“Take a shower with me?” I asked. My arms were still around her narrow waist, and the palms of my hands rested on the curve of her pert butt. I noticed that her hair was trimmed, and it only fell to her mid back now instead of past her ass.
“Hmmm. If I do, I feel as if Z will be waiting another hour or two before we join her.”
“She can wait,” I said with a smirk.
“Work first, then play later, Captain. We have a mission waiting for us.” Her fingers stroked my cheek, and I guessed I might change her mind with a few well-spoken sentences.
But I’d always been a good soldier, and now I had a duty to my crew and this ship.
“Ahhh, confirmed,” I grunted. “Eve, I still don’t know anything about you. Why were you in that tank? Why did they experiment on you? How can you do the things that you do? You’ve seen into my soul. I want to see into yours.” I hadn’t meant them to be, but they felt like the most honest words I had ever spoken to a woman.
“We will have plenty of time. I want to tell you everything, but take that shower so we can get on with our mission. Once our ship is ready to dive into the deepest nooks of space, you and I will have plenty of time for conversations and activities that don’t involve conversation.”
“Ha. That’s the best motivational speech I’ve ever received. I’ll be on the bridge in ten.” I withdrew my hands from her waist.
“See you there.” She smiled at me, and I struggled to remember the dream I had just experienced.
My bathroom was larger than I expected. There was well sized bathtub, a shower with three heads, toilet, bidet, double sink, and a small cedar planked sauna. The walls had part of the ship’s visual feed displayed, and I saw the green, red, and gray swirl of the gas giant planet take up most of the view. It was more decadent than any accommodations I could have imagined, and I realized that the two women had probably dragged me to the captain’s quarters.
The warm shower was luxurious, but I didn’t take more than a few minutes to enjoy it. Then I changed into one of my spare pairs of jeans, put on a black shirt, and left my room. My suite was on the same floor as the bridge, and I walked past the elevator to reach the heart of the ship.
Eve and Z were standing in the center of the bridge. Both women were studying the holographic map projection of the gas giant and its eight moons. Eve smiled at me when I approached, but Z turned all different shades of red and pretended to be distracted by the control panel of the map system.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
“Z?” Eve prompted the blonde hacker.
“Ahem,” Z cleared her throat with her fist at her mouth but still didn’t look at me. “Welcome back. Ahhh, C-C-Captain.” The young woman stuttered a bit and she cleared her throat again.
“Thanks. Good to be back. How is your head?” I pointed at the bandage.
“I’ll be fine. Eve stitched me up. Thanks.”
“Thank you. We would be dead right now if not for your computer skills and tenacity,” I said, and the young woman’s bare arms, neck, and hands seemed to blush.
“So. Ummm. Here is the deal. We have no food and only enough water to last a few weeks. I’m going to need some time to figure out why the warpdrive isn’t working. I’m going to have to read that crazy stupid large manual, or we are going to have to hire someone to come inspect the ship.”
“Can we just use the hyperdrive or the foldingdrive?” I asked.
“Sure, but here is the thing about the foldingdrive: Do you remember the time after we took it?” She finally looked at me, and her cheeks somehow turned even redder.
“No,” I answered.
“Me either.”
“I do not remember it either,” the vampire said with a shrug.
“Yep. We all passed out. Like for eight hours. I checked the time when Eve and I woke up. You’ve been asleep for another fourteen. I don’t think we should be using the foldingdrive until we’ve got a crew and-or know how to use some of the defensive stuff on this ship.”
“Which will be more time,” I said with a sigh.
“Yep. So we need supplies. Good news is that I’ve started reading a bit of the engine documentation. These engines are powered by a combination of solar radiation and alternating waste properties.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“We don’t need fuel, as long as we get plenty of sunlight, and we can figure out why the warpdrive didn’t work. Could just be that I need to go into the engine room and take the plastic off of the damn thing.” Z gestured around the bridge. Most of the surfaces were still covered with plastic wrapping.
“Let’s head to one of these moons and get some supplies,” I said. “Have you checked out the shuttle?”
“Yeah, and Eve has an idea of which planet we should visit first.”
“It is a trading outpost. The moon’s soil is rich in minerals. They will have plenty of food and water to purchase,” the raven-haired woman said.
“But that is our next problem.” Z pointed at the side of the long map table. Laid out on the flat surface was all of our cash, guns, bullets, armor, and payment cards we had stolen. “We have some cash from Trappist - 1e, but that is about as useless as the second wheel on a unicycle. We might be able to find a money exchange, but I’m guessing we’ll be needing to trade some of our weapons.” The girl shrugged.
“Or, we could find work,” Eve said.
