Flying Blind

by Cameron Cooper

  Special Offer – Free Science Fiction

  Space cities have been locked in war for centuries over the resources of an asteroid belt.

  Humans pilot swarms of pod fighters to protect their city’s mining operations from other cities, risking everything and suffering multiple deaths and regenerations. Then Landry goes through a regeneration which introduces an error that will destroy the delicate balance of the war.

  Resilience is a space opera short story by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

  __

  Epic science fiction at its finest. Realistic far future worlds. Incredible characters and scenarios. – Amazon reader.

  This short story has not been commercially released for sale. It is only available as a gift to readers who subscribe to Cam’s email list.

  Click here to get your copy:

  https://cameroncooperauthor.com/resilience-free/

  Table of Contents

  Special Offer – Free Science Fiction

  About Flying Blind

  Praise for Flying Blind

  Flying Blind Title Page

  Flying Blind

  Did you enjoy this book? How to make a big difference!

  Sneak preview.

  Chapter One

  About the Author

  Other books by Cameron Cooper

  Copyright Information

  About Flying Blind

  Caught between two great enemies.

  The freeship Hathaway is boarded by the Eriuman navy while smuggling a Karassian, a mortal enemy of the Eriuman. Captain Tatiana Wang must ease her ship and crew to safety.

  Flying Blind is the short prequel to the Indigo Reports science fiction series by award-winning SF author Cameron Cooper.

  The Indigo Reports series:

  0.5 Flying Blind

  1.0 New Star Rising

  1.5 But Now I See

  2.0 Suns Eclipsed

  3.0 Worlds Beyond

  Space Opera Science Fiction Series

  Praise for Flying Blind

  By the time you get to the end of the story you’re sitting on the edge.

  An exciting glimpse of what's to come by this author in the SciFi genre.

  True SciFi is a magnificent world to enter and this is just the beginning of what I know will be a great series.

  Hits all the things that I love about Sci-fi.

  So much story!! So much promise!! This will keep my inner nerd happy.

  Keeping close tabs on this new Sci-fi series.

  This little window into the world of SciFi did not disappoint me, in fact, I think I'm addicted!!

  Flying Blind

  Freeship Hathaway. Rinat System Provincial Space.

  The appearance of the Eriuman patrol surprised everyone, including Tatiana herself. They were in neutral territory, minding their own business. To anyone who looked, they were just a small freeship.

  “What in the stars above is Erium doing out here?” she demanded of the whole bridge.

  “They’re insisting we halt for boarding, Captain!” Ruh called from the communications console.

  “Specifics, please,” she asked, forcing her voice back to reasonableness. Others would panic if they heard the captain screeching. “And I want our passenger here, right now. I have some questions for her.”

  People moved.

  Tatiana ran through possible scenarios, weighing and discarding potential strategies. She didn’t have enough information to make a decision, yet. “Ruh?”

  Her brother wrinkled his nose as he read the data. “A convoyer. The AI thinks it might be the Africanus.”

  A convoyer. “Scan wide,” Tatiana said quickly. “Highest sensitivity. Convoyers don’t travel alone.” She lifted her voice. “And someone tell me about the Africanus!”

  There was a murmur of voices by the bridge gate. Three of the crew were hauling their passenger along by her arms. Marisol. As most Karassians did, she had only the one name.

  The crewmen holding Marisol let her go. She stood on the decking in front of Tatiana, her arms crossed and her head tilted. She had declared herself an Upgrade, rather than a Standard, but had not specified what category of Upgrade she was. Other Karassians might have insisted on the details. Free citizens just didn’t care. At least Marisol looked normal. The biocomps and biobots, on the other hand, looked out of place anywhere but central Karassia.

  “Why is there a Eriuman patrol demanding to board my ship?” Tatiana asked her.

  Marisol shrugged. “When they enter, you can ask them.”

