Into the Dark (Dark Universe Book 1)

by Jason Halstead

  “I’d like to try.”

  He grinned and shook his head before turning to the bins built into the wall where his spare clothes were stored. By the time he was finished dressing, Twyf was back in her dress. Her bodywear had long been peeled off her skin, leaving the loose dress even more scandalous than it had been before. He grinned again and let out a wolf-whistle.

  “Stop it.” Twyf laughed. “We’re running out of time. Get out there and make sure I can slip away to my cabin.”

  Aden pouted and earned a kiss for it. Satisfied, he went to the door and opened it up. He glanced down the hall and hesitated. Chuck was walking down the hall towards the bow lounge. Aden stepped out and greeted him. “We the last ones?” he asked.

  “Probably. I came up from the port engine,” Chuck said.

  Aden nodded and turned to walk with him. He glanced into his room and gave Twyf a quick nod. The door slid shut between them, freeing him to accompany the Argossian to the bow lounge at the end of the hallway.

  Most of the crew was already gathered and sitting on the plush seats in the lounge. Janna was leaning against the round table on the port side of the lounge and straightened when the two of them walked through the door. She frowned and glanced at Seph. “Where’s Twyf?”

  “She wasn’t in her room,” Seph said while her eyes remained level with Aden.

  “What?” he challenged her. He chose his words carefully so he didn’t lie. “I don’t know where she is.”

  “Go on without her,” Meshelle urged.

  Janna shook her head. “Twyf was the one to figure out the map in the crystal; she deserves to know.”

  “Well, she’s late.”

  “Which I will deal with after we’re done,” Janna growled. “Privately.”

  Meshelle’s shoulders and tendrils of hair shrugged in unison. She looked at Aden and raised an eyebrow.

  He was about to try to come up with a way to protest his innocence when the door opened. Twyf glided in while adjusting a flowing dress that shimmered and changed colors. Aden’s eyes narrowed as he realized the material of the dress was filmy enough to see through. The colors that morphed and changed on some semi-random algorithm provided obscurity so no more than a glimpse of what lie hidden beneath was seen. He saw enough to know there was nothing between the whimsical dress and her supple flesh. Touching her and making love to her moments before helped confirm his suspicion.

  “Sorry, I was down in the shuttle and got dirty. I wanted to change but I didn’t—”

  Seph cut her off and demanded, “What were you doing in the shuttle?”

  “I overheard Aden and Chuck talking about the particle gun they installed and thought with some improvements to the sensors in it, it might target faster. Using ambient radiation to help paint a picture and provide better target forecasting and prediction.”

  “In the shuttle?” Seph repeated.

  “Yes.”

  “Did it work?” Meshelle asked.

  Twyf turned to the Vagnosian. “I think so. I was trying to calibrate it but we can’t shoot anything while we’re in the dark. Or at least it doesn’t do us any good. It checks out in the simulations.”

  “I wondered what she was doing down there too,” Chuck offered, surprising Aden enough to make him turn and gawk at the Argossian. “It’s a new approach with a lot of potential. Especially against cloaked ships.”

  “Good thinking,” Janna commended.

  “Were you helping her?” Seph directed her question at Aden.

  “What? I had no idea she did that,” he answered truthfully. If it was true, he wasn’t sure when she would have had time to do it.

  “I ran into Aden coming out of his cabin on the way in here,” Chuck confirmed.

  Aden glanced at Chuck and Twyf. The Argossian was covering for them, but why? Chuck ignored him and walked over to a couch and plopped down on it.

  “All right, let’s get started,” Janna said. Twyf moved to sit next to her sister while Janna looked around at everyone one final time to make sure she had their attention. Kessoc was missing, but she didn’t seem concerned about the Lermian’s absence. “Chuck confirmed that the black box is working overtime on this trip. By his measurements, we’re moving ten times faster than we ever have before.”

  “And heading coreward?” Aden asked. His eyes dropped as he did the math in his head. “Almost two weeks and a factor of ten puts us almost halfway to the middle of the galaxy!”

  “What about radiation?” Amber asked.

