The Shadow Order - Books 1 - 8 + 120 Seconds (The complete series): A Space Opera

by Michael Robertson

  Instead of focusing on the sports hall’s entrance on her left, Reyes looked at the door to her right. It had a number three above it. What did they have in there that Julius’ schematics wouldn’t show them? Patel? Lombardo’s body?

  Reyes pressed her mic again. “Crouch?” She chose to speak to him because she knew him better than Grady.

  “Reyes?”

  “Yep. Can you see a door leading to another section? It’ll have a number two above it.”

  “I can.”

  Reyes walked over to the number three door, her hand shaking as she pressed the button to open it. It didn’t budge. When Chan raised her gun and pointed it at the card reader, Reyes pushed the end of it down like she’d done earlier. Ignoring the daggers Chan stared at her, she then spoke to Crouch again. “Can you open yours?”

  After a second, he said, “No.”

  “No, we can’t either.” She looked at Chan when she said, “And we don’t have time to get distracted by them. Let’s leave them for now and get into the sports hall.” She checked her watch. “We have six minutes. We can tell the others about these doors when we get back.”

  “Okay, Reyes, on your mark.”

  “Three …” Reyes said, checking Chan to make sure she looked ready. She continued to scowl at her.

  “Two …”

  Chan stepped forward, her hand hovering over the button to open the door.

  “One.”

  When Chan pressed the button, the doors opened with a whoosh.

  Reyes led the way into the sports hall first, and Chan followed on her heels. “Are you in, Crouch?”

  But Crouch didn’t respond.

  “Crouch?”

  Nothing.

  A few more steps into the sports hall, Reyes pressed the button on her mic several times as if repeated pressure would somehow inspire it to work better. “Crouch! Answer me. Are you in?” The only thing that replied to her was the echo of her own tense voice.

  The whoosh of the door closing sounded opposite them, but when Reyes looked across the hall, she saw nothing, the darkness depriving her of a clear view of the other side. “Crouch?” From what she could see, it looked exactly like a sports hall, an open space much like the arena they played murderball in. Except in here, there were different kinds of goals and markings on the floor, which was the first level surface she’d walked on since boarding the ship. Whatever species the crew of The Faradis were, they obviously needed a flat surface to run on. Bathed in the warm red of emergency lighting, it defied logic that she couldn’t see to the other side. But like everywhere else on the ship, the shadows didn’t seem to adhere to the physics she knew.

  When Reyes walked forward, Chan moved with her. They both had their blasters raised and pressed into their shoulders, their torches ineffective as they tried to use them to scan the space in front. They headed straight for the doors on the other side of the room. Or at least where they expected them to be.

  As they drew closer and the room’s exit became visible, Reyes said, “Where the hell are Crouch and Grady?”

  After she’d spun a full circle, Chan shrugged. “They’ve vanished.”

  Reyes walked over to one of the dark corners, and Chan followed her. She then walked over to the other one. Nothing.

  The alarm on Reyes’ watch went off, the high-pitched pip of it calling through the quiet. “That feels like much less than ten minutes.” Reyes then pressed her mic again. “WO, we need a few more minutes before we leave the sports hall. Crouch and Grady have gone. We don’t yet know where. If anyone has finished searching their section, we could do with a few more bodies down here.”

  The same silence she’d heard when she’d tried to speak to Crouch and Grady.

  “WO?”

  Nothing.

  An obvious thing to state, but Reyes looked at Chan and stated it anyway. “The radios are down again.”

  Chan retied her tight ponytail as she continued to take in the room. “The WO’s going to lose his shit if we don’t go back right now.”

  “But what about Crouch and Grady?”

  “He said no exceptions. And they’re clearly not here.”

  The memories of Q328 … the rock creatures that lived there … the sound of Patel’s voice … It all swirled through Reyes’ head. “Then where are they? People don’t just vanish into thin air.”