  “Perhaps I should put you out in front of the welcoming committee,” Tatiana said. “They’re here for you, aren’t they?”

  Marisol shook her head. Her hair was perfect Karassian blonde, her lips full and symmetrical and her eyes a flawless brown. She looked much the same as every other Karassian Tatiana had ever met. The standard enhancements every Karassian received before birth made them that way, especially to outsiders. Even her disdain fit the pattern. “They are not here for me,” Marisol declared firmly. Too firmly.

  “Something you’re carrying, then,” Tatiana surmised. “Search her.”

  Marisol tried to struggle. Too many free staters were willing to hold her down. She swore and leaned up on one elbow from her prone position on the deck, as someone handed Tatiana a small, shielded box. It sat on Tatiana’s palm, looking innocent.

  “A whole patrol for this?” Tatiana moved her hand, examining it from every angle. She made no move to open it, though. Noxious things came in small packages, as well as big, Erium-sized ones.

  “Captain, they’re calling again!” Ruh said.

  Tatiana sighed. “Hide the Karassian.”

  “How, Captain?” Gelan asked, hauling Marisol to her feet.

  “Surprise me,” Tatiana told him. “No, wait…” She looked Marisol over. The Karassian wore the same bored expression she had used since boarding, yesterday. “Here’s what you do,” she told Galen and outlined the plan swiftly.

  Galen grinned, liking it. So did the others. Marisol lost her indifference. Genuine anger flickered in her eyes. She scowled as Galen pulled her away again.

  Tatiana hefted the little box once more. Its light weight told her nothing about the contents. The Eriuman patrol hovering above them did, though.

  She moved over to the navigation table, bent and tapped the false panel in three corners, in the correct order. The plate popped open, she shoved the box inside and sealed it. “Let them come,” she told Ruh. “Not that we can stop them.” She tapped her wrist, selecting the wide channel. “Everyone, prep for boarding. The Eriumans are here.”

  * * * * *

  As the shuttle attached itself with a solid thunk and hiss of hydraulics that shuddered and echoed through the bridge, Tatiana reviewed the data on the Africanus on Ruh’s terminal. Ruh was part of the greeting party as he was the most fluent in Eriuman.

  The Africanus was one of the oldest of the convoyers in the Eriuman navy. The Karassians would have discarded the old craft a decade ago. The Eriumans considered such practice a waste. The Africanus did not bristle with armaments, although she did have a smart canon, which was all she needed against freeships like the Hathaway. The Africanus had been patrolling Eriuman border states for the last five years, which didn’t explain why it was out here in the Rinat system.

  Now she wished she had opened the damn box. There was no time, though. The march of boots was already sounding in the access corridor, mixed with the babble of frightened voices.

  Tatiana straightened up and turned to the gate. Next to her, Ruh’s apprentice, Elmer, gave a shuddering exhalation. Tatiana glanced at his huge, dark eyes. “It will be fine,” she assured him.

  Elmer swallowed. “I’ve never seen one before.”

  “
A patrol?”

  “An Eriuman.” He pressed his lips together for a moment. “Have you?”

  Tatiana realized she was stroking her thigh where the long scar lay beneath her trousers and made her hand stop. “Once,” she admitted.

  “And you lived….”

  Only just. She spoke the qualification in her mind, for the boy was unnerved enough. Karassians were crazy. Eriumans were not. They did their killing with cold calculation.

  No wonder they hated each other.

  The first through the bridge gate was an Eriuman officer, resplendent in purple, the braid and buttons glinting. His black eyes quartered the bridge. His gaze fell on Tatiana…and stayed there. He had correctly identified the most senior officer on the bridge despite their lack of uniforms or pretty rank identifiers like braid and swirls.

  Behind the officer, two more junior aides were dragging Ruh along, his arms wrenched behind his back. Ruh looked furious. There was a hand over his mouth, holding in his protests. Ruh had more than a common grasp of language. If he was angry, he tended to use that honed skill.

