Orchestra of Shadows
Page 36
Sharon smiled. “Well, you do realize we will have to name something of our own eventually.”
“I am not ready for that, yet.” Jacob laughed.
“Oh I know, but we talked about it. You said you wanted a child one day.”
“Yeah, I know. Let's let this war stuff blow over and then talk about it again.”
Sharon smiled. “Of course.”
“I should visit my foster parents, they live down there on that planet. It's so amazing seeing Urbania from here.”
“Yes, you should visit them,” Sharon said.
“They will be so proud of me. Only a few months ago I thought I would amount to nothing. Now I'm a crew member for a heavy cruiser. And I met you. Sometimes things work out.”
“Sometimes.”
“I don't know what the future will bring, but I want you to be in it.”
“I plan on it.”
Jacob and Sharon kissed.
Behind them, Urbania's star started to rise over the planet.
A new dawn.
“Where did you come from?”
“I don't have to talk to you.”
“How did you get here? Things will go much better for you if you just talk.”
“I escaped. There was an issue and I crashed. That's it.”
“Yes, you did crash. Do you think you can get that fighter working again?”
“I doubt it. I just want off this rock.”
“We all do. If you got that fighter working, it'd be a step in the right direction.”
“There are fighter patrols around the planet. If you scum built or found a ship, the patrols would just shoot you down if you tried to escape.”
“Scum? That's not nice.”
“You are just a bunch of convicts. I've had a rough few days, forgive me.”
“I'm protecting you. Some of the men here–they'd do really bad things to you. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. We need to get that fighter working.”
“I'll try, I guess.”
“Good. Well, watch yourself, this place isn't pleasant.”
“I can tell.”
“Say, what did you say your name was?”
“Riko Maeda.”
“Alright. Well, Riko...”
“Yes?”
“Welcome to Mars.”
FROM THE AUTHOR
Hello. This is the author! I want to thank everyone who has shown some sort of support for this project. Thanks Mom, for putting up with me and reading my book. I’m still surprised you actually read it. I’m sorry about the ‘imps’ giving you nightmares...
Please review the book on Amazon if you liked it! Even if you didn’t, I would love to know how to improve. I have a huge story in my head that I wish to share. Hopefully you’ll be along for the ride. Expect Broken Horizon, the second book in the Shatterspace series, soon!
I’m sure there are many typos and grammatical errors. And I’m sure some of the science and distance values are very off. Any errors are strictly my own dumb fault.
Thanks again. I also hope the conversion process went well from this conversion of the document file into kindle format.
Update: Hi! This is the latest version of the book and I decided to tack this on the end. Lots of typos and other errors were found, but I’m sure there’s still more. Hopefully they didn’t detract from the experience if you uncovered some. There were also some slight modifications to parts of the story, but nothing important really changed. I would like to let you know that the second book is mostly finished and in the editing process. Hope to see you there!
In one of the versions I decided to add a Table of Contents with a Chapter List. It’s at the end of the e-book to not clutter the very beginning, and it’s possible that minor spoilers may be included in chapter titles. (At least possibly in the future.) Mainly this is just for ease of getting around the novel. I may switch things up and add the chapter titles after the chapter number in the future, but I have decided against it at the moment. It’s one of those things I think about a good deal and I just settled on doing it this way. In the end, it doesn’t really matter – the content of the book is what matters.
Until next time!
-Charles Nall
Table of Contents
Prologue: Ambush
Chapter 1: The Kraken Stirs
Chapter 2: Savages in the Dirt
Chapter 3: Rapture
Chapter 4: Laid to Rest
Chapter 5: Beneath the Planet
Chapter 6: Blood in the Water
Chapter 7: Exodus
Chapter 8: Kappa Velorum
Chapter 9: The Oncoming Storm
Chapter 10: Through Broken Glass
Chapter 11: Collapse
Chapter 12: Red Moon Rising
Chapter 13: A Burning Sky
Chapter 14: Fallout