Stennis (Dark Seas Book 4)

by Damon Alan

  A sound he’d not heard since… that day long ago in the goat fields on the other side of the valley. When the newcomer sentinel had nearly killed him.

  The sound grew louder, until suddenly several dart-like monstrosities rocketed over his head and descended on the town below. It was ridiculous how loud the newcomer devices could be.

  Objects fell from the bottoms of the flying craft, and dropped toward the ground occupied by the Himalland army.

  Eislen was hard pressed not to think of birds defecating in flight. These droppings, however, did not stain clothes. When the objects struck the ground, long trails of flame erupted, rising the height of several trees into the sky, and burning a patch of ground as long as the main street in Kampana had been.

  Moments later two more larger ships screamed in from the south, landed in a field, and newcomer soldiers burst out of them. A few dozen, at least, and it looked like they had Zeffulti adepts with them.

  They killed every enemy adept on the field, in precision strikes that astounded Eislen with their fury. With what looked like very few losses. The staccato bursts of the newcomer weapons reached his ears, even over the sound of the wind.

  I hope to never be on the receiving end of that treatment.

  Eislen was too distant to hear the screams of the dying, but the Himalland army was being burned alive from the sky, filled with holes by the newcomer soldiers, and torn to burning chunks by Alarin’s warrior adepts.

  He knew the real power behind this display, however.

  Sarah Dayson. She was coming to his rescue, although too late to save the town he loved.

  Even after he’d attacked her people and taken some of their weapons. Or maybe she didn’t know about that.

  Regardless, here the newcomers were, dropping from the sky in metal birds and obliterating their foes with casual ease.

  How had he ever hoped to stand up to that if she’d sided with Alarin against him?

  Black smoke billowed into the sky, drifting his way. Finally the view of burning men and horses was obscured, but not before Eislen realized what devastation looked like. Himalland was crushed. Obliterated. Destroyed.

  He plopped over on his back and stared at Em’Jalai. As he’d done so long ago in a goat field.

  Once again he doubted whether the goddess really even cared at all.

  * * *

  He wasn’t sure how it happened, but he must have fallen asleep.

  Smoke wafted over his position, and he coughed himself awake. And felt the business end of a newcomer weapon push against his breastbone as he tried to rise.

  When his eyes finally focused, he saw a soldier staring down at him.

  She had beautiful brown eyes. How did he not notice how lovely that color was before?

  “Ensign Hamden, I think this one is Eislen,” she said into her radio. At least he knew what those were.

  “I am,” Eislen sputtered.

  She ignored him.

  “Bring him to the landing zone for confirmation,” the radio squawked.

  She slung her weapon on her shoulder and extended her hand to him. “You’re to come with me, sir. Admiral Dayson wishes to speak to you.”

  “That’s just great,” Eislen muttered as he accepted her hand and rose. “Am I her prisoner?”

  The woman looked at him like he was stupid. He knew the look. Salla often gave it to him. “Her guest, sir. She has saved your family, your friends, and now she’d like to talk to you. I think you can spare her the respect.”

  Eislen sighed. “Good point. Lead on.”

  He might as well see what she wanted. It’s not like he really had a choice in the matter.

  He followed the marine to his fate, boarded a shuttle, and with some of the newcomer assault force, took off for destinations unknown.

  Where didn’t matter, so he didn’t ask.

  Chapter 37 - Backup Plan

  Cycle 121, Year 8750

  Alarin stared out the window as Emille paced behind him.

  He couldn’t get over their height above ground, the clarity of the glass he stood in front of, nor the fact that he was in the newcomer city, in a newcomer building, and about to have a conference with their top leadership. Looking at their technology, it was hard to believe they so desperately needed the adepts.

  Thank goodness they did, or this exchange would be on a less equal footing.

  “Everyone sit down, let’s get started,” Sarah said loudly.

  Sarah, Peter and his wife Eris, as well as Thea sat at the meeting table.