  Tatiana hid her dismay. She lifted her chin, for the officer was much taller than her. He seemed young. His dark olive features were smooth and free of lines—not that such smoothness was a good indicator of age among the Eriuman. Their in-breeding had done more than just purify their bloodlines. From the energetic way he walked to the alertness he was displaying told Tatiana this one was as young as he looked. Yet he had too many buttons and too much braid for a young man. Was he from one of the primary clans, then? It would explain his rank.

  She didn’t let his youth or possibly privileged rank fool her. No one confronted the Eriuman military, especially their officers, unless it was unavoidable. They were ruthless, disciplined and highly skilled at the art of war and they considered everyone who was not an Eriuman to be inferior and an enemy. Eriuman enemies were dealt with harshly.

  Tatiana realized she was rubbing her thigh again. She clenched her fist.

  “Captain Tatiana Wang of the freeship Hathaway,” the officer said. “You will explain your presence in the Rinat system.” His Common was flawless. The accent, though, was thick.

  All the stories and rumors she had heard in spacer bars across the galaxy whispered to her now. Sometimes, bravado earned respect from the Eriumans, for they appreciated courage.

  “Explain to whom, exactly?” Tatiana demanded. “I would prefer to know the name and rank of the officer who boards my ship so presumptuously.”

  The corner of his mouth quirked upward.

  From deeper inside the ship, she could hear more shouting and some screams. There were only three officers standing on the bridge and five soldiers. The soldiers were armed with ghostmakers. The muzzles were all pointing at someone. It left fifteen more of them to comb the ship and one other officer to direct them.

  Tatiana tilted her head at the officer and raised a brow. See?

  “Tribunal Lieutenant Maximilian Cardenas Scordini de Deluca,” the officer said.

  Tatiana knew enough about their names to pick out the interesting one. He was from the Scordini clan. Privileged, indeed.

  “Now, you will explain why you are in Eriuman space without clearance,” he added.

  “Eriuman space?” she repeated, genuinely shocked. “Rinat is free space.”

  “Not for a standard week now. Have you not been keeping up with news?”

  Her heart fell. The Eriumans did not tolerate ignorance. They did not leave warnings marking their territory, nor did they go to any great lengths to explain procedures. If one ventured into their space, it was at one’s own risk.

  Now they had annexed Rinat. Marisol had failed to mention that when she had been negotiating passage back to Karassia.

  Tatiana made herself look as humble as she could manage. Her throat squeezed painfully and her heart, too. “I didn’t know,” she admitted. “No one on the Hathaway went to the surface. We just dropped our passenger and were about to leave. We have another commission, in the Shimshon system.”

  “You aren’t carrying passengers there?” Cardenas asked sharply. “That is economically inefficient.”

  “Life does not always arrange itself in symmetrical perfection,” Tatiana pointed out.

  Cardenas considered her. She could hear his men routing out her family, rooting through any nook and cranny. Crashes and the sound of fragile things breaking floated up from the lower decks.

  The soldiers barring the gate eased aside, as one of the galley people pushed through, carrying a heavy tray that rattled.

  “Perhaps a coffee, Lieutenant?” Tatiana suggested. “While you wait?”

  The galley worker came over, cued by Tatiana’s suggestion. She held up the tray toward the Lieutenant. He bent over the tray and sniffed. His nose wrinkled and he shook his head. “I will not partake, thank you,” he said stiffly.

  Tatiana picked up her bowl and filled it. It gave her something to do with her hands. She nodded her thanks at the galley worker, who shuffled over to Elmer, who picked up one of the cups silently. His hand shook.

  Tatiana sipped, watching Cardenas.

  He turned on his heel, taking in the full extent of the bridge. “You are too relaxed for a freeship caught in Eriuman space.”

  “Our presence here is quite innocent,” she replied as evenly as she could.

  “You do not protest over our searching your ship.”

  “Would a protest halt the search?”

