Into the Dark (Dark Universe Book 1)

by Jason Halstead

  Aden did a double take to keep himself from staring at Twyf’s sister. Below the belly-baring top, she wore matching black pants that might as well have been a second skin. It contrasted with her skin nicely, but left the ridges and contours of her lean and exotic body on display almost more effectively than if she’d been nude.

  “Cloaked?” Aden asked.

  Tosc’s laugh was a hissing growl. “Doesn’t matter where we go—she thinks the Criknids are waiting for her.”

  Aden stiffened at the mention of the insectoid race. They were uncommon among most systems because they were just so different from other races. Free willed and capable of doing anything they wanted, the four-armed bipedal race still had a hive-centric culture and government. A lot of the finer emotions and culture of other races was lost on the martial Criknids. That, and their favorite meal was fresh Tassarian.

  “Hey, I’ve almost been eaten by them twice,” Seph said. “And not in a good way!”

  Garf snorted and chuckled.

  “So, um, what do we do when we find this rock?” Aden asked.

  Meshelle turned on him. “We get what the squid wants and get out of here. Nobody’s been to this system before, or at least nobody has charted it and talked about it. There’s probably a reason for that.”

  “Too dangerous?” Aden wondered.

  Tosc snorted. “Nothing’s too dangerous for us.”

  Garf dropped to all fours, stomping the deck with his hands and nodding his head to the Lermian.

  “More like there’s nothing worth having here,” Meshelle answered. “A bunch of rocks and no planets. Neutron star holding everything together. It’s a burnt-up waste of space.”

  Aden nodded and turned to look at Amber. She was staring out the window.

  Meshelle looked at them all again, making sure there weren’t any more questions. “All right, Kessoc says we’ll hit the asteroid belt in about two and a half hours. Do what you need to do before then.”

  Nods and grunts answered her. She turned and walked out of the lounge first. Seph turned and walked over to Aden. She held out her hand and smiled, a light twinkling in her purple hued eyes. “We haven’t met. I’m Seph. I heard you were cute.”

  Aden heard Amber’s sniff behind him. He smiled and shook the Tassarian’s hand. “I’m Aden. And thanks, but don’t worry, I’ll say or do something in no time to make up for being cute.”

  She laughed, a light and attractive sound he knew he wanted to hear more of. “Witty too. Oh dear, you’re going to make the Uma a very interesting place.”

  “If Meshelle doesn’t kill him or ditch him first,” Amber said. “He’s only probationary.”

  Seph nodded and smiled again. “Well, good luck, Aden.”

  She turned and left him and Amber alone on the lounger. Aden turned and saw her staring out the window again. “Something wrong?”

  Amber turned and shrugged. “Just seems weird. We spent two days in the black coming all this way for a system filled with rocks? I got a hunch, that’s all.”

  “What kind of hunch?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know, but it seems like there’s a lot more rocks than there ought to be in a solar system that survived a supernova.”

  Aden blinked. “I don’t understand.”

  She sighed. “Basic astrophysics. Star runs low on fuel and it can’t sustain itself, so it explodes. Expands in a supernova that burns up half the system or more. Then when that stage is done, it shrinks down and forms either a dwarf or a pulsar or a neutron star. If it’s big enough, a black hole.”

  “I guess I remember most of that. Does it matter?”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” she said. “Just seems weird, that’s all. Keep your head on straight and your eyes up out there.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Aden said.

  “And if you call me Ma’am again, I’ll rip your balls out through your nose.”

  Aden’s eyes widened as Amber offered him a too-sweet smile and walked out of the lounge ahead of him. She put an extra sway in her step and slapped her hip, reminding him that keeping his testicles safe and sound should be a high priority.

  Chapter 8

  “Mercs! Suit up,” Meshelle’s voice announced over the PA system. “Full load out and meet in the shuttle.”

  Aden looked up from the cards in his hands at the other players. Tosc, Seph, Amber, and Garf threw their cards down and moved to rise. The Devikian glared at the others. “We’ll pick this up when we get back.”

