by M. D. Cooper
Whatever path she chose, it would come back to haunt her. Llana wasn’t a frame; if; Cara shot the actress in the heart, there was no guarantee they would reach medical services in time to save her life. If she shot her in the knees, she would certainly gain an enemy for life.
“I can live with enemies,” Cara said, squeezing the trigger.
Llana’s right knee burst like a smashed fruit.
The actress stumbled, falling over the crushed joint. Her head struck a crate as she collapsed, leaving her on the deck, sobbing at the open air.
“I’m very disappointed in you,” Cara told her.
The recorder shifted above them, getting a shot of Cara in the foreground with Llana beneath her, victor above the vanquished.
Cara raised her voice to the recorder. “The Andersonian people deserve better than this.”
She wasn’t going to fall for the same trick she had in the studio; she had no expectation that her words would reach anyone. But speaking made her feel better in the midst of Llana’s pitiful crying.
Cara stepped away from the actress, leveling her pistol on the Andersonian chancellor.
Osla shifted between stacks of shipping crates, denying her a clean shot.
“Think about the future, Captain Sykes,” he said. “Think about that ship, your crew, all the people depending on you to make the right decision.”
“What decision is that?” Cara asked. “There’s no decision to make. You’re coming with me.”
“That’s out of the question. My people need me.”
“Your people don’t know if you’re alive or dead. The fighting is going to wind down soon. The TSF is shutting down your resistance.”
“That’s objectively untrue.” Osla pointed a bladed hand at the recorder. “Do you see me, Collective? I am alive. You fight for the future. Luna is yours. Take it.”
“And I’ll take your leader,” Cara said.
The recorder jerked her direction, pressing closer for a shot of her face.
Osla grew quiet.
The recorder moved around the room, grabbing more shots, then dropped and flew past Cara’s head, forcing her to duck. The drone hovered above Osla on the far side of the cargo bay.
Cara still didn’t have a good shot. Her magboots clicked as she moved between stacks of crates.
“Collective, hear me,” Osla said. The gravity in his voice made Cara pause. He sounded ready to die.
“We were together when our Insi Ring fell,” Osla said. “We packed refugee ships and made our way through Sol, cast to the winds. Many of us landed at Luna, taking shelter in the abandoned factories and mines of Earth’s past. There we made a home, built from the dust. What others threw out as trash, we made into a place with meaning and an enduring future. And now we move to protect that future.”
Rondo was right. She couldn’t shoot Osla. But she could use the recorder to her advantage.
While Osla’s attention was focused on the drone, Cara slid between rows of crates to emerge ten meters behind him. The chancellor was so focused on the eye of the recorder that he didn’t notice as she deactivated her magboots and pulled herself along the stack of crates, boots hovering above the deck. She felt unmoored. As Osla came within reach, she scouted the best way to lock herself to the deck and wrap him in a chokehold.
Cara was nearly within reach of Osla, when the recorder bobbed upward, focusing on her, and the chancellor caught her reflection in the drone’s eye.
He spun around, boots clicking on the deck.
“You can’t stop me,” he said, dropping into a wrestler’s stance. “My people are me. We are in this together. And the joke is that you don’t even know who you’re working for. You could be working for Psion, for all you know. Cara Sykes, the useful idiot.”
“Like Harrin’s working for Psion?”
“Psion is a tool, just as all SAIs are tools. They exist to serve humanity.”
Osla shot a hand forward, trying to sweep Cara’s leg. She launched forward, hitting him in the eye and neck with two quick jabs. Osla absorbed the strikes and rolled away.
The recorder rose higher, capturing the full breadth of their fight.
“What’s your plan?” Osla asked. “Run to the TSF? They’ll throw you in prison again. You’ll spend the rest of your life assembling knick-knacks for the Jerhattan elite while they sip champagne two levels over your head.”
“You seem to know a lot about my prison sentence.”
Osla put a crate between him and Cara. “It wasn’t hard to learn. You’ve been SolGov’s worst kept secret for years.”
The chancellor ducked under another stack of crates. As he moved, Cara drew down on the bobbing recorder and hit it dead in the center of its eye. The drone sparked, listing to one side, then crashed into the wall, its batteries leaving a black scorch mark on the wall.
“Chancellor Osla,” Cara said “You’re my prisoner. You can submit peacefully, or I can knock you unconscious.”
“Really? Where are you taking me, Sheriff Sykes?”
“Cruithne.”
For the first time, Osla paled.
His gaze moved to the exit on the other side of the shuttle.
“I’m not going to Cruithne. You’ll have to kill me first.”
Kicking off without warning, Osla shot toward the exit, body outstretched in a swimming motion.