  The alarm on Chan’s watch went off, and Reyes stared down at it as it glowed on her wrist. “I thought you set yours at the same time I did?”

  “I thought I did too.”

  Silence for a moment, Reyes said, “I’ll wait here in case Crouch and Grady appear. You go and get back up.”

  “You think I’ll leave you down here on your own?”

  “Why not?”

  “Your dad would kick my arse. I’d gladly leave you to face whatever might come your way, but I don’t want to be on the receiving end of his wrath.”

  “But what are we going to do about Crouch and Grady?”

  “What can we do?” Before Reyes could reply, Chan said, “Maybe they’ve gone back. Maybe they looked at their watches before entering the room and realised how little time they had. The warrant officer was quite explicit about not exceeding the ten minutes he gave us. Maybe they tried to tell you but couldn’t because the comms were down.”

  “You think they would have gone back without telling us?”

  “Have you met your dad? Anyone who’s late will get it in the neck from him. I think keeping him happy will be their number one priority.”

  They were by the doors Crouch and Grady should have walked through. Chan pressed the button and they slid open. “Let’s go back this way. If they’ve gone back for any reason, or if they’re stuck in this corridor, we can help them.”

  “But what if something else has happened?” Reyes said.

  “There’s only one way to find out. It’s the only call, Reyes. You can’t be a hero here. Come on.”

  For a moment, Reyes remained rooted to the spot as she watched Chan walk out through the doors.

  “Come on,” Chan said.

  “Damn it.” Reyes shook her head and walked after the diminutive Chan.

  Chapter 26

  Late for their rendezvous, Reyes and Chan jogged up the gloomy corridor to get back to the control room. As she ran, Reyes’ feet twisted and turned, the traumatised floor offering no level footing. Maybe they should have been more cautious, but with the WO’s wrath waiting for them, the sooner they got back, the better. In balance, the small risk that she could get a broken ankle felt like a worthwhile gamble.

  The doors to the control room opened when Reyes hit the button. Even though it had only happened to them twice, she’d already learned to distrust that she’d be granted access to any room on The Faradis. Out of breath, she stepped into the space to see many of the Marines had made it back.

  The warrant officer stood close to Julius and Simpson by the ship’s computer. Simpson stood as rigid as ever, a sentry to protect Julius should she need it. When the WO looked over at Reyes, his usual scowl hooded his eyes. Words raced to the tip of her tongue, a garbled mess about to explode from her mouth. But she didn’t know what he intended to ask her. She pulled the words in and took a moment to centre herself. Let him speak first.

  “Why have you just come in through that door?”

  Not the first question she’d expected. She quickly scanned the Marines in the room. Not only were Crouch and Grady missing, but she couldn’t see Austin and Hunt either.

  “Reyes?”

  The snap of his bark pulled her focus back to him.

  “Why did you just come in from that side?”

  After she’d looked at the Marines in the room to be sure she hadn’t missed them, she said, “Where are Crouch and Grady?”

  Silence swept through the place before the WO broke it, his deep voice cautious like the low growl of a large dog. “They were in the sports hall with you two.”

  “But they never entered the room.”
>
  “What?”

  “We were talking to them on the radio when they were in the opposite corridor, but when we entered the sports hall, we lost contact with them and they were nowhere to be seen. The radios died, so we couldn’t talk to them.”

  “Why didn’t you look for them?”

  The question wound tension through Reyes’ back. It took all she had to keep her tone level. Respectful. “We did. You think we’d just give up on them?” Before he could answer, she went on to say, “It was an open room. If they were in there, we would have seen them. Then our ten-minute timers went off and we had to get back here.” She pointed at the door they’d just come in through. “We came down the other corridor, hoping we’d find them on the way back.”

  Despite everything she’d told him, the warrant officer said, “Your timers went off? What are you talking about?” After looking at his own watch, he fixed her again with his cold stare. “You still have over two minutes left.”

