Sarin's War

by L. Fergus

  “Yes, of course,” said Hackett. “Anything to spare as many lives as possible. I’m sure most of the Political Bureau is as innocent as the rest.”

  “Maybe innocent of the deed, but most are indoctrinated and can’t be trusted,” said Sarin.

  “We should get to the bridge,” said Hackett. “That will be the best place to coordinate our efforts.”

  “The Angels stand ready to help in any way necessary,” said Sarin. “But I need a favor.”

  Hackett gave her a funny look. “Of course.”

  “It’s not my place to give orders, at least not at the moment,” said Sarin. “But one of the Angels, Talli, was taken back to Earth. I need your fastest interceptors to stop them.”

  “As soon as it is safe to fly, we will get her back.”

  Sarin fingered the controls on Fort Ticonderoga’s captain’s chair. As the highest-ranking officer, the honor was hers. Hackett and a few of the other captains stood to her right. The other Angels, including Athena and Talli, stood on her left.

  For three days, they had dug the Political Bureau out of the capital ships. Some of the smaller ships tried to flee or fight back, but after Ticonderoga was able to resume flight operations ship-to-ship combat ceased. Boarding parties were being prepared to take back the last of the small ships, but all organized resistance throughout the fleet was over.

  “Make the call, Athena.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  Sarin held her breath as she watched the blank screen. She was taking a gamble talking to Galina in the open. She doubted the captains would believe anything Galina told them about her, but there was always a chance. Galina’s stone-faced image appeared.

  “Command General Lyakhova, how good to see you again. You look much calmer than when we left our last chat.”

  “What lies have you told these honorable warriors of the Empire?” demanded Galina.

  “You mean the warriors you’ve had removed from their commands and imprisoned? I haven’t told them any lies, just the truth. You and your puppets’ days are numbered. I have control of the Shadow Fleet.”

  “The fleet is nothing,” hissed Galina.

  “No, but I can make life very uncomfortable. I control a third of the frontier and now have the power to free the rest. I control all of space.”

  “That’s nothing! I control entire planets.”

  “With no way to get into space. How long before Mars and Neptune revolt against your rule with no Shadow Fleet to keep them in check? They will learn the truth. I may not be able to take Earth, but I can make your life miserable until Kita, and the princess arrives.”

  Galina smiled. “Who knows if that will ever happen? You can’t beat me.”

  Sarin smiled back. “No, but I can keep you from winning.”

  L. Fergus is a Wattpad featured author of science fiction, including The Fallen Angel Saga, which has more than two hundred and fifty thousand reads. The books Birthright and Rebirth have won over ten awards, including Best Overall.

  * * *

  Like L. Fergus' main character Kita, L. fosters teenage girls to give them a supportive place to grow up and thrive. They live with three dogs: Rust, Moxy, and Storm, and four cats: Nova, Jupiter, Crater, and Forest Fire.

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  Join L. Fergus' mailing list at FallenAngelKita.com for news about upcoming book releases. Follow L. on Facebook, Twitter @FallenAngelKita and contact L. at FallenAngelKita@gmail.com.

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  a sneak peek at the first chapter of

  Kita’s cheek rested on the cool, clear plastic of her spherical cell. Her eyes stared unfocused out into space. A daily ration of thin soup had left her drained with barely enough energy to function.

  Ragji, a Majestic-class Moon Annihilator, drifted into her vision. The ship was over a mile in length. The conning tower in the center of its back made it look like a shark. And, like a shark, it circled waiting for her.

  From FTL, six cruisers and frigates with unknown markings appeared around the Ragji and opened fire. The cruisers disgorged a pair of shuttles that flew toward the prison.

  The bright flashes caused Kita’s eyes to focus. The six attackers had jumped inside the Ragji’s shields. Only I’m that precise. The ships rained down fire on the Ragji causing the port side to explode in a bright fireball.

