The Galactic Chronicles: Shadows of the Void Books 8 - 10

by J. J. Green

  “Do you know what—”

  They both stopped speaking. Jas realized what Sayen’s question meant.

  “You mean you don’t know what’s happened to Carl?” she asked.

  Sayen shook her head. “I haven’t seen him since Ganymede Outpost. Have you?”

  “No,” Jas replied. “Not once.”

  “Jas, I’m really sorry.”

  Jas swallowed. “I guess that’s it, then. He couldn’t have survived all this time.”

  Sayen touched her arm. “You don’t know that. Have you searched the personnel records?”

  “I don’t have security access, and the records are all over the place anyway. He’s gone, Sayen. He has to be dead.”

  “Don’t give up hope. Not while there’s still a chance.”

  “He’s a pilot, Sayen. Do you know of a pilot who’s been around since the beginning of the war? What are the chances that he’s still alive?”

  Sayen looked down and gave a slight shake of her head. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe it. I thought you’d tell me that you’d seen him.”

  “And I guess you were my last hope.” Jas continued to herself, “Pacheco was right.”

  “What do you mean?” Sayen asked.

  “Just something the admiral said.” She heaved a large sigh. “We don’t have long before we jump. Let’s go back to the bridge.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Admiral Pacheco adjusted the collar of his uniform and placed his arms gently on his arm rests. As he surveyed the officers at their consoles on the bridge of the Camaradon, his body thrummed with tension. He was careful not to let it show, however. During his long career serving with the Unity, he’d learned that a crew took their cue from whoever was in charge—commander, captain, or admiral. If he wanted his women and men to feel confident, confidence was what he had to exude.

  Not that he wasn’t confident. Though it had taken five years to get to this point, the Unity Alliance had been successful in slowly gaining ground and destroying their enemy, forcing them into this corner of the galaxy. In the forthcoming battle, the UA had every chance of delivering the final, crushing blow.

  He wasn’t tense because he thought they were in danger of losing. It was because he was responsible for the maneuvers of more than sixty starships as they battled the Shadows.

  It was the largest number of ships that had been under his command all at once, and it would take every ounce of concentration and skill to do his job. The battleground was vast. He was only one of many peers performing the same role across the sector. In all, the Unity Alliance had amassed more than one thousand starships to fight this final battle.

  Save for a few frigates that were busy stamping out flares of Shadow resurgence on distant worlds, the entire Unity fleet was present. But the Unity ships numbered only in the hundreds. The rest of the force was made up of Alliance vessels and crews from across all of galactic civilization. The many and varied alien species from high- and low-g planets, water worlds, ice giants, desert orbs, and the other multitude of homes to sentient life that were scattered across the galaxy, had come together to defeat their common enemy.

  It was a coordinated effort that would be remembered for thousands of years to come, providing they won the day. And they would. Pacheco was sure of it.

  After the battle, Pacheco planned to leave the service. Too long a career space officer, he was tired of fighting. If only Jas Harrington’s affections didn’t lie with some probably long-dead lover from her past, he pondered. He wasn’t a man to form frivolous connections. His feelings toward the Martian had grown over the years that they’d worked together aboard his first command ship.

  Their first encounter had been rocky but, as time went on, he’d learned to appreciate her steady, effective approach to her work as well as her personal integrity. Before long, he’d realized that he was giving her responsibilities much above her rank because he knew with certainty that he could always rely on her.

  When career progressions meant that they’d parted ways, he’d soon missed her presence on a professional level and, in the quiet of his bunk at night, he’d realized he also missed her. He wished she could reciprocate his feelings. He wanted to relieve that constant melancholic look she always wore. He wanted to make her happy.

  Pacheco shifted in his seat and checked the time. Fifteen minutes before his fleet was scheduled to jump to their designated positions and attack the Shadow ships that were known to be hiding out at certain coordinates. The Camaradon was going to engage with the leading ship. Everything was in place. The battle plan was laid out. All they had to do was follow it. What would happen afterward, Pacheco wasn’t sure. Perhaps he shouldn’t give up hope of winning Jas over just yet.

