

  “No.” He pointed at the damaged vessel with his gun. “That sub isn’t designed for battle.”

  Both subs floated next to one another in the water. Only one of them would go beneath the surface now. The Shadow Order sub had a thick cannon on the front of it. It protruded from it like a battering ram. “If it’s not designed for battle, why does it have that beast of a weapon on it?” Seb then added, “For what good it is now.”

  “What use is a cannon if the sub can’t take a hit? I’d rather run away in that thing than risk getting shot—cannon or not.”

  As Seb looked at the Piscents, he shook his head. “I got that sub back to you because I felt sorry for you, not because I value it. You can’t tell me that thing will do any better in a fight. It hardly looks battle-ready.”

  “It isn’t.”

  Seb threw his arms in the air. “So why destroy the better sub?”

  Owsk pointed his blaster at the Piscents and shot it several times. Each blast bounced off the glass covering it. They didn’t even leave a mark.

  During their conversation, Seb had an awareness of Sparks in his peripheral vision. She’d watched the back and forth like a spectator at a table tennis match. “Uh, Seb?” she finally said. “I’m with Owsk on this one.”

  A normally stoic creature, Owsk smiled ever so slightly. He then pointed his blaster at the Shadow Order’s sub again.

  “Fine,” Seb said. “Let’s use the Piscents.”

  The smirk broadened into a full smile as Owsk shot several more holes in the inferior vessel. They all watched it sink much like the Piscents had the day Seb shot it.

  After Seb had watched the sub vanish from sight, he looked at Sparks with her computer in her hand. She controlled the ship they’d flown in on remotely, closing the exit hatch from where she stood. “We need to make sure we remove any evidence of being here,” she said. “If they haven’t already noticed our arrival, I don’t want to give the game away by being complacent.”

  She typed on her computer, bringing the ship to life. The engines shook and rumbled, sending a vibration through the rock they stood on.

  As Owsk got into his sub, Sparks sent their ship into the air and said, “I’ll make sure it’s waiting for us when we get back.”

  Not somewhere he’d ever want to go, at least Seb had the two people he trusted the most to take him underwater. With Sparks on navigation and Owsk piloting, they might just make it.

  The Piscents bobbed on the surface of the rough sea, daring Seb to slip if he tried to step in. Although, if he waited any longer, he wouldn’t go at all. He had to have faith it would work out. Better to imagine a positive outcome to their mission. They could deal with the negative if they had to. He put one foot inside the shifting vessel before kicking off against the rock with the other.

  When Seb sat down in the cramped space, Owsk turned to him and grinned. “You ready?”

  Seb looked around the inside of the small sub, the spray from the sea throwing cool pinpricks against his skin. Another deep breath, he closed his eyes to block out his surroundings as Owsk started the engine. A heavy vibration ran through his seat, and he pushed his eyes more tightly shut. If you can’t say something nice …

  CHAPTER 24

  The vibrations ran through the ship as it hit the harder ground beneath the snow again and again in quick succession. Each shock blurred Reyes’ vision and shook the flight stick, but none of the impacts felt like they’d done major damage yet. Not that it mattered, if they went over the edge, the rocky needles below would smash them into thousands of pieces.

  Reyes knew ships, but she didn’t know this one well enough yet. It took for SA to lean forwards and point at a button.

  “Of course,” Reyes said and slammed her hand against it.

  The pooft of an anchor sounded as it shot out behind them. Although Reyes braced for the sudden halt, they continued to slide forwards like a hockey puck destined to beat the goalie.

  Bruke whined louder than before.

  Then it came—twang! Reyes flew from her seat. Although she had an awareness of SA and Bruke being catapulted forwards with her, she lost it the second she hit the windscreen. A skeleton-jarring shock, she then fell to the floor, the other two crashing down on either side of her.

  Reyes got up first, gasping as she lo
oked out of the front of the ship. Just a few metres of snow sat between them and the drop. A look to her left at SA, then to her right at Bruke, she let go of a hard sigh, her cheeks puffing with the exhale. “Well, that was close!”

  After retrieving the computer Sparks had insisted they take with them, Reyes walked a wobbly line towards the ship’s back doors. SA and Bruke followed her. Bruke limped from a pain he must have picked up from the crash.

  The second Reyes opened the ship, thick snow rushed in, chilling her instantly and coating the place with white. She did her jacket up, put her gloves on, and turned to the others to see them do the same. The small computer in her hand, she showed them the pulsing red dot. “We’re close enough to walk. Hopefully the weather won’t get any worse.”

  SA looked her usual serene self while Bruke stared out into the storm with wide brown eyes. Although he didn’t speak, he looked like he wanted one of them to suggest they wait where they were.

  Reyes exited the ship with SA close behind her.

  While Reyes and SA walked around to the front of the ship, she heard Bruke jump out into the snow. She looked at the drop they nearly flew off, her stomach lurching as she stared down. “That was close.”

  The reality of the drop sent Reyes’ head spinning, so she turned around and headed back to the ship. The metal cable of the anchor hung from the back of it like a tail. It held taut. The thick snowstorm made it hard to see what the grapple hook had anchored to. A look at SA and Bruke, she said, “Hopefully that’s embedded in rock and not ice.”

  It looked like Bruke was trying to find his legs in the deep snow as he walked, lifting his knees high with every step. He moved closer to the cable and gave it a gentle tug. “At least it stopped us.”

  “Yep. I just hope we have a ship to return to is all.”

  Bruke’s eyes glazed when he looked in the direction of the drop. He shivered and repeated, “At least it saved us.” He then spun on the spot to take in their surroundings. “Why do beings live this high up anyway?”

  “It’s the only breathable air,” Reyes said. When Bruke and SA looked at her, she elaborated. “Sparks told me that if you go down too low on this planet, the toxic air makes your lungs haemorrhage. She said you’ll drown in your own blood within seconds.”