“Yeah. There is that. I’m used to computers in the Trappist system, but computers are computers. I could find some gigs.”
“We can find other jobs as well,” I said. “There are always people looking for hired guns. Or for people willing to transport goods from one place to another without governments or corporations knowing.”
“Like smuggling?” Z asked with a raised eyebrow and a half smirk on her face.
“Confirmed.”
“I like it!”
“We won’t know what options we have until we reach the moon. Our main objective should always be to help those who need it. This universe is swept in darkness. There are good people out there who have become victims of corporations like Elaka Nota. Some governments are exploiting their citizens, and there are bandits, brigands, or other criminals hurting innocents. We must help wherever we can,” Eve said.
“Yeah. Right. Okay, I’m not saying I don’t want to help people, but we aren’t going to be helping anyone without food, water, and crew. We can take the shuttle. I figured out how to set the security codes. Ideally, we always leave someone on the boat when we go planetside, but I think all three of us should go. Uh, that alright Captain?” the blonde hacker asked me.
“Yeah. Let’s all go. Load up the gear, grab the cash, and let’s see what this trading post has to offer.”
“Aye,” Eve said.
“Aye. Ha!” Z chuckled.
The three of us packed up our gear and then went to the shuttle bay over the starboard wing. The craft docked there was shaped like a smaller manta ray version of the starship, but it didn’t have a tail or the diamond shaped shoulder pads.
“I can fly this,” I said as soon as we stepped into the shuttle. It was an eight seater with plenty of storage space in the rear hold. I wasn’t the best pilot, but I’d handled a few of these types of craft, and the control terminal looked a few hundred times less complicated than the one on HAD-35.
“I had the drones set one of the empty water tanks out. We can grab it before we leave.”
Five minutes later I managed to connect the bottom hooks of the shuttle with the clasps of the large water tank. It was probably going to be a bit of a pain to carry it while entering and exiting the atmosphere of the city, but the terminal of the shuttle had an array of auto piloting functions, and I guessed one of them would just do the job for me.
“She is pretty.” Z said as she looked out the front window of our shuttle. Our starship hung in the view like a black bird of prey in mid-flight. “Now that we are alive, I can admit that it was worth the risk. I’m g
lad we went with Eve’s choice. We are going to need a crew, money, and months of training to make her run right. Then we will need more money to pay for that crew, and then more money to keep her repaired. But dang, she is one sexy ship, and I’m happy to be on her with both of you.”
“I am glad you are with us too, Z. She is beautiful. We haven’t named her yet. Eve, do you have one?” I asked the red-eyed woman.
“Yes,” she said as she looked out at our new home. “Her name is Persephone.”
“Like the Greek goddess?” Z asked.
“Yes. Queen of the Underworld, and bringer of changing seasons. She is both of those things.”
Z and I were silent for a moment as we pondered the words Eve just spoke.
“I like it,” Z said.
“I do as well. Persephone it is. Now, let’s go see if we can get her some supplies.” I angled the nose of the shuttle toward the distant moon and pressed on the engine throttle.
The Queen of the Underworld would be waiting for our return.
End of Book 1.
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Editing by Ginger Earle, Nick Kuhns, Diane Velasquez, Deborah Haggitt, Jacqueline Miles (who also edits my audio books), Debbie Elholm, Holly Lenz, and Anthony DePaolo
Cover art by Alejandro Gonzalez Agudelo
Typography by John Poh
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Michael-Scott Earle
Destroyer Book 1
Chapter 1-Kaiyer
When I dreamed, it was always of floating green islands. Slow waterfalls tumbled off the sides of rocky earth and disappeared into smoky blankets of mist and unpainted clouds. I jumped between the floating islands with a lazy, drifting bounce, somersaulting amid endless blue sky, punctured by the occasional flock of giant white birds.
In the far distance, sailing ships passed through the azure air like it was water. Often I attempted to reach these vessels, but even my greatest leaps fell short and left me to land on another lush island, conveniently placed to catch my fall. In this dream paradise I never noticed anything living besides the trees, birds, and the distant ships.
Perhaps it is wrong of me to say when I dreamed, as if I only did it sometimes.
I was always dreaming.
I had dreamed of islands for so long, I knew no other life. Then an awakening began. A soft, orange glow peeled back the colors of blue, green, brown, and white, like a sun rising in the morning. The light came from torches which lit the cavernous mausoleum where I had been kept. I don't remember smelling anything in my dreams, but as my crypt was illuminated, my nostrils filled with the aroma of dirt, dust, death, and terror.
Fear emanated from those who awoke me. The delicious scent of their terror filled the cavern like the light pouring from their torches, reflecting off the stone floor and around the group. The five stood twenty feet from me, three males and two females.