  Alarin looked at Emille, who smiled at him. At least his partner was at ease.

  “The plan has worked perfectly,” Sarah said as the two adepts sat down. “So far.”

  “Plan?” Emille asked.

  He hadn’t told her anything about it yet. And somehow she’d failed to stumble on it during her regular sexual stampedes through his brain.

  “Alarin and I, after Eislen’s rebellion if you want to call it that, have been working on a plan that separates Eislen and his people from the rest of society,” Sarah answered.

  “Exile him to one of the uninhabited continents,” Emille said, waving her hand as if she’d solved everything.

  “No. We wronged him,” Sarah replied. “We’re not going to wrong him again. That is not how my people work.”

  “Nor ours,” Alarin insisted. “I also accepted him as my responsibility and failed in that responsibility.”

  Emille’s eyes narrowed. She clearly didn’t think it was his failure. But that wasn’t her call, he was First Adept.

  “Lighten up, Emille,” Peter said. “We have a plan to get Eislen out of your hair forever.”

  “You knew too? Doesn’t anyone tell me anything?”

  “You’re being told now,” Alarin said, shrugging his shoulders. “The plan didn’t really impact you, and there was a lot of personal conversation between Sarah and I.”

  “I see,” his betrothed said curtly.

  “If it’s any comfort, I told Alarin to fill you in,” Sarah said.

  He gawked at Sarah. She’d just thrown him under the cart wheels. With the truth.

  Emille crossed her arms and looked at him.

  “You don’t think clearly when it comes to my other acolyte,” he answered in defense. “You’ve never liked him, but he’s really nothing more than an innocent kid.”

  Emille looked at Sarah. “What’s the plan?”

  “There’s too great of a threat having all the adepts on one planet,” Sarah said. “We are going to take Eislen and his people to another world.”

  His promised stared at Sarah for a moment, as if digesting that idea before she spoke. “That is an excellent idea,” she said, her voice dripping approval. “Does Eislen know?”

  “No. This meeting is to decide whether we should tell him or not,” Alarin replied.

  “And I get a say in this?” Emille asked.

  “I will make the final decision,” Sarah responded. It will be my people who do the moving, who set up the new colony.”

  Eris finally spoke. “I’ve found a world, and it’s distant. Even further out into intergalactic space.”

  Are they telling me all this to get my approval? Emille asked him.

  You control the method by which they travel now, Sarah respects you for that.

  I would never hold that back.

  Peter knows that. The others don’t, nor believe me when I tell them. You act… immature in their eyes sometimes, Alarin thought to her.

  They broke from their private communication, and the others were staring at them.

  “You done?” Sarah asked.

  “Sorry,” Emille replied, blushing. “That was my fault. Alarin was explaining to me why you want me involved in the decision. I appreciate being included.”

  Thea smiled appreciatively at that. The doctor hated conflict.

  “As I was saying, I have found a world,” Eris continued. She waved something in her hand and an image appeared over the table. Of a sta
r and worlds around it. “This system is another seventeen thousand light-years into the void. It is brighter than Oasis, a G1 class yellow dwarf. There are six planets orbiting it that we can see from this range, one of which is in the habitable zone and appears to be terrestrial.”

  “That’s good?” Alarin asked.

  “A world much like this one,” Eris clarified. “But not orbiting a gas giant like your world does.”

  That would be strange. What would the sky look like without Em’Jalai in it? What would day be like if the star was so much brighter?

  “This is much like the star that humanity was born under,” Peter said. “Eislen and his people would be starting in a place much like that of our ancestors if the world is habitable. But we think it is, because we have detected oxygen in the atmosphere. That generally means life and oceans.”

  “Microbial life,” Eris corrected. “Multicellular organisms are rarely found that didn’t originate with a Terran transplanted biosphere.”

  “None of this makes any sense to me,” Alarin said. Emille nodded her agreement.