  Reyes looked at her watch and noticed Chan do the same. “Both of our timers went off, which is why we came back.”

  This time Julius spoke, pulling herself away from the computer. “You’ve been gone seven minutes at the most, Reyes.”

  “Then why did my watch go off?”

  “You must have set it wrong.”

  “And Chan’s?”

  An apologetic wince, Julius didn’t offer an explanation. They must have set their watches wrong. Both of them. And Reyes couldn’t argue with her about it. When they were in such a confined space, time could be relied upon as a universal metric. Only when they put galaxies between them did the unreliability of it rear its relative head.

  The silence lasted for a few more seconds before Julius turned back to the computer.

  The WO took over the conversation again. “Did you lose your nerve? Is that why you didn’t wait?”

  Chan stepped forward, knocking shoulders with Reyes as she passed her. “With all due respect, sir, Reyes wanted to stay. She said she’d wait behind and that I should come and get help. I wouldn’t let her do that. I didn’t want to leave her on her own. Not in light of what’s been happening on this cursed ship.”

  Reyes flinched as she watched him fill his chest with a deep inhale. But before he could let loose, the watch on his wrist lit up and his alarm sounded.

  It took Julius away from the screen again. She looked down at it. “That’s going off early too. According to this computer, you still have ninety seconds before the ten minutes are up.”

  Another scan of the room showed Reyes that Austin and Hunt were still missing. She saw Platt, who’d gone into the library from the other side. “Where are Austin and Hunt?”

  “We met in the centre of the library, and both pairs left along different routes. We didn’t have the time to search every path through the maze if we remained as a group of four.”

  “And how long have you been back here for?”

  “Three or four minutes.”

  “So they should be back by now?”

  Platt dropped his gaze to the floor. “I don’t want to freak anyone out.”

  “I think we’re already freaked out, Platt. Didn’t you hear Patel earlier?”

  No reply. And what could he say to her? While looking from one door to the other as if her attention would somehow make the missing Marines appear, Reyes chewed on her bottom lip. Before she could ponder it any further, the crimson glow of the room gave way to a brilliant white glare. It shone so bright she stumbled back a few steps and covered her eyes against its burning assault.

  Chapter 27

  It took at least a minute of Reyes blinking repeatedly and rubbing her eyes before her sight returned. Many of the others looked like they hadn’t gotten there yet, staring around them like blind pups searching for a teat. In that moment, she took in the intricacies of the room and her blood ran cold. Where she’d seen an approximation of the place in the deep red glow of the emergency lighting, she now got to take it in with an entirely new perspective. The comparison of the metal to melted flesh rang truer than ever: melted flesh that had knotted back together in a feeble attempt to regain some of its original form, failing miserably and offering an onyx sight of torment and nightmares.

  Before anyone could ask what had happened, Julius indirectly gave them the answer, “Crimson Destroyer, this is Julius on The Faradis. Do you read me?”

  The reply came back almost instantly. Farrell, the Crimson Destroyer’s second in command, said, “Julius, thank the stars. We’ve been trying to get hold of you. Are you okay?”

  “Yes.” Then Julius looked at the Marines and sighed. “Ish. Look, we need to get off here ASAP. Can you track us and come now?”

  A few seconds of silence before Farrell replied. “How the hell did you get that far away?”

  “The ship jumped into hyperspace. We had no control where it went. Can you come to us?”

  “Yes, but we need some time. We’re going to have to do three jumps at least.”

  “How long?”

  “We can get to you in an hour.”

  Another moment of silence as Julius looked at the warrant officer. He shrugged. What else could he do?

  “Please get here as quickly as you can,” Julius said.

  “Will do. Oh, and we can’t stay there for long.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re in the middle of an unstable part of space. There are meteor showers and black holes everywhere. It’s a huge risk coming in at all. I reckon we’ve got three minutes at the most before we put the Crimson Destroyer in too much jeopardy. I’m going to have to programme for us to jump in and out again three minutes later. We can’t attach ourselves to The Faradis either because we don’t want it clinging onto us or dragging us into a black hole. You have to get to the escape pods and come to us.”

