The Gardens of Nibiru (The Ember War Saga Book 5)
Page 22
The children would learn to hunt. It wasn’t their home world, but it was a start.
The full-grown adults had all come out of their stasis tubes in good health. Sorting children with their parents proved a challenge, but the geth’aar would guide their people to harmony, just as always.
Steuben walked up the hill, still moving a bit slowly from the poison’s aftereffects.
“Well?” Lafayette asked.
“They still won’t accept you. I’m sorry, brother.”
“I can’t even teach? The children need to learn engineering, mathematics, the great works of our people,” Lafayette said. Steuben shook his head.
“I had hoped, but I expected as much. This is a new land. They won’t risk anymore stress to the unborn.” Lafayette kicked a pebble loose and sent it rolling down the hill.
“They named you wraith. If you come to the village, they will claim it has been tainted and abandon it. If we hadn’t saved them all…I would have been banished as well,” Steuben said.
“And if you continue to keep my company?”
“The purification ritual each time I return,” Steuben said with a shrug.
“The oath we took to our Centuria is fulfilled. Mentiq is dead and the Toth overlords will kill each other fighting for the scraps. We have our people, and they are the future, Steuben.” Lafayette looked straight at his old friend. “I want you to stay with them. I will do what I can for the humans, for the fight against the Xaros. I will never return.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Steuben drew his sword from the small of his back and ran the blade against his temple, drawing blood. “Oath. I will the fight the Xaros at your side until the day our people are safe. Will you take it with me?” He held the handle of his blade to Lafayette.
Lafayette took the weapon and cut across his temple. Clear fluid seeped out. The two touched their knuckles to each other’s cut.
“Thank you, Steuben.” Lafayette held his arms wide.
“What are you doing?”
“The humans would hug each other at a time like this.”
“No, stop that. You’re a bad enough influence on me as it is.” Steuben shook his head.
Lafayette sat in the dirt and glanced at the sky.
“We’ve a few hours until transport returns,” he said. “Tell me about the children. Names? Any relation to those in our Centuria?”
****
Hale and Valdar followed the yellow arrows on the Crucible walls leading them through the tall corridors. The last time Hale had been on the Crucible he’d been in a running gun battle with drones. Walking through the station at a leisurely pace without his armor or his weapon made him feel nervous and exposed.
The sandy floors shifted slightly beneath his feet as they came to an intersection. The arrows changed into a red hand. The corridor shifted as the connected hallways slid away, replaced by the starlit void. Hale looked back; the hallway they’d come from was still intact.
“I’m not going to get used to this,” Valdar said. The intersection dipped into the giant thorns that made up the Crucible and connected to a domed section of the structure.
Inside the dome were several tiered levels extending to the far walls of the dome. The stadium resembled the command center, but without the central control plinth. In the middle of the room was a floating object the size of a basketball. Three people stood around the object, two real and one holographic.
“Isaac, Ken, won’t you join us?” Ibarra asked. Stacey gave a little wave to Hale. The man in navy coveralls next to her had no name or rank on his uniform.
“I take it there’s a good reason you’ve taken me away from my ship,” Valdar said.
“What is that? Some kind of Xaros art?” Hale asked. The floating object was an intricately carved sphere with open sections; within was a smaller sphere that rotated against the current of the outer layer. Hale saw another sphere within, and another. He caught glimpses of a glowing jewel at the center.
“‘Art’? I can’t believe how far I’ve fallen,” the man said.
“I’m sorry. Have we met?” Hale asked.
“It isn’t art, young man,” Ibarra said. “It’s a space station lying in the deep space between the Perseus and Cygnus arms of our galaxy. There’s nothing around it for light-years…which makes getting to and from a bit of a challenge if the Xaros know about it.”
“This thing looks like it still works. Wouldn’t the Xaros destroy it if they find it?” Hale asked.
“As far as the Xaros know, the Ancients are long gone. They’ve maintained other remnants. This vault should be pristine,” Stacey said.
“I take it someone’s going to start explaining things,” Valdar said. “Like why Admiral Garrett isn’t here and why you think my ship is going to go on another damn treasure hunt.”
“He’s working on another crisis.” Ibarra waved a dismissive hand in the air. “This, though, this is much more important. What you found on Anthalas was a game changer for Earth and the Alliance. The omnium tech will buy us time, but it won’t win the war. What’s here…” Ibarra said as he watched the spheres dance within each other, “that’s what we need.”
“The Breitenfeld is one of two ships with a jump drive and a cloak. So long as the Xaros don’t suspect you’re there poking around, they won’t bother looking for you. The drive on the Midway is needed for something else,” Stacey said.
“What ‘something else’?” Valdar asked.
“Need to know, Captain. Can’t have the Xaros glean what else we’ve got up our sleeve if you’re compromised,” Ibarra said.
“We didn’t even know what to look for on Anthalas,” Hale said. “How do we even…get inside?”
“If it makes anyone feel better, I’m going on this mission,” Stacey said sheepishly. “Plus, we have a guide.”
The man standing next to Stacey looked at Hale. His skin morphed into a smooth countenance of bronze with dark fractals moving over his face.
“Hello again, Lieutenant Hale. My name is Malal. And yes, we’ve met.”
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for reading The Gardens of Nibiru. I hope you enjoyed it enough to leave a review and tell two friends about The Ember War books. I always enjoy hearing from readers and you can drop me a line at Richard.r.fox@outlook.com.
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Also By Richard Fox:
The Ember War Saga:
1. The Ember War
2. The Ruins of Anthalas
3. Blood of Heroes
4. Earth Defiant
5. The Gardens of Nibiru
6. The Battle of the Void (coming June 2016!)
The Queen of Sidonia
Princess Cosima will be queen, if she survives to her eighteenth birthday.
In a galaxy controlled by massive corporations, few worlds are truly free. When explorers find a priceless wormhole near Sidonia, the hostile attention of the Aquitaine Corporation focuses on the small, backwater kingdom.
To protect their world, Sidonia’s royalty rush seventeen year old Princess Cosima into an arranged marriage, one that will guarantee a treaty and shield Sidonia from Aquitaine’s clutches. But Cosima never asked for the honor of becoming the next queen to a man she doesn’t love.
With the fate the planet in the balance, a team of deadly assassins targets Cosima. The best killers money can buy will see the Princess dead before her wedding day. Cosima will need her wits to uncover the identity of the assassins targeting her, and her courage to stay alive in the middle of an interstellar power struggle.
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EMBER WAR SHORT STORIES
/> IRON HEARTS
Elias, soldier of the Iron Hearts and pilot of a mechanized suit of armor, lies comatose in a hospital. His mind trapped within the prison of his failing body. With no other option but to watch their friend wither away, his fellow Iron Hearts concoct a dangerous plan to save him.
VENT RATS
An alien Toth stowaway runs loose aboard the Breitenfeld. Chief MacDougall joins with Lafayette and Steuben to hunt it down before it wrecks the ship.
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