  “The planet is probably living, but with little more than microbial mats occupying it. Pond scum,” Peter tried to clarify.

  “A planet of pond scum?” Emille asked.

  “Precisely.”

  “How will they live on that?” she pressed.

  Sarah answered that one. “We will use the Gaia ship to get Eislen’s people there. They will be in suspension… a long sleep. We will terraform a small area, that is, make it like Refuge with trees and life. Which shouldn’t be hard if the atmosphere is breathable.”

  “And if there is a surface,” Eris added. “We can’t park them on an ocean world, which is about half of the terrestrial worlds out there.”

  “Yeah, that,” Sarah said. “So Eislen will serve the greatest good. He’ll have what he wants, which is a place safe from the society on Refuge as it currently is, and we’ll have made sure the Hive can’t erase your species with one attack.”

  “Our species,” Alarin said. “That sounds like we’re so different.”

  “You don’t see us moving stuff with our minds,” Thea threw in.

  Emille laughed. “No. You simply harness the power of Faroo.”

  “Stop,” Sarah ordered.

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  She stared back at them all for a moment. “We are different people. But we’re the same team. We have a common enemy, as does every single sentient being in the universe if there are more out there.”

  “Well, then, you’re open to suggestions from your partners?” Emille asked.

  Sarah looked annoyed at that. “Emille, you and I are equals. The difference is I happen to have lived enough life to be in charge. You’re well ahead of where I was in the game at your age.”

  Emille cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. Sarah hadn’t answered her question.

  Alarin laughed. He wasn’t sure if Sarah knew before today how frustrating his mate could be. But she certainly knew now.

  “Yes, I am open to any idea you have,” his friend replied slowly. Her intemperance showed on her face.

  “Then why hide Eislen’s people so close? Why not somewhere really far away?”

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  “Say, the Small Tapestry.”

  Alarin’s mouth fell open. Nobody else seemed to understand what Emille had said. Except Peter. His mouth was open too.

  “The Small Tapestry is Andromeda, Admiral,” Peter said.

  Incredulous looks filled the table.

  “Are you kidding me?” Sarah asked.

  Emille looked confused by that. “Why would I joke about such a thing? It seems far safer than someplace the Hive can reach.”

  “You can take the Gaia there?”

  “It will be difficult, I won’t lie,” Emille said. “As I explained to Peter, teleporting your ships is like running uphill in all directions at the same time. But I won’t do it alone.”

  “You never do,” Sarah said. “You brought a small committee with you when we went to kill Orson.”

  “When I killed that star, I realized something,” Emille said.

  Alarin knew what it was. He’d been waiting for Emille to bring it up. He thought she’d do it alone with him, but apparently here, in front of everyone, was the place to talk about it. He wasn’t so sure. What Emille was about to say made her the greatest threat in the universe if Sarah saw her that way.

  “What is that?” Peter asked.

  “When Merik was dying, she unified all the adepts to share her vision,” Emille said. “I can do that without the need to die for it.”

  “That’s not what killed Merik,” Thea said.

  “No, of course not. But only at her death was she that powerful. And it is the bond with Alarin that pushed both me and her past that power limit.”

  “WHAT?” Alarin bellowed, standing up. “How is any of this related to me?”

  “You didn’t know?” Emille asked. Then she laughed. “I guess we’re even for you not telling me about the plan for Eislen then.”

  Sarah chuckled. Loudly. She was the only one. “Okay, nobody else thinks that’s funny?”

  Peter grinned at his admiral.

  “I am the bond? What does that mean?”

  Emille stood up and hugged him. “Honey, you didn’t know? You… concentrate power. Why do you think Merik wanted you with her so badly even in her madness?”

  Looking at Sarah, Alarin protested. “I didn’t know anything about this. I’m still not sure it’s correct.”

  “We could test it,” Peter said. “That would be easy enough.”

  “No need,” Emille said. “I can prove it. All I need with me on Gaia is Alarin and your crew, Sarah. With him there, I can unify the adepts as Merik did to complete any task I need. Regardless of distance.”