  He smiled.

  “Search away then,” she replied. “You will find nothing. We are a simple family freeship.”

  “A family ship?” Cardenas looked interested. “There are not many family freeships left.”

  True. The corporations were stripping the last of the tribal ships from their family holdings. It was an economic fact of life, although she was surprised this Eriuman officer knew that.

  “The Hathaway has been in my family for four generations,” Tatiana told him. “The man your officers are detaining is my younger brother.”

  Cardenas looked over his shoulder to where Ruh was standing with strained shoulders and a red face. “I have an older sister, too,” he said reflectively. He nodded at the officers, who let Ruh loose.

  Ruh flexed his shoulders and yanked his jacket back into place. Then, with a scowl at Cardenas, he walked between them, over to Elmer, and served himself coffee, his stiff back toward the Eriumans.

  A fourth officer, the one who must have been coordinating the search of the lower decks, hurried onto the bridge, over to Cardenas. He whispered in the lieutenant’s ear.

  Cardenas nodded and the officer looked toward the gate and waved.

  Six more soldiers pushed onto the bridge and circled it, prodding with the points of their guns, pushing with their boots, examining everything.

  Tatiana made herself not look at the navigation table.

  Cardenas moved in a slow circle around the bridge, following his men. He looked as though he was strolling in a garden. “I suppose it is a coincidence, Captain, that you should be here where we were told we would find a ship trying to smuggle smart crystals into Karassia?” His tone was pleasant. Even friendly.

  Tatiana’s chest tightened and her wariness grew. She had heard about smart crystals and the AI nanos that built them, but had never seen one. She imagined they would be small. Small enough to fit into a box the size of her hand.

  None of her crew so much as twitched in response to Cardenas’ probing and Tatiana silently cheered. She schooled her face into pleasant neutral and kept her gaze steady upon Cardenas.

  “Yes?” he coaxed.

  “I’m not smuggling crystals,” she replied as calmly as she could.

  “You know what they are, then?”

  “I’ve heard rumors,” she admitted. “Something to do with weapons.”

  “They are the core of intelligent weaponry. Karassians use them. So does Erium. They are rare, though. Difficult to breed.” He stopped his slow pacing and looked at he
r. “Given their solitary purpose, the Eriuman policy is to execute anyone found transporting them, destroy their ship and post warnings to others of the consequences.”

  Tatiana held her breath. No one spoke. No one moved and again she silently hugged every single one of them.

  “We’re just a commercial transport, Lieutenant,” she told him. “I would not put my whole family in danger for such a risky transaction.”

  His gaze met hers. “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because it is you and your clans who have made it that way,” she said flatly. “Of course I would settle my people dirtside, if I could. Only, between you and the Karassian Homogeny, there is nowhere left to go. You enslave a new world every year.”

  “We extend our protection,” he said flatly. “It is your free will to refuse citizenship.”

  “We do refuse,” she said, just as baldly.

  Someone snorted, by the gate, drawing their attention.

  The soldiers guarding the gate were bending, twisting to look down at their feet.

  Zita pushed through their legs, toddling onto the bridge with unsteady steps. She sat down suddenly and looked up at them, her small face curious. She smiled, showing a single tooth.

  Another barely smothered laugh sounded.

  Tatiana’s heart was working too hard for a woman her age. She pressed her hand to her chest as she watched the ghostmaker muzzles wave in Zita’s direction.

  The little girl got to her feet again and paused, then staggered over to the navigation table, cooing with delight at her own mobility. She gripped the corner of the table, while Cardenas stared down at her with a deep frown.

  Zita smiled up at him and took three steps toward him, then sat down again, this time with a small bump.

  “More family?” Cardenas asked.

  “My great granddaughter,” Tatiana said. Her voice was hoarse.

  Cardenas crouched. He picked Zita up, his hands looking big and powerful around her middle. She giggled at him, her little fist whacking at his wrist with delight.