  “Nobody’s really sure if the bit about radiation is true,” Chuck said. “We’ve always taken it as true because that’s what the Kesari told us. They’re the ones with the FTL drives, so they would know, right?”

  “Right, so what about it?” Amber asked again.

  “This is where that crystal brought us. Shielding on the ship should keep us safe long enough.”

  “Long enough for what?” Garf wondered. “I’m seeing us getting farther and farther from a paycheck.”

  “Maybe,” Janna admitted. “But maybe not. We might find something worth it here. That’s what I’m banking on. Remember that it’s my money I’ve spent on this so far.”

  “Mine too,” Meshelle growled.

  Janna rolled her eyes and continued. “And if that squid and his bug-men followed us last time, you can be sure they’ll follow us again.”

  “When are we coming out of the dark?” Tosc asked.

  Janna looked at Chuck. He shifted and stared into space while he counted. “Another hour, maybe less,” he said. “We had to charge a long time to get here and we fly faster than the Kesari’s ship does. We should be fine for a while.”

  “How long’s awhile?” Meshelle asked.

  He shrugged. “Ten, maybe twelve hours?”

  “Enough time to charge up and go back,” Janna said. “But be ready for anything.”

  “Suits?” Aden asked.

  The captain shook her head. “Not yet, but be ready.”

  “So that’s what you brought us here for?” Tosc asked.

  “We’re in uncharted space,” Janna said. “Mostly there’s a lot of nothing out here, but that crystal wasn’t made tens of thousands of years ago to point at an empty spot. It’s pointing here for a reason, and we’re going to find out what it is.”

  “And try to take it and sell it,” Meshelle finished.

  “Or kill it,” Garf suggested.

  Amber chuckled while Janna shook her head and sighed. She saw Aden watching her and said, “This is why I’m the captain.”

  Chapter 29

  “Dropping to relativistic speed in five, four, three, two, one…we’re subluminal,” Kessoc announced.

  Aden stared out the windows as blurry lights sprang into existence and sharpened to tiny pricks. Except for two larger orbs that floated in space and burned brighter and larger than the distant stars. A wispy cloud of spiraling dust formed a maelstrom between them that looked like a whirlpool draining a sink. Except it was hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter instead of a few inches. The closer to the dark center he looked, the blurrier the tendrils of stardust and gas looked.

  “What is that?” he whispered.

  The lights overhead flashed from white to red. A klaxon sounded, followed a moment later by the PA announcement. “Chuck, give me full power. We’re caught in some kind of gravity well!”

  Aden jerked and turned to stare at Amber. “That’s not good.”

  “We’re way out,” Amber said. “Plenty of time to break free. Gravity’s never that strong.”

  Aden stared at the swirled gasses ahead of them. “Are you sure? Look at that.” He pointed ahead.

  “Gas cloud, twisted by the binary star system,” Amber said. “Big deal.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Tosc turned, drawing Seph’s attention. He glanced at Aden and asked, “What are you talking about?”

  “Twisted in the middle?” Aden asked. He shook his head. “That doesn’t seem right. Let’s find
out.”

  “How do you propose to do that?” Seph demanded.

  Aden gestured. “The bridge. Let’s go.”

  “They’re kind of busy right now,” Amber pointed out.

  “Then stay here,” he offered as he walked out of the lounge and headed down the hall to the lift. They followed.

  Aden entered the bridge and earned a glare from Janna. “Get out,” she snapped. “We’ve got a situation.”

  “Gravity?”

  “Yes,” she spat while turning back to face her bridge crew.

  “This isn’t possible,” Kessoc growled. “I’m at full burn and we’re still caught.”

  “Turn and go with it,” Janna snapped. “Gain speed and break free.”

  “Slingshot?” Seph asked.

  Kessoc growled and moved his hands across the controls to do as the captain asked. Aden slipped behind her and moved closer to Twyf. “Where’s the gravity pulling us to?” he asked.

  “In the middle, towards the gas,” Twyf answered.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” he mumbled. “Isn’t one of the two suns closer?”

  “Trinary,” Janna said. “Trinary system.”