  “And what if we can’t do that?” Julius said.

  “Then we can’t get you out of there. We have no flexibility on it. It’s not somewhere I’d dream of taking a ship into normally. Sorry.”

  Julius looked at the WO while she replied, “You can only do what you can do. We’ll make sure we’re ready.”

  Reyes saw the warrant officer nod at her comment.

  “Okay. Hang on in there. Over and out.”

  The mood in the room plummeted the second the Crimson Destroyer cut the conversation. Reyes’ own body slumped where she stood.

  The loud snap of the WO clapping his hands once pulled the room’s attention onto him. He walked into the middle of the space, one of his steps hitting the twisted black metal floor harder than the other on account of his limp. “We need to be positive here. We’re going to get rescued. We have an hour to find the escape pods, the five missing Marines, and Lombardo’s body.”

  The high pitch of Hicks’ voice took flight through the room. His facetious tones had given way to straight-up panic. “And what if we can’t get to the escape pods and we miss the three-minute window?”

  “We won’t.”

  Although Hicks looked like he wanted to say more, the doors on Reyes’ left made a whopping sound as they opened. Every Marine in the room turned to face them, many of them drawing their weapons.

  When Austin entered with Hunt behind him, he smiled. “Wow, what a welcoming party. You lot must have been super quick to get back so soon. We thought we’d be the first to return.”

  None of the Marines spoke, so Austin held his wrist up. The light on his watch then came on with the sound of his alarm. “We beat the ten minutes.”

  Reyes and the warrant officer looked at one another before he turned to Julius. “What the hell’s going on?”

  Chapter 28

  Austin turned his alarm off while the WO continued to look at Julius. “How long was that one?”

  Although Julius didn’t turn around from the computer, Reyes saw her lift her eyes to check the top of the screen. “About eleven minutes.”

  “Why are they all so different?” Every time he asked a question, his voice g
ot louder, and Reyes watched his face redden. The bright glare of the lights above left no room for misinterpretation.

  Reyes watched Julius’ back tense in the face of the warrant officer’s inquisition. She remained focused on the screen. “Uh,” she said, “I’m not sure. There are a lot of things happening on this ship that I have no explanation for. This is all new to me too.”

  “Make a guess.”

  Maybe Reyes should step in. Julius clearly didn’t have an explanation for all the strange events, and he must have seen that. But, as always, when it came to speaking to her old man, her tongue felt too fat for her mouth and the words lodged in her throat.

  “If … if I had to guess, I would say it’s the same thing that’s messing with our comms.”

  “Magnetic fields?”

  For the first time since the WO had pursued this line of questioning, Julius turned away from the screen to look at him. Her brows rose in the middle and she shrugged. “It’s the best I have.”

  An already thick jaw tightened as he finally pulled his attention from Julius and turned a slow circle, taking in the room. When his eyes fell on Reyes, he stopped. Maybe he knew she had something to say; he didn’t look like he wanted to hear it. He maintained eye contact with her and addressed all of them. “I suppose we need to make use of this time. At least we now only have three Marines and a corpse to find. That’s progress, right?”

  After a second or two, he looked back at Julius. “What if the ship jumps into hyperspace again? Can you do anything to stop that?”

  “I can, but—”

  “I don’t want to hear a ‘but’; if there’s any chance this damn ship could take us to the arse end of the galaxy again, I want to prevent it. Whatever it takes. We need to make sure we’re here when the Crimson Destroyer turns up.”

  The turmoil on Julius’ face suggested she had more to say, so Reyes stepped forward to advocate for her. She’d held her tongue with her dad too many times. She was an adult now and he had to listen to her. Besides, it looked like whatever Julius had to say, they needed to hear it. Before she spoke, Chan stepped towards her.