Closest to me was a boy with shaggy brown hair, freckles, and disheveled clothes covered with dirt. He held a leather-bound book, its pages and spine crumbling with wear only decades of use would beget. The boy's flesh almost matched the color of the clouds from my dreams, and his dilated pupils hid the true shade of his eyes. His heart raced like the staccato rush of a warhorse galloping down a rocky slope.
Behind the boy was a man holding a bow with an arrow notched and pointed at my face. His leather clothes were cut tight against his body and oiled to a soft shine. His long dark hair was tied back and his eyes were giant pools of blue. His hands shook as he struggled to keep from releasing the shaft he had pulled back. There seemed something familiar about the man, but my lethargic brain fought against any attempt to remember, and my eyes darted to the next member of the group.
To the left and five feet behind the man crouched an attractive woman who had recently passed her girlish years. Her thick dark brown hair was knotted up into a ponytail on the top of her head. She wore tight-fitting leather pants and a suede-patched green shirt. The clothes were covered in a fine layer of dirt, splotched with mud. She surely spent an abundant amount of time in the sun, her skin was almost the same shade as the dark patches of leather on her tunic. Her soft brown eyes gazed down the long sight of a heavy crossbow with determination, its unwavering barbed tip pointed at my sternum. The sound of her heartbeat might as well have been a soothing breeze of wind chimes when compared to the boy and archer.
I would have to kill her first.
Five feet behind the brown-haired beauty towered a large, grizzled man who carried a single-sided battle axe and a metal shield engraved with light purple etching. His chain mail hung about him, weightless as comfortable pajamas. He seemed ready for combat, but I tasted his fear like I sampled the dust and dirt in the air. His protective stance made me wonder whom he was blocking from my gaze. I focused behind him, and when my vision adjusted to the light I saw he stood in front of a beautiful girl. She peeped from behind the old man's shield at me with horror and disbelief.
The maiden had long blonde tresses cascading like white waves down to her lower back. A sudden memory of similar hair, but sun bright copper in color, ran through my thoughts and then disappeared before I could capture it. Her eyes were light blue, and her pale, creamy skin made me think of a cold drink of milk on a blistering day. She wore a fine looking purple tunic of crushed velvet and thick leather riding pants. Sparkles of gold at her ears and neck hinted at exquisite jewelry, but before I could focus on the glitter, the girl noticed my attention and ducked behind the big axe warrior.
The young boy said something, so I gently turned my gaze toward him to ensure the man and woman pointing weapons at me would not be startled. The boy stuttered out words I did not comprehend and I squinted at him in an effort to make my brain puzzle meaning from his language.
I sat on a long stone platform. The gray dais felt cold to the touch and it reminded me of the waterfalls that had been my companions for so long. I couldn’t remember anything before the islands. Maybe I didn't want to recall memories from before those dreams.
The boy shuffled his feet and studied his book with intensity.
"Are . . . you . . . the O'Baarni?" he stuttered through a thick accent. The name filled me with memories. A handsome man with dark hair, graying at his temples. A massive battlefield, rivers of fresh blood streaming around countless bodies. Men, women, horses. The smell of flowers and the brief flash of thick copper hair. Mocking laughter.
A single scream of heart-rending agony.
"Are you, the O'Baarni?" he said again, glancing back and forth between his book and my face. I realized that I was clothed in a soft gray robe and my bare feet touched the cold stone of the cavern floor. Sudden energy pulsed through me like the tide of an ocean. A memory of power came to my head, but the sensation was more familiar than a fleeting recollection.
"I do not know," I said. My brain told my mouth to say the words and my lips obeyed reluctantly. Still, he seemed startled by my response. "I have been dreaming. Is this a dream too? Were you supposed to wake me?" The boy glanced down at his book and flipped through the pages with frantic speed.
The large old man barked something command-like, and the boy replied back in their foreign tongue. The skittish man with the bow shifted his feet, but he didn't concern me. I found my eyes focusing again on the dark-haired young woman with the barbed crossbow aimed at my chest. Our eyes met and I held her gaze. After a few moments she started to bite her lip, and her heart began to beat faster. She said something strained to the boy and I gave her a small smile.
"We . . . can . . . not sleep . . . you . . . O'Baarni?" he said with hopeful emotion in his eyes.
Exhaustion crashed into me after the boy asked his question. I wanted to go back to the island, but I fought against the sudden desire to lie again on the stone and drift away to sleep. Another memory struggled beneath a thin layer of emptiness, as if I might be close to recalling something once held sacred.
Eye of the Tiger: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 1) Page 20