  The doors opened, and Fleet Admiral Tarsa entered the bridge. A Haidiren, she was encased in her water-holding suit, her grass-green head poking from the top into a transparent, globe helmet. Pacheco and his officers stood to attention and saluted.

  The alien’s v-shaped lips quivered, which her translator related as, “Admiral Pacheco, I came in person to wish you and your officers good fortune in the forthcoming engagement.”

  “Thank you, Fleet Admiral,” Pacheco replied.

  “Your planning has been meticulous. We have every chance of success. I am now withdrawing to my private rooms to oversee the battle as a whole. If I have instructions for you, or if you wish to consult me, we will use the ship’s comm.”

  “Very good, Fleet Admiral,” said Pacheco.

  “Good luck, everyone,” Tarsa said to the bridge generally. “You couldn’t wish for a better leader than Admiral Pacheco here. I leave you in his capable hands.”

  As the Fleet Admiral left, his officers returned their attention to their consoles and Pacheco took his seat again. They had ten minutes. He checked with his first officer that he was ready to bring up a holo of the battleground the second that they jumped.

  “Yes, Admiral,” came the reply, with a slight hurt tone underlying it.

  Pacheco tutted softly over his officer’s response. Some people were over-sensitive. Of course, the man knew his job, and Pacheco hadn’t meant to imply that he didn’t. He tapped his armrests, his fingernails hitting the interface screens. Time seemed to slow down.

  Five minutes.

  “Prepare to engage jump engines, Pilot,” Pacheco said.

  “Yes, Admiral,” came the woman’s reply.

  “Power up pulse cannons,” said Pacheco to the weapons officer.

  His neck ached with tension. He rubbed it. He breathed in deeply before exhaling long and slow. “Ready, everyone.”

  The seconds ticked away on Pacheco’s interface display. The air seemed syrupy and hard to breathe. The stress in the room pressed down.

  The battle that could unlock a future of peace for galactic civilization was about to begin.

  Pacheco’s display read zero.

  “Jump.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Thylacine was ready to starjump across the galaxy to the remaining Shadow-controlled region. As she sat on the ship’s bridge for the countdown to the jump, Jas was reminded of the fact that the ship would pass momentarily through the Void on its journey She had learned that fact during her myth run at Ganymede Station. The Paths had told her that glimpses of the starships of the physical universe dipping into the Void while they starjumped had enticed the Shadows to devise a method to cross the barrier and find out more about this plane that was new to them.

  Up until then, no one had known or even guessed the Shadows’ motivation for their invasion, but the knowledge didn’t seem to matter. It wasn’t as if the sentient species of the galaxy could give up using starjump technology. Traveling the vast distances across space would be impossible without it. The energy required to power transgalactic gateways was so great that transporting large numbers of people or large amounts of goods wasn’t economically viable. Jas wondered if traveling via gateway also meant stepping briefly into the Void.


  It was unfortunate that the jump drive had resulted in enticing the Shadows to enter the galaxy, but she had no compassion or sympathy for the creatures. They were responsible for the deaths of millions, and one man in particular whose loss she would never recover from. She could never forgive what the Shadows had done, and she relished this opportunity to grind them to dust beneath her heel.

  They jumped.

  Starjumping such a large distance always left everyone disoriented for a moment. Jas blinked as the bridge came into focus around her.

  A holo popped up. As Pacheco had told her, a large Shadow ship was in the vicinity. It was bigger than the Thylacine, but they had the element of surprise. With a grim smile, Jas imagined the reactions of the Shadow captain and his crew when they registered the Thylacine’s presence, heavily armed and force field up.

  “Pulse cannons at the ready,” Jas said. “Fire.”

  A battery of pulses flew from the Thylacine’s cannons, arcing across space, toward the Shadow ship. The first arrived before the ship’s force field was fully employed, and the holo displayed a satisfying splash of light directly across its hull. The following pulses hit soon after, spreading out across the force field and dissipating into space.

  “Second degree hull damage on the enemy ship, Commander,” Trimborn said, his gaze intent on his console.