  “A trinary?” Aden gasped. “Where’s the third, orbiting one of the other two?”

  “Other side of the gas cloud,” Twyf answered. “All three stars are similar size, age, and composition. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”

  “Then what’s in the middle?” Tosc asked.

  Aden’s eyes widened as he peered over Twyf’s shoulder. “Holy shit,” he whispered.

  “What?” Janna snapped.

  “It’s a wormhole!” he breathed.

  Seph snorted. “A wormhole? That’s not possible. They’re unstable.”

  Aden nodded. “Yes, the only observed ones have never existed longer than a few picoseconds. There’s not enough negative energy available to stabilize them.”

  “So how can this be a wormhole?” Twyf asked. “Why not a black hole?”

  “It’s not black,” Aden pointed out. “Gravity is so strong not even light can escape those.”

  “Gravity’s pretty strong here,” Kessoc growled. “We’re traveling at almost one third of the speed of light and accelerating faster than I’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s got to be fast enough to break away,” Meshelle said.

  “Try it,” Janna snapped.

  “Wait,” Aden warned while looking between displays. “We’re inside the orbit of the stars…it looks like—starbirth! They’re orbiting the wormhole. In the same orbit!”

  “That’s not possible,” Seph argued.

  “He’s right,” Twyf said. “They are.”

  Tosc shook his head. “How? That’s not natural!”

  “In a universe of infinite possibilities, who’s to say what’s natural?” Aden asked.

  “Kessoc, get us out of here,” Janna snapped.

  “Is it safe?” he asked.

  “We’re fucked,” Aden said. “There’s no way. The gravity wells won’t let us out.”

  “Slingshot around one of the stars,” Seph suggested.

  “No good.” Kessoc agreed with Aden. “The star and the wormhole would double the pull against us.”

  “So this rock we stole from the Kesari was a trap?” Tosc growled.

  Aden opened his mouth but hesitated. He didn’t know what to tell the Lermian. The shuttle flashed in his head but he tossed it away. The engines and fuel supply on the shuttle were nothing compared to the Uma’s. He clenched his teeth and shook his head. “Damn it!”

  “I’m not giving up,” Janna snapped. “Try anyhow. Anything you can do, find a way.”

  Kessoc snarled and said, “See if Chuck can give me any more. We’re going to need another forty percent thrust, at least.”

  “Chuck!” Janna spat over the PA. “Boost power. One hundred fifty percent max.”

  “That’s not possible,” he argued.

  “Find a way or we’re all star food!”

  Aden blocked out the conversation and studied the readings on Twyf’s sensors. He pointed at one and, without saying a word, she reached over and flipped to a different view of ambient readings. His eyes narrowed as he read off the numbers. Twyf’s gasp pulled his eyes away but it was a hand yanking hard on his shoulder that earned his attention.

  Janna was standing behind him with a deadly glare on her face. She pointed a finger and said, “You! This was your idea. Chase the Kesari. Get the crystal back. Follow the map.”

  “What are you saying?” Twyf asked. “You think he planned this? That he knew something?”

  Aden kept his eyes locked on Janna’s. “That’s what she thinks,” he said.

  Her hair twisted itself in knots. “Is it true?”

  “I’ve wondered about the Kesari and their technology—everyone has. Don’t deny it,” he said. “They control interstellar travel. We can’t figure out their tech or reverse engineer it. Don’t you want to know where they get it? Why it does what it does?”

  “We were doing just fine without that,” the Vagnosian said. “You twisted us to meet your agenda.”

  “Oh, knock it off,” Aden snapped. “My agenda? Yes, I was curious, but I didn’t hold a gun to anyone’s head. We all did it because we wondered and because we wanted a big score.”

  Janna’s lip twitched in a sneer. “Get off my bridge!” she snapped.

  “Captain, please, he’s helping us!” Twyf argued.

  “You want to live through this?” Aden asked.

  Janna’s eyes widened and she stiffened. “Are you threatening me, you piece of Terran scum?”

  “No! Geeze! I’m trying to tell you we’re not the first ones here.”

  Janna’s hair stiffened and her eyes narrowed. “We’re not? How do you know that?”

