by Abby J. Reed
Table of Contents
WHEN HEROES FALL
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Epilogue
WHEN HEROES FALL
Stars Fall Circle #3
ABBY J. REED
SOUL MATE PUBLISHING
New York
WHEN HEROES FALL
Copyright©2021
ABBY J. REED
Cover Design by Abby J. Reed
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, business establishments, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
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Published in the United States of America by
Soul Mate Publishing
P.O. Box 24
Macedon, New York, 14502
ISBN: 978-1-64716-209-2
www.SoulMatePublishing.com
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
For Randy—
You’re my Always.
Acknowledgments
I can’t believe I finished a trilogy! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who supported me along the way. In no particular order, here’s a couple people I owe my thanks to the most:
Randy: We hit the finish line again, babe! You still didn’t starve from malnutrition. Another amazing success. Thanks for being my teammate.
Mom and Dad: For being the best parents anybody could hope for. And all the love and support and jazz like that.
Anna: Thanks for being another one of my biggest cheerleaders. And for doing all the hard work to give me another nephew. ‘Cause that’s why you did it, right? For the sole purpose of my being an aunt again.
Kate: Thanks for being such an awesome friend and beta reader! I love having you in my life, not just to give such perfect insights into my writing, but to have a friend to go through the highs and lows of the writing journey with. I’m so glad our books can sit side by side on the shelf!
Anita: For your time and your brilliance. I’m so glad I met you that day at the Colorado Gold Conference!
April: For helping me clean up grammar and mistakes. When I do it by myself, my eyes cross and I don’t understand how words work anymore.
Whit and Amanda: For being my life-long teammates and cheering me on even when I wanted to pitch my laptop out the window.
Debby and the Soul Mate Publishing Team: For taking that first initial risk on a boy with a prosthetic leg. Thank you so much for working with me and for helping take my dream into a real-book-reality.
The Queens of the Quill: For your laughter and your insights and for pushing me to be a better writer. So glad I met you all!
Prologue
There was no place to keep him except the engine room.
Once Captain Linthin had taken back her ship, she’d hogtied Young’s hands and tossed him inside like the overstuffed snake she claimed he was. She didn't bother cuffing him to the wall. Which meant he could maneuver around the entire engine room while the crew voted on what to do with him.
She should’ve put him under in cryo. Her mistake.
The walls and floor were bright with the silver sheen of a still-new generation ship. The scent of long-burn fuel drifted from the engine. They would’ve had enough supplies and fuel to have a real shot of surviving outside the galaxy, free of the Solterans and Extrats. He banged that plan two septdias in, when his smooth words convinced the majority of the crew that the best option for, not just surviving, but thriving meant turning the ship around to quit running away from the galaxy to running deeper into it, toward the wormhole.
With a potential new home, new galaxy, new start waiting on the other side.
The rest of the troublesome crew, including the captain, he’d put to cryo-sleep beside their children. Until someone grew a conscience and unfroze the captain and her most loyal.
Young put his bound hand against the tank. The hum vibrated through his palm and up his arm. He reached in and with the corner of his watch scratched yet again. He got the idea after they ran into an illegal dump. Crazy to see how much damage could be done with so little effort. He’d been slowly scratching at the tank for a while now. That’s how long making a simple decision took around here. Which explained how he’d managed to slip inside the crew and plant his words in the first place.
The corrosion should be built up by now. When it took effect, Captain Linthin would have to address the issue. He’d take his chance then.
A shout echoed from beyond the doors. Flurries of words he couldn’t quite make out. Pounding of feet. Increased grav as the ship’s boosters activated. Something had happened.
He shuffled away from the engine, folding himself into the corner and let the grav pressure press him int
o the floor. He jolted to and fro, rolling as the ship rocked. Every now and then he wished the captain had cuffed him to the walls. A groan, a creak—the moans of a ship not able to stabilize. He glanced at the engine. Maybe he didn’t need to try to sabotage the ship after all.