  Ragji and its crew of kitty cats have been on station too long. Lulled into a pattern and senses deadened by months of staring at space…But who would attack the Djinn? Those aren’t UEE ships…Whatever they’re after doesn’t matter. Now’s my chance to escape this accursed place and extract revenge on Warden Kiiz.

  But, Kita barely had the energy to think, let alone fight. What the Crushing Depths? What are they going to do to me? Before being starved into submission, Kita had spent weeks meditating, searching for the lost knowledge of the gods. She’d found some of it.

  Kita’s vision changed. No longer did she see objects, but symbols that represented the equations that made up everything. These equations acted like nesting dolls, cumulating into an equation that governed the entire universe.

  She looked at herself. Her equation looked like the rest, except for a small part. It didn’t have a symbol or an equation, just a point of light. This was all that remained of her god form, Li’ve. But, it was enough to alter equations around her. She touched her equation and changed a pair of symbols. Energy coursed through her veins making her feel strong and powerful. Her vision returned to normal.

  Kita stood up and stretched her arms and wings. She’d been lying on the hard plastic for too long. She walked around her cell, dragging her hand on the plastic, ignoring the battle below. She took in the stars, her only friends. She reached the cell door. It was reinforced plastic a foot thick. Sandwiched between the plastic that made up her cell was several layers of a material that made the cell Angel-proof. Or, so Warden Kiiz had gloated when he put her in here.

  And like everyone you’re prepared for the last war, making the same mistake—underestimating me.

  Kita drew back her fist and struck the cell door. The plastic shattered like ice, revealing a long, clear hallway that connected her cell to the prison. When she stepped into the hallway, red lights in the ceiling blinked a warning. Someone was watching her. Looking into a camera, Kita blew it a kiss, and her picture on the camera monitors vanished.

  She walked down the hallway, admiring the view. It amused her that they felt the need to isolate her. She’d hoped to be put in with the general population where she could take control of them and the prison. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done it.

  But someone was smart. Was this someone’s brilliant deduction or had someone talked? Only Snowy would know my full capability, and she’s gone. Could she be working for the Tet? It wouldn’t be the first time she’s opposed me. Wouldn’t that be interesting? I wonder where she is? I hope she’s not dead.

  As Kita reached the end of the hallway, a series of small explosions disconnected the hallway from the prison. The air rushed out into space, moving Kita’s hair slightly. The hallway drifted away from the prison. Along with the air went gravity. Kita floated off the floor. This is their plan if I get out of line, space me?

  Kita wiggled her nose, manipulating the equation, and she shot forward, passing through the outer airlock door into the airlock. A pair of large lion-like Djinn guards looked shocked by her sudden appearance. She raised her hands, mimed grabbing them by their heads, and clenched her fists. Their heads collapsed, crushed like cans.

  Stepping over the bodies, Warden Kiiz’s voice came ove
r the speaker.

  “Recovery teams get out there and get the body.”

  Isn’t he in for a surprise…Now, where am I going to find Case and Jess?

  Kita exited the airlock guard station and followed the corridor. She turned a corner, and a group of guards waited in riot gear in front of the door. She raised her hands and mimed cracking whips. A pair of shockwaves hit the guards. The bodies exploded their extra gear containing most of the mess.

  Through the door, Kita found a giant room full of pods. Are Case and Jess in those? Curious, she went to one and wiped the frost from the window. Inside was a Zentonian, a large squirrel-like creature, in cryogenic sleep. She went to the next one and found a frozen toad-like Toeak.

  Why freeze them? Why not just kill them? It’s the same thing. They’re not being rehabilitated this way. Maybe it’s easier on society’s conscience…

  She looked up. There were twenty floors above her. That’s a lot of people. I wonder if they ever thaw them out? And, why have a facility in deep space?

  She moved through the room, trying to imagine what crime could be so horrible to require freezing and why wasn’t she frozen? She preferred stasis to solitary confinement. Talking to yourself got old fast, and she’d exhausted the movies stored on the computer in her head. What she needed to find was the master computer to tell her if Valor and Defiance were among the frozen.

