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The Iron Altar Series Box Set One: Books 1 to 3

Page 1

by Casey Lea




  The Iron Altar Series

  Box Set One - Books 1 to 3

  Casey Lea

  © Casey Lea 2016

  The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this book.

  ISBN - 978-0-9922632-8-7

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction.

  The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authors’ imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

  IceFlight – Book One

  1

  Taken

  2

  Meet and Greet

  3

  Alien Welcome

  4

  Loyalty

  5

  First Blood

  6

  Hopes and Dreams

  7

  A Complication

  8

  Snakes in Space

  9

  Out for a Walk

  10

  Bugs and Reptiles

  11

  Violation

  12

  Deadly Pact

  13

  Blast from the Past

  14

  How to get a Head

  15

  Assassination

  16

  The Hunt

  17

  The Fight

  18

  Partners

  19

  Friendly Fire

  20

  Framed

  21

  Jailbird

  22

  A New Ship

  23

  The Auction House

  24

  Sales Prep

  25

  A Promise Kept

  26

  Sold

  27

  Plasma Front

  28

  Ships That Pass in the Night

  29

  Kill Them All

  30

  Kill Them All Too

  31

  Mutiny

  32

  Future Deal

  33

  Reunion

  34

  Gratuity

  35

  Old Acquaintance

  36

  The Dance Goes On

  37

  Cold Blooded

  38

  Drafted

  39

  Hunted

  40

  On The Run

  41

  Quick Thinking

  42

  Escape

  43

  Out of the Frying Pan

  44

  Wheels Within

  45

  License to Kill

  46

  New Worlds

  47

  Planet Fall

  48

  No Going Back

  49

  Proposals

  50

  Traitor

  51

  Wedding Day Jitters

  52

  Confession

  53

  Betrayed

  54

  Plan B

  55

  Sunset

  Frostbite – Book Two

  1

  The Beginning of the End

  2

  Take Two

  3

  Waiting

  4

  Revenge

  5

  Rescue

  6

  Farewell

  7

  A New Sanctuary

  8

  The Price of Friendship

  9

  Interrogation

  10

  Stowaway

  11

  Reunion

  12

  Family

  13

  On the Edge

  14

  You Shall go to the Ball

  15

  Old Acquaintances Should be Forgot

  16

  Freedom

  17

  Homecoming

  18

  Flirting With Commitment

  19

  How to get a Bride

  20

  Hunted

  21

  On Edge

  22

  Safely Home

  23

  Farewell Too

  24

  War

  25

  Bounty on the Rim

  26

  Trial by Combat

  27

  Bump in the Night

  28

  Ambush

  29

  Out and About

  30

  The Candyman

  31

  Working Girls

  32

  Smoke and Mirrors

  33

  The Last Chance

  34

  Hot Date

  35

  Reunion Too

  36

  Happy Families

  37

  A New Look

  38

  Changes

  39

  Flying Free

  40

  Rollercoaster

  41

  Confessions

  42

  And Yet So Far

  43

  Careful What You Wish For

  44

  Attack

  45

  The Contagion Spreads

  46

  A Plan Comes Together

  47

  Sacrifice

  48

  Fighting Back

  49

  The Freezing Dead

  50

  Where to now?

  51

  To the Rescue

  52

  Falling Apart

  53

  Improvising

  54

  The Devourer

  55

  Dynasty

  56

  Aftermath

  57

  Come Full Crescent

  58

  The Vote

  59

  A New Beginning

  60

  Ascension

  Entangled – Book Three

  1

  Falling for You

  2

  Ambushed

  3

  The Cavalry

  4

  Facing the Fire

  5

  Trinity

  6

  Wild Ride

  7

  Anointed by Luck

  8

  Mob Rule

  9

  Haze on the Horizon

  10

  Aboard Horizon

  11

  Tea for Two

  12

  On Board with Nikareon

  13

  Darsey Two Times

  14

  A Reckoning

  15

  Execution

  16

  Home at Last

  17

  Taken

  18

  Zak on the Rim

  19

  Dancing into Danger

  20

  Betrayed

  21

  Traitor

  22

  On the Run

  23

  Unshielded

  24

  Playing Both Sides

  25

  Operation Save Darsey

  26

  Prisoner Transfer

&nb
sp; 27

  Escape

  28

  Fake Darsey in the Wind

  29

  Hunted

  30

  Justice

  31

  Reunion

  32

  Dragon DNA

  33

  The Best-Laid Plans

  34

  Terminal Velocity

  35

  Too Late

  36

  Alone At Last

  37

  Under the Mountain

  38

  And Then There Were Two

  39

  It’s A Date

  40

  The Other Woman

  41

  Coming Home

  42

  Judgement

  43

  Banished

  44

  The Spider and the Fly

  IceFlight – Book One

  1

  Taken

  On her second mission past Jupiter, Science Officer Darsey Ice was abducted by aliens. She never saw it coming, although she was the first to see them arrive.