  Amber laughed. “Garf’s got a good hand—remind me to fold.”

  “What? No! I—”

  Tosc’s laughter hissed alongside Amber’s. “Don’t bother—you’re a lousy card player.”

  Garf growled and punched the table with a hand. “I am not! I just don’t like losing to a bunch of cheats.”

  Aden shook his head and followed Seph out of the galley to the armory. He admired the Tassarian’s clothing as she walked and nearly ran into her when she stopped to turn in to the armory. Seph glanced at him over her shoulder and winked before heading for her locker.

  Red-faced and suddenly very interested in his own locker, Aden hurried over and unlocked the metal door. The heavy suit of armor greeted him, taunting him with its bulk. Aden scowled and reached in to pull it out. He ignored the sounds of everyone else following their own rituals and kicked off his boots so he could step into the lower section of the armored suit.

  He put one foot in and realized something didn’t sound right. The noise in the room had dropped so that nothing except the gentle hum of the ship’s systems and the hiss of the air through the vents could be heard. He glanced up and saw the other four staring at him. Tosc snickered, although with his short muzzle it looked more like a tooth-baring snarl. Garf shook his head and turned away.

  “What?” Aden asked and then realized everyone was taking their clothes off. “Whoa! You’re all, uh....”

  “The suits fit better,” Amber said. “And they provide better feedback on your body. Most of them have basic support systems built into them in case of trouble. Administration of stimulants or depressants, even sealing off breaches.”

  “Breaches?” he repeated.

  “Say your leg gets shot off,” Garf said. “That suit has a foam that will seal your leg and the suit. Stop bleeding but I hear it stings worse than a Pyrosian rattler bite.”

  Aden nodded. “Uh, okay. I didn’t think these suits were high-tech enough for that.”

  “It’s all about appearances,” Twyf said. “We let people underestimate us by how things look. Under the covers, you won’t find anything better.”

  Aden looked at her and started to nod but found he couldn’t. She was naked and balancing on one foot while she slid the other long, toned, and delicious looking leg into the leg of her suit. She tugged her suit up and repeated the process with her other leg. Aden watched her pale blue skin disappear beneath the flat black and blue colored material of her suit.

  Amber smacked him in the back of the head. Aden’s mouth snapped shut, pinching his tongue between his teeth in the process. Garf and Tosc howled with laughter.

  “Oh!” he yelped and reached for the back of his head. He turned and saw Amber standing with only her suit’s heavy legs on.

  She glared at him and snapped, “Get your gear on!”

  Aden ignored the two men who continued to laugh at him and scrambled to strip his clothes off. He turned so his back was to the others, embarrassed by the attention, and tried to jam his feet into his suit as fast as possible.

  Footsteps striking the metal deck alerted him a moment before he heard Meshelle’s voice. “Nice ass.”

  Aden groaned and pulled his pants up so fast he scraped them against his thighs and even squashed the same balls Amber had threatened earlier. He grunted and forced himself to keep working on putting his suit on.

  Meshelle continued while he worked his arms into the sleeves of his suite. “Cute butt or not, you put us in danger out there and I’ll leave you float
ing in these rocks, got it?”

  Aden turned and saw her looking up at him from only a few feet away. Her hair had risen some but wasn’t moving. He had her full attention. He nodded. “Yes, uh, boss.”

  She gave him the stink eye for a moment longer and then turned her back on him and headed to her locker. She lifted her shirt over her head on the way and dropped it into her locker. Aden studied her muscled back and noted the scars on it. Some he could identify as bullet holes or knife wounds, but others looked far more exotic. Three jagged lines on her left side made him think of claws from a very large and very dangerous animal. What kind of animal, he couldn’t imagine, but he couldn’t think of any other reason for it.

  Amber cleared her throat. Aden jerked away and turned to see her staring at him with one eyebrow higher than the other. Her sleeves were on but her chest was still bare. Aden shrugged. “I’m a guy—I like boobs. If it’s any consolation, yours are my favorite so far.”

  Garf snorted and slapped an armored hand against the deck.

  Seph turned around and protested, “Hey!”