  Twyf answered for him. “Residual radiation. Only a few hours old.”

  “And they went straight into the wormhole, no course deviation,” Aden said.

  “What are you saying?” Janna said. “We’ll be torn apart if we fly into that!”

  “Somebody else already did it,” Twyf pointed out.

  “A bigger ship that was damaged,” Aden added.

  Janna glared at him for several long seconds. “If this doesn’t work, I’m going to let my sister kill you.”

  “You won’t need to,” he pointed out. “If we’re wrong, the gravity down there will rip us apart.”

  Janna sneered a second longer and then spun away. “Kessoc, new course. Into the wormhole. Stay in the middle.”

  He twisted to look at her. “Captain?”

  “Were you able to get away?” she asked. When he shook his head, she ordered, “Then do it!”

  Kessoc nodded and turned back to change the ship’s course. “Any idea where the other end of this thing is?”

  Janna glanced at Aden. He shook his head. “I don’t think there’s ever been one that existed long enough for us to measure it. It’s all theoretical.”

  Janna’s shoulders rose as she took in a deep breath and let it out. She returned to her seat while Amber and Tosc slipped behind her chair and stood closer to Aden. Amber moved so that the heavy pistol on her hip was in easy reach.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” Aden warned her.

  “Stupid?” she asked. “Seems like there’s a lot of stupid going around lately.”

  Tosc’s lip curled up in a snarl. Seph slipped between the two veteran mercenaries but her attention stayed on Twyf.

  “It was all of our greed that brought us here,” Aden reminded them. “Greed for money, information, power, or something else. Whatever it was, I’m the one suggesting there’s a chance we might be able to live and see this through.”

  “Leave him be,” Janna barked. “He’s right. Arrogant and presumptuous, but right.”

  The ship shuddered as it drew closer to the wormhole. The gravity wells tugged at the ship until Kessoc adjusted the ship’s course to find the line where the forces were equal on the Uma.
>
  Twyf whimpered and pressed herself against Aden’s side. He wrapped his arm around her without thinking and started to turn to look out the front window of the ship. A strangled gasp on his left reminded him of Seph.

  He squeezed Twyf instead of turning to her sister and said, “We’ll be okay.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because if we’re not, it won’t matter to any of us,” he said.

  Twyf whimpered and pressed herself into him again. She turned her face and rested it against his chest. Her eyes met her sister’s and she reached out a hand for her. “Not now, Seph. If we survive, we can shout this out. For now, let me be with the people who mean the most to me.”

  Seph stiffened while she stared at her. She shook her head and bit her lip before turning and glancing out the window to the front. The blurry lines of stardust took on more detail, but they still looked stretched and unusual. The gravity was so strong it was bending the light.

  “We will have a reckoning,” Seph promised before taking her sister’s hand and embracing her. Twyf smiled as she was sandwiched between the two.

  Tosc turned away and glanced down at Amber. He bared his teeth in a grin and said, “We probably won’t survive this.”

  Amber raised an eyebrow as she looked at him. “Don’t even think about it. Keep your furry hands off me.”

  The ship jerked again, earning a few grunts and cries of alarm. Kessoc turned, moving in slow motion from where Aden stood, and said in a drawling voice, “Seventy-nine percent of light.”

  Aden blinked. The words sounded weird and Kessoc’s mouth wasn’t moving at the same time. His mouth elongated. Was his face stretching? Aden turned to the front windows. They looked farther away and elongated.

  The ship began to blur around him, forcing him to blink to try to clear his vision.

  “Eighty-four percennnn—”

  Kessoc’s words faded into a background hum as the lines of the windows and ship around them blurred into a white light with splotches of off-white in it. The last thing he knew before the strange light and hum overwhelmed him was the feeling of Twyf squeezing him tight.

  Chapter 30

  Colors returned with the force of an elastic band stretched to the breaking point snapping them in the eye. Grunts and cries of shock sounded throughout the bridge. Aden, Twyf, and Seph staggered into one another and went down, legs tripping on legs. Aden ended up breathless on the bottom of the pile.