  Score one to the Thylacine. The following battle might be long and hard until they finally subdued the enemy vessel, but they already had an advantage.

  The return pulses weren’t slow in coming, but the Thylacine’s force field shrugged them off.

  Jas leaned forward in her seat to look at the holo of the Shadow ship more closely. “Trimborn, is that a—”

  “Class three destroyer, ma’am,” the first officer replied. “Unity ship.”

  He looked up from his screen to give her a wry smile. Class three destroyers had been phased out of production because they had a notorious weakness: their new model, RaptorY engines were prone to exploding if the surrounding hull were breached, and the explosion would take out the entire ship.

  Jas’ face registered grim satisfaction. “Kennewell, take us aft of that ship.”

  “Yes, Commander.”

  The pilot fired the Thylacine’s more trustworthy RaptorXs, and maneuvered the vessel on a course to bring them behind the Shadow ship.

  The Shadow in command seemed to guess their intent, for the enemy ship began to swing around in response to the Thylacine’s maneuver.

  “Ha,” Jas said, slapping her knee. “Looks like we’re in for a game of cat and mouse. Kennewell, get us behind that ship, whatever it takes. Trimborn, maintain full pulse barrage.” While it was under sustained attack, the ship wouldn’t be able to build the power to jump.

  Abrupt acceleration crushed Jas into her seat as Kennewell powered the Thylacine on a vertical trajectory. The officers who were standing bent at the knees and gripped their consoles. A violent lurch of the ship threw everyone to the right as the holo displayed their rapidly moving vessel speeding closer to the Shadow ship.

  “There it goes,” Trimborn said, remarking on the Shadow ship’s rapid descent, almost off the display.

  “I’m after it,” Kennewell said, and Jas was airborne for a moment as the Thylacine plunged toward the enemy vessel. Bolts of light were passing between the two ships as pulse after pulse shot out of them.

  “Force field eighty percent,” Trimborn said. The Thylacine’s power reserves were beginning to drain. Jas bit her lip. If they could last longer than the enemy vessel, they’d win in the end, providing—

  “Ah, krat,” Jas said, forgetting her dignity as a commander for a moment as sparks of light flowed from the Shadow ship. The enemy hadn’t been slow in deploying its fighter ships. And it appeared to have over a hundred of them.

  “Direct pulses at those ships, Trimborn,” Jas said, hoping to take out enough to force them to retreat.

  The Thylacine’s pulses changed direction and began cutting through the cloud of fighters. But the pulses could only take out a handful at a time before disappearing into space. Meanwhile, the enemy ship’s pulses rained down on the Thylacine. The force field was holding for the time being, but the ship shuddered and shook as the pulses impacted.

  “Force field forty-six percent,” Trimborn said.

  Kennewell was doing her utmost to bring the Thylacine to the rear of the Shadow ship, but the enemy also clearly had a pilot who was excellent at playing the mouse.

  “Force field thirty-five percent,” said Trimborn.

  With a heavy heart, Jas spoke into her comm, “Squadron Leader, scramble all fighters.” Lifting her head, she said, “Trimborn, return pulse fire to the enemy ship.”

  Pulses wouldn’t stop the enemy’s fighter ships, and no matter how fast Kennewell piloted the Thylacine, the large ship was no match for their speed or maneuverability. They would soon be close enough to fire at her.

  The Thylacine’s fighters erupted from her launch bay. A collective gasp sounded on the bridge as a pulse from the Shadow ship cut a swathe through its own fighter ships, destroying the sparks like a jet of water on a fire. The Shadows were killing their own pilots to target the Thylacine’s.

  Sayen turned a white, stricken face to Jas.

  “Looks like they’re prepared to do anything to win this battle,” Jas said grimly.

  The Shadow fighter ships were drawing nearer, and the Thylacine’s moved to engage with them. Another pulse flew from the Shadow ship, wiping out not only Shadow fighter ships, but the Thylacine’s too.

  “What the krat are they doing?” Trimborn burst out. “What’s the point of sending out fighters just to destroy them?”