Cara sighed. Sighting with the pistol, she shot Chancellor Osla in the buttocks. His shipsuit flared, catching fire, and he howled in pain. Losing control of his momentum, he tumbled headfirst into a metal crate as he wildly slapped his rear to put out the fire. Osla crumpled to the deck, legs over his head, rear end still smoking.
Cara holstered her pistol.
Cara glanced at the shuttle, remembering Osla’s wet bar.
EARTH’S SECOND MOON
STELLAR DATE: 4.10.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Lowspin Docks, Cruithne Station
REGION: Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
A small group was waiting in Cruithne Station’s Lowspin Docks. Looking through the airlock’s narrow window, Cara caught sight of Fugia first. The small woman with sharp black bangs and her signature silver visor stared at the approaching craft as if it were frustrating her. Ngoba Starl stood beside her, a tall man with neatly combed hair and a broad, dark face that burst into a grin when he caught Cara’s eye through the window. A grey parrot sat on his shoulder, turning its head as it studied her with one gold eye at a time.
Fran was there, too, wearing a stained mechanic’s suit and harness hung with tools. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled away from her face in a makeshift ponytail held by a piece of plas gasket.
The shuttle settled, locking into place, and the airlock hummed beneath them.
Handcuffed, Osla flexed his shoulders and craned his neck to look through the window. Rondo put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from moving too much.
“Who are those people?” Osla said.
Cara glanced at him. He seemed sincere.
> Since waking in the autodoc six hours before and learning the situation, Osla had seemed resigned to gathering information. Cara had suppressed his Link connection, and he appeared satisfied to ask them hundreds of questions.
Rondo was reaching the end of his patience, while Cara had been ignoring the chancellor.
“I guess you could say my family,” she finally answered.
“That looks like Ngoba Starl, the kingpin. And there’s Fugia Wong, the Data Hoarder.” Osla looked up at Rondo. “You work for her, right?”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Rondo reached inside his jacket to scratch his cat’s head.
“What does that mean?” Osla asked.
“Just what I said.”
“Hey,” Osla exclaimed. “Who’s that tall drink of water?”
Cara looked back through the window, catching sight of a tall woman with shiny black hair in a tight-fitting shipsuit. Her legs were nearly as long as Fugia was tall.
“That’s Petral,” Cara said, voice nearly cracking with emotion. So they’re all here except Tim.
A pang of anxiety teased the bottom of her stomach. She wasn’t thirteen anymore; even if they hadn’t changed much, she was a very different person.
The airlock slid open to the sound of happy shouting and greetings, and Cara stepped out. This wasn’t home, but it would do for now.
OH SHIT, THERE’S A WAR
STELLAR DATE: 4.11.3011 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: SolGov Assembly Tower, Raleigh
REGION: High Terra, Terran Hegemony, InnerSol
Luna was too close to home.
The Terran Assembly had declared an end to the ceasefire with Psion, and that brought Mars back to the table in SolGov. The two nations were now formulating a plan to strike at Ceres.
Of course, nothing was ever simple. The Jovian senatorial delegates had left High Terra, leaving only a single ambassador and her retinue to liaise with the governments of InnerSol.
That turn of events still surprised Folsom more than any other—though Xander had said he’d seen it coming. As per usual, the AI had not provided any concrete advice, though he suggested further leveraging Cara Sykes.
At first, the senator had been annoyed that she’d gone to Cruithne with Osla, but he had to admit that it was probably the safest place in InnerSol to hide the man. Everyone had people on Cruithne, but no one made a move without ensuring that Ngoba Starl approved.
An agent’s request came into his mind, and he saw that it was the operative managing the team on Ceres.
A smile formed on Folsom’s lips, and he rose from his desk.
The death of Alexander would create a power vacuum, and he still believed that Lyssa was the best one to fill it. What better way to ensure the Weapon Born’s presence than to send her sister into the fire?
THE END
* * * * *
The team is nearly back together, and the power they’ve been working against for over thirty years is finally within their sights.
But is the death of Alexander the best thing for Sol, or will it create even more chaos?
Cara and Lyssa will soon find out, though that’s not the only thing they’ll soon learn, for Fugia knows the location of their brother. Completing their mission on Ceres will require his skill and cunning if they’re to survive.
Read on in book 2 of Solar War 1, The Spreading Fire
AFTERWORD
After covering a few in-between stories in The Proteus Bridge and Vesta Burning, it’s exciting to embark on another grand series. The difficult part was finding Cara after a thirty-year break. She’s a woman who still has demons to quell, and has lived a life running from her past. Now she’s ready to face the future, just as world events are exploding around her.
This book tracked with an “explosion” in my life, where the birth of my daughter dropped a cannonball in the calm pond of my writing method. Most of the novel was written between December 2018 and May 2019, with little sleep and little time to sit down and concentrate. The story was conceived and written during breaks at work, late at night and early in the morning during those rare periods when the baby actually slept. I think this is why Eve has a lot of different ideas pinging around, from Stars the Hard Way to Link suppression, gun shows of the future, and a charismatic despot who still has a large role to play in the coming story.