  Amber’s eyes widened before she turned to Meshelle. “Boss, can I withdraw my sponsorship? I’m okay with leaving him on a rock.”

  Meshelle smirked and struggled into her more mobile armored suit. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Seph finished securing her suit and walked over to stand in front of Aden. He fit the front of his suit on over his chest and waited while it tightened and secured itself to the rest of the armor. “I’m hurt.”

  Aden gulped and offered an apologetic smile. “Don’t be—you’re beautiful. It’s a flaw of mine that I’ve always had a thing for bigger breasts.”

  Seph sighed. “My sister wins another one.”

  Aden stiffened. He’d forgotten about Twyf. The darker-colored Tassarian had curves an adult entertainer would pay for. She and Seph were shorter than Amber, but a little taller than Meshelle was. He shook the comparison from his head and smiled. “Seph, I’m here to work and help. If I can enjoy the natural beauty around me, I will, but I’m not here to pick favorites or cause a fight.”

  Her purple eyes bored into his before her face lit with a smile. “Clever Terran. You could be trouble.”

  Aden gasped but she turned and strode out of the room before he could think of a response. He turned and saw Garf still chuckling. Tosc was finishing with his suit and shaking his head. Amber rolled her eyes at him and finished clamping her suit’s armored chest piece in place.

  “Don’t forget your helmet, Snake.”

  “Snake?” he asked.

  “Anybody with a tongue that quick has to be part snake,” she said. “Kind of makes me wish I’d found that out firsthand.”

  Aden gawked at her as she left the armory behind. Garf was close on her heels but he slowed enough to lift one fist up in the Devikian equivalent of a thumbs-up.

  Aden shook his head and grabbed his helmet out of his locker. The suit, without clothes on, did feel better. More adapted to him and easier to move in. He grunted and shut his locker. They’d already moved the weapons to the shuttle while they were waiting.

  “Terran!” Meshelle snapped.

  Aden turned back to her. “Yes, boss?”

  “Pretty words there,” she conceded. “You stick to them, maybe you got a shot.”

  Aden nodded. “I meant what I said. I needed a decent job that didn’t involve a dead end life busting drunks.”

  Meshelle finished locking down her armor and grabbed her helmet. “You mentioned a security academy. Couldn’t you sign on with a proper security provider or system defense force with that?”

  Aden hesitated before admitting, “I, um, never finished. There was an incident.”

  Meshelle stared at him and smirked. “An incident. Sounds messy. I trust there won’t be any incidents here?”

  “No, Ma’am!”

  Meshelle nodded. “If you don’t get yourself killed, or anybody else, maybe I’ll want to hear about this incident.”

  Aden winced. “I’m not proud of it.”

  “All the more reason to share,” she said. “While we’re out there, I want you to keep an eye on our client. Let the others handle anything that needs handling. I’m not saying you can’t; I’m saying I know how they operate and we haven’t had time to put you and your skills through the paces.”

  Aden would have stumbled if his suit would have allowed it. He ignored her concerns about how well he would, or wouldn’t, mesh with the others and asked, “Fluvulis is coming with us?”

  “He’s paying the bills and it’s part of the contract. It’s up to us to keep him safe so we get paid. Says he’s the only one who knows how to get what he’s after, and he won’t share it with us due to security reasons.”

  Aden snorted. “All right, I’ll keep the squid safe.”

  “At least until he’s paid us,” Meshelle said. She wiped the smile off her face and scowled, as if she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to like him. “Come on, we got a paycheck to earn.”

  Chapter 9

  “Everybody locked down?” Seph called over the near field communications system.

  “We’re good.” Meshelle looked at her strapped-in team and double-checked their Kesari client. “Take us in.”

  A resounding clang of metal releasing metal echoed through the oval-shaped cabin. The limited artificial gravity lagged and then caught up to the shuttle accelerating away from the Uma towards the asteroid field.

  “There’s a lot of rocks in here,” Seph warned. “Everybody pucker up. I’m redirecting power from artificial gravity to anti-gravity.”