  “As long as a few get through,” Jas said, “and none of ours survive, they could cause us some serious damage. And if we go after the fighters directly, that prevents us from targeting their ship.”

  Jas bit the side of her thumb and stared at the holo.

  She barked, “Kennewell, for krat’s sake, get us below that ship.” The Thylacine would draw some of the Shadow ship’s fire. But as they moved, the Shadow’s faster fighter planes were right on their tail.

  “Commander,” Sayen said. “What if we jump?”

  Jump? They couldn’t do that. It would mean leaving their fighters behind in the hands of the enemy. Unless she meant...

  “Can we do that, S—Navigator?” Jas asked.

  “It’ll be close,” Sayen replied, “but as long as our fighters stay at the fore, they should be protected.”

  “Do it,” Jas said. “Trimborn, cut pulses. We’re going to jump.”

  “Jump, ma’am?” the first officer asked.

  “Jump engines powering, Commander,” Kennewell said.

  Sayen bent over her interface, rapidly calculating the jump.

  “Prepare for full pulse barrage the second we jump,” Jas said. “No force field.”

  Kennewell was watching Sayen, waiting for the coordinates. Without lifting her head, Sayen raised a hand and pointed at the pilot.

  But she shook her head. “Still waiting on the engines.”

  Without their pulses targeting those incoming from the Shadows, the Thylacine was taking a brutal beating once more. On the holo, their ship was a ball of light as the pulses spread out across its force field. The Shadow fighters had also broken through the defense laid down by the Thylacine’s pilots.

  “Force field eighteen percent,” Trimborn said. “Damage to hull, port and starboard.”

  Jas prayed that her squadron leader would notice that the Thylacine was building to a jump and guess her intention. Her gaze was fixed on those tiny flecks of light that represented the lives of more than eighty women and men. If their fighters were too close when they jumped, they would be killed. One or two lingered in the unsafe zone. Come on. Move.

  “Force field seven percent.”

  “Get out of the way,” Jas exclaimed, hitting her arm rest.

  As if in response, the Thylacine’s fighter ships
that were in danger began to peel away, fleeing the vicinity like fish escaping a shark’s mouth.

  “Jumping in fifteen seconds,” Kennewell said.

  The officers dropped into their seats and fastened their harnesses.

  “Five seconds,” said Kennewell.

  “Remember that barrage, Trimborn,” Jas said. “Don’t waste time on the force field.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the first officer said, and then they jumped.

  The Thylacine reappeared less than a heartbeat later right behind the Shadow ship. Trimborn unleashed the full might of its pulse cannons on one spot—the site of the RaptorY engines. The Shadow ship’s force field was still strong, but not strong enough to protect the ship from the concentrated power of the Thylacine. The captain also took too long to realize what was happening.

  A single pulse sped from the enemy ship in their direction before its force field collapsed. The Thylacine’s next attack penetrated the hull, hitting both RaptorY engines. As soon as the breach appeared, without waiting for the order, Kennewell pulled the Thylacine violently away, throwing everyone on the bridge forward.

  Another pulse from the Shadow ship and the blast of its explosion hit the Thylacine, throwing it backward even faster. Kennewell didn’t slow the ship down until they were safely beyond the explosion zone.

  “Hull breach,” Trimborn said. “Losing atmosphere decks two and three. And we’re on fire.”

  They’d sustained some damage, but they’d done it. The Shadow ship was nothing but scattered debris.

  “Direct comm to Admiral Pacheco,” Jas said.

  The comm officer pressed his console and spoke into his mic. He nodded and took off his earpiece before holding it out to Jas. She strode over, held the earpiece to one ear and spoke into the mic.

  “Mission successful, Admiral. The Shadow ship’s destroyed.”

  “Then get over here,” came Pacheco’s reply. “The Camaradon needs you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Thylacine’s engines began building to starjump again. Jas spoke to the repair crews who were sealing the hull breech, telling them they had three minutes to get everyone behind sealed bulkheads. As she spoke, her eyes were on the holo. The surviving fighter pilots were streaming back to the safety of the Thylacine’s launch bay, though the remaining Shadow fighters were engaging them in dog fights.