As Cara moves out of Andy’s shadow with the people who knew her as a child, we’re going to see her rise as a powerful, capable captain, tasked with any number of impossible missions. Cara will also serve as the bridge between the crumbling situation in InnerSol and the Scattered Disk, where a dark population has grown over time. There is more beyond Neptune than Nibiru, where Alexander lost what little heart he had.
If you’ve read Vesta Burning, then you’ll understand what I mean when I say our next book in the Solar War 1 will bring another member of the Sykes family home, and move the conflict to locations on Mars, the JC, and even little Matria, just off Luna.
As always, thanks to Mal for such a great story. This novel tested a new writing method for us, which I think worked very well. I’m excited to see how things evolve in the future.
Until next time, thanks for reading. I can’t wait to share what comes next in the story.
James S. Aaron
Eugene, OR
June, 2019
THE BOOKS OF AEON 14
Keep up to date with what is releasing in Aeon 14 with the free Aeon 14 Reading Guide.
The Sentience Wars: Origins (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Books 1-3 Omnibus: Lyssa’s Rise
- Book 1: Lyssa’s Dream
- Book 2: Lyssa’s Run
- Book 3: Lyssa’s Flight
- Book 4: Lyssa’s Call
- Book 5: Lyssa’s Flame
Legends of the Sentience Wars (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Volume 1: The Proteus Bridge
- Volume 2: Vesta Burning
The Sentience Wars: Solar War 1 (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/James S. Aaron)
- Book 1: Eve of Destruction
- Book 2: The Spreading Fire
Enfield Genesis (Age of the Sentience Wars – w/Lisa Richman)
- Book 1: Alpha Centauri
- Book 2: Proxima Centauri
- Book 3: Tau Ceti
- Book 4: Epsilon Eridani
- Book 5: Sirius
Origins of Destiny (The Age of Terra)
- Prequel: Storming the Norse Wind
- Prequel: Angel’s Rise: The Huntress (available on Patreon)
- Book 1: Tanis Richards: Shore Leave
- Book 2: Tanis Richards: Masquerade
- Book 3: Tanis Richards: Blackest Night
- Book 4: Tanis Richards: Kill Shot
The Intrepid Saga (The Age of Terra)
- Book 1: Outsystem
- Book 2: A Path in the Darkness
- Book 3: Building Victoria
- The Intrepid Saga Omnibus – Also contains Destiny Lost, book 1 of the Orion War series
- Destiny Rising – Special Author’s Extended Edition comprised of both Outsystem and A Path in the Darkness with over 100 pages of new content.
The Warlord (Before the Age of the Orion War)
- Books 1-3 Omnibus: The Warlord of Midditerra
- Book 1: The Woman Without a World
- Book 2: The Woman Who Seized an Empire
- Book 3: The Woman Who Lost Everything
The Orion War
- Books 1-3 Omnibus (includes Ignite the Stars anthology)
- Book 1: Destiny Lost
- Book 2: New Canaan
- Book 3: Orion Risin
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- Book 4: The Scipio Alliance
- Book 5: Attack on Thebes
- Book 6: War on a Thousand Fronts
- Book 7: Precipice of Darkness
- Book 8: Airtha Ascendancy
- Book 9: The Orion Front
- Book 10: Starfire
- Book 11: Race Across Spacetime (2019)
- Book 12: Return to Sol (2019)
Building New Canaan (Age of the Orion War – w/J.J. Green)
- Book 1: Carthage
- Book 2: Tyre
- Book 3: Troy
- Book 4: Athens
Tales of the Orion War
- Book 1: Set the Galaxy on Fire
- Book 2: Ignite the Stars
Perilous Alliance (Age of the Orion War – w/Chris J. Pike)
- Book 1-3 Omnibus: Crisis in Silstrand
- Book 1: Close Proximity
- Book 2: Strike Vector
- Book 3: Collision Course
- Book 4: Impact Imminent
- Book 5: Critical Inertia
- Book 6: Impulse Shock
Rika’s Marauders (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1-3 Omnibus: Rika Activated
- Prequel: Rika Mechanized
- Book 1: Rika Outcast
- Book 2: Rika Redeemed
- Book 3: Rika Triumphant
- Book 4: Rika Commander
- Book 5: Rika Infiltrator
- Book 6: Rika Unleashed
- Book 7: Rika Conqueror
Non-Aeon 14 Anthologies containing Rika stories
- Bob’s Bar Volume 2
- Backblast Area Clear
The Genevian Queen (Age of the Orion War)
- Book 1: Rika Rising
- Book 2: Rika Coronated (2019)
- Book 3: Rika Reigns (2019)
Perseus Gate (Age of the Orion War)