  Aden’s stomach rose into his throat as the gravity was cut out. He lifted against the restraints clipped to his armor and then bounced back down into his seat. “Anti-gravity?” he gulped.

  “Pushes the smaller rocks away from the shuttle,” Tosc said. “Leaves a trail, though.”

  Aden glanced at the Lermian sitting on the other side of the small cabin. “A trail? Oh, a tunnel through the asteroids. Don’t others float back in?”

  “Sooner or later,” he answered. “It can take a long time if the orbits are stable and no other gravity wells disturb them.”

  “Nothing stable about this place,” Seph snapped. “I’d appreciate some quiet.”

  “Sorry,” Aden mumbled and focused on breathing and keeping his stomach stable.

  The silent ride ended after a few seconds. The shuttle’s thrusters fired, vibrating through the small spaceship. The boat filled with the sounds of metal striking metal and reinforced cloth and synthetic materials stretching as passengers were thrown against their restraints. A clang against the hull jerked everyone’s eyes up. A few seconds later, a second and then a third sound of rock striking the ship’s skin rang out.

  “We’re going to be hulled,” Meshelle growled.

  “Depressurizing cabin!” Seph snapped.

  “Why?” Aden asked before he could stop himself.

  “We vent atmo—it acts like a thruster,” Tosc said.

  “Shut it!” Meshelle hissed.

  The sounds of thrusters and asteroids pinging off the hull faded and stopped. Aden felt the vibrations coming through his suit shift and change, but the distraction of being thrown against his restraints and then back into his seat kept him from matching one vibration to any given action. He lost track of any sense of being up or down. Instead, he became very aware of the meal he’d eaten while they were waiting.

  They’d all eaten a meal with the consistency of mush. The flavored protein powders were an easily digested meal that offered the necessary nutrients without slowing them down or leaving them feeling full. It also made it possible for Aden to keep his meal down through the erratic movements of the shuttle.

  The lights flashed, switching from the pale white to a throbbing red. Aden jerked and looked back and forth, looking for an explanation for the change in lighting.

  “Hull breach,” Seph announced. “All systems functional. Three minutes to targ
et.”

  “Three minutes?” Meshelle growled.

  “We’re seven and a half in,” Tosc said.

  Aden’s eyes widened. It seemed like they’d just entered the asteroid belt a second ago, not seven minutes. He swallowed the lump down in his throat and clenched his teeth. He could do three more minutes.

  Seph switched to her own language and swore under her breath. The lights continued to throb and the shuttle jerked several more times around the passengers. “Touchdown in six, five, four, thre—”

  Her voice faltered when the ship jerked sideways and down. The red light flashed and disappeared, plunging the cabin into a darkness that was mitigated by a split in the hull overhead, spilling in light from the system’s neutron star. The ship jerked again, slamming Aden and the others down into their seats hard enough to bruise his legs and make him feel like his spine had been shortened by an inch or two.

  After several seconds passed without any additional sudden movements, Aden looked up to the ceiling. Whatever hit them had left a gash in the hull wide enough he could stick his head through. The outer and inner hull were curled in from the impact, dipping down far enough they’d have to duck to get out.

  “Report!” Meshelle barked over the comms.

  “Amber’s good.”

  “Tosc is good.”

  “Garf,” the Devikian huffed.

  “I’m okay. Uh, Aden, I mean.”

  Amber snorted over the radio.

  “Seph?”

  “Banged up, but I’m here. Better than the shuttle,” she responded after a moment.

  “Fluvulis?”

  “It takes more than a bad pilot to kill me,” the Kesari said. “Will the shuttle still fly?”

  “Bad pilot?” Seph asked. “I’ll have you—”

  “Seph’s one of the best pilots I know, and I’ve met a lot of pilots,” Meshelle snapped. “We’re all alive because of her. Seph, how’s the shuttle?”

  “Beaten halfway to the waters of Keevosh,” Seph said, naming the Tassarian version of hell. “Most of the thrusters and the main engine are good. Maneuverability is compromised and the hull needs to be rebuilt if it’s ever going to hold air again.”