  Above Kita, guards ran onto the catwalks circling the room.

  “Freeze, Angel,” yelled a guard directly above her.

  “You mean figuratively or literally?” Kita said with a smile. She waved her hand. A pod ripped from the wall, flew across the room, and crushed the guard issuing the command. The guards opened fire with shocker rounds. Kita wiggled her nose and made herself immune to their effects. Waving her hands merrily, she ripped pods from the wall and hurled them at the guards, knocking them off the catwalks, or crushing them between two pods. She dropped pods on those guards still alive on the ground floor.

  After a pod crushed the head of the last guard, Kita cocked her head to one side. She felt two presences she hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “Snowy! Zen!” she called in a pleasant voice. The group was waiting in a doorway across the room.

  Snowy was an anthropomorphic war cat, with foot-long claws that extended from tops of her hands and a fluffy tail nearly as long as she was tall. Zentix was a Diamock. Their bottom half looked like a goat and the upper half looked like a quill-covered dog with boney plates.

  “Let me handle this,” said Snowy. “She’s not the same as the last time we saw her.”

  “What’s happened to her?” said Zen.

  “I think she found the rest of herself.”

  Kita chuckled at her eavesdropping. Snowy knew her so well.

  “Kita! It’s me, Snowy. Are you all right?”

  “That depends. Are you behind my imprisonment?”

  Snowy let out a sigh of relief and stepped out to face Kita. “No. We’re here to rescue you.”

  Kita chuckled. “I can rescue myself, thanks.”

  “From our reports, you were comatose and in solitary confinement.”

  “They weren’t wrong, but what point is it to be active when I have no way off this…box.”

  “Then come with us. We’ll get you out of here and somewhere safe.” Snowy retracted her claws and waved Kita to her.

  Kita waggled her finger. “Ah-ah. You haven’t explained your friends. Last time I saw a yellow uniform, it was shooting at us and carrying you off. I’m not going to change one cell for another.”

  “That’s true, but it’s a case of misunderstanding. Please, come with us, and I’ll explain.”

  “I’ll take my explanation now. I’m in no hurry, but I suggest you talk fast. I’m not sure how long your ships are going to last against Ragji’s cannons.”

  Snowy sighed. “I know it’s not worth telling you good people are dying saving you.”

  Kita sneered. “And I put my neck on the block to save plenty more. Look what it got me.”

  “Collector admits he made a mistake with the asteroid. He misjudged you and what you’re capable of—”

  Kita cocked her head with a devilish smile. “Tell me, what did he offer you to switch sides?”

  Snowy frowned. “He didn’t offer me anything—”

  “So what did you offer him to save yourself—me?”

  “No. I locked myself in the engine compartment of the ship and threatened to blow it up if I wasn’t given safe passage off. That’s when Collector came and talked to me. He’s a Djinn purest. He believes the other races make them weak. This facility has a hidden purpose. They cut up these prisoners and take them back to Djinn to be eaten. They believe it increases their warrior prowess.”

  Kita raised an eyebrow. Once upon a time, Snowy had eaten her enemies. Was Snowy finding a home among the Djinn?

  “It sure is easy to catch and kill your enemies when they’re frozen,” Kita scoffed.

  “They take what they can get. But, it’s bigger than that. Collector told me he understood what a threat the humans are and unlike the Tet, he wants to do something about them. He has a sizable force in the quarantine zone. He has military commanders, but like you, he has an eye for talent. He knows he needs you. Your actions on Veven proved it. He’s willing to give you what I know you want...”

  “And what is that?” Kita cooed.

  “Galina.” The hair stood up on the back of Kita’s neck. “He’ll put you at the head of his fleet so you can get her and give them the battle they crave.”

