by Taylor Smith
“It must be running on minimal power,” Cade wondered aloud as they entered the command center of the vessel to find a multitude of tiny, pinpoints of light shining through the dimly lit room.
As they made their way up to the primary command platform, the lights suddenly brightened and a holoscreen flickered to life before them.
“No,” Saundi whispered.
“I hope ya be my little ones,” a young Mallian Neese greeted them in the ground-out accent that they both remembered. “I hope ya be Andy and my little Saundi,” he continued, “but if not, I must have trusted ya well enough ta’ send ya here, and that means I’m either eatin’ space, or standin’ right there next to ya, laughin’ at me’self.”
“When was this made?” Cade asked a shocked Saundi.
“It must have been fifteen, maybe twenty years ago,” she replied. “He’s so young.”
“There be only a few that know of this ship,” he said, and quickly rattled off a few names that neither of them knew, until he mentioned Ronald Borden. “If any of these men still live today, they’ll have a plan. Trust ‘em.”
“Why didn’t Ron mention any of this?” Saundi asked.
“I think he tried to,” Cade replied. “But he must have sworn him to secrecy. I wish he would have just come out and told us, but Mallian must have been worried about Sol Fleet finding out about it.”
“Adrianna, or someone else from Sol Fleet musta’ come callin’ on Clew, if ya be here,” Mallian said darkly. “Don’t trust ‘em. Don’t let ‘em drag Clew down in flames with ‘em! They’ll tear our way of life away, and nigh return a shred of freedom.”
“I had ta make a deal,” he continued with a lowered head. “Clew was always part of Sol, but somewhere durin’ the last half a century, we changed. Clew is not Sol. This ship… this station seed ship… is my last chance at redemption for the mistake I made in playin’ along with that devil-woman. Take it and save our people.”
The holoscreen winked out of existence and the bridge was quiet for several moments as Cade and Saundi stared at the empty space that Mallian had occupied.
Cade finally turned to Saundi to find tears in her eyes. “You have to lead our people to a new home, Saundi. Mallian gave us a new chance at freedom.”
She shook her head slowly as she tried to absorb what she’d just learned. “I don’t know if I can.”
Cade took her by the shoulders and turned her to him. “I’ve seen who you truly are. You are every bit the leader that your father was, and I’ll be right here with you every step of the way. You can do this.”
Saundi rolled her eyes and let a small smile slip escape from the frown.
“Yeah,” he said. “It was a shock to me, too.”
Epilogue
Admiral Adrianna Nyest stormed onto the bridge of the Valkyrie with all the force of a hurricane. Her flagship, the Memory of Earth, had waited impatiently at the rendezvous for a week before finally receiving a transmission to meet at a different location.
Even among her furiousness at the complete botchery of its first mission, which was nothing more than a timetable for meeting her ship, she was glad to hear from the city ship that carried her daughter. She was also becoming fond of Cade, and several other Clew residents. They had a sense of honor that she found akin to her own people and their sense of duty to her and the future of Earth.
Now, however, the fury had returned, and she knew that the members of her crew in the large room were bracing for her wrath to erupt and consume them all. As she approached the command dais the scene became more apparent, and she braced herself for the possibilities that she could be facing with the people of Clew.
She’d sent ten men into the Valkyrie to secure it when the massive vessel didn’t respond to hails. They’d quickly reported that the ship had been completely abandoned, save one.
She had walked the long distance from the airlock at which her ship had docked, in eerie silence. The long corridors and main concourse that had had been built to house thousands of people, were unsettlingly empty.
Two guards had remained near the entrance to the bridge, and the other eight surrounded the Captain’s chair, now faced away from her, with their weapons aimed at its occupant.
She stopped a few meters behind the large command chair and said, “Report.”
“Admiral,” Sergeant Larson responded. “We’ve secured the ship. He’s the only one aboard and he’s been disarmed.”
The command chair turned slowly to face her.
