Through the Never

by J. A. Culican

  She smiled up at the tall, wild woman. “Sure thing, sugar.”

  “Just remind me to never get on your bad side…”

  “Just remember to never drink the green vial.”

  * * *

  The End

  Thank you for reading Amber Vial! Continue the Mixologists and Pirates Series in Part Two, Emerald Bane.

  www.frostkay.net

  Love bookish gifts, free books, and all around booknerdigan awesomeness?

  Check out my newsletter

  http://eepurl.com/cvbhvP

  About the Author

  USA Today Bestselling Author Frost Kay is a certified bookdragon with an excessive TBR, and a shoe obsession. Her goals in life include: Eating a five-pound bag of skittles in one sitting, creating worlds that sweep you away and leave you dazed, and preventing the cat from laying on top of her laptop.

  * * *

  She has an evil side she only let's out on special occasions, like at the end of a book...cliff hangers...the girl seriously loves them. If you hate bewitching stories, epic adventures, untold secrets, dark promises, thrilling action, swoon worthy anti-hero's, and slow burning romance her books aren't for you. If you do, well, you’re in good company!

  Read More from Frost Kay

  www.frostkay.net

  The Fall of Endurance

  R.L. Blalock

  The Fall of Endurce © copyright 2017 R. L. Blalock

  * * *

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  The Fall of Endurance

  To save the human race, we will have to become something more than human.

  I was born on the Endurance. We were all born on the Endurance. Generations have lived and died on this ship. But I won’t.

  The planet of Iotova is what the human race has been looking for. Air. Water. Livable land. For four hundred years we've searched for this place.

  Except, we hadn't planned on arriving like this.

  Many won't survive the crash. More won't make it through the first night. Attacks from of the native beasts that we call the Chroin will claim even more of us--but we must keep fighting. No matter what we have to keep fighting to survive. Even if it means becoming Chroin to do it.

  We're the last. The last of humanity. If we're lost, so is our species.

  Chapter 1

  Pain blossomed in my head as a shudder ran through the torpor tube that encased me. My eyes were heavy and I had to fight to open them against the grogginess of hibernation. The tube shook violently again. A cold sweat broke out across my skin and I gasped for air. What was happening?

  My hands trembled as I carefully tugged at the thin plastic tube in my nose, which would deliver the hibernation serum straight to my brain. I gagged as the tube slowly slid free like a worm wriggling inside my head. There was a soft hiss of air as my tube popped open.

  “Whoa! Whoa! Slow down, Laure.” A firm hand grabbed ahold of me as I went to pry off the other tubes and wires that were attached to my body. Sirens assaulted my ears, causing me to wince and draw away from the voice as I tried to retreat back to the safety of my tube.

  “Wha-What’s going on?” My voice cracked as I spoke, dry and weak from lack of use.

  As my body sagged, the hands helped guide me onto the floor. I always hated waking up. It was the worst part of the cycle. Though I had been in hibernation for six months, I felt as though I had been awake for days on end. My muscles protested every movement. My mind begged for sleep.

  When I tried to open my eyes again, the lights stung. Something wasn’t right. Cautiously, I cracked one eye open. Red lights flashed through the long corridor-like room. Before I could glimpse much more, the burning in my eyes became overwhelming and I closed them again. With every bit of strength I had, I pried them back open. They darted around the room, trying to take in as much detail as they could before I was forced to close them again. Others were being helped out of their tubes.

  “What is going on?”

  “There has been an…incident.”

  “Incident? What do you mean?” My head swam as I tried to sit up, the ground beneath me shifting unsteadily. My stomach flip-flopped, giving me only a moment’s notice before the bile rose in my throat.

  “Critical system failure. All personnel, report to the bridge,” a calm, computerized voice stated as I coughed and spat the bile onto the floor.

  I was grateful that I had finally learned to pull my ash-blonde mane back into a ponytail before entering hibernation. Squeezing my eyes shut, I willed the world to stop spinning beneath me. To right itself so I could stand up.

  “Critical system failure. All personnel, report to the bridge.”

  “What happened?” I demanded, finally looking up at the woman who hovered over me. Her face was tight and her mouth set into a grim line.

  “The ship needs to go planetside. Now.” All I could do was blink back at the woman as my mind tried to process what she had just told me. Planetside? Had they finally found a planet?

  “What do you mean now?” I shook my head and instantly regretted the movement.

  “Pull yourself together,” she said curtly. “Commander Nash of the forty-eighth cycle wants your cycle on the bridge sooner rather than later.”

  Taking a few deep breaths, I gripped the torpor tube and pulled myself to my feet. The ship shuddered again. I closed my eyes as the rocking threatened to dissolve what little stability I had mustered. Hisses punctuated the wailing of the sirens as more tubes popped open around me.

  “Critical system failure. All personnel, report to the bridge.”