  Kita bit her lip. Galina: the betrayer, the murderer of her children, her jailor. Kita could taste the revenge, which tasted similar to the blood she’d drawn biting herself.

  But, there was a problem. It was one thing to go after Galina. It was another to target the UEE. They belonged to Defiance. She wasn’t sure how her girlfriend would react to her destroying the UEE’s Shadow Fleet. Maybe there was another way. If she restored Defiance to her throne, then she wouldn’t need to destroy the Fleet. Once Defiance was in charge, she could turn on the Djinn and drive them from UEE Space. Earth sounded like a much better place to stay than Tet space.

  “Ok, Snowy. I’ll talk to Collector, but what’s in it for me?”

  Snowy chuckled. “I told Collector he’d have to sweeten the pot. I’ve got three things.”

  “What three things does he have that I could possibly want?”

  Snowy ticked them off on her fingers. “Case, Jess…and Crypt.”

  “Crypt…” Kita whispered. Her mystical sword taken from her by Galina. How did Collector get a hold of it? “I want them, and I want them now,” Kita demanded.

  “Unfortunately, Collector doesn’t have them. He just knows where to get them. They’re auctioning Jess, Case, and Crypt to the highest bidder. Collector is going to give you the people and material to free them.”

  “Something tells me Collector could buy them if he wanted.”

  “And what fun would that be?”

  Kita shrugged. Why buy it when you can steal it? “Ok. Lead the way out of here.”

  “Here I brought you a bodysuit. I figured you’d need some clothes.” Snowy tossed Kita, a bundle.

  Kita shook it out and slipped it on. “Any idea where my swords and armor are?”

  “We sent a team to check a few locations. We’ll meet them at the shuttles.”

  “I’ll tear this place apart for them,” said Kita.

  “Hopefully that won’t be necessary.”

  Kita followed Snowy and her team down a short corridor. Snowy opened the door and led the group onto the ground floor of another cellblock. Like the previous, everyone was frozen.

  Attached to the ceiling, an arm lowered and grabbed a pod. It lowered to the ground and set it on a cart. The cart drove off through a door that closed behind it.

  “Another snack?” Kita asked Snowy.

  “I—maybe. I haven’t done it personally.”

  “You mean not r
ecently.”

  “Ah,” Snowy’s nose turned pink, “no. Everything I’ve eaten has come from a vat.”

  “You sound disappointed.”

  “And you sound like you’ve got your memory back.”

  “Most of it. There is one big hole. I’m missing a person.”

  Snowy smirked. “I won’t ruin the surprise for when we meet her. Wherever she is.”

  “Well, I’ll always have Case.”

  “I heard about Cotton. I’m sorry.”

  Kita shrugged. “It wasn’t working in the end. I tried, but she had her principles, and I had mine.”

  “Or the lack of…”

  Kita wrinkled her nose. “Humph.”

  Snowy raised her hand as a radio transmission came in. “I’m here, Sahara…Not in the armory? Try the warden’s office. I—Sahara! Don’t engage them. Retreat to the shuttles. We’ll get them another way.”

  “Problem?” said Kita.

  “The Fast Reaction Force from Ragji is on the station. We have to go. We don’t have the firepower to slug it out with them, even with you.”

  “What about my weapons and armor?”

  “We’ll get it another way.”

  “No. I’m not leaving without it.”

  “Kita, I’m not even sure it’s here. The intelligence reports couldn’t pin down their exact location. Here is one of several possibilities. You—”

  Armed men ran onto the first four levels of catwalks. They stood shoulder to shoulder. Their weapons pointed at Kita and her rescuers.

  “Kind of slow, aren’t you?” said Kita to the soldiers. “I’ve been loose for ten minutes.”

  “Drop your weapons, get on your knees and put your hands behind your heads,” instructed one of the soldiers.

  “Well, see, that’s a problem. My weapons are built into my hands,” Kita smiled as flames leaped from her hands and marched up her arms. When they reached her torso, the flames engulfed her.