Adrianna’s eyes narrowed as Dorian Cade met her gaze from the command chair. Before she could lash out in a flurry of questions, something in his eyes made her pause. She’d seen every emotion from him in the past few weeks, even in a weakened state after surgery. But this visage of Dorian Cade was different; it was savage with a burning intelligence behind it. It made her shift her attitude completely and reconsider her approach.
She took several tentative steps toward him, and crossed her arms. “Lower your weapons,” she said and waited until her guards had complied. “What happened, Dorian?” she asked in a softer tone.
“They’re gone,” he said in almost a whisper. “You’ll never find them.”
She tilted her head at that, still itching to lay into the man but something still held her back. “The seed ship Mallian stole seventeen years ago,” she replied, and was immediately rewarded with surprise in Cade’s expression. “Oh, come now,” She said dismissively. “Even with our limited intelligence back then, if an entire station seed ship went missing, we heard about it.”
Cade’s visage hardened again before he nodded in thought.
“My daughter?” she asked.
His eyes lowered in thought, and a slight smile presented itself. “The Pirate Queen.”
Then that was it. She knew about the seed ship, but couldn’t prove that Mallian had it. Even when she confronted him he shrugged her off with a lie. When the end came too soon, and she was forced to move her timetable up in regards to Clew Station and the Valkyrie, her staff had warned her of the possibility that they would somehow use it to flee their arrangement with Sol Fleet.
Clew’s absence didn’t matter in the grand plan, however. It hurt that Saundi had abandoned her, though, and being so soon after losing Andrew seemed to amplify the pain.
But she was Adrianna Nyest the Sixteenth: bred for purposes far above personal hindrances. She was to lead her people home. No matter her pain, she would do just that.
She studied him for another few moments before she asked, “Why aren’t you with them?”
Cade stared at her before he tapped a few commands into the control unit on his chair.
A new screen formed in the air before them. The display showed an immense, cheering crowd in front of a stage that held a group of people in Allied Fleet uniform. The man that stood at the podium seemed to have the most decorations, and spoke to the gathered masses with vigor.
“…the information warning us of the continued existence of Sol Fleet, and their intent to invade the Alliance, was procured at great risk, by a Hero of our people. This brave soul, risked her life to bring us this information, and to rid us of not one, but two criminal leaders known as Dorian Cade, and Andrew Neese.”
The crowd roared at the announcement before the man at the podium rose his hands to calm them. “I present to you, your fellow Alliance citizen, Commander Haley Marks.”
Cade paused the transmission the moment Haley was presented to the camera and glared at her.
“So they know.” Adrianna shifted her stance and placed her hands on her hips as she found a new hatred boil within her. This was devastating to her timeline, even as rushed as it already was. She’d have to find a way to limit the Alliance preparations.
But as far as Haley was concerned, she now knew the reason for Cade’s darkened mood. Her being tied to her son’s death, however, was a point of confusion. “I thought you said –“.
“A guard shot him,” Cade interrupted without taking his
eyes off the screen. “I saw it myself. Andy and Saundi were chasing after her, though. If she was truly involved, it was Haley who set the stun grenade that caught them.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter though,” he said through his teeth. “If she wants to claim it, she’ll die for it.”
Adrianna tore her gaze from the screen and assessed Cade once more. “What are you saying, Dorian?” She hoped that she was hearing what she thought she was hearing. It may have happened eventually, but to have the man who sat before her dedicated to her cause was something she’d already planned for.
Cade stood before her, and removed his long coat that bore the Reaper’s patch, and laid it across the command chair. “I’m with you,” he said simply.
She crossed her arms again and presented a serious composure when she really just wanted to grin in triumph. “Sol Fleet Officer’s Training is a harsh two years, Cade. I’m not sure that you’re up to it.”
As Adrianna waited for a reply, a slow grin began to form on Cade’s face, and she knew that she had her answer. “So be it.”
THE END
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you very much for reading Whispers of Earth. I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
This book is the second of a trilogy, and I’m excited to bring you the conclusion of Cade and Haley’s adventures in the coming months. If you enjoyed this book, please throw some stars my way. It would be very much appreciated, and it also lets an author know his or her work is enjoyed.
Thank you,
Taylor L. Smith