  They showed on her screen as colors, replacing the black void of space ahead of her tiny craft. She started, then leaned forward and there was a moment of stillness, with her mind as blank as the void had been. What she was staring at unblinking was impossible. A rainbow vortex spun in front of her, growing with each turn to fill the monitor.

  A hand fell on Darsey’s shoulder and she jumped, until it gave a warm, familiar squeeze. “What the hell is that?” Will murmured in her ear and she finally moved to relay her image to the main monitors. Red, gold and violet shot from every screen on the Victor's bridge, drawing a low whistle from Will.

  Darsey looked up to offer him what she hoped was a steady smile and the ship’s engineer grinned back, before raising his eyebrows in amazement.

  “You ever seen shit like that, Cap?” he drawled over his shoulder and Darsey turned further to check her Captain’s reply. The Victor’s leader was on the lip of his seat, glaring at the strange rainbow ahead. His face was statue still, apart from the scar that caught his upper lip in a permanent sneer. The disgusted look suited Hito, who tended to take anything unexpected as a personal insult.

  Darsey’s smile became more natural and she swivelled back to her own screen. The Captain used to terrify her, but Will’s easy banter had made it clear that Hitoshi Moriwaki was actually a teddy bear. At least with his crew. She relaxed further and swiped her fingers across her screen to bring up a range of spectraI scans, but before she could learn more the impossible vortex began to spin faster. It gathered momentum and within seconds became a brilliant cone with a dark centre.

  Darsey could only stare and even Will had nothing to say. All five of the Victor’s crew sat silent and transfixed. Lightning streaked the surface of the vortex as it turned with increasing speed and colors streamed toward their ship from a giant whirlpool hanging in space. Darsey swallowed hard, before managing to look from the funnel confronting them to the four men who shared her small, steel world.

  “Science Officer Ice,” her Captain growled, “what readings can you get from that?”

  Darsey gulped again, but managed to turn back to her view screen. Her motion seemed to cue another change in the image before them. The darkness at the centre of the glowing circle began to grow. It distended at the upper edge to become an arrow, and then a wedge. The new silhouette lengthened and then abruptly broke free, leaping forward into the swirling tunnel to grow with startling speed. A dark diamond, sharply flared along each edge, broke into the solar system. Darsey realized what it was at the same time as the ship’s engineer.

  “Damn,” Will gasped, with his usual disregard for protocol. “It’s a ship.”

  “What do you mean a ship?” the Captain demanded sharply.

  “An alien ship,” Darsey agreed, and was surprised by the steadiness of her voice. “I’m analysing as fast as I can, but I think we should redeploy the sail. Full spread.”

  “Indeed,” the Captain agreed grimly. “Deploy the sail, Pilot.”

  “Solar sail deploying, sir,” Jeetan answered laconically, but his actions were quick and precise.

  Darsey licked dry lips, while continuing to throw scan results at the main screen.

  “Remind me why we colonists were so keen to get out here,” Will murmured behind her. “In a damn jerry-rigged sardine can, at that.”

  “For the fun of doing this first,” Darsey answered, and this time her voice did tremble.

  Will squeezed her shoulder again and leaned forward with a grin, his teeth flashing against dark skin. Darsey had a sudden irrational urge to kiss him, as if it might be her last chance, but instantly crushed the idea. This was no time for emotion. She looked back to her monitor, but was jerked from her work by the rattle of a hatch opening beside her. Had they been boarded? By… something?

  Darsey crouched frozen in her seat, her eyes so wide she could hardly focus. A figure stood over her. It wore a bulbous white suit, hard and gleaming, with a curved helmet that reflected her face. She saw her mouth gaping even wider than her eyes and then thought returned. She was looking at a spacesuit. Her own spacesuit. It must have been ejected from storage by emergency release.

  “Party clothes, people,” the Captain ordered, and Darsey concentrated on levering herself from her seat and into the rigid shell that stood over her. She slipped into that bright, white armour and it clicked shut, sealing around her.

  Darsey shuffled forward to free herself from the extended arms of the suit's delivery cradle, grabbing the padding for her helmet as she went. She pulled that soft inner layer on brusquely, calmed by the routine actions, although the clinging fabric was always hard to position. The bulky protection for her head and face, which included computer interfaces, made it thick and unwieldy. However, the struggle was a familiar one and her heart had slowed to its normal rate by the time she finished.