  I looked around the room for others from my cycle. Some were already on their feet, though shaky as I was. Others were on the ground struggling through the haze of hibernation. Some tubes were still unopened. Six tubes down and across the aisle, Cern was pulling himself to his feet. Short, fuzzy jet-black hair covered his head. Before each hibernation cycle, he would shave his head and face like many of the other male colonists. He always awoke with a bit of fuzzy hair, but he didn’t have to worry about it becoming brittle like I did. Sometimes I envied him for that. His usually tan skin was pale as he struggled to his feet. Our eyes met and I smiled weakly at him. He nodded back before falling to the ground and puking.

  I pushed myself away from my tube, toward Cern. “Come on.” I patted his back encouragingly, not looking at him for fear that my own stomach would join in sympathy. “We have to get going.”

  “What is going on?” Cern wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “This is a shitty wake-up call.”

  “I don’t know.” I managed to stop myself before I shook my head again.

  “Come on,” a man bellowed from near the door. “Let’s get to the bridge. The commander is waiting.”

  I wrapped an arm around Cern and he wrapped an arm around me. Others were pulling themselves up and helping to support each other as well. Together we moved through the large doors that led out to the rest of the ship. The door separated in the center slid into the wall as we approached. As we stepped out, the ship shuddered once again, sending Cern and me sprawling to the floor. We pushed ourselves back up and together we followed the man through the long corridors to the bridge.

  The crewmembers of cycle ten cl
ung to each other for support as they helped each other toward the bridge. No one groaned. No one complained. We were the last. The last of humanity. If the ship was lost, then so was our species.

  The journey to the bridge was grueling on legs fresh out of hibernation. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep. But this wasn’t the time.

  As we poured into the bridge, anxious eyes turned to stare at us. I self-consciously patted down my hair as we stood before the entirety of another cycle.

  “Good. You’re all here.” A woman gave their group a curt nod, stepping forward. A gold oak leaf glimmered on her lapel.

  “Commander Nash,” their escort addressed the stern woman, “these are the colonists from cycle ten, as you requested.” The woman’s icy-blue stare swept over the two hundred new faces before her.

  “Thank you.” She dismissed the man with a wave before she spun on her heel to address the crowd before her. Suddenly, her shoulder slumped. The strong, intimidating woman from seconds before looked tired and afraid.

  “Thirty-seven minutes ago, Iotova’s largest moon was struck by an asteroid roughly sixty kilometers in diameter. The collision sent out of a cloud of debris several hundred miles wide. Being so close to the impact, the ship quickly entered the debris field.” The commander’s gaze fell down to the floor, her shoulders slumping. “We have sustained heavy damage. Probably the worst of which is that our radiation shielding has been punctured…in numerous places.”

  A murmur rippled through the crowd. My grip on Cern’s arm tightened and he squeezed my hand back reassuringly. Without radiation shielding, we were as good as dead. However, death wouldn’t come quickly. We would all live long enough to get sick. We would struggle for weeks or months in excruciating pain before death welcomed us, and there would be nowhere we could escape to.

  “To those of cycle ten,” the commander’s cut through the crowd, “we are not entirely without hope. You are here because it is time for you to fulfill your duties. For the last seven days, we have been orbiting Iotova.” A sad, hesitant smile crept to her lips. “It is everything we have been searching for. A planet we can call home again.”

  “A planet.” Cern breathed the word, his voice shaking. I shifted, trying to get a better view of the commander as excitement invigorated my tired muscles.

  “A debris field from the meteor’s impact is quickly spreading around the planet. The Endurance will not be able to stay in orbit around Iotova as originally planned.”

  “What does that mean?” Someone from the tenth cycle asked tentatively.

  “It means we have two options. We can leave Iotova now.” My heart sank at the thought of returning to the dark depths of space. We were so close to a planet’s surface. “We would have to make repairs to the ship quickly. Vital systems have been compromised. The radiation shielding. The torpor tube systems. Along with the numerous small punctures the ship has endured. The repairs would have to be done in days, not weeks or months. Even then, some of us may still get sick from the exposure.”

  Commander Nash looked over the crowd, assessing our solemn faces as we looked to her for guidance.

  “Or we can land. I can take the Endurance down to Iotova and we can pray for the best. That is why I have awoken the tenth cycle.” I tried to stand a bit straighter as the eyes of the forty-eighth cycle turned toward us. All the cycles were the same. They were comprised of the personnel necessary to keep the ship running while they were awake. Except for the tenth cycle. The tenth cycle had been specially trained since the Endurance left Earth as an incursion team. The original plan had been to send the tenth cycle planetside first to scout the terrain for resources, settling location, and danger.

  “That’s impossible.” Commander Sims of the tenth cycle stepped forward, his face red with anger. “The Endurance was never meant to land. There isn’t even any landing gear or wings. The whole thing will slam straight into the ground and smash into a million pieces. You’ll kill us all!”

  “And if we stay on this ship, we’ll all just be waiting to die anyway!” Nash shot back.

  “At least on the ship we have a chance to find somewhere else.”