“Hey!” he shouted. “Hey, anybody listening? If you let me out, I can help! You know I know ships!”
No answer.
Horas dragged on, but eventually the ship stabilized. About time. He slicked his palms against his pants, against the small object sewn into the lining of his hem, wiping off the nervous sweat. Apparently, the rocking unnerved him more than even he realized.
The engine room opened to reveal Captain Linthin. This time, the gun wasn't pointed at him but limply at the floor. Her face was panicked and pale and she looked like a rat desperate enough to leap into a snare for a meal. Her blond hair had come undone and her uniform had a track of food stains, as though she had been eating when receiving bad news.
His eyes narrowed. If they’d finally decided what to do with him, that wouldn’t be bad news for her. Whatever happened, it was something else.
“Come with me, Young.” She gestured with the gun.
Young remained still, letting the pause play out as long as possible. Just when she was about to raise the gun and threaten him, he said, “Are you upgrading my bathroom privileges to bedroom?”
She didn’t bother to roll her eyes. “Come.”
He stood and took his sweet time walking to the door. She huffed at his slowness. He glanced into the main bay. Nobody was there and the silence also spoke of bad news.
He walked in front of Linthin down the stairs, ignoring the gun pressed into his back, and across the main bay. A land rover sat on the lift, waiting for the chance to explore its new home. The walls were covered with art, prayers to guide the travelers on their journey. Even here, the greenhouse’s scent, a rich dirt with a fresh scent of growing plants, drifted through the vents. The ship was designed to be a long-term home.
The storage room door opened and one of the girls he had his eye on flinched away, scuttling back into the darker room. She must’ve been the one who let the captain out of her cryo-chamber. Next time he wouldn’t push so hard. Or maybe he would push in a different fashion.
The captain jabbed him in the back, and they continued to the bridge. Every crewmember out of cryo waited with arms folded, bodies tensed.
It was the first time his stomach twisted. Maybe they had voted to flush him out the airlock after all. No, no. Based on the quick glances in his direction and straightening backs, almost half still wanted his approval. That’s how deep his words had settled. They wouldn’t flush him.
“Explain this.” The captain pointed to the window.
Young looked up. And froze.
The ship was a tiny speck in the distance. But he had spent enough time around ships to know that this tiny speck was Solteran made.
Now his stomach dropped.
The Queen had caught up to him.
He knew the Solterans were developing cores which would give ships the ability to travel at impossible speeds, folding spacetime around them. He even saw the plans for the portals, which would permanently bend pockets of spacetime for easy travel. He had planned out everything. But he hadn’t planned on tech catching up so fast.
After the heartbreak he’d left in his wake, and that small object sewn into his pant hem, there would be no mercy for him.
The ship rumbled again under his feet.
His gaze snapped toward Linthin. “What did you do?”
“The last dump caused some damage we hadn’t seen. I sent out a mayday—”
“You stupid bitch. You stupid stupid—” He broke off into a string of curses.
Linthin straightened under his tirade, alternating between fury and shame. Then she shook off his words, as though remembering their positions. She was in charge. He, the last-min hired help who led a coup to take over the ship. “We managed to stabilize and fix it as they arrived.” Linthin hesitated. “She wants to talk to you.”
His core clenched. The interface blinked a warning red, a comm message waiting for him.
He nodded. At least listening would buy him time to think.
A vidscreen popped up and was transferred to the middle of the room. The Queen, as stunning and harsh as ever, filled the bridge. “Hello, Young. I will be glad to see you in person again. I so missed our time together.” Her teeth flashed star-white. “I know what else you took besides a copy of my map, and I know you are planning to go through the wormhole with it.”
It took all of his strength not to check his pant lining.
“But I know something you do not.” The Queen’s head cocked. “The portals and the cores were not the only things to have changed since you have been gone.” The teasing tone in her voice told him whatever she said next was something else he hadn’t planned for. “The wormhole collapsed.”