  A glance around the bridge calmed Darsey even more. Everyone was in their suit and Dr. Trilligar was already wearing his helmet. Trust Trill to do a rabbit and be the quickest dressed. He took good care of all the crew’s health, but always looked after himself first.

  Darsey reached for her own helmet and glanced back at the video feed. Abruptly her pulse became glacial. She felt as if she had truly frozen. She stood completely still with her helmet clutched to her chest.

  The alien ship had closed on them and it filled her screen. It was an enormous vessel, far bigger than anything mankind had ever sent into space. Dark specks appeared around it as aliens swarmed from the strange craft. They were abruptly lit by the white glare of an energy discharge. Two lines of light shot past the Victor, one on either side. Darsey blinked, but that was the only movement she could make. On her screen the attackers accelerated hard and their front ranks leapt into focus. It was clear they were humanoid, because they hurtled through the void without spacesuits of any kind. Somebody behind Darsey swore and then something hit them. Their small craft shuddered as it was tossed backwards through the dark.

  Darsey was thrown from her feet. She was briefly weightless, before momentum slammed her into the shuddering floor. She skidded over it and her magnetic boots scrabbled for grip. She tumbled the length of the bridge to collide with the far wall and lay there stunned, while cracks appeared in the metal behind her.

  Will pushed off to join her and tugged at her helmet with one hand, ignoring his own, but she was too frozen to help. He yelled at her over the rush of escaping air, his face pressed close to hers, but she still couldn't move. He tried to pry her fingers from her helmet, but she clung to it grimly.

  Darsey forced herself to shape a single word that was impossible to hear over the wind. “You.” Her eyes moved between his bare head and his helmet, still dangling from his other hand. However he released it and it spun away in another blast that made the ship buckle.

  Darsey’s eyes followed it vaguely. What was Will thinking? He needed his helmet, nee
ded to put it on now, but he grabbed for hers instead. He managed to pull it away from her using both hands, but she watched in confusion when he raised it over her head and tried to push it into place. Too late.

  Before Darsey could convince him to save himself her air was gone. She drew a desperate breath, but instead of filling her lungs they were sucked empty. Will's hands flew to his throat and his cheeks seemed to collapse, even as his eyes bulged and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

  Horror sliced through Darsey’s brain, freezing all thought and darkness tried to follow. The vacuum reached for her too, but before her blood could boil a shadow fell over her. She cowered away from that darkness, but the shade grew, stretching across the crumpled floor and then further still, up the far wall. She turned her head awkwardly in its padding to stare up at a hulking silhouette. This time, something had come for her.

  2

  Meet and Greet

  Darsey Ice dangled helplessly, head down and eyes shut, lost to the world. Her mind floated all alone, serene and still with no link to its distant flesh. She was dimly relieved at such unexpected sanctuary, but, despite that, an innate stubbornness forced her to struggle for consciousness. The slow return to her body began with pain. Pain that drove through the darkness like headlights. Darsey moaned and something laughed in response. The laugh sounded achingly human, but Darsey knew it was not. She knew with soul deep certainty that the rest of her crew were dead.

  She shuddered, helping her mind and body rediscover each other. That link strengthened, with an awareness of light and the grasp of impossibly huge hands. Alien hands that were hooked like claws in her armpits. She realized she was moving, the toes of her boots scuffing helplessly as she was dragged face down, along a smooth surface. Still blind and limp, she felt nausea rise, along with her last memory of Will. His face had looked so strange wearing a scream instead of a ready smile. Voices intruded on her private agony. Voices that seemed to speak English before breaking into rough laughter.

  Insane, she thought sadly. Will would have loved it. Aliens using our language, aliens with a sense of humor, oh yeah.

  She blinked hard, struggling against tears, and her eyes started to clear. She made an effort to focus, but failed. It didn’t matter. Darsey was far distant from her surroundings. She was locked in the past, reliving her ship’s last minutes. Her memories returned with gut-wrenching force and she let them take her, until they finally led her back to the vortex and the ship that first appeared as a diamond in the dark.

  Darsey quivered with the realisation that she must be aboard that alien ship. One of her captors shifted a huge hand from the armpit of her suit to her wrist and his companion did the same on the other side, so that they could keep pulling her along in tandem. She was vaguely aware of a dirty lavender blur on either side that was matched by a stained cream floor passing far too close to her face. She realized she was being dragged along a corridor. That knowledge reoriented her, but, just as she had started to build a picture of where she was, her surroundings changed.

 

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