  Sarah looked stunned. “You can do this?”

  Emille waved her hand dismissively. “Without a doubt.”

  “Alarin?” Sarah asked.

  “I have no reason to doubt her. Her skills are as beyond mine as mine are beyond Eislen’s.”

  His friend frowned as she answered. “Eislen seems pretty powerful to me.”

  “Then as I am significantly more powerful than Eislen, that should tell you something about Emille,” Alarin said. Even to him it sounded dangerous.

  Sarah, however, didn’t seem to feel threatened at all.

  “Then it’s settled. We will send an expedition to Andromeda, we will find a habitable planet there, and then terraform it sufficiently for Eislen’s colony to survive,” Sarah said.

  What Emille had offered them was pretty unbelievable. But Alarin believed her. She had, after all, blown a star from the sky.

  “Alarin, sit down, we need to sort out the details,” Sarah said.

  The two adepts returned to their seats. It was a long meeting, they had dinner in the room, spent the night, and reconvened the next day. The next day they called Gaia and secured her agreement.

  Plan in place, the future of humanity was looking brighter than ever.

  Chapter 38 - Questions

  38 Jand 15330

  Peter rested with his wife.

  They rarely had more than an hour or two to spend time together, at least alone. Eris snuggled her arm under his bare back and smiled at him as she moved into the crook of his arm.

  A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead, past his temple, and into his ear. He flicked it away with his one free hand.

  “Two years ago I was an ensign in the science division on the Stennis,” Eris said. “Now I’m Director of Sciences for our entire colony.”

  “Welllll,” Peter teased. “It’s not like they had a lot of choice. I mean I had to do another job.”

  She twisted his nipple and he howled.

  “Ow! Sorry!”

  That amused her, she laughed at his pain. He wondered to himself if that was a female trait.

  “Now you’re in charge of Admiral D
ayson’s plan,” Peter said, apologetically. “Remind me not to under-appreciate that again.”

  She pushed up and rested on her elbow. “Who’s going to convince Eislen to agree to this? I mean, it’s going to sound like madness to him.”

  “Yeah, but Kampana is gone,” Peter said. “Again. He’s got to go somewhere if he wants to live by his ideology.”

  “True,” Eris answered, her voice wandering off as she fell back on her pillow.

  Peter closed his eyes, and felt himself starting to fall asleep.

  “Hey,” she said, startling him half to death. “Do you think…”

  “Think what?”

  “Do you think the attack on Kampana went down after it was burned because Eislen needed to be homeless for this plan to work?” she asked. “To get him to agree to it?”

  Peter sat upright in bed. “What? Are you serious?”

  “I’m dead serious. Listen. It makes sense. Alarin needed someone to protect his eastern borders, and Eislen was failing at that job. By suggesting this to the admiral, he not only gets rid of his Eislen problem, but our military forces also took care of his border defense problem.”

  “Alarin’s not the devious type.”

  “Maybe the admiral wanted it that way as well then,” she said.

  “You’re a conspiracy theorist,” Peter said, laughing.

  “We’ll look at it. Our forces arrived right after Kampana was burned, not soon enough to save the town, but soon enough to ensure the invaders were still there.”

  “Coincidence,” Peter countered. “Sometimes things simply happen as they do.”

  “And we somehow knew that Eislen was in the area, that he didn’t evacuate to the north with his refugees,” Eris said, pushing on.

  Peter lay back on the pillow again. She was right about that part. How did they know to swoop in and pick up Eislen? The timing of the attack could be coincidence. The location of Eislen, that was a different story.

  “They set him up so he’d be compliant?” Peter asked. “Burned all he had yet spared his people?”

  His wife stroked his chest. “I think so. It fits the facts.” She lay her head on him. “I wasn’t sure if I should mention it to you or not. It’s sort of a dirty trick if that’s how it happened.”