Which meant the entire last cycle he’d been heading for a one-way trip into a singularity, with no chance of finding a new start, a new home on the other side.
The Queen was still talking. “I have already built a new ring portal and, while I can start it, neither of us have what it takes to transform the singularity back into the wormhole.”
Dark matter. Even if he had managed to find some, the chances of finding enough for the transformation was such a laughable long shot he might as well set the ship on self-destruct.
The Queen knew it too.
“Turn off the comm,” he ordered. The others obeyed.
He grit his teeth. He did not feel like dying todia. He tugged on his bonds. “You need to flank. You need to flank now!”
Linthin coughed. “We only have—”
He whirled on Linthin. “Don't you understand? Flank! Your life depends on it.”
The captain hesitated. It was this hesitation that allowed him to take over the ship in the first place. He sighed. Some people were so pathetic. The crew below looked up at him, waiting on his instructions, even those who had helped her toss him into the engine room. Now that their lives were on the line, they all saw her hesitation for what it was: A weakness.
“What's the nearest system within flank range?” he said.
One of the crewmembers raised his hand. He was a study in angles. He told Young once, over a crappy cup of coffee, he had signed up for this journey because of his background in ag. He wanted his daughter, currently in cryo, to grow up under a big sky in a field of food in a new land and know anything was possible. “We already looked it up. There’s one next door in the black zone.”
“Good. Prepare for flank.”
The captain didn't know what to do with her gun. Exchanged it from her left to her right hand back to her left. “No. I forbid this. We already voted.”
Young ignored her and held out his wrists to the nearest crewmember. A quick slash of a knife, and just like that he was Captain Young again. He turned toward the interface, awash with color. The vidscreen blinked with another attempted comm from the Queen. Most likely demanding his imminent surrender.
But they all knew surrendering to the Solterans would not end well for them.
The speck in the distance was closer now, and he could see the burn of the engines as the Queen accelerated.
With a wave from Young, the others pressed Linthin to the interface, forcing her to sign over the command to him. He brought up the flank program. For a sec, a rush of excitement turned the hair on his arms into a salute. He hesitated, savoring the sweet taste of that enthrallment.
More intoxicating than the steepest drink. More intoxicating than the purest form of beauty. More intoxicating than life itself.
He had the power to save their miserable lives. Or he could end them all by letting the ship get caught. It wasn’t the
power itself that mesmerized him. It was the thrill of seeing how far he could go.
How far could he push the line of civility before anybody stopped him. How far could he toe what was moral before anybody bothered to look. How far could he rise and how much could he take before anybody asked questions. The difference between what everyone else believed was possible, and how far he could tap into impossibility. That difference enchanted him the most.
He had originally hoped to carve out a place for himself in the galaxy beyond the wormhole. Hell, why not carve out the entire galaxy for himself?
He’d settle for a planet instead.
He flanked.
They emerged over the Gemelos System. A tiny twin system, rotating around a pair of suns. A shudder ran throughout the ship, a groan, different from before.
Bang it. The corrosion. His fingers curled into a fist. The corrosion wasn’t meant for him to deal with.
The first planet had a massive asteroid that almost functioned like an extra moon, plus an asteroid belt they wouldn't make it through without doing more damage. Added with the corrosion, he couldn't guarantee the ship wouldn’t crash. Or at least have a very rocky landing. But the second planet . . .
He swung toward it. Behind him, the crew struggled with the twice-former captain, pinning her down, dragging her away. If they got out of this, he would have to kill her. Knife straight through the heart.
Ping!
He glanced down to confirm what he already knew. How had the Queen followed them?
His stomach tightened again.
That sugar-like thrill doused his system. He had one shot. One chance.
He slowed the ship, gliding along the planet’s horizon at an easy, defeated pace.
The Queen’s ship matched speed, obviously expecting him to descend on the surface for a land surrender.
Perfect.
As soon as he crested the planet and vanished from immediate sight, he accelerated to full speed.