  Colonists nodded in agreement around me, and my hands began to shake. My knees buckled at the thought of going back out into space.

  “Iotova is perfect. It is everything we have been looking for. Water. Vegetation. An oxygen-rich atmosphere.” Nash squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

  “It hardly matters if we’re all dead,” Sims argued back. “We should head back out into space, repair the ship, and continue looking for someplace habitable.”

  “Where?” I was surprised by how clearly my voice came out.

  As all eyes turned toward me, I wanted to call the word back, but it was too late. So I pushed on. I couldn’t stay on this ship. Not with a planet so close.

  “We have been traveling for four hundred years,” I said. “We were all born on the Endurance. Our parents lived and died on this ship and we hardly knew them for the cycles. This is no way to live!”

  I looked at those around me. I could see the fear reflected in their wide-eyed stare. As my gaze caught Cern’s, he smiled at me and gently nodded for me to continue.

  “We don’t have a destination. We don’t have a direction. Regardless of whether we die now trying to land on Iotova or whether we die somewhere out in space later on, this ship will be our tomb…unless we do something. We can have a home. We can be free. That is why our forefathers set out in the Endurance in the first place. If we run away now, we are abandoning everything they worked so hard for.”

  “The Endurance has shuttles,” Nash offered, smiling to me before turning away to address another portion of the crowd. “There aren’t nearly enough for every colonist on board, and we don’t have the time to pull everyone out of hibernation, but there should be more than enough room for everyone who is awake. You will be able to travel safely down to the planet’s surface while myself and a few other key crewmembers stay on board.”

  “But the Endurance will never survive landing on the planet’s surface,” Commander Sims insisted, glowering at me and at Nash in turn.

  “In an hour, we will be above a vast plain. It should be large enough to attempt a landing. If we have any hope of landing the ship and keeping it mostly intact, it will be there.”

  Sims’s mouth opened and closed a few times as he tried to speak, but Nash cut him off. “This decision will determine the fate of our race.” Commander Nash turned slowly to face the entire crowd. “While myself and the other commanders of this ship have controlled much of your lives, this is not my decision alone. We must decide together.” Her mouth set in a grim line.

  “So I ask you now, do we leave Iotova in hopes of repairing the ship and finding another suitable planet?” A few hands shot up, and Nash nodded in acknowledgment of the votes. “Or do we attempt to land on Iotova and pray that we don’t lose everything, including our very lives?”

  At first no one raised their hand. Nash deflated as she looked out over the vacant crowd.

  “I want to land.” My voice rang out across the room as I raised my hand. A small smile flitted across Nash’s face and she nodded to me.

  “I want to land too.” Cern raised his hand as well.

  For a moment, the room was silent. Slowly more hands rose, accompanied by calls to go planetside. As I looked around the room, I saw a sea of hands and relief washed over me. We were all tired of the ship. We were tired of living in a bubble. We wanted a home. Fresh air. Actual sunlight, rather than the artificial bulbs. We would rather die attempting to make it to the surface than survive in the confines of our metal world.

  Nash nodded. A smile of hope tinged with fear flitted across her face. “I think that settles it. Make no mistake, though. This is a gamble. One with terrible consequences if we lose.” Nash turned to face Sims. “I know you are not in favor of this decision, but I could use your help on the bridge as we are landing. If you wish to leave
, though, I’m sure those on the ground will need you just as much as I do.”

  Sims glared back at Nash for a moment. Finally, his shoulders slumped and the man nodded. “Let’s make sure this baby gets set down as gently as we can.”

  “To those of the forty-eighth cycle,” Nash bellowed over the ruckus of excited chatter, “we will more than likely lose resources in the landing.” The crowd silenced as they hung on Commander Nash’s every word. “Go back to your individual work places and grab the most valuable and necessary resources for our continued survival. To those of the tenth cycle, grab your gear and anything you will need planetside. Your mission starts now.” The commander’s words rung through my head. Every fiber of my being vibrating with both excitement and fear. “You have forty-five minutes to board the shuttles. Not a minute later. Once the Endurance starts its descent into Iotova’s atmosphere, you’re with us for the ride down, so do not miss your shuttle! Now go. Good luck to you all.”

  Goose bumps rippled across my skin.

  “Come on.” Cern grabbed my hand, dragging me through the doors along with everyone else. “The armory is halfway across the ship. We’ll have to move quickly.”

  Suddenly, my heart was racing. He was right. It would take us at least fifteen minutes to get to the armory and another fifteen to twenty minutes to gather our gear. We would be cutting it close if we were going to make it back to the shuttles on time.

  My feet pounded against the floor alongside Cern. He gripped my hand tightly, almost painfully, as we pushed their way through the crowded halls.

  As the ship shuddered and lurched again, I was slammed against one of the walls, Cern colliding with me as he lost his balance. Our eyes locked and I could see the same fear I felt reflected back at me